November 27, 2010
LONDON: A spacecraft has tasted oxygen in the atmosphere of another world for the first time while flying low over Saturn's icy moon, Rhea.
NASA's Cassini probe scooped oxygen from the thin atmosphere of the planet's moon while passing overhead at an altitude of 97 kilometres in March.
Until now, wisps of oxygen have been detected on planets and their moons only indirectly, using the Hubble space telescope and other major facilities.
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Instruments aboard Cassini revealed an extremely thin oxygen and carbon dioxide atmosphere that is sustained by high-energy particles slamming into the moon's surface and kicking up atoms, molecules and ions.
Astronomers have counted 62 moons orbiting Saturn. At 1500 kilometres wide, Rhea is the second largest and is thought to be made almost entirely of ice.
''This really is the first time that we've seen oxygen directly in the atmosphere of another world,'' said Andrew Coates, at University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory. He is a co-author of the study published in Science.
''Active, complex chemistry involving oxygen may be quite common throughout the solar system and even our universe,'' said Ben Teolis of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, the team leader.
''Such chemistry could be a prerequisite for life. All evidence from Cassini indicates that Rhea is too cold and devoid of the liquid water necessary for life as we know it.''
Rhea's atmosphere makes it unique in the Saturn system. Only Rhea and Titan, the largest Saturnian moon, have enough mass to hold on to an atmosphere with their gravity. Titan, however, has a very thick nitrogen and methane atmosphere, with very little carbon dioxide and oxygen.
Guardian News & Media
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Regrets? They've had a few
November 25, 2010
How does it feel to invent something you later wish you hadn't? Simon Hattenstone talks to the people who know.
The labradoodle
If Wally Conron had known what was going to become of the labradoodle, he wouldn't have bred the dog in the first place. It was 22 years ago and Conron, now 81, was working as the breeding manager for the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia when his boss set him a tough task. A blind woman from Hawaii had written asking if they could provide a guide dog that would not shed hair, because her husband was allergic to it. ''I said, 'Oh yes, this will be a piece of cake. The standard poodle is a working dog, it doesn't shed hair, it'll be great.' I tried 33 in the course of three years and they all failed. They just didn't make a guide dog.''
Conron decided there was one possibility left: take his best labrador bitch and mate it with a standard poodle. They created three cross-breed puppies that needed to be boarded out to be trained and socialised but nobody would take them; everyone wanted a pure-bred. And that's when Conron came up with the name labradoodle. ''I went to our PR team and said, 'Go to the press and tell them we've invented a new dog, the labradoodle.' It was a gimmick and it went worldwide. No one wanted a cross-breed but the following day we had hundreds of calls from people wanting these master dogs.''
The labradoodle proved to be a brilliant dog for the blind and the woman in Hawaii was happy. So what was the problem?
It's how the dog has been used and abused and sold under false pretences, Conron says. ''When the pups were five months old, we sent clippings and saliva to Hawaii to be tested with this woman's husband. Of the three pups, he was not allergic to one of them. In the next litter I had, there were 10 pups but only three had non-allergenic coats. Now, people are breeding these dogs and selling them as non-allergenic and they're not even testing them.
''All these backyard breeders have jumped on the bandwagon and they're crossing any kind of dog with a poodle. They're selling them for more than a pure-bred is worth and they're not going into the backgrounds of the parents of the dogs. There are so many poodle crosses having fits, problems with their eyes, hips and elbows; a lot have epilepsy. There are a few ethical breeders but very, very few.''
Conron says that despite the fact the dogs have helped so many blind people, he regrets creating the first cross-breed. ''I released a Frankenstein. … People say 'aren't you proud of yourself?' and I say, 'not in the slightest. I've done so much harm to pure breeding.'''
The Kalashnikov
General Mikhail Kalashnikov, who was responsible for the AK-47 assault rifle, now the most widely used automatic rifle in the world, says he regrets that terrorists and gangsters use his weapon. ''It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon. I created this weapon primarily to safeguard our fatherland,'' the Russian said on the eve of his 90th birthday last year.
C5 electric car
Sir Clive Sinclair remains best known for inventing what is widely regarded as a great British disaster: the C5, a one-seat electronic not-quite-car that has become an iconic image of technological failure. When it arrived on the market in 1985, it looked like nothing we'd seen before - and not necessarily in a good way. ''First of all, it was midwinter and there was snow on the ground,'' Sinclair says. ''And we threw it at the public without them being prepared for it … So it had a shock effect and that was bad news.''
That's not all that went wrong. The British Safety Council claimed it was unsafe. ''Absolute rubbish,'' Sinclair says. In fact, 25 years on, he believes the C5's time has come and he's developing a new prototype to be launched within a year. ''Technology has moved on quite a bit; there are new batteries available and I just rethought the thing. The C5 was OK but I think we can do a better job now.''
Electronic tag system
Professor Bob Gable is ashamed of what has become of the electronic tagging system he devised with his twin brother, Kirkland, in the mid-1960s. Both are professors in psychology, have law degrees and were motivated by hippie idealism. In 1964, tagging was invented as a system of positive reinforcement and the brothers are horrified that it is now used as a tool for punishment.
Bob says their work was influenced by American psychologist B. F. Skinner; Bob was taught by Skinner while Kirkland's adviser was Timothy Leary. ''We wanted to find a way of rewarding juvenile delinquents when they were doing what they were supposed to be doing; that is, going to school or to work or to a drug treatment centre. Just as Skinner rewarded pigeons.''
Over four years, they tagged 20 juvenile delinquents and compared their behaviour with a control group. They were then rewarded for being where they should be with, for example, tickets for a sports game or a free pizza. The results were impressive. ''We reduced the frequency of arrest and time in jail and when a crime did occur, they tended to be more creative and less violent.''
By the late '60s, the brothers had left Harvard and the experiment stopped. But 15 years later, electronic tagging came back - this time without the reward system. Bob says there are those who regard him and his brother as heroes because the tag has kept people out of prison but as far as the Gables are concerned, it's a gross misappropriation of the original concept. ''It's all using punishment.''
Are they disappointed because their tag was born of idealism? ''Yes - and it's not just idealism; it's also scientific fact that rewards and shaping behaviour works and that punishment in the long run is not very beneficial. When kids misbehave, we punish them; when countries misbehave, we bomb them. We just have this idea that we're going to suppress the bad behaviour and we don't take seriously how we ought to reward.''
MDMA
Alexander Shulgin is known as the godfather of ecstasy. He lives with his wife, Ann, in Lafayette, California, and at 85 suffers severe short-term memory loss. Ann acts as a conduit between us - repeating my questions to him and his answers back to me.
Ecstasy was first synthesised in 1912 by the chemical company Merck but Shulgin resynthesised it in 1976 and was the first person to test it on a human: himself. Two years later, he wrote a paper with a colleague about the effect of MDMA, stating that it created ''an easily controlled altered state of consciousness with emotional and sensual overtones … it didn't have the other visual and auditory imaginative things that you often get from psychedelics. It opened up a person, both to other people and inner thoughts.'' He believed that with its unusual combination of effects (intoxication, clarity and loss of inhibition), it could be a useful drug in psychotherapy. And so it was, for a while. But then MDMA became ecstasy, the drug of choice for the rave generation, and in 1986 its use in the treatment of depression was banned by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. In 2000, US customs officials seized nearly 10 million pills.
Shulgin had his first psychedelic experience in 1960 and since then, he estimates, he has had another 4000. Some regard him as a holy man, some as a great scientist, others as a monster. The Daily Mail once ran a story headlined ''Has this man killed 100 British teenagers?''
Today, Shulgin has his doubts about the drug he championed - not because of its efficacy but because he believes people have abused it.
The problem started, he says, when clubbers began popping pills with reckless abandon. And once MDMA was made illegal, there was no way to monitor the quality of the drug. ''It made it impossible for people at raves to know whether they were getting MDMA. We never use the term ecstasy because it is meaningless; some ecstasy capsules have no MDMA in them whatsoever. So the so-called ecstasy has become a real menace.''
Lethal injection
Dr Jay Chapman is sometimes referred to as the father of the lethal injection. ''It was not one of my purposes in life. It was something I was asked to do and I did it on the spur of the moment.''
It was 1977 and double murderer Gary Gilmore had just been executed in Utah. Faced with the option of firing squad or hanging, he had chosen the former but there had been an uproar among campaigners against the death penalty, denouncing the execution as inhumane.
A few days later, Chapman, who was Oklahoma's chief medical examiner, was asked if he had an opinion on how people should be put to death in a more humane fashion. He had strong opinions and suggested that a lethal injection would provide a much more palatable option. Chapman then created the formula - an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a paralytic agent and potassium chloride - to produce a quick death. Later, he set up a detailed protocol for the state of Oklahoma for the administration of the lethal injection. ''It's the standard protocol for anaesthesia carried to extremes,'' he says.
Why was he so keen on the lethal injection? Simple, he says. There were so many people on death row, living their lives as argument raged about the relative humanity of the means of execution. With a system that was quick, efficient and that involved minimal pain, he said natural justice would be restored and those on death row would die. And that, to Chapman, was what mattered.
Earlier this year, though, he announced that he regretted his role in creating the lethal injection. Has he had a change of heart on capital punishment? Yes, he says - in a way.
He says that as Oklahoma's chief medical examiner, he has witnessed many examples of man's inhumanity to man and he had believed that if the death penalty appeared to be carried out in a more humane fashion then more prisoners on death row would eventually be put to death. ''But there was a moratorium on executions .. They've been languishing there for 20-something years and that doesn't seem reasonable … If the death penalty is going to be assigned, it should be carried out. Justice delayed is justice denied.''
Life imprisonment is costly and pointless, Chapman says. ''There are some people who cannot live in society. And if that's the case, they should be eliminated.''
But the main reason he now has regrets, he says, is that over time, he has become convinced the lethal injection is too humane. ''I'm an eye-for-an-eye person. The lethal injection is too easy for some of them.''
Guardian News & Media
How does it feel to invent something you later wish you hadn't? Simon Hattenstone talks to the people who know.
The labradoodle
If Wally Conron had known what was going to become of the labradoodle, he wouldn't have bred the dog in the first place. It was 22 years ago and Conron, now 81, was working as the breeding manager for the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia when his boss set him a tough task. A blind woman from Hawaii had written asking if they could provide a guide dog that would not shed hair, because her husband was allergic to it. ''I said, 'Oh yes, this will be a piece of cake. The standard poodle is a working dog, it doesn't shed hair, it'll be great.' I tried 33 in the course of three years and they all failed. They just didn't make a guide dog.''
Conron decided there was one possibility left: take his best labrador bitch and mate it with a standard poodle. They created three cross-breed puppies that needed to be boarded out to be trained and socialised but nobody would take them; everyone wanted a pure-bred. And that's when Conron came up with the name labradoodle. ''I went to our PR team and said, 'Go to the press and tell them we've invented a new dog, the labradoodle.' It was a gimmick and it went worldwide. No one wanted a cross-breed but the following day we had hundreds of calls from people wanting these master dogs.''
The labradoodle proved to be a brilliant dog for the blind and the woman in Hawaii was happy. So what was the problem?
It's how the dog has been used and abused and sold under false pretences, Conron says. ''When the pups were five months old, we sent clippings and saliva to Hawaii to be tested with this woman's husband. Of the three pups, he was not allergic to one of them. In the next litter I had, there were 10 pups but only three had non-allergenic coats. Now, people are breeding these dogs and selling them as non-allergenic and they're not even testing them.
''All these backyard breeders have jumped on the bandwagon and they're crossing any kind of dog with a poodle. They're selling them for more than a pure-bred is worth and they're not going into the backgrounds of the parents of the dogs. There are so many poodle crosses having fits, problems with their eyes, hips and elbows; a lot have epilepsy. There are a few ethical breeders but very, very few.''
Conron says that despite the fact the dogs have helped so many blind people, he regrets creating the first cross-breed. ''I released a Frankenstein. … People say 'aren't you proud of yourself?' and I say, 'not in the slightest. I've done so much harm to pure breeding.'''
The Kalashnikov
General Mikhail Kalashnikov, who was responsible for the AK-47 assault rifle, now the most widely used automatic rifle in the world, says he regrets that terrorists and gangsters use his weapon. ''It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon. I created this weapon primarily to safeguard our fatherland,'' the Russian said on the eve of his 90th birthday last year.
C5 electric car
Sir Clive Sinclair remains best known for inventing what is widely regarded as a great British disaster: the C5, a one-seat electronic not-quite-car that has become an iconic image of technological failure. When it arrived on the market in 1985, it looked like nothing we'd seen before - and not necessarily in a good way. ''First of all, it was midwinter and there was snow on the ground,'' Sinclair says. ''And we threw it at the public without them being prepared for it … So it had a shock effect and that was bad news.''
That's not all that went wrong. The British Safety Council claimed it was unsafe. ''Absolute rubbish,'' Sinclair says. In fact, 25 years on, he believes the C5's time has come and he's developing a new prototype to be launched within a year. ''Technology has moved on quite a bit; there are new batteries available and I just rethought the thing. The C5 was OK but I think we can do a better job now.''
Electronic tag system
Professor Bob Gable is ashamed of what has become of the electronic tagging system he devised with his twin brother, Kirkland, in the mid-1960s. Both are professors in psychology, have law degrees and were motivated by hippie idealism. In 1964, tagging was invented as a system of positive reinforcement and the brothers are horrified that it is now used as a tool for punishment.
Bob says their work was influenced by American psychologist B. F. Skinner; Bob was taught by Skinner while Kirkland's adviser was Timothy Leary. ''We wanted to find a way of rewarding juvenile delinquents when they were doing what they were supposed to be doing; that is, going to school or to work or to a drug treatment centre. Just as Skinner rewarded pigeons.''
Over four years, they tagged 20 juvenile delinquents and compared their behaviour with a control group. They were then rewarded for being where they should be with, for example, tickets for a sports game or a free pizza. The results were impressive. ''We reduced the frequency of arrest and time in jail and when a crime did occur, they tended to be more creative and less violent.''
By the late '60s, the brothers had left Harvard and the experiment stopped. But 15 years later, electronic tagging came back - this time without the reward system. Bob says there are those who regard him and his brother as heroes because the tag has kept people out of prison but as far as the Gables are concerned, it's a gross misappropriation of the original concept. ''It's all using punishment.''
Are they disappointed because their tag was born of idealism? ''Yes - and it's not just idealism; it's also scientific fact that rewards and shaping behaviour works and that punishment in the long run is not very beneficial. When kids misbehave, we punish them; when countries misbehave, we bomb them. We just have this idea that we're going to suppress the bad behaviour and we don't take seriously how we ought to reward.''
MDMA
Alexander Shulgin is known as the godfather of ecstasy. He lives with his wife, Ann, in Lafayette, California, and at 85 suffers severe short-term memory loss. Ann acts as a conduit between us - repeating my questions to him and his answers back to me.
Ecstasy was first synthesised in 1912 by the chemical company Merck but Shulgin resynthesised it in 1976 and was the first person to test it on a human: himself. Two years later, he wrote a paper with a colleague about the effect of MDMA, stating that it created ''an easily controlled altered state of consciousness with emotional and sensual overtones … it didn't have the other visual and auditory imaginative things that you often get from psychedelics. It opened up a person, both to other people and inner thoughts.'' He believed that with its unusual combination of effects (intoxication, clarity and loss of inhibition), it could be a useful drug in psychotherapy. And so it was, for a while. But then MDMA became ecstasy, the drug of choice for the rave generation, and in 1986 its use in the treatment of depression was banned by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. In 2000, US customs officials seized nearly 10 million pills.
Shulgin had his first psychedelic experience in 1960 and since then, he estimates, he has had another 4000. Some regard him as a holy man, some as a great scientist, others as a monster. The Daily Mail once ran a story headlined ''Has this man killed 100 British teenagers?''
Today, Shulgin has his doubts about the drug he championed - not because of its efficacy but because he believes people have abused it.
The problem started, he says, when clubbers began popping pills with reckless abandon. And once MDMA was made illegal, there was no way to monitor the quality of the drug. ''It made it impossible for people at raves to know whether they were getting MDMA. We never use the term ecstasy because it is meaningless; some ecstasy capsules have no MDMA in them whatsoever. So the so-called ecstasy has become a real menace.''
Lethal injection
Dr Jay Chapman is sometimes referred to as the father of the lethal injection. ''It was not one of my purposes in life. It was something I was asked to do and I did it on the spur of the moment.''
It was 1977 and double murderer Gary Gilmore had just been executed in Utah. Faced with the option of firing squad or hanging, he had chosen the former but there had been an uproar among campaigners against the death penalty, denouncing the execution as inhumane.
A few days later, Chapman, who was Oklahoma's chief medical examiner, was asked if he had an opinion on how people should be put to death in a more humane fashion. He had strong opinions and suggested that a lethal injection would provide a much more palatable option. Chapman then created the formula - an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a paralytic agent and potassium chloride - to produce a quick death. Later, he set up a detailed protocol for the state of Oklahoma for the administration of the lethal injection. ''It's the standard protocol for anaesthesia carried to extremes,'' he says.
Why was he so keen on the lethal injection? Simple, he says. There were so many people on death row, living their lives as argument raged about the relative humanity of the means of execution. With a system that was quick, efficient and that involved minimal pain, he said natural justice would be restored and those on death row would die. And that, to Chapman, was what mattered.
Earlier this year, though, he announced that he regretted his role in creating the lethal injection. Has he had a change of heart on capital punishment? Yes, he says - in a way.
He says that as Oklahoma's chief medical examiner, he has witnessed many examples of man's inhumanity to man and he had believed that if the death penalty appeared to be carried out in a more humane fashion then more prisoners on death row would eventually be put to death. ''But there was a moratorium on executions .. They've been languishing there for 20-something years and that doesn't seem reasonable … If the death penalty is going to be assigned, it should be carried out. Justice delayed is justice denied.''
Life imprisonment is costly and pointless, Chapman says. ''There are some people who cannot live in society. And if that's the case, they should be eliminated.''
But the main reason he now has regrets, he says, is that over time, he has become convinced the lethal injection is too humane. ''I'm an eye-for-an-eye person. The lethal injection is too easy for some of them.''
Guardian News & Media
Blasts that killed Iran scientist blamed on Israel
November 30, 2010
TEHRAN: Twin bomb blasts in Iran's capital killed a nuclear scientist and wounded another yesterday, state media reported, blaming Israeli agents on motorbikes who attached the bombs to the scientists' cars.
''In a criminal terrorist act, the agents of the Zionist regime attacked two prominent university professors who were on their way to work,'' the website of Iran's state television network reported, referring to Israel.
''Dr Majid Shahriari was killed and his wife was injured. Dr Fereydoon Abbasi and his wife were injured.''
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Fars news agency said the scientists were targeted in two different locations by men on motorcycles who approached their vehicles and attached bombs to their cars.
Dr Shahriari was a member of the nuclear engineering department of Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, the official IRNA news agency said.
Dr Abbasi held a PhD in nuclear physics and did nuclear research at the Defence Ministry, the website Mashreghnews said.
The website said Dr Abbasi, 52, was ''one of the few specialists who can separate isotopes'' and had been a member of the Revolutionary Guards since 1979.
''These assassinations were not personal,'' the Tehran deputy governor, Safar Ali Baratlu, told ISNA news agency.
The attacks came a day after the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the US was weighing military options in the face of Tehran's announcement on Saturday that its first nuclear power plant, which was built by Russia in the southern city of Bushehr, had begun operations.
''We've actually been thinking about military options for a significant period of time,'' Admiral Mullen said in an interview broadcast on CNN.
He did not believe ''for a second'' that Iran's nuclear plant was for civilian use, he said.
''In fact, the information and intelligence that I've seen speak very specifically to the contrary. Iran is still very much on a path to be able to develop nuclear weapons, including weaponising them, putting them on a missile and being able to use them.''
The website WikiLeaks released diplomatic cables yesterday that revealed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had ''repeatedly'' urged the US to take military action against Iran's nuclear program.
Agence France-Presse
TEHRAN: Twin bomb blasts in Iran's capital killed a nuclear scientist and wounded another yesterday, state media reported, blaming Israeli agents on motorbikes who attached the bombs to the scientists' cars.
''In a criminal terrorist act, the agents of the Zionist regime attacked two prominent university professors who were on their way to work,'' the website of Iran's state television network reported, referring to Israel.
''Dr Majid Shahriari was killed and his wife was injured. Dr Fereydoon Abbasi and his wife were injured.''
Advertisement: Story continues below
Fars news agency said the scientists were targeted in two different locations by men on motorcycles who approached their vehicles and attached bombs to their cars.
Dr Shahriari was a member of the nuclear engineering department of Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, the official IRNA news agency said.
Dr Abbasi held a PhD in nuclear physics and did nuclear research at the Defence Ministry, the website Mashreghnews said.
The website said Dr Abbasi, 52, was ''one of the few specialists who can separate isotopes'' and had been a member of the Revolutionary Guards since 1979.
''These assassinations were not personal,'' the Tehran deputy governor, Safar Ali Baratlu, told ISNA news agency.
The attacks came a day after the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the US was weighing military options in the face of Tehran's announcement on Saturday that its first nuclear power plant, which was built by Russia in the southern city of Bushehr, had begun operations.
''We've actually been thinking about military options for a significant period of time,'' Admiral Mullen said in an interview broadcast on CNN.
He did not believe ''for a second'' that Iran's nuclear plant was for civilian use, he said.
''In fact, the information and intelligence that I've seen speak very specifically to the contrary. Iran is still very much on a path to be able to develop nuclear weapons, including weaponising them, putting them on a missile and being able to use them.''
The website WikiLeaks released diplomatic cables yesterday that revealed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had ''repeatedly'' urged the US to take military action against Iran's nuclear program.
Agence France-Presse
In the future, the only secrets will be spoken ones
Simon Jenkins
November 30, 2010
Is it justified? Should a newspaper disclose virtually all a nation's secret diplomatic communication, illegally downloaded by one of its citizens? The reporting in The Guardian and the Herald of the first of a selection of 250,000 US State Department cables marks a recasting of modern diplomacy. Clearly, there is no longer such a thing as a safe electronic archive, whatever computing's snake-oil salesmen claim.
Anything said or done in the name of a democracy is, prima facie, of public interest. When that democracy purports to be ''world policeman'' - an assumption that runs ghostlike through these cables - that interest is global. Nonetheless, The Guardian had to consider two things in abetting disclosure, irrespective of what is anyway published by WikiLeaks. It could not be party to putting the lives of individuals or sources at risk, nor reveal material that might compromise military operations or the location of special forces.
In this light, two back-up checks were applied. The US government was told in advance the areas or themes covered, and ''representations'' were invited. These were considered. Details of ''redactions'' were then shared with the other four media recipients of the material and sent to WikiLeaks itself, to establish, albeit voluntarily, some common standard.
The State Department knew of the leak several months ago and had ample time to alert staff in sensitive locations. Nor is the material classified top secret, being at a level that more than 3 million US government employees are cleared to see, and available on the Defence Department's internal Siprnet.
The revelations do not have the startling, cold-blooded immediacy of the WikiLeaks war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan, with their astonishing insight into the minds of fighting men seemingly detached from the ethics of war. The disclosures are largely of analysis and high-grade gossip. Insofar as they are sensational, it is in showing the corruption and mendacity of those in power, and the mismatch between what they claim and what they do.
Few will be surprised that Vladimir Putin runs the world's most sensational kleptocracy, that the Saudis wanted the US to bomb Iran, or that Pakistan's ISI is hopelessly involved with Taliban groups of fiendish complexity. We now know that Washington knows too. The full extent of US dealings with Yemen might upset that country's government, but is hardly surprising. If it is true that the Pentagon targeted refugee camps for bombing, it should be of general concern.
The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment. If US spies are breaking United Nations rules by seeking the DNA biometrics of the UN director-general, he is entitled to hear of it.
No harm is done by chatter about President Nicolas Sarkozy's vulgarity and lack of house-training, or about the British royal family.
Some stars shine through the banality such as the heroic envoy in Islamabad, Anne Patterson. She pleads that Washington's whole policy is counterproductive: it ''risks destabilising the Pakistani state, alienating both the civilian government and the military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis without finally achieving the goal''. Nor is any amount of money going to bribe the Taliban to our side. Patterson's cables are like missives from the Titanic as it already heads for the bottom.
The money-wasting is staggering. Aid payments are never followed, never audited, never evaluated. The impression is of the world's superpower roaming helpless in a world in which nobody behaves as bidden. Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, the UN, are all perpetually off script. Washington reacts like a wounded bear, its instincts imperial but its power projection unproductive.
America's foreign policy is revealed as a slave to right-wing drift, terrified of a bomb exploding abroad or of a pro-Israeli congressman at home. If the cables tell of the progress to war over Iran or Pakistan or Gaza or Yemen, their revelation might help debate the inanity of policies which, as Patterson says, seem to be leading in just that direction. Perhaps we can now see how catastrophe unfolds when there is time to avert it, rather than having to await a Chilcot report after the event. If that is not in the public's interest, I fail to see what is.
What this saga must do is alter the basis of diplomatic reporting. If WikiLeaks can gain access to secret material, so presumably can a foreign power. Words on paper can be made secure, electronic archives not. The leaks have blown a hole in the framework by which states guard their secrets. The Guardian material must be a breach of the official secrets acts. But coupled with the penetration already allowed under freedom of information, the walls round policy formation and documentation are all but gone. All barriers are permeable. In future the only secrets will be spoken ones. Whether that is a good thing should be a topic for public debate.
Guardian News & Media
November 30, 2010
Is it justified? Should a newspaper disclose virtually all a nation's secret diplomatic communication, illegally downloaded by one of its citizens? The reporting in The Guardian and the Herald of the first of a selection of 250,000 US State Department cables marks a recasting of modern diplomacy. Clearly, there is no longer such a thing as a safe electronic archive, whatever computing's snake-oil salesmen claim.
Anything said or done in the name of a democracy is, prima facie, of public interest. When that democracy purports to be ''world policeman'' - an assumption that runs ghostlike through these cables - that interest is global. Nonetheless, The Guardian had to consider two things in abetting disclosure, irrespective of what is anyway published by WikiLeaks. It could not be party to putting the lives of individuals or sources at risk, nor reveal material that might compromise military operations or the location of special forces.
In this light, two back-up checks were applied. The US government was told in advance the areas or themes covered, and ''representations'' were invited. These were considered. Details of ''redactions'' were then shared with the other four media recipients of the material and sent to WikiLeaks itself, to establish, albeit voluntarily, some common standard.
The State Department knew of the leak several months ago and had ample time to alert staff in sensitive locations. Nor is the material classified top secret, being at a level that more than 3 million US government employees are cleared to see, and available on the Defence Department's internal Siprnet.
The revelations do not have the startling, cold-blooded immediacy of the WikiLeaks war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan, with their astonishing insight into the minds of fighting men seemingly detached from the ethics of war. The disclosures are largely of analysis and high-grade gossip. Insofar as they are sensational, it is in showing the corruption and mendacity of those in power, and the mismatch between what they claim and what they do.
Few will be surprised that Vladimir Putin runs the world's most sensational kleptocracy, that the Saudis wanted the US to bomb Iran, or that Pakistan's ISI is hopelessly involved with Taliban groups of fiendish complexity. We now know that Washington knows too. The full extent of US dealings with Yemen might upset that country's government, but is hardly surprising. If it is true that the Pentagon targeted refugee camps for bombing, it should be of general concern.
The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment. If US spies are breaking United Nations rules by seeking the DNA biometrics of the UN director-general, he is entitled to hear of it.
No harm is done by chatter about President Nicolas Sarkozy's vulgarity and lack of house-training, or about the British royal family.
Some stars shine through the banality such as the heroic envoy in Islamabad, Anne Patterson. She pleads that Washington's whole policy is counterproductive: it ''risks destabilising the Pakistani state, alienating both the civilian government and the military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis without finally achieving the goal''. Nor is any amount of money going to bribe the Taliban to our side. Patterson's cables are like missives from the Titanic as it already heads for the bottom.
The money-wasting is staggering. Aid payments are never followed, never audited, never evaluated. The impression is of the world's superpower roaming helpless in a world in which nobody behaves as bidden. Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, the UN, are all perpetually off script. Washington reacts like a wounded bear, its instincts imperial but its power projection unproductive.
America's foreign policy is revealed as a slave to right-wing drift, terrified of a bomb exploding abroad or of a pro-Israeli congressman at home. If the cables tell of the progress to war over Iran or Pakistan or Gaza or Yemen, their revelation might help debate the inanity of policies which, as Patterson says, seem to be leading in just that direction. Perhaps we can now see how catastrophe unfolds when there is time to avert it, rather than having to await a Chilcot report after the event. If that is not in the public's interest, I fail to see what is.
What this saga must do is alter the basis of diplomatic reporting. If WikiLeaks can gain access to secret material, so presumably can a foreign power. Words on paper can be made secure, electronic archives not. The leaks have blown a hole in the framework by which states guard their secrets. The Guardian material must be a breach of the official secrets acts. But coupled with the penetration already allowed under freedom of information, the walls round policy formation and documentation are all but gone. All barriers are permeable. In future the only secrets will be spoken ones. Whether that is a good thing should be a topic for public debate.
Guardian News & Media
Monday, November 29, 2010
Faithless are coarse, uncaring and without purpose, says Cardinal Pell
Jacqueline Maley
November 29, 2010
THE lives of people without faith have ''nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss'', Cardinal George Pell said yesterday at a Mass to install the former Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove as chancellor of the Australian Catholic University.
''A minority of people, usually people without religion, are frightened by the future,'' Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, said during his homily at the St Mary's Cathedral Mass.
''It's almost as though they've … nothing but fear to distract themselves from the fact that without God the universe has no objective purpose or meaning. Nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss.''
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Life without God was ''life without purpose, without constraints'', he said.
Cardinal Pell said education was not enough to create a civilised society, that faith was necessary too. He cited the example of 20th century Germany, which he said was the best educated society in the world when Hitler became leader.
''Australian society will become increasingly coarse and uncaring … if Christian principles are excluded from public discussion.
''The secularists pursuing this aim won't be successful.''
We should not create an ''ideological apartheid'' between faith and reason, Cardinal Pell said.
General Cosgrove was appointed the university's chancellor in May, but yesterday was the official Mass installing him as the institution's figurehead. General Cosgrove is a lifelong Catholic and was educated by the Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers at Waverley College.
''It's a role that you would hope would encourage people in the work they do,'' General Cosgrove said of his chancellorship.
''The idea being that you will be a better person, not just in an objective sense but in a moral sense, after you've spent time in the university community.''
General Cosgrove would not be drawn on the Pope's recent comments regarding the use of condoms among male prostitutes infected with HIV.
''When the Pope pronounces we listen extremely carefully,'' he said, but declined to comment further.
He said Australian troops in Afghanistan were doing a ''magnificent job'' in Oruzgan province.
''It would require somebody closer to the day-to-day unfolding of events to tell you about how it's going in wider Afghanistan,'' he said.
November 29, 2010
THE lives of people without faith have ''nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss'', Cardinal George Pell said yesterday at a Mass to install the former Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove as chancellor of the Australian Catholic University.
''A minority of people, usually people without religion, are frightened by the future,'' Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, said during his homily at the St Mary's Cathedral Mass.
''It's almost as though they've … nothing but fear to distract themselves from the fact that without God the universe has no objective purpose or meaning. Nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss.''
Advertisement: Story continues below
Life without God was ''life without purpose, without constraints'', he said.
Cardinal Pell said education was not enough to create a civilised society, that faith was necessary too. He cited the example of 20th century Germany, which he said was the best educated society in the world when Hitler became leader.
''Australian society will become increasingly coarse and uncaring … if Christian principles are excluded from public discussion.
''The secularists pursuing this aim won't be successful.''
We should not create an ''ideological apartheid'' between faith and reason, Cardinal Pell said.
General Cosgrove was appointed the university's chancellor in May, but yesterday was the official Mass installing him as the institution's figurehead. General Cosgrove is a lifelong Catholic and was educated by the Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers at Waverley College.
''It's a role that you would hope would encourage people in the work they do,'' General Cosgrove said of his chancellorship.
''The idea being that you will be a better person, not just in an objective sense but in a moral sense, after you've spent time in the university community.''
General Cosgrove would not be drawn on the Pope's recent comments regarding the use of condoms among male prostitutes infected with HIV.
''When the Pope pronounces we listen extremely carefully,'' he said, but declined to comment further.
He said Australian troops in Afghanistan were doing a ''magnificent job'' in Oruzgan province.
''It would require somebody closer to the day-to-day unfolding of events to tell you about how it's going in wider Afghanistan,'' he said.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Sarah Palin confused on Koreas
Thomas Hunter
November 25, 2010 - 3:01PM
Sarah Palin's foreign policy skills have again been questioned after the possible future president of the United States referred to North Korea as "America's ally".
Speaking to Fox News presenter Glenn Beck on his radio show, Mrs Palin said the US should support North Korea in a conflict started on Tuesday when the Kim Jong Il-led nation bombed a small South Korean island without provocation.
A co-host of Beck asked Mrs Palin how she would handle the diplomatic stand-off that had developed since the deadly bombing.
"Obviously, we've got to stand with our North Korean allies. We're bound to by treaty ... " she said.
She was promptly corrected by the interviewer before continuing.
"Eh, yeah," she said. "And we're also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes."
The embarrassing gaffe comes amid a guessing game over whether the former vice-presidential candidate will run for the presidency in 2012.
While the statement appears to have been a slip of the tongue, it does not help Mrs Palin shed a perception of weakness on foreign policy.
It's the same chink in her policy armour that was exploited by comedian Tina Fey during the 2008 presidential election.
Fey's impersonation of Mrs Palin included the famous line: "I can see Russia from my house!"
November 25, 2010 - 3:01PM
Sarah Palin's foreign policy skills have again been questioned after the possible future president of the United States referred to North Korea as "America's ally".
Speaking to Fox News presenter Glenn Beck on his radio show, Mrs Palin said the US should support North Korea in a conflict started on Tuesday when the Kim Jong Il-led nation bombed a small South Korean island without provocation.
A co-host of Beck asked Mrs Palin how she would handle the diplomatic stand-off that had developed since the deadly bombing.
"Obviously, we've got to stand with our North Korean allies. We're bound to by treaty ... " she said.
She was promptly corrected by the interviewer before continuing.
"Eh, yeah," she said. "And we're also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes."
The embarrassing gaffe comes amid a guessing game over whether the former vice-presidential candidate will run for the presidency in 2012.
While the statement appears to have been a slip of the tongue, it does not help Mrs Palin shed a perception of weakness on foreign policy.
It's the same chink in her policy armour that was exploited by comedian Tina Fey during the 2008 presidential election.
Fey's impersonation of Mrs Palin included the famous line: "I can see Russia from my house!"
Monday, November 22, 2010
Cats take a victory lap, licking dogs in the battle of the pets
Nicky Phillips
November 13, 2010
IF YOU'VE ever wondered how cats drink milk without getting a drop on their chin, scientists have found the answer.
Unlike dogs, which scoop up liquid with their tongues, felines use a sophisticated technique that takes advantage of two physical forces.
The findings, which may further divide cat and dog lovers, could also lead to advances in robotics.
When cats lap, they extend their tongue directly down onto the surface of liquid, with the tip curled to form a hook.
Using high-speed cameras, American scientists discovered only the tip of a feline's tongue touches the liquid before it pulls it back into its mouth.
As a cat draws its tongue back a column of liquid forms between it and the surface of the water or milk. The cat can then close its mouth around the column to drink.
A column of liquid forms because it is under the influence of two physical forces: gravity and inertia.
As gravity drags the liquid back towards the bowl, inertia lets it continue moving in the direction it was heading - towards the cat's mouth.
''Ultimately, gravity prevails and the column pinches off,'' said the authors, whose findings are published in the journal Science.
Using mathematical equations the researchers calculated that the amount of liquid a cat captured during each lap depended on the size and speed of its tongue.
Domestic cats average about four laps a second while big cats, which also use the sophisticated technique, drink more slowly.
The lead author, Jeffrey Aristoff, a mathematician, said cats appeared to choose the speed in order to maximise the amount of liquid ingested per lap.
''This suggests cats are smarter than many people think, at least when it comes to hydrodynamics,'' Dr Aristoff, of Princeton University, said.
The research team studied videos of domestic moggies, including one of the researcher's pets, big cats from Boston zoos, and online videos of cats lapping.
The subtle use of the tongue was remarkable given its lack of skeletal support, the authors said.
''The functional diversity and high compliance of [this] structure continues to inspire the design of soft robots,'' they said.
November 13, 2010
IF YOU'VE ever wondered how cats drink milk without getting a drop on their chin, scientists have found the answer.
Unlike dogs, which scoop up liquid with their tongues, felines use a sophisticated technique that takes advantage of two physical forces.
The findings, which may further divide cat and dog lovers, could also lead to advances in robotics.
When cats lap, they extend their tongue directly down onto the surface of liquid, with the tip curled to form a hook.
Using high-speed cameras, American scientists discovered only the tip of a feline's tongue touches the liquid before it pulls it back into its mouth.
As a cat draws its tongue back a column of liquid forms between it and the surface of the water or milk. The cat can then close its mouth around the column to drink.
A column of liquid forms because it is under the influence of two physical forces: gravity and inertia.
As gravity drags the liquid back towards the bowl, inertia lets it continue moving in the direction it was heading - towards the cat's mouth.
''Ultimately, gravity prevails and the column pinches off,'' said the authors, whose findings are published in the journal Science.
Using mathematical equations the researchers calculated that the amount of liquid a cat captured during each lap depended on the size and speed of its tongue.
Domestic cats average about four laps a second while big cats, which also use the sophisticated technique, drink more slowly.
The lead author, Jeffrey Aristoff, a mathematician, said cats appeared to choose the speed in order to maximise the amount of liquid ingested per lap.
''This suggests cats are smarter than many people think, at least when it comes to hydrodynamics,'' Dr Aristoff, of Princeton University, said.
The research team studied videos of domestic moggies, including one of the researcher's pets, big cats from Boston zoos, and online videos of cats lapping.
The subtle use of the tongue was remarkable given its lack of skeletal support, the authors said.
''The functional diversity and high compliance of [this] structure continues to inspire the design of soft robots,'' they said.
Alcohol more dangerous than crack cocaine and heroin: study
Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine - when the ripple effect on society is taken into consideration, a new British study has found.
British experts said alcohol was most destructive because it was so widely used and had devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.
The study evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they were to the individuals who took them and to society as a whole.
Researchers analysed how addictive a drug was and how it harmed the human body, in addition to other criteria such as environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as healthcare, social services and prison.
Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals.
When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.
The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and was published online today in the medical journal The Lancet.
"Just think about what happens [with alcohol] at every football game," said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study but co-authored a commentary in The Lancet.
When drunk in excess, alcohol damaged nearly all organ systems. It was also connected to higher death rates and was involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.
But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.
"We cannot return to the days of prohibition," said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study's authors. "Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won't go away."
Mr King said countries should target problem drinkers, not the vast majority of people who indulge in a drink or two. He said governments should consider more education programs and raising the price of alcohol so it wasn't as widely available.
Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classified drugs. For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior advisers, David Nutt - the lead author on the Lancet study - was fired after he criticised the British decision.
"What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science," said Professor van den Brink. He said considerations about revenue and taxation, such as those garnered from the alcohol and tobacco industries, might influence decisions about which substances to regulate or outlaw.
"Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit," he said.
AP
British experts said alcohol was most destructive because it was so widely used and had devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.
The study evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they were to the individuals who took them and to society as a whole.
Researchers analysed how addictive a drug was and how it harmed the human body, in addition to other criteria such as environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as healthcare, social services and prison.
Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals.
When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.
The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and was published online today in the medical journal The Lancet.
"Just think about what happens [with alcohol] at every football game," said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study but co-authored a commentary in The Lancet.
When drunk in excess, alcohol damaged nearly all organ systems. It was also connected to higher death rates and was involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.
But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.
"We cannot return to the days of prohibition," said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study's authors. "Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won't go away."
Mr King said countries should target problem drinkers, not the vast majority of people who indulge in a drink or two. He said governments should consider more education programs and raising the price of alcohol so it wasn't as widely available.
Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classified drugs. For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior advisers, David Nutt - the lead author on the Lancet study - was fired after he criticised the British decision.
"What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science," said Professor van den Brink. He said considerations about revenue and taxation, such as those garnered from the alcohol and tobacco industries, might influence decisions about which substances to regulate or outlaw.
"Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit," he said.
AP
Free AK-47 with every truck: US car dealer
A US car dealership is trying to drum up business by offering an unusual perk for potential used-truck buyers: a free AK-47 assault rifle.
General sales manager Nick Ginetta says that since the promotion was announced in the Florida town of Sanford on Veterans Day (November 11), business has more than doubled at Nations Trucks.
Customers would have to pass a background check before using the $US400 ($405) gun-shop voucher.
They also have the option of using the money towards other firearms, or they can request a cheque for that amount instead.
The dealership has fielded some complaints about the deal, which Ginetta acknowledges is controversial.
But he adds: "My buyer is absolutely a gun owner, no question."
The promotion is scheduled to run until the end of November.
AP
General sales manager Nick Ginetta says that since the promotion was announced in the Florida town of Sanford on Veterans Day (November 11), business has more than doubled at Nations Trucks.
Customers would have to pass a background check before using the $US400 ($405) gun-shop voucher.
They also have the option of using the money towards other firearms, or they can request a cheque for that amount instead.
The dealership has fielded some complaints about the deal, which Ginetta acknowledges is controversial.
But he adds: "My buyer is absolutely a gun owner, no question."
The promotion is scheduled to run until the end of November.
AP
Asylum seekers are put in no man's land
Yuko Narushima IMMIGRATION CORRESPONDENT
November 22, 2010
SUMATHI RAHAVAN never predicted the Kafkaesque situation that awaited her young family when she boarded the Australian Customs boat Oceanic Viking last year.
The Sri Lankan has given birth as an immigration detainee, been branded a national security risk by ASIO and now faces 24-hour surveillance with three guards watching over her family, which is being held in detention indefinitely.
Her husband, Yogachandran Rahavan, also declared a national security threat by the spy agency, has given an exclusive interview to the Herald from inside Villawood detention centre.
In an hour-long conversation, he described the family's mental anguish and the serious consideration the couple were giving to adopting out their older children. ''We'd like to live in Australia. We are totally upset. We didn't think this situation would happen to us,'' he said.
The saga began when Mrs Rahavan decided to join her husband in Australia, bundling their daughter Atputha, 6, and son Abinayan, 3, on to what was to become the most politically charged boatload of asylum seekers under the Rudd government.
In its haste to end a diplomatic stand-off with Indonesia, the Australian government offered all refugees on Oceanic Viking a special resettlement deal.
As refugees, the government cannot return the Rahavans to possible danger in Sri Lanka. But because ASIO assesses them a security risk, the family cannot be settled in Australia.
''We faced a physical problem in Sri Lanka but we are here facing a mental problem,'' Mr Rahavan said.
The reasons ASIO has for its suspicions may never be revealed. The agency's decisions in immigration matters are not reviewable.
Mr Rahavan adamantly denied he was involved with the Tamil Tigers separatist group and said he did not know why he could be considered a risk. ''Sumathi worked in the Tamil Eelam court as clerical staff,'' he said.
He said he had owned a poultry business in Kilinochchi, a Tiger-held area during the long civil war, before the family was displaced to Manik Farm, an internment camp in central Sri Lanka.
''People used to disappear from the camps, particularly young people and businessmen,'' he said.
The family became spooked and fled when two men began asking for him, Mr Rahavan said. So began a journey that spanned Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and now Australia.
At Villawood, the Rahavans are watched 24 hours a day. Emails are blocked and phone calls must go through immigration staff who type in ''approved'' numbers and confirm who is on the line before passing the phone over.
''There's all the time - 24/7 - two officers inside the house,'' Mr Rahavan said. ''There is a Serco vehicle and officer, who watches us 24/7 through the windows.''
Some family members are authorised to visit and others not.
The family was transferred to the mainland because of inadequate medical services for detainees to give birth on Christmas Island.
Yesterday the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, was awaiting medical advice before making a decision on their return.
''We are waiting on medical clearance for the baby to be fit to travel back to Christmas Island. Once this is completed, there are no medical impediments to their return,'' a spokesman for the minister said.
Mr Rahavan said his wife's health was deteriorating. She was rising at midnight and crying inconsolably, fretting over the welfare of her children.
''We spent a half life in Sri Lanka, wasted,'' Mr Rahavan said.
The couple did not want their children's lives wasted on their account. ''They are in limbo. They suffer because of their parents,'' he said.
Mr Bowen said he accepted ASIO's checks but could not discuss the contents of national security assessments.
The president of the Law Council of Australia, Glenn Ferguson, said ASIO checks in immigration cases were immune from scrutiny.
''ASIO has a non-reviewable power of veto over who may come to mainland Australia and they exercise this veto in an environment of complete secrecy,'' he said. ''These people are left in a no man's land.''
Discussions with other countries regarding possible resettlement options were continuing, Mr Bowen said.
November 22, 2010
SUMATHI RAHAVAN never predicted the Kafkaesque situation that awaited her young family when she boarded the Australian Customs boat Oceanic Viking last year.
The Sri Lankan has given birth as an immigration detainee, been branded a national security risk by ASIO and now faces 24-hour surveillance with three guards watching over her family, which is being held in detention indefinitely.
Her husband, Yogachandran Rahavan, also declared a national security threat by the spy agency, has given an exclusive interview to the Herald from inside Villawood detention centre.
In an hour-long conversation, he described the family's mental anguish and the serious consideration the couple were giving to adopting out their older children. ''We'd like to live in Australia. We are totally upset. We didn't think this situation would happen to us,'' he said.
The saga began when Mrs Rahavan decided to join her husband in Australia, bundling their daughter Atputha, 6, and son Abinayan, 3, on to what was to become the most politically charged boatload of asylum seekers under the Rudd government.
In its haste to end a diplomatic stand-off with Indonesia, the Australian government offered all refugees on Oceanic Viking a special resettlement deal.
As refugees, the government cannot return the Rahavans to possible danger in Sri Lanka. But because ASIO assesses them a security risk, the family cannot be settled in Australia.
''We faced a physical problem in Sri Lanka but we are here facing a mental problem,'' Mr Rahavan said.
The reasons ASIO has for its suspicions may never be revealed. The agency's decisions in immigration matters are not reviewable.
Mr Rahavan adamantly denied he was involved with the Tamil Tigers separatist group and said he did not know why he could be considered a risk. ''Sumathi worked in the Tamil Eelam court as clerical staff,'' he said.
He said he had owned a poultry business in Kilinochchi, a Tiger-held area during the long civil war, before the family was displaced to Manik Farm, an internment camp in central Sri Lanka.
''People used to disappear from the camps, particularly young people and businessmen,'' he said.
The family became spooked and fled when two men began asking for him, Mr Rahavan said. So began a journey that spanned Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and now Australia.
At Villawood, the Rahavans are watched 24 hours a day. Emails are blocked and phone calls must go through immigration staff who type in ''approved'' numbers and confirm who is on the line before passing the phone over.
''There's all the time - 24/7 - two officers inside the house,'' Mr Rahavan said. ''There is a Serco vehicle and officer, who watches us 24/7 through the windows.''
Some family members are authorised to visit and others not.
The family was transferred to the mainland because of inadequate medical services for detainees to give birth on Christmas Island.
Yesterday the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, was awaiting medical advice before making a decision on their return.
''We are waiting on medical clearance for the baby to be fit to travel back to Christmas Island. Once this is completed, there are no medical impediments to their return,'' a spokesman for the minister said.
Mr Rahavan said his wife's health was deteriorating. She was rising at midnight and crying inconsolably, fretting over the welfare of her children.
''We spent a half life in Sri Lanka, wasted,'' Mr Rahavan said.
The couple did not want their children's lives wasted on their account. ''They are in limbo. They suffer because of their parents,'' he said.
Mr Bowen said he accepted ASIO's checks but could not discuss the contents of national security assessments.
The president of the Law Council of Australia, Glenn Ferguson, said ASIO checks in immigration cases were immune from scrutiny.
''ASIO has a non-reviewable power of veto over who may come to mainland Australia and they exercise this veto in an environment of complete secrecy,'' he said. ''These people are left in a no man's land.''
Discussions with other countries regarding possible resettlement options were continuing, Mr Bowen said.
Security firm accused of vice
Dylan Welch NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT
November 22, 2010
AN Australian-owned security company has been accused by a powerful US Senate committee of a shocking litany of abuses in Afghanistan, including theft and corruption.
Compass Integrated Security Solutions, owned by the son of a well-known Australian cricketer, has been accused of undermining the international effort in the country while earning millions in war dollars.
The accusations are found in the October report by the US Senate's committee on armed services into private security contractors in Afghanistan.
The behaviour of the company, which has held contracts with the Australian Department of Defence, was another example of the lack of regulation of private military companies, said a Liberal senator, Russell Trood.
''These contractors are a phenomenon which has grown exponentially over the last decade and has become such a widespread practice that our procedures of oversight haven't really caught up,'' Senator Trood said.
The company is owned by Peter McCosker, the son of the cricketer Rick McCosker.
Compass, based in Dubai, has been in operation for five years and employs more than 2300 security guards in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Like many other private military and security companies, it has an opaque structure and is also known as Compass Security, Compass Service Solutions and Compass Ltd Iraq.
One of its big contracts was with Supreme Group, a food and fuel supplier to the international forces in Afghanistan.
The US report, which found numerous security companies were acting ''against US and Afghan government interests'' and identified ''dangerous deficiencies'' in their performance, said Compass had contracted several senior Afghan officials.
Among them was General X, the Afghan National Police district commander and General Y, an Afghan National Air Force commander.
''The contract stated that the men supplied by General [X] would be 'fully trained, serving or ex-members of the Afghan National Police Force … or the Afghan National Army,'' the report said. That contract was terminated in 2008 but the contract with General Y was still in effect last June
The committee found Compass's guards sometimes did not turn up to convoys they were meant to protect. In one case ''the guards who did show up allegedly robbed a service station along the convoy route''.
In June last year Compass hired 40 guards and gave them no training before sending them on a convoy. That convoy became involved in a firefight with more than 100 insurgents and was able to proceed only once rescued by international forces.
The report described problems such as inadequate leadership, an insufficient number of weapons and ammunition, unserviceable weapons and equipment, and unmanned security posts.
Mr McCosker and his Washington lawyer would not comment.
dwelch@fairfax.com.au
November 22, 2010
AN Australian-owned security company has been accused by a powerful US Senate committee of a shocking litany of abuses in Afghanistan, including theft and corruption.
Compass Integrated Security Solutions, owned by the son of a well-known Australian cricketer, has been accused of undermining the international effort in the country while earning millions in war dollars.
The accusations are found in the October report by the US Senate's committee on armed services into private security contractors in Afghanistan.
The behaviour of the company, which has held contracts with the Australian Department of Defence, was another example of the lack of regulation of private military companies, said a Liberal senator, Russell Trood.
''These contractors are a phenomenon which has grown exponentially over the last decade and has become such a widespread practice that our procedures of oversight haven't really caught up,'' Senator Trood said.
The company is owned by Peter McCosker, the son of the cricketer Rick McCosker.
Compass, based in Dubai, has been in operation for five years and employs more than 2300 security guards in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Like many other private military and security companies, it has an opaque structure and is also known as Compass Security, Compass Service Solutions and Compass Ltd Iraq.
One of its big contracts was with Supreme Group, a food and fuel supplier to the international forces in Afghanistan.
The US report, which found numerous security companies were acting ''against US and Afghan government interests'' and identified ''dangerous deficiencies'' in their performance, said Compass had contracted several senior Afghan officials.
Among them was General X, the Afghan National Police district commander and General Y, an Afghan National Air Force commander.
''The contract stated that the men supplied by General [X] would be 'fully trained, serving or ex-members of the Afghan National Police Force … or the Afghan National Army,'' the report said. That contract was terminated in 2008 but the contract with General Y was still in effect last June
The committee found Compass's guards sometimes did not turn up to convoys they were meant to protect. In one case ''the guards who did show up allegedly robbed a service station along the convoy route''.
In June last year Compass hired 40 guards and gave them no training before sending them on a convoy. That convoy became involved in a firefight with more than 100 insurgents and was able to proceed only once rescued by international forces.
The report described problems such as inadequate leadership, an insufficient number of weapons and ammunition, unserviceable weapons and equipment, and unmanned security posts.
Mr McCosker and his Washington lawyer would not comment.
dwelch@fairfax.com.au
Ethics right, refusal wrong for state schools
Sean Nicholls STATE POLITICAL EDITOR
November 22, 2010
PARENTS will have the right to ethics classes as an alternative to scripture in their child's school even if the principal and the majority of the school community opposes them.
The state cabinet is expected to approve the introduction of ethics classes to primary schools today after a successful trial this year. They will begin as early as term one next year.
While the classes will be voluntary for schools, the Herald has confirmed that parents who want their children to attend the classes will be able to appeal to the Education Department if the principal opposes them.
As long as the St James Ethics Centre, which will run the classes, is able to provide volunteers and there is a reasonable number of children to attend them, the department will ensure they are offered.
Students in years 5 and 6 are likely to be the first to be offered the classes, because they are the years in which the trial was run. Eventually classes will be offered in years K-6.
The Minister for Education, Verity Firth, will take the proposal to cabinet having received 745 submissions in response to an independent report on the trial that was published last month.
Of the submissions, only 15 were against the introduction of ethics classes. However, many of those in support came via a form letter organised by the lobby group parents4ethics.
The submissions, which Ms Firth invited after publishing the report, reflect a broad range of attitudes from many parts of the state.
''I'm originally from Europe, and ethics classes are the norm there - even in such strongly Catholic areas as Bavaria,'' wrote a correspondent from Coogee. ''All I can say is that NSW is about 30 years behind the rest of the Western world on this issue, which is nothing short of a disgrace.''
Some submissions were political, reflecting Ms Firth's struggle to retain her seat of Balmain against the Greens at next year's election.
''If you introduce this, Verity, then I will ask my parents and friends to retain you at March as [Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell] may oppose a wonderful course like this,'' wrote a correspondent from Balmain East.
A Baulkham Hills parent, whose child participated in the trial, said: ''The majority of parents, ethics teachers and children at our school found the ethics classes an enriching complement to the many good SRE [Special Religious Education] classes on offer''.
However, many of those opposed were concerned about ethics competing with scripture classes.
''Ethics is already taught in other forums in state primary education and should not be allowed to attract students away from meaningful faith-based studies,'' wrote one.
Another, from North Curl Curl, argued for comparative religious studies classes instead: ''I would prefer teaching about all world religions than 'ethics'. Surely this would encourage greater understanding of other cultures and beliefs as well as Christianity?''
The government does not need to legislate to introduce the classes but will change the policy of the Education Department, which rules out ethics classes as an alternative to religious education.
A spokesman for Mr O'Farrell said the Coalition had yet to determine its position on ethics classes.
November 22, 2010
PARENTS will have the right to ethics classes as an alternative to scripture in their child's school even if the principal and the majority of the school community opposes them.
The state cabinet is expected to approve the introduction of ethics classes to primary schools today after a successful trial this year. They will begin as early as term one next year.
While the classes will be voluntary for schools, the Herald has confirmed that parents who want their children to attend the classes will be able to appeal to the Education Department if the principal opposes them.
As long as the St James Ethics Centre, which will run the classes, is able to provide volunteers and there is a reasonable number of children to attend them, the department will ensure they are offered.
Students in years 5 and 6 are likely to be the first to be offered the classes, because they are the years in which the trial was run. Eventually classes will be offered in years K-6.
The Minister for Education, Verity Firth, will take the proposal to cabinet having received 745 submissions in response to an independent report on the trial that was published last month.
Of the submissions, only 15 were against the introduction of ethics classes. However, many of those in support came via a form letter organised by the lobby group parents4ethics.
The submissions, which Ms Firth invited after publishing the report, reflect a broad range of attitudes from many parts of the state.
''I'm originally from Europe, and ethics classes are the norm there - even in such strongly Catholic areas as Bavaria,'' wrote a correspondent from Coogee. ''All I can say is that NSW is about 30 years behind the rest of the Western world on this issue, which is nothing short of a disgrace.''
Some submissions were political, reflecting Ms Firth's struggle to retain her seat of Balmain against the Greens at next year's election.
''If you introduce this, Verity, then I will ask my parents and friends to retain you at March as [Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell] may oppose a wonderful course like this,'' wrote a correspondent from Balmain East.
A Baulkham Hills parent, whose child participated in the trial, said: ''The majority of parents, ethics teachers and children at our school found the ethics classes an enriching complement to the many good SRE [Special Religious Education] classes on offer''.
However, many of those opposed were concerned about ethics competing with scripture classes.
''Ethics is already taught in other forums in state primary education and should not be allowed to attract students away from meaningful faith-based studies,'' wrote one.
Another, from North Curl Curl, argued for comparative religious studies classes instead: ''I would prefer teaching about all world religions than 'ethics'. Surely this would encourage greater understanding of other cultures and beliefs as well as Christianity?''
The government does not need to legislate to introduce the classes but will change the policy of the Education Department, which rules out ethics classes as an alternative to religious education.
A spokesman for Mr O'Farrell said the Coalition had yet to determine its position on ethics classes.
Tasteless or brilliant? Iceberg water might be both
November 22, 2010 - 10:46AM
Sometime in the next two weeks, a converted fishing boat called the Sikuk is due to sail from St John's, in Canada's Newfoundland province, bound for a fjord in Greenland and a rendezvous with an iceberg.
Where most vessels give icebergs a wide berth, the Sikuk intends to sidle up close and - using a giant mechanical claw - begin ripping 680-kilogram bites of ice from floating bergs and depositing them in tanks below deck.
The product of this bizarre harvest is destined to become something called Glace Rare Iceberg Water, and it represents the latest turn in the lifelong obsession of a native Newfoundlander named Ron Stamp. Where others saw hazards to navigation, Stamp has long seen icebergs as objects of wonder and - eventually - as the key to his fortune.
Advertisement: Story continues below
As a child growing up on the coast of Newfoundland, Stamp says, he was fascinated by the giant blocks of ice floating in the North Atlantic. Then, as a relatively young man, he began to see them as sources of potential profit. And for most of the last 20 years, he has worked to make that vision come true - with varying degrees of success.
Stamp tried iceberg vodka; it had only limited success. The same with iceberg beer.
So now he's trying gourmet water - at $US10 a bottle. Or more.
Why would anyone pay the price of a decent bottle of wine to guzzle melted iceberg? Stamp admits it's a bit of a mystery, but he thinks it will work.
"It is so tasteless that it actually creates a taste. The tastelessness is its own taste," he said. "It's like drinking air."
So-called gourmet bottled waters make up less than 5 per cent of the $US10.6-billion US bottled water market. It's a crowded space, filled with names such as Etrusca, Lelu, Vytautas, Vidago, Karoo and Tasmanian Rain.
There also are at least three other similarly priced, though less ambitiously marketed, iceberg waters, as well as entrants such as Bling H20, which offers east Tennessee spring water in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted bottle for $US50.
"Water is not water any more. Water is the new wine," said Michael Mascha, a one-time food anthropologist, who runs the finewaters.com website and holds tastings to evangelise for greater epicurean regard for water.
Water from different places on the globe has unique tastes, Mascha said, because of differences in mineral content, bubble size, pH levels and hardness or softness. Iceberg water is unique in that it comes from snow that fell perhaps 12,000 years ago - millennia before the Industrial Age filled the atmosphere with impurities.
Mascha characterised iceberg water as "very neutral, very soft ... perfect for very subtle foods like sushi and sashimi".
"It is one of the next great things that we will have as a high-end product, with a tremendous story to tell," he predicted.
Mascha keeps a stash of Iluliaq brand iceberg water from Greenland in his refrigerator.
"It's for a nice meal ... if you want to impress someone. It's an aspirational product, like a nice bottle of wine, a nice bottle of Champagne," he said.
Stamp, 56, who lives in St John's, said he became serious about making money from icebergs in the early 1990s, about the time the collapse of the cod fishery put an end to his career as a seafood broker.
Icebergs, he realised, were an almost limitless resource.
And, he said, "from a marketing and sales perspective, it attracts a horrifying amount of attention. If I sold Ron's Spring Water, nobody would ask me a second question".
A decade ago, Stamp tried selling an iceberg water named Borealis in plastic bottles. But the packaging defined Borealis as a mass-market item, and Stamp couldn't sell it at a competitive price. "I'd have to own 10 ships to harvest enough ice," he said.
Starting last year, he began decanting his water into glass bottles and gave it the French name for "ice".
"It has a certain appeal," Stamp said. "'Iceberg' is too masculine a sound. This is water your wife's going to bug you to get because it matches the dishes."
To enter the US market, Glace needed - and late last month won - approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But even in that, it was a special case: Although FDA labeling rules spoke to artesian water, groundwater, mineral water, sparkling bottled water, spring water and well water, as well as purified water produced by distillation, deionization or reverse osmosis, they didn't address iceberg water.
Stamp declined to disclose Glace sales figures, but he said he and his partners spent $US4.5 million to modify the Sikuk to collect ice instead of herring and mackerel.
Stamp hopes the Sikuk eventually will make 10 harvesting trips a year. But for now, plans call for the ship and its eight-man crew to make the 21-day round trip to Greenland or, in warmer weather, shorter forays into Iceberg Alley off the coast of Newfoundland, as demand requires.
After the ice is crushed and melted, the Sikuk ferries 550,000 litres of water to St John's for shipment to a bottling plant in Montreal via container vessel.
Not everyone is taken with the concept of iceberg water.
"This sounds like an incredibly bad idea just in terms of resource use. We have tap water. We have rain. Why do we have to send a ship out to Greenland? Maybe the water will be 10 per cent cleaner. But what about all the carbon dioxide created?" said Renee Sharp, director of the California office of the Environmental Working Group.
Stamp says he's sensitive to Glace's carbon footprint. Its bottles are recyclable and the Sikuk's retrofit included governors on its engines to cut horsepower and a switch to more efficient fuel.
Besides, Stamp said: "Of all the products that are shipped, water is the lifeblood of the planet. Why pick on water? What about sneakers, or toys, or fertiliser?"
MCT
Sometime in the next two weeks, a converted fishing boat called the Sikuk is due to sail from St John's, in Canada's Newfoundland province, bound for a fjord in Greenland and a rendezvous with an iceberg.
Where most vessels give icebergs a wide berth, the Sikuk intends to sidle up close and - using a giant mechanical claw - begin ripping 680-kilogram bites of ice from floating bergs and depositing them in tanks below deck.
The product of this bizarre harvest is destined to become something called Glace Rare Iceberg Water, and it represents the latest turn in the lifelong obsession of a native Newfoundlander named Ron Stamp. Where others saw hazards to navigation, Stamp has long seen icebergs as objects of wonder and - eventually - as the key to his fortune.
Advertisement: Story continues below
As a child growing up on the coast of Newfoundland, Stamp says, he was fascinated by the giant blocks of ice floating in the North Atlantic. Then, as a relatively young man, he began to see them as sources of potential profit. And for most of the last 20 years, he has worked to make that vision come true - with varying degrees of success.
Stamp tried iceberg vodka; it had only limited success. The same with iceberg beer.
So now he's trying gourmet water - at $US10 a bottle. Or more.
Why would anyone pay the price of a decent bottle of wine to guzzle melted iceberg? Stamp admits it's a bit of a mystery, but he thinks it will work.
"It is so tasteless that it actually creates a taste. The tastelessness is its own taste," he said. "It's like drinking air."
So-called gourmet bottled waters make up less than 5 per cent of the $US10.6-billion US bottled water market. It's a crowded space, filled with names such as Etrusca, Lelu, Vytautas, Vidago, Karoo and Tasmanian Rain.
There also are at least three other similarly priced, though less ambitiously marketed, iceberg waters, as well as entrants such as Bling H20, which offers east Tennessee spring water in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted bottle for $US50.
"Water is not water any more. Water is the new wine," said Michael Mascha, a one-time food anthropologist, who runs the finewaters.com website and holds tastings to evangelise for greater epicurean regard for water.
Water from different places on the globe has unique tastes, Mascha said, because of differences in mineral content, bubble size, pH levels and hardness or softness. Iceberg water is unique in that it comes from snow that fell perhaps 12,000 years ago - millennia before the Industrial Age filled the atmosphere with impurities.
Mascha characterised iceberg water as "very neutral, very soft ... perfect for very subtle foods like sushi and sashimi".
"It is one of the next great things that we will have as a high-end product, with a tremendous story to tell," he predicted.
Mascha keeps a stash of Iluliaq brand iceberg water from Greenland in his refrigerator.
"It's for a nice meal ... if you want to impress someone. It's an aspirational product, like a nice bottle of wine, a nice bottle of Champagne," he said.
Stamp, 56, who lives in St John's, said he became serious about making money from icebergs in the early 1990s, about the time the collapse of the cod fishery put an end to his career as a seafood broker.
Icebergs, he realised, were an almost limitless resource.
And, he said, "from a marketing and sales perspective, it attracts a horrifying amount of attention. If I sold Ron's Spring Water, nobody would ask me a second question".
A decade ago, Stamp tried selling an iceberg water named Borealis in plastic bottles. But the packaging defined Borealis as a mass-market item, and Stamp couldn't sell it at a competitive price. "I'd have to own 10 ships to harvest enough ice," he said.
Starting last year, he began decanting his water into glass bottles and gave it the French name for "ice".
"It has a certain appeal," Stamp said. "'Iceberg' is too masculine a sound. This is water your wife's going to bug you to get because it matches the dishes."
To enter the US market, Glace needed - and late last month won - approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But even in that, it was a special case: Although FDA labeling rules spoke to artesian water, groundwater, mineral water, sparkling bottled water, spring water and well water, as well as purified water produced by distillation, deionization or reverse osmosis, they didn't address iceberg water.
Stamp declined to disclose Glace sales figures, but he said he and his partners spent $US4.5 million to modify the Sikuk to collect ice instead of herring and mackerel.
Stamp hopes the Sikuk eventually will make 10 harvesting trips a year. But for now, plans call for the ship and its eight-man crew to make the 21-day round trip to Greenland or, in warmer weather, shorter forays into Iceberg Alley off the coast of Newfoundland, as demand requires.
After the ice is crushed and melted, the Sikuk ferries 550,000 litres of water to St John's for shipment to a bottling plant in Montreal via container vessel.
Not everyone is taken with the concept of iceberg water.
"This sounds like an incredibly bad idea just in terms of resource use. We have tap water. We have rain. Why do we have to send a ship out to Greenland? Maybe the water will be 10 per cent cleaner. But what about all the carbon dioxide created?" said Renee Sharp, director of the California office of the Environmental Working Group.
Stamp says he's sensitive to Glace's carbon footprint. Its bottles are recyclable and the Sikuk's retrofit included governors on its engines to cut horsepower and a switch to more efficient fuel.
Besides, Stamp said: "Of all the products that are shipped, water is the lifeblood of the planet. Why pick on water? What about sneakers, or toys, or fertiliser?"
MCT
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