See? I wasn't joking about Saturday

Forum ignites interest in county plan
By Scott Nicholson

A local conservation partnership hopes to spark discussion between Watauga County and its towns as the next county comprehensive plan begins to take shape.

The Partnership for Watauga’s Future, a non-profit organization not formally affiliated with county government, formed in 2001 to address and discuss land-use issues, sparked mostly by debate over a high-impact land-use ordinance drafted by the county.

The partnership sponsored a program Saturday in Boone to bring together several different planning issues with the goal of building interest in the comprehensive plan.

The program featured presentations on steep slopes, flooding, “walkability” and promoting more sustainable techniques in local businesses.

Kathy Copley, president of the Partnership for Watauga’s Future, said the group was interested in the county’s comprehensive plan and hoped to stimulate more citizen participation. “We had people at the meeting to describe how the plan was shaping up, to become acquainted with the process and what we hope to do,” Copley said. “Our meetings are designed to encourage participation.”

//more//

All about waterboarding

One project which was rolling around in my head was to find an authoritative source that supports the premise the waterboarding does not yield useful intelligence. Through the serendipity of the internet, in this case chatting in IM with a dear net friend, I was led back to one of my earlier web 'homes' from whence I was led to this goodie. It is hard to find anyone more qualified to speak on this issue.
Waterboarding is Torture… Period (Updated)

I’d like to digress from my usual analysis of insurgent strategy and tactics to speak out on an issue of grave importance to Small Wars Journal readers. We, as a nation, are having a crisis of honor.

Last week the Attorney General nominee Judge Michael Mukasey refused to define waterboarding terror suspects as torture. On the same day MSNBC television pundit and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough quickly spoke out in its favor. On his morning television broadcast, he asserted, without any basis in fact, that the efficacy of the waterboard a viable tool to be used on Al Qaeda suspects.

Scarborough said, "For those who don't know, waterboarding is what we did to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is the Al Qaeda number two guy that planned 9/11. And he talked …" He then speculated that “If you ask Americans whether they think it's okay for us to waterboard in a controlled environment … 90% of Americans will say 'yes.'” Sensing that what he was saying sounded extreme, he then claimed he did not support torture but that waterboarding was debatable as a technique: "You know, that's the debate. Is waterboarding torture? … I don't want the United States to engage in the type of torture that [Senator] John McCain had to endure."

In fact, waterboarding is just the type of torture then Lt. Commander John McCain had to endure at the hands of the North Vietnamese. As a former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego, California I know the waterboard personally and intimately. SERE staff were required undergo the waterboard at its fullest. I was no exception. I have personally led, witnessed and supervised waterboarding of hundreds of people. It has been reported that both the Army and Navy SERE school’s interrogation manuals were used to form the interrogation techniques used by the US army and the CIA for its terror suspects. What was not mentioned in most articles was that SERE was designed to show how an evil totalitarian, enemy would use torture at the slightest whim. If this is the case, then waterboarding is unquestionably being used as torture technique.

One passage stands out in support of my propositon.

On a Mekong River trip, I met a 60-year-old man, happy to be alive and a cheerful travel companion, who survived the genocide and torture … he spoke openly about it and gave me a valuable lesson: “If you want to survive, you must learn that ‘walking through a low door means you have to be able to bow.’” He told his interrogators everything they wanted to know including the truth. They rarely stopped. In torture, he confessed to being a hermaphrodite, a CIA spy, a Buddhist Monk, a Catholic Bishop and the son of the king of Cambodia. He was actually just a school teacher whose crime was that he once spoke French. He remembered “the Barrel” version of waterboarding quite well. Head first until the water filled the lungs, then you talk.

//more//

Want to hear the same thing from some heavy brass?
It's Our Cage, Too
Torture Betrays Us and Breeds New Enemies
By Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar
Thursday, May 17, 2007; Page A17

Fear can be a strong motivator. It led Franklin Roosevelt to intern tens of thousands of innocent U.S. citizens during World War II; it led to Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt, which ruined the lives of hundreds of Americans. And it led the United States to adopt a policy at the highest levels that condoned and even authorized torture of prisoners in our custody.

Fear is the justification offered for this policy by former CIA director George Tenet as he promotes his new book. Tenet oversaw the secret CIA interrogation program in which torture techniques euphemistically called "waterboarding," "sensory deprivation," "sleep deprivation" and "stress positions" -- conduct we used to call war crimes -- were used. In defending these abuses, Tenet revealed: "Everybody forgets one central context of what we lived through: the palpable fear that we felt on the basis of the fact that there was so much we did not know."

We have served in combat; we understand the reality of fear and the havoc it can wreak if left unchecked or fostered. Fear breeds panic, and it can lead people and nations to act in ways inconsistent with their character.

The American people are understandably fearful about another attack like the one we sustained on Sept. 11, 2001. But it is the duty of the commander in chief to lead the country away from the grip of fear, not into its grasp. Regrettably, at Tuesday night's presidential debate in South Carolina, several Republican candidates revealed a stunning failure to understand this most basic obligation. Indeed, among the candidates, only John McCain demonstrated that he understands the close connection between our security and our values as a nation.

//more//
Charles C. Krulak was commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999. Joseph P. Hoar was commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994.

Brain food

One of the benefits gained from attending YearlyKos was that a sample copy of Seed magazine fell into my possession. Featuring stories like 'What is Life?', 'Beyond Biodiversity', 'The Living City' and 'Before the Big Bang', it provided both distraction and amusement for what was a tortuous journey home. If my coffers were in better shape, I would get a subscription but I am going to have to be content accessing it online.

A Profound Sense of Time
PZ Myers on the process that prompts the growth of all vertebrates from embryos to unspecialized segments to multicellular animals.
by PZ Myers

One of the fundamental features of the organization of multicellular animals is segmentation: We are initially built by subdividing a relatively undifferentiated embryonic tissue into smaller, repeated elements, like a stack of mostly identical building blocks. Look at an earthworm or a caterpillar or a maggot, and the organization is clear, with the wormlike animal showing the obvious seams and subdivisions that constitute its assembly from rings of similar chunks of tissue. Another property of this pattern of organization is that individual segments can then acquire specializations. In a caterpillar, the front end is modified with mouthparts and sense organs to form a head, while other segments will bear stubby limbs or be festooned with bristles or colored spots and patterns. Specialization is carried further when a maggot becomes a fly. Segments become much more obscure, retaining their visible identity in the abdomen, but are otherwise fused, elaborated upon, and display new features, such as wings or legs or mouthparts, that make the segments, ultimately, look very different from one another.

We vertebrates were also overtly segmented animals early in our embryonic development. As with the fly, the nature of our construction from similar blocks of tissue has been obscured by later additions in development, with limbs patched on and some segments (like human tails) reduced to near invisibility. Others (like significant portions of our brains) have been telescoped, contorted, and fused so that the boundaries between the original segments are detectable only to sensitive molecular probes. As with the fly's abdomen, we also retain some still apparent vestiges: the chain of vertebrae in our backs and the muscles of our torsos.

//more//

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

In browsing about the net you run across things which reinforce your beliefs, things which challenge core assumptions, things which delight with beauty and things which astound. This link, providing a recounting of an encounter with a real life (skepticism suggested) ET, gets filed under "Proof Required".

Extraterrestrials Among Us
A University of Mexico tenured medical professor who met with an extraterrestrial, posing as an ordinary civilian, helps corroborate claims of Human Extraterrestrials living among us. This professor was also a senior member of the Mexican Atomic Energy Commission. The Professor used the pseudonym of ‘Prof Hernandez’ and worked with a Mexican journalist, Zitha Rodriguez to release details of his contact in the early 1970's.

It all began in 1972, with a voice in his head, leading him to scientific breakthroughs in his own medical research in immunology which brought him special recognition by his peers.

Professor Hernandez knew the ideas were not his own, because he had no background in developing them. They came to his mind full blown, as though someone who knew perfectly well what he was talking about had explained them to him in detail. Later in that year he was approached by the author of that voice in his head, and it turned out to be a beautiful extraterrestrial woman who said he could call her Elyense, which he changed to LYA for short. She met him several times on the University Campus before she went any further.

LYA wore a dark pantsuit of some very fine material that the professor could not quite identify. She had dark eyes and wore dark hair shoulder length. She walked our streets and breathed our ambient air with no difficulty. She even drank fruit juice with him at a sidewalk lunch table as they talked. She was obviously far better educated than Hernandez, and he was considered one of his country's foremost scientists.

When the professor questioned LYA's extreme intelligence and the source of her superior knowledge, she took him into her confidence and told him that she was not from this planet -- that she came from another world in a group of stars we called Andromeda. He thought she meant the Andromeda Galaxy at first.

//more//

This issue deserves attention

The author is a local activist. He is the founder of a group that has Mountain Top Removal as a focus issue.

Demand for coal destroys mountaintops
BofA and Duke Energy contribute to practice that hurts environment

This week's protest of Charlotte-based Bank of America's practice of financing companies who strip mine coal in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia raised concerns that should be of interest to all North Carolinians. The Rainforest Action Network hung a huge banner off a crane in front of the Bank of America building that dominates the skyline of downtown Charlotte. The sign read, "Financing Coal, Killing Communities."

Many of us are not aware of all the mining practices of coal giants such as Arch Coal and Massey Energy. Besides the familiar underground mining, they blow up mountains in Appalachia to get down to the coal, and push the waste and debris into surrounding valleys.

Known appropriately as mountaintop removal, this practice has leveled more than 470 Appalachian mountains and buried or polluted thousands of miles of mountain streams -- streams at the headwaters of the drinking water supply of millions of Americans. Blasting and flooding from mountaintop removal are also devastating families and communities in the mountains and leaving the economy of central Appalachia in shambles.

//more//

Where I was Saturday

As a board member I felt obliged to attend but I truly was interested. My contribution was to bring a platter of finger sandwiches. Attendence was between 35-40 and I volunteered to be one of the evaluators for the 'Green Business' program. My mind is whirling with ideas and I need to make a couple of contacts this coming week.

“The Future of Watauga County Planning and You”
Saturday, Oct. 27, 2 p.m.
Boone Town Council Chambers
Sponsored by the Partnership for Watauga’s Future

The Program at a Glance:
Welcome & introductions … Kathy Copley
Boone’s Walkability Assessment … Blake Brown
Creating a “Green Business Plan” … David Ponder
Hazardous Slope Mapping … Rick Wooten
Hazardous Slope Legislation … D.J. Gerken
New Watauga River Flood Maps … John Callahan
Comprehensive Planning in Watauga

“The Future of Watauga County Planning and You,” a program organized around some of the county’s most pressing land-planning issues and the practical impacts of those topics on ordinary homeowners, will be presented on Saturday, October 27, at the Boone Town Council Chambers on Blowing Rock Road.

Attendees will be given basic overviews of a number of hot topics, to be followed by informational Q&A with authorities. “The idea is for our members to get all the basic points on steep-slope issues, for example, or the upcoming comprehensive plan,” said program organizer Kathy Copley. “It’ll be like ‘Community Issues for Beginners,’ with additional resources available for people who would like to learn more.”

A highlight of the program will be a presentation by Rick Wooten of North Carolina Geologic Survey (NCGS), whose team has been gathering detailed information for its current Watauga County landslide hazard mapping project. Wooten will discuss mapping methodology and preliminary findings from the project (which will be formally delivered to the County Commission in a public session at a later date). For example, in the infamous 1940 flood in Watauga County, when some 10 inches of rain fell over the course of six hours, there were over 2,000 documented “slope failures” in the county, with rock, dirt, and vegetation moving rapidly and catastrophically down-slope as debris flows. Many of those flow tracks have been located and will be mapped.

D.J. Gerken of the Southern Environmental Law Center will update the group on Saturday about the status of the statewide hazardous slope bill introduced in the N.C. legislature in 2007 and now referred to a study commission.

Also on Saturday will be an explanation and overview of the county’s new comprehensive planning process being launched this fall. Ordinary citizens will have several ways to participate and influence the “visioning” of what Watauga County should be in the future.

Also on the program on Saturday will be updates on the newest flood maps for the Watauga River basin in western Watauga County presented by Dr. John Callahan, and Boone’s “walkability assessment” and its implications for traffic flow presented by Boone’s Director of Public Works Blake Brown, and an update on the “green business plan,” launched in 2007 by the Watauga County Economic Development Commission, presented by David Ponder.

The meeting on Saturday, sponsored by the Partnership for Watauga’s Future (PWF), will begin with refreshments at 1:30 p.m. The program will begin at 2:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Sharing

One of my objectives in doing this blog is to share. This morning's web prowl serves as an excellent ample and for that reason I will take you along with me on the first real trek of the day going beyond my normal routine.

It starts in my in box where I found the daily offering from the NYT. I usually just note the headlines but today I was attracted to this item:

Rethinking Fire Policy in the Tinderbox Zone
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/us/28threat.html?th&emc=th

This section caught my eye :

“California has lost 1.5 million acres in the last four years,” said Richard A. Minnich, a professor of earth sciences who teaches fire ecology at the University of California, Riverside. “When do we declare the policy a failure?”

Fire-management experts like Professor Minnich, who has compared fire histories in San Diego County and Baja California in Mexico, say the message is clear: Mexico has smaller fires that burn out naturally, regularly clearing out combustible underbrush and causing relatively little destruction because the cycle is still natural. California has giant ones because its longtime policies of fire suppression — in which the government has kept fires from their normal cycle — has created huge pockets of fuel that erupt into conflagrations that must be fought.

What were they doing in Baja to remove that underbrush? I though Minnich might a paper available on that very subject so I Googled him. As an aside, in different circumstances I might have used Vivisimo as the search enging. The Earth Sciences link gains a much better return than the faculty link as is usually the case.

On the department page I found he had nine articles with links and and six without. Thinking the title bespoke the focus I was seeking, I picked Minnich, R.A. 2006, "California climate and fire weather". Fire in California's ecosystems (N.G. Sugihara, J.W. VanWagtendonk, K.E Shaffer, Joann Fites-Kaufman and A.E.Thode (eds.). University of California Press.

GRRRRR. That takes me to a .pdf file and those kick this copy and paste'ers ass. It does offer, however, an informative primer on weather with a concentration on the forces at work in forming California's climate. I still needed, however, to find a linkable source...

Which took me to a site definitely worth saving, Conservation Biology. From there, and I do not recall how that happened, I ended up at AGORRA and that produced the link I wish to share, perhaps the motherlode of all techno links... Link.

Alas, good news and bad news. To access those 1,132 journals you have to be registered. The good news is that you can arrange with a school library to dig through all that material. The bad news is that the US does not appear to be a participant in the program. I immediately wonder why. Such a tease!

For the meower fans

Some sites offer outstanding graphics and other provide page after page of mind-numbing, yet accurate and informative, text. This site manages to offer both.

Not Quite A Cat? Wasn’t This Supposed to be About Whales?

Sometimes when it looks like a cat and acts like a cat it’s not; it’s a nimravid! Nimravids are a rather problematic group in the order Carnivora of uncertain descent. Entering the fossil record in the late Eocene (36 million years ago), their exact relationship to other carnivore families is unresolved, but they paralleled cats to an amazing degree. With short faces and fully hooded, retractile claws, they came in body shapes and sizes that covered all of the diversity that true cats would later manifest. Some were as small as house cats, while others were the ecological and functional equivalents of lynx, cheetah and leopard. And all except one lone genus were saber-toothed.

Before we go on, let’s get these curved teeth straight. Saber-teeth evolved from normal, conical canine teeth into two forms. Dirk teeth were the long, curved, finely serrated blades that we normally think of when we think saber-toothed. The famous Smilodon - the saber-toothed “tiger” of LaBrea Tar Pits fame - was a dirk-toothed true felid. There were also scimitar-toothed animals with shorter, more coarsely serrated blades that usually evolved in conjunction with
longer-legged cursorial body types. Most of the dirk-toothed animals were compact, robust stalkers.

//more//

Green thumb

Beautyberry, American
(Callicarpa americana)

Plant type: Shrub



USDA Hardiness Zones: 7a to 10b

Height: 48" to 96"

Spread: 72" to 84"

Exposure: partial shade partial sun to full sun

Bloom Color: Lavender

Bloom Time: Early spring, Late spring, Mid spring

Leaf Color: Green

Growth Rate: average

Moisture: moist

Soil Condition: Acidic, Clay, Loamy, Neutral, Sandy, Slightly alkaline, Well drained

Form: Rounded, Spreading or horizontal, Vase

Landscape Uses:

Border, Cascades, Erosion control, Foundation, Pest tolerant, Massing, Standard

Special Features:

Attracts birds, North American native, Fragrant foliage, Naturalizing, Attracts butterflies, Inconspicuous flowers or blooms

Getting spacey

The Great Carina Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler and Stephane Guisard



Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, aka NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the naked eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This stunning telescopic view reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and dark cosmic dust clouds. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the bright star left of the central dark notch in this field and just below the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).

Words, words, words

lexiphanes (lex-SIF-uh-neez) noun

One who uses words pretentiously.

[From Greek lexiphanes (phrase monger), from lexis (word or phrase) + -phaneia
(to show).]

neophyte \NEE-uh-fyte\ noun

1 : a new convert : proselyte
2 : novice
*3 : tyro, beginner

sciophilous, adj.
(Of plants) shade-loving; thriving in shady conditions

Disappointment

I literally stumbled (more on that at another time) across this site :
Write Like an Egyptian Link and thought, 'How kewl! I can see what my name looks like when written in Egyptian hieroglyphs'. The result, however, was disappointing.

Apparently no consideration was given to diphthongs and other such linguistic sensibilities. I was reminded of when I saw 'Richardson' translated into 'Lei Ch'uanSheng' for my Taiwanese ID card. Being known as Mr. Lightning (Flash?) isn't bad but functionally I was called other things. There is no telling what my name would have meant in Giza of the Pharaohs; perhaps something as unflattering as 'Glorious Camel Dung.

Random discovery

I just ran across an offering (from NewsMax http://www.newsmax.com/putnam/world_population/2007/10/25/43942.html ) by conservative commentator George Putnam. Interestingly he sounds the alarm about population growth and cites some alarming statistics from his source:

Anson offers an example: “If this is Friday, by next Monday, the planet becomes home to 600,000 additional people.”

Anson cites this fact: “Ecosystems can absorb a certain amount of stress without noticeable effect, but once a critical level is reached, the disruption can be cataclysmic.”

Putnam then uses that epiphany to launch into an Tancredoesque anti-immigrant screed but at least his readers now know there is a problem.

You read it here first

I like to keep a watch out for 'stuff'; those seemingly innocuous things which end up changing all of our lives. Something of a techie, I enjoyed exploring the developmental boundaries of whatever happened to be my current advocation. A good example is found in skiing where the epitome of my wankdom was skiing on ESS bindings. Another comes from when I was into stereo equipment and just HAD to have a Dolby Surround Sound system. It is perhaps the single most surprising and telling sign of my reluctant aging that I have not embraced the cell phone. Perhaps that will be changing.

Zeichick's Take: IPhone, You Phone, We All Phone for GPhone
The battle of the programmable mobile phone is about to begin. And if Steve Jobs isn’t careful, Google will clean Apple’s clock.

Apple makes great platforms. The Mac (with Mac OS X) is a better PC than a Windows Vista box. I haven’t seen a music player that can compete with an iPod for ease of use, though most other vendors make devices that are less expensive, have more features and have more capacity.

By contrast, while the iPhone is an incredibly impressive piece of consumer electronics, it’s not a platform. It’s just a super-cool phone with a browser and music player.

In fact, during the past six months or so, Apple has done everything possible to dissuade developers from even thinking about the iPhone. The only way to develop apps for the device, Apple insists, is to build interactive Web sites that are optimized for the phone’s Safari Web browser.

Sorry, Steve, but that’s the wrong answer. A pint-sized browser does not make a platform.

Apple doesn’t want you to write software for the iPhone. They don’t want you to support their platform. Just write Web apps! That’s all they want, period!

That, my friends, is not going to drive the iPhone into ubiquity. A decade ago, Microsoft’s Windows crushed OS/2 and Mac OS because Microsoft understood that third-party developers are essential to the success of a new platform. Developers of all stripes were invited to write software for Windows 2.x, 3.x, Windows 95 and Windows NT, while IBM and Apple shunned them.

The tidal wave of Windows applications totally blew away its technologically superior, more secure and more stable competitors.

With that background, read Alex Handy’s SDTimes.com story about Google’s mobile phone efforts, “Gphone Rumors Hint at Broad Mobile Strategy."

As Alex explains, third-party developers seem to be front-and-center of Google’s platform. Of course, it’s hard to know for sure what’s happening at the Googleplex; the company is known for its secrecy. Maybe the Gphone won’t even appear. Maybe it will be radically different from what Alex’s sources say.

From where I sit, the iPhone is in peril. It’s thriving today because it’s cool, it’s new, it’s from Apple, and there’s no viable alternative. But it’s also closed, which means that it’s not a platform. Unless Steve Jobs opens up the iPhone to true native applications—and does it soon—the Gphone is going to blow the iPhone away.

//more//

And a bit of the tech from that link within the story:

Gphone Rumors Hint at Broad Mobile Strategy

October 23, 2007 — Google, the darling of Silicon Valley, could soon become the belle of the mobile service provider ball. According to unnamed sources inside Google, the company is embarking on a strategy to join its nationwide fiber optic networks, the 700MHz spectrum, an x86-based handset and a brand-new JavaScript engine as a platform underlying its "Gphone" project. But even without these leaked details, Google's broader business moves are already telegraphing the individual pieces of the puzzle.

Specifically, Google CEO Eric Schmidt's bold offer to purchase the entire 700MHz spectrum in the upcoming FCC auction hints at a broader wireless play from the company. Although his initial bid of US$4.6 billion for the whole kit and kaboodle will likely fall short of the final price for this chunk of the ether, Schmidt’s willingness to commit such a large amount of Google's money to wireless spectrum shows just how much the company is banking on a mobile future.

//more//

Did someone just say 'Buy'?

A sense of identity

There are some news items which carry with them an almost automatic sense of identification, much like the feeling when your local community is even mentioned in a national story. In this case that feeling, as a one-time readhead (but never a 'ginger') is even more potent.

Neanderthals 'were flame-haired'
Some Neanderthals were probably redheads, a DNA study has shown.

Writing in Science journal, a team of researchers extracted DNA from remains of two Neanderthals and retrieved part of an important gene called MC1R.

In modern people, a change - or mutation - in this gene causes red hair, but, until now, no one knew what hair colour our extinct relatives had.

By analysing a version of the gene in Neanderthals, scientists found that they also have sported fiery locks.

"We found a variant of MC1R in Neanderthals which is not present in modern humans, but which causes an effect on the hair similar to that seen in modern redheads," said lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, assistant professor in genetics at the University of Barcelona.

//more//

Word-a-Rama

nosism (NO-siz-em) noun
The use of 'we' in referring to oneself. [From Latin nos (we).]

As it's often used by editors, it's also known as the "editorial we".
It's also called "the royal we" owing to its frequent use by royalty.
Mark Twain once said, "Only kings, presidents, editors, and people
with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we'."

imbricate (IM-brih-kut) adjective
lying lapped over each other in regular order

fumarole, n.
A small hole from which volcanic vapours issue. The
potential for metaphoric use of the term is too evident to be dwelt upon
here."

Digging a bit deeper

News can be simply an accumulation of 'factoids' accepted into your consciousness and filed but I prefer to consider it as a learning opportunity. In the newspaper business, much of the illumination and depth of a story often comes in the form of side-bars; those brief looks offering a slightly different angle or approach. The Chinese have obviously learned the value of the side-bar because this item comes from the their 'lead' news source, XinHua.

China's lunar orbiter, the story behind "Moon lady" Chang'e
XICHANG, Sichuan, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's first moon orbiter which is likely to be launched at around 6:00 p.m. Wednesday from a southwest launch center, has been named after "moon lady" Chang'e, a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon.

Chang'e and her husband Hou Yi, an outstanding archer, are the subjects of one of the most popular of Chinese mythological legends.

According to one version of the story, Chang'e was the beautiful wife of Hou Yi, a hero who shot down nine suns scorching the earth. At that time, there were ten suns that took turns to circle the earth one every 10 days, but one day all ten suns emerged together, causing immense damage on earth.

The shooting-down of nine suns by Yi, a famous archer, was highly praised by people on earth. Yi then had more disciples longing to learn archery including the evil Peng Meng.

//more//

A New Day in Space

A cursory check of news sources showed this story is not getting the attention I believe it should. I ran across it initially on a very space-oriented site with it's 'echo' found on Agencie France Presse. Perhaps I am simply ahead of the curve and the coming day will see if it gains proper notoriety.

For the first time, women rule in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) — Breaking new ground in the history of space exploration, women are at the helm of the International Space Station and the space shuttle at the same time, as they orbit the Earth.

Pamela Melroy, a 46-year-old retired US Air Force colonel, was in the commander's seat when shuttle Discovery blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday.

She is only the second woman in the shuttle program's 26-year history to command the spacecraft, which is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Thursday for the most complex construction mission yet on the orbiting laboratory.

When latches open between the two crafts, Melroy and her six fellow shuttle astronauts will be greeted by an ISS crew led by another American, Peggy Whitson, a 47-year-old scientist and the first woman in charge of the station.

But this historic first, which was not planned, does not reflect the overall reality of the US space program, where women remain a minority and male culture predominates.
//more//

Quote

"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
: Thomas Jefferson

Addendum

In the story about the Chinese launch of a lunar orbiter, the 'graph that struck me as particularly telling came just prior to the end of the story.

When laying out a newspaper press releases are rather recklessly releaved of their last inch of copy or whatever was needed to fit the hole. Usually without a reading or cursory glance the tailing inches of many press releases felt the slick sure snip of scissors and fluttered to the layout room floor.

I learned my lesson, of course, the hard way.

The story was about an autumn train outing in an era when any rail travel is of an event of significance. Great art, too; meaning the story would more likely be read. The section which had been so thoughtlessly discarded was the contact information for anyone interested in the trip.

The calls were immediate and insistent.

Page one of the next issue had a correction box. How I hate those, especially on Page One.

This could be an entre to talking about accountability and the press but that would be a digression.

News stories, like this report of the launch, is in the classic pyramid. Anything beyond that one second, one paragraph news item is the seasoning of a story. The basic taste should be veracity but there should also be something to tweak an interest. Some are like carnival barkers, setting out to draw your attention with the bright lights and pretty ladies of the sideshow but I am once again meandering.

In this story, the one line, what friend and mentor Hiram Lewis would call the 'goodness factor', came near that very vulnerable end.

According to Rene Oosterlinck, a European Space Agency spokesman, the race to the moon, which also includes a renewed US effort, is aimed at setting up permanent lunar bases as a first step to eventual exploration of Mars.

News item of interest

News like this is going to come more and more frequently as China has no trouble putting much of their new wealth into an aggressive space program. Looking at it from a global perspective, it is interesting that much of our spending and international capital is going into a Missile Defense Shield while other nations seem to be concentrating on exploration.

Asia's space race heats up as China launches first lunar orbiter
Asia's space race heated up on Wednesday as China launched its first lunar orbiter, an event hailed by the world's most populous nation as a milestone event in its global rise.

China's year-long expedition, costing 1.4 billion yuan (184 million dollars), kicks off a programme that aims to land an unmanned rover on the moon's surface by 2012 and put a man on the moon by about 2020.

The launch of Chang'e I, which will explore and map the moon's surface, came after Japan last month launched its first lunar probe and ahead of a similar mission planned by India for next year.

Chang'e I took off at 6:05 pm (1005 GMT) -- perfect timing for a national television audience that watched it live after repeatedly being told by the government-controlled press about the significance of the event.

President Hu Jintao issued his personal congratulations following the successful launch, according to a brief statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency less than 90 minutes after the take-off.

China has described the lunar orbiter as the third major milestone event for the nation's space programme, after developing rockets and satellites since the 1970s and sending men into orbit in 2003 and 2005.

"Flying to the moon is the nation's long cherished dream," Xinhua said.

//more//

Fire chief says state unprepared for deadly Calif. blazes

We already know that the people responsible will never acknowledge, let along accept, blame for this fiasco. The real tragedy is much like so many of the loses this nation has suffered; warning had been given but not heeded.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/11/MNGRIPPB2D1.DTL

State National Guard warns it's stretched to the limit

Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Friday, May 11, 2007

As state forestry officials predict an unusually harsh fire season this summer, the California National Guard says equipment shortages could hinder the guard's response to a large-scale disaster.

A dearth of equipment such as trucks and radios -- caused in part by the war in Iraq -- has state military officials worried they would be slow in providing help in the event of a major fire, earthquake or terrorist attack.

The readiness of the Guard has been described as a national problem and has become a political liability for the Bush administration, which came under fire this week when the governor of Kansas complained that the National Guard response to a devastating tornado in her state was inadequate. National Guard readiness has become a growing concern as the Guard has taken on extra responsibilities caused by the Iraq war and the increased threat of terrorism.

In California, half of the equipment the National Guard needs is not in the state, either because it is deployed in Iraq or other parts of the world or because it hasn't been funded, according to Lt. Col. John Siepmann. While the Guard is in good shape to handle small-scale incidents, "our concern is a catastrophic event,'' he said.

Let's look at the key.

In California, half of the equipment the National Guard needs is not in the state, either because it is deployed in Iraq or other parts of the world...

Of course we can count on some people to try to blame the boogieman dujour.

Fox News: Al Qaeda is causing the CA wildfires.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/24/fox-news-al-qaeda-is-causing-the-ca-wildires/

This morning on Fox News, hosts of the show Fox and Friends blamed the wildfires in California on a new culprit: al Qaeda. They pointed to a 2003 FBI memo, which raised the possibility that al Qaeda may try to set wildfires around the western United States. They also noted that men in a “hovering helicopter” saw “a guy starting one of these fires.”

Later in the segment, host Steve Doocy acknowledged that in memo, al Qaeda didn’t even mention California. “They mention Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming,” he added.