Bernard Lewis: Happy 90th birthday

Bernard Lewis will celebrate his 90th birthday on May 1st. Lewis is Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and is considered to be the foremost scholar of Islam in the West. He has published numerous books and scholarly essays on the history of Islam and acted as an advisor to President George W. Bush before and during the invasion of Iraq.

It was Lewis who coined the term "clash of civilizations" in an essay entitled 'The Roots of Muslim Rage', which was published in the September 1990 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. The term was adopted by Samuel P. Huntington for a Foreign Affairs essay in 1993. The essay was expanded the following year into a book of the same title.

The idea of a clash between Western and Islamic civilizations has been the mainstay of U.S. Middle Eastern policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. In fact, the 'clash of civilizations' is the new framework for world affairs since the end of the Cold War.

Throughout his long career, Lewis has repeatedly regurgitated the same argument: that Islamic civilization has been steadily declining since its 'golden age' 1,000 years ago, when it was militarily and scientifically superior to other civilizations. Western European civilization eventually overtook Islam, which failed to keep up with the changes brought about by first the Renaissance and then the industrial revolution. This failure has made Arabs/Muslims feel increasingly humiliated. These events, according to Lewis, are the 'roots of Muslim rage', and it is because of this humiliation that Muslims hate "us" for what we "are".

Lewis writes very well and is extremely knowledeagable; but his contempt for Arabs and Muslims cannot be disguised. He is a prime example of a scholar who uses sycophancy to advance his career, and whose scholarship serves the interests of those in power.

Remember: don't criticize Israel

Political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, of the University of Chigaco and Harvard, respectively, have been criticized as anti-Semitic after the publication of their essay, entitled The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy, in the London Review of Books last month.

Juan Cole has started a petition to defend Mearsheimer and Walt against the charges; it can be signed here.

Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has an essay about the recent Israeli election and Israel's demographic problem, entitled Ingathering, in the current issue of the same publication.

Iran & the UN

Ali Larijani, Iran's chief negotiator, at a conference on Iran's nuclear program in Tehran yesterday.

"If you think by frowning at us, by issuing resolutions...you can impose anything on the Iranian nation or force it to abandon its obvious right, you still don't know its power," said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a rally in Iran today, adding that "We have obtained the technology for producing nuclear fuel...[and] no one can take it away from our nation".

Ahmedinejad's statement comes on the day before Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reports on Iran's nuclear activites to the United Nations in New York. ElBaradei is expected to tell the UN that Iran has neither stopped enriching uranium nor fully co-operated with the IAEA.

The Bush administration is doing its best to find a "smoking gun" that would justify a miltary strike against Iran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme leader, stated that "the Americans should know that if they attack Iran, their interests will be harmed around the world. The Iranian nation will respond to any attack twice as strongly".

The new media

This week's Economist contains a survey of the new digital media (weblogs, wikis, podcasts and online journalism).

Just as Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type in 1448 revolutionized the mainstream media of the time - the manual transcription of texts by monks - so digital media is revolutionizing the mainstream media of today.

Paul Saffro, a director of the Institute for the Future, calls digital media "a Cambrian explosion of creativity." In the Economist's words it is "a flowering of expressive diversity on the scale of the eponymous proliferation of biological species 530 million years ago."

Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia thinks that the new media is of significance because user-created content will transform "journalism [from] a sermon [to] a conversation."

The survey also contains interesting statistics. According to Technorati, a new blog is started every second, some 50,000 new blog posts are recorded every hour, and the "blogosphere" doubles in size every 5 months.

Ali G interviews Chomsky

Ali G interviews Noam Chomsky, who, according to the New York Times, is "arguably the most important intellectual alive".

In my opinion, there is no argument. Chomsky is the most important intellectual alive.

Zarqawi video

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who the Bush administration believes is the leader of al-Qa'eda in Iraq, shows his face for the first time since the start of the Iraq war 3 years ago. He appears in a video clip taken last Friday and posted on the internet yesterday.

Speaking in Arabic, Zarqawi says:

"Your mujahideen sons were able to confront the most ferocious of crusader campaigns on a Muslim state. They have stood in the face of this onslaught for three years. When the crusader enemy entered Iraq, he intended to control the Islamic nation and supported the Zionist state."

The full 35-minute clip can be seen here.

Bush: "Foreign policy based on a belief in the Almighty"

On Monday this week, the day after Osama bin Laden released a message recorded on audiotape, President George W. Bush addressed the Orange County Business Council in Irvine, California:

"I based a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there's an Almighty, and secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free. I believe liberty is universal. I believe people want to be free. And I know that democracies do not war with each other."

There are striking similarities between George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden.

Both came from highly privileged backgrounds and were regarded as disappointments as young men, leading to difficult relationships between them and their fathers.

Bush tells American Christians that they need a new military-religious leader to maintain and strengthen America's role in the world and protect Israel, and bin Laden tells Muslims that they need a military-religious leader to oust the U.S. from the Middle East and liberate the Palestinians.

Most importantly, both are ultra-conservative religious extremists - Bush is an evangelical Christian who takes the Bible literally, while bin Laden adheres to the puritanical Wahhabi Sunni sect and seeks states based on Shari'a law. Their religious beliefs make both of them divide the world's population into two kinds of people: true believers and infidels.

Egypt's state of emergency

Three bombs ripped through the Egyptian tourist resort of Dahab on the south-eastern coast of the Sinai peninsula early yesterday evening. The bombs were detonated almost simultaneously at around 5.15pm GMT, killing at least 30 people and wounding several hundred others. At least 20 of the dead are believed to be Egyptians.

The attacks took place at the height of the holiday season; the hotels in the resort were filled with European tourists and Copts - Egyptian Christians - who were still celebrating the long Easter weekend, which this year coincides with Sham el-Nissim, an ancient festival celebrating the first day of spring.

This is the third such attack on tourist resorts in Sinai in less than 2 years. On July 23rd of last year, a bombing in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, which is popular with scuba divers, killed more than 60 people, and bombings in Taba and Ras Shitan killed 34 on October 7th, 2004.

According to the Egyptian government, the attacks were carried out by locals who do not have international connections, although U.S. security agencies say that the attacks bear the hallmarks of al-Qa'eda, who they suspect is responsible.

The largest opposition group in Egypt, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood), is also the world's oldest Islamist movement. Formed in the late 1920s, it was outlawed during the 1950s and has remained illegal ever since. It is unlikely that the Brotherhood carried out yesterday's attacks, as it is has rejected radical ideologies and the use of violence in order to try and enter mainstream Egyptian politics. It is more likely that one of the smaller underground Islamist groups, such as al-Takfir wal-Hijrah ('Redemption and Flight') is responsible.

As the largest Arab Muslim country and America's closest Arab ally, Egypt has a pivotal role in the 'war on terror,' despite a poor human rights record. Because of its close ties with the U.S., and because it is a secular state, Egypt is high on the list of targets for Islamists.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will undoubtedly use yesterday's bombings as a reason to renew repressive emergency laws. Emergency Law 162 of 1958 prohibits public demonstrations and rallies and enables the government to jail opposition members indefinitely without charge or trial.

Egypt has been in an almost permanent state of 'emergency' since the 6 Day War with Israel in 1967. Emergency Law 162, which remained in effect during the recent presidential election, was last renewed in February 2003, and must be renewed by May of this year or it will expire.

A brief history of Islamic extremism

Islamic extremism (or 'Islamism,' either term being preferable to 'Islamic Fundamentalism') was born in Egypt in the late 1920s. During the inter-war years, the country was occupied by the British military. The Nationalist Wafd movement, led by Saad Zaghloul, opposed the presence of the British, as would anyone whose country is being occupied by a foreign military power.

In 1928 Hassan al-Banna established al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (the Muslim Brotherhood), the first Islamist movement. The British government supported the nascent movement in an attempt to counterbalance the Nationalists. In modern Egyptian politics, the Muslim Brotherhood is the largest opposition party to Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party; Mubarak has been in power since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. The Muslim Brotherhood has always been illegal, and, over the years, thousands of its members have been imprisoned by the Egyptian government.

The ideology of the early Brotherhood is very similar to that of Islamist groups today - they denounced the Egyptian government as secular and regarded Egyptian society in terms of jahaliya, a barbaric, pre-Islamic society not based on Islamic shari'a law. Sayyed Qutb, an Egyptian intellectual associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, wrote a book called Ma'alim fil Tariq ("Signposts on the Road"), which proved to be highly influential on the thinking of modern Islamists. Qutb wrote the book in 1964 while in prison; 2 years later he was executed by hanging.

In the late 1970s, the CIA financed and trained the mujahideen ("Holy Warriors") in order to fight a proxy war with the Soviet army, which had invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Training, funding and the provision of arms to the mujahideen was carried out covertly via Pakistan and Saudi Arabia; one of the so-called "Afghan Arabs" who was trained by the U.S. was a young man called Osama bin Laden.

Although the U.S. claimed that it had invaded Afghanistan to "liberate" it from Communism, the Carter administration had, in fact, planned their invasion long before that of the Soviet Union. The land-locked Caspian Sea in Central Asia contains the world's largest remaining reserves of natural gas. This gas must be piped through Afghanistan and neighbouring countries on its journey westwards; subsequent U.S. governments would later negotiate with Afghanistan's Taliban regime in further attempts to secure access to this energy source.

Thus, the British and U.S. governments were instrumental in the rise of Islamism. To fully appreciate the short-sightedness of U.S. foreign policy and how quickly alliances in global politics can shift, simply fast-forward to September 11, 2001.

The CIA has also been involved in the forming of other extreme political organisations. After World War II, they set up a loose network of neo-Nazi groups in the U.K. to balance Communism. In the 1960s these groups merged to form the National Front (known today as the British National Party, BNP).

Osama bin Laden transcript

Below is an edited translation of the audiotape recorded by Osama bin Laden, obtained from Al Jazeera.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the world, prayer and peace be upon our prophet Muhammad, his kin and all his companions.

Peace, Allah's mercy and blessing be upon you, as I am directing this speech to all the Islamic Umma, to continue talking and urging them to support our prophet Muhammad, and to punish the perpetrators of the horrible crime committed by some Crusader-journalists and apostates against the master of the predecessors and successors, our prophet Muhammad.

The holy verses of the Quran and the holy prophetic teachings have all clarified the need for according love, respect and obedience to our prophet. Allah, the Almighty, has made it a taboo to offend him, saying in the Quran those who harm Allah and his messenger would be damned and severely punished.

It was also confirmed by an authentic source that prophet Muhammad said no one could be faithful until he loves me more than he loves his parents, his sons and all other people. Therefore, the Umma has reached a consensus that he who offends or degrades the messenger would be killed. Such offence is regarded as kufr [infidelity].

We ask Allah to give his blessings to whoever decried the behaviour of the infidels who have offended the prophet in every part of the world, and blessings to those who have died in the process, while we vow to Allah to avenge for those whose blood have been spilled.

The West is incapable of recognising the rights of others. It will not be able to respect others' beliefs or feelings. The West still believes in ethnic supremacy and looks down on other nations. They categorise human beings into white masters and coloured slaves.

This is why they established institutions and enacted laws to maintain their supremacy by creating the United Nations and the veto power...They regard jihad for the sake of God or defending one's self or his country as an act of terror. US and Europe consider jihad groups in Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan as terrorist groups, so how could we talk or have understanding with them without using weapons?

On their part, the rulers of our region consider the US and Europe as their friends and allies while looking at the jihad groups that fight against the Crusaders in Iraq and Afghanistan as terrorist groups as well. So how can we reach understanding with those rulers who deny us the right to defend ourselves and our religion without carrying arms?

The net result of their thinking is for us to abandon jihad and acquiesce to remaining as their slaves. This is impossible, God willing.

The Palestine question is a manifestation of such injustices when the allied forces of the Crusaders and the Zionists decided to hand over Palestine to the Zionists to establish a state after committing massacres, displaced the indigenous Palestinians and brought Jews from all over the world to settle in Palestine.

The ongoing injustice and aggression did not stop in the last nine decades, while all attempts to reclaim our rights and exact justice on the Israeli oppressors, were blocked by the leadership of the Crusaders and Zionists' alliance by using the so-called veto power.

Such attitudes were also reflected by their rejection of the Hamas movement and its victory in the elections...Their rejection to Hamas has reaffirmed that they were waging a crusade against Islam.

The US sought to reach southern Sudan, recruited an army of southerners, supported them with weapons and funding and directed them to seek separation from Sudan. Then it exercised pressure against Khartoum government to sign an unjust agreement which permits south Sudan to gain independence from the north within six years.

[Sudanese President Omar] al-Bashir and [US President George] Bush should have been aware that this agreement is not worth the ink by which it was written, and we do not accord the least concern to it. Nobody, whoever he was, has the right to accede an inch of the land of Islam and the south will remain an inseparable part of the land of Isalm, God willing, even if the war continued for decades.

The US was not satisfied by all the sedition and crimes, but went on to incite sedition, the largest of which was the west Sudan sedition by exploiting some disputes between the tribes and sparking a savage war between them that will spare nothing, prior to sending in Crusader troops to occupy the region and steal its oil wealth under the pretext of peacekeeping.

This is a continuous Crusader-Zionist war against Muslims. In this respect I am inviting the mujahidin and their supporters in the Sudan and other countries around, including the Arabian peninsula in particular, to prepare all that is needed for a long-term war against the Crusaders and thieves in western Sudan.

Our objective is obvious, that is defending Islam, the people and the land but not Khartoum government since our differences with them are so enormous, mostly when it backtracked in implementing the Sharia law and abandoned south Sudan.

I urge the mujahidin to get acquainted with Darfur state tribes and land and its surroundings, keeping in mind that the region is about to face the rainy season that hampers means of transport.

This is one of the reasons why the occupation was adjourned for six months. So it is imperative to speed up action and benefit from the time factor by stocking a large amount of landmines and anti-armour grenades such as RPGs [rocket propelled grenades].

What was the aim behind barring arms from the unarmed people in Bosnia and letting the Serb army to massacre Muslims and spill their blood for years under UN cover? It was a Crusader war against Muslims.

What was the aim of the pressure against Indonesia by the Crusaders countries until East Timor, 24 hours after a warning by the UN? A Crusader-Zionist-Hindu war against Muslims.

Meanwhile, a UN resolution passed more than half a century ago gave Muslim Kashmir the liberty of choosing independence from India and Kashmir. George Bush, the leader of the Crusaders' campaign, announced a few days ago that he will order his converted agent [Pakistan President Pervez] Musharraf to shut down the Kashmir mujahidin camps, thus affirming that it is a Zionist-Hindu war against Muslims.

With respect to Pakistan, some Muslims have done a good job by assisting their fellow Muslims, God bless them, but the Pashtun tribes must be aided after the Pakistan army devastated their homes in Waziristan in order to satisfy the US.

What does the silence over Russian atrocities inside Chechnya mean, along with mutilating their bodies by tying them to tanks while the so-called free world gives its blessings and even secretly supports the aggression ? This is a Zionist crusade.

What does the humiliation of Muslims in Somalia and killing 13,000 Muslims mean, along with torching Muslims' bodies? This is a Zionist-Crusaders war.

I will remind Muslims to fear God and to save their brothers in the African Horn from the famine that hit them.

What does the destruction of the infrastructure in Iraq mean and the tragedy that befell them mean? And the use of depleted uranium, besieging Iraq for years, causing the death of more than one million children which amazed all who had visited Iraq, including the Westerners themselves? It is a malicious crusade against Muslims.

What does the reoccupation of Iraq mean by using lies and deception along with murder, destruction, detention, torture and creation of huge military bases to dominate the whole region? It is a Zionist crusade against Muslims.

What about the continuous cultural domination through the setting up of radio stations and TV channels along with the Voice of America, London and others to continue the cultural domination of Muslims, combat our beliefs, change our values, encourage vice and even interfere with school curricula?

How can we explain France's stance on the headscarf and the banning on wearing it at schools, its relentless dealing with the Muslim community and its plan to establish a TV channel in Morocco to combat Islamic awareness there? This is a Zionist-Crusader war.

In conclusion, a war is under way to offend the messenger of Allah, his religion and his Umma (nation). The Muslim preparedness and their jihad should be on a par with these events. The duty of our Muslim nation over this Crusaders' campaign with its different aspects is to focus on supporting the prophet, his religion and the Umma to the best of our ability in all fields.

Despite the numerous Crusader attacks against our Muslim nation in military, economic, cultural and moral aspects, but the gravest of them all is the attack against our religion, our prophet and the our Sharia tenets. The epicentre of these wars is Baghdad, the seat of the khalifate rule. They keep reiterating that success in Baghdad will be success for the US, failure in Iraq the failure of the US.

Their defeat in Iraq will mean defeat in all their wars and a beginning to the receding of their Zionist-Crusader tide against us. Your mujahidin sons and brothers in Iraq have taught the US a hard lesson while in the fourth year of the Crusaders' invasion, they are steadfast and patient and keep killing and wounding enemy soldiers every day.

It is a duty for the Umma with all its categories, men, women and youths, to give away themselves, their money, experiences and all types of material support, enough to establish jihad in the fields of jihad particularly in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kashmir and Chechnya. Jihad today is an imperative for every Muslim. The Umma will commit sin if it did not provide adequate material support for jihad.

O fellow Muslims, pay no heed for the number of the enemy and their arsenal of arms because victory is a gift of God while the enemy, praise be to God, is experiencing a critical situation.

EPA publishes greenhouse gas emissions data

According to data published by the the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have increased by "only" 15.8% during the years 1990-2004, while the country's economy has expanded by over 50% in that time.

Although, according to the report, emissions of methane and nitrous oxide by the U.S. have been reduced from 1990 levels by 10% and 2%, respectively, there has been a 20% increase in emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

The U.S. is both the biggest consumer of energy and the biggest national emitter of greenhouse gases. In 2004, the U.S. emitted more than 7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases; in comparison, the U.K. emitted 656 million tonnes in 2004, a decrease of 14% on 1990 levels.

Of the 19 main sources of carbon dioxode emissions listed in the EPA report, only the following have gone down: iron, iron alloys, steel, ammonia, aluminum, phosphoric acid, and zinc. Some of these reductions are due to changes in the ratios of imports to exports and the closing of factories rather than any change in industrial practices.

The EPA and the White House insist that President Bush is committed to the environment. Why, then, did Bush reject the Kyoto Protocol almost immediately after coming into office?

Rumsfeld passes the buck

In an interview with Bill Cunningham on Cincinnati, Ohio's 700 WLW radio station, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rebuts the criticism by seven retired generals of his management of the Iraq war thus:

"The implication that there was something wrong with the war plan is amusing almost because of the fact that the war plan’s fashioned by the combatant commanders and it’s reviewed in great detail by the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then it’s recommended to me and the President."

Rumsfeld is saying that there was nothing wrong with the planning of the Iraq war, and that if there was something wrong, it was the commanders and Joint Chiefs of Staff who are to blame, not himself or President Bush.

Later on in the interview, Rumsfeld implies that the Turkish government is also partly responsible for U.S. failures in Iraq:

"General Franks [had a war plan] that I approved - whereby the 4th Infantry Division was due to come in through Turkey...but they were not able as you may recall because the Turks wouldn't let them. Had they been able to...[they may have] capture[d] or kill[ed] a large number of the people who are currently conducting the insurgency. That would have conceivably changed things. That was the plan, but it was not able to be implemented."

An ancient snake with legs

Palaeontologists have discovered the fossilized remains of a snake with hind legs. The find has made biologists reconsider the evolutionary origins of snakes. [Read more...]

Wall of galaxies may be the "Great Attractor"

Astronomers have known for years that an immense object is pulling our galaxy, and millions of others, towards it at a velocity of 14 million miles per hour.

The object, named the "Great Attractor," has, for years, remained elusive - astronomers knew neither what it was nor where it was located.

A team of astronomers at the University of Durham have now identified what they believe might be the Great Attractor, with the observation of what they call a "slab," or "wall" of galaxies, and a cluster of galaxies lying beyond it. The "slab" of galaxies is approximately 200 million light years away and has a mass some 12,000 times greater than that of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The new findings will enable astronomers to draw a more detailed map of the local universe.

The research team attributes 50% of our galaxy's movement to the slab, and the other 50% to the galaxies behind it. Although our galaxy is being pulled toward the slab, the two will never meet, because the expansion of the universe causes the slab to move away nine times faster than the speed at which gravity is pulling them together.

Part of the ACO 3627 cluster of galaxies, near the Great Attractor's centre (2P2 Team, WFI, MPG/ESO 2.2-m Telescope, La Silla, ESO).

It is impossible for us to comprehend the vastness of the universe. Current estimates suggest that the universe is some 15 billion light years in diameter. (A light year is the distance travelled by light in one year, at a speed of 186,000 miles per second.) The universe is expanding and, furthermore, our ability to observe its farthest reaches is limited by the power of the telescopes used. For all intents and purposes, we may regard the universe as infinite.

From observations we know that matter is not uniformly distributed throughout the universe. Rather, it is found in clumps composed of groups, or clusters, of galaxies, which are themselves arranged in superclusters.

The Milky Way, its neighbour Andromeda, and about 30 smaller galaxies form a cluster called the Local Group, which lies at the edge of the Virgo supercluster. The universe is believed to contain about 10 million superclusters, which are separated by huge tracts of space devoid of matter. Clusters of superclusters have not been observed, although cosmologists debate whether or not superclusters are arranged in structures called filaments. Filaments are the largest known structures in the universe, typically measuring 70-150 megaparsecs in length, where one megaparsec is 3.6 million light years.

The legacy of Chernobyl

The world's worst nuclear accident took place at Chernobyl on 26th April, 1986. Ukraine, Belarus and areas of Western Russia were worst affected by fallout of radioactive material.

Below are a few images by the award-winning Dutch photographer Robert Knoth. They are part of the Fallout exhibition, which runs until 14th May at the Oxo Tower in London. Entry to the exhibition is free.

Ukraine: An abandoned cinema in Pripyat.

Ukraine: Galina Miroshnichenko shows the scar from surgery to treat thyroid cancer.

Ukraine: Nila Bandarenko has her third operation at Kiev's Thyroid Cancer Institute.

Belarus: 9-year old Alexandra Prokopenko has hydrocephalus.

Belarus: Six years ago, 9-year old Nastya Eremenko was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus which had metastasised to her lungs.

When black holes collide

NASA astrophysicists have used a supercomputer to simulate the gravitational waves produced when black holes merge. [Read more...]

Winston, Donald & Saddam: Strange bedfellows?

The BBC today reports that Hussein "personally signed documents ordering the killing of 148 Shia villagers in Dujail in 1982".

During the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration and Prime Minister Tony Blair's government repeatedly told us that Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons on "his own people," the Kurds of Halabja in 1988. This served to remind us of how brutal a dictator Hussein was and to justify military action against Iraq.

"I do not understand this sqeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes". This is not Saddam Hussein but Secretary for War and Air Winston Churchill, referring specifically to the Kurds, in a letter to Sir Hugh Trenchard, dated February 19th, 1920. Keen to make full use of new air warfare methods, Churchill asked Trenchard about the possibility of using "some kind of asphyxiating bombs calculated to cause disablement of some kind but not death...for use in preliminary operations against turbulent tribes".

Churchill insisted that the use of gas would cause "only discomfort or illness, but not death," and sanctioned its use despite being told that it would "kill children and sickly persons...[and that] the people against whom we intend to use it have no medical knowledge with which to supply antidote".

Between the years 1977- 1985, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld served as chief executive of G.D. Searle & Co., a miltinational pharmaceuticals company. During this time, Rumsfeld also held various governmental posts.

Above is a photograph of a youthful Donald Rumsfeld (left) shaking hands with Saddam Hussein, on December 20th, 1983. This was during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1989). Rumsfeld was then special envoy to President Ronald Reagan, and was sent to Baghdad to discuss military co-operation in defending oil facilities and finding alternative routes for the export of Iraqi oil.

The U.S. State Department had noted in November 1983 that "with the essential assistance of foreign firms, Iraq had become able to deploy and use chemical weapons (CW) and probably has built up large reserves of CW". Is it mere coincidence that Rumsfeld was, at that time, CEO of one such firm?

The links between Winston Churchill, Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein are not in the least spurious. Churchill was the first to order the use of chemical weapons on the Kurds; Saddam Hussein famously used chemical weapons on the Kurds in Halabja; and Saddam Hussein may have obtained some or all of his chemical weapons from G.D. Searle & Co. Pharmaceuticals, of which Rumsfeld was CEO.

Death in ancient and modern Egypt

The ancient Egyptians, as Herodotus noted, were an extremely religious people, who spent every day of their lives preparing for the afterlife.

Modern Egyptians are also extremely religious, and there are certain customs and rituals related to death which were practised in the time of the pharaohs that are still practised today.

The ancient Egyptians believed that a soul could only pass into the afterlife after proper mummification and burial.

The process of mummification was complex and is believed to have taken 40 days. After burial, the goddess Isis (above) carried the soul of the deceased between her wings to protect it during its passage into the afterlife.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun, and knew that it rose in the east, which was therefore associated with birth. The rising sun symbolized resurrection, whereas the setting sun represented death. Egyptians therefore built tombs in which to bury their dead on the west bank of the river Nile.

The Copts, Egypt's indiginous Christians, and Egyptian Muslims, have a tradition of mourning intensely for 40 days after the death of a loved one. During this period, female relatives of the recently deceased wear black - some continue to wear black for the rest of their lives - and, on the 40th day after death, a ceremony is held to commemorate the person who died.

There are many continuities between ancient Egyptian religion and modern Egyptian traditions. The belief that mummification took 40 days is the origin of the modern tradition of the 40-day mourning period.

Unmanned aerial vehicles track pollution

Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have for the first time used autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (AUAVs) in data-gathering missions to track pollutants over the Maldives.

Groups of three aerial drones were flown in a vertical formation allowing the simultaneous reading by onboard instruments of conditions above, inside and below clouds. The package of instruments on each drone weighs less than 5kg and contains, among other things, sensors for measuring solar radiation, cloud-drop size and concentration, particle size and concentration, turbulence, humidity and temperature.

"Based on the Maldives AUAV Campaign's success it is possible that in five years, hundreds of lightweight AUAVs will be documenting how human beings are polluting the planet and hopefully provide an early warning system for potential environmental disasters in the future," says chief scientist V. Ramanathan, pictured above with several drones.

When will Rumsfeld resign?

Seven retired high-ranking U.S. generals have criticised Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq war and called for his resignation.

One of the generals, John Batiste, was senior military assistant to Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

"If I were still in uniform, I couldn't do this. I would be arrested," Batiste told the BBC News website. "Strategically [the Iraq war] has been a disaster, primarily because of a series of very bad decisions. The leader of the department of defence has to take responsibility,"

The other generals to publicly criticise Rumsfeld are Gen. Anthony Zinni, Gen. Gregory Newbold, Gen. Paul Eaton, Gen. Wesley Clark, Gen. Charles H Swannack Jr. and Gen. John Riggs.

The criticisms follow earlier calls for Rumsfeld's resignation after exposure of the treatment of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib and the more recent discovery of his "personal involvement" in the interrogation of Al-Qaeda suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.

Only a small number of junior officers have been arrested and charged in connection with the abuses at Abu Ghraib, even though high-ranking officials are known to be complicit in these events.

It is time that those in charge of the Iraq war took responsibility for their actions. Defence Secretary Rumsfeld should not only be made to resign, he should also go on trial for the human rights abuses for which he is personally responsible.

History's biggest carnivore?

Reconstructed cast of a Mapusaurus skull

Palaeontologists have unearthed the fossils of what they believe was one of the biggest carnivorous dinosours ever to have walked on the face of the Earth.

The creature has been named Mapusaurus roseae, measured up to 42 feet long, and is believed to have lived about 100 million years ago.

Rodolfo Coria of the Carmen Funes Museum in Plaza Huincul, Argentina, and Philip Currie of the University of Alberta in Canada discovered up to nine skeletons of the dinosaur in Patagonia, Argentina. According to one expert, this is the first evidence that large meat-eaters lived and hunted in groups.

Searching for Iran's smoking gun

The Bush administration continues searching for a 'smoking gun' to justify the imminent military action against Iran.

Images published yesterday by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) allegedly show newly built tunnel entrances to a uranium conversion facility (UCF) complex at the Natanz plant in Isfahan, Iran's third city, located 340km south of Tehran.

"This entrance is indicative of a new underground facility or further expansion of existing ones...[which] Iran is taking extraordinary precautions to protect," said David Albright, ISIS director and a former UN weapons inspector.

The U.S. is adamant that Iran is using its nuclear program to produce weapons, while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad defends his country's right to nuclear technology and insists that it is for civilian purposes only.

Iran claims to have enriched the fissile uranium-235 isotope to 3.5% levels using 164 centrifuges. 80% enrichment is required for the production of nuclear weapons and tens of thousands of centrifuges are needed to make enough fissile material for a nuclear power plant.

President Ahmedinejad has stated that he hopes to have 3,000 centrifuges in operation by 2006, and the Natanz facility is large enough to hold over 100,000 centrifuges.

According to Michael Levi, a physicist at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, 3,000 centrifuges would be sufficient to produce a handful of nuclear weapons annually.

"Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon anytime soon unless it has a major hidden program that we don't know about," says Levi. Hence the search for such a hidden program. If one is not found, it can easily be contrived.

"The estimate," continues Levi, "is that Iran would take at least three years and probably several more. That is a worst-case estimate."

Over the weekend, Shimon Peres expressed Israel's impatience with the international community's failure to curb Tehran's nuclear program. Referring to President Ahmedinejad as a "representative of Satan," Peres has warned that the Iranian regime faces the same fate as Saddam Hussein.

Britain's ecological footprint

According to the UK Interdependence Report, Britain uses more than 3 times its share of world resources, and "if the whole world wanted lifestyles like those enjoyed in the UK, we would need 3.1 planets".

Britain's 'ecological debt day' is 16th April - that is, if, at the beginning of the year, Britain consumed only its own resources, they would run out on that date, after which the country would become dependent on resources from abroad.

British food self-sufficiency, for example, is at its lowest point in 50 years and Britain is now one of the least self-sufficient of all the developed countries.

The report is written by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), an independent "think-and-do-tank" which aims "to improve quality of life by promoting innovative solutions that challenge mainstream thinking on economic, environment and social issues".

"Our ecologically wasteful trading system is costing the earth," continues the report, which also shows how the U.K. is dependent on the rest of world not just for natural resources like energy, but also for human capital such as teachers, nurses and doctors.

Furthermore, these resources are being drained from developing countries which need them far more than does Britain.

Despite this, "our culture and politics are in denial, with potentially catastrophic consequences".

The single-molecule nanocar

This is a computer-generated image of a nano-scale vehicle consisting of a single-molecule, built last year by scientists at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

The car has a chassis and axles and its wheels are composed of buckyballs - naturally-occurring molecules containing 60 spherically arranged carbon atoms.

The vehicle is a mere 4 nanometers (billionths of a metre) wide. The length of 20,000 of these single-molecule cars 'parked' side-by-side would be the same as the width of a strand of human hair.

In research published today, the team describes a new model of the nanocar which has a light-driven molecular motor attached to it. [Read more...]

Psychiatry & other illusions - oops, I meant delusions

The title of this post is a 'Freudian slip'. It is unfortunate that the person who is most influential in modern psychiatry is the sex-obsessed cocaine addict Sigmund Freud, because many of his theories are nonsense.

A prime example of a ludicrous Freudian theory is the Oedipus complex, according to which every male child has a subconscious desire for a sexual relationship with his mother. Freud used the Oedipus complex to explain various childhood neuroses. Perhaps Freud experienced such a desire himself and tried to generalize it to the rest of the population to prove his sanity to himself.

Psychiatry is the pseudoscientific attempt to understand uncommon states of consciousness using inadequate terminology. Psychiatrists, psychologists and others in disciplines prefixed with 'psy-' who think they understand the workings of the human mind are deluding themselves.

Freud and psychiatry aside, visual illusions like the one above give us clues about the functioning of the human brain's visual system. [Read more...]

The uranium enrichment process

The uranium ore obtained by mining contains 3 different isotopes, or forms, of uranium - 99.3% of the mass consists of heavy-weight uranium atoms, 0.7% of middle-weight atoms and less than 0.01% of light-weight atoms. In other words, for every 1,000 atoms of naturally-occurring uranium, 993 will be heavy-weight and 7 will be middle-weight.

The nuclei of all 3 isotopes contain 92 protons - this is what makes uranium atoms different from those of other elements. The isotopes differ in the number of neutrons contained in their nucleus: heavy-weight uranium atoms have 146 neutrons, middle-weight atoms have 143 neutrons and light-weight atoms 142 neutrons.

Chemists name isotopes by adding the number of protons and the number of neutrons in the nucleus. Thus, heavy-weight uranium atoms are referred to as uranium-238, middle-weight atoms as uranium-235 and light-weight atoms as uranium-234.

Only uranium-235 atoms can be easily split by nuclear fission to release energy. Uranium-235 is therefore called the fissile isotope. When a uranium-235 atom splits, two or three neutrons are released in the process. These neutrons collide with other uranium-235 atoms, causing them to split and to release their neutrons. This self-sustaining chain reaction occurs best only when enough uranium-235 atoms are present, hence the need for uranium enrichment.

Enrichment is the process by which the amounts of uranium-234 and uranium-235 in uranium ore are increased. Normally, the proportion of uranium-235 can be increased from 0.7% to about 5% of the total mass of uranium.

Mined uranium ore is first reconstituted and purified to form a solid called 'yellowcake,' which is converted to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas by heating to 64 degrees Celsius.

UF6 enrichment can be achieved either by a process called gaseous diffusion or by the use of gas centrifuges.

During the gaseous diffusion process, the uranium gas is pumped through special filters. Because lighter atoms tend to diffuse through the pores in the filter faster than heavier atoms, enrichment of the lighter atoms occurs.

Centrifugation involves placing the gas into cylinders which rotate at high speed. The centrifugal forces generated by the rotation cause heavy-weight atoms to move towards the edges of the cylinders, while the middle- and light-weight atoms remain near the centre.

Uranium that has undergone low-level enrichment is used for nuclear fuel, while highly enriched uranium is used in nuclear weapons.

Iran: "Moving in the wrong direction"

"I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology," stated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in a televised speech yesterday.

Iran's uranium enrichment, resumed in February, is intended for peaceful means, insists Ahmedinejad.

The 164 centrifuges that Iran claims are now operational can produce low-level enriched uranium for nuclear fuel and experts say that the country is years away from making nuclear weapons.

Ahmedinejad said that the West "has to respect Iran's right for nuclear energy," and that trying to force Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program would only "cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians".

Washington has responded by stating that Iran is "moving in the wrong direction," and Ahmedinejad's announcement will no doubt make the Bush administration feel justified in by-passing diplomacy at the United Nations and taking pre-emptive military action against Tehran.

President Bush has allegedly remarked that "saving Iran" is going to be his "legacy," and that it is something he cannot leave for a future Democrat or Republican administration.

Earlier this week, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who exposed the My Lai massacre in 1969, wrote in The New Yorker that U.S. Special Operations forces are at work in Iran and that plans for a military strike, including the possible use of 30,000lb "bunker-busting" nuclear bombs, were already in the advanced stages.

Washington's 'Long War'

Washington policy makers have officially renamed the 'War on Terror'. They are now calling it 'the Long War,' and warn that it is a global conflict likely to last at least 20 years.

Generals at U.S. Central Command (Centcom) are planning 'fourth-generational warfare,' and the Pentagon has started releasing details of how it plans to fight this new kind of conflict.

These plans include increased spending on psychological and special operations, major investments in unmanned aerial vehicles and Arabic lessons for U.S. troops.

"Even if Iraq stabilised tomorrow the Long War would continue," says Brigadier General Mark Kimmet, the chief architect of what the Pentagon calls the ' principles of long war'.

The idea of a 'long war' on terrorism is not new. Earlier this year, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated in his Quadrennial Defence Review that "the United States is a nation engaged in what will be a long war." Along with the neoconservatives, Rumsfeld has for several years pushed for the 'transformation' of the U.S. military into a lighter, more agile force which is better equipped to "face the challenges" of the 21st Century.

The 'long war' is in many ways similar to the Cold War. It is ideological in nature and is framed as a war between "us," who love freedom and democracy, and "them" (the terrorists) who hate "us" not for what we do but because of what we are.

The 'long war' involves the exaggeration of perceived threats to U.S. national security and interests in an attempt to generate fear and obtain public support for military adventurism around the world.

Just as anti-Communism was the pretext for American military adventurism around the world, so will anti-terrorism be the pretext for U.S. military action in the next 20 years.

In reality, the 'long war' is merely the continuation of U.S. policies that have not changed in 50 years. The main aims of these policies are increased control of the international financial system and the world's remaining energy resources by the U.S.

The 'long war' does, however, differ from the Cold War in at least one important respect. During the Cold War, the two superpowers - the U.S. and the Soviet Union - both had large arsenals of nuclear weapons but neither were willing to use them because of the idea of mutually assured destruction. In the 'long war' there is one hyperpower - the U.S. - which has unprecedented military strength and global reach. As we have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. is more than willing to wage "hot wars" with adversaries that cannot retaliate.

DNA sequencing using nanopores

Computer-generated image of a DNA strand passing through a nanopore.

A theoretical method of DNA sequencing using nanpores is discussed on the neurophilosopher's blog.

Expedition Everest

In the shadow of the world's highest mountain is an unknown biodiversity hotspot containing many exotic and unknown animal and plant species.

Scientists from Conservation International report the discovery of previously unknown species discovered in the mountains of Southeast China and Nepal.

The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens

Aphaenogaster ants

The wingless grasshopper, Kingdonella

The katydid grasshopper, Tettigoni chinensis

The Paa frog

The Fulvous Parrotbill Paradoxornis fulvifrons

The Qinling golden monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellana

The giant Asian 'yak killer' hornet, Vespa mandarinia

Yellow ant, of the genus Lasius

Torrent frog

Royle’s pika, Ochotona roylei

Is Bush planning to attack Iran?

According to an article by Seymour Hersh in the current issue of The New Yorker, the Bush administration's plans for military strikes against Iranian nuclear installations are well advanced.

Hersh further claims that clandestine operations by U.S. Special Forces are already underway in Iran, and that the use of tactical nuclear weapons is being considered.

Although military strikes against Iran have not been ruled out by the U.S. government, it has dismissed the claims made in the article, with Dan Bartlett, a senior advisor to President Bush, stating that the report is "ill-informed".

It seems likely, however, that such plans are under way, so that they could be implemented in the event that diplomacy failed.

A former defence official close to the Bush administration has apparently told Hersh that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.”

The U.S. is developing weaponry that would enable it to strike underground nuclear facilities which Iran is believed to be building. Big Blu, for example, is a 30,000lb "bunker-busting" missile that can penetrate 100ft underground before exploding, and will be available to the U.S. military by 2008.

High on the list of targets would be Iran's main centrifuge plant at Natanz, but military analyst Colonel Sam Gardiner estimates that over 400 sites would need to be destroyed to halt Iran's nuclear program:

"Iran probably has two chemical-production plants. We would hit those. We would want to hit the medium-range ballistic missiles that have just recently been moved closer to Iraq. There are fourteen airfields with sheltered aircraft...We’d want to get rid of that threat. We would want to hit the assets that could be used to threaten Gulf shipping. That means targeting the cruise-missile sites and the Iranian diesel submarines...Some of the facilities may be too difficult to target even with penetrating weapons. The U.S. will have to use Special Operations units."

The Tarantula nebula

This image of the Tarantula nebula was taken by the Very Large Telescope, an array of four 8 metre-wide telescopes in Chile's Atacama desert.

The Tarantula nebula is 1,000 light years wide and 170,000 light years away. The centre of the nebula contains at least 200 massive stars. There are new stars forming all over the nebula, which is large enough and bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Language & the brain

The sound processing centre in the left hemisphere of the brains of fast language learners is larger than in the right hemisphere, and is also larger than the same area in the left hemisphere of slow language learners' brains. ( Narly Golestani)

New research which suggests that fast language learners have larger sound processing brain regions containing more white matter than slow language learners is discussed on the neurophilospher's blog.

The Gospel of Judas

The release yesterday of a translated codex may lead to a reinterpretation of the story of Judas Iscariot.

The 31-page papyrus, written in Coptic and believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century AD, was discovered near the Egyptian town of Beni Masar in the late 1970s. It contains the Gospel of Judas and may be a copy of an older text written by Gnostics around 150 AD.

The codex, which was found in poor condition, has been in the possession of the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Basel, Switzerland, since 2000. Researchers at the foundation have been restoring the papyrus since then.

Judas Isacariot has been portrayed as the apostle who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, leading to Jesus' subsequent capture and crucifixion. According to the Bible, Judas received 30 pieces of silver (probably Tyrian shekels) for identifying Jesus, but died or committed suicide shortly afterwards. The Biblical story of the "kiss of Judas" forms the ancient basis of anti-Semitism.

Leaders of the early church denounced the Gospel as heretical in 180 AD. It gives an account of the events from Judas' point of view. According to the Gospel, Judas made a deal with Jesus to betray him so that the crucifixion would take place, thus leading to the founding of the Christian tradition and the redemption of humankind.

A religious establishment with an orthodox view of the history of Christianity had already been formed within several hundred years of Jesus' death. Gnosticism was a sect opposed and repressed by the existing establishment. Numerous alternative gospels, some written by the Gnostics, have been found, but those that did not fit with the orthodox view of the establishment were denounced as heretical and erased from memory.

Giotto's fresco "Judas Kiss," in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Northern Italy.

Britain's first case of bird flu confirmed

Electron micrograph of an H5N1 virus particle (CORBIS).

A dead swan found in Cellardyke, Fife, has tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus. It is unlikely to be an isolated case, and 14 more birds are being tested for the virus.

It is birds, not people, who are at risk, as the H5N1 strain is not easily transmitted from person to person.

"It's not eating the flesh or eating eggs that is the problem. It's contact with sick or dying or recently dead birds that's the issue," says Professor Hugh Pennington, a microbiologist at the University of Aberdeen's Institute of Medical Sciences.

Fossil shows transition from sea to land

Palaeontologists have discovered the remains of a crocodile-like animal which they believe marks the transition between fish and land animals.

The well-preserved fossilized organism, which has been named Tiktaalik roseae, was discovered in Arctic Canada, and should give scientists greater insights into the evolution of life on Earth.

The animal has features characteristic of both fish and land animals. Before this discovery, there existed a gap in the fossil record, between Panderichthys, a fish which lived about 385 million years ago and exhibits rudimentary land-animal features, and Acanthostega, the earliest known tetrapod (four-legged animal), which lived about 365 million years ago.

Tiktaalik now fills this gap. Three Tiktaalik fossils were found. A cast of one of them will go on display in London's Science Museum today.

Read more about the discovery on the neurophilosopher's page.

Britain's new role in the world

Last week the permanent members of the UN Security Council - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China - agreed on a statement demanding Iran's immediate suspension of its uranium enrichment program. A U.S.-led military strike in Iran now seems both inevitable and imminent.

Prime Minister Tony Blair would like to think that Britain still has power and influence in the world. This is a delusion. Britain's imperial power was in decline after World War I and the end of World War II marked the dawn of American imperialism. Ever since Britain was stripped of its power, it has played second fiddle to the U.S., which has delegated to Britain the task of justifying American adventurism around the world.

Earlier this week, British Foreign Secretary John Reid demanded changes in international law, one consequence of which would be to provide legal justification for military strikes on Iranian installations.

In February, Blair warned that Tehran could have nuclear weapons within months. This claim gives the impression that action against Iran is necessary and urgent, and is reminiscent of the "sexed-up" dossier which alleged that Saddam Hussein could deploy his weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. (These earlier claims led to the tragic death of David Kelly; the susequent Hutton enquiry cost the British taxpayer nearly £2 million and also served to distract the British public from the bigger issue: the illegal nature of the invasion of Iraq.)

Britain's new role in the world is that of apologist for the U.S. Britain provides the justification for U.S. miltary action by exaggerating threats posed by, and lying about, the "enemy".

A web of dark matter

According to theory, the universe contains webs of dark matter filaments. Dark matter cannot be directly observed, but its existence is inferred by the gravitational forces it exerts on heavenly bodies such as galaxies.

A team of British and Spanish astronomers now provide evidence that galaxies are arranged around the dark matter that surrounds them. Observations suggest that many galaxies are positioned perpendicular to the filaments of dark matter predicted by astronomical theory.

Christianist recommended for Special Ops Command

A Republican senator has recommended that an evangenlical Christian be appointed to a high-ranking post at the Pentagon.

George Allen, senator for the state of Virginia, recommends in a letter to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that Lieutenant General William G. ("Jerry") Boykin should lead the U.S. Special Operations command.

Lt. Gen. Boykin is currently the Pentagon's undersecretary for intelligence; Special Operations commander Army Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown is retiring soon and the Pentagon is yet to find a replacement.

"I am told, and I believe it to be true, that no special operations officer currently on active duty is more highly respected or admired by his superiors, peers or subordinates alike, than Jerry Boykin," says Allen in the letter, dated March 31st, which was obtained by the Associated Press.

In 2003, Lt. Gen. Boykin was criticized after giving speeches at evangelical churches in which he portrayed the 'war on terror' as a Christian fight against Satan and suggested that Muslims were idolaters.

Reid calls for changes in international law

British Defence Secretary John Reid yesterday called for changes in international law to reduce the constraints on British soldiers by the Geneva Conventions.

Reid discussed three key issues - the treatment of prisoners, pre-emptive strikes and intervention in humanitarian crises. The U.K. and U.S. are restricted in these areas by international law which, he said, was out of date and inadequate.

"Serious questions [must be asked about whether] further changes in international law...are necessary," said Reid in his speech yesterday. We are faced, he continued, with the enemy of "barbaric terrorism [and] the legal constraints upon us have to be set against an enemy that adheres to no constraints whatsoever."

The changes proposed by Reid would provide legal justification for the invasion of Iraq despite the absence of weapons of mass destruction. They would also allow for military strikes against Iranian installations, which would be illegal under international law as it stands today.

The Geneva Conventions were drawn up after World War II to prevent the occurrence of further crimes against humanities. Article 3 of the conventions "requires that prisoners of war and wounded combatants be protected from murder; discrimination based on race, religion, sex, and similar criteria; mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; humiliating and degrading treatment; and sentencing or execution without a fair trial".

This sounds very similar to the way Iraqi civilians and Guantanamo Bay detainees are being treated by U.S. troops. Why else would President Bush change the legal definition of "enemy combatant" and make U.S. soldiers exempt from being put on trial at the International Criminal Court?

According to the conventions, the following are also forbidden by any warring party:

• torture, mutilation, rape, slavery and arbitrary killing
• genocide
• crimes against humanity – which include forced disapparance and deprivation of humanitarian aid
• war crimes – which include apartheid, biological experiments, hostage tacking, attacks on cultural objects, and depriving people of the right to a fair trial.

In Iraq, the British are already complicit in crimes against humanity. By demanding changes in international law, Reid is implicity stating that British soldiers will continue committing such acts and that they should not be held responsible for them.

Bladders grown for organ transplants

A researcher at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina dips a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold into growth medium.

The engineering of human bladder tissue in the lab and its successful transplantation into humans is discussed on the neurophilosopher's blog.

Britain tortured suspected Communists

Today's Guardian provides details of a torture programme operated by the British authorities in Germany during the early years of the Cold War.

Straw & Rice in Baghdad

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has accompanied U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on a surprise visit to Baghdad, during which the two expressed "impatience back in Washington and London about the delay" in forming an Iraqi government.

Reading between the lines, the message delivered by Mr. Straw and Ms. Rice is : Having taken it upon ourselves to enter Iraq and liberate it's people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, at a cost of a thousand or more U.S. and British casualties, the least you ungrateful Iraqis can do is form as quickly as possible a government which we approve of.

Visions of Science 2005 (2)

"They have forgotten how to die
And so extend their killing life.

I and my tumour dearly fight.
Let's hope a double death is out.

I need to see my tumour dead
A tumour which forgets to die
But plans to murder me instead.

But I remember how to die
Though all my witnesses are dead.
But I remember what they said
Of tumours which would render them
As blind and dumb as they had been
Before the birth of that disease
Which brought the tumour into play.

The black cells will dry up and die
Or sing with joy and have their way.
They breed so quietly night and day,
You never know, they never say."

Harold Pinter.

This is another winning image from the 2005 Visions of Science competition, showing a cancer cell moving through the pore of a filter.

Cancer is the result of uncontrolled cell division. Every cell contains a molecular 'clock' which counts how many times the cell has divided. Normally the cell is programmed to die after a certain number of divisions; in cancer, this mechanism is faulty, and cells divide indefinitely, giving rise to a tumour or tumours.

If the cancerous cells stay in one place, the condition is said to be benign. Metastasis is the process by which cells break off from a primary tumour, move through the bloodstream and begin to grow into secondary tumours in other parts of the body. When this happens, a tumour is said to be malignant, and the person is said to have cancer.