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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (29855)	10/9/2003 7:09:02 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (7) \| Respond to of 89467

Six months after a war justified by many "promises'. But in fact the US has not given people a better life than the one they enjoyed under Saddam. An Iraqi businessman said acidly: "They claimed that we were smart enough to build weapons of mass destruction capable of threatening the world, but now they treat us like Red Indians on a reservation at the end of the 19th century.'' US missiles and Iraqi looters devastated Baghdad during and immediately after the war. But the main building work in the city today has nothing to do with helping Iraqis and everything to do with protecting the occupation forces. Enormous prefabricated concrete walls have gone up around the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), housed in Saddam's old Republican Palace, which supposedly rules Iraq. Iraqis frequently comment that Mr Bremer, the head of the CPA, lives in greater isolation than Saddam. ... The most striking feature of the official US approach to the Iraqis is arrogance and ignorance. There were those in the state department who did know a lot about Iraq, but they were sidelined by the "neo-cons" and civilians in the Pentagon. ... One local leader said: "Why do they want to take our guns away - something Saddam could not do - unless they are planning a long occupation?'' In theory there is a way forward for the US and Britain. They could give power to the Iraqis, first by delegating real authority to the Iraqi governing council, made up of exiles and opponents of Saddam. It is not a perfect body, but at least its members speak Arabic. Mahmoud Othman, one of its most respected members, toldThe Independent earlier in the week that the council "does not have much power". He pointed out that the US had invited 10,000 Turkish soldiers into Iraq without first consulting council members. The US and Britain also need international legitimacy which could only come from the UN. Bringing in troops from El Salvador and Ukraine as part of what has been described as "the coalition of the bribed" will not be enough. But since its headquarters in Baghdad were blown up, the UN has less personnel in Iraq than at any time since 1991. And turning over real power to the UN would be too humiliating for Mr Bush. The most amazing achievement of six months of American occupation has been that it has even provoked nostalgia in parts of Iraq for Saddam. In Baiji, protesters were holding up his picture and chanting: "With our blood and with our spirit we will die for you Saddam.'' Who would have believed this when his statue was toppled just six months ago? from news.independent.co.uk JMO lurqer

To: lurqer who wrote (29855)	10/9/2003 11:53:20 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

A good Foreign film that starts off with a soccer ball in play is 'Run Lola Run........' subtitled...German..... Scientists Say Universe May Be Soccer-Ball Shaped Wed Oct 8, 2:16 PM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo! LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said Wednesday the universe could be spherical and patched together like a soccer ball -- and it may not be infinite. Jeffrey Weeks, a MacArthur Fellow based in Canton, New York, and researchers from the University of Paris and Observatory of Paris analyzed astronomical data which suggests the universe is finite and made of curved pentagons joined together into a ball. In research reported in the science journal Nature on Wednesday, the scientists said data from NASA (news - web sites)'s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe (WMAP), which maps background radiation left over from the Big Bang, is not consistent with an infinite universe. "Since antiquity, humans have wondered whether our universe is finite or infinite. Now, after more than two millennia of speculation, observational data might finally settle the ancient question," Weeks said. In a commentary on the research, George Ellis of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said if Weeks and his colleagues are correct we might indeed live in a small, closed universe.

To: lurqer who wrote (29855)	10/22/2003 7:42:19 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

World's "oldest" rice found in South Korea -- experts Wed Oct 22, 2:32 AM ET Add Science - AFP to My Yahoo! SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean archeologists said they had found the world's oldest known domesticated rice, pushing back by thousands of years the recordered origins of Asia's staple food. Radioactive dating of the 59 burnt grains of rice found in central South Korea (news - web sites) has pushed back the date for the earliest known cultivation of the plant to somewhere between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago, they said. "This discovery challenges the accepted view about where rice originated and how it evolved," said Professor Lee Yung-Jo of Chungbuk National University in Cheongju. Carbonized rice grains, which were found near the Yellow River and Yangtze River in China and were considered to be the world's oldest rice, were dated beween 10,500 and 11,000 years ago, he told AFP. "It suggests that rice may have also evolved in areas which are far north from there," he said. The rice grains were found by Lee and his colleague Woo Jong-Yoon of the same university in Sorori in the central province of North Chungcheong, which is located between 36 and 37 degrees of latitude north. The excavations were made between 1997 and 1998 and again in 2001, Lee said. The rice is genetically different from modern varieties, which will allow researchers to trace its evolution, he said. Rice is the staple food for more than half the world's population and Asia accounts for about 90 percent of its production and consumption of rice.