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Wednesday, December 18, 2002
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The Sun -- A HUGE force of at least 300,000 Allied troops will be sent to Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, The Sun can reveal. And the build-up to war will be launched by the Ministry of Defence TODAY. Allied military chiefs have advised US President George Bush and PM Tony Blair that Iraqi forces must be swamped if Saddam is to be deposed. They urged the preparations as US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced “problems” with Iraq’s arms declaration. He added that early scepticism had proved “well founded”. The MoD will hire ships to transport tanks to the Gulf. A Government figure said: “We’ll have a very firm footprint.”
The carriers dispatched by America include the 1,092ft nuclear-powered USS Nimitz — described as “95,000 tons of diplomacy”, standing 18 storeys high and with 4½ acres of flight deck. With her are the 86,000-ton Kitty Hawk, the new Harry S Truman and the Abraham Lincoln — all within striking distance of Baghdad. Another carrier, the USS Constellation, is heading to the Gulf to replace the Abraham Lincoln but BOTH may remain, boosting the number of carrier groups to five. The British carrier HMS Ark Royal will steam to the region next month to join up with the US battle fleet along with her own flotilla of Royal Navy ships. Supporting Ark Royal will be a destroyer, frigate and two T-class submarines armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Advances in military technology mean the carrier groups will be able to hit up to 700 targets a day with satellite and laser-guided missiles. In the Gulf War they could manage only 162 targets a day. (12/18/02)
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Reason & Timothy Wilken write: As Fritjof Capra explains in the Web of Life, all of the parts of the earth once considered to be inanimate — rocks, soil, atmospheric gases — have a demonstrated roles to the contrary. The planet on which we live — which we had assumed to be a mere caterer to the wants and needs of humanity — is in fact a life force. This necessitates policies that are based on this reality that incorporate ecological principles into the rules of life. One of the most important principles is the interdependence of living systems. Life is based on a horizontal network of relationships and cycles, while the current structure of humanity is mostly linear. Humanity does not recycle most of the things we depend on for modern life: oil, minerals, land. We burn the oil, mine the minerals and populate the land without giving appropriate thought to the consequences. ... ... In a synergic culture wealth is defined as that which supports life for both self and other. It is mutual life support. Synergic wealth by definition excludes adversary wealth – physical force that hurts other human beings, and neutral wealth – money that ignores other human beings. Synergic humans recognize that interdependence is the human condition. They recognize that all humans need help unless they wish to live at the level of animal subsistence. They choose to help others and trust that others will choose to help them. Life forms the basis then for all synergic values. All forms of life are animated by the life force. The life force is not well understood, but it seeks to survive and to extend itself into universe. The life force is known to be three and one half billion years old on this planet. It is like a special flame, sort of a living fire, we pass it to our children in the act of reproduction. But, we do not know how to rekindle the flame should it go out. The life force itself is the very basis of living action. (12/18/02) | |
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Edward O. Wilson writes: Mother Earth, lately called Gaia, is no more than the commonality of organisms and the physical environment they maintain with each passing moment, an environment that will destabilize and turn lethal if the organisms are disturbed too much. A near infinity of other mother planets can be envisioned, each with its own fauna and flora, all producing physical environments uncongenial to human life. To disregard the diversity of life is to risk catapulting ourselves into an alien environment. We will have become like the pilot whales that inexplicably beach themselves on New England shores. Humanity coevolved with the rest of life on this particular planet; other worlds are not in our genes. Because scientists have yet to put names on most kinds of organisms, and because they entertain only a vague idea of how ecosystems work, it is reckless to suppose that biodiversity can be diminished indefinitely without threatening humanity itself. Field studies show that as biodiversity is reduced, so is the quality of the services provided by ecosystems. Records of stressed ecosystems also demonstrate that the descent can be unpredictably abrupt. As extinction spreads, some of the lost forms prove to be keystone species, whose disappearance brings down other species and triggers a ripple through the demographics of the survivors. The loss of a keystone species is like a drill accidentally striking a power line. It causes lights to go out all over. These services are important to human welfare. But they cannot form the whole foundation of an enduring environmental ethic. If a price can be put on something, that something can be devalued, sold and discarded. It is also possible for some to dream that people will go on living comfortably in a biologically impoverished world. They suppose that a prosthetic environment is within the power of technology, that human life can still flourish in a completely humanized world, where medicines would all be synthesized from chemicals off the shelf, food grown from a few dozen domestic crop species, the atmosphere and climate regulated by computer-driven fusion energy, and the earth made over until it becomes a literal spaceship rather than a metaphorical one, with people reading displays and touching buttons on the bridge. Such is the terminus of the philosophy of exemptionalism: do not weep for the past, humanity is a new order of life, let species die if they block progress, scientific and technological genius will find another way. Look up and see the stars awaiting us. (12/18/02) | |
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Cox Newspapers -- A petite 17-year-old, irate after seeing three men running from her home in the wee morning hours Tuesday, sprinted outdoors barefoot, clad in pajamas, outran one of the trespassers, tackled and straddled him, then hog-tied him with a rope until police arrived minutes later. Melissa Alexander, a high school junior, said her training in track and running bases for the varsity softball team came in handy, as did her ability to handle horses, which she cares for at her family's property. ... Melissa, now awake, followed her cousin downstairs, and both heard noises. The teen opened the garage door and said someone running away. "That's when my daughter took off after him, ran about 300 feet and tackled him on the grass," Stanley said. She described her daughter as 5'3 and 110 pounds, "a little bitty thing." Police described Burkett 5"10 and 140 pounds. "I felt violated," Melissa said. "The only thing running through my mind was, 'how dare you?' Her mother said that Melissa yelled and asked her to bring a dog leash. She grabbed a lunging rope, used to exercise horses. "(Melissa) tied his right hand and wrapped it around his neck and held him down until the cops got there," Stanley said. "She had it all under control." ... As a result of the young woman's efforts, 18-year-old Jason N. Burkett, 18, was apprehended, said German Twp. Police Chief W. Lew Wilcox. Also arrested were Trestan B. Stamps, 18, and a 17-year-old juvenile. The two 18-year-olds were charged with theft and criminal trespassing in Miamisburg Municipal Court. Both will be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. (12/18/02) | |
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New York Times: Technology -- The Defense Department, arguing that an increasingly popular form of wireless Internet access could interfere with military radar, is seeking new limits on the technology, which is seen as a rare bright spot for the communications industry. Industry executives, including representatives from Microsoft and Intel, met last week with Defense Department officials to try to stave off that effort, which includes a government proposal now before the global overseer of radio frequencies. The military officials say the technical restrictions they are seeking are necessary for national security. Industry executives, however, say they would threaten expansion of technology like the so-called WiFi systems being used for wireless Internet in American airports, coffee shops, homes and offices. WiFi use is increasingly heavy in major American metropolitan areas, and similar systems are becoming popular in Europe and Asia. As the technology is installed in millions of portable computers and in antennas in many areas, industry executives acknowledge that high-speed wireless Internet access will soon crowd the radio frequencies used by the military. But industry executives say new types of frequency spectrum sharing techniques could keep civilian users from interfering with radar systems. The debate, which involves low-power radio emissions that the Defense Department says may jam as many as 10 types of radar systems in use by United States military forces, presents a thorny policy issue for the Bush administration. Even as the armed forces monitor United States air space for signs of military or terrorist attacks and gear up for a possible war with Iraq, the nation's technology companies hope that the popularity of wireless Internet access will help pull their industry out of its two-year slump. New limits on that technology could help undermine the economic recovery on which the administration is also pinning its hopes. (12/18/02) | |
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Perhaps this is good news for America's health and nutrition. Washington Post -- McDonald's Corp., the world's largest restaurant company, on Tuesday said it would post its first-ever loss in the fourth quarter, as it struggles to turn around its U.S. business and pulls back from expansion in some foreign markets. Including restructuring charges of about $390 million, the company said it expects to lose 5 cents or 6 cents a share. Before items, McDonald's said it will earn 25 cents or 26 cents a share, which is below analysts' expectations, including a foreign currency benefit of one cent or two a share. Most important, said analysts, comparable sales in the quarter are down, with sales at U.S. units open at least one year falling 1.3 percent in the two months ended Nov. 30 and 1.5 percent through the first 11 months of the year. (12/18/02) | |
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New York Times: Opinion -- You report that the United States Forest Service has proposed the experimental logging of half a million acres in two forests in the Sierra Nevada to see how it will affect the habitat of the California spotted owl and the ferocity of forest fires (Week in Review, Dec. 15). But of all the national forests, the heavily damaged Lassen and Plumas can least afford this experiment. My last position was as a Forest Service fisheries biologist at both of these forests, and my findings were not good. Last year, logging activity was at the highest level I had ever witnessed anywhere in the system. Entire mountainsides were being leveled, and the traffic was perilous, requiring one to "ditch dive" constantly for survival. Where fire had engulfed thousands of acres, all the vegetation was gone. But upstream, the remnant of the old growth withstood the flames. (12/18/02) | |
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New York Times: Environment -- Angelo Tsakopoulos, a California real estate developer, bought an 8,400-acre ranch containing wetlands. He wanted to convert part of it from grazing land to vineyards and orchards, which require deep root systems. To clear the way, he proceeded to "deep rip" the land, using bulldozers to drag metal prongs of up to seven feet. Deep ripping disgorges rock, sand and dirt, which can interfere with wetlands' ability to retain water. The Clean Water Act of 1972 prohibits discharging pollutants into wetlands without a permit. The Army Corps of Engineers told Mr. Tsakopoulos he needed a permit for deep ripping, but he went ahead anyway. He was fined, and ordered to restore the damaged wetlands. Mr. Tsakopoulos claims that the government has no right to regulate deep ripping. He argues it is not discharging a pollutant, simply churning material already in the land. But courts interpreting the Clean Water Act have ruled otherwise. He also claims that deep ripping falls under an exemption for "normal farming." But the Ninth Circuit held that the exemption does not apply to situations where land is converted to a different use. Conservative legal groups have tried to paint this case as one of government overregulation, and as an attempt to label the humble farm plow a polluter. But far from tending crops, Mr. Tsakopoulos was radically redesigning the purpose of the land, acting more like a developer than a farmer. And the powerful deep ripper he used bears little relation to a traditional farm plow. (12/18/02) | |
6:54:45 AM 
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2003
Timothy Wilken.
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