Tethers in space

First, let me say that I'm very happy to see NASA taking the route of a prize, much like the X prize, to promote a speculative new technology. For a relatively small sum (at least by U.S. government agency standards!), they will either harness the competitive energies of the civilian sector, or they will get (for free) the collective judgment that the objective is impossible. Good move, and very un-government-like. I applaud it.

In the specific case of tethers, they've set a very tough objective — especially because the primary objective of the prize is a space elevator (a tether from the Earth's surface to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit). If all of this is just blarney and blather to you, take a gander at this short Wikipedia article on the subject.

Personally, my main concern with a space elevator tether system is their vulnerability to micro-meteorite and "space junk". Lives and an investment of billions of dollars could be taken out by an empty Coke can (figuratively speaking) whizzing around in orbit. Not a pretty picture...

A role for Iraq

Tigerhawk found some interesting facts about Arab book production and consumption, and speculates on the reasons why and how Iraq could change things. Basically his idea is that Iraq could turn into an engine for the translation and production of information in Arabic languages. This engine would be enabled by a free and open press, and an Arabic population that also happens to know English. Interesting stuff...

Sweet irony

Osama bin Laden can't be a stupid man. Therefore he must realize that the train of events that his infamous attacks of 9/11/2001 set in motion are taking the world down the exactly opposite course than the one he intended. What sweet irony!

Imagine this... Sometime in the past few months, perhaps shortly after the Iraqi elections. Osama is crouched in some rude hut in the wilds of Afghanistan, or perhaps northeastern Iran. Up until this moment, he's been thinking that despite a few tactical reverses, his war on America is enjoying some strategic success. Then there is "the moment" — one I'd give anything to personally witness — when it dawns on him that the world's reaction to the 9/11 attacks is going to defeat his movement.

Perhaps I exult prematurely. But I think not.

Quote for the day

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

   Charles de Gaulle

Cedar Fire photo

The Cedar Fire of October/November 2003 was by far the closest call we've ever had to having our home and property burn. For those of you who aren't familiar with the chapparal ecological system we live in, I can say it like this: basically we live in an area where we are completely surrounded by large piles of very dry, highly inflammable fuel. Without human intervention, we're told that lightning-started fires would burn chapparal areas typically every 15 to 30 years. The area immediately surrounding our home hasn't burned for over 30 years, which means that we have a huge and extremely dangerous "fuel load" in our area. The vastness of the chapparal area means that cleaning it up and disposing of the fuel really isn't practical. Not to mention that you'd destroy all the native plants and animals in the process. So...we're left in this ever-more-precarious situation, exacerbated by the seven years of drought (but thankfully the drought is over due to the above-normal rain this year).

But we do it anyway, because we love the chapparal...

The blue dot on the map is the approximate location of our home; the green smudge is where the city of San Diego is located (about 25 miles from our house). The red rectangles are the locations of the burning areas at the moment this picture was taken (an infrared sensor on the satellite provided the data for this). You can see a burning area due south of our home; that's the Otay Fire. The large oblong group of red rectangles north of our home is the Cedar Fire, burning in all directions from its center. Further north is the Escondido Fire. We didn't have this information at the time of the fire, but we did know that our home was directly in between the Cedar Fire (burning south toward us) and the Otay fire (burning north toward us). It was not a pleasant situation. I wrote a contemporaneous account and photos on my personal web site. On that web site's home page you can find links followup accounts and photos as well.

Click on the photo for a bigger version.

Gravitational lensing

This astrophotograph captures a phenomenon that very graphically demonstrates Einstein's insight that gravity can bend the path of light. What looks like four stars (or galactic nuclei) in the picture are actually four separate virtual images of the same quasar, which is located far behind the galaxy whose faint image is all around the four quasar images. The intense gravity in the dense core of the galaxy acts like a gigantic lens that just happens to be directly between us and the distant quasar. Result: these four images of the quasar. You can read all about it here, with pointers to more information.

Desert wildflowers

Yesterday and Sunday two weeks ago we made a trip out to our local Anza-Borrego desert to see the wildflowers. They were by far the best we have ever seen — carpets of lupine, golden poppies, and dozens of other kinds of flowers. At a place called the Carrizo Badlands overlook, we stepped out of the car into the middle of hundreds of acres that were literally blanketed with wildflowers in their prime. The hillside in this picture is just a hundred yards or so from the roadside. The concentrated flowers also made for a concentrated wildflower perfume; a odiferous treat on top of the visual treat. Later in the day we hiked up Smuggler's Canyon, which was also in prime. We also four-wheeled up Oriflamme Canyon, where the different elevations and environments served up even more varieties of wildflowers. It was quite a day...

Click on the picture for a bigger version.

New Estonian government

A local analyzes the political situation (which is complicated!). From Baltic Blog.

No compelling reason

If you care at all about the Terri Schiavo sitution, Mr. Steyn's latest column is not to be missed. He starts like this:

A couple of decades back, north of the border, it was discovered that some overzealous types in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been surreptitiously burning down the barns of Quebec separatists. The prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, shrugged off the controversy and blithely remarked that, if people were so upset by the Mounties illegally burning down barns, perhaps he'd make the burning of barns by Mounties legal. As the columnist George Jonas commented:

''It seemed not to occur to him that it isn't wrong to burn down barns because it's illegal, but it's illegal to burn down barns because it's wrong. Like other statist politicians, Mr. Trudeau . . . either didn't see, or resented, that right and wrong are only reflected by the laws, not determined by them.''

That's how I feel about the Terri Schiavo case. I'm neither a Floridian nor a lawyer, and, for all I know, it may be legal under Florida law for the state to order her to be starved to death. But it is still wrong.

This is not a criminal, not a murderer, not a person whose life should be in the gift of the state. So I find it repulsive, and indeed decadent, to have her continued existence framed in terms of ''plaintiffs'' and ''petitions'' and ''en banc review'' and ''de novo'' and all the other legalese. Mrs. Schiavo has been in her present condition for 15 years. Whoever she once was, this is who she is now -- and, after a decade and a half, there is no compelling reason to kill her. Any legal system with a decent respect for the status quo -- something too many American judges are increasingly disdainful of -- would recognize that her present life, in all its limitations, is now a well-established fact, and it is the most grotesque judicial overreaching for any court at this late stage to decide enough is enough. It would be one thing had a doctor decided to reach for the morphine and ''put her out of her misery'' after a week in her diminished state; after 15 years, for the courts to treat her like a Death Row killer who's exhausted her appeals is simply vile.

There seems to be a genuine dispute about her condition -- between those on her husband's side, who say she has ''no consciousness,'' and those on her parents' side, who say she is capable of basic, childlike reactions. If the latter are correct, ending her life is an act of murder. If the former are correct, what difference does it make? If she feels nothing -- if there's no there there -- she has no misery to be put out of. That being so, why not err in favor of the non-irreversible option?

Poor Kofi

A hat tip to Austin Bay Blog for the lead to the London Times article. And as usual, Michelle Malkin goes right to the point. From the story:

Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son.

American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and even his supporters have been dismayed by the scandals on his watch, including the sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in Congo.

One close observer at the UN said Annan’s moods were like a “sine curve” and that he appeared near the bottom of the trough.

I can't best Michelle Malkin's forthright plea: Kofi A. Annan, will you please go now?

Quote for the day

We're all in this alone.

   Lily Tomlin

Long-Eared Owl

You can read the long and detailed report, or you can just read the relevent excerpt below:

Bill Haas' continuing quest for the Long-eared Owl has disclosed that mysterious species in 15 squares, most recently in Lawson Valley (R17). Extensive undisturbed oak woodland is the key habitat for the Long-eared Owl, revealed by Bill's searches to be far more widespread in San Diego County than anyone guessed before this project began. Phil Nelson saw the species at Tamarisk Grove (I24) on 17 and 18 March but since then they have deserted this traditional site.

Who knew?

After-action report

I can't put it any better than BlackFive:

AFTER ACTION REPORT: Raven 42 action in Salman Pak

Over the next few days you will see on the television news shows, and in the print news media the story of a Military Police Squad who are heroes. Through those outlets, I doubt that their story will get out in a truly descriptive manner. I can't express to you the pride, awe, and respect I feel for the soldiers of call sign Raven 42.

On Sunday afternoon, in a very bad section of scrub-land called Salman Pak, on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad, 40 to 50 heavily-armed Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy of 30 civilian tractor trailer trucks that were moving supplies for the coalition forces, along an Alternate Supply Route. These tractor trailers, driven by third country nationals (primarily Turkish), were escorted by 3 armored Hummers from the COSCOM*. When the insurgents attacked, one of the Hummers was in their kill zone and the three soldiers aboard were immediately wounded, and the platform taken under heavy machinegun and RPG** fire.

The actual report isn't all that long, and is well worth reading. One item of note: some of our soldiers just happened to be women, and they did a fine job. Here's a piece from the middle of the AAR:

The sergeant runs low on ammo and runs back to a vehicle to reload. She moves to her squad leader's vehicle, and because this squad is led so well, she knows exactly where to reach her arm blindly into a different vehicle to find ammo-because each vehicle is packed exactly the same, with discipline.

As she turns to move back to the trenchline, Gunner in two sees an AIF jump from behind one of the cars and start firing on the Sergeant. He pulls his 9mm, because the .50 cal is pointed in the other direction, and shoots five rounds wounding him. The sergeant moves back to the trenchline under fire from the back of the field, with fresh mags, two more grenades, and three more M203 rounds. The Mk 19 gunner suppresses the rear of the field.

Now, rejoined with the squad leader, the two sergeants continue clearing the enemy from the trenchline, until they see no more movement. A lone man with an RPG launcher on his shoulder steps from behind a tree and prepares to fire on the three Hummers and is killed with a single aimed SAW shot thru the head by the previously knocked out gunner on platform two, who now has a SAW out to supplement the .50 cal in the mount.

The team leader sergeant--she claims four killed by aimed M4 shots.

The Squad Leader--he threw four grenades taking out at least two AIF, and attributes one other to her aimed M203 fire.

The gunner on platform two, previously knocked out from a hit by the RPG, has now swung his .50 cal around and, realizing that the line of vehicles represents a hazard and possible getaway for the bad guys, starts shooting the .50cal into the engine blocks until his field of fire is limited. He realizes that his vehicle is still running despite the RPG hit, and drops down from his weapon, into the drivers seat and moves the vehicle forward on two flat tires about 100 meters into a better firing position. Just then, the vehicle dies, oil spraying everywhere. He remounts his .50 cal and continues shooting the remaining of the seven cars lined up and ready for a get-away that wasn't to happen. The fire dies down about then, and a second squad arrives on the scene, dismounts and helps the two giving first aid to the wounded at platform three. Two minutes later three other squads from the 617th arrive, along with the CO, and the field is secured, consolidation begins.

Quote for the day

Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then - we elected them.

   Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then - we elected them.

Al Qaeda on the rocks?

This is the very first piece I've seen from the Muslim mainstream press with anything like this tone and tenor. For me, it's one of the clearest visible indicators of change. Read the whole article, but here's how it concludes:

The biggest setback for the Islamists, however, is a shift of mood in the Is lamic heartland. The elections in West Bank and Gaza, Afghanistan and Iraq; Lebanon's freedom movement; the beginnings of change in Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia — all have helped generate new interest in democratic reform.

Also important are the efforts by Mahmoud Abbas to transform Palestine from an emotional cause into an issue of practical politics. Today, even Hamas, the most radical of Palestinian movements, is obliged to end its boycott of normal politics, and is getting ready to compete in the parliamentary elections.

While bin Laden's message of hatred and terror still resonates in sections of the Muslim communities and the remnants of the left in the West, the picture is different in the Muslim world. There, people are demonstrating for freedom — even (in Egypt a few weeks ago) for more trade with Israel.

This is a new configuration in which Islamist terrorism, although still deadly dangerous, has only a limited future.

Talking Turkey

From Austin Bay:

The huge NATO airbase complex at Incirlik, Turkey, played a key role in the Cold War, in the Persian Gulf War, and in enforcing the northern “no-fly zone” against Saddam.

Now it’s being prepared to provide logistical support for potential “operations” to the east. The article says Afghanistan and Iraq. But other nations may read this quote from Defense News in different ways– peacekeeping requires logistical support (eg, the UN faces a huge logistics burden when it deploys 10,000 peacekeepers to Sudan later this year). Iran will read it as a building military threat. Kyrgyzstan may see it as either a peacekeeping lifeline– or the launchpad for western troops. Syria is only “slightly east” of Adana (more south, actually).

What the report means is that Turkey and the US are preparing “operational options.” It also says the contretemps –wrought by Turkey’s refusal to allow US troops to base out of Turkey in the March 2003 attack on Saddam– is now history.

Assuming this report is accurate, this is most excellent news — and further evidence of the pro-democracy momentum being generated by the Bush doctrine, his re-election, and the "tough love" diplomacy of Condi Rice.

Akaev falls

Registan.net has been doing a great job of keeping up with events in the (to us in the U.S.) remote regions of Asia. In recent days, the situation in Kyrgyzstan — long a center of repression with a crazy man running the place — has been boiling, and just yesterday the good guys appear to have one. As many bloggers have noted, we shouldn't be thinking the job there is done — there are too many thugs in the area who could establish another thuggish regime to replace Akaev's. And at least one pundit has noted with suspicion that Putin rushed to support one of the now-freed revolutionary leaders...a man with a dark and thuggish past himself. So we shall see what happens. For the moment, though, the news is just wonderful. Registan.net's roundup is an excellent place to start. Below is an excerpt from it, describing one of the moments of victory for the people:

Soon the bravest protesters came inside the gate and approached the soldiers with their arms raised, though it did not look like the soldiers were armed. General Chotbaev, who was responsible for guarding off the White House, said that he did not want for there to be any bloodshed and asked the protesters who went inside the gate to leave. He said it “was his job” and “there was nothing he could do”. The protesters asked the General to order his soldiers to leave the grounds or to join the protestors. He refused and left saying there could be no further discussion about that.

A few stones came flying on the soldiers while protesters cried not the hit the soldiers, but some angry youth did, risking hitting their comrades who were trying to talk the soldiers into a peaceful resolution.

As protesters saw that the soldiers looked calm and not extremely hostile, more and more crossed the gate and came in. The soldiers retreated slowly. Very soon there was a large crowd on the steps of the White House cheering and celebrating victory. Stones came breaking windows and people were pounding on the front doors that were locked from the inside. Soon the doors opened and the cheering crowd ran into the building. As they came, they broke glass, chandeliers and ripped down curtains. Some were on the stair case in the entrance hall, cheering, hugging each other and taking pictures. There was a large water pipe lying on the floor and some water - it appeared like the military planned to use water hose against the protesters.

As people went round the building, the soldiers and General Chotbaev left, taking their injured, arms and boxes with them. General Chotbaev said: “I decided to vacate the building for the sake of security of both sides”.

Quote for the day

Americans, indeed all freemen, remember that in the final choice, a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.

   Dwight D. Eisenhower

Terri's revolution

Bill Kristol has an excellent new column in the Weekly Standard in which he nails the problem many people have with our current left-leaning judiciary (in aggregate, because of course there are outstanding exceptions). Don't miss this one! Here's how he begins:

THANK GOD FOR OUR JUDGES. (Oops! Sorry. No offense, your honors. I didn't mean to write "God." Or at least I didn't mean anything specific or exclusionary or sectarian or unconstitutional by writing "God." It's just an expression I occasionally use. It does go way back in U.S. history. I hope it's okay.)

Anyway. Thank God for our robed masters. If it weren't for them, Christopher Simmons might soon be executed. In September 1993, seven months shy of his 18th birthday, Simmons decided it would be interesting to kill someone. He told his buddies they could get away with it because they were still minors. He broke into the house of Shirley Crook in Jefferson County, Missouri, bound her hands and feet, drove her to a bridge, covered her face with tape, and threw her into the Meramec River, where she drowned. He confessed to the crime, and was sentenced to death according to the laws of Missouri.

Last month the Supreme Court saved Simmons's life. The citizens, legislators, and governor of Missouri (and those of 19 other states) had, it turned out, fallen grievously and unconstitutionally behind "the evolving standards of decency that mark a maturing society." Five justices decided that the Constitution prevented anyone under the age of 18 from being sentenced to death. So Christopher Simmons will live.

It appears, at this writing, that Terri Schiavo will not.

And here's what he suggests we do:

So our judges deserve some criticism. But we should not be too harsh. For example, it would be wrong to suggest, as some conservatives have, that our judicial elite is systematically biased against "life." After all, they have saved the life of Christopher Simmons. It would be wrong to argue, as some critics have, that our judges systematically give too much weight to the husband's wishes in situations like Terri Schiavo's. After all, our judges have for three decades given husbands (or fathers) no standing at all to participate in the decision whether to kill their unborn children. It would be wrong to claim that our judges don't take seriously legislation passed by the elected representatives of the people. After all, our judges are committed to upholding the "rule of law"--though not, perhaps, the rule of actual laws passed by actual lawmakers. And it would be wrong to accuse our judges of being heartless. After all, Judges Carnes and Hull of the 11th U.S. Circuit told us, "We all have our own family, our own loved ones, and our own children."

So do we all. They deserve a judiciary that is respectful of democratic self-government and committed to a genuine constitutionalism. The Bush administration should nominate such judges, and Congress should confirm them. And the president and Congress should lead a serious national debate on the distinction between judicial independence and judicial arrogance, and on the difference between judicial review and judicial supremacy. After all, we are a "maturing society," as the Supreme Court has told us. Perhaps it is time, in mature reaction to this latest installment of what Hugh Hewitt has called a "robed charade," to rise up against our robed masters, and choose to govern ourselves. Call it Terri's revolution.

Where do you sign up? At the ballot box, of course. This may turn out to be an issue that will convert some liberals to the conservative cause...

In love with death

Peggy Noonan does her usual excellent job of narrating how many of us feel about a topic; this time it's the Terri Schiavo situation. Please read the whole thing. This excerpt goes to her central point:

I do not understand the emotionalism of the pull-the-tube people. What is driving their engagement? Is it because they are compassionate, and their hearts bleed at the thought that Mrs. Schiavo suffers? But throughout this case no one has testified that she is in persistent pain, as those with terminal cancer are.

If they care so much about her pain, why are they unconcerned at the suffering caused her by the denial of food and water? And why do those who argue for Mrs. Schiavo's death employ language and imagery that is so violent and aggressive? The chairman of the Democratic National Committee calls Republicans "brain dead." Michael Schiavo, the husband, calls House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "a slithering snake."

Everyone who has written in defense of Mrs. Schiavo's right to live has received e-mail blasts full of attacks that appear to have been dictated by the unstable and typed by the unhinged. On Democratic Underground they crowed about having "kicked the sh-- out of the fascists." On Tuesday James Carville's face was swept with a sneer so convulsive you could see his gums as he damned the Republicans trying to help Mrs. Schiavo. It would have seemed demonic if he weren't a buffoon.

Why are they so committed to this woman's death?

They seem to have fallen half in love with death.

What does Terri Schiavo's life symbolize to them? What does the idea that she might continue to live suggest to them?

Why does this prospect so unnerve them? Again, if you think Terri Schiavo is a precious human gift of God, your passion is explicable. The passion of the pull-the-tube people is not.

I do not understand their certainty. I don't "know" that any degree of progress or healing is possible for Terri Schiavo; I only hope they are. We can't know, but we can "err on the side of life." How do the pro-death forces "know" there is no possibility of progress, healing, miracles? They seem to think they know. They seem to love the phrases they bandy about: "vegetative state," "brain dead," "liquefied cortex."