The Mound of Sound

Let’s dispense with the inevitable: – no, no one can say with 100% certainty that global warming is completely responsible for this BUT no one has any more likely cause either.

Global warming is impacting Pacific Ocean ecosystems. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

“Professor Jane Lubchenco, from Oregon State University, said: “Wild fluctuations in the intensity of ocean upwellings are wreaking havoc with the ecosystems of the west coast.

“We’re seeing extreme distortions on both sides of the norm. This is a system that is out of kilter. It’s fluctuating rapidly.”

“Up to five decades of data had shown that the events were “unprecedented in this ecosystem”, she said.

“She pointed out that similar ocean current disruption had been seen in other regions of the world, particularly Peru, Chile and parts of Africa.

“Experts at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco described two extraordinary linked events in 2005 and 2006.

“The first occurred when a nutrient-rich ocean current that normally appears off northern California and Oregon in spring was delayed by a month.

“This led to a loss of phytoplankton, the microscopic plant organisms that form the vital base of the ocean ecosystem and upon which larger animals depend for food.

“Salmon, which normally take to the sea at this time, starved. The effects rippled up through the food web as predators, including many sea birds, went hungry and died.

“The following year the west coast current came back with a vengeance, producing an upwelling of nutrient-rich water twice as strong as the average recorded for several previous years.

“Phytoplankton bloomed to levels not seen before, turning the sea to green-brown soup. They then died and sank, causing oxygen levels in the water to plummet virtually to zero.

“The result was a “dead zone” in which nothing could survive. Scientists conducting a submarine survey found dead crabs and marine worms scattered across the ocean floor, and no sign of any fish.

“The knock-on effects were once again disastrous for sea birds which relied on the sea creatures for food. Huge numbers of dead birds were washed up on the shores.

“The 2006 dead zone, which remained for nearly 17 weeks, was three times bigger than any seen in the region before, said Dr Francis Chan, from Oregon State University in Corvallis.”

Vladimir Putin has handed control of Chechnya to a monster by the name of Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Guardian paints a picture of Kadyrov as a brutal tyrant, just the sort Putin would choose to suppress the Chechens:

“Mr Kadyrov personifies much of the tragedy visited on his people. A rebel fighter turned by the Russians, he and his clan have pacified the province by establishing a rule of medieval brutality. The murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya accused Mr Kadyrov of personally assisting in the torture of suspects. Human Rights Watch last year documented 82 cases of torture by forces under the control of Mr Kadyrov’s paramilitary groups.

“One of the most feared torture chambers is in Mr Kadyrov’s home village of Tsentoroi. Relatives, associates or friends of wanted rebels are abducted and then tortured for weeks on end with electric shocks, beatings and suffocation. If they emerge alive they are presented with a menu of crimes, to which they readily confess. Keeping their mouth shut is a condition of their release. The Russian human-rights organisation, Memorial, documented 316 cases of abduction in 2005, and of those 127 disappeared without trace, and 23 were found dead, bearing the marks of assassination. But Chechnya is a forgotten conflict, a casualty not only of Mr Putin’s presidency but of the decision by the US and Britain to co-opt Russia as an ally in the war on terror. It was a trade-off that obliged the west to avert its troubled gaze on Chechnya in return for access to strategic airbases in central Asia, and ultimately a victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan. Chechnya hangs like a cloud over Britain’s worsening relations with Russia, as it does over the unexplained murders of Ms Politkovskaya and the former fugitive Alexander Litvinenko.

“The only voices against [Kadyrov] are dead ones. Ms Politkovskaya said in one of her last interviews: ‘I dream that he should face trial. And the strictest legal procedures with the listing and investigation of all his crimes should take place.’ It is unlikely to happen soon.”

Before 9/11 the world widely condemned the brutality and butchery Russia meted out to the Chechen people. Once the World Trade Centre towers were knocked down, all that changed. Suddenly Vladimir Putin became a valued allly in the Global War Without End on Terror and the suffering in Chechnya was forgotten.

ABC news reports that US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has expressed concern to the Shiite-dominated Maliki government that the “surge” so far as targetted Sunni neighbourhoods, overlooking Shia hotspots including Sadr City.

“The Iraqis, however, told her that the Mahdi Army and its leader Muqtada al-Sadr had been losing influence and were cooperating with authorities on security issues, the official said.

“The Iraqis said they did not want to ‘waste our resources in a place that’s stable,’ the official added.

“He did not say how Rice responded.

“Before the operation began, U.S. officers said privately that the Shiite-dominated security forces were resisting calls to move against al-Sadr’s forces quickly, arguing that the main threat to stability came from Sunni insurgents.”

If the US and Iraqi security forces don’t move against al-Sadr’s militias, the surge will be plainly sectarian and risks leaving Baghdad’s Sunni population largely defenceless once it’s over.

According to the Times of London, “rumours and speculation abound” over the security and future of the North Korean dictator’s regime:

“Hard information about the workings of the North Korean leadership is almost impossible to establish, but recently there have been unusually intense rumours about possible plots against the Dear Leader.

“The latest story doing the rounds of intelligence agencies is that his brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, a close aide who returned to public life last year after being purged, is emerging as a rival.

“Oblivious of possible power struggles behind the scenes, thousands of men and women, dressed in suits and brightly coloured traditional skirts, danced in the streets of the capital, Pyongyang, as the official state media reported extravagant messages of praise from around the world.

“But the tone of yesterday’s speeches supported the suspicions of many analysts that North Korea was still a long way from relinquishing its nuclear capability. “The successful nuclear test last year represents a proud victory of ‘army-first politics’ . . . and a thrilling demonstration of the greatness and might of socialist North Korea,” the Speaker of the country’s Parliament, Choe Thae Bok, said yesterday.”

Could Kim be toppled in a coup? It’s hard to imagine how, given that the North Korean people have been so indoctrinated to support him, even to the point of seeing Kim as some sort of dem-god.

I never really understood the depth of that brainwashing until I watched a North Korean woman interviewed about a fire in the government office in her small village. She told of how six villagers, in succession, entered the building to rescue Kim’s photograph from the wall even though they knew they would probably die in the process. How could you ever persuade people of that mindset to accept the toppling of their leader?

The Independent reports that some Saudi couples are now finding themselves divorced against their will. Those who refuse risk being thrown into prison:

“Fatima al-Timani is facing the end of her sixth month in prison in the Saudi town of Damman. Her only crime is to refuse to be separated from the man to whom she had been happily married for the past four years and with whom she has two children.

“Fatima is the latest victim of a growing practice in the oil-rich Saudi kingdom of forced divorce, when disgruntled relatives have used hardline Islamic courts to dissolve matches against the will of the married couple.

“The plight of 34-year-old Fatima, who was pregnant when court proceedings began in 2005 and is now in prison with her one-year-old son, Suleiman, has drawn widespread public sympathy in the tightly controlled kingdom.

“Fatima is forbidden from seeing her husband, Mansour al-Timani. He now looks after their two-year old-son Noha, who has only been allowed occasional visits to his mother. Fatima’s relatives have accused Mansour of lying about his tribal background to win their father’s approval for the marriage and want it annulled so she can have an arranged marriage to a spouse of their choosing.

“Saudi Arabia has possibly the worst record on women’s rights of any country. The kingdom has been ruled since the 1920s by the House of Saud whose clerical allies, the Wahhabists, have imposed an austere state faith on what had been a religiously diverse mixture of Muslims with Sunni, Shia and Sufi communities.

“Under Wahhabi rule, women have no voting rights, almost no employment rights and are barred from even driving.

“Despite a concerted effort to present a more reformist image to the outside world since the death of King Fahd in August 2005, rights groups have noted continuing erosions of human rights under his successor Abdullah.”

So, to recap – Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, Saudis have been the prime sponsor of al-Qaeda, Saudi money is now being funneled to the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, the Saudis are brutally repressive to women and yet neither Shrub nor Harpo have a harsh word to say about them. Huh?

British researchers believe they’ve found a means to fight heart disease by unlocking the heart’s own ability to heal itself. From The Independent:

“Millions of people suffering from heart disease have been given new hope by research which shows that damaged organs may be capable of healing themselves.

“A team of scientists at the Institute of Child Health in London have discovered that cells in the outermost layer of the heart can be stimulated to move deeper inside the heart muscle and, once there, help to repair a failing organ.

“The discovery could lead to injections being given into the bloodstream or, in emergency cases, directly into the heart muscle itself. So far the technique has only been tested on rats and mice but, if it is proved to work in humans, it could be developed into a treatment in “years rather than decades”, according to Paul Riley, who led the study.

“Dr Riley, of the ICH, said: ‘Our research has shown that blood vessel regeneration is possible in the adult heart. In the future … there could be potential for therapy based on the patients’ own heart cells.’

“The team have found that cells in the outer layer of the heart are similar to stem cells, and have the capacity to develop into any kind of new tissue or structure in the heart. Called progenitor cells, they can be stimulated by a protein, Thymosin-beta4, to move into the heart muscle and form new blood vessels. With new blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients, the damaged heart muscle can grow new tissue and repair itself.”

“Dr Riley said: ‘To investigate whether Thymosin-beta4 could have a therapeutic effect on damaged adult hearts, my research team took cells from the outermost layer of adult mouse hearts and grew them in the lab. We found that, when treated with Thymosin-beta4, these adult cells have as much potential as embryonic cells to create healthy heart tissue. This suggests that Thymosin-beta4 could have a therapeutic use.'”

If it works as promised, it has the potential to revolutionize our electrical grid. It’s a new solar panel technology that is said to be able to produce electricity as for about the same cost as what we now rely on fossil-fuel powered generating plants to produce.

Behind it is John MacDonald of MacDonald Detweiler fame which became MDA Technologies, the company that created the Canadarm used on the space shuttle. MacDonald at 70 has come out of retirement to serve as chairman and chief executive of Canada’s only solar panel-maker, Day4 Energy Inc.

Day 4’s science genius is a Russian physicist, Leonid Ruben, who MacDonald met in Moscow. During their meeting, Rubin revealed the solar panel breakthrough. The new science allows much more electricity to be generated and harvested than from conventional, solar panels.

Of course there is a lot of difference between producing a workable prototype and ever getting the new technology into production but, with the current appetite for renewable energy, Day 4 is about as well positioned as it could ever hope to be.