fufor's unregelmässige news

More Green Areas on Mars
posted: 07. March 2008

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2008 March 3



Sand Dunes Thawing on Mars
Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

Explanation: What are these strange shapes on Mars? Defrosting sand dunes. As spring now dawns on the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, dunes of sand near the pole, as pictured above, are beginning to thaw. The carbon dioxide and water ice actually sublime in the thin atmosphere directly to gas. Thinner regions of ice typically defrost first revealing sand whose darkness soaks in sunlight and accelerates the thaw. The process might even involve sandy jets exploding through the thinning ice. By summer, spots will expand to encompass the entire dunes. The Martian North Pole is ringed by many similar fields of barchan sand dunes, whose strange, smooth arcs are shaped by persistent Martian winds.
http://tinyurl.com/37aeky

British army to assist at cultural sites in Iraq
Posted: 26.2.08
By Martin Bailey
From News

The Art Newspaper can reveal that the British Army is to develop a Cultural Heritage Initiative to assist with archaeological sites and museums in southern Iraq. This will be launched with the Iraqi state board of antiquities and heritage, along with the British Museum.

Basra-based Major Tom Holloway told us that the plan is to help at “iconic cultural locations”, and to leave a positive “legacy” after the withdrawal of British forces. The proposal is at an early stage, and is expected to be announced in May.

Major Holloway explained: “The British Army’s role in the cultural project will be to facilitate specialists coming out from the UK to south-east Iraq, to liaise with Iraqi civil contacts, and to assist where possible with contracts for work required, underwritten with a degree of funding.”

The most urgent need is to conduct condition assessments on the major archaeological sites and to determine the extent of damage caused by looters. These places include the ancient Sumerian cities of Warka and Eridu. Satellite images show evidence of considerable illicit digging after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the remains are now badly pockmarked. The project will not involve British troops patrolling archaeological sites.

Museums are the other focus of the project. The region’s most important museum is in Basra, but there are smaller ones in Kut, Amara and Wasit. Their collections were moved to the Baghdad Museum shortly before the 2003 invasion, but it is important to determine whether their buildings are in good enough condition for the return of the antiquities.

Initially it is hoped that the Army will be able to arrange security protection to enable international specialists to undertake site assessments with Iraqi archaeologists. Iraq remains extremely dangerous for western civilians, and it is prudent to travel only with armed guards.

Dr John Curtis, from the British Museum, is behind the proposal, and he hopes to visit Iraq later this spring. Other experts could also become involved. Initially, a small team might go out to Basra for a week or two, staying at an Army base and making day trips to the sites, accompanied by guards.

Once it is determined what is needed to repair damage to sites and ensure their protection, the Army plans to use its contacts with Iraqi private contractors to undertake the necessary work, with some funding from the American and British governments (such as the US Commander’s Emergency Response Program).

The Army’s initiative has the personal support of Major General Barney White-Spunner, who on 12 February took over as commander of the Multi-National Division in the south-east. British forces are continuing to withdraw from Iraq, but around 4,000 troops still remain.

In 1993 Barney White-Spunner helped lead the Chinese-British Cross Taklamakan Expedition, which made the first crossing of the desert and visited many of the sites discovered by archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein on the Silk Route. He later served with the British Army in Macedonia and Afghanistan. While in Kabul in 2002, Major General White-Spunner organised repairs to Stein’s grave.
http://tinyurl.com/28tsem

New Documents Reveal North American Union PR Campaign
Friday, March 7, 2008
Journalist acquires memos detailing secretive group's efforts to counter critics
Steve Watson
Infowars.net


New documents have been uncovered that reveal how heads of state of the U.S., Mexico and Canada are beseeching business leaders they privately meet with to launch public relations campaigns in order to counter critics of the secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

The documents detail how corporate representatives have been urged to "humanize" North American integration, promote NAFTA success stories to employees and unions and evolve the harmonization agenda "without fueling protectionism".

The documentation consists of internal memos from Canada's Foreign Affairs and Internal Trade ministry, which were obtained by the World Net Daily reporter Jerome Corsi under an Access to Information Act request.

"The text of the undated memo is an internal government summary of the third SPP summit meeting held Aug. 20-21, 2007, in Montebello Quebec," writes Corsi.

The memo details the SPP's behind closed doors inaugural meeting with the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), an advisory Council Comprised of 30 senior private sector representatives of North American corporations that were selected by the American, Canadian and Mexican governments at the June 2006 trilateral meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

The "PR offensive", as Corsi puts it, is detailed in the several paragraphs of the memo, the author of which and the persons referred to within are unknown.

Excerpts of the memo read:

"Leaders had a successful meeting with the members of the NACC, which had been launched at the leader's meeting in Cancun in March 2006, to counsel governments on how they might enhance North American competitiveness,"

"He also urged NACC members to assist in confronting and refuting critics of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)."

"In closing, all leaders expressed a desire for the NACC to play a role in articulating publicly the benefits of greater collaboration in North America."

"Leaders discussed some of the difficulties of the SPP, including the lack of popular support and the failure of the public to understand the competitive challenges confronting North America."

"Governments are faced with addressing the rapidly evolving competitive environment without fueling protectionism, when industry sectors face radical transformation."

"In terms of building public support, President Bush suggested engaging the support of those who had benefited from NAFTA and from North American integration (including small business owners) to tell their stories and humanize the impressive results."

"NACC members should have a role in communicating the merits of North American collaboration, including by engaging their employees and unions."

The NACC is expected to meet annually with SPP ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis.

The media and the public are not invited to participate in or observe the meetings and the minutes of the meetings are to be kept secret.

The memo highlights how those advancing the North American integration agenda are concerned about the exposure and subsequent public backlash they have encountered recently.

The initial Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement was signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005. It established working groups, under the North American Free Trade Agreement office.

Jerome Corsi brought attention to the SPP two years ago when he obtained SPP documents, under the freedom of information act, showing that a wide range of US administrative law is being re-written in stealth under a program to "integrate" and "harmonize" with administrative law in Mexico and Canada, just as has become commonplace within the EU.

The documents contained references to upwards of 13 working groups within an entire organized infrastructure that has drawn from officials within most areas of administrative government including U.S. departments of State, Homeland Security, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Health and Human Services, and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

More recently representatives within Congress have petitioned the government on the secretiveness of the SPP and multiple states have introduced resolutions calling on their federal representatives to halt work on the so called "North American Union".
http://tinyurl.com/39xw65