News – Mars Probing (1/2)

The US robotic probe Spirit is beaming home color photos now that it has extended it’s antenna. Every success is a big morale boost to the folks at NASA. Hopefully they’ll find what they’re looking for with this little rover.

Bush touts his No Child Left Behind act as he campaigns for dinero in St. Louis. He notes some raised test scores, but I wonder how many schools are flagging in the score department cause of how high the bar is for funding, which could help them raise scores.

Dumb kids sometimes play paint ball without protective gear. No surprise, they’re more likely to get an eye injury due to it. If your kids play paintball, make sure they have protective gear.

The FDA is under pressure to hurry up and do something about Mad Cow. I agree, though the hurry up part isn’t good. So long as they plan to implement something, I’m willing to wait for the research.

Ashcroft changes his mind on the Plame case. The big question is why and here we have some speculation to consider.

Dick ‘Undisclosed Location’ Cheney, the real power in the White House?

Checking the Iowa Debate. Latest in the Democratic slug fest. Highlights and lowlights if you haven’t seen it or just want another opinion.

A brief outline of Economic proposals by the Democratic hopefuls.

A Browser’s Guide to Campaign 2004: Slate reads another Dean book so you don’t have to.

Mad Cow could be a boon to the US. An isolated, easily contained instance that is squished and panics the powers that be into improving aging standards when it comes to our livestock.

Iraq

Blair has had his own surprise trip to Iraq. The southern city of Brasa being his chosen locale. Part of me muses how few will risk slipping into central and northern areas of the country(for obvious reasons) though another part of me thinks Blair likely choose that spot because of the greater influence of British soldiers there. Not much reason for him to visit more central and northern regions. The bad news is UK troops could be in Iraq til 2007. I’d wager longer personally.

A purported Bin Laden voice take mentions Saddam’s capture. If the voice is legit, Bin Laden is most certainly alive. If not, then who knows. Either way it’s normal, with the ‘continue the jihad’ message.

US forces have taken control of shipping oil into Iraq, ending Halliburton’s stake in it. Want something done right, gotta do it yourself in this case.

US soldiers ransack a Sunni Mosque looking for weapons. They find some, but it is claimed the weapons were for protection, usd by the Mosque’s guards. The find is said to be a few AK-47’s, some grenades and an anti-aircraft missile.

Eight died in a car bomb attack on a restaurant Dec 31st.

Saddam seems to be cooperating a bit more. Revealing what can be assumed. He has hid millions in secret international bank accounts. There is further mention of him revealing ‘many secrets’, but that’s a very fluid term.

Israel/Palestine

Jewish feminists seek rights to pray aloud at the Wailing Wall. Which, of course, goes against more Orthodox traditions. Orthodox members of the legislative are aiming to put out laws that will give light jail time for women who violate orthodox traditions at the Wailing Wall.

Yesterday Sharon ordered the army to remove tow settlements. Both sides are pissed at him. Pro settlement people for h im removing any at all and anti-settlement people for him falling short of promises to Bush. I don’t see why he’s pussyfooting around. He should either meet what he promises or not do it at all.

And comes the fear of Israeli Jews. That immigration of Jews is slowing as well as their birth rate. Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and Israeli Arabs could out number the Jewish population by 2020 if current trends hold.

An Israeli soldier is held after admitting to shooting a British Peace activist in the head. The British man is now in a vegetative state. He was shot eight months ago while trying to help Palestinian children from the path of an Israeli tank.

Iran

Leery of the Bam quake and it’s high death toll, Iranian policy makers are seriously considering moving their capital.Tehran is quake prone, thus it could be a very good idea to shift their seat of power into a more geologically stable area.

Asia

China has reported a SARS case in Southern Guangzhou. Some of those who have been in close contact with the patient have been quarantined. Good to see them take a better stance on this.

Armed police patrol airports amid the delays and cancellation of flights rom the UK to the US. Once when I was flying there were armed military scattered about Dulles. But this last time there were none. Though I didn’t eye the TSA to see if any of them were armed.