Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Work stuff : Doomsday 2012
In the early days of computers, when hard drives weighed as much as a piece of furniture, a popular phrase was "Garbage-in, Garbage-out" (GIGO). It meant that computers would unquestioningly process the most nonsensical of input data and produce nonsensical output.
"GIGO" describes the abysmal lack of intelligent thought and critical thinking on the Internet when it comes to all the hysteria about the end of the world coming on December 21, 2012 -- just in time to ruin Christmas.
I'm getting e-mail about this weekly and I expect the nonsense to ratchet up.
This latest installment in decades of flaky astronomical apocalypse predictions is loosely based on the Mayan calendar that marks the end of a 5,126-year era. Apparently the Mayans knew something about the heavens we don't, according to numerous hot-selling 2012 doomsday books on the market. Our multi-billion dollar telescopes, space probes, and 6,000 professional astronomers somehow just can't keep up with the mystic knowledge of an ancient superstitious culture.
With the much-ballyhooed release of the film "2012" opening on November 13, end of world chatter will be the topic from backyard cookouts, to bars, to wine and cheese parties.
I am listing the 10 most popular 2012 end-of-world scenarios and providing a quickie reference guide to use in politely dismissing any friends, relatives, or in-laws whose brains have turned into a pile of GIGO mush after being suckered by the End of Days hype.
The ten top 2012 doomsday scenarios:
1. Changes in the Sun's magnetic field will lead to powerful flares.
So what else is new under the sun? The sun goes though a well-documented 11-year sunspot cycle that is driven by its magnetic field entangling, reforming and flipping polarity. Yes, the peak of the next cycle is in 2012 (or 2013), and some predictions suggest it might be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last peak.
But experts say it will certainly not be the biggest peak ever recorded.
The bottom line is that no dragon's breath of flame will stretch across 100 million miles of space and blowtorch Earth. The largest solar flare recorded to date, on Nov. 4, 2003, spewed several billions of tons of plasma in Earth's direction. The flare's X-ray radiation that impacted our protective atmosphere had the equivalent radiation of 5,000 suns.
We're still here.
2. The Earth's magnetic field will reverse.
Don't hold you breath. The last field reversal happened nearly 800,000 years ago. Fred Flintstone and our other ancestor cavemen survived. Geological evidence shows that the field has reversed its orientation tens of thousands of times over Earth history. Yet there is no definitive evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any mass extinction due to increased cosmic ray influx
Read the rest of the article here.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Work stuff : And finally from our friend in BBC London..
Resignations in Indonesia scandal | |
Two of Indonesia's senior law enforcement officials have resigned over a growing corruption scandal. Deputy attorney general Abdul Hakim Ritonga and Chief Detective Susno Duadji were linked to an alleged plot to weaken the anti-corruption agency. Their names came up in recordings in which the suspected plot was allegedly discussed by police and prosecutors. The case is being seen as a test of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's promises to clamp down on corruption. The president said more resignations or suspensions could be expected. "I've advised the police chief and the attorney general to suspend those whose names were mentioned in the tape recordings and discharge them from their duties," AFP news agency quoted him as telling a cabinet meeting. The resignations of Mr Ritonga and Ch Det Susno Duadji came after calls for their dismissal from Indonesians who have taken to the streets protesting against the suspected plot to weaken the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Indonesia's Watergate Human rights groups say the KPK has become a target of the police force because it has been so successful in investigating and charging corrupt officials. Indonesia is often ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, but the efforts of the KPK have encouraged investors to believe the country is trying to clean up its act, says the BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta. The case, which has been dubbed Indonesia's Watergate, has transfixed the nation, says our correspondent. The tapes were played in a nationally televised session of the Constitutional Court, as part of the defence of two KPK officials arrested on bribery charges. Corrupt officials The recorded discussion is allegedly between a businessman and several people thought to be in Indonesia's powerful police force and the attorney general's office. Discussions on the tapes revealed the speakers were involved in plans to significantly weaken the KPK by implicating two of their officials in bribery charges. It is a powerful body that has gained the reputation of being tough on corrupt officials - including those in high places, says our Jakarta correspondent. The KPK officials, Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto, were released on Tuesday. | |
Work stuff : A view of same story from Taipei Times..
Indonesian officials resign amid graft scandal
AP, JAKARTA
Friday, Nov 06, 2009, Page 5
Two of Indonesia’s leading law enforcement officials suddenly stepped down yesterday to soothe a tide of public rage over an escalating corruption scandal that has damaged the nation’s struggle against crippling graft.
Deputy Attorney-General Abdul Hakim Ritonga and General Susno Duadji, the head of national police investigations, resigned after being named in wiretaps this week that exposed a plot to undermine the Corruption Eradication Commission.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters he asked for their resignations, but did not call for their arrests, or condemn their actions. The men were scheduled to be questioned by a special fact-finding team with no power to initiate criminal charges.
“The commitment to eradicate corruption shouldn’t be tainted by other interests,” Yudhoyono said, instructing the government to provide security to witnesses for their safety.
The high-level resignations — virtually unheard of in Javanese culture — were the culmination of a months-long battle between the top anti-graft agency and rival police and prosecutors in Indonesia, which is regularly ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world.
The case has fueled opposition to the police and poses a serious challenge to Yudhoyono’s newly installed government. He was re-elected in July for another five-year term in the Muslim-majority nation of 235 million.
The commission has been key to Indonesia’s efforts to wipe out endemic corruption since the downfall in 1998 of late dictator Suharto. His 32-year rule was marred by human rights violations, cronyism and nepotism that held back economic development and scared away investors.
Public outrage was sparked by the arrest last week of two deputies at the agency, known by its Indonesian acronym KPK. They were released after hundreds of thousands of Internet users signed a petition in support of them on Facebook and protests were held across the main island, Java.
Ritonga and Duadji were named in wiretaps aired on live television this week in which bribes of hundreds of thousands of dollars and a plot to frame KPK deputies Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto were exposed.
Small demonstrations continued after the announcement yesterday, with around a dozen students staging a hunger strike from a tent pitched outside the KPK’s offices in downtown Jakarta. The number of members of the Facebook page for the men neared 850,000.
Although Chandra and Bibit have since been released, they still face charges of abuse of power for issuing a travel ban against a corruption suspect and allegedly hampering investigations by talking to the media.
Yudhoyono, a 60-year-old former general, had been widely credited for the success of the anti-corruption campaign during his first term in office. Scores of corrupt politicians, entrepreneurs and law enforcement officials were tried and convicted, including the father-in-law of one of the president’s sons.
