Scientists may have solved the mystery of why people with Down's syndrome seem to have a lower risk of some cancers.
The extra copy of chromosome 21 which causes Down's appears to contain a gene that protects from solid cancerous tumours, tests on mice suggest.
The gene seems to interfere with signals a tumour relies on to grow. The finding raises hope of new ways to prevent and treat cancer.
The study by the Children's Hospital of Boston appears in the journal Nature.
Humans usually have two copies of the 23 chromosomes that together contain all our genetic information, one from each parent.
Down's syndrome is a genetic disorder which results from the presence of an extra, third copy of chromosome 21.
It has been known for some time that individuals with Down's syndrome get certain types of cancer less often than those without the condition.
However, the reason why has been unclear.
The latest study showed that having an extra copy of one of the genes located on chromosome 21 - a gene called Dscr1 - is sufficient to slow cancer growth in mice.
The gene seems to work in combination with another gene also found on chromosome 21 to interfere with the signals a tumour relies upon to stimulate growth of its own blood vessels.
Without those vessels feeding the tumour with its own supply of blood it cannot thrive.
Inspiration
Writing in the journal, the researchers, led by Dr Sandra Ryeom, said: "It is, perhaps, inspiring that the Down's syndrome population provides us with new insight into mechanisms that regulate cancer growth and, by so doing, identifies potential targets for tumour prevention and therapy."
Dr Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke, a Cancer Research UK scientist at Queen Mary, University of London, said: "This finding raises several important questions about the roles of other chromosome 21 genes that might help regulate tumour growth.
"The next stage is to think about how we might be able to exploit this research to improve cancer treatments in the future."
Stuart Mills, of the Down's Syndrome Association, said: "We have known for some time that people with Down's syndrome have lower incidences of cancer, apart from leukaemia, than the rest of the population.
"This is one of the first studies to examine the reasons why, and we welcome its findings. We will be following further research with great interest."
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Irish abused 'cheated of justice'
Victims of child abuse at Catholic institutions in the Irish Republic have expressed anger that a damning report will not bring about prosecutions.
The report, nine years in the making and covering a period of six decades, found thousands of boys and girls were terrorised by priests and nuns.
Government inspectors failed to stop beatings, rapes and humiliation.
John Walsh, of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said he felt "cheated and deceived" by the lack of prosecutions.
The findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions - in part because the Christian Brothers successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report.
No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.
Mr Walsh said: "I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result.
"It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there are no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."
Police were called to the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse's news conference in Dublin amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.
The victims were among 35,000 children who were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses until the early 1990s.
More than 1,000 people had told the commission they suffered physical and sexual abuse.
'Self-serving secrecy'
The five-volume study concluded that church officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders' paedophiles from arrest amid a "culture of self-serving secrecy".
The commission found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions, and church leaders knew what was going on.
It also found physical and emotional abuse and neglect were rife in some institutions.
Schools were run "in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff".
It found the Department of Education had generally dismissed or ignored complaints of child sexual abuse and dealt inadequately with them.
As far back as the 1940s, school inspectors reported broken bones and malnourished children but no action was taken.
The report proposed 21 ways the Irish government could recognise past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counselling and education to victims, and improving current child protection services.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said he was "profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions".
This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society," he said.
"It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty: neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, perpetrated against children."
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, said those who perpetrated violence and abuse should be held to account, "no matter how long ago it happened".
"Every time there is a single incident of abuse in the Catholic Church, it is a scandal. I would be very worried if it wasn't a scandal... I hope these things don't happen again, but I hope they're never a matter of indifference
The report, nine years in the making and covering a period of six decades, found thousands of boys and girls were terrorised by priests and nuns.
Government inspectors failed to stop beatings, rapes and humiliation.
John Walsh, of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said he felt "cheated and deceived" by the lack of prosecutions.
The findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions - in part because the Christian Brothers successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report.
No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.
Mr Walsh said: "I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result.
"It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there are no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."
Police were called to the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse's news conference in Dublin amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.
The victims were among 35,000 children who were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses until the early 1990s.
More than 1,000 people had told the commission they suffered physical and sexual abuse.
'Self-serving secrecy'
The five-volume study concluded that church officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders' paedophiles from arrest amid a "culture of self-serving secrecy".
The commission found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions, and church leaders knew what was going on.
It also found physical and emotional abuse and neglect were rife in some institutions.
Schools were run "in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff".
It found the Department of Education had generally dismissed or ignored complaints of child sexual abuse and dealt inadequately with them.
As far back as the 1940s, school inspectors reported broken bones and malnourished children but no action was taken.
The report proposed 21 ways the Irish government could recognise past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counselling and education to victims, and improving current child protection services.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said he was "profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions".
This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society," he said.
"It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty: neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, perpetrated against children."
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, said those who perpetrated violence and abuse should be held to account, "no matter how long ago it happened".
"Every time there is a single incident of abuse in the Catholic Church, it is a scandal. I would be very worried if it wasn't a scandal... I hope these things don't happen again, but I hope they're never a matter of indifference
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Cut onion may ease pain of bee sting
excruciating pain. My hand started inflating. A cut onion on the sting worked in 20 minutes to stop the swelling and ease the pain.
We first heard about using a cut onion on a sting about 20 years ago. We checked with world-renowned onion chemist Dr. Eric Block of the State University of New York at Albany. He agreed that a fresh-cut onion might ease the pain of an insect sting because an ingredient in onions breaks down the chemicals responsible for inflammation and discomfort. Other readers have used fresh onion juice to soothe the pain from a minor kitchen burn.
::
My mom has been addicted to laxatives for 30 years. Last year she had to be operated on because her anus had constricted. Four months later, she had to go back for the same problem. She was told to take Metamucil three times daily. Now she complains she has no bowel movements.
Chronic laxative use can impair the normal function of the digestive tract. It will take time and plenty of fluid and fiber for your mother's bowel to recover.
There are some simple approaches in addition to fluid and Metamucil that may be helpful. Boiling 2 tablespoons of flaxseed in 3 quarts of water and consuming 2 ounces of the liquid daily is one, as is chewing sugarless gum. A magnesium supplement of 300 to 500 milligrams per day can help, so long as her kidneys are healthy.
We have also heard from many people that Power Pudding (applesauce, wheat bran and prune juice) can be useful.
latimes.com
We first heard about using a cut onion on a sting about 20 years ago. We checked with world-renowned onion chemist Dr. Eric Block of the State University of New York at Albany. He agreed that a fresh-cut onion might ease the pain of an insect sting because an ingredient in onions breaks down the chemicals responsible for inflammation and discomfort. Other readers have used fresh onion juice to soothe the pain from a minor kitchen burn.
::
My mom has been addicted to laxatives for 30 years. Last year she had to be operated on because her anus had constricted. Four months later, she had to go back for the same problem. She was told to take Metamucil three times daily. Now she complains she has no bowel movements.
Chronic laxative use can impair the normal function of the digestive tract. It will take time and plenty of fluid and fiber for your mother's bowel to recover.
There are some simple approaches in addition to fluid and Metamucil that may be helpful. Boiling 2 tablespoons of flaxseed in 3 quarts of water and consuming 2 ounces of the liquid daily is one, as is chewing sugarless gum. A magnesium supplement of 300 to 500 milligrams per day can help, so long as her kidneys are healthy.
We have also heard from many people that Power Pudding (applesauce, wheat bran and prune juice) can be useful.
latimes.com
China's edge in the energy-efficiency industry
After President Nixon went to China, the United States urged that nation's leaders to forget Marx and Mao and embrace the blessings of capitalism. Unfortunately, it's been wryly said, they took our advice.
Americans have by now become inured to China peeling off layers of the U.S. manufacturing base. The Asian giant, though, has never been at the starting gate of a new industry that promised exceptional growth. That's a natural place for America, we like to think. Indeed, the U.S. booted up the Internet business, fostering phenoms such as Cisco Systems and EBay. Those innovators brought the world online, enriching our national economy.
But with "clean tech" and renewable energy heralded as the next world-changing opportunity -- and our ticket out of the Great Recession -- the United States is at risk of ceding this strategic terrain.
U.S. setbacks dealt by the weakened economy have helped China's prospects in green commerce. It's become the capital of solar and wind power manufacturing, and it aims to be the main source of affordable electric cars. In the U.S., the lending freeze has combined with cheap oil to stunt the fortunes of clean energy. Wind, solar and biofuel projects have been canceled and seed capital is scarce, leaving fertile ideas on the drawing board.
While U.S. gross domestic product shrank 6.1% in the first quarter of this year, China's expanded by the same proportion. Its banks are not only standing but healthy, even amid a global downturn that has curbed demand for Chinese exports. At the same time, Beijing has raised efficiency and sustainability goals, largely in a quest for energy security.
There's an irony here, as those who have wheezed in Beijing's foul air know. China has overtaken the U.S. as the top greenhouse gas emitter, the fallout of breakneck development and its role as workshop for the West's cut-rate goods. Deforestation, overgrazing and poor water management are expanding its deserts; many of its rivers are flush with toxins. To environmentalists, China's crimes against nature threaten the planet.
Yet even as it has alarmed green activists, China has also stirred their hopes. Although the U.S. unseated Germany last year as the world leader in generating wind energy, this year, China is expected to be first in building the industry's machinery, largely for foreign firms. It's also installing wind turbines at a fast pace to generate clean electric power. The top two firms in the field, General Electric and Denmark's Vestas, have factories there.
Similarly, many solar companies have factories in China. Yet virtually all their wares are exported. In the 2008 sales derby, China-based Suntech beat all independent makers, trouncing U.S. champs SunPower and First Solar.
The auto industry is key to President Obama's plans to overhaul the way Americans consume energy -- he wants to leave imported oil in the dust. His agenda, however, has been detoured by Detroit's car crash. China now reigns in auto sales, and the oil-importing nation has its foot on the electric accelerator.
Warren Buffett, the renowned American investor, owns no part of GM or Ford. Last fall, however, his holding company took a $230-million stake in BYD of Shenzhen. BYD, like China itself, has disrupted the order of things, generating buzz for its advanced auto batteries and plug-in cars. Buffett and his colleagues told Fortune magazine that they believe BYD could become the world's largest carmaker on the strength of its electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is all but stalled in this race. The White House has judged General Motors' electric-vehicle hopeful, the Volt, too costly to succeed. If the Volt does make it onto the road, it will be powered by a battery from South Korea's LG Chem.
China isn't hesitating to open the public purse to fund progress. As heated as the debate was over the size of Obama's stimulus plan and its green elements, China's package, at $586 billion, is bigger -- relative to its economy -- and greener. And entrepreneurs, whom we rely on to invent the next generation of everything, are being kept afloat there. In the first quarter, clean-tech venture investments plunged a jaw-dropping 84% in the U.S. while continuing to rise in China.
But before the U.S. resigns itself to being an also-ran in clean energy, remember that China has far to go before being anointed the victor. It remains overwhelmingly dependent on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Although many of its new power plants boast what is sometimes called "cleaner coal" technology, most of the nation's power plants are less efficient and spew more carbon than their Western counterparts.
China produces armies of engineers but has no innovation centers comparable to MIT, Silicon Valley or the Ecomagination group at General Electric. The American culture of quality has no echo in China, which is only now hurrying to assemble the infrastructure of a modern economy.
Of course, the U.S. had a century or so head start. Yet the lack of an industrial past may be as much an edge as an obstacle for China. It may be that the only thing harder than building clean industries from scratch is rehabbing old ones for a low-carbon future.
"The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources," Obama has said, "will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy." Not only China but India, Japan, much of the European Union and even Saudi Arabia would agree.
In the competition ahead, the U.S. will have to work to be a player.
Americans have by now become inured to China peeling off layers of the U.S. manufacturing base. The Asian giant, though, has never been at the starting gate of a new industry that promised exceptional growth. That's a natural place for America, we like to think. Indeed, the U.S. booted up the Internet business, fostering phenoms such as Cisco Systems and EBay. Those innovators brought the world online, enriching our national economy.
But with "clean tech" and renewable energy heralded as the next world-changing opportunity -- and our ticket out of the Great Recession -- the United States is at risk of ceding this strategic terrain.
U.S. setbacks dealt by the weakened economy have helped China's prospects in green commerce. It's become the capital of solar and wind power manufacturing, and it aims to be the main source of affordable electric cars. In the U.S., the lending freeze has combined with cheap oil to stunt the fortunes of clean energy. Wind, solar and biofuel projects have been canceled and seed capital is scarce, leaving fertile ideas on the drawing board.
While U.S. gross domestic product shrank 6.1% in the first quarter of this year, China's expanded by the same proportion. Its banks are not only standing but healthy, even amid a global downturn that has curbed demand for Chinese exports. At the same time, Beijing has raised efficiency and sustainability goals, largely in a quest for energy security.
There's an irony here, as those who have wheezed in Beijing's foul air know. China has overtaken the U.S. as the top greenhouse gas emitter, the fallout of breakneck development and its role as workshop for the West's cut-rate goods. Deforestation, overgrazing and poor water management are expanding its deserts; many of its rivers are flush with toxins. To environmentalists, China's crimes against nature threaten the planet.
Yet even as it has alarmed green activists, China has also stirred their hopes. Although the U.S. unseated Germany last year as the world leader in generating wind energy, this year, China is expected to be first in building the industry's machinery, largely for foreign firms. It's also installing wind turbines at a fast pace to generate clean electric power. The top two firms in the field, General Electric and Denmark's Vestas, have factories there.
Similarly, many solar companies have factories in China. Yet virtually all their wares are exported. In the 2008 sales derby, China-based Suntech beat all independent makers, trouncing U.S. champs SunPower and First Solar.
The auto industry is key to President Obama's plans to overhaul the way Americans consume energy -- he wants to leave imported oil in the dust. His agenda, however, has been detoured by Detroit's car crash. China now reigns in auto sales, and the oil-importing nation has its foot on the electric accelerator.
Warren Buffett, the renowned American investor, owns no part of GM or Ford. Last fall, however, his holding company took a $230-million stake in BYD of Shenzhen. BYD, like China itself, has disrupted the order of things, generating buzz for its advanced auto batteries and plug-in cars. Buffett and his colleagues told Fortune magazine that they believe BYD could become the world's largest carmaker on the strength of its electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is all but stalled in this race. The White House has judged General Motors' electric-vehicle hopeful, the Volt, too costly to succeed. If the Volt does make it onto the road, it will be powered by a battery from South Korea's LG Chem.
China isn't hesitating to open the public purse to fund progress. As heated as the debate was over the size of Obama's stimulus plan and its green elements, China's package, at $586 billion, is bigger -- relative to its economy -- and greener. And entrepreneurs, whom we rely on to invent the next generation of everything, are being kept afloat there. In the first quarter, clean-tech venture investments plunged a jaw-dropping 84% in the U.S. while continuing to rise in China.
But before the U.S. resigns itself to being an also-ran in clean energy, remember that China has far to go before being anointed the victor. It remains overwhelmingly dependent on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Although many of its new power plants boast what is sometimes called "cleaner coal" technology, most of the nation's power plants are less efficient and spew more carbon than their Western counterparts.
China produces armies of engineers but has no innovation centers comparable to MIT, Silicon Valley or the Ecomagination group at General Electric. The American culture of quality has no echo in China, which is only now hurrying to assemble the infrastructure of a modern economy.
Of course, the U.S. had a century or so head start. Yet the lack of an industrial past may be as much an edge as an obstacle for China. It may be that the only thing harder than building clean industries from scratch is rehabbing old ones for a low-carbon future.
"The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources," Obama has said, "will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy." Not only China but India, Japan, much of the European Union and even Saudi Arabia would agree.
In the competition ahead, the U.S. will have to work to be a player.
Eclipse Chasing, in Pursuit of Total Awe
ON July 22, the 21st century’s longest total solar eclipse will darken the sky along a narrow corridor of the Asian landmass and the Pacific Ocean. An otherworldly black disk will replace the sun for about six and a half minutes, and from India through China to the sea off the southern coast of Japan, spellbound adventurers will be out in force to see it. I wouldn’t miss being one of them.
I saw my first total solar eclipse in Hungary in 1999, at just past noon on a clear summer day. My friend Tamás and I were visiting his parents in Zánka, a village on the shore of Lake Balaton, and as the time drew near we stood chattering in the backyard, expectant but, as seems clear now, unprepared.
As the moon obscured more and more of the sun, the sky darkened to a shimmering violet. Cicadas, confused by the noontime dusk, began calling out their evening song. The temperature dropped. A breeze kicked up. When the eclipse was total, I removed my special eclipse glasses — essential for viewing the eclipse phases safely — casually looked up at the sun, and staggered back a little, my brain reeling.
The transformation of reality in a total solar eclipse is indescribable. I was mesmerized, disoriented, shocked, as if I had slipped through a wormhole to an alternate universe. I was the unwitting star of a “Twilight Zone” episode.
Mere minutes later, the sun peeked back out from behind the moon and all was familiar again. As suddenly as it had begun, my first total solar eclipse was over. But, like thousands of others around the world, I was hooked.
A growing number of eclipse-chasers, or umbraphiles, as they are also called, travel to the corners of the earth specifically to see total solar eclipses, and tour operators have sprung up to get them there. Beyond providing the thrill of standing on the moon’s shadow, or umbra, an eclipse is often the centerpiece of a travel adventure in exotic climes.
Umbraphiles have chased eclipses to Kazakh lakes, Zambian safari country and Algerian deserts. They have chartered ships to take them to the North Atlantic, the Caribbean and the middle of the Pacific. They’ve taken flights over the North Pole, faces pressed against tiny, frost-trimmed windows to view an eclipse from 35,000 feet.
The myths about eclipses are colorful: the sun and moon fighting or making love, hungry wolves or snakes devouring the light. But the ancient Chinese tale, that an eclipse is caused by a dragon swallowing the sun, seems especially apt. Eclipse fanatics are willing to spend any amount of time and money chasing that dragon.
The best eclipse tours are generally run by operators who understand local conditions, which may be chaotic for travelers, and have secured reliable transportation and the best accommodations and viewing spots. Since clouds can obscure the view of an eclipse, tour operators schedule observations in spots that are most likely to provide clear weather. Most tours feature lectures on both the science of eclipses and the art of observing them, including the all-important mantra for first-timers: Don’t bother with cameras and other distractions; just sit back and enjoy.
The experience evokes language laden with the mystical and the narcotic. “An eclipse is a glimpse of the world from a little outside our usual perspective,” said Liz O’Mara, an interactive marketing manager from New York and a veteran of three eclipses. “From that vantage point I can most easily see our position in the universe.”
Glenn Schneider, an astronomer at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona who has seen more total solar eclipses (27) than the Yankees have won World Series (26), puts it in more scientific terms: “Totality is stronger than opioids or pheromones.”
The perfect alignment of the earth and the moon that obscures the sun in total eclipse occurs only every 16 months or so, lasts no more than seven and a half minutes (typically only three or four), and is visible from less than 1 percent of the earth’s surface. The last one visible from within New York City was in 1925 and lasted no more than a minute; the next happens in 2079. If you’re very young and healthy, you can wait for an eclipse to come to you. Otherwise, you must chase one down.
And chase we did. In March 2006, Tamás and I met in Ghana for our second eclipse. We flew in to Accra, the capital, and hopped on a bus to Cape Coast, about 90 miles southwest. Rather than join the apparently raucous party of eclipse-chasers on the beach outside town, we shared the moment with a local group — the four-person staff of the Mighty Victory Hotel. As the moon crept along the sun’s surface, I suddenly grew anxious. Would it be as awe-inspiring as I had remembered?
I needn’t have worried. As the last diamond of the sun slipped behind the moon, I was once again transported to the Twilight Zone, this time for three minutes and 20 seconds.
This year’s eclipse will be my first in the company of fellow chasers — 86 umbraphiles led by Rick Brown, a commodities trader from Long Island. We’ll gather in a private viewing spot outside Wuhan, China, just after sunrise. Together we’ll perform rituals to ward off the clouds, don our eclipse glasses and wait. At the moment of total eclipse, even the seasoned veterans are likely to cry out with religious fervor.
It all seems a bit much — until you’ve seen one.
Bill Kramer, a computer consultant from Ohio who runs an eclipse-chasing Web site, describes himself as a cynic about most of things purported to be marvelous, but not this experience. “An eclipse,” he said, “is the one thing that actually lives up to the hype.”
IF YOU GO
A comprehensive Web site for eclipse chasers is www.eclipse-chasers.com. For dates and Google maps of past and future eclipses, consult eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/solar.html. Eclipse glasses are essential for when the eclipse is not at totality; one source is www.rainbowsymphonystore.com.
After July 22, the next three total eclipses will be on July 11, 2010, over the South Pacific; on Nov. 13, 2012, over northern Australia; and on Nov. 3, 2013, over mid-Africa
I saw my first total solar eclipse in Hungary in 1999, at just past noon on a clear summer day. My friend Tamás and I were visiting his parents in Zánka, a village on the shore of Lake Balaton, and as the time drew near we stood chattering in the backyard, expectant but, as seems clear now, unprepared.
As the moon obscured more and more of the sun, the sky darkened to a shimmering violet. Cicadas, confused by the noontime dusk, began calling out their evening song. The temperature dropped. A breeze kicked up. When the eclipse was total, I removed my special eclipse glasses — essential for viewing the eclipse phases safely — casually looked up at the sun, and staggered back a little, my brain reeling.
The transformation of reality in a total solar eclipse is indescribable. I was mesmerized, disoriented, shocked, as if I had slipped through a wormhole to an alternate universe. I was the unwitting star of a “Twilight Zone” episode.
Mere minutes later, the sun peeked back out from behind the moon and all was familiar again. As suddenly as it had begun, my first total solar eclipse was over. But, like thousands of others around the world, I was hooked.
A growing number of eclipse-chasers, or umbraphiles, as they are also called, travel to the corners of the earth specifically to see total solar eclipses, and tour operators have sprung up to get them there. Beyond providing the thrill of standing on the moon’s shadow, or umbra, an eclipse is often the centerpiece of a travel adventure in exotic climes.
Umbraphiles have chased eclipses to Kazakh lakes, Zambian safari country and Algerian deserts. They have chartered ships to take them to the North Atlantic, the Caribbean and the middle of the Pacific. They’ve taken flights over the North Pole, faces pressed against tiny, frost-trimmed windows to view an eclipse from 35,000 feet.
The myths about eclipses are colorful: the sun and moon fighting or making love, hungry wolves or snakes devouring the light. But the ancient Chinese tale, that an eclipse is caused by a dragon swallowing the sun, seems especially apt. Eclipse fanatics are willing to spend any amount of time and money chasing that dragon.
The best eclipse tours are generally run by operators who understand local conditions, which may be chaotic for travelers, and have secured reliable transportation and the best accommodations and viewing spots. Since clouds can obscure the view of an eclipse, tour operators schedule observations in spots that are most likely to provide clear weather. Most tours feature lectures on both the science of eclipses and the art of observing them, including the all-important mantra for first-timers: Don’t bother with cameras and other distractions; just sit back and enjoy.
The experience evokes language laden with the mystical and the narcotic. “An eclipse is a glimpse of the world from a little outside our usual perspective,” said Liz O’Mara, an interactive marketing manager from New York and a veteran of three eclipses. “From that vantage point I can most easily see our position in the universe.”
Glenn Schneider, an astronomer at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona who has seen more total solar eclipses (27) than the Yankees have won World Series (26), puts it in more scientific terms: “Totality is stronger than opioids or pheromones.”
The perfect alignment of the earth and the moon that obscures the sun in total eclipse occurs only every 16 months or so, lasts no more than seven and a half minutes (typically only three or four), and is visible from less than 1 percent of the earth’s surface. The last one visible from within New York City was in 1925 and lasted no more than a minute; the next happens in 2079. If you’re very young and healthy, you can wait for an eclipse to come to you. Otherwise, you must chase one down.
And chase we did. In March 2006, Tamás and I met in Ghana for our second eclipse. We flew in to Accra, the capital, and hopped on a bus to Cape Coast, about 90 miles southwest. Rather than join the apparently raucous party of eclipse-chasers on the beach outside town, we shared the moment with a local group — the four-person staff of the Mighty Victory Hotel. As the moon crept along the sun’s surface, I suddenly grew anxious. Would it be as awe-inspiring as I had remembered?
I needn’t have worried. As the last diamond of the sun slipped behind the moon, I was once again transported to the Twilight Zone, this time for three minutes and 20 seconds.
This year’s eclipse will be my first in the company of fellow chasers — 86 umbraphiles led by Rick Brown, a commodities trader from Long Island. We’ll gather in a private viewing spot outside Wuhan, China, just after sunrise. Together we’ll perform rituals to ward off the clouds, don our eclipse glasses and wait. At the moment of total eclipse, even the seasoned veterans are likely to cry out with religious fervor.
It all seems a bit much — until you’ve seen one.
Bill Kramer, a computer consultant from Ohio who runs an eclipse-chasing Web site, describes himself as a cynic about most of things purported to be marvelous, but not this experience. “An eclipse,” he said, “is the one thing that actually lives up to the hype.”
IF YOU GO
A comprehensive Web site for eclipse chasers is www.eclipse-chasers.com. For dates and Google maps of past and future eclipses, consult eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/solar.html. Eclipse glasses are essential for when the eclipse is not at totality; one source is www.rainbowsymphonystore.com.
After July 22, the next three total eclipses will be on July 11, 2010, over the South Pacific; on Nov. 13, 2012, over northern Australia; and on Nov. 3, 2013, over mid-Africa
Arms From U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands
Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior AmerArms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided to Afghan government forces, according to an examination of ammunition markings by The New York Times and interviews with American officers and arms dealers.
The presence of this ammunition among the dead in the Korangal Valley, an area of often fierce fighting near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, strongly suggests that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against American troops.
The scope of that diversion remains unknown, and the 30 magazines represented a single sampling of fewer than 1,000 cartridges. But military officials, arms analysts and dealers say it points to a worrisome possibility: With only spotty American and Afghan controls on the vast inventory of weapons and ammunition sent into Afghanistan during an eight-year conflict, poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied.
The United States has been criticized, as recently as February by the federal Government Accountability Office, for failing to account for thousands of rifles issued to Afghan security forces. Some of these weapons have been documented in insurgents’ hands, including weapons in a battle last year in which nine Americans died.
In response, the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, the American-led unit tasked with training and supplying Afghan forces, said it had made accountability of all Afghan police and military property a top priority, and taken steps to locate and log rifles issued even years ago. The Pentagon has created a database of small arms issued to Afghan units.
No similarly thorough accountability system exists for ammunition, which is harder to trace and more liquid than firearms, readily changing hands through corruption, illegal sales, theft, battlefield loss and other forms of diversion.
American forces do not examine all captured arms and munitions to trace how insurgents obtained them, or to determine whether the Afghan government, directly or indirectly, is a significant Taliban supplier, military officers said. The reasons include limited resources and institutional memory of issued arms, as well as an absence of collaboration between field units that collect equipment and the investigators and supervisors in Kabul who could trace it.
In this case, the rifle magazines were captured last month by a platoon in Company B, First Battalion, 26th Infantry, which killed at least 13 insurgents in a nighttime ambush in eastern Afghanistan. The soldiers searched the insurgents’ remains and collected 10 rifles, a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, 30 magazines and other equipment.
Access to Taliban equipment is unusual. But after the ambush, the company allowed the items to be examined by this reporter.
Photographs were taken of the weapons’ serial numbers and markings on the bottoms of the cartridge casings, known as headstamps, which can reveal where and when ammunition was manufactured. The headstamps were then compared with ammunition in government circulation, and with this reporter’s records of ammunition sampled in Afghan magazines and bunkers in multiple provinces in recent years.
The type of ammunition in question, 7.62x39 millimeter, colloquially known as “7.62 short,” is one of the world’s most abundant classes of military small-arms cartridges, and can come from dozens of potential suppliers.
It is used in Kalashnikov rifles and their knockoffs, and has been made in many countries, including Russia, China, Ukraine, North Korea, Cuba, India, Pakistan, the United States, the former Warsaw Pact nations and several countries in Africa. Several countries have multiple factories, each associated with distinct markings.
The examination of the Taliban’s cartridges found telling signs of diversion: 17 of the magazines contained ammunition bearing either of two stamps: the word “WOLF” in uppercase letters, or the lowercase arrangement “bxn.”
“WOLF” stamps mark ammunition from Wolf Performance Ammunition, a company in California that sells Russian-made cartridges to American gun owners. The company has also provided cartridges for Afghan soldiers and police officers, typically through middlemen. Its munitions can be found in Afghan government bunkers.
The “bxn” marking was formerly used at a Czech factory during the cold war. Since 2004, the Czech government has donated surplus ammunition and equipment to Afghanistan. A.E.Y. Inc., a former Pentagon supplier, also shipped surplus Czech ammunition to Afghanistan, according to the United States Army, including cartridges bearing “bxn” stamps.
Most of the Wolf and Czech ammunition in the Taliban magazines was in good condition and showed little weathering, denting, corrosion or soiling, suggesting it had been removed from packaging recently.
There is no evidence that Wolf, the Czech government or A.E.Y. knowingly shipped ammunition to Afghan insurgents. A.E.Y. was banned last year from doing business with the Pentagon, but its legal troubles stemmed from unrelated allegations of fraud.
Given the number of potential sources, the probability that the Taliban and the Pentagon were sharing identical supply sources was small.
Rather, the concentration of Taliban ammunition identical in markings and condition to that used by Afghan units indicated that the munitions had most likely slipped from state custody, said James Bevan, a researcher specializing in ammunition for the Small Arms Survey, an independent research group in Geneva.
Mr. Bevan, who has documented ammunition diversion in Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, said one likely explanation was that interpreters, soldiers or police officers had sold ammunition for profit or passed it along for other reasons, including support for the insurgency. “Same story, different location,” he said.
The majority of cartridges in the remaining 13 Taliban magazines bore headstamps indicating they were made in Russia in the Soviet period. Several rounds had Chinese stamps and dates indicating manufacture in the 1960s and ’70s. A smaller number were Hungarian. Much of this other ammunition was in poor condition.
Hungarian and Chinese ammunition had also been provided to the Afghan government by A.E.Y., making it possible that several of the remaining magazines included American-procured rounds.
The American military did not dispute the possibility that theft or corruption could have steered Wolf and Czech ammunition to insurgents.
Capt. James C. Howell, who commands the company that captured the ammunition, said illicit diversion would be consistent with an enduring reputation of corruption in Afghan units, especially the police. “It’s not surprising,” he said.
But he added that in his experience this form of corruption was not a norm. Rather than deliberate diversion, he said, the more likely causes would be poor discipline and oversight in the Afghan national security forces, or A.N.S.F. “I think most A.N.S.F. don’t want their own stuff coming back at them,” he said.
Captured Taliban rifles provide a glimpse at arms diversion as well.
After the battle in the eastern village of Wanat last year, in which 9 Americans died and more than 20 were wounded, investigators found a large cache of AMD-65 assault rifles in the village’s police post, which was implicated in the attack, according to American officers. In all, the post had more than 70 assault rifles, but only 20 officers on its roster. Three AMD-65s were recovered near the battle as well.
The AMD-65, a distinctive Hungarian rifle, was rarely seen in Afghanistan until the United States issued it by the thousands to the Afghan police. They can now be found in Pakistani arms bazaars.
In the American ambush last month, all of the 10 captured rifles had factory stamps from China or Izhevsk, Russia. Those with date stamps had been manufactured in the 1960s and ’70s.
Photographs of the weapons and serial numbers were provided to Brig. Gen. Anthony R. Ierardi, the deputy commander of the transition command. Upon checking against the Pentagon’s new database, the general said one of the Chinese rifles had been issued to an Afghan auxiliary police officer in 2007. How Taliban insurgents had acquired the rifle was not clear.
The auxiliary police, which augmented the Afghan Interior Ministry, were riddled with corruption and incompetence. They were disbanded last year.
Speaking about the captured Taliban ammunition, General Ierardi cautioned that the range of headstamps could indicate that insurgent use of American-procured munitions was not widespread. He noted that the captured ammunition sampling was small and that munitions might have leaked through less nefarious means.
“The mixed ammo could suggest battlefield losses; it could suggest captured ammo,” he said. He added, however, that he did not want to appear defensive and that accountability of Afghan arms and munitions was of “highest priority.”
“The emphasis from our perspective is on accountability of all logistics property,” he said. Leakage of Pentagon-supplied armaments to insurgents was an “absolutely worst-case scenario,” he said, adding, “We want to guard against the exact scenario you laid out.”
The presence of this ammunition among the dead in the Korangal Valley, an area of often fierce fighting near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, strongly suggests that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against American troops.
The scope of that diversion remains unknown, and the 30 magazines represented a single sampling of fewer than 1,000 cartridges. But military officials, arms analysts and dealers say it points to a worrisome possibility: With only spotty American and Afghan controls on the vast inventory of weapons and ammunition sent into Afghanistan during an eight-year conflict, poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied.
The United States has been criticized, as recently as February by the federal Government Accountability Office, for failing to account for thousands of rifles issued to Afghan security forces. Some of these weapons have been documented in insurgents’ hands, including weapons in a battle last year in which nine Americans died.
In response, the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, the American-led unit tasked with training and supplying Afghan forces, said it had made accountability of all Afghan police and military property a top priority, and taken steps to locate and log rifles issued even years ago. The Pentagon has created a database of small arms issued to Afghan units.
No similarly thorough accountability system exists for ammunition, which is harder to trace and more liquid than firearms, readily changing hands through corruption, illegal sales, theft, battlefield loss and other forms of diversion.
American forces do not examine all captured arms and munitions to trace how insurgents obtained them, or to determine whether the Afghan government, directly or indirectly, is a significant Taliban supplier, military officers said. The reasons include limited resources and institutional memory of issued arms, as well as an absence of collaboration between field units that collect equipment and the investigators and supervisors in Kabul who could trace it.
In this case, the rifle magazines were captured last month by a platoon in Company B, First Battalion, 26th Infantry, which killed at least 13 insurgents in a nighttime ambush in eastern Afghanistan. The soldiers searched the insurgents’ remains and collected 10 rifles, a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, 30 magazines and other equipment.
Access to Taliban equipment is unusual. But after the ambush, the company allowed the items to be examined by this reporter.
Photographs were taken of the weapons’ serial numbers and markings on the bottoms of the cartridge casings, known as headstamps, which can reveal where and when ammunition was manufactured. The headstamps were then compared with ammunition in government circulation, and with this reporter’s records of ammunition sampled in Afghan magazines and bunkers in multiple provinces in recent years.
The type of ammunition in question, 7.62x39 millimeter, colloquially known as “7.62 short,” is one of the world’s most abundant classes of military small-arms cartridges, and can come from dozens of potential suppliers.
It is used in Kalashnikov rifles and their knockoffs, and has been made in many countries, including Russia, China, Ukraine, North Korea, Cuba, India, Pakistan, the United States, the former Warsaw Pact nations and several countries in Africa. Several countries have multiple factories, each associated with distinct markings.
The examination of the Taliban’s cartridges found telling signs of diversion: 17 of the magazines contained ammunition bearing either of two stamps: the word “WOLF” in uppercase letters, or the lowercase arrangement “bxn.”
“WOLF” stamps mark ammunition from Wolf Performance Ammunition, a company in California that sells Russian-made cartridges to American gun owners. The company has also provided cartridges for Afghan soldiers and police officers, typically through middlemen. Its munitions can be found in Afghan government bunkers.
The “bxn” marking was formerly used at a Czech factory during the cold war. Since 2004, the Czech government has donated surplus ammunition and equipment to Afghanistan. A.E.Y. Inc., a former Pentagon supplier, also shipped surplus Czech ammunition to Afghanistan, according to the United States Army, including cartridges bearing “bxn” stamps.
Most of the Wolf and Czech ammunition in the Taliban magazines was in good condition and showed little weathering, denting, corrosion or soiling, suggesting it had been removed from packaging recently.
There is no evidence that Wolf, the Czech government or A.E.Y. knowingly shipped ammunition to Afghan insurgents. A.E.Y. was banned last year from doing business with the Pentagon, but its legal troubles stemmed from unrelated allegations of fraud.
Given the number of potential sources, the probability that the Taliban and the Pentagon were sharing identical supply sources was small.
Rather, the concentration of Taliban ammunition identical in markings and condition to that used by Afghan units indicated that the munitions had most likely slipped from state custody, said James Bevan, a researcher specializing in ammunition for the Small Arms Survey, an independent research group in Geneva.
Mr. Bevan, who has documented ammunition diversion in Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, said one likely explanation was that interpreters, soldiers or police officers had sold ammunition for profit or passed it along for other reasons, including support for the insurgency. “Same story, different location,” he said.
The majority of cartridges in the remaining 13 Taliban magazines bore headstamps indicating they were made in Russia in the Soviet period. Several rounds had Chinese stamps and dates indicating manufacture in the 1960s and ’70s. A smaller number were Hungarian. Much of this other ammunition was in poor condition.
Hungarian and Chinese ammunition had also been provided to the Afghan government by A.E.Y., making it possible that several of the remaining magazines included American-procured rounds.
The American military did not dispute the possibility that theft or corruption could have steered Wolf and Czech ammunition to insurgents.
Capt. James C. Howell, who commands the company that captured the ammunition, said illicit diversion would be consistent with an enduring reputation of corruption in Afghan units, especially the police. “It’s not surprising,” he said.
But he added that in his experience this form of corruption was not a norm. Rather than deliberate diversion, he said, the more likely causes would be poor discipline and oversight in the Afghan national security forces, or A.N.S.F. “I think most A.N.S.F. don’t want their own stuff coming back at them,” he said.
Captured Taliban rifles provide a glimpse at arms diversion as well.
After the battle in the eastern village of Wanat last year, in which 9 Americans died and more than 20 were wounded, investigators found a large cache of AMD-65 assault rifles in the village’s police post, which was implicated in the attack, according to American officers. In all, the post had more than 70 assault rifles, but only 20 officers on its roster. Three AMD-65s were recovered near the battle as well.
The AMD-65, a distinctive Hungarian rifle, was rarely seen in Afghanistan until the United States issued it by the thousands to the Afghan police. They can now be found in Pakistani arms bazaars.
In the American ambush last month, all of the 10 captured rifles had factory stamps from China or Izhevsk, Russia. Those with date stamps had been manufactured in the 1960s and ’70s.
Photographs of the weapons and serial numbers were provided to Brig. Gen. Anthony R. Ierardi, the deputy commander of the transition command. Upon checking against the Pentagon’s new database, the general said one of the Chinese rifles had been issued to an Afghan auxiliary police officer in 2007. How Taliban insurgents had acquired the rifle was not clear.
The auxiliary police, which augmented the Afghan Interior Ministry, were riddled with corruption and incompetence. They were disbanded last year.
Speaking about the captured Taliban ammunition, General Ierardi cautioned that the range of headstamps could indicate that insurgent use of American-procured munitions was not widespread. He noted that the captured ammunition sampling was small and that munitions might have leaked through less nefarious means.
“The mixed ammo could suggest battlefield losses; it could suggest captured ammo,” he said. He added, however, that he did not want to appear defensive and that accountability of Afghan arms and munitions was of “highest priority.”
“The emphasis from our perspective is on accountability of all logistics property,” he said. Leakage of Pentagon-supplied armaments to insurgents was an “absolutely worst-case scenario,” he said, adding, “We want to guard against the exact scenario you laid out.”
India’s Challenges
The Indian National Congress party cannot afford a prolonged celebration after its overwhelming election victory. Much of the postvote analysis has focused on the daunting domestic agenda. But now that Congress has a stable mandate — and can shuck a fractious coalition — it is time for India to exercise the kind of regional and global leadership expected of a rising power.
It can start with neighboring Pakistan, arguably the most dangerous country on earth. A report in The Times on Monday reminds us just how dangerous: The United States believes Islamabad is rapidly expanding a nuclear arsenal thought to already contain 80 to 100 weapons.
We have consistently supported appropriate military aid and increased economic aid to help Pakistan fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, strengthen democratic institutions and improve the life of its people. Squandering precious resources on nuclear bombs is disgraceful when Pakistan is troubled by economic crisis and facing an insurgency that threatens its very existence.
Trying to keep up to 100 bombs from extremists is hard enough; expanding the nuclear stockpile makes the challenge worse. Officials in Washington are legitimately asking whether billions of dollars in proposed new assistance might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program. They should demand assurances it will not be.
India is essential to what Pakistan will do. New Delhi exercised welcome restraint when it did not attack Pakistan after the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai by Pakistani-based extremists. But tensions remain high, and the Pakistani Army continues to view India as its main adversary. India should take the lead in initiating arms control talks with Pakistan and China. It should also declare its intention to stop producing nuclear weapons fuel, even before a proposed multinational treaty is negotiated. That would provide leverage for Washington and others to exhort Pakistan to do the same.
It is past time for India — stronger both economically and in international stature — to find a way to resolve tensions with Pakistan over Kashmir. If that festering sore cannot be addressed directly, then — as Stephen P. Cohen, a South Asia expert at the Brookings Institution, suggests — broader regional talks on environmental and water issues might be an interim way to find common ground. Ignoring Kashmir is no longer an option.
India has played a constructive role in helping rebuild Afghanistan, but it must take steps to allay Islamabad’s concerns that this is a plan to encircle Pakistan. It should foster regional trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan. More broadly, India must help to revive world trade talks by opening its markets. It could use its considerable trade clout with Iran, Sudan and Myanmar to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, end the genocide in Darfur and press Myanmar’s junta to expand human rights.
India is the dominant power in South Asia, but it has been hesitant to assume its responsibilities. The Congress Party has to do better — starting with Pakistan
editorial: nytimes.com
It can start with neighboring Pakistan, arguably the most dangerous country on earth. A report in The Times on Monday reminds us just how dangerous: The United States believes Islamabad is rapidly expanding a nuclear arsenal thought to already contain 80 to 100 weapons.
We have consistently supported appropriate military aid and increased economic aid to help Pakistan fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, strengthen democratic institutions and improve the life of its people. Squandering precious resources on nuclear bombs is disgraceful when Pakistan is troubled by economic crisis and facing an insurgency that threatens its very existence.
Trying to keep up to 100 bombs from extremists is hard enough; expanding the nuclear stockpile makes the challenge worse. Officials in Washington are legitimately asking whether billions of dollars in proposed new assistance might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program. They should demand assurances it will not be.
India is essential to what Pakistan will do. New Delhi exercised welcome restraint when it did not attack Pakistan after the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai by Pakistani-based extremists. But tensions remain high, and the Pakistani Army continues to view India as its main adversary. India should take the lead in initiating arms control talks with Pakistan and China. It should also declare its intention to stop producing nuclear weapons fuel, even before a proposed multinational treaty is negotiated. That would provide leverage for Washington and others to exhort Pakistan to do the same.
It is past time for India — stronger both economically and in international stature — to find a way to resolve tensions with Pakistan over Kashmir. If that festering sore cannot be addressed directly, then — as Stephen P. Cohen, a South Asia expert at the Brookings Institution, suggests — broader regional talks on environmental and water issues might be an interim way to find common ground. Ignoring Kashmir is no longer an option.
India has played a constructive role in helping rebuild Afghanistan, but it must take steps to allay Islamabad’s concerns that this is a plan to encircle Pakistan. It should foster regional trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan. More broadly, India must help to revive world trade talks by opening its markets. It could use its considerable trade clout with Iran, Sudan and Myanmar to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, end the genocide in Darfur and press Myanmar’s junta to expand human rights.
India is the dominant power in South Asia, but it has been hesitant to assume its responsibilities. The Congress Party has to do better — starting with Pakistan
editorial: nytimes.com
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