Guinea Demonstrations

The community of Guineans in the USA demonstrated in Washington yesterday in support of the general strike back in Guinea. Above is a link to Aminata.com, a site which has so far had the most up to date information. I copied this picture from the ones posted.





The news of the strike and the police retaliations has started to permeate the western, english- language press. It seems that with the war in Iraq still raging only many deaths will penetrate the news organizations. I hope it doesn't came to that!
Here is a link to a Washington Post article yesterday: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012500730.html?referrer=delicious
Maybe as the price of aluminum goes up, the world will take notice.

Four more killed in Guinea as crisis talks under way

AFP.com | Agence France-Presse, a global news agency

This article summarizes the situation in Guinea eleven days into the strike. It also has pictures of the burned out cars in Conakry and people lining up for gas.

I left Guinea almost two weeks ago, just as the strike was starting. There was no doubt that the people were fed up with the corruption and impoverishment of their country, especially since Guinea is such a potentially rich country. I hope the strike ends soon, peacefully and with the kind of government that Guinea deserves at last.

Water on Mars!

I just came across this CNN article about evidence of recent water activity on Mars. It seems that images taken over time by the now lost Mars Global Surveyor show new gullies that seem to have been dug on Mars, possibly by water. Here is a link to the official NASA images. This opens up all kinds of possibilities. Mars could still be volcanically active. There could be the precursors of life or even life itself on Mars. They will probably try to be even more careful to sterilize the next Mars explorer before it is launched. This news makes it imperative to start work on a serious effort to send a manned mission to Mars. It will take a long time to get going.

About 12 years ago I started reading the Mars series: Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. The trilogy described how Mars could be colonized with existing technology. The first book was the best. The last two were good, although they required some interesting conjectures of earthly political and environmental developments.

Water on Mars. It's amazing.

NASA Gemini Anniversary

NASA published this image of Gemini VI taken by the Gemini VII capsule rushing to do the first manned rendezvous in its image of the day series. The Gemini flights in the 60's were the training missions to prepare for the Apollo lunar atttempts.

I remember watching all of these missions on TV from takeoff to splashdown. We even listened to them on the radio. It was better than any science fiction because it was real. As much as I like Star Trek, I think we need to do more in real space.

Team of Rivals

I just finished reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. What an amazing book! I have never read a Civil War book or Lincoln biography like this before. How does a politician deal with rivals and an overwhelmingly difficult situation? In the case of Lincoln, you invite your rivals to work with you in the Cabinet. You use the skills that brought them to the top of the political world to work on the nation's problems.

While reading the book I couldn't help but compare Lincoln to more recent presidents. Like Bill Clinton, Lincoln could empathize with everyone he meant. Over and over the book recounted instances where he put the welfare of others over his own. Yet unlike Clinton, Lincoln had mastered himself. He had an iron self-discipline, from which he never deviated.

George W. Bush is famously single-minded, but unwilling to change. Lincoln always recognized his own errors and changed course when he was shown to be wrong. He was also at pains to take the responsibility for his mistakes as he strove to correct. them.

I found that I didn't want the book to end, since I knew how it ended. This book makes you realize how important it is to have the right leader at the right time. Also, no one can predict who will be the leader, or from where he will come.

New Illustrated Bible

I heard a story yesterday morning on public radio (WETA) about an exhibit of a new illustrated Bible, some pages of which will soon be on display at the Library of Congress. This is a full hand drawn bible with the ornate calligraphy and the fantastical illustrations.

The chief calligrapher, Donald Jackson, was for many years the chief calligrapher for the Queen of England. He was amazingly passionate about the importance of writing out important documents. He said that all of us should write something, anything, with whatever medium is convenient. In our age of digital media, that is a startling message. It reminds me of an interview with Shelby Foote, who said that all his books were written longhand with a fountain pen.

The Bible is for Saint John's University in Minnesota. Much of the work will be done by monks in a monastery there. The image of monks in a scriptorium reminded me of books I have read that took place in an abbey.

In The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco the mystery takes place in the scriptorium. Books, philosophy, and the love of knowledge make up the central themes of the story.

In A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. the monastery in the desert of Utah stores the remains of human knowledge after the nuclear holocaust. Only the obstinacy of the monks saves human civilization from losing it all. I read this in high school and have reread it several times. It's one you don't forget.

I hope I get a chance some day to see this new illustrated Bible.

Thanksgiving Sheep? 2006

What if eastern Massachussetts had been overrun with sheep? Then we would probably have roast mutton instead of turkey on Thanksgiving. I went on a walk before our Thanksgiving feast and came across these sheep enjoying the day. What do they have to worry about?