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China's first manned spacecraft has entered orbit, making it the third country to send a human into space. A Long March 2F rocket blasted off from the Gobi desert launch pad at 0900 (0100 GMT), and the Shenzhou V spacecraft was orbiting Earth 10 minutes later. The craft, carrying a single astronaut, Yang Liwei, is expected to circle the planet 14 times, returning to Earth after a flight of about 22 hours. President Hu Jintao was present for the launch, and said it was "the glory of our great motherland and a mark for the initial victory of the country's first manned space flight". Only the United States and the former Soviet Union had previously sent humans into space. bbc story

A digital picture of a spectacular and apparently explosive event in the sky fooled a pair of seasoned NASA scientists, has other researchers around the globe mystified, and made a minor celebrity of a teenage photographer. Jonathan Burnett, 15, was photographing his friends skateboarding in Pencoed, Wales when one of them noticed a colorful fireball in the sky. Burnett snapped a picture, then sent it to NASA scientists and asked if they knew what it was. Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell, who run NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), posted the photograph on Oct. 1 and wrote that "a sofa-sized rock came hurtling into the nearby atmosphere of planet Earth and disintegrated." They called the picture "one of the more spectacular meteor images yet recorded." full story

China Space Launch Planned for October 15 Two of China's fourteen astronauts training at the Jiuquan launch pad in western Gansu Province. Image source: BBCi. China's CCTV state television says government plans to launch its first manned space vehicle on October 15. The Shenzhou V spacecraft is expected to orbit earth one or more times before returning. Exactly who will be China's first humans in space is yet to be announced, but there are reports that fourteen astronauts are training at the launch pad in Jiuquan, western Gansu Province. The Chinese word for spacemen is "yuhangyuan." If successful, China will be the third Earth nation to put humans in space. The first were the Soviet Union and United States. The BBC reports that China's Director of Rocket Design, Xie Guangxuan, said, "China's space technology has been created by China itself. We started later than Russia and the United States. It's amazing how fast we've been able to do this." The BBC's correspondent in Beijing, Louisa Lim, also reports that a Chinese defense official, Wang Shuquan, has confirmed that China also intends to send a research satellite to orbit the moon within the next three years. The goal is to orbit the moon for a year, gathering data abut lunar geology, soil, environment and natural resources.

Scientists to probe near death experiences Scientists probing the paranormal say they hope to set up a major experiment in Britain trying to find out once and for all whether the mind can step outside the body at the brink of death. The proposed study would involve interviewing people who had survived cardiac arrest to see if they had had an out-of-body experience while on the operating table. "Over the course of a year we hope this would give us 100 people who leave their bodies," neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick told reporters at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The researchers plan to ask 25 hospitals to place special objects and pictures around their cardiac units. Each survivor who then claimed to have an out-of-body experience - where they typically hover near the ceiling watching the resuscitation process - would be asked if they had noticed any of the objects. "If they do notice them when the brain is not functioning then it makes the case for the mind being separate from the brain," he said. Mr Fenwick, whose special field is near-death experiences, said there was ample anecdotal evidence of out-of-body experiences, but scant data. "These people seem to be able to get information when they are out of their bodies. People have talked of 'mind sight'," he said. But he accepted that, if no one noticed the objects, it would equally kill off the theory. He also said there had been scientific studies proving that prayer worked. In one, the number of women in a clinic in Seoul, who conceived after being implanted with fertilised eggs, doubled when groups elsewhere prayed for them. Robert Morris, Koestler Professor of Parapsychology at the University of Edinburgh, said there was evidence that voice, touch and sight were not the only means of communication. He said that, in experiments, particularly sensitive people had been able to communicate over distance, although he readily accepted that his field was also full of cheats and liars. Reuters 09/15/03

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030827.html Explanation: At about 10 am Universal Time today, Mars and Earth will pass closer than in nearly 60,000 years. Mars, noticeably red, will be the brightest object in the eastern sky just after sunset. Tonight and through much of this week, many communities around the world are running a public Mars Watch 2003 campaign, where local telescopes will zoom in on the red planet. Pictured above is an image of Mars taken just last night from the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit around the Earth. This image is the most detailed view of Mars ever taken from Earth. Visible features include the south polar cap in white at the image bottom, circular Huygens crater just to the right of the image center, Hellas Impact Basin - the large light circular feature at the lower right, planet-wide light highlands dominated by many smaller craters and large sweeping dark areas dominated by relatively smooth lowlands.

These two images, taken 11 hours apart with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveal two nearly opposite sides of Mars. Hubble snapped these photos as the red planet was making its closest approach to Earth in almost 60,000 years. Mars completed nearly one half a rotation between the two observations. http://www.hubblesite.org/

Europe is planning to use Star Trek-style technology on its first mission to the moon. The unmanned Smart-1 lunar probe is to be launched next month and will be powered by an ion engine using solar electric propulsion. Sci-fi writers have been fascinated by the concept but, now, it has become reality on Smart-1. Ion thrusters have been used just once before in space, on a NASA mission called Deep Space 1. Ion-powered engines are 10 times more efficient than conventional rocket-fuelled ones, and could slash years off interplanetary journeys. The probe's engine uses solar panels that convert sunlight into thrust. The light is converted into electricity which is then used to convert xenon gas atoms into ions. This tiny matter is then thrust out of the engine at high speed providing propulsion. The solar panels provide only 0.07newton of thrust - the equivalent to the weight of a postcard. But as they build up speed continuously they can eventually travel far faster than a craft powered by traditional rocket fuel. "This is Europe's first mission to our neighbour, " Professor Keith Mason of University College London said. "It is a bit like Star Trek." Story filed: 14:07 Monday 18th August 2003

Search for lost river throws up 300 AD site in Haryana Rajendra Khatry Yamunanagar, August 11: The Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI), Rs-8-crore search for the mythical Saraswati has thrown up an exciting find at the foothills of the Shivalik — and a new controversy. Extensive excavation in the last seven months at Adi Badri site, 40 km north of the Yamunanagar district in Haryana, has yielded a 300 AD Kushan site — and speculation that this may be the spot where the river had originated. The finds at the 200-foot-high Intowali site (ABR-II) include a monastery, Buddha statue, pottery, pieces of carved slabs, a meditation hall, verandah, an entrance, and several artefacts. Archaeologists say now there is enough evidence to prove that this was one of the major areas of inhabitation on the banks of the Saraswati that once flourished, and then disappeared without a trace. The Saraswati campaigners are ecstatic. ‘‘ASI’s excavations at Adi Badri are of great significance. It has been established beyond doubt that this is the region where the once mighty river Saraswati originated,’’ says Darshan Lal Jain, Director, Saraswati Nadi Shodh Sansthan, Haryana. But Karamvir Singh does not think so. The president of the All India Confederation of SC/ST and BC Organisations, Haryana unit, says since it is found to be a Buddhist site, it should be handed over to them. After performing pooja in front of Buddha’s statue at Adi Badri on Sunday, he accused the ASI of hiding this fact to prove that it was part of the Vedic civilisation. The picturesque site framed by hillocks is being dug up by the Mini Circle, Shimla, on behalf of the ASI’s Chandigarh circle. The team led by I.D. Dwivedi, Deputy Superintendent, ASI, under the supervision of Ravindra Singh Bisht, Joint Director, ASI, is trying to determine the presence of successive cultures that flourished on the banks of the Saraswati. The ASI is excavating around 40 ancient sites in what is believed to be the Saraswati river basin. The 1,255-sq m Adi Badri is among the hundreds of sites that existed on the banks of the Saraswati, which is believed to have flowed from Adi Badri to Dholavira in Gujarat, irrigating the parched land of Haryana and Rajasthan. An exposed brick structure found at the site could be dated to about 300 AD. ‘‘Other finds of this antiquity include numerous pottery items such as bowls lids, miniature pots, jars, cooking vessels, pitchers, storage jars, stamped wares,’’ said Ajmer Singh, Surveyor Officer, ASI, Chandigarh. Similar excavations are also being carried out at several other sites in Haryana such as Bilaspur, Sadhoura, Mustafabad, Bhagwanpura, Thanesar, Mirzapur, Pehowa, Kalayat and Kaithal. A senior official at the Director General office, ASI, Delhi said: ‘‘Excavations have been going on in at least 15 different sites countrywide. Yamunanagar is one of these. We have proof that the Saraswati existed on that course in the form of satellite imagery and hydrological evidences.’’

During one of his many trips to London, George Burns became friends with a very wealthy, yet very modest, Jewish chap, named Hyman Goldfarb. On one visit, Hy told George that because of his large donations to charities through the years, the queen wanted to knight him, but he was going to turn it down. "That's a great honor," George said. "Why would you turn it down?" "Because during the ceremony you have to say something in Latin," he said. "And I don't wish to bother studying Latin just for that." "So say something in Hebrew. The queen wouldn't know the difference." "Brilliant," Hy said, "but what should I say?" "Remember that question the son asks the father on the first night of Passover? ... 'Why is this night different from all other nights?' Can you say that in Hebrew?" "Of course," he said. "Ma nishtana ha leila hazeh. Thank you, old sport, I shall become a knight." At the ceremony Hy waited his turn while several of the other honorees went before the queen. Finally they called his name. He knelt before Her Majesty, she placed her sword on one shoulder, and then on the other, and motioned for Hy to speak. Out came "Ma nishtana ha leila hazeh." The queen turned to her husband and said, "Why is this knight different from all other knights?"

http://www.ojas.by.ru/ http://www.ojas.by.ru/foto2/murti/RKrishna.htm

Saturday, June 7, 2003 Posted: 1:01 PM EDT (1701 GMT) PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (AP) -- Zipping along U.S. 1, it's easy to overlook planet Mars. After all, it's only 3 inches in diameter, perched atop a pole next to the "Welcome to Presque Isle" sign. But it's hard to miss Jupiter, which is 5 feet in diameter and weighs close to a ton, next to a potato field. Saturn hovers over traffic on U.S. 1 between Presque Isle and Mars Hill, Maine. What unfolds along a stretch of a highway through the rolling farm country of northern Maine is billed as the world's largest scale model of the solar system. Due to be dedicated June 14, the model was a labor of love completed over four years with volunteers and a budget of zero. The necessary ingredients included a community's can-do attitude and inspiration of an eccentric professor. "There's a sense of pride," said Kevin McCartney, a geology professor at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. "You could not build something like this in 99.9 percent of the United States." The center of this solar system is the university where McCartney works. Driving south on U.S. 1, it ends 40 miles later with tiny Pluto mounted on the wall of a visitor information center in Houlton. At scale, 7 mph would be the equivalent of driving at the speed of light; it would take eight minutes to travel from the sun to Earth. Of course, that would be ill-advised on a two-lane highway. Because the planets were built to scale, it can be something of a game of hide and seek to find the smaller ones. There's a sense of pride. You could not build something like this in 99.9 percent of the United States. -- Prof. Kevin McCartney Earth, which is a bit larger than a softball, is located next to the Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge sign at Percy's Auto Sales. Venus, at 5 inches in diameter, is in a motel parking lot. Mercury, at 2 inches, is in a garden by the highway. Pluto, the smallest, is an inch in diameter. Some planets are surrounded by moons -- seven altogether -- most of which are attached to metal rods that are stuck in the ground. "The larger planets really make a statement. The small ones are hard to locate," said Tom Cote, an art instructor at Limestone Community School who enlisted students to help paint Jupiter. Cote supervised students from kindergarten to high school who painted the massive planet over a six-month period. The students pored over photographs provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and mixed acrylic paints to get the hues of pink, orange and red, said Jacinda St. Pierre, a high school junior. "In the end, it was quite an accomplishment to finish it and have it look as good as it did," the 17-year-old said. Others pitched in across Aroostook County, which has only 73,000 residents despite being the largest county east of the Mississippi and having more land than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. McCartney spearheaded the project with volunteers and a budget of zero As the formal dedication nears, residents who gave life to the project look upon it as a labor of love with satisfaction. But many treated McCartney with a healthy dose of skepticism at first. "I, and a lot of other people, thought he was whacked," said Scott Norton, general manager of Percy's Auto Sales. McCartney soon took on the appearance of Tom Sawyer convincing his friends that painting a fence would be fun. Only in this story, Tom didn't sit on a bucket and watch. He worked, too. He convinced instructors and students at the Caribou Regional Applied Technology Center to design and weld the largest planets. Students from the school's auto body shop added their fiberglass expertise. Other volunteers loaded the completed planets onto gooseneck trailers to haul them to schools to be painted. A couple of farmers and businesses donated land for the planets, and volunteers built the concrete pads and parking lots for Saturn and Jupiter. The finishing touch was landscaping. The project will be formally completed when Uranus is placed on its base in the town of Bridgewater on June 13, the day before Sen. Susan Collins and other dignitaries are expected for the dedication ceremony.

Three engineers and three accountants are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket. "How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks an accountant. "Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer. They all board the train. The accountants take their respective seats but all three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please." The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on. The accountants saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So after the conference, the accountants decide to copy the engineers on the return trip and save some money (being clever with money, and all that). When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the engineers don't buy a ticket at all. "How are you going to travel without a ticket?" says one perplexed accountant. "Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer. When they board the train the three accountants cram into a restroom and the three engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs.Shortly afterward, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the accountants are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, Ticket, please."

Explanation: Have you ever seen a halo around the Moon? This fairly common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hexagonal shape, light entering one crystal face and exiting through the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius of the Moon Halo. A similar Sun Halo may be visible during the day. The picture was taken in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, USA. The distant planet Jupiter appears by chance just to the left of the Moon. Exactly how ice-crystals form in clouds remains under investigation

Mar 09 2003 Pope Brokers Deal for Saddam'sExile? Pope John Paul II, in a dramatic gesture to prevent a war, is seeking to broker a deal for Saddam Hussein's exile VATICAN CITY, March 9, 2003 -- Vatican officials confirmed to ITV today that Pope John Paul II, in addition to praying daily for peace in the Middle East, is trying to broker a deal to have Saddam Hussein accept exile and this avoid an Iraq-United States war. "God willing, war may still be averted, even at this apparently late hour," one Vatican official told us. "We are still hopeful..." According to the proposal, Saddam Hussein and his family are to be given 72 hours from Tuesday, March 11, to accept an offer of exile. At the same time, several dozen of Iraq's top military leaders will be offered an amnesty in return for full co-operation with the United Nations, the still-secret plan proposes, according to published reports. The proposal, brokered by the Vatican with Saudi Arabia and moderate Arab states, was evidently tabled by Pakistan during a closed-door meeting of the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council on Friday. Marion McKeone of the Glasgow, Scotland, "Sunday Herald" reported today from the UN in New York City that the proposal, in the form of a short paragraph, could become part of a second resolution of the Security Council. Under its terms, the UN would oversee the establishment of a post-Saddam government and the UN, not the US, would take stewardship of Iraq's oilfields. The Iraqi generals and top ranking officers would have to co-operate fully with UN inspectors to oversee the total elimination of any weapons of mass destruction, McKeone writes. It is impossible to say whther this proposal has any chance of being accepted. But it is certain that Pope John Paul II has been sending his emissaries on repeated missions to all the key parties during the past six weeks, sas well as receiving key leaders at the Vatican on almost a daily basis. His special envoy and former permanent observer at the UN, Archbishop Renato Rafaele Martino, has been discussing the proposal with all the Security Council members. Significantly, Cardinal Pio Laghi, former Papal Nuncio to the United States, traveled to Washington last week to meet with President George Bush. He handed him a letter directly from the Pope, the contents of which have not been made public. Cardinal Angelo Sodano met with Britain's leader, Tony Blair, at the Vatican in February. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a leading French cardinal and long one of John Paul's most relied upon cardinals for "difficult missions," despite being 80 years old, went to Bagdad on February 9 to meet personally with Saddam Hussein -- his third trip to that country. It is known that at that meeting Etchegaray discussed the subject of exile with Saddam. Etchegaray later said that Saddam (who in a American CBS network interview with journalist Dan Rather in mid-February said he would "never" leave Iraq) did not rule out the idea. Also in February, the Pope received Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, at the Vatican and, several days later, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. American sources confirm that the US and Jordan have recently discussed the prospect of using the UN to offer a formal exile and amnesty package to Saddam and his inner circle, McKeone reported. The US is aware that one of the attractions of an amendment that extends the exile offer to Saddam's family and military leaders is the likelihood it may trigger a coup, leading to his assassination by a member of his inner circle, she writes. Many suspect that Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, would push for a safe passage out rather than face a cataclysmic end in a Baghdad bunker. "Uday might be the first to shoot his father if he refused an amnesty," one senior Jordan official is quoted as saying. The proposed amendment is still at a low rung on the UN procedural ladder but the non-permanent members believe it represents a last best chance to avert a war. UN sources have also indicated that a second resolution on Tuesday with the March 17 ultimatum -- incorporating an offer of exile -- would provide an attractive compromise that would let the French to come on board without "losing face" or appearing to have capitulated to the US. Diamonds Are Saddam's Best Friends Meanwhile, if London's "Sunday Times" has it right, Saddam Hussein may indeed be getting ready to "hit the road" -- he's bought millions of dollars worth of diamonds, the traditional hard currency of fleeing refugees. According to The Times, Saddam recently dispatched a "personal jeweler" to Bangkok, Thailand to pick up a small mountain of the gems, prompting, the paper reports, speculation that the Iraqi dictator may be getting ready to get out of town while the getting is good. It was the jeweler's second visit to Bangkok, the paper reported. Three months ago, Saddam's son, Uday, had sent him to buy a $750,000 diamond ring from an American dealer, according to a Times' source. Saddam, reputed to be worth at least $2 billion, is one of the world's richest men. So, although Saddam told Dan Rather he would never leave Iraq, the Times suggests that the diamond purchase may signify a change of mind, adding that he might have decided to convert part of his wealth into diamonds because it is easier to hide and move around than paper currency when one is on the lam. Prayer... and Action These diplomatic moves come as the Pope, in his usual Sunday address in Vatican City today, restated his profound fears about the course of events. They represent the boldest steps yet in the Vatican's many months of diplomatic efforts to avert war. In the last six weeks, the Pope, with other Vatican officials and Roman Catholic leaders close to the Vatican, has repeatedly expressed opposition to a war in Iraq. The Pope's chief concerns are two: (1) that Iraqi civilians not be harmed and (2) that a devastating "clash of civilizations" between the Islamic world and the West not be touched off by this looming war. The Pope's opposition to the US eagerness to invade is consistent. The Vatican also opposed the Gulf War launched by the elder George Bush in 1991, a stance that strained relations with the US. However, the Pope did not condemn the bombing of Afghanistan, though he did say that such military actions must be aimed solely at people with "criminal culpability" and not groups of innocent civilians. It is of course not clear whether Saddam will in the end actually agree to such a proposal of exile. It is perhaps even doubtful. But if Saddam agrees, it will be due largely to Pope John Paul II's persistence in seeking peace at a time when many see war as "inevitable." John Paul's role in helping to bring down the "Iron Curtain" (which was expected by his Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, to stand for another 400 years) is well known. For him, nothing is "inevitable." For him, prayer, coupled with careful but persistent action, can indeed move mountains. Copyright 2000, Inside the Vatican, Inc.

Two bees ran into each other. The first bee asked the other how things were going. "Really bad," said the second bee. "The weather has been really wet and damp and there aren't any flowers or pollen, so I can't make any honey." "No problem," said the first bee. "Just fly down five blocks and turn left. Keep going until you see all the cars. There's a Bar Mitzvah going on and there are all kinds of fresh flowers and fruit." "Thanks for the tip," said the second bee, and he flew away. A few hours later, the two bees ran into each other again. The first bee asked, "How'd it go?" "Great!" said the second bee. "It was everything you said it would be." "Uh, what's that thing on your head?" asked the first bee. "That's my yarmulke," said the second bee. "I didn't want them to think I was a wasp

Posted on Sun, Feb. 16, 2003 Attempt to Find Ancient Indian Waterway Prove Controversial By Rama Lakshmi Special to The Washington Post KATGARH, India -- In a verdant valley amid the foothills of the Himalayas, Hindu villagers prayed in silence and piously threw petals into a small puddle they believe was a mighty river some 4,500 years ago. Not far away, an archeologist leaned over a trench to examine freshly excavated pieces of broken pottery. "We have found remains of so many ancient settlements here. There must have been a very important river flowing," said Sanjay Manjul, 35, squinting as he held up a piece against the sun. "It must have been our holy Saraswati River." Manjul is not the only one looking for the Saraswati, which was mentioned in the oldest Hindu religious text, the Rig Veda and which devout Hindus believe disappeared mysteriously thousands of years ago. Dozens of archeologists like him have fanned across the northern Indian state of Haryana in the last seven months to look for traces of the river. A group of geologists and glaciologists, armed with satellite imagery maps and remote sensing data, are studying rocks, glaciers and sediments in the Himalayas, seeking any trace of the river's course. Last summer, the Culture Ministry appointed a special committee of experts to prove that the Saraswati was not merely a mythological river, dismissed by historians as nothing more than a figment of the imagination of Hindu sages who praise it as the "greatest of mothers, greatest of rivers and greatest of goddesses" in the Vedas. If the panel succeeds, the birth of Hinduism would be pushed back at least 1,000 years by establishing that the ancient Indus Valley civilization was Hindu in character. "Saraswati is not only a matter of Hindu faith, but also fact," said Ravindra Singh Bisht, director of the Archaeological Survey of India, who supervises excavation along what is believed to be the course of the river. "The overwhelming archeological evidence of ancient settlements along the course of what was once the Saraswati River proves that our earliest civilizations were not confined to the Indus river alone. Those who wrote the Hindu Vedas on the banks of the Saraswati were the same as the Indus Valley people." The BJP-led government already has taken steps to make these findings official. In October, it ordered several significant changes in the history textbooks, one of which was to change the name of the Indus Valley civilization to the Saraswati River civilization. The first real boost to the Saraswati believers came in the 1970s, when American satellite images showed signs of channels of water in northern and western India that disappeared long ago. When popular folk memory was matched with the images, some historians ecstatically claimed they had cracked the riddle of the revered river. In 1998, groundwater experts dug wells along the dry bed identified in the images and they found potable water, even under vast stretches of desert. "We still need to study the sediments to prove the origin of the river was in the Himalayan glacier like our Vedas claimed," said Baldev Sahai, a member of the Culture Ministry's expert committee, who was the first, in 1980, to use remote sensing data to study the course of the river. "After that, we can proudly claim to be the oldest living civilization and culture with an unbroken link to our past." Once the entire course of the river, "from the Himalayas to the Arabian sea" is established, the Culture Ministry plans to turn archeological sites of lost cities along the Saraswati into tourist hubs. And water specialists in the government wish to give new life to the Saraswati River, by reviving old water channels. The Hindu-nationalist government's quest for the Saraswati has split historians along political lines, with some accusing the government of giving a deliberate Hindu slant to Indian history and others alleging that much of Indian history was written from a Eurocentric perspective by British colonizers and needed to be "Indianized." "Hinduism was not brought to us by a foreign race called Aryans. It was born here on our land. The Rig Veda was composed here on the banks of Saraswati by indigenous people around the time of the Indus Valley period," said Arun Kesarwani, professor of ancient history at Kurukshetra University. "That is why the quest for Saraswati is important. It will shatter all the prevalent theories to pieces." But many say that history is being distorted to suit the ruling political ideology. "This is an assault on history," said historian Arjun Dev. "This version of the past is crucial to their political and religious ideology of Hindu supremacy. They will go to any lengths to achieve this -- even put forth a fake, invented past." "It is propaganda work," said Suraj Bhan, a retired archeologist. "The quest for Saraswati is not about history, it is myth-making." For the devout Hindus who pray at tiny ponds and puddles, the Saraswati is both a real river and a deity. "In our hearts we know this is the water of holy Saraswati," said Prem Vallabh, 75, head priest at a Saraswati temple. "We don't need any scientific proof." AP-NY-02-15-03 1245EST

National Association for Scientific and Cultural Appreciation: Electronic pollution. The hidden dangers. From television and radio waves, to mobile phone emissions and a thousand and one other sources we are being bombarded by a constant stream of electronic pollution. But is this pollution harmful? Although environmental pollution is largely thought of in terms of toxic gases and dangreous substances, we believe there is now another more insiduous source of pollution which can be added to this list. Yet unlike pollution created by exhaust fumes or factory waste this pollution can neither be seen nor smelt. As such its effects are hard to determine, yet logic alone should be enough to assess its potential hazards. Swamped by emissions. We are talking here of the threats to health posed by the burgeoning number of radio signals and electronic emissions, particularly from the incredible rise in mobile phone usage. The reality is that the atmosphere around us is swamped by hundreds of thousands of these emissions. We are being bombarded by them every moment of our lives, and it seems the height of naivity to imagine this electronic chatter is having no effect on us. Growing Problem A look at the wide range of such emissions gives a sobering insight into the problems we are creating. As well as millions of new mobile phone rs, the air is also saturated with radio, television, and satellite broadcasts. The number of stations and channels is growing by the day. Then add to this signals from TV remote controls, microwave ovens, as well as computer games, faxes, photo copiers, scanners, and printers, and and you have an environment that is already overloaded with electronic emissions. Future hazards. The bewildering thing is there are no plans to curb this pollution; just a chillingly complacent attitude that what cannot be seen cannot do damage. This it must be recalled was the attitude to nuclear energy. Initially it was looked upon as clean and safe and when voices of protest were raised these were dismissed as extremist. Yet the trouble with electronic pollution is that so far, apart from us, no-one has yet appreciated the future hazards.. Even worse is that by the time this problem is identified it will be difficult if not impossible to tackle. Inevitable symptoms. We believe the effect of electronic pollution will be apparent in a large number of ways. Predominantly these will be manifest in a growing list of psychological complaints including confusion, panic, paranoia, strong mood swings and violent and aggressive behaviour. Complaints of this nature have already seen a marked rise in incidence, and we believe that in the coming years this trend will escalate quite dramatically. Electronic pollution may also cause benign and malignant tumours as well as a wide number of physiological complaints that will be hard to account for. Carelessly ignored. The fact is that this is a situation we should have never been faced with. Proper research should have elimated the possibility of harmful eletronic effects. But then with so much money involved it was always inevitable that such concerns would be carelessly brushed aside.

ANCIENT CITY FOUND, IRRADIATED FROM ATOMIC BLAST Radiation still so intense, the area is highly dangerous A heavy layer of radioactive ash in Rajasthan, India, covers a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. Scientists are investigating the site, where a housing development was being built. For some time it has been established that there is a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area under construction. The levels of radiation there have registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region. Scientists have unearthed an ancient city where evidence shows an atomic blast dating back thousands of years, from 8,000 to 12,000 years, destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. One researcher estimates that the nuclear bomb used was about the size of the ones dropped on Japan in 1945. The Mahabharata clearly describes a catastrophic blast that rocked the continent. "A single projectile charged with all the power in the Universe...An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as 10,000 suns, rose in all its splendor...it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire race. "The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out, pottery broke without any apparent cause, and the birds turned white. "After a few hours, all foodstuffs were infected. To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves into the river." A HISTORIAN COMMENTS Historian Kisari Mohan Ganguli says that Indian sacred writings are full of such descriptions, which sound like an atomic blast as experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He says references mention fighting sky chariots and final weapons. An ancient battle is described in the Drona Parva, a section of the Mahabharata. "The passage tells of combat where explosions of final weapons decimate entire armies, causing crowds of warriors with steeds and elephants and weapons to be carried away as if they were dry leaves of trees," says Ganguli. "Instead of mushroom clouds, the writer describes a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds as consecutive openings of giant parasols. There are comments about the contamination of food and people's hair falling out." ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION PROVIDES INFORMATION Archeologist Francis Taylor says that etchings in some nearby temples he has managed to translate suggest that they prayed to be spared from the great light that was coming to lay ruin to the city. "It's so mid-boggling to imagine that some civilization had nuclear technology before we did. The radioactive ash adds credibility to the ancient Indian records that describe atomic warfare." Construction has halted while the five member team conducts the investigation. The foreman of the project is Lee Hundley, who pioneered the investigation after the high level of radiation was discovered. There is evidence that the Rama empire (now India) was devastated by nuclear war. The Indus valley is now the Thar desert, and the site of the radioactive ash found west of Jodhpur is around there. Consider these verses from the ancient (6500 BC at the latest) Mahabharata: ...a single projectile Charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame As bright as the thousand suns Rose in all its splendour... a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds... ...the cloud of smoke rising after its first explosion formed into expanding round circles like the opening of giant parasols... ..it was an unknown weapon, An iron thunderbolt, A gigantic messenger of death, Which reduced to ashes The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas. ...The corpses were so burned As to be unrecognisable. The hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke without apparent cause, And the birds turned white. After a few hours All foodstuffs were infected... ...to escape from this fire The soldiers threw themselves in streams To wash themselves and their equipment. Until the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, modern mankind could not imagine any weapon as horrible and devastating as those described in the ancient Indian texts. Yet they very accurately described the effects of an atomic explosion. Radioactive poisoning will make hair and nails fall out. Immersing oneself in water gives some respite, though it is not a cure. When excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro reached the street level, they discovered skeletons scattered about the cities, many holding hands and sprawling in the streets as if some instant, horrible doom had taken place. People were just lying, unburied, in the streets of the city. And these skeletons are thousands of years old, even by traditional archaeological standards. What could cause such a thing? Why did the bodies not decay or get eaten by wild animals? Furthermore, there is no apparent cause of a physically violent death. These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever found, on par with those at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At one site, Soviet scholars found a skeleton which had a radioactive level 50 times greater than normal. Other cities have been found in northern India that show indications of explosions of great magnitude. One such city, found between the Ganges and the mountains of Rajmahal, seems to have been subjected to intense heat. Huge masses of walls and foundations of the ancient city are fused together, literally vitrified! And since there is no indication of a volcanic eruption at Mohenjo-Daro or at the other cities, the intense heat to melt clay vessels can only be explained by an atomic blast or some other unknown weapon. The cities were wiped out entirely. While the skeletons have been carbon-dated to 2500 BC, we must keep in mind that carbon-dating involves measuring the amount of radiation left. When atomic explosions are involved, that makes then seem much younger. Interestingly, Manhattan Project chief scientist Dr J. Robert Oppenheimer was known to be familiar with ancient Sanskrit literature. In an interview conducted after he watched the first atomic test, he quoted from the Bhagavad Gita: "'Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.' I suppose we all felt that way." When asked in an interview at Rochester University seven years after the Alamogordo nuclear test whether that was the first atomic bomb ever to be detonated, his reply was, "Well, yes, in modern history." Ancient cities whose brick and stonewalls have literally been vitrified, that is, fused together, can be found in India, Ireland, Scotland, France, Turkey and other places. There is no logical explanation for the vitrification of stone forts and cities, except from an atomic blast. Another curious sign of an ancient nuclear war in India is a giant crater near Bombay. The nearly circular 2,154-metre-diameter Lonar crater, located 400 kilometres northeast of Bombay and aged at less than 50,000 years old, could be related to nuclear warfare of antiquity. No trace of any meteoric material, etc., has been found at the site or in the vicinity, and this is the world's only known "impact" crater in basalt. Indications of great shock (from a pressure exceeding 600,000 atmospheres) and intense, abrupt heat (indicated by basalt glass spherules) can be ascertained from the site.

Are the magentic poles about to reverse. Turbulent Vortices A report in the Sunday Times of London (12 th January 2003) says that research carried out by Nils Olsen of the Center for Planetary Science in Denmark warns of vast changes now occurring deep in the Earth’s core. It is here that our mysterious magnetic field is thought to be controlled from. Swirling vortices of molten matter affect the level of the magnetic field above the surface of the Earth. Once in awhile these vortices become so turbulent they trigger a complete reversal in the magnetic field. On average this usually occurs once every 750,000 years. Scientists say the next such reversal is now long overdue. Certain consequences When it comes to the consequences of such an event we have little idea what to expect. The last reversal over three quarters of a million years ago left us no eye witness accounts and we can only speculate what the effects might be. However certain consequences are beyond doubt. All electrically operated equipment would find it difficult to function. Vast storms would bring spectacular if highly terrifying displays of thunder and lightning. Seismic and volcanic activity would also increase quite dramatically Harmful radiation One of the greatest fears however is that during a polar reversal the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field would fall to such an extent that it would allow harmful solar rays to penetrate to the surface. This would have a profound effect on all living matter. While the Earth’s atmosphere might shield out some of this harmful radiation, the consequences of a diminished magnetic field are very grave indeed. Unprotected from the suns radiation crops would fail, animals would die, and humans fall prone to deadly cancers. How to prepare. Perhaps the most worrying thing of all is that there is literally nothing we can do to avoid a polar reversal. All we can do is to prepare ourselves for the likely consequences. On a personal level this might involve stock piling long lasting food supplies, since if the worst came to the worst venturing outside could result in absorbing fatal amounts of solar radiation. On a national level nations must develop a strategy for dealing with mass disruption likely to result from the malfunction of all types of electrical equipment and the failure of crops.

If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong? If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation? Is there another word for synonym? Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice?" Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?" Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food? What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant? If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal the neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it. Never test the depth of the water with both feet. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again; it was probably worth it. Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you. Never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut. "To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world." Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side." "Life is like an onion; you peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep." "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." "Following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked." "Life is 10% of what happens to you, and 90% of how you respond to it."

Postglacial Flooding of the Bering Land Bridge: A Geospatial Animation The animation above shows sea level rising across the land bridge between Siberia (left) and Alaska (right). During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 21,000 years ago, global sea level was approximately 120 m (400 ft) lower than today. The Bering Land Bridge existed as a vast tundra plain connecting Asia and North America. As the world's glaciers and ice sheets melted over the following millenia, rising sea level flooded the land bridge — blocking migration routes for animals and humans. The land bridge animation is based on the best available digital information, and reveals large-scale patterns of shifting coastlines and environments as the land bridge evolved. Bathymetry and elevation are color-coded in 1000 calendar-year time steps.

Did the Chinese discover America? New book asserts a different version of history By Adam Dunn Special to CNN Monday, January 13, 2003 Posted: 1:22 PM EST (1822 GMT) A former submarine commander seeks to reshape world history German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced this map in 1507. It portrays the vast majority of the world today, excluding the Australian mainland. In the early years of the 15th century, Chinese Admiral Zheng He and his commanders unfurled their sails and embarked in great teak junks, boats so enormous that each could "swallow 50 fishing ships." These flagships were the centerpiece of armadas manned by thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of sailors on scores of vessels. "The great armada's ships could remain at sea for over three months and cover at least 4,500 miles without making landfall to replenish food or water, for separate grain ships and water tankers sailed with them," writes Gavin Menzies in his provocatively titled "1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered America." By the 1420s, the Chinese had six centuries of experience in ocean navigation. Their ships carried fresh vegetables, and the sailors knew how to desalinate seawater. That Zheng He's ships plied the waters from China to India, the Arab states of the Gulf and the East African seaboard is widely acknowledged, though not usually well noted in the West. Menzies, a former Royal Navy submarine commander, would have us believe that these ambitions ultimately encompassed world exploration. He explains that accounts of the final great voyages of Zheng He's fleets were "deliberately destroyed" by a Chinese Empire that suddenly turned inward when natural disasters were taken as signs that the dynastic rule was endangered. But these "missing years of 1421 through 1423" were years of great adventure, when, according to Menzies, the Chinese were the first to round the Cape of Good Hope, to reach the Americas, and to circumnavigate the world. Menzies understands that his claim will serve as a lightning rod for criticism, especially from those entrenched in protecting the legacy of European explorers. "If all this was true, history would need to be radically revised, but it seemed extremely presumptuous for a retired Royal Navy submarine captain to be the one initiating the process." Menzies argues, though, that as a former seafarer, he "sailed the world in the wake of the great European explorers," which gives him qualifications that scholars might not have: the ability to read and navigate from maps; experience from years of peering at shorelines (often from the height of a periscope, roughly the same height from which medieval ships would have looked); and a passion for navigating from the stars. In fact, no matter what you think of Menzies's theories, his enthusiasm is infectious. After each tidbit he learns, he hypothesizes excitedly, but then seeks to corroborate. He's trying to unify what he says is a "mountain of evidence - wrecks, blood groups, architecture, painting, customs, linguistics, clothes, technology, artifacts, dye-stuffs, plants and animals transferred between China and South America - that points to a pervasive Chinese influence the length of the Pacific coast of Central and South America, and inland." His suppositions will seem preposterous to some, especially when he overexerts himself to explain every stray account of nonindigenous animals or the arrival of foreigners on certain shores as the work of these Chinese explorers. Menzies's primary evidence is the existence of maps that he says predate the great Portuguese and Spanish voyages, yet still show remarkable detail of geography that historically was thought to have been unexplored until those European voyages. "The revelation that Vasco da Gama was not the first to sail to India round the Cape of Good Hope, that Christopher Columbus did not discover America, that Magellan was not the first to circumnavigate the world, and that Australia was surveyed three centuries before Captain Cook and Antarctica four centuries before the first European attempt may come as a disappointment, even a shock, to the champions of those brave and skillful explorers, but the Kangnido, Pizzigano, Piri Reis, Jean Rotz, Cantino, and Waldseemüller charts are indisputably genuine." Of course, the question then becomes how was this information transferred from China to Europe? The common thread between Zheng He's treasure fleets and the navigational knowledge that Menzies says was imparted to the European explorers was a young Venetian named Niccolo da Conti, who was in Calicut at the same time as the treasure boats. "Someone must have brought back copies of maps showing the discoveries made by the Chinese fleets," he writes, "for how else could this information have reached Europe and become incorporated in the charts that were later to guide the Portuguese explorers?" He also wonders what the legacy of the great Chinese armadas would have been if China had not "turned its back on its glorious maritime and scientific heritage and retreated into a long, self-imposed isolation from the outside world." Instead, "Portuguese explorers set sail on ever more adventurous voyages in the vanguard of an expansion that was to see European nations dominate the world for another 500 years." Far from shunning the controversy he knows his book will attract, Menzies seeks it, believing that it will spur greater discussion of the great Chinese exploration of the 1400s. "The story is only just beginning," he writes, "and it is one for all of us to share."

Antarctica 'melting for 10,000 years' There is new evidence parts of the Antarctic ice sheet have been naturally melting for thousands of years. The research suggests the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been contributing water to the ocean for the last 10,000 years. Scientists analysed loose rocks to find out when they were dropped by the melting glaciers. And if melting carries on at the same pace, within another 7,000 years an area of around 360,000 square miles will have disappeared. The research was led by John Stone, associate professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington. it is published in this week's edition of the journal Science. Prof Stone said it was still not known if the melting process was being speeded up by a warming of the oceans caused by humans. However, because much of the bedrock under the ice is below sea level, the ice sheet could be particularly susceptible to any future thinning and warming up of the oceans around its edges. The ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels by about five metres, or 16-17 feet. But Prof Stone warned: "A rapid melting event that released even a small fraction of this amount could have disastrous consequences for coastal regions." The study states that measuring changes in the ice sheets are major challenges for modern glaciology. Story filed: 19:07 Thursday 2nd January 2003

Arctic ice cap to vanish in 80 years, study says Jonathan Leake The Times, London The ice cap covering the North Pole will vanish in less than 80 years as climate change melts it away, say British meteorological researchers. The area covered by ice has shrunk by 20 per cent since the 1950s and its average winter thickness has reduced by 40 per cent since 1970. From detailed measurements of the rate of melting, the Met Office's Hadley Centre for monitoring climate change predicts the ice-cap will disappear around September 2079. The Met Office research, to be published next year, assumes emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will continue to rise at their current rate. Many believe this will happen since the U.S. rejected the Kyoto climate treaty that would have cut emissions. Canada ratified the treaty Monday. Geoff Jenkins, head of climate change prediction, said only a few icebergs would be left. "Our figures suggest that virtually all the ice will be gone," he said. Even if the world reduced emissions by the maximum possible, it would only give a few years reprieve, says the Met Office. "The greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere mean we will keep getting warmer for decades, whatever we do," said Mr. Jenkins. "Cutting emissions is important, but the effects will come too late to save the polar ice cap." The loss of the ice cap will open up the Northwest Passage and enable ships to save thousands of kilometres on journeys between Europe and the Far East. It could also change weather patterns. The larger expanse of open sea would increase evaporation and rainfall, possibly causing wetter summers in Europe. It might also allow more plankton to grow, thus boosting fish stocks. For other wildlife, however, the change could be disastrous. Polar bears and seals would be hit hard because they rely on floating ice to hunt and breed. "The north polar wildlife is unique, but it is going to have to adapt fast if it is to survive," said Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University. The thinning of the ice has already hampered some expeditions to the pole. David Mill, a Briton, had to be rescued last May after finding his way blocked by thin ice. The melting of the North Pole will not raise sea levels as all the ice is floating. There are, however, fears the temperature increases could melt Antarctica, the southern ice cap. This sits above sea level on a buried continent so melting would sharply raise sea levels. © Copyright 2002 The Ottawa Citizen