Ten Links: Weekend Edition

SCIENCE!

I am not even going to speculate what would happen if Right gets ahold of this. I think we all know what is likely to be broadcast by the RWEC.

Noxious undersea eruptions killing billions of fish

A tease:

Undersea eruptions of noxious hydrogen sulphide are having a major impact on one of the world's richest fisheries. Satellite images show that toxic eruptions off the coast of Namibia are more frequent and widespread than anyone realised.

The world's most productive fisheries are found in upwelling regions of ocean, where wind-driven currents fertilise surface waters with nutrients from the deep. The Benguela upwelling along Namibia's coast has the strongest such currents in the world. The area supports a fishery that was worth around $400 million in 1998, providing Namibia with its second largest source of revenue after mining.

But trouble bubbles beneath these productive waters. Microscopic algae called diatoms grow where upwelling is most intense. These are grazed by plankton, but any that are not eaten sink when they die, forming beds of sediment on the seafloor.

Bacteria in the sediments break down the diatoms and produce hydrogen sulphide in the process. The sulphide builds up in gas pockets that eventually erupt into the ocean, poisoning marine life and stripping oxygen from the water.

Scads more at link. So, natural forces are working in concert with overfishing to pretty much wipe out the world's great fisheries. Like I always say; the environment is the only truly long term issue. We keep screwing with the Earth at our peril.

Spirit and Opportunity Spirit drills Martian rock, while Opportunity checks out "Snout."

Reuters reports that getting rid of 'spyware' is tricky. I find it unfathomable that the author of a tech. article had never heard of "Ad-aware." This person should never be able to pen another 'tech' article. Here's the bit:

A better bet for scouring your hard disk clean may be independent programs. The ones I found worked pretty well from all sorts of places (like the Windows registry).

The best bargain was "Ad-aware," popular with many readers, as I learned from the e-mail I got after last week's column.

"Ad-aware 6.0," available to home users for free from http://www.LavaSoftUSA.com, is easy to use. It lets you sort programs and files by type or adware company, so you can see the program it is proposing to delete. It eliminated annoyances such as a toolbar cluttering up Internet Explorer that kept returning even after I told Explorer not to display it.

"Ad-aware" tracked down traces of adware I thought I had removed, and eliminated two viruses that had gotten on the PC because the owner had not kept his virus checker up to date.

This is a case that the phrase, "Ya gotta be shittin' me" was coined.

113 and 115 Russian and U.S. scientists announced that two new elements have been well, made in a particle accelerator. I'm going to have to update my periodic table - periodically.

Alright. Science claims the top four spots!!

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POLITICS!

I get the feeling that Bush isn't faring well politically. I know that full of shit about, well, everything. It now appears from the most recent polls that all of bs he has been slinging is finally starting to make its way into the American psyche.

When Rumsfeld Fervently Defends Iraq War to European Critics the NYT reports, there is smoke. Rumsfeld was blowing a bunch of it as well. While Rummy lies, saying "If the Iraqi regime had taken the same steps Libya is now taking, there would have been no war," Americans and Iraqis are still dying. It's simple. Iraq claimed well before the war that they had no WMD. It was then incumbent upon the U.S. to prove otherwise. Of course we did not.

Remember this is the same Rumsfeld that said: "It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

Indeed. Please show me, Sec. Rumsfeld. I'm not convinced.

But ole Rummy wasn't the only one shlepping the ole, tired "Iraq war was justified" line today.

Dick Cheney was making the rounds today. Defending the indefensible Iraq war claims while "helping the Missouri Republican Party raise more than $500,000 for this year's election." How the hell does Jarvik 7 Cheney help raise dough? It ain't by running marathons. Could it be that he promises his donors 'friendly legislation?' I don't have a clue.

But Dick and Tony's special relationship has come under new scrutiny. Poor guy.

Congratulations to Kerry and Co. After today, it looks like a wrap.

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Okay. New category.

BLIAR!

First a little personal bit. I really wanted to believe that politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have their citizenry's best interests in mind when contemplating decisions. But, I am also a trained skeptic. Hence, I believe nothing without evidence. A quandary yes, but it's the only way that I know how to view the environment.

The 45 Minute Case Collapses Pt. 1 and The 45 Minute Case Collapses Pt. 2

It comes down to this: What did Blair know? "The public thinks he is lying. The experts can't believe what he is saying. How did Tony Blair get himself into such an unholy mess and this country into such an unnecessary war?"

Blair looks to be in trouble.

More from The Independent

The terrible human cost of Bush and Blair's military adventure: 10,000 civilian deaths

Iraqi exile admits he never checked WMD intelligence

It really looks like the British MI6 is ahead of the game. They don't appear ready to take the rap for Blair's bungling. Meanwhile, here in the States we have ample evidence of the U.S. Administration's cherry-picking of intelligence data, yet the guy who called for war gets to pick the panel to investigate the matter.

Black is white. Up is down.

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That's all folks. I didn't realize that tomorrow's Independent was going to so fruitful.