Guest Column

Space Shuttle Discovery at Launch Pad

Continuing in our series of articles focusing on the current and future NASA space missions, news from the American space agency is that the next shuttle to visit the International Space Station, Discovery, was delivered to NASA's Kennedy Space Center launch pad this past Sunday.

Polish ambassador wounded in Baghdad bombing

Poland's ambassador to Iraq was wounded in a triple-bomb attack in central Baghdad on Wednesday which also killed a civilian and wounded three others, Iraqi and Polish officials said.

The Saffron Bloggers Strike Back

For the past two months or so we've watched with a sort of horrified fascination as the country of Myanmar (Burma) has deteriorated into a mess of bloody and fatal riots, and an oppression of its people akin to the horror stories from countries like North Korea and Cambodia. The catalyst was the dramatic increase in the prices of everyday goods and fuel, with fuel jumping sometimes a massive 100%.

Asia’s Race to the Skies

If you were to be asked who was the leader in space exploration, there is really only one name that springs to mind; NASA. For so long, America has been at the forefront of many discoveries made in space, either by visiting space or by watching it, that we are sometimes tuned out to the fact that they are now merely players, as the poem would read.

iTunes Receives some Welcome Competition

For a long time now, longer than you would first think considering how time flies in the tech world, Apple has been the leader in online music sales, thanks in part to their near-monopoly on the portable media device market, and the symbiotic iTunes Store. They've led the way in terms of sales for music, and video.

The Genovese Syndrome up for Debate

Stabbed to death in 1964, Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese has the unfortunate honor of providing psychologists with the nickname to the Bystander Effect; the Genovese Syndrome.

The British anomaly: The attempt to abolish England

Ever heard of the West Lothian Question? West Lothian is the Scottish region immediately to the west of Edinburgh. The question is so called because it was first posed by Tam Dalyell, a Labor member of the British Parliament for West Lothian. Mr. Dalyell wondered how long the English would tolerate the situation in which Scottish members of the British Parliament, such as himself, have a (sometimes decisive) say about issues affecting only England, while English parliamentarians have no say about the same matters in Scotland.

One Less Good Man

By Joseph A. Kinney In a few short days, General Peter Pace, the first Marine to Chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be leaving his post and the Corps that he has served for 40 years. For a Marine Corps in search of a few good men, they will have one less when Pace leaves. In fact, they will be losing a giant of a man who has asserted moral leadership in the face of enormous pressure just when it was needed.

Will Miller see the light?

"To all organizers and attendees of the Folsom Street Fair, their families, friends, colleagues and visitors from home and around the world, have a great day and enjoy this wonderful and exciting event." San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom

Living life on the Internet

They're all still down there, out of sight and all but out of mind -- hundreds of millions of miles of hair-thin strands of glass, uniquely strung beneath the streets of every city, under our homes, suburbs, deserts, and strewn across the ocean floor. It's enough optical fibre to wrap around the earth 4,000 times (scary statistics), with each strand capable of blasting library stacks of information across the globe at the speed of light. And almost all of it sits empty, dark and idle -- an unseen monument to every unfulfilled promise of the Internet. A statistical reality people can't even begin to comprehend.

India’s Concerns: Mr. Prime Minister, please answer!

Sare Jahan se Accha, Hindustan hamara.... Mazhab nahin sikhata apas mein baire rakhna Hindi hain hum, hindi hain hum, hindustan hamara...!!

U.S. Military get their hands on a Heat-Ray

When you cast your mind back to the radio serials of the past century, depicting our future (or even the years we are living), the term 'heat-ray' will inevitably be linked to the mad ravings of someone known as "Doctor Dementor" or "The Professor of Pain". In reality, some will say that they should be left there, in literary -- or not so much -- peace.

Capital of the EUSSR 8: An Answer to Carolyn

Carolyn, a reader from Detroit, wrote me an email, asking "Would you, please, provide follow-ups on what happened to the politicians so brutalized [by the police during the 9/11 demonstration in Brussels]? What happened to others, and what, if anything, transpires in Belgian Parliament, and the EU Parliament? Will anyone bring a lawsuit against the police? [...] Who gave the original orders? From where in the government is this all coming? What happened to the young German woman with the Israeli flag and your friend who was arrested? What is the reaction in the press, both local and national? Was anyone in Italy outraged by their politician being beaten and arrested? Who is buying off the Belgian, or Brussels, police and politicians? Have there been any counter-protests against the police? Are churches being attacked? What can be done? What is the position of the Banking, Financial, and Corporate leaders? Where is the Jewish Community in all of this?"

Capital of the EUSSR 6: Belgium Apologizes to Italy, Not to Flanders

The Belgian government has offered formal apologies to Italy for last Tuesday's brutal arrest of Mario Borghezio, an Italian member of the European Parliament (MEP). The Belgian Ministery of Foreign Affairs assured the Italian ambassador to Brussels that in future it will do "everything possible to guarantee the immunity of MEPs." How Belgium can give this assurance without punishing those who are responsible for last Tuesday's police violence is not clear. Brussels is the capital of the European Union and houses the EU institutions.

Abolish Belgium?

In the early 1990s, following the fall of Communism, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia fell apart. Today, the federal Kingdom of Belgium, the last of Europe's multinational states, is beginning to unravel.