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divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/26680?ns=guardianpageName=Environment%3A+Study+finds+Antarctic+seas+richer+in+life+than+tropicsch=Environmentc3=The+Guardianc4=Wildlife+%28Environment%29%2CAntarctica+%28News%29%2CEnvironment%2CWorld+newsc5=Environment+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=James+Randersonc7=2008_12_02c8=1127092c9=articlec10=GUc11=Environmentc12=Wildlifec13=c14=h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FWildlife"
width="1" height="1" //divpSeas surrounding an archipelago near the tip of the Antarctic peninsula
are richer in animal life than the Galapagos islands, scientists claim today. Their findings
challenge the notion that tropical regions are more rich in species than the poles. /ppMuch less is
known about the South Orkney islands than the tropical islands that helped to shape Charles
Darwin's thoughts about natural selection on his Beagle voyage. /ppBut according to a study
published today by the Journal of Biogeography, the sea around them is teeming with a huge variety
of life, disproving the notion that chilly polar waters have a much poorer variety of
fauna./pp"There has been a long-held belief that the tropics are rich and the polar regions are
poor and mid-latitudes are somewhere in between," said Dr David Barnes at the British Antarctic
Survey, who led the study, part of the international census of marine life. "This is the first time
we've been able to actually look at the fauna of a polar archipelago - it is not actually that poor
at all." /ppBarnes said the reason for carrying out the survey was to establish a baseline from
which changes in biodiversity due to global warming could be judged: "This is in the part of the
world with fastest change in terms of temperature." The Antarctic peninsula has experienced warming
of 3C over the past 50 years. "If you don't know what the fauna is at any one point it is very
difficult to detect either species moving in or species moving out," he added./ppThe survey
recorded 1,224 species in 50 different biological classes. The team discovered five new species and
one genus - the biological category that is higher than species - that was new to science./ppThe
new discoveries are all sea mosses (bryozoans) or isopods (woodlouse-like animals) but they have
not been given names yet./ppThe team also scoured reports from scientific expeditions and
scientific literature going back decades to find every mention of species observed in the region,
in an attempt to create the most complete and authoritative list of creatures found there. Barnes's
team had to brave biting winds that frequently stopped them working, and watch for attacks by orcas
(killer whales) and leopard seals. If either predator came near they had to climb on to the British
Antarctic Survey's royal research vessel James Clark Ross or scramble to shore./pp"Although that
sounds dramatic, weather is a far bigger issue," said Barnes. "It stops us working far more and
makes our work far more hazardous ... Sometimes it's much warmer under the water - it's only -1.5
[degrees]!"/ppOnce under water the view is spectacular, said Barnes, who has dived all over the
world: "I don't think I've been anywhere where you can see so many different types of major groups
of animals all in one place."/ppAs well as diving in the shallows, they also trawled the sea bottom
to a depth of 1,500m using nets and a special sled with a sieve that held everything bigger than
0.3mm./ph2Isles apart/h2pstrongGalapagos/strong 600 miles from Ecuador. Discovered in 1535 by Fray
Tomaacute;s de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama. Darwin arrived in 1835 during Beagle voyage
/ppstrongSouth Orkneys /strong350 miles north-east of Antarctic peninsula. Discovered in 1821 by
sealers. Never visited by Darwin/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom:
10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/antarctica"Antarctica/a/li/ul/diva
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The Internet is close to a meltdown, according
to The Register. The culprit, according to author Richard Bennett, is the popular BitTorrent
client uTorrent, which introduced a new
type of file transfer with its most recent alpha version. BitTorrent clients have long been using
the TCP protocol to facilitate file transfers, but now uTorrent is moving to UDP, a protocol that
is very popular for streaming media, VoIP and other real-time transfers. This will essentially
lead to torrents eating up all of the bandwidth available for VoIP, according to Bennet, who
calls uTorrent’s UDP transfers a “net-killing feature.”
Of course, the same argument was made when UDP-based VoIP connections and video streams became
popular — and the Internet hasn’t ceased to exist. The truth is that uTorrent’s
UDP implementation could actually be a step toward alleviating congestion problems. Bennet,
however, decided to ignore this and instead serve up nothing more than a thinly veiled rant
against net neutrality.
Bennet’s piece is based on a belief that UDP traffic is “aggressive” and
uncontrollable, whereas TCP is the nice and proper protocol that can be easily managed. This
notion ignores the basic fact that P2P developers, in order to make the protocol work at all,
need to implement TCP-like functionalities on top of UDP, one of which includes congestion
control. You simply can’t operate a P2P client that eats up all of its users’
bandwidth, much less build a successful business model on top of it.
BitTorrent Inc. has been working on establishing itself as a CDN solutions provider, offering media
companies the ability to tap into its vast user base to deliver video and other huge files. Of
course, this only works if end users are actually willing to provide some part of their upload
bandwidth, and they are only willing to do so if file transfers don’t stop them from doing
other things, like playing online games or making VoIP calls.
BitTorrent has traditionally entrusted its users with figuring out how to balance their network
load, meaning that users had to manually limit their client’s maximum upload and download
rate in case they encountered choppy Skype connections or similar problems.
uTorrent’s new implementation wants to automate this process by regulating its UDP traffic
in relationship to ongoing TCP transfers. The company has tested its congestion control in recent
months, and the first results seem encouraging, as a quote from a report (PDF) that
the company recently shared with the IETF reveals:
“In one example, (BitTorrent) was used to download and seed game updates while an online
multiplayer game was being played. With TCP used for transport the way it is usually used in
BitTorrent, ping times shot up to 2000 milliseconds and beyond and stayed there while seeding.
With the novel congestion control, ping times were in the 50-100 millisecond range, while the
upload rate remained essentially unchanged.”
For now, we do have to take the company’s word for it that this actually works. uTorrent is
not open source, and the client’s UDP file transfer protocol hasn’t been publicly
specified, either. BitTorrent Inc. V-P Simon Morris has declared in a public response
to the Register article that his company is working with the IETF to find “solutions
that can be standardized and broadly adopted in due course.” In fact, BitTorrent
engineer Stanislav Shalunov is co-chairing an IETF working group
for this very purpose.
So why did Bennett chose to ignore all of this? Because a little scaremongering can go a long way
to make the case for an ISP-based network management clampdown on P2P traffic. The only way to
prevent the coming Internet meltdown, he contends, is to filter out uTorrent’s UDP
transfers on the ISP level, and the only way to get this done is do away with net neutrality.
Right — because if there’s one thing that we’ve learned from the financial
sector, it’s that meltdowns are best prevented by doing away with regulation.
div style="margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 10px;"posted by Neil/div spanThis is a bit
long./spanspan style="font-weight: bold;" /spanspanApologies./spanspan style="font-weight: bold;"
/spanspanI'd meant to talk about other things, but I started writing this morning and got a bit
carried away./spanspan style="font-weight: bold;"br /br /I have questions about the Handley case.
What makes lolicon something worth defending? Yaoi, as I understand it, isn't necessarily child
porn, but the lolicon stuff is all about sexualizing prepubescent girls, yes? And haven't there
been lots of credible psych studies saying that if you find a support community for a fetish,
belief or behavior, you're more likely to indulge in it? That's why social movements are so
important for oppressed or non-mainstream groups (meaning everything from the fetish community to
free-market libertarianism) -and why NAMBLA is so very, very scary (they are, essentially, a
support group for baby-rapists.)br /br /The question, for me, is even if we only save ONE child
from rape or attempted rape, or even just lots of uncomfortable hugs from Creepy Uncle Dave, is
that not worth leaving a couple naked bodies out of a comic? It is, after all, more than possible
to imply and discuss these issues (ex. if someone loses their virginity at 14, and chooses to write
a comic about it) without having a big ol' pic of 14 yr. old poon being penetrated as the graphic.
I also think there's a world of difference between the Sandman story-which depicts child rape as
the horrific thing it is (and, I believe, also ends with a horrific death for the pervert, doesn't
it?) and depicting child rape as a sexy and titillating thing. I think there is also a difference
between acknowledging children's sexuality, and pornography about children that is created for
adults. Where on this spectrum does something like lolicon fall? And, again, why do you,
personally, think that it should be defended?br /br /Thanks for reading my ramble, and for being
accessible to us, and engaged in things like CBLDF. Mostly, they are a fantastic org., but I'm
really on the fence with this case...br /br /Jess/spanbr /br /Let me see if I can push you off the
fence, a little. I'm afraid it's going to a long, and probably a bit rambly answer -- a span
style="font-style: italic;"credo/span, and how I arrived at that.br /br /If you accept -- and I do
-- that freedom of speech is important, then you are going to have to defend the indefensible. That
means you are going to be defending the right of people to read, or to write, or to say, what you
don't say or like or want said.br /br /The Law is a huge blunt weapon that does not and will not
make distinctions between what you find acceptable and what you don't. This is how the Law is
made.br /br /People making art find out where the limits of free expression are by going beyond
them and getting into trouble.br /br /LOST GIRLS, by Melinda Gebbie and Alan Moore is several
hundred pages long. (a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/06/lost-girls-redux.html"I posted
the full-length review I did for span style="font-style: italic;"Publishers Weekly /spanhere/a.
Describing it, I said,br /br /blockquote style="font-style: italic;"The boundary between
pornography and erotica is an ambiguous one, and it changes depending on where you're standing. For
some, perhaps, it's a matter of whatever turns you on (my erotica, your pornography), for some the
distinction occurs in class (i.e. erotica is pornography for rich people). Perhaps it's also
something to do with the means of distribution – internet pornography is
unquestionably porn, while an Edwardian publication, on creamy paper, bought by connoisseurs, part
works bound into expensive volumes, must be erotica./blockquotebr /br /and I went on to say,br /br
/blockquote style="font-style: italic;"It's the kind of smut that would have no difficulty in
demonstrating to an overzealous prosecutor that it has unquestionable artistic validity beyond its
simple first amendment right to exist./blockquoteWhich was the kind of thing you put in a review
suspecting that its real purpose may be to persuade a prosecutor that the case is already lost, and
not to bother.br /br /In with span style="font-style: italic;"Lost Girls/span' many permutations of
sexuality, we find some content featuring fictional characters under the current age of consent.
It's a story about sexual awakenings, after all, and few of us wake exactly on our eighteenth
birthdays (or whatever your local age of consent or representation happens to be). At one point we
find ourselves reading a book within a book, a Beardsleyesque fantasia in which fictional
characters discuss the fact that they are lines on paper, metafictional fantasies, while having
underage, incestuous, sex. It's art, and it's brilliant, and it makes you think about what porn is
and what art is, and where the boundaries are.br /br /The Law is a blunt instrument. It's not a
scalpel. It's a club. If there is something you consider indefensible, and there is something you
consider defensible, and the same laws can take them both out, you are going to find yourself
defending the indefensible.br /br /I was born the day of the conclusion of the span
style="font-style: italic;"Lady Chatterley/span trial in England, the day it was decided that span
style="font-style: italic;"Lady Chatterley's Lover/span, with its swearing, buggery and raw sex
between the classes, was fit to be published and read in a cheap edition that poor people and
servants could read. This was the same England in which, some years earlier, the director of public
prosecutions had threatened to prosecute Professor F R Leavis if he so much as referred to James
Joyce's span style="font-style: italic;"Ulysses /spanin a lecture (the DPP was a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Bodkin"Archibald Bodkin/a, who also bannedspan
style="font-style: italic;" The Well of Loneliness/span) , in which, when I was sixteen and
listening to the Sex Pistols, the publisher of span style="font-style: italic;"Gay News/span was
sentenced to prison for the crime of Criminal Blasphemy, for publishing an erotic poem featuring a
fantasy about Jesus.br /br /When I was writing span style="font-style: italic;"Sandman/span, about
eighteen years ago, I had thought that the Marquis de Sade would make a fine character for my
French Revolution story (I loved the fact that at the time he was a tubby, asthmatic imprisoned for
his refusal to sentence people to death) and thought I really ought to read his books, rather than
commntaries on them, if I was going to put him in my story, and I discovered that the works of
DeSade were, at that time, not available in the UK, and that UK Customs had declared them
un-importable. I bought them in a Borders the next time I was in the US, and brought them through
customs looking guilty. (You can now get De Sade in the UK. The arrival of internet porn in the UK
meant that the police stopped chasing things like that.)br /br /The first time I got involved in
fund-raising for comics freedom of speech was in late 1983 or early 1984 -- Knockabout Comics were
having one of their frequent battles with UK Customs over what could and could not be imported into
the UK. Some comics contained rude words, sex, or the use of marijuana in them, and Customs would
seize any comics they objected to, forcing Knockabout to fight long, expensive, court cases to get
them back. (I remember their outrage when, in 1996, Knockabout imported some Robert Crumb books to
accompany a BBC TV documentary on Crumb, and UK Customs confiscated the books, forcing yet another
court case. I'm pretty sure that it was over some autobiographical Crumb work which contained
drawings of sexual fantasies including characters who were under 18. As a
href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=1515"Tony Bennett, from Knockabout said in a recent
interview,/a span style="font-style: italic;""The other case was with HM Customs in 1996 over
Robert Crumb’s comics and explicit sexual imagery. We won this overwhelmingly as well and
Customs were kind enough to write to me after the case setting out a list of what sex acts might be
shown in comics. I haven’t actually framed it but it is a precious document."/span)br /br
/The first time I ever came close to sending a publisher to prison was about 1986 or 1987, for
Knockabout's span style="font-style: italic;"Outrageous Tales From The Old Testament/span: I'd
retold a story from thespan style="font-style: italic;" Book of Judges/span that contained a rape
and murder, and this was held to have contravened a Swedish law depicting images of violence
against women. The case was only won when the defense pointed out that the words were from the King
James version of the bible, and that the images were a fair representation thereof...br /br /(For
those of you who are a bit shaky on your Book of Judges, here's a
href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=judges%2019;amp;version=31;"an online Bible
version of the scene that caused the prosecution/a.)br /blockquotebr /span style="font-style:
italic;"While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the
house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man
who came to your house so we can have sex with him."/spanbr /br /span style="font-style:
italic;"The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, don't be so vile.
Since this man is my guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. Look, here is my virgin daughter, and
his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you
wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing."/spanbr /br /span style="font-style:
italic;"But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to
them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At
daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and
lay there until daylight./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"When her master got up in the
morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his
concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her,
"Get up; let's go." But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for
home./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up
his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of
Israel./span/blockquotebr /And in each case, you could rewrite Jess's letter above, explaining that
only perverts would want to read span style="font-style: italic;"Lady Chatterley/span, or see
images of women being abused, or read span style="font-style: italic;"Lost Girls/span or the works
of Robert Crumb, and mentioning that if only one person was saved from a hug from a creepy uncle,
or indeed, being raped in the streets, that banning them or prosecuting those who write, draw,
publish, sell or -- now -- own them, is worth it. Because that was the point of view of the people
who were banning these works or stopping people reading them. They thought they were doing a good
thing. They thought they were defending other people.br /br /I loved coming to the US in 1992,
mostly because I loved the idea that freedom of speech was paramount. I still do. With all its
faults, the US has Freedom of Speech. You can't be arrested for saying things the government
doesn't like. You can say what you like, write what you like, and that the remedy to someone saying
or writing or showing something that offends you is not to read it, or to speak out against it. I
loved that I could read and make my own mind up about something.br /br /(It's worth noting that the
UK, for example, has no such law, and that even the European Court of Human Rights has ruled thata
href="http://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/3543216b2ccd2e5738717582.pdf"span style="font-style:
italic;" interference with free speech was "necessary in a democratic society" in order to
guarantee the rights of others" to protection from gratuitous insults to their religious
feelings./span/a)br /br /So when a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_diana"Mike Diana/a was
prosecuted -- and found guilty -- of obscenity for the comics in his Zine "Boiled Angel", and
sentenced to a host of things, including (if memory serves) a three year suspended prison sentence,
a three thousand dollar fine, not being allowed to be in the same room as anyone under eighteen,
over a thousand hours of community service, and was forbidden to draw anything else obscene, with
the local police ordered to make 24 hour unannounced spot checks to make sure Mike wasn't secretly
committing Art in the small hours of the morning... that was the point I decided that I knew what
was obscene, and it was prosecuting artists for having ideas and making lines on paper, and that I
was going to do everything I could to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Whether I liked or
approved of what Mike Diana did was utterly irrelevant. (For the record, I didn't like the text
parts of span style="font-style: italic;"Boiled Angel/span, but did like the comics, which were
personal and had a raw power to them. And somewhere in the sprawling basement magazine collection I
have span style="font-style: italic;"Boiled Angel/span 7 and 8, which I read back then to find out
what was being prosecuted, and for owning which I could, I assume, now be arrested...)br /br /The
first time the CBLDF did anything to defend one of my comics, it was the span style="font-style:
italic;"Death Talks About Life/span comic at the back of DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING, in which
we see Death putting a condom on a banana and talking about how not to get pregnant, diseased or
dead. The Chief of Police in (if memory serves) Jacksonville Florida ordered a comic shop not to
sell it, because she thought it was obscene and encouraged teen sex. In this case, it only took a
letter from the CBLDF legal counsel, Burton Joseph, to the Jacksonville Police Department,
explaining the concept of the First Amendment (and, by implication, that there was an organisation
prepared to defend this stuff) and they shut up and went away. (That's what most of the CBLDF
activity consists of -- small, quiet things that stop it ever getting to a court of law.) From the
police chief's point of view, span style="font-style: italic;"Death Talks About Life/span was
obscene. She wanted it off the shelves.br /br /In this case you obviously have read lolicon, and I
haven't. I don't know whether you're writing from personal experience here, and whether you have
personally been incited to rape children or give inappropriate hugs by reading it. (I assume you
haven't. I assume that Chris Handley, with his huge manga collection, wasn't either. I've read
books that claimed that exposure to porn causes rape, but have seen no statistical evidence that
porn causes rape -- and indeed have seen a
href="http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/06/rape-porn-and-criminality-political.php"claims that
the declining number of US rapes may be due to the wider availability of porn/a. Honestly, it's a
red herring. I'll leave that for other people to argue about.) Still, you seem to want lolicon
banned, and people prosecuted for owning it, and I don't. You ask, span style="font-style:
italic;"What makes it worth defending?/span and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to
write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you're
going to have to stand up for stuff you span style="font-style: italic;"don't /spanbelieve is worth
defending, stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not
differentiate between what you like and what you don't, because prosecutors are humans and bear
grudges and fight for re-election, because one person's obscenity is another person's art.br /br
/The CBLDF will defend your First Amendment right as an adult to make lines on paper, to draw, to
write, to sell, to publish, and now, span style="font-style: italic;"to own/span comics. And that's
what makes work you don't like, or don't read, or work that you do not feel has artistic worth or
redeeming features worth defending. It's the stuff you like and the stuff you find icky, wherever
your icky line happens to be. Because the law is a big blunt instrument that makes no fine
distinctions, and because you only realise how wonderful absolute freedom of speech is the day you
lose it.br /br /(And let it be understood that I think that child pornography, and the exploitation
of actual children for porn or for sex is utterly wrong and bad, because actual children are being
directly harmed. And also that I think that a
href="http://news.cnet.com/Police-blotter-Teens-prosecuted-for-racy-photos/2100-1030_3-6157857.html"prosecuting
as child pornographers a 16 and 17 year old who are legally able to have sex, because they took a
sexual photograph and emailed it to themselves is utterly, insanely wrong/a, and a nice example of
the law as blunt instrument.) div class="label_list" style="margin-top: 20px; padding-left: 15px;
text-indent: -15px; font-size: 78%/1.4em; font-family: 'Trebuchet
MS',Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing:
.1em;"strongLabels:/strongnbsp; a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/wittering%20on%20a%20bit" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"wittering on a bit/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/The%20First%20Amendment" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"The First Amendment/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Bible%20stories%20that%20nearly%20sent%20publishers%20to%20prison"
style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"Bible stories that nearly sent publishers to
prison/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Lost%20Girls" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"Lost Girls/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/CBLDF"
style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"CBLDF/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Why%20I%20Support%20the%20CBLDF" style="color:
#999; text-transform: uppercase;"Why I Support the CBLDF/a/div
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/95291?ns=guardianpageName=Environment%3A+Antarctic+seas+richer+in+life+than+Galapagos+Islands%2C+study+claimsch=Environmentc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Polar+regions+%28Environment%29%2CWildlife+%28Environment%29%2CConservation+%28Environment%29%2CEndangered+habitats+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CScience%2CBiodiversity+%28science%29%2CWorld+news%2CAntarctica+%28News%29c5=Environment+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CClimate+Change%2CEthical+Livingc6=James+Randersonc7=2008_12_01c8=1126962c9=articlec10=GUc11=Environmentc12=Polar+regionsc13=c14=h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FPolar+regions"
width="1" height="1" //divpSeas surrounding an archipelago near the tip of the Antarctic peninsula
are richer in animal life than the Galapagos Islands, challenging the notion that warm seas in
tropical zones are higher in biodiversity, scientists claimed today. /ppMuch less is known about
the South Orkney islands than the tropical islands that helped to shape Charles Darwin's thoughts
about natural selection on his Beagle voyage. But according to a new study published today by the
Journal of Biogeography, the sea around them is teeming with a huge variety of life. The survey
disproves the notion that the waters in chilly polar regions have a much poorer variety of
fauna./pp"There has been a long-held belief that the tropics are rich and the polar regions are
poor and mid-latitudes are somewhere in between," said Dr David Barnes at the British Antarctic
Survey, who led the study, part of the international a href="http://www.coml.org/"Census of Marine
Life/a. "This is the first time we've been able to actually look at the fauna of a polar
archipelago – it is not actually that poor at all." /ppBarnes said the reason
for carrying out the survey was to give a baseline from which changes in biodiversity due to global
warming can be judged. "This is in the part of the world with fastest change in terms of
temperature," he said./ppThe Antarctic peninsula has already experienced warming of 3C over the
past 50 years. "If you don't know what the fauna is at any one point it is very difficult to detect
either species moving in or species moving out", he added./ppThe survey recorded 1,224 species in
50 different biological classes. The team discovered five new species and one genus - the
biological category that is higher than species - that was new to science. The new species are all
sea mosses (bryozoans) or isopods (woodlouse-like animals) but they have not been given names
yet./ppThe team also scoured reports from scientific expeditions and the scientific literature
going back decades to find every mention of species observed in the region in a bid to create the
most complete and authoritative list of creatures that have ever been found there./ppBut studying
the sea creatures off the South Orkneys is not for the faint hearted - and a far cry from the balmy
waters around the Galapagos. Barnes's team had to brave biting winds that frequently stopped them
from working. /ppAnd while diving in the freezing waters, they had to keep an eye out for potential
attacks by orcas and leopard seals. If either predator came near they had to stop diving by
climbing onto the British Antarctic Survey's Royal research vessel James Clark Ross or scrambling
to shore. /pp"Although that sounds dramatic, weather is a far bigger issue," said Barnes. "It stops
us working far more and makes our work far more hazardous ... Sometimes it's much warmer under the
water - it's only minus one and a half [degrees]!"/ppOnce underwater though the view is
spectacular. "," said Barnes, who has dived extensively on coral reefs and all over the world.
/pp"I don't think I've been anywhere where you can see so many different types of major groups of
animals all in one place. /pp"You would have to swim quite a long way in the UK or maybe cover
hundreds of metres in a coral reef to see so many types of animals that you can see in a very small
space at the polar regions."/ppHe said that the marine environment off the South Orkneys is also
pristine and free from invasive species. "It is literally the only place in the world where you can
dive and not see alien species. Everything you can see in front of you is native to Antarctica."
/ppNone of the trawls of the ocean depths brought up any plastic waste –
something expected anywhere else in the world. The only human crafted item the team did uncover was
a piece of lead shot that was probably fired by whalers who used the South Orkneys as a base at the
turn of the last century./ppThe team's survey covered all realms of sea life. As well as diving in
the shallows they also trawled the sea bottom to a depth of 1,500m using nets and employed a
special sled that when dragged across the bottom could collect even very tiny creatures. Its sieve
held everything bigger than 0.3mm. /ppOther team members combed the intertidal zone of the islands
to survey life in rock pools and living on the shore./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/poles"Polar regions/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/"Conservation/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangeredhabitats"Endangered habitats/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/biodiversity"Biodiversity/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/antarctica"Antarctica/a/li/ul/diva
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of
this content is subject to our a
href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a
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BARACK OBAMA: His Thanksgiving YouTube address. Also transcribed, AFTER THE JUMP...
RACHEL MADDOW: What she's thankful for.
MACY'S PARADE RICK-ROLLED: Rick Astley appears at the parade's best moment.
ROSIE LIVE: Clay Aiken arrives for a lame gay joke on what was perhaps the worst television
special I've ever witnessed. Others agreed.
Remarks of President-elect Barack Obama
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
Good morning.
Nearly 150 years ago, in one of the darkest years of our nation's history, President Abraham
Lincoln set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving. America was split by
Civil War. But Lincoln said in his first Thanksgiving decree that difficult times made it even
more appropriate for our blessings to be -- and I quote -- "gratefully acknowledged as with one
heart and one voice by the whole American people."
This week, the American people came together with family and friends to carry on this distinctly
American tradition. We gave thanks for loved ones and for our lasting pride in our communities
and our country. We took comfort in good memories while looking forward to the promise of change.
But this Thanksgiving also takes place at a time of great trial for our people.
Across the country, there were empty seats at the table, as brave Americans continue to serve in
harm's way from the mountains of Afghanistan to the deserts of Iraq. We honor and give thanks for
their sacrifice, and stand by the families who endure their absence with such dignity and
resolve.
At home, we face an economic crisis of historic proportions. More and more Americans are worried
about losing a job or making their mortgage payment. Workers are wondering if next month's
paycheck will pay next month's bills. Retirees are watching their savings disappear, and students
are struggling with the cost of tuition.
It's going to take bold and immediate action to confront this crisis. That's why I'm committed to
forging a new beginning from the moment I take office as President of the United States. Earlier
this week, I announced my economic team. This talented and dedicated group is already hard at
work crafting an Economic Recovery Plan that will create or save 2.5 million new jobs, while
making the investments we need to fuel long-term economic growth and stability.
But this Thanksgiving, we are reminded that the renewal of our economy won't come from policies
and plans alone -- it will take the hard work, innovation, service, and strength of the American
people.
I have seen this strength firsthand over many months -- in workers who are ready to power new
industries, and farmers and scientists who can tap new sources of energy; in teachers who stay
late after school, and parents who put in that extra hour reading to their kids; in young
Americans enlisting in a time of war, seniors who volunteer their time, and service programs that
bring hope to the hopeless.
It is a testament to our national character that so many Americans took time out this
Thanksgiving to help feed the hungry and care for the needy. On Wednesday, I visited a food bank
at Saint Columbanus Parish in Chicago. There -- as in so many communities across America -- folks
pitched in time and resources to give a lift to their neighbors in need. It is this spirit that
binds us together as one American family -- the belief that we rise and fall as one people; that
we want that American Dream not just for ourselves, but for each other.
That's the spirit we must summon as we make a new beginning for our nation. Times are tough.
There are difficult months ahead. But we can renew our nation the same way that we have in the
many years since Lincoln's first Thanksgiving: by coming together to overcome adversity; by
reaching for -- and working for -- new horizons of opportunity for all Americans.
So this weekend -- with one heart, and one voice, the American people can give thanks that a new
and brighter day is yet to come.
http://charismamag.com/articles/index.php?id=5807 Pearson's Gospel of Inclusion' Stirs
Controversy Carlton Pearson may have lost his bid for a shot at the mayor's office in Tulsa,
Okla., because of his belief in a controversial theology known as the "gospel of inclusion,"
which states that everyone is saved--they just don't know it. Pearson is a conservative
Republican and founder of the 4,500-member, multiracial Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa.
He claims he failed to win the primary in February due to his belief in "inclusion" theology,
which also questions the existence of a literal hell. "The Christian turnout is usually 15
percent," Pearson, 48, said of local elections in Tulsa. "But some of them just didn't vote at
all because they weren't sure that they should risk putting somebody like me in office."
Protestant theology teaches that man is separated from God by sin and destined for hell, unless
he believes in Jesus' redemptive work. Pearson said he first started thinking about the inclusive
doctrine after reading E.W. Kenyon's writings more than 25 years ago. Pearson has been preaching
the controversial view for three years. "A careful study of what I have taught will reveal that
it is entirely scriptural, logical and theologically sound," Pearson told Charisma. The Tulsa
Beacon reported that Pearson has been confronted over his teaching by televangelists John Hagee,
Marilyn Hickey and his mentor, Oral Roberts. Roberts, Hagee and Hickey declined to comment about
the matter. However, Pearson claimed that fellow black preachers, including Dallas pastor T.D.
Jakes, are familiar to some extent with inclusionism. "These are my friends," Pearson said. "They
discern my heart, even though they may not discern my head. They're not bothered by this." Jakes,
however, told Charisma that he repudiates Pearson's views as heresy. "While I do consider Carlton
Pearson to be a friend, I believe his theology is wrong, false, misleading and an incorrect
interpretation of the Bible," Jakes said in a statement. "Carlton...improperly characterizes me
as not being 'bothered' by this. I am both bothered and troubled by this teaching and with any
implication that I support or in any way agree with it." Jakes added: "While I certainly agree
that Christ died for everyone, I do not believe that we are automatically saved, but that we must
be 'born again' by believing in and personally accepting Jesus Christ." But Pearson said he is
not picking a fight. "I am open to counsel and...correction from those I feel accountable to in
the body of Christ," he said. Eric Tiansay
Li-xiang is a patient, but also more than a patient. He filmed in 2004 a documentary called
“our life” about how AIDS patients live, and founded an AID-care NGO named Red-wood,
which reaches out to comfort AIDS patients and train health-care volunteers. Outside his
sickroom, he is more a social worker than a patient in need of care. As he said
To me, my daily work to help AIDS patients, and lift public’s misunderstanding and
discrimination against AIDS. I spent most of my time working on HIV issue, as any social worker
does.
Now about 30, he contracted AIDS in a blood donation when he was only a high school student.
He started blogging in 2005, writing about his life,
ideas, and occasionally HIV treatment. He faces the disease with an open mind and never grudges
talking about it, and his optimism cheers up many of his fellow patients.
He writes about AIDS treatment and discusses with netizens, many of them fellow patients, the
prospect of overcoming the fatal disease; for example, he has entries called “Li-xiang: my
point on AIDS medicine”, and “Li-xiang: relationship between anti-virus
cure and CD4.” Also, he scolds the quake that swindles fake
medicine to anxious patients. Moreover, he deliberated on a trade-off between
people’s privacy and a preventive measure against AIDS that have to make any lurking
disease open.
Should we shift from a strategy that centers on treatment to another strategy centers on
preventive measures? Or should we do them equally hard? Is the measure we are taking now, namely,
treatment going first, only takes as little effect as a water drop has to the entire sea? Are the
60 million AIDS workers around the world able to save effectively the 40 million patients? Should
we, facing AIDS, sacrifice human rights to impose a forced examination on people to better control
the AIDS infection? Is that worth it?
He has been a celebrity. His deeds were widely reported. Southern Weekend, an influential
periodical, dedicated one page to
him after his documentary was finished. He was said to be so busy that even on bed he has to
pick up phone calls to tell his ideas about where the NGO Red-woods should be going for next
step. And pictures show that he
was planting trees with the Belgium Princess Mathilde in an AIDS-related activity.
(From Li-xiang's blog)
But in all these reports and pictures, one thing remains, that Li-xiang has never shown his face
to the camera. The reason he does that, is because he also wants a life of dignity, and tries not
to let his parents and friends worry too much about him.
Self
Li-xiang, though with the aura as an extraordinary man, is in nature a common person, who just
happened to run into a misfortune. He likes to talk about himself in most daily-life details.
I love playing games, not only freecell (a poker game), but also Counter-strike (a computer
game). Playing games for less than 30 minutes a day will help adjust your life and mind.
What I hate the most is that when I am sick, people come to look after me, and I have to repeat
how my treatment goes time and time again. What disappoints me more is that some one even come
bearing other purposes.
Finally again I saw your blog updated. Do you feel better? Though Beijing has good health-care
hardware, you have to really rely on yourself and a strong immunity. Too much side-effect with
medicines. Sincerely wish you the best with everything! Zhou-yuan
Those who know about me all have heard that Li-xiang loves beautiful girls. When people ask me
about the rumor, I will give a straight answer, “yes, I love beautiful girls.”
It’s lucky for me to know exactly some beautiful girls. It goes without saying that one of
them is my girlfriend. Aha, what hope will life have if beautiful girls were no long liked and
appreciated?
But some netizens left on his blog unfriendly comments on his love of beauty.
This blogger named Li-xiang is really shameless. He knows how he is but still find a beautiful
girl as his girlfriend. Isn’t this meant to be harming her? Shame on him!!!!! Please be more
considerate for others. Sina.com Netizen
But the remark met rebuttal from other netizens very soon.
Li-xiang, don’t bother to argue with this kind of people. Life could be much unfair. You
are so kind, wise, but were infected with AIDS due to a blood donation. This is not your fault. I
feel painful that there is so malicious a person in the world. They don’t know the
appreciation of beauty is also a virtue. They don’t know besides bodily relationship, there
is spiritual love. Their ignorance and bigot, are impossible to understand you. Sina.com netizen
For quite a while I have written no diary and blogs. It’s not all because I was busy, but
for some other reasons. Sometimes I felt depressed, and sometimes at a loss. Yes, I am not as
strong as bronze. I am just a common person with a belief that some day hope will come true.
Though his blog enhances his popularity, he still takes it as a simple platform for
communication, and a window to look at the world.
I am just a common man. Blogging is just another angle for me to look at the world. I am not a
self-pity man to prove how innocent a patient I am. I am mentally healthy. In more time, I
don’t play the role of a patient. I depart from the group of patients, and leave away from
the public, just to be a man familiar to both groups.
This is Li-xiang life, plain, easy but active. As he said, “Now, though a lot of people
think I am greatly unfortunate, I am, however, feeling like having the most meaningful life
ever”.
pstrong1952:/strong It's front-page news when George Jorgensen Jr. is reborn as Christine
Jorgensen, gaining international celebrity and notoriety as the first widely known person to
undergo a successful sex-change operation./p pJorgensen, who grew up in the Bronx, in her words, a
"frail, tow-headed, introverted little boy who ran from fistfights and rough-and-tumble games," was
drafted into the Army just after World War II. Military service only reinforced Jorgensen's belief
that she was, in fact, a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Jorgensen"a woman trapped
inside a man's body/a./p pAfter receiving her discharge, Jorgensen returned home and first heard
about "sex-reassignment surgery," which was being performed only in Sweden. (It was illegal almost
everywhere else, including the United States.)/p pEncouraged, Jorgensen began taking female
hormones on her own, then headed for Sweden. She never made it. Stopping in Denmark to visit
relatives in Copenhagen, Jorgensen was introduced to Christian Hamburger, a Danish surgeon who
specialized in the kind of surgery she was seeking. He agreed to take the case and put his patient
on a href="http://www.transgenderzone.com/research/hrt.htm"hormone-replacement therapy/a as they
prepared for surgery./p pSeveral surgeries were required, the first one consisting of castration,
which was only carried out after permission was obtained from the Danish minister of justice./p pAt
the time of Jorgensen's transformation, Hamburger did not give her an artificial vagina, so she
remained "anatomically incorrect" for several years before undergoing a vaginoplasty in the United
States./p pThe hormone therapy resulted in profound changes to Jorgensen's body. Fat was
redistributed, and she began to take on the contours of a woman. Subsequent surgeries completed the
process until she was ready to step into the spotlight./p pJorgensen's sex change, which may have
been leaked to the press by Jorgensen herself, hit the headlines Dec. 1, creating an international
sensation. "a href="http://www.christinejorgensen.org/MainPages/Home.html"Ex-GI Becomes Blonde
Beauty/a" screamed the banner of Jorgensen's hometown citeNew York Daily News/cite./p pIn fact,
Jorgensen was not the first person to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. During the rollicking
Weimar period, German doctors performed the surgery on at least two patients. The difference, in
Jorgensen's case, was that she underwent hormone-replacement therapy in conjunction with the
surgery. The earlier surgeries were strictly cut-and-paste./p pAlthough Jorgensen complained
frequently about the jackals of the press, she did become something of a publicity hound and took
most of the tasteless remarks with good grace, laughing off jokes such as, "Christine Jorgensen
went abroad and came back a broad."/p pShe turned to acting and became a nightclub singer as well,
performing, predictably, "I Enjoy Being a Girl."/p pBut a
href="http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hptjorg,0,5016969.story"Christine
Jorgensen's world/a was not an enlightened one, particularly when it came to transgenderism. She
paid the cost for this lack of sophistication. A first announced engagement fell through, and a
second one failed as well, when the state of New York refused to issue the couple a marriage
license. Her intended husband also lost his job when the marriage plans became known./p pShe later
traveled the lecture circuit, talking about her experiences and advocating for the nascent
transgender cause./p pJorgensen died of cancer in 1989, a few weeks short of age 63./p pemSource:
Various/em/pbr style="clear: both;"/ a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;'
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Dawn Gaskill, a resident of San Miguel de Allende, translates ancient symbols and belief systems
into contemporary art made to inspire the realization of personal intentions. At the invitation
of the Dallas Museum Store she will make a visit in conjunction with the King Tut and the Golden
Age of the Pharaohs exhibition to feature her Egyptian Series of encaustic work and hand-made
useable art, such as hand painted journals from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on December 5 and 6.
(PRWeb Dec 1, 2008)
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