gooddagui: September 2011

Friday, 30 September 2011

Ecology photography prize awarded

The British Ecological Society selects the winners of its annual photographic competition, with many winning images taken by scientists

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14666552

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The world's ants captured in 3D

Images reveal US team's endeavour to capture 3D digital images of every ant species known to science.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/12880498

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Martin McGuinness's candidacy is an affront to decency | Nick Cohen

How can the former IRA man be considered a serious candidate for the Irish presidency?

All the countries the euro crisis is ravaging can recall a time of dictatorial rule and revolutionary violence. Franco's fascistic regime clung on until 1975, late in the day even by the lax standards of the 20th century. Portugal's 1974 revolution against the Salazar dictatorship was a glorious moment of civil disobedience, but the carnage the revolution accelerated in the old Portuguese colonies of Mozambique, Angola and East Timor continued for decades. Assassination attempts and naval mutinies preceded Greece's revolution against the military junta in 1974 and terrorist groups carried on operating in Greece into the 21st century, as they did in Spain.

Europe, that soft, safe continent of moderate politicians, pacific generals, meticulous bureaucrats, liberal judges and protected workers, is a recent invention. One should not expect it to contain its old demons after the collapse of its hopes.

The first example of the "new politics" emerging from the wreckage of the eurozone is the campaign for the Irish presidency by Martin McGuinness, the butcher's boy who became head of the IRA's northern command. Ireland wasn't a dictatorship in the 1970s, although the gerrymandered Protestant statelet in the north and the Catholic conservative republic in the south were not democratic models anyone else wanted to follow. The violence in Ireland was worse than anything southern Europe saw, however. Between 1968 and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, more than 3,600 were killed, around 2,000 of them by McGuinness's IRA.

To understand the effrontery of his candidacy, imagine that Britain was a republic ? as we ought to be ? and that Tony Blair was considering a bid to be head of state and supreme commander of the defence forces. A brief glance at the rolling news channels would tell him that he was bound to lose. The records of the fallen Gaddafi regime suggest that his administration sent suspects to Libya, who were then tortured. No man should be able to run for office with allegations like that hanging over him.

It is not a mere suggestion but an incontrovertible fact that Gaddafi sent the IRA weapons, which it used to slaughter the peoples of Ireland and Britain. Yet the early polls say that far from viewing McGuinness as the candidate from the psychopathic edge of the lunatic fringe, Irish voters are taking him seriously. A scandal about his views on underage sex has stymied the chances of the best of his rivals, David Norris, who did more for Ireland than the IRA ever managed when he overturned the anti-homosexuality laws. Whatever virtues the rest possess, the failure of the economic system has discredited them, as it has discredited democratic politicians across the west.

If you allow amnesia to numb the brain, McGuinness can seem untainted in comparison. He says he will refuse to take the �250,000 salary for the job and manage on the average wage. It's a showy gesture, but a clever one to make in a country trapped in self-defeating austerity, whose government has told its citizens they must take on the private debts of its ruined banks. One should no more go to men who once bombed businesses for an economic policy than seek the advice of the Taliban on the emancipation of women, but when the untutored and forgetful listen to Sinn F�in they hear plausible critiques of the European Union's unbearable demands for debt repayment.

Jim Cusack of the Sunday Independent and a few other Dublin reporters are doing what journalists are meant to do and spoiling the party with awkward questions. McGuinness says he never killed anyone with gun or bomb. All right, they say, you may not have pulled the trigger but how many "spectaculars" did you organise? Whose deaths did you order? Which families are still grieving because of your commands?

In particular, they ask about what happened in October 1990 when the IRA decided that a Catholic man called Patsy Gillespie was a "collaborator" because he found the money to feed his wife and children by working in a British army canteen. The IRA foreshadowed Islamist suicide bombers when it forced him to drive a van bomb into an army checkpoint. Meanwhile, younger readers may need to be told that ITV was once a public service broadcaster. In 1993, its much missed investigative journalism slot ? The Cook Report ? broadcast the mother of Frank Hegarty, who alleged that McGuinness persuaded her to lure her son back to Derry, where the IRA kidnapped and murdered him for being an "informer". The poor woman went to her grave blaming herself for her son's death.

Too many Dublin journalists don't demand answers but repeat the conventional wisdom that McGuinness and Gerry Adams deserve praise for becoming men of peace. Praise would indeed be due if the IRA's leaders faced the past truthfully.

Their war was futile because the power sharing and cross-border institutions the IRA settled for in 1998 had been on offer since 1974. All the people the IRA, Protestant paramilitaries and the British army killed in the intervening decades died for nothing. Sometimes, it seems as if the only person stating the obvious is the Guardian and Observer's Ireland correspondent Henry McDonald, but his point needs repeating: the ranks of the IRA were filled with the world's slowest-learning murderers. It took them a generation to realise their dream of uniting Ireland by violence was a malign fantasy.

McGuinness and Adams cannot admit it, for how can they tell the imprisoned men and the widowed women that the cause for which they suffered was a waste of time? They keep the idea of violent republicanism alive by pretending that it was a justifiable reaction to British oppression or a continuation of the struggle for Catholic equality by other means.

In other words, Ireland may soon be welcoming a president who cannot be honest with the electorate, cannot be honest with supporters and cannot be honest with himself. He will use the presidency as a megaphone to boom out the myths he has to believe. As always, the surprise is not that the politician lies, but that so many in Ireland and beyond want to be lied to.

There is a temptation to believe that change always brings some good. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Obama's adviser Rahm Emanuel after the crash, because it offers new opportunities. As the remnants of the IRA rise in Ireland and nationalist anti-immigrant parties rise across Europe, we may be about to learn that recessions rarely bring anything but change for the worse.

Comments will be turned on at 10am BST

Nick Cohen

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/martin-mcguinness-presidency-ireland-ira

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Three teenagers shot on west London estate

The female victims, aged 17, 18 and 19, in serious condition after incident on John Fearon Walk in North Kensington

Three teenagers were in a serious condition in hospital on Thursday night after being shot in the street.

The female victims, aged 17, 18 and 19, were shot outside a property on an estate in North Kensington, west London.

Police hunting the gunman were investigating if the attack was a botched drive-by shooting. It was initially believed that only one shot was fired.

One of the victims was taken to hospital in a critical condition but has since improved. The victims' injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

Scotland Yard said the teenagers were shot outside an address in John Fearon Walk at around 7.15pm.

The 18-year-old was treated for gunshot wounds at the scene before being taken to hospital by air ambulance. The other two victims made their own way to hospital. A police spokesman said they were alerted to the incident by the ambulance service, which had received reports that several females had been shot and injured.

The spokesman said: "We have got officers down there trying to piece together what is going on. At this stage we are doing all we can."

An investigation is being led by Trident detectives, who are responsible for dealing with gang crime in black communities. No arrests have been made.

Karen Buck, the MP for Westminster North, expressed her concern as she visited the Mozart estate, where the attack took place.

The Labour politician, who has previously called for crackdowns on knife and gun crime, tweeted: "On Mozart estate after reports of 3 girls being shot. Desperately worried about local gang and youth violence. We have to get a grip."

Community leaders have made several attempts to make the area safer in recent years. Yew trees and a herb garden in a chequerboard pattern were planted along John Fearon Walk after it was identified as a hotspot for antisocial behaviour.

Cherry Wilson

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/30/three-teenagers-shot-west-london

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Plant bends to bury its own seeds

A new plant that bends down to deposit its seeds is discovered in the Atlantic forest, north-eastern Brazil.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15033695

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Thursday, 29 September 2011

TV cameramen covering riots are working for us, not the police

It was wrong to make the BBC, Sky and ITN hand over unseen footage to Scotland Yard

It's the knottiest press freedom problem. After the August riots ? or indeed any riots ? should TV companies and newspapers be forced to turn over unshown footage to the police? Scotland Yard predictably says "yes" and issues more of its beloved protection orders; the BBC, ITN and Sky say "no" and battle not to comply. But this time, as so often, the Yard wins and hundreds of hours of evidence are handed over.

Get a picture; get a looter; get a conviction. We know that already, so what's wrong? Only that television cameramen aren't police or local authority camera scanners. They're doing a different, separate job for us, not them. Some were rounded on and attacked when the rioters took hold. Many more will surely be in danger next time round. It is too damned easy to make the press partners of the police, but it's wrong.

? July was a simmering, tetchy month, August a riotous, explosive one. So which paper's website did best as buildings caught flame and shop windows were smashed? The Guardian did well, up 8.5% on unique browsers (as measured by ABC); the Independent, up 6.7%, wasn't far behind; an otherwise market-leading Mail, up only 3.9%, couldn't quite adjust its celebrity coverage to fit. But the winner, with a 9.4% rise, was the Daily Telegraph (which chugs along at third most months). Came the looters, came the chaos, came the automatic smack of firm truncheons?

Peter Preston

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/25/peter-preston-riots-tv-footage-police

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Female comics take over US sitcoms following success of Bridesmaids

American TV executives wake up to fact that wisecracking women don't need male foils to be funny

Something strange is afoot in the world of the American sitcom. A breed of character has emerged that curses profanely, talks frankly about sex, sleeps around and drinks too much, all while wisecracking rudely with the best of them.

None of those attributes is especially original, except that these characters are all women. A fresh crop of TV comedy shows has hit the US cultural landscape anchored on a new breed of sassy, independent, freethinking woman.

Building on the success of the hit Hollywood movie Bridesmaids, which seemed to convince movie executives that male cinemagoers would pay to see funny women, America's television channels are now also placing a big bet on a feminine twist to some tried and tested comic set-ups.

They have even raided the worlds of independent cinema and cutting-edge stand-up to get their talent. First up is New Girl, which stars indie darling Zooey Deschanel in her own show about a woman called Jess who moves in with three men. Though it is an ensemble cast, the show is firmly centred on Deschanel as its main draw. Next is 2 Broke Girls, which features another star of the independent scene, Kat Dennings. She plays Max, a gritty waitress with a strong line in witty put-downs that have stretched what is previously tolerated on mainstream TV. In the first show ? on the CBS network no less ? Dennings's Max responds angrily to a restaurant customer who clicks his fingers at her to get her to come to his table. "You think this is the sound that gets you service," she says, clicking her fingers right back. "I think this is the sound that dries up my vagina." That line alone inspired a wave of hand-wringing articles in America wondering about current broadcasting standards.

Finally, there is Whitney, a show that stars Whitney Cummings, a rising stand-up comedian who has drawn rave reviews for her comic routines. Now she has been given her own TV show. The format is standard ? it explores Whitney's life as she lives with (and refuses to marry) her boyfriend ? but network executives have been promising the show will not pull its punches in dealing frankly with sex and relationships. "This has been coming for a while. A lot depends on these shows. If people respond well to them, then that is all we are going to see. If not, then we'll have to wait another five years to try again," said Janette Barber, a stand-up comic turned radio host on SiriusXM satellite radio.

Of course, there is a long tradition of sassy, funny women in US television comedy. From almost the very start of the genre, major female stars emerged, like Lucille Ball in the classic 1950s show I Love Lucy. In the 70s Bea Arthur starred in Maude as an outspoken liberal, while Loretta Swit was nominated for 10 Emmys during 11 years in M*A*S*H. In the late 80s Roseanne Barr, as the lead character in Roseanne took a wisecracking female lead character to new heights. However, those series nearly always placed their female comics in the role of a wife or mother. With a few notable exceptions ? such as the TV news comedy show Murphy Brown ? they were set against a husband or with a family.

That phenomenon reached its apogee with a wave of comedy shows in the 2000s which seemed to make a fetish of placing attractive, intelligent and witty women in roles where they played second fiddle to often overweight and not especially clever husbands. Shows like The King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond and According to Jim were enormously successful using this formula. "We were seeing a lot of this. The pretty, attractive woman who lives with a schlubby guy. Why did these women marry these guys? They are brighter and more intelligent and more funny than their husbands, who clearly often infuriate them," said Professor Robert Thompson, a pop culture expert at Syracuse University.

The new TV comedies are helping to end that. Here the women characters are not defined by men, even as they fulfil some of the cliches of the sitcom genre: by getting dumped, or trying to bring spice back into a relationship or going on a first date. They put the woman character first and are building on a number of recent female successes, especially Tina Fey's award-winning role in 30 Rock and to a lesser extent the Amy Poehler-led comedy Parks & Recreation.

But the largest influence is the runaway critical and commercial success of Bridesmaids, which starred and was co-written by Kristen Wiig. That movie blew away the critics with its focus on female friendships and, far more importantly in the minds of entertainment executives, it cashed in at the box office in spectacular style. It notched up a staggering $283m in ticket sales, on a budget of just $32m: a paper profit of almost a quarter of a billion. No wonder a host of follow-up films, such as the upcoming Bachelorette, are now in the works. And no surprise that America's TV executives hope to cash in with their female-centric shows. "New things don't happen on TV. They happen somewhere else and TV gloms on to them. The audience for Bridesmaids had a lot of purchasing power and they want a piece of that," said Barber.

That clear-eyed focus on the bottom line is gradually shaking up US television's natural conservatism when it comes to recognising social change. After all, American life is filled with several generations of independent, working (funny) women unconstrained by their men. But TV, many experts say, has a history of being slow to catch up with the society it claims to reflect. Thompson points to the success of the 1960s comedy show Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. Despite being set on a marines base during the brutal height of the Vietnam war, the show never once mentioned the conflict. Instead it focused on the daily tribulations of its main character, a former petrol station attendant who had signed on in the military. Or look at the furore surrounding the coming out of Ellen DeGeneres as a lesbian on her sitcom Ellen in 1997. Though it became a momentous event in TV history, gay people in actual public life in America were already prominent and had long won numerous civil rights and social acceptance. But with these new shows it is possible that the medium is at last catching up with the reality of everyday life. "We are finally at the point when TV is not so many steps behind. Soon it might even sometimes be a few steps ahead," said Thompson.

However, there is still a way to go when it comes to the treatment of women in comedy. It has long been a male-dominated world. "I'm saddened that we are still talking about women in comedy as if it were an oddity. When I first started doing stand-up in the 80s, I was usually introduced: 'And here's something different ? a female comic!'," said Judy Carter, a comedian turned motivational speaker. Despite the wave of new women-led shows, there still does seem to be a double standard when it comes to female comics. They are not entirely judged on the quality of their jokes, but also on their gender, in a way male comics are not. Perhaps the new shows will help change that. To do so they will have to be successful in terms of ratings, thus generating the required advertising revenue to make them a standard part of the broadcasting ecosystem. The early signs are good.

New Girl's debut scored some 10.1 million viewers and was the most popular show of its night among younger viewers. Meanwhile, 2 Broke Girls got a huge 19.2 million viewers for its heavily promoted first show. If such performances are kept up, the shows might cease to be viewed as sitcoms featuring funny women and just seen as funny TV shows. "I look forward to the day when we laugh at a movie such as Bridesmaids, and we don't even notice: 'Oh my God, women are funny!' Funny is funny regardless of gender," said Carter.

Paul Harris

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/sep/24/female-comedians-american-sitcoms-bridesmaids

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Majungasaurus

Although ruled in the northern hemisphere, abelisaurs such as Majungasaurus reigned in the south. Many Majungasaurus skulls and bones have been found and studied. All came from the Mahajanga Province of and date to a time when it was already an island. Majungasaurus was not one of the larger but it was still one of the largest of the region.

The short and broad snout was perfect for biting and holding onto . But sauropods weren't the only thing on its menu. Recently discovered bones with bite marks from other Majungasaurus suggest they ate each other. This direct evidence of cannibalism is the only instance found to date in .

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Majungasaurus

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A good news story out of Africa brings hope | Ian Birrell

Zambia's president stands down after losing an election? a sign that the continent's fortunes might be changing for the better

Even in this remarkable year of uprisings and unpredictable events, it was an inspirational moment that revealed the pace of change sweeping Africa. The veteran leader of a country whose party had become entrenched in office and been plagued by corruption allegations handed over the presidency after losing an election.

In a continent where all too often presidents cling on to power by any means necessary, Zambia's Rupiah Banda conceded defeat on Friday with astonishing grace and dignity. "My generation, the generation of the independence struggle, must now give way to new ideas ? ideas for the 21st century," he said, with tears in his eyes.

His generous message of reconciliation and unity was greeted with relief in a former British colony that has been relatively stable since gaining independence, especially given flickers of violence sparked by slow counting of votes. After half a century in the public eye, the 74-year-old said he would go home to play with his children.

Banda deserves to be called one of Africa's big men. His fine words offer the sharpest possible reproach to the generation that has dominated the political landscape of Africa with often such dreadful consequences.

The reluctance of these old men to leave office has scarred the continent, especially given their propensity to pillage their nations, eliminate rivals and clamp down on free expression. It is not just the obvious tyrants such as Robert Mugabe, 87 years old and still ruining Zimbabwe, and Teodoro Obiang, whose repressive kleptocracy in Equatorial Guinea is now the longest-standing government in Africa.

In supposed democracies such as Senegal and Cameroon, elderly men long past retirement age are gearing up for elections at which they intend to retain their grip on power. As Uganda's veteran leader Yoweri Museveni once said, many of Africa's problems are caused by leaders who overstay their welcome ? although that was before he stole another election earlier this year, extending his 25-year rule and provoking unrest.

Slowly but surely, however, things are changing ? as shown by Zambia. Michael Sata, the silver-tongued victor who once worked for British Rail, may himself be from the liberation generation but he harnessed the frustrations of the young. He presented himself as a champion of the poor and vowed to tackle both unemployment and undue Chinese influence. The challenge now is whether the charismatic "King Cobra" can deliver on his promises.

Africa is an amazingly young continent, with nearly two-thirds of the population under 24. The young people of sub-Saharan Africa, connected by their mobile phones, are just as fed up with corruption and indignity as the youths who sparked the Arab Spring.

Given the demographics, the desire for change is irresistible. Democracy is spreading across the entire continent, bringing peace and increased prosperity in its wake. It has been given a huge boost this weekend by an old man in Zambia throwing down a challenge to the generation that freed their nations from their colonial rulers.

The refusal of another president to give up power in the Ivory Coast provoked a civil war and huge media coverage. The actions of Mr Banda attracted minimal discussion. In the long run, however, they show the real face of a changing continent.

? This article was amended on 27 September 2011. The standfirst, "Zambia's long-standing president stands down after losing an election? a sign that the continent's fortunes might be changing for the better", was amended to read "Zambia's president stands down after losing an election? a sign that the continent's fortunes might be changing for the better"

Ian Birrell

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/ian-birrell-zambia-president-hope

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A royal decree would bring about change in Saudi Arabia | Hala Al-Dosari

The case of Shaimaa Justaneyah shows how much Saudi women need the long overdue gift of basic rights

Shaimaa Justaneyah's case was being heard for months; she witnessed three hearings with her male guardian before she finally received the verdict. By keeping a low profile and avoiding media or activists' attention, she hoped to sign a simple warranty not to drive, as customary. Her tactic was aimed at avoiding retaliation by the authorities or worse, at avoiding getting accusations of incitement against the country, a charge not uncommon against activists, with worse outcomes.

After receiving the dramatic sentence, Shaimaa finally contacted the group women2drive which immediately issued a statement about her case that travelled all over the world from their websites and social networks.

News of the sentence dimmed the celebratory spirit of the historical royal decrees and sent obvious messages to Saudi women that their struggle toward their basic rights is yet in the infancy stage, at least on the legal front. Last night it was reported that the Saudi king had commuted the sentence.

But Shaimaa is not alone. Najla Hariri, who used to drive repeatedly in Jeddah due to the absence of a driver, was also called for questioning and is facing a similar case with unknown outcomes.

The right to drive is viewed by Saudi women as a basic need that would empower hundreds who currently rely on the availability of drivers or male relatives to commute. Most of the women affected are from lower- to middle-class families or are working women.

Recruitment of drivers is not formally granted to women but to their male relatives, making the issue more complicated for women who are not supported by capable male relatives or for those who can't accommodate drivers in their homes. The inconvenience created by the restriction on women's movements ensured a high response rate for the women-driving campaign. It is believed that the simple step of allowing women the right to drive would enable greater numbers of women to enrol in jobs or education and would ease the financial burden on many families with limited income. It is not understood why the ban still exists, despite the repeated calls to lift it. The official religious scholars who usually oppose the calls for women's empowerment on any level are shown to be the first to comply if an alleviation is decreed by the king. Observers have noticed the quick change of heart of the hardline scholars when the king decided to open the first co-ed university and when he granted women suffrage rights. All it takes is a royal decree.

The opposition to women driving has been focused on issues such as priorities of women's rights, gradual changes of the status quo, and preparing the infrastructure to ensure no gender mixing takes effect.

Yet, all those claims are easily challenged by the presence of other Saudi sectors where women are served by male officials in hospitals, government offices, courts, and airports, without any notable problems.

Saudi women's rights have been at the tail of the reforms locally and internationally for many decades. In celebrating the 81st anniversary of Saudi Arabia, an overdue gift to its women would be allowing them the basic rights of commuting and lifting the guardianship law restrictions, and perhaps then they can freely exercise effectively the promised suffrage rights. An additional treat would be to bring forward the legal system to the 21st century, where peaceful activists can safely function without being lashed.

Hala Al-Dosari is a Saudi writer and activist

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/28/saudi-women-drivers-lash-rights

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Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Is postmodernism Gaga, Warhol or a wooden toaster? Time to find out ?

The V&A is staging an exhibition that tries to define the most elusive of art genres. Tim Adams was first in line

What kind of person queues up to be first into a show called Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990? At 9am yesterday outside the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the answer to that question was a stark one: me.

I'd come along early in the hope of finding a line of ironic overnight sleepers, a distracted gaggle of the self-aware emerging from kitsch tents and eating knowing bacon sarnies on uncomfortable-looking deckchairs fashioned from shopping trolleys. But there was no one. Perhaps that was a postmodern statement in itself.

The question that has dogged our postmodern era is exactly what po-mo means. When other -isms crop up in conversation we at least have the vague sense of where we are: say "impressionism" and a myopic vaguery of haystacks and water lilies comes to mind; mention "cubism" and there is an immediate mental image of chopped up noses and ears; "surrealism", melting clocks. But postmodernism? A sort of edgy blank that never quite forms an actual mental picture. Anyhow, here was an exhibition that boldly purported to offer the answer. Didn't anyone at all want to know?

By the 10 o'clock opening a disparate crowd is mooching on the V&A steps. In place of the urgency or excitement that might attend the first morning of a show dedicated to Michelangelo or Van Gogh, there's a sort of pre-emptive ennui. Postmodernism, some say, is an attitude more than a style. One or two seem dressed for the occasion, in retro trainers and geometric hair; most have come with just a sense of shopworn curiosity.

The exhibition begins categorically enough with definitions in large letters at every turn. Postmodernism is a "broken mirror, a reflective surface of many fragments," it announces confidently. It is a geometric modernist chair burning in a quarry. But as we early punters start to move through the show the confidence ebbs. An air of puzzlement takes over.

Very quickly each of the exhibits seems to offer a little rival definition of its own. Therefore postmodernism is broken statuary and plans for underground skyscrapers, it's "ironic pediments" and chairs on wheels. It's an Andy Warhol dollar sign, and everything corrupted by money. It's wooden prototype toasters. It's a dental hospital designed to look like a metal Noah's Ark. It's Grace Jones out Gaga-ing Lady Gaga. It's Las Vegas. It's Boy George staring at you from a hologram. In the neon-lit gloom of the exhibition's three rooms we stare at these curios as if they are religious relics and try to make sense of them, all the while half-realising that making sense is beside the point. Some of the early arrivers essay fake laughs. Some earnestly examine Jeff Koons's silver Louis XIV, or make a scribbled note of the gospel according to Martin Amis: "Money doesn't mind if we say it is evil, it goes from strength to strength."

About halfway through even the show's curator seems to be losing heart about pinning a definition down. "No single strategy binds postmodernism together" runs the preface to a section that includes a guitar made from a twin tub washing machine, and a concrete stereo player, and Vivienne Westwood's voodoo clothes, and an expensive black jumper by Rei Kawabuko on a mannequin of a crippled beggar woman.

One mystery leads to another. People stare at a startling green silk dress with a geometric step design incorporated in its silhouette. They dutifully read the captions. The dress was made in homage to the anthropologist Claude L�vi Strauss. Not only is it postmodern; apparently "the garment is the perfect attire for the hyper-real lifestyle".

There was a time, in about 1987 when I could have offered a semi-confident definition of postmodernism; I wrote a dissertation on the subject as it was manifested in the work of a group of American poets who invented one version of the term at Black Mountain College in the late 1950s. I came across that dissertation recently while moving house. It appeared to be written in a foreign language.

In the years since, postmodernism became everything and nothing. The great thing about the exhibition, you begin to realise, is that it is the -ism that allows you to make up your own definitions. Thus: postmodernism becomes a middle-aged couple sitting under a neon sign saying The New Wave. It's a grey-haired dad trying to explain to his teenage son why plastic soap powder boxes might be art. It's a museum guard staring vaguely at a New Order video while his walkie-talkie crackles about potential security issues in the Renaissance rooms.

Not much the wiser I catch a few of the other postmodern pilgrims as they leave. What does it all mean? Those who remember a life before post-modernism are most clear. "It's vanity," says a Mr Robinson, who describes himself as a dedicated modernist who worked in local government. "I tell you what it is, it's contemporary existence, it's Facebook. It's destroying an idea of society, it's all about me. It's rap music."

Paul Hurrell, of a similar vintage, agrees: "It's about Thatcherism and a reaction against Thatcherism," he suggests. "It's about making money, about everything becoming the experience of making money." Others who have known nothing else are not so sure. "It's pick and mix, it's ephemera," says a man, like me in his 40s, who is amused by seeing a lot of his youth in a museum. "It's my life." A woman of a certain age, called Marianne, sums it up rather well: "It seems like postmodernism is anything that happened between 1970 and 1990." She pauses. "And possibly since." A German man thinks in silence when I ask him, before concluding: "No, I'm sorry about this, what is there to say?"

My favourite comment, though, comes from a young Japanese woman, who rushes past: "I don't know," she says, before hurrying back to ask, either of the show in particular, or life in general, "Is this the end?"

Tim Adams

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/sep/24/postmodernism-exhibition-victoria-albert-museum

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Everest's ice is retreating as climate change grips the Himalayas

Climate change is altering the face of the Himalayas but research seeking to confirm this is yet to catch up with the mountain communities sounding the alarm. After an 18-day trek with scientists, Suzanne Goldenberg finds the warning signs hard to ignore

The climb to Everest base camp is a journey into a monochrome world, a landscape reduced to rock, ice and grey sky. The only spots of colour are the bright, domed tents of the few climbing teams willing to attempt the summit in the off-season.

There are no birds, no trees, just the occasional chunks of glacier splashing into pools of pale green meltwater like ice cubes in some giant exotic drink. The stillness suggests nothing has changed for decades, but Tshering Tenzing Sherpa, who has been in charge of rubbish collection at base camp for the past few years, remains uneasy. "Everything is changing with the glaciers. All these crevasses have appeared in the ice. Before, base camp was flat, and it was easy to walk," he said.

Climbers had reported that they barely needed crampons for the climb, there was so much bare rock, Tenzing said. That's not how it was in Edmund Hillary's day. Tenzing pointed towards the Khumbu ice fall ? the start of the climb, and part of a 16km stretch of ice that forms the largest glacier in Nepal. "Before, when you looked out, it was totally blue ice, and now it is black rock on top," he said. He's convinced the changes have occurred in months ? not years, or even decades, but during the brief interval of the summer monsoon. "This year it's totally changed," he said.

This much is known: climate change exists, it is man-made, and it is causing many glaciers to melt across the Himalayas. Beyond that, however, much is unclear or downright confusing.

For that, scientists blame a blunder in a United Nations report that was presented as the final word on climate change. The 2007 report ? which included the false claim that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 ? probably did more to set back science, and delay government action on climate change, than any other event. The scandal, known as Glaciergate or Himalayagate, was a gift to climate-change sceptics when it came to light early last year, and a deep embarrassment to glaciologists. Now they are desperately trying to recover.

Mention melting and Himalayas to almost any glacier expert working in the region, and they will instantly plead for caution: please do not repeat the mistake of thinking all the ice will be gone in the next few decades. "It was just nonsense," said Alton Byers, the scientific director of the Mountain Institute. "It's absolutely staggering when you look at some of those high mountains. They are frozen solid, at minus 15 or 20 degrees, and they are going to remain that way."

At lower elevations, it's a different scenario, Byers acknowledged. Low-lying glaciers are melting, and far more rapidly in the past 10 or 15 years than in previous decades, scouring out new landscapes and creating a whole new realm of natural disasters for countries that are some of the poorest on Earth.

I accompanied the Mountain Institute and 32 scientists and engineers from more than 13 countries on an expedition looking into some of the new hazards.

After flying to the Nepali town of Lukla ? landing in an airport partly built by Edmund Hillary ? the 18-day trek took us to Everest base camp and to Imja lake to look at a prime potential danger of climate change in the mountains: catastrophic, high-altitude floods. Melting ice turns to glacial lakes which grow in size until ? one day ? they risk rupturing their banks, spewing out rocks and debris. Such outbursts can kill, and they almost always invariably destroy infrastructure and land, burying fields in several metres of rubble.

That's seen as the biggest potential hazard. There are more than 1,600 glacial lakes in Nepal alone, of which about a half dozen are considered very dangerous. But glacier loss could also destabilise mountainsides or devastate water supplies. Some of Asia's mightiest rivers ? the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra ? depend to some extent on seasonal glacier melt. In Pakistan, the Indus river system derives between 60% and 80% of its flow from summer melt, according to Amjad Masood of Islamabad's Global Change Impact Studies Centre. In Uzbekistan, half of the rivers in the Tashkent area rely on water from glaciers, said Maxim Petrov, head of glaciology at the Academy of Sciences.

The problem is people who live with the mountains are already convinced their landscape is changing, and have given up on waiting for scientists to confirm it. Local people say they can see evidence of climate change everywhere: trees growing higher up mountain slopes, houseflies buzzing at 5,000m, monsoon rains arriving at inconvenient times.

Some see the hand of divine retribution. Kancha Sherpa, the sole surviving member of Hillary's expedition, believes the melting glaciers are a punishment for defiling nature. Now 79, he spends his time in the main town of Namche Bazaar in a room painted pale pink and lined with pictures of past expeditions. "I believe the gods reside in the mountain, and now with all the mountains being climbed they have been polluted. I believe God is not happy with all the people climbing in the hundreds."

Birendra Kandel, a conservation officer at the Sagamartha national park, which includes Everest, argues that animals are already roaming beyond their typical ranges. A few years ago, on a field trip, he spotted a common leopard prowling well into snow leopard heights. He assumed it was climate change. "The species are on the move," he said.

Others are also convinced familiar landscapes are changing before their eyes, and that the cause is global warming. Not far from Everest, tucked into the mountains at about 5,050m, near the village of Lobuche, there's a three-storey glass pyramid that looks like it belongs on the set of an Austin Powers movie.

It's a high-altitude research station run by an Italian organisation dedicated to research on the Himalayas. Earlier this year, crews from the pyramid, as it is usually known, strapped on crampons and installed a weather station on the south col of Everest at about 8,000m. There are plans to go even higher next spring, placing a weather station on the summit itself.

The data from the south col, on temperature, air quality and ozone levels, has just started coming in. Ka Bista, a Nepali staffer who mans the pyramid when the Italians are back in Europe, says the changes are evident right now. "Since the last five or 10 years before and now, there are many differences in the glaciers. Before you could see ice," Bista said, pointing to the bare black rock visible through the pyramid. "Yearly the snow is melting and going further up the mountain, and the temperature is also going up." Winters have also grown milder, he said. In 2006, typical February temperatures were minus 23 or 24 celsius. This past February it was almost balmy in comparison, Bista said, at minus 17 or 18 degrees.

The changes are disorienting for local people, Bista said. "Ten years ago a trekking guide could tell you the name of every mountain, but now they are all completely black and the guides can't recognise their names."

What became clear on the Mountain Institute expedition, however, was the disconnection between such personal experiences and the scientific process. People living in the mountains say they can see signs of climate change. Climbers who have scaled Everest say they can see evidence of climate change.

The problem is that it is immeasurably harder to produce conclusive scientific documentation of those changes ? which glaciers are melting and how fast? ? and Himalayagate has made scientists especially cautious.

Put simply, the region is just too big, and too remote. Between them the mountains of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, Karakorams, Pamirs and Tien Shan store more ice than anywhere outside the north and south poles. There are believed to be about 15,000 glaciers across the Himalayas ? 3,800 or so in Nepal alone, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, in Kathmandu.

But even that number should not be taken as gospel, according to Dorothea Stumm, of Icimod. Scientists can't even agree on which mountain ranges should be included in the count. "Currently it is safer to talk about several tens of thousands of glaciers instead of a specific number," Stumm wrote in an email.

Then, there is the question of size. "How big does an ice patch need to be to be called a glacier?" said Stumm. Smaller ones might not even show up on low-resolution satellite images. And how do you count a bigger glacier that has split into two smaller blocks of ice? And it's not as if scientists can just pop out for an afternoon and measure some of the large glaciers in the Himalayas. The Khumbu glacier, which runs alongside Everest, is a good eight or nine days' walk from the nearest airport at Lukla. The glaciers of Bhutan are even further removed, and the Siachen glacier is an actual battlefield, with India and Pakistan maintaining troops there at 6,000m.

"Himalayan glaciers are much more remote," said Andreas Kaab of the University of Oslo, who was not on the expedition. "From Zurich you take the train a few hours, you take a cable car and there you are at the glacier and you take your measurements," he said.

The result, according to Byers, is a big knowledge gap. Scientists have access to satellite images of the Himalayas, but compared with other regions, such as the Andes or the Alps, there is relatively little on-the-ground research. Satellite imagery only gives a partial picture; it can reveal a glacier shrinking in length, but it gives little indication of whether the ice is thinning. In addition, record-keeping on glaciers and temperatures got under way relatively late in Nepal.

"It's pretty much a vacuum, the Himalayas," Byers said. "The Alps and Andes are well studied. I think they have a good database on glaciers there. The Himalayas, in terms of these sorts of studies ? there are fewer than elsewhere In the Himalayas for reasons of logistics, hardship and altitude there still hasn't been a whole lot of detailed field work done, on-the-ground field work."

Nevertheless, some definitive patterns are emerging. In Nepal, south-facing glaciers, especially at lower elevations below about 5,000m, are thinning and growing shorter at a rapid rate. Some ? especially the glaciers that are relatively clear of debris ? have already disappeared.

Those glaciers covered in a sufficiently thick mask of grit and rock have a better chance. If the covering is thick enough, say greater than a metre, the layer of rocks and debris acts like an insulation blanket, preserving the glacier from more rapid warming. A thin coating seems to have the opposite effect, however, absorbing the sun's rays, and speeding the melting process.

But even the greatest glaciers, such as Khumbu, are in retreat. On the way up to base camp, the signs seem evident in the small ponds now forming on the surface. "There are a lot of things on the surface of the Khumbu glacier. It is a sign of degradation," said Petrov. "Of course, this glacier is not degrading so intensely as smaller glaciers, but if you compare the old glacier 40 or 50 years ago with the glaciers of today, then it is retreating."

So where does that leave the Himalayan glaciers? Will there still be glaciers in the big ice repository a generation from now? Probably, but don't count on it for much longer than that, Byers said. "Your grandkids are going to go up there and see glaciers. I just don't believe in this scenario of all that ice being gone in the next 30 years or so."

But he added: "If you are looking really long-term, say 100 or 200 years from now, at current warming trends I would say that the outlook is not good, not good at all."

? This article was amended on 27 September 2011 to replace the term "climate-change" deniers with "climate-change sceptics" in accordance with the Guardian and Observer Style Guide, which states: "Rather than opening itself to the charge of denigrating people for their beliefs, a fair newspaper should always try to address what it is that people are sceptical about or deny. The term sceptics covers those who argue that climate change is exaggerated, or not caused by human activity."

Suzanne Goldenberg

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/25/climate-change-himalayas-glaciers-melting

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The world's ants captured in 3D

Images reveal US team's endeavour to capture 3D digital images of every ant species known to science.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/12880498

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Women playing greater part in armed forces around world

Australian military decision on frontline roles for women following a global trend

Women are playing an increasingly important role in the military across the world since they first began to be included in the armed forces from the early 1970s.

According to Elizabeth Quintana, head of Airpower and Technology at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), there are a number of countries that allow women to have frontline roles, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany and Israel.

She was speaking after Australia's landmark decision to open up military frontline roles to women.

"In these countries often there are no restrictions in practice but physical constraints in areas such as combat forces or prejudice from those services that are traditionally only male can also play a factor," she said.

The British armed forces have had women on the frontline for a number of roles, such as gunners, logistics and intelligence gathering, but women have not been in the infantry.

Women cannot serve on submarines, although moves are being made to change this policy after a report found life aboard a submarine would not adversely affect pregnant women. In August this year Lieutenant Commander Sarah West, 39, became the first woman to command a frontline warship in the 500-year history of the Royal Navy.

As of 2006, according to the MOD website, 71% of jobs were available to women in the navy, 71% in the army and 96% in the RAF. Women serve in all specialisations, except those where the primary duty is "to close with and kill the enemy," it states.

Elsewhere in Europe, several countries allow women to play a major role in the military. In France women can enlist with the armed service branches, and since 1972 have shared the same ranks as men. In Germany, too, women have been eligible for voluntary service in all military branches and positions since 2001, according to the CIA World Fact book.

Women in the US armed forces hold similar positions to those in the UK. They can serve in artillery roles but are excluded from infantry units and employed in support roles such as truck drivers, gunners and medics.

However, women can serve on American combat ships, including in command roles.

According to Quintana more women are found in senior roles, thanks to encouragement within the armed forces.

"In Europe there still tends to be a more traditional attitude of what role women should play, but in America it appears to be more positive."

In 2008 Ann Dunwoody became the first woman in US military and uniformed service history to achieve a four-star officer grade.

Israel is considered the most gender-blind military in the world, with women not only able to take up every role in the military and included in a frontline infantry fighting force, but also subject to the same military conscription as men.

Alexandra Topping

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/27/women-greater-part-armed-forces

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Tuesday, 27 September 2011

In pictures: Chernobyl wilderness

BBC Nature has exclusive access to the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with a team of scientists studying the effects of radiation on wildlife there.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14325323

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Ed Miliband's critics may yet eat their words

Miliband is no orator but this is a man with a sense of purpose

What does he stand for? Why did Ed Miliband want to be leader? On Tuesday, he told us: to change society's moral and economic foundations. He may never win an Oscar for performance, but his speech marked out a new radicalism and honesty for Labour. Here was a reasoned argument on the side of the many who find things too often rigged against them by vested interests and cartels. "Britain is still a country for insiders."

Neither Tony Blair nor Gordon Brown would ever have spoken great chunks of this speech, as year after year they dared voice no indignation at the wilder dysfunctions of an out-of-control culture of obscene rewards.

Even after the crash Labour dared not speak a word of blame, but this leader was ready to say what you hear outside any school gate, in any pub, on any doorstep. As he berated "fast-buck" traders, something for nothing "predators", "asset strippers", "vested interests", "cosy cartels", "rigged markets" and "Britain's closed circles", here was the answer to what drives Ed Miliband on.

"Lurching to the left" and "Red Ed" were the inevitable responses of the mostly rightwing press convening in an instant huddle after the speech. If you want to see the herd mentality in action, stand right there and watch them gather to agree this is a plunge back to Labour's dark days, or some such nonsense.

Murdoch may be maimed, but don't imagine any weakening grip by Britain's 80% rightwing press whose gale force influences the prevailing wind among the broadcasters too.

Here, for once, was an authentic speech with real content, serious meaning laying out the moral and intellectual framework of policies in the making, instead of the usual confection of lofty artifice and low shopping lists.

His critics may yet eat their words. Miliband spoke only what is commonplace among most people, centre-ground stuff ? but rare from politicians nervous about the might of vested interests and donors. He broke the spell and said what people think and what they tell focus groups: the system is too often rigged by the few against the many.

People are cynical and contemptuous of politicians who they see as part of those same "closed circles". Saying it out loud was a breath of fresh air, though all he proposed was putting an employee on remuneration committees that set boardroom pay. That's hardly revolution, since Germany has done it for half a century. To stop giving government contracts to asset strippers such as Southern Cross that buy and sell your granny was no more than common sense. Rewarding companies that offer good apprenticeships, invest wisely and think long-term is hardly bolshevism. The CBI response was surprisingly sanguine.

Leftward lurch? His riff on rewarding the responsible who work hard and contribute with higher housing priority and better benefit entitlements is the start of a new policy to restore the contributory principle, as Beveridge intended, to shore up wobbling support for the welfare state. But it was a dog-whistle too to those who feel as outraged by "something for nothing" at the bottom, as they do at the top.

Was it a good speech? Miliband is no orator and too earnest to be an actor ? a disability but hardly terminal when few people ever hear a political speech. Is he prime ministerial material? New opposition leaders rarely seem so. In 1976 Margaret Thatcher looked utterly implausible, her party aghast after selecting her by mistake. The press laughed at Ted Heath's press conferences. John Major was a charisma-free zone and Harold Wilson was hardly an alpha male. Attlee would be a non-starter today. Blair's easy showmanship looks achingly artificial now, no model to emulate either.

So there is no template for success, only a motley array of often unlikely people swept into No 10 as much by luck and circumstance as character, cunning or charisma. Tory central office is busy pumping out "52 weeks of weak leadership" ? but one wise Telegraph commentator warns them to study him more carefully. He has been calm, determined and resilient ? and the content of this speech is the reason why: he has a sense of purpose, moral and political.

Do these monstrous annual endurance tests make and break leaders? IDS's "quiet man" croak destroyed him but Kinnock's brave tirade against Liverpool's militants didn't save him. This speech will gain in reputation as a turning point with all the prime ingredients for a long run-in to the next election. Four years is an eternity for fleshing it out.

All new opposition leaders drop in ratings at first: both pollster Deborah Mattinson and YouGov's Peter Kellner say the crunch test is whether they rise in their second year. Labour is least loathed of the parties ? 70% willing to consider voting for them, only 58% able to tolerate the thought of ever voting Tory. His fate may rest with growth and employment figures far beyond his control, but Miliband set out ideas that may well resonate because they well reflect what so many people feel has gone badly wrong.

Polly Toynbee

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/27/ed-miliband-polly-toynbee-commentary

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That settles it for libel law reform. Thanks, Mr Murdoch

Out-of-court payouts to phone-hacking victims put no cap on lawyers' fees

Remember the moment, only four or so months ago, when a long, dogged media fight to reform England's libel laws (and the antics of no win, no fee libel lawyers) seemed on the brink of success? All three big political parties had finally signed up for change. America had twisted the screw by, in effect, deeming the "justice" meted out in the Strand not fit for export purpose. It was victory at last. And then Rupert Murdoch dropped the ball ? or, more accurately, the mobile phone.

Farewell to eye-watering damages, fat legal rewards, to specialist flocks of barristers and hungry solicitors haunting every court? Not exactly. Here comes �2m for Milly Dowler's family, plus another �1m to charity (following hard on the heels of News International's �100,000 for Sienna Miller and that �400,000 for Gordon Taylor). Just watch the winding queue of lawyers gathering at Lord Leveson's inquiry door. Yes, the eagles are back in town.

Now, of course, the big money awards cited up above don't involve libel at all ? more its most favoured profitable successor, privacy. And none of the sums relate to anything decided after a formal hearing. They're all Murdoch out-of-court settlements with phone-hacking victims. Any test of the true state of affairs comes further down the line, as a handful of selected hacking cases make it through the courtroom door.

Will there be any more �2m payouts in Dowler mode? No. That's certainly a one-off. Indeed, several lawyers I spoke to don't really regard it as a legal settlement at all because, with Milly's murder, the victim who had her phone hacked was dead. This is just a humbled Mr M diverting the �3.7m bonus he might have paid his son James to a more immediately worthy cause. It says again how floridly sorry he is. It seeks to draw yet another quavery line under scandal.

But still, those millions may be seen as flashing lights in the court of public opinion. They turn up the expectation switch. They create a new class of victimhood ? and the headlines they make cannot be brushed aside.

Before Max Mosley's victory over the News of the World, the biggest privacy award in the Strand (to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas) was a mere �14,000 ? pretty close to the modest tariff applied across Europe for section 8 breaches of the convention on human rights. Mosley levered that up to �60,000. The Sienna Miller settlement, anticipating a case that might well have been brought to court, sets a high bar at �100,000. It says to prospective litigants that even if you can fully prove the offence and show clearly how it infringed your rights, reality caps your ambitions.

But hey! There's a News International �20m minimum pot to sup from. The legal fees in question - contingency bonanzas or not ? won't be revealed if they're paid out of court. Prospects for libel reform itself are beginning to slide back into some post-Leveson "grand bargain" that makes press regulation part of any deal. And the grander the bargain, the longer it will take ? if it can ever be sealed at all. Enter, pretty amazingly, the Dowler family as suddenly erudite champions of contingency fees. Listen to the dawn chorus of �500-an-hour operators seeking to double their money. No wonder our once bedraggled eagles are airborne again. No wonder small or struggling papers without �3m in their back pockets begin to despair.

Victims of the hacking crisis, in sum, come in many shapes and sizes, and from many directions. Thank you, Rupert: and goodnight.

Peter Preston

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/25/libel-law-reform-peter-preston-comment

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Full Feeds Service Discontinued

Unfortunatly the time has come for this scraper to come down (seemingly it may come as a shock to some that this is not provided by the BBC). I wrote this back in 2005 and have modified it a couple of times since mainly so that I could more easily consume RSS on the move. In short, I no longer use it, I find consuming live news is not actually something an RSS reader does very well and I face a constant battle against sites trying to use these feeds to monetize BBC content and failing to pay any attention to etag or last modified headers (hello palin-pedia.com et al). Please update your RSS subscription as the last remenants of this will be removed soon , the official BBC RSS feed you are looking for is: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/technology/rss.xml

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BbcNewsTechnologyFullFeed/~3/krhnxGY41N4/10628494

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Monday, 26 September 2011

Hikers jailed in Iran head back to US

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer leave for US after spending more than two years in prison on allegations of spying

Two Americans released by Iran after being held as spies for more than two years are expected to arrive back in the United States on Sunday.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who were arrested while hiking along the Iran's border with Iraq in 2009, said they were "eager to go home" as they boarded a plane in Oman on Saturday night.

"I can't express our joy enough of being here in Oman after the experience we have been through. The joy will stay with us forever," Bauer said.

The pair were released to Oman last Wednesday on bail totalling $1m (�648,000) a month after they were sentenced to eight years for espionage and illegally crossing Iran's border.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described Bauer and Fattal's release as a humanitarian gesture. The deal is understood to have been mediated by Oman and Iraq.

"Our gratitude to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos of Oman for his efforts that led to our release," Fattal said. "We would like to come back to Oman someday in happier circumstances."

Another American, Sarah Shourd, who was arrested with them and became engaged to Bauer while in jail, was released on health grounds and allowed to fly home after a similar $500,000 deal was reached a year ago.

The three, aged in their late 20s and early 30s, had all denied involvement in espionage. Officials in Washington said they unwittingly crossed the unmarked border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan after stepping off a dirt track near a waterfall.

Barry Neild

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/24/hikers-jailed-iran-us

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Hikers jailed in Iran head back to US

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer leave for US after spending more than two years in prison on allegations of spying

Two Americans released by Iran after being held as spies for more than two years are expected to arrive back in the United States on Sunday.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who were arrested while hiking along the Iran's border with Iraq in 2009, said they were "eager to go home" as they boarded a plane in Oman on Saturday night.

"I can't express our joy enough of being here in Oman after the experience we have been through. The joy will stay with us forever," Bauer said.

The pair were released to Oman last Wednesday on bail totalling $1m (�648,000) a month after they were sentenced to eight years for espionage and illegally crossing Iran's border.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described Bauer and Fattal's release as a humanitarian gesture. The deal is understood to have been mediated by Oman and Iraq.

"Our gratitude to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos of Oman for his efforts that led to our release," Fattal said. "We would like to come back to Oman someday in happier circumstances."

Barry Neild

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/24/hikers-jailed-iran-us

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Club drug clinic opens its doors

NHS takes 70 referrals to treatment centre for new generation of designer drugs before its official launch

The first NHS clinic to treat people addicted to so-called clubbing drugs has opened yesterday, with 70 referrals even before the official launch.

Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, an addiction psychiatrist, has set up the Club Drug Clinic in Chelsea and Westminster hospital, with funding from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

Nobody knows the scale of the problem that drugs such as ketamine, mephedrone and GHB or GBL may be causing the predominantly young people who take them when they go clubbing. Existing drug treatment centres were set up primarily to tackle more established drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, while GPs and other doctors are not well versed in the effects and dangers of the new drugs.

Bowden-Jones said those who take club drugs tend to be younger, employed and sometimes affluent. They are often in relationships and don't necessarily identify themselves as addicts.

He said the need for a treatment centre became apparent during a pilot phase of the clinic when 70 people found it through the internet and called up or asked for a referral from a doctor.

One was a 19-year-old student studying economics. He had first snorted mephedrone three years before and enjoyed it, said Bowden-Jones, but had developed a "binging pattern". He took seven grams most days at a cost of about �140 a week, which caused him fatigue and damaged his academic performance.

A second applicant was a 27-year-old man who lived with his partner and worked as an administrator. "He first used GBL five years ago. Now he uses 2ml every hour and sets the alarm clock so he can dose himself through the night," said Bowden-Jones. He was desperate to avoid withdrawal symptoms, which the consultant psychiatrist described as "horrendous", and included tremors, sweating, agitation, hallucination and insomnia.

Another was a 31-year-old woman who worked for a recruitment agency and had used a variety of drugs with friends in her twenties. When her friends started cutting down, she found she could not. She was spending �600 a month on ketamine which had led to ulcers forming on the inside of her bladder, which caused her to pass blood. She may need her bladder removed.

All three are were being successfully treated for their addiction, said Bowden-Jones, who recognised there would be plenty of clubbers using drugs without consequences. "If someone is using a substance and not having any problems with it, our clinic is not the place for them. We are not making any judgment about people's drug use. The resource is for people who run into trouble."

About a quarter of 16 to 19-year-olds have used an illegal drug in the past year, compared with 9% of the adult population, he said. Among clubbers, crack cocaine and heroin, which most clinics treat, are least used ? at 13.6% and 6.7% respectively. Clubbers are more likely to try new designer drugs that are being constantly produced in a bid to outstrip the authorities.

Last year, 41 new substances were produced and a further 20 appeared in the first four months of this year. An outcry over mephedrone, which had been a "legal high" for some time and sold as plant food, led to it being banned last year. However, the British Crime Survey showed the move made little difference to the drug's popularity.

New or slightly altered chemical substances are turning up on the club scene much faster than they can be identified and banned.

Sarah Boseley

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/26/club-drug-clinic-launch

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