Hobbits In Space!

Astronomers have discovered a number of ultra faint galaxies in our end of the universe. The scientists, who appear to have entirely too much time on their hands, are referring to them as "Hobbit" galaxies". (The galaxies are not reported to have furry feet, however).

A recent sky survey has turned up eight new members in our Local Group of galaxies, including a new class of ultra-faint "hobbit" galaxies and what might be the smallest galaxy ever discovered.

The Local Group is a collection of about 40 galaxies, of which the Milky Way and Andromeda are the dominant members. The rest of the galaxies are mostly small satellites known as “dwarf galaxies” that are gravitationally bound to these two galaxies. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are two of the Milky Way’s better known dwarf galaxies.

The new galaxies were detected over the past two years as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) and presented last week at the 209^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

Seven of the new galaxies are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way, while the eighth appears to float freely in space, beyond our galaxy’s grasp.

The loner must be Bilbo. He always was a bit standoffish. When contacted for comment, Peter Jackson, speaking through a spokesman who identified himself as "Frodo" said that he was out of the running for directing the new galaxies and promptly filed suit seeking royalties on the new objects. New Line Cinema could not stop laughing long enough to answer any questions.

“It Can’t Be A World War…The French Haven’t Surrendered Yet.”

Great T-shirt slogan, new blog. Laconic Blog.

The Moral Plank

Callimachus at Done With Mirrors reminds of a time when the Republican party put a plank into its platform requiring that foreign policy be done in accordance with moral principles. It was a reaction by the Reagan wing of the party to the so-called realpolitik of the Kissinger-run State department. The repudiation of the "realists", if you will.

When I read over the "moral foreign policy" passage in the platform today, I can see how much of it was tailored by "Reagan's Raiders" to specifically embarrass Ford, and how much of it was crafted with an eye to the immediate realities of the Cold War. Jesse Helms, among others whom nobody ever accused of being politically high-minded, had a hand in shaping it.

But there it is: Unintended consequences and all.

The goal of Republican foreign policy is the achievement of liberty under law and a just and lasting peace in the world. The principles by which we act to achieve peace and to protect the interests of the United States must merit the restored confidence of our people……

…….Finally, we are firmly committed to a foreign policy in which secret agreements, hidden from our people, will have no part.

Honestly, openly, and with firm conviction, we shall go forward as a united people to forge a lasting peace in the world based upon our deep belief in the rights of man, the rule of law and guidance by the hand of God.

…….People say now we're at the end of the curve that began in Kansas City that August. That George W. Bush has run that ship on the rocks, and we'll go happily back to realpolitik. People who lay claim to the compassion of others merrily advocate pulling out of Iraq the better to let the Sunnis and Shi'ites butcher one another, as though that conflict was rooted in the people's desires and not propelled from the top down. What are they to us, after all? Just more surly brown people.

The same people who lay claim to having an abundance of compassion have no problem, it seems, with igniting a bloodbath. Because they can point their fingers and say it was someone else who started it. They wash their hands of it, and do not notice that they are washing them in blood.They have no problem saying they believe in human freedom but also cheerfully advocate closing off free trade. Even though there is ample evidence that free trade policies do more to lift the world's poor out of misery than do all the handouts and debt-relief measures they advance as solutions. Those ideas serve only to reward poor governance. But they wash their hands again, this time in the blood of the starving poor they don't really notice. They advocate endless negotiations with tyrannical regimes despite the fact that those negotiations in the past have never solved anything. And they wash their hands in yet more rivers of blood in the aftermath when the negotiated "solution" fails.

Because the realpolitik is easier than morality. Pushing the problems off to future generations is easier than dealing with the situations today. Pressing the next war onto other's sons and daughters or grandchildren is easier than dealing with hard facts. For these are not the people who volunteer to defend or fight for their country. These are the people who look to others to do that when their ideas and policies are found wanting. But they will screech and point fingers at their defenders when the time comes and ignore the other players in the war and their depredations. Indulging in feel good policies at home is easier - oh, so much easier -  than making lasting change in the rest of the world. Scolding has always been easier than doing. Screeching has always been easier than actually solving problems.

That does not make it moral. Not at all.

California Collaborators

California's Monterey Bay Aquarium has gone over to the dark side of the Animal Uprising™ and is proceeding with its great white shark stocking program. They unleashed the latest monster from their secret program, with a distractionary announcement proclaiming they were doing a good thing.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium said in a statement that the shark measured 6 feet, 5 inches and weighed 171 pounds (77.5 kg) on its release, compared with 5 feet, 8 inches

and 103 pounds (46.7 kg) when it was captured in Southern California in Santa Monica Bay and put into the aquarium on August 31, 2006.

Since 2002 the aquarium has received 10 great white sharks, nine of them from commercial fishermen. Five died, two were released from a holding pen and one escaped from the pen.

The remaining two were put on display in the aquarium, which seeks to educate visitors on ocean resources, including the estimated loss of up to 100 million sharks killed annually for food or trophies or by accident by fishing gear.

The aquarium said in a statement it had implanted an electronic tag on the male shark released shortly after sunrise on Tuesday. The tag will track his movements and will come loose after 90 days, floating to surface where a satellite will be able to collect the tracking data.

Oh sure. They get little ones, feed them up and release big ones. Inquiring minds want to know what the aquarium is fattening them up on. Are they, by chance, running help wanted ads lately? What taste in foods have the great whites acquired since being fattened up? Swimmers, perhaps? As we all know from watching Jaws:

Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all.

Not unlike a growing boy on a growth spurt, come to think of it. Except the part about little sharks.

I think.

Educated Guesswork

Take this for whatever you think it is worth, but US doctors, who do not have firsthand knowledge of the medical situation, are guessing that doctors in the highly touted Cuban "free" medical system there may have condemned Fidel Castro to a brutal, slow death by botching the treatment of his original problem.

"It's not a good story. Too bad they didn't send him to Miami for surgery," said Dr. Charles Gerson, a clinical professor of medicine in the gastroenterology division of New York's Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.

According to two medical sources cited by El Pais, the veteran revolutionary was in "very serious" condition after three failed operations on his large intestine for diverticulitis, or pouch-like bulges in the intestine, complicated by infection.

The sources in El Pais were from the same Madrid hospital where a surgeon who visited the 80-year-old Castro in late December works.

The Spanish surgeon, Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, had not changed his opinion that Castro was slowly recovering after stomach surgery for an undisclosed ailment, his secretary said.

But El Pais said Castro was being fed intravenously and his outlook was bleak. If confirmed, the newspaper's account was the first with details of Castro's clinical history since he first underwent surgery six months ago. His condition is considered a state secret inside Cuba.

Gerson and Dr. Meyer Solny, a veteran gastrointestinal expert at New York Presbyterian Hospital and the Weill Cornell College of Medicine, said Castro's doctors erred by seeking to avoid a colostomy — or opening in the abdomen to get rid of stool — after an initial operation to remove part of his large intestine.

'VERY RISKY SITUATION'

"They took a chance, which was probably not the best judgment under the circumstances," Gerson said.

"It sounds like they tried to spare him the colostomy, which would have been the safer and more conservative approach, and what they did was to try to establish continuity of the bowel by sewing the colon to the rectum, and for one reason or another it sounds like that didn't work. And now there are troubles," said Solny.

These doctors are, of course working from media reports and not firsthand knowledge. So it is hard to judge just how accurate they are. But if I was one of the doctors who treated Fidel, I would seriously be writing my will. Because I expect there will be a few extra bodies to bury when the maximum leader takes his long overdue dirt nap.

UPDATE: Sister Toldjah can't wait to hear what the far left has to say about the Cuban medical system now. Thanks to Tim Blair, she doesn't have to. He has a statement from a spokesman the left can be proud of!

Could We Stop Being Stupid?

The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighter jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the Pentagon.

In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush has branded part of an "axis of evil."

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say those parts did make it to Iran.

Sensitive military surplus items are supposed to be demilitarized or "de-milled" - rendered useless for military purposes - or, if auctioned, sold only to buyers who promise to obey U.S. arms embargoes, export controls and other laws.

Yet the surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.

"Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America's Warfighters," the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself "the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property."

Federal investigators are increasingly anxious that Iran is within easy reach of a top priority on its shopping list: parts for the precious fleet of F-14 "Tomcat" fighter jets the United States let Iran buy in the 1970s when it was an ally.

In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense Department's surplus division. Customs agents confiscated them and returned them to the Pentagon, which sold them again - customs evidence tags still attached - to another buyer, a suspected broker for Iran.

There is one country that still has F-14s since the US retired the last of ours last year. That country would be Iran. Could we please stop being stupid and destroy the parts rather than sell them? Please? I'm not really concerned about the hyperventilating about Humvees and body armor, but parts for fighter jets should not be sold to any broker for any reason. The money this generates is, frankly, minuscule in terms of the overall budget. And if it costs one American life in the future, was it worth it?

Stop the sales of fighter or missile parts. Now.

I’ll Stick With The Foster’s

Australians have figured out what to do with the plethora of unwanted cane toads that have been sweeping across Australia at an alarming rate. Released there in 1935 in an attempt to control sugar cane beetles, the poisonous toads have become killing machines for native animals. So the Australians now have a new way to deal with them.

Put them up in a hotel until they have enough, then juice them. As in squeeze them for juice.

CANE toad containers known as Detention Centres will be kept on Top End military bases to house the warty pests before they are gassed and turned to fertilizer

Australia's defence force became the latest ally in the fight against the cane toad after toad collectors – belonging to the group Toadbusters – discovered they were hiding out on military land.

The army has ordered two Detention Centres – complete with insulation, a water system and a solar panel to power a light that attracts bugs at night – to be stationed at Robertson Barracks.

The temporary homes will be used to contain the cane toads until they are collected weekly by local warriors from Frogwatch.

"Once we have collected them from the Detention Centres we then gas them using carbon dioxide, freeze them and then when we have enough for a batch turn them into Frog Juice," said Frogwatch co-oordinator Graeme Sawyer.

And people think we're odd around here……

(Actually frog juice is apparently a good fertilizer for certain plants).

Oil For Food Indictments

The former head of the United Nations Oil for Food Program with Iraq has been indicted by a Federal grand jury. Benon Sevan along with his associate, Ephraim Nadler, are charged with wire fraud, bribery concerning an organization that receives more than $10,000 annually from the federal government (the UN) and conspiracy to commit these offenses. Nadler was also charged with an additional count of "conspiracy to commit wire fraud by engaging in prohibited financial transactions with Iraq and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act." Sevan faces up to 50 years in Federal prison if convicted, Nadler could see up to 112 years.

Warrants have been issued for the two through Interpol.

Sevan, through his lawyers, has denied that any funds were obtained illegally.

The career diplomat is thought to be currently living in Cyprus. That nation's extradition treaty with the U.S. does not cover financial crimes, so it is unclear as to what impact the charges would have on Sevan.

In February 2005, FOX News reported that then Manhattan District Robert Morgenthau had launched a criminal probe into Sevan, who had what was being called a "serious conflict of interest" while overseeing the program. At the time, Sevan was thought to have received about $1 million worth of lucrative oil vouchers.

About a week earlier, in a report detailing an extensive investigation, Volcker said Sevan had "seriously undermined" the integrity of the United Nations.

"Our conclusion is he placed himself in a serious conflict of interest," Volcker said at a news conference. "Our investigation continues into what other implications there may be if any."

Took them long enough. Let's hope Sevan can be brought in to face trial now. Of course, there's always the chance Sevan could be convinced to roll over on some other folks. If I was a certain former Secretary General, I'd be getting a wee bit nervous right now.

UPDATE: Others: Hot Air, A Blog For All, Atlas Shrugs, RightWinged.com, Ed Driscoll.com, Wake up America, It Shines For All,

Obama Running

Barack Obama has made it official. He has filed the paperwork to form an exploratory committee. That will, undoubtedly, lead to the full monty in a short while.

Obama filed papers creating a presidential exploratory committee, a move he announced on his Web site, (barackobama.com). He said he would announce more about his plans in his home state of Illinois on Feb. 10.

"I certainly didn't expect to find myself in this position a year ago," Obama said in a video posting. "I've been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics. So I've spent some time thinking about how I could best advance the cause of change and progress that we so desperately need."

Obama, a 45-year-old with little more than two years into his Senate term, is the most inexperienced candidate considering a run for the Democratic nomination. He quickly rose to national prominence, beginning with his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and his election to the Senate that year, but still is an unknown quantity to many voters.

Personally, I don't think he's going to win this. He's up against some very experienced politicians and he really is very new to national politics. On the other hand, being new may make him more attractive since he carries less baggage, so we'll see. I imagine that there is a certain amount of mad scrambling going on right now in some of the other candidate's camps.

Ninja Saves Coppers

British police are trying hard to locate the mysterious ninja who came to the rescue of two plain-clothes policemen who were attacked by a home invasion gang. The gang had broken into a home and the passing policemen ran in to help when they heard the homeowner scream. This did not impress the gang, which promptly attacked the cops with a hammer, knives and a chain.

Then suddenly, a sword-wielding ninja literally saved the policemen.

One of them lunged at a policeman with his knife - but just as he did so, a mysterious do-gooder appeared from nowhere and attacked him with a samurai sword.

One of the burglars ran off, but was stopped by the stranger, who hit him on the arm with the sword.

He was arrested, along with another man from the flat, but in true superhero fashion the samurai man disappeared before police could speak to him.

A third man was arrested later. Two men are still being hunted.

Police are particularly keen to trace the man with the sword who came to the aid of their officers, and appealed for anyone with information to call Crimestoppers…

Britain being Britain at the moment, I would wager that the police do not want to give him a medal or even a thank you. My guess is that they want very much to arrest the ninja even though he saved the policemen a beating at the least. I'd recommend the ninja stay invisible.

Glenn Reynolds On Mandatory Gun Ownership

Glenn Reynolds has an op-ed in the New York Times today that looks at mandatory gun ownership ordinances that a few towns are passing. Greenleaf, Idaho is the most recent example. Reynolds argues that these ordnance ordinances may have unforeseen positive consequences just by virtue of being in place:

And it may not be a bad idea. While pro-gun laws like the one in Greenleaf are mostly symbolic, to the extent that they actually make a difference, it is likely to be a positive one.

Greenleaf is following in the footsteps of Kennesaw, Ga., which in 1982 passed a mandatory gun ownership law in response to a handgun ban passed in Morton Grove, Ill. Kennesaw’s crime dropped sharply, while Morton Grove’s did not.

To some degree, this is rational. Criminals, unsurprisingly, would rather break into a house where they aren’t at risk of being shot. As David Kopel noted in a 2001 article in The Arizona Law Review, burglars report that they try to avoid homes where armed residents are likely to be present. We see this phenomenon internationally, too, with the United States having a lower proportion of “hot” burglaries — break-ins where the burglars know the home to be occupied — than countries with restrictive gun laws.

Likewise, in the event of disasters that leave law enforcement overwhelmed, armed citizens can play an important role in stanching crime. Armed neighborhood watches deterred looting in parts of Houston and New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The deputy sheriff who conducted the concealed carry class I took was strongly in favor of legally armed citizens. He told stories of several instances where armed citizens had helped the local deputies. This is especially important where there are few law-enforcement officers on duty, such as the night shift in that county that only had two deputies on road patrol at night. To the extent that laws like this discourage criminals, they are quite beneficial for the public at large.

Black Eye

It seems that Nancy Pelosi is not going to get off scot-free from her little miscalculation of exempting American Samoa from the much touted minimum wage law. The media is paying attention and is reporting on in, albeit with considerably less enthusiasm than they would if a Republican had been involved. But it is getting noticed.

Indeed, Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat who represents American Samoa in the House as a nonvoting delegate, has said applying the minimum wage increase to his territory would devastate the tuna industry — and thus the island chain's economy.

That Speaker Pelosi would go along with this argument undermines her party's contention that minimum wage increases are all roses and no thorns.

Now a backtracking Speaker Pelosi has asked a committee to tweak the legislation to cover all U.S. territories before it goes to the White House for President Bush's signature. She's willing to sacrifice a developing economy to appear principled.

How refreshingly … political of her.

Had this been the other party, the full hue and cry would have been on. The media is so far ignoring reports that there may be some conflict of interest in finances involved here. (I'd suspect that that tidbit of information is on file, though. When the media has a need for it, it will suddenly pop up.) But even this much negative coverage serves to deliver a political black eye to the new speaker. Yet another one, that is.

Warning: Exploding Myth Alert

The Opinion Journal announces the release of the 2007 Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal 2007 Index of Economic Freedom. Contrary to the anti-globalization forces and the dedicated socialists, the poor are getting richer in countries with economic freedom. Those with tighter governments controls fare much worse for their citizens.

Here's bad news for those who oppose global free trade: Not only did the world-wide trend toward greater economic liberty hold steady over the past year, but the incomes of poor individuals across the globe are rising as result. The world isn't only growing richer. The gap between the per-capita income of have-not populations and that of the developed world is narrowing.

This good news for human progress is documented in the 2007 Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, released today. Neither another year of Islamic terrorism, nor record high oil prices, nor fear mongering on Capitol Hill about the China peril have been able to reverse a gradual global shift that reflects the basic human longing for individual liberty. While not all of mankind is participating in this advance, in those places where freedom has increased, people are becoming decidedly better off.

The average freedom score this year for the 157 countries ranked is the second highest since we began measuring economic freedom 13 years ago. It is down a fraction from last year, but each region of the globe enjoys greater economic freedom than it did a decade ago. Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia are the three freest economies in the world this year, in that order. The U.S. ranks No. 4. Among the 20 freest economies in the world, Europe holds 12 places. (The rankings are here.)………

…….This year the Index again includes important essays on world economic trends. In a piece titled "Global Inequality Fades as the Global Economy Grows," Columbia University professor of economics Xavier Sala-i-Martin destroys the myth that the income gap is widening. While it is true that some countries are being left behind, when population weights are factored into the equation, the evidence shows that "individual income inequality declined substantially during the past two decades. The main reason is that incomes of some of the world's poorest and most populated countries (most notably China and India, but also many other countries in Asia) converged rapidly with the incomes of OECD citizens." Of course both China (ranked 119) and India (104) have a long way to go toward economic freedom but both have made big gains in recent years. Mr. Sala-i-Martin finds that the inequality gap would be even narrower if not for the "dismal performance" of African countries.

By all means go check the whole thing out. The opponents of free trade have some explaining to do to justify their reasoning. Because the fact of the matter is that protectionism and government control is the worst thing we can do for the developing world contrary to the myths that are being promoted. One thing that should disturb you is that the United States only ranks 4th in economic freedom. That really isn't a thing to brag about.

Tripping The Light Ironic

Today's Washington Post:

PARIS — Imagine stepping aboard Europe's anti-terrorist plane of the future.

At the door, a hand-held electronic nose reputedly 30 times more sensitive than a dog's snout sniffs passengers for dangerous chemicals and vapors.

After takeoff, computers monitoring cabin conversations pick up suspicious words in Seat 9B, fingernail-size video cameras detect nervous facial tics on the passenger in 21F, and a hidden microphone records questionable noises from the passenger in the rear toilet. Buzzers or flashing lights on a computer screen warn the crew and pilot of potential trouble in each spot.

If a hijacker manages to bypass the fingerprint-activated locks on the cockpit door and grabs the controls, an internal computer takes over and diverts the plane from high-rise buildings, a nuclear plant or any other pre-programmed no-fly zone.

The SAFEE project — Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment — is the first coordinated international effort to create an airplane system capable of thwarting hijackings and terrorist attacks. It is under development in classified laboratories in 11 European countries and Israel. Much of the technology is in advanced stages of development, though systems for accurately analyzing facial expressions remain problematic.

Anyone sense the irony here? The same Europe that pitched hysterical fits over sharing passenger data with the US over privacy concerns is behind this particular bit of police state big brotherism. The article takes note of that and quotes some European officials who are already mustering opposition to the planned full time, all inclusive surveillance. But there is one small quote in the article that should terrify everyone, because this is what proponents are banking on:

"The trade-off between technology and human rights is a tricky and tough area," Gaultier agreed. "When there's a crisis, everyone will accept it. Six months after the crisis, everyone will forget. You always have to be careful how you deal with passenger rights."

One of the People quoted in the article says there is no 100% foolproof system. But there is one that is cheaper, easier and ultimately less intrusive or subject to potential abuse by the government. Everyone gets to wear a set of these when the get on the plane:

There just aren't that many Houdinis in the world.