Conan Doyle’s Arctic journal published

This video is called To the Arctic Official Trailer #1- 3D Documentary Movie (2012) HD.

From daily The Guardian in Britain:

Arthur Conan Doyle and the mystery of the medical student’s Arctic adventure

Sherlock Holmes author’s journal of his runayear away as a ship’s doctor on a whaler aged 22 to be published

Maev Kennedy

Monday 6 August 2012 19.29 BST

On Sunday 4 April 1880, a young medical student called Arthur Conan Doyle was wrestling with a two-iceberg rather than a two-pipe problem: he had yet again fallen overboard from a whaler called the Hope, into the icy Arctic.

“I fell into the Arctic Ocean three times today, but luckily someone was always near to pull me out,” the 20-year-old Doyle wrote.

“The danger in falling in is that with a heavy swell on as there is now, you may be cut in two pretty well by two pieces of ice coming together and nipping you. I got several drags, but was laid up in the evening as all my clothes were in the engine room drying … after skinning a seal today I walked away with the two hind flippers in my hand, leaving my mittens on the ice.”

Doyle’s illustrated journal, a riproaring account of his adventures as ship’s doctor on the Arctic whaler Hope – for which he ran away for most of a year from his medical studies in Edinburgh – is to be published for the first time by the British Library, in a facsimile edition.

Although Doyle had already published his first short story, Sherlock Holmes would not sweep in through the fog for another seven years – but the experiences of the voyage, including the brutal slaughter of the seals, would give him material for life.

He described the young seals as making a noise “between the mew of a cat and the bleat of a lamb”, and on 3 April 1880 wrote: “It is bloody work dashing out the poor little beggars brains while they look up with their big dark eyes into your face. We picked the boats up soon and started packing, that’s to say all hands getting over the ship’s side and jumping along from floating piece to piece, killing all they can see, while the ship steams after and picks up the skins … I was ambitious to start but in getting over the ship’s side I fell in between two pieces of ice and was hauled out by a boathook.”

Most of his medical work onboard was patching sailors up after falls, but some of it was traumatic. The oldest member of the crew died in his arms, of peritonitis not helped by a last meal of plum duff. “Poor old man. They were very kind to him forwards during his illness, and certainly I did my best for him. Made a list of his effects in the evening. Rather a picturesque scene with the corpse and the lanterns and the wild faces around.”

On 22 May it was Doyle’s 21st birthday, though there was no cake. “I come of age today. Rather a funny sort of place to do it in, only 100 miles or so from the North Pole. Had rather a doleful evening on my birthday, as I was very seedy for some reason or another. The Captain was very kind and made me bolt two enormous mustard emetics which made me feel as if I had swallowed Mount Vesuvius, but did me a lot of good.”

Emetics apart, he was unmistakably having the time of his young life. He wrote gleefully to his mother: “I don’t think you would have recognised me as I came into the cabin just now – I’m sure you wouldn’t. The captain says I make the most awful looking savage he ever saw. My hair was on end, my face covered with dirt and perspiration, and my hands with blood.

I had my oldest clothes on, my seaboots were shining with water and crusted with snow at the top. I had a belt round my coat with a knife in a sheath and a steel stuck in it, all clotted with blood. I had a coil of rope slung round my shoulders, & a long gory poleaxe in my hand. That’s the photograph of your little cherub, madam.”

• The British Library will publish Dangerous Work, Diary of an Arctic Adventure, on 26 September. Extracts © Conan Doyle Estate Ltd

‘Mass murderer of Sikhs a neonazi’

This video from the USA is called The Rise of the Modern Nazis White Power USA Part 1.

This is Part 2.

And this is Part 3.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Sikh shooting suspect a ‘frustrated neonazi‘

Monday 06 August 2012

A man suspected of killing six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek Wisconsin at the weekend was said to be a 40-year-old army veteran and “frustrated neonazi.”

Officials and witnesses said a gunman walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin and opened fire as several dozen people prepared for Sunday morning services.

First Assistant US Attorney Greg Haanstad in Milwaukee named the suspect as Wade Michael Page and a US defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr Page joined the army in 1992 and was discharged in 1998.

Civil rights organisation the Southern Poverty Law Centre claimed that Mr Page was a “frustrated neonazi” who led a racist white supremacist band End Apathy.

Police called Sunday’s attack an act of domestic terrorism.

See also here.

Sikh Temple Shooter Part of Growing Trend of Anti-Sikh Violence. Annie-Rose Strasser, ThinkProgress: “Several reports out this morning indicate that Wade Michael Page, the army veteran who is suspected of killing six and injuring three at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI, over the weekend, was a white supremacist and a ‘skinhead.’ According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Page – who was killed in a firefight with police – even played in a white-power band that had ties to neo-Nazis”: here.

Hiroshima survivors mark anniversary

This video from Japan is called Anti-War, Anti-Nuke Parade in Hiroshima city August 6, 2011.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

50,000 mark anniversary at peace park

Monday 06 August 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

A bell tolled to begin the moment of silence today while tens of thousands marked the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Ageing survivors, relatives, government officials and foreign delegates joined hands in prayer during an annual ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park commemorating the US bombing of the city nearly seven decades ago.

“On this day, in this city, let me proclaim again: there must never be another nuclear attack, never,” said UN high representative for disarmament affairs Angela Kane, reading a message from secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon.

“Such weapons have no legitimate place in our world. Their elimination is both morally right and a practical necessity in protecting humanity.”

A US B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on August 6 1945, turning the city into a nuclear inferno and killing an estimated 140,000.

Around 50,000 people attended the official ceremony, while thousands of others joined demonstrations, marches, forums and concerts across the city, which is a focal point for the global movement against nuclear weapons.

In separate rallies more than 7,000 people including atomic bomb survivors and evacuees from the Fukushima area staged anti-nuclear demonstrations.

Usually sedate Japan has seen a string of anti-nuclear protests since Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the restart of two reactors in June.

Many atomic bomb survivors, known as “hibakusha,” oppose both military and civil use of nuclear power, pointing to the tens of thousands who were killed instantly in the Hiroshima blast and the many more who later died from radiation sickness and cancers linked to the attack.

“We want to work together with people in Fukushima and join our voices calling for no more nuclear victims,” said 70-year-old atomic bomb survivor Toshiyuki Mimaki.

Demonstrators marched around the headquarters of Chugoku Electric Power, a regional utility which has reactors of its own, chanting: “Noda should quit. We oppose nuclear power.”

Weekly demonstrations outside the prime minister’s official residence have drawn thousands, while a rally in west Tokyo last month saw a crowd that swelled to 170,000.

Peace campaigners called on Britain and the rest of the world to disarm all nuclear weapons today on the 67th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima: here.

Dutch coral comeback

This video is called Alcyonium digitatum.

From DutchNews.nl:

Dutch coral reappears in Zeeland

Monday 06 August 2012

The Netherlands’ only variety of coral, dead man’s thumb, has reappeared in the Oosterschelde in Zeeland, having appeared to have died out in 2011.

Alcyonium digitatum likes strongly flowing, cold sea water and seemed to have died out in 2010 and early 2011. Scientists said this could be because of the warming of the seas.

However, since mid-2011 the coral has made a come-back and divers report seeing a increasing number of them, say press reports.

The dead man’s thumb is so called because it is white and shaped like a thumb.

See also here.

Israeli anti-Iran war demonstration tonight

This cartoon by an Iranian, if we would replace the Israeli and Iranian flags on the politicians’ pulpits by other flags, would also be meaningful for other countries where wars threaten to break out.

From the peace movement in Israel:

No to war with Iran!

Today, Monday, 6 August 2012 at 19:00, we will demonstrate outside the Defense Ministry, with the call: Do not bomb. Talk.

Rather than continuing the rhetoric of intimidation, it is time that the State of Israel will agree to join the regional talks, due to be held later this year in Helsinki, where Iran will participate.

Monday is also the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. On this day, the call is made all over the world read: No more Hiroshima, No more Nagasaki!

We join this call and add: the safest way to end the nuclear arms race in the Middle East is to make the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.

No attack on Iran. Yes to dialogue!

Contact: Sharon Dolev
+972-(0)52-8480543
+972-(0)4-6360625
sharon.dolev@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/events/125291610945526/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

Also:

The Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu and for a Middle East free of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms

Hiroshima Day

On 6 August 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Today, Monday, 6 August 2012, at 19.00 we will demonstrate outside the Defense Ministry on Kaplan Street in Tel ? Aviv, We will call for the dismantling of Israel’s nuclear weapons as part of a controlled process of making the whole Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. We will call for closure of the the old and dangerous nuclear reactor in in Dimona. We will warn the government not to be tempted into the adventure of a war with Iran, whose consequences might be disastrous.

Also, we will call for cessation of the abuse of Mordechai Vanunu, and demand that he be allowed o leave Israel and start a new life.

All those who aspire to a life which is not overshadowed by a nuclear mushroom are called upon to take part in the demonstration.

The Israeli Committee for a Middle East
East free of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms.

+972-(0)52-5404822

gideon.spiro@gmail.com

The Israeli Defense Ministry is here in Tel Aviv, according to Google Maps.

Hiroshima Day being commemorated with peace marches all over the world today, add your voice here.

This video from Israel says about itself:

To the Iranian people

To all the fathers, mothers, children, brothers and sisters

For there to be a war between us, first we must be afraid of each other, we must hate.

I’m not afraid of you, I don’t hate you.

I don’t even know you. No Iranian ever did me no harm. I never even met an Iranian…Just one in Paris in a museum. Nice dude.

I see sometime here, on the TV, an Iranian. He is talking about war.

I’m sure he does not represent all the people of Iran.

If you see someone on your TV talking about bombing you …be sure he does not represent all of us.

I’m not an official representative of my country. but I know the streets of my town, I talk with my neighbors, my family, my friends and in the name of all these people …we love you.

We mean you no harm.

On the contrary, we want to meet, have some coffee and talk about sports.

To all those who feel the same, share this message and help it reach the Iranian people.

Opinion: Sanctions against Iran hurt the people, not the regime: here.

Israeli President Peres Smacks down PM Netanyahu on Iran Attack, Supports Obama: here.

Poll: Israeli Jews oppose a unilateral strike on Iran: here.

Hundreds of Israelis petition IDF pilots: Refuse orders to bomb Iran: here.

No imminent threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, experts say: here.

Anti-Red Cross violence in Libya

This video is called ‘War for Libyan oil planned long ago, no one cares about people’.

From the International Committee of the Red Cross (Geneva, Switzerland):

Africa: Violent Attacks Against Staff Strongly Condemned By ICRC

5 August 2012

press release

Tripoli — At approximately 6.45 a.m. today, unknown individuals, using various kinds of heavy weaponry, attacked the residence of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Misrata in Libya. Seven members of the ICRC’s staff were inside when the attack occurred: they were unharmed, but the building suffered extensive damage.

This is the fifth time, in less than three months, that violence has been directed against the ICRC in the cities of Misrata and Benghazi. The organization strongly condemns these acts against its staff and its premises and wishes to remind all those concerned that humanitarian personnel should be respected at all times.

“We are appalled by this latest act and by the deliberate targeting of our staff: they have put their lives at risk to serve the Libyan people both during and after the conflict,” said Ishfaq Muhamed Khan, the head of the ICRC’s delegation in Libya. The ICRC has become extremely concerned about the wave of attacks against humanitarian workers and the deterioration of the security situation in Libya.

“Given the circumstances, we are forced to announce, with considerable regret, that we will be suspending all our activities in Misrata and Benghazi and that our delegates in those cities will be temporarily relocated. This most recent attack could have had very grave consequences for our colleagues,” Mr Khan said.

The ICRC is a neutral, impartial and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mandate: to protect the lives and dignity of people affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence and to provide them with assistance.

The ICRC is not involved in political or religious activities of any kind, neither in Libya nor anywhere else. It has a presence in 80 countries around the world.

NATO’s Libyan Protectorate: War Of All Against All: here.

Libyan President Mohamed al-Magariaf summoned Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib for an emergency meeting yesterday over the “unacceptable” destruction of a 15th-century Sufi mosque: here.

A SHRINE in the Libyan capital Tripoli venerating a Sufi Muslim saint has been destroyed – the latest in a series of outrages by al-Qaeda militants, this time armed with huge bulldozers to destroy a religious site that is a very holy place to a large number of Libyan and other Muslims: here.

Curiosity lands on Mars

This video is called NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover: ’7 Minutes of Terror’ Animation Video.

From CNN in the USA:

NASA’s rover Curiosity lands on Mars

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

August 6, 2012 — Updated 0916 GMT (1716 HKT)

NASA’s rover Curiosity successfully carried out a highly challenging landing on Mars early Monday, transmitting images back to Earth after traveling hundreds of millions of miles through space in order to explore the Red Planet.

The $2.6 billion Curiosity made its dramatic arrival on Martian terrain in a spectacle popularly known as the “seven minutes of terror.”

This jaw-dropping landing process, involving a sky crane and the world’s largest supersonic parachute, allowed the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area that scientists had meticulously chosen.

The mission control in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California burst into cheers as the rover touched down. Team members hugged and high-fived one another as Curiosity beamed back the first pictures from the planet, some shed tears.

See also here.

Dutch researcher cheers Mars landing: here.

Aug 6, 2012 — Curiosity found its new home on Mars early Monday, settling down beside a giant mound of layered rock inside an ancient crater at 1:32 a.m. EDT. The rover opened its eyes and took these photos of its surroundings, the first-ever images of this part of the planet: here.

Mars orbiter catches Curiosity by the tail: here.

NASA News: Mars Curiosity Rover Beams Higher-Resolution Photo Back To Earth: here.

What’s Next For Curiosity On Mars: here.

Curiosity might prove we’ve already found life on Mars: here.

Mars clays may have volcanic source: Deposits didn’t need flowing water to form, new research suggests: here.

Salvatore Babones, Truthout: “Virgin Galactic, billionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism venture, is charging $200,000 a seat for a few minutes of weightlessness and a view from outer space. The firm has so far taken in $70 million in deposits from 536 passengers, according to an August 1 report from Reuters. Call me old-fashioned, but I personally find it morally offensive that some people can afford to spend $200,000 on a three-minute experience when others can’t afford food”: here.

German nazi murders cover-up

This video is called Right Wing Mob – Germany.

By Dietmar Henning in Germany:

German Secret Service destroyed more files on neo-Nazi murders

6 August 2012

On the instructions of the German Ministry of the Interior, the Secret Service has destroyed files relating to the neo-Nazi killers of the so-called National Socialist Underground (NSU).

NSU members Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe were responsible for the murders of nine immigrants and a policewoman, as well as the planting of bombs and robbing of banks between 2000 and 2007. They lived unmolested in East Germany from 1998 to 2011.

A few weeks ago, it came to light that a department head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV)—as the German Secret Service is known—had disposed of the records of undercover agents in the far-right scene in the state of Thuringia, out of which the NSU terrorist group emerged.

The Secret Service, the Christian Democratic (CDU)-led government of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the media continue to refer to the destruction of these documents as a mistake, accident, etc. At the same time, the destruction of documents is admitted to have been carried out by the responsible department head and other officials on their own cognisance. Three officials face disciplinary proceedings.

It is now clear, however, that the shredding was done deliberately in order to destroy evidence.

In November 2011, just before and just after the exposure of the NSU killings, files containing information about “Operation Rennsteig” were shredded. As part of this operation, the BfV and other intelligence agencies had recruited at least 15 undercover agents in the neo-Nazi group Thüringia Homeland Security, which included the NSU terrorists.

Records on the NSU and its periphery in the state offices of the Secret Service (LfV) in Thuringia and Saxony were also destroyed or withheld. The president of the BfV, Heinz Fromm, as well as the presidents of the LfV agencies in the two states have resigned.

Portuguese workers’ rights attacked by European Union

This video is called Portugal stages mass strike in protest of government spending cuts.

By Paul Mitchell:

Portugal enforces labour reforms but more demanded

6 August 2012

On August 1, Portugal’s new labour reforms came into force.

The reforms have been dictated virtually word for word by officials from the troika—the European Union (EU), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB). The acceptance of these reforms is a condition for receiving a further portion of the €78 billion bailout agreed last year.

The reforms are aimed at increasing worker “flexibility”, fundamentally affecting working hours, dismissals and redundancy payments. They are far from being the last such reforms.

The reforms include the introduction of an “hours bank”, giving employers the right to increase the working day by up to two hours and slashing or eliminating overtime payments. The right to a 15 minute break for every hour of overtime worked is eliminated.

The reforms reduce the number of paid holidays from 25 to 22 working days. Four public holidays have been abolished. If companies decide to shut down on a Monday or Friday because a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, the day will be deducted from the total annual holiday period. The tradition of giving workers up to three extra holidays if they are not absent the previous year has been done away with.

In future, companies will only have to pay 20 instead of 30 days’ pay for each full year of service if they make workers redundant. The total amount of compensation must not exceed 12 times the basic monthly pay.

Workers can be sacked more easily, with the employer’s previous obligation to find the displaced worker equivalent alternative employment done away with. Layoffs “where there is a crisis in the business” are made easier.

Slovenia is among the Eastern European countries hardest hit by the financial crisis: here.

Although the country’s total debt is relatively low at 47 percent of GDP, the crisis gripping Slovenia’s three largest banks threatens to drag the country into the abyss: here.

New Indonesian bat discovery

This video from Australia is called Cute baby Fruit Bat.

From Wildlife Extra:

New species of fruit bat discovered in Indonesia

New bat found on Sulawesi but in danger from hunting and trapping

August 2012. A new species of fruit bat has been discovered in Indonesia. In the genus Thoopterus, T. suhaniahae has been found on the islands of Sulawesi, Talaud and Wowoni in Indonesia.

The new species of Thoopterus is a medium-sized fruit bat found in Sulawesi and small adjacent island groups. It is found in primary forest at middle and low land altitudes. The discovery of a second species of Thoopterus endemic to Sulawesi and adjacent islands provides further evidence that Sulawesi is a ‘hot spot’ of bat evolution.

Unfortunately, ongoing large scale hunting and trapping of fruit bats in the north and parts of Central Sulawesi and elsewhere, seriously endangers the survival of this species as well as other fruit bats on these islands.

See also here.

Indicator Bats Program: Online tool to identify European bat calls: here.

Bats Evolved More Than One Way to Drink Nectar: here.

Bats threatened by climate change: here.

Bats Track and Exploit Changes in Insect Pest Populations: here.