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Marines
Hit Taleban Convoy, Iraq Warned, Omar May Be No More
Excerpts
from articles describing a warning to Iraq and the military
actions in Afghanistan over the past couple of days:
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As
U.S. Marines saw their first action and other U.S. forces suffered
casualties in Afghanistan, President Bush signaled yesterday
that his anti-terror campaign soon could turn to Iraq's Saddam
Hussein.
The
president said Saddam, defeated but not deposed during the 1991
Persian Gulf War, must allow the United Nations to inspect sites
that could produce chemical or nuclear weapons.
What
would happen if Saddam refused?
"He'll
find out," Bush said.
In
Afghanistan, more than 500 Marines secured "a forward base
of operations" at an airfield near Kandahar, the Taliban's
last stronghold. The apparent vanguard of a larger U.S. combat
force, they called their campaign Operation Swift Freedom, and
the operation swiftly flew into action:
Marine
Cobra helicopter gunships joined Navy F-14 Tomcat jets in a
strike on an armored column yesterday and destroyed many of
the 15 tanks and other vehicles, U.S. officers said.
Afghanistan War Status, 11/27/01
The
other stubborn pocket of resistance, the northern city of Kunduz,
fell completely into the hands of the opposition Northern Alliance.
However,
five U.S. military personnel suffered serious wounds yesterday
when a U.S. bomb or rocket struck close to their position near
Mazar-e-Sharif in the effort to quell a revolt by Taliban prisoners,
and reports persisted that a CIA operative was dead or missing.
...
U.S. warplanes scored a hit against a "leadership compound"
near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, U.S. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday.
"There
has been an attack from the air on a leadership compound southeast
of Kandahar," Rumsfeld told reporters on a flight to Washington
from Tampa, Florida. "Whoever
was there is gonna wish they weren't."
An
official with the U.S. Central Command told CNN "two known
Taliban facilities" were struck at the compound around
1:30 a.m. Wednesday (4 p.m. ET Tuesday), and that "battle
damage is ongoing. We
know we did strike the targets."
...
Pentagon sources said the attacks were carried out by an Air
Force F-16, which dropped a laser-guided bomb, and a B-1 bomber,
which dropped a 2,000-pound satellite-guided bomb, or JDAM.
The
sources said the strikes were ordered shortly after the United
States received intelligence information that Taliban leader
Mullah Mohammed Omar was inside one building.
The
pilots reported "good hits" on both, the sources said.
Visual imagery showed rubble where the buildings stood, according
to the sources. The
extent of casualties was not immediately known. ...
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Sources:
Enjoyment
of Music by Deaf People
Excerpts
from article describing the differing ways that the brains of
deaf people and hearing people process music and vibrations:
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The brain's
auditory cortex helps
deaf people hear music
Scientists
believe they have discovered why deaf people can enjoy listening
to music and why some can perform or, like Beethoven, even compose.
Dr
Dean Shibata, assistant professor of radiology at the University
of Washington, has found that deaf people sense musical vibrations
in the part of the brain other people use for hearing.
These
musical vibrations are, he believes, likely to be "every
bit as real" as actually hearing the sounds.
...
"These findings suggest that the experience deaf people
have when 'feeling' music is similar to the experience other
people have when hearing music.
"The
perception of the musical vibrations by the deaf is likely every
bit as real as the equivalent sounds, since they are ultimately
processed in the same part of the brain." ...
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Source:
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Praying
for a Miracle, a Baptist Miracle ...
...
which, per the nature of
the prayer, is a call to God to reveal Jesus Christ to muslims,
via a clear and indisputable miracle at the end of Ramadan?
Yes, the request has been issued by a southern baptist leader,
with southern baptists asked to fast as well as pray on that
"special" last day of Ramadan.
Excerpt
from a recent article discussing that prayer
request:
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The
head of the Southern Baptist Convention is asking members to
"pray and fast that God will miraculously reveal himself
through Jesus Christ to Muslims" at the end of Ramadan,
Islam's holy month. ...
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Comments:
One must wonder what kind of miracle the individual issuing
this request would expect. After all, when it comes to miracles,
catholics own the franchise on that as they claim Jesus and
Mary and Saints and God have been doing the miracle-thing throughout
history.
Not
too familiar with southern baptist claims of miracles, though,
as their philosophy tends towards the miracle days being those
that took place in the day and age the bible documents were
constructed, generally speaking.
However,
there are exceptions, as in the modern day, baptists claim that
"god answers prayer" (implied miracles) and a particular
positive event may be called a miracle when it's especially
positive for their view of faith. As for life's downsides, not
too many thoughts given to miracles, there, as baptists sometimes
view those events as a result of human sin -or- perceive those
as "god working in mysterious ways".
As
for claiming christianity is supreme, that's something non-ecumenical
types usually refrain from admitting to publicly. The same applies
to muslims, as they usually keep their "islam is supreme"
ideology behind closed doors. There are exceptions to that,
though. See bin Laden and his ilk for details.
God of All Faiths?
When
it comes to ecumenism, it's all a play for acceptance, with
the real notions of the claimed supremacy of a particular faith
promoted behind the closed doors of churches / mosques / synagogues
/ temples and other so-called "holy" places.
Source:
Scientific
First - The Atmosphere of an Extra-Solar Planet Explored
Excerpts
from a an article regarding a milestone achievement, the analysis
of the atmosphere of an extra-solar planet:
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Artist's impression of the gas-giant
planet orbiting the yellow, Sun-like star
HD 209458, 150 light-years from Earth,
the 1st extra-solar planet on which
an atmosphere has been detected
Astronomers
have made the first measurement of a chemical in the atmosphere
of a planet orbiting a distant star, using a technique that
could help them find Earth-like bodies around other suns.
Using
the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers analysed light shining
through a planet's atmosphere as it orbited a star 150 light-years
away. The changes in the colour of the light proved the planet's
atmosphere contained sodium.
"This
is the first measurement ever of any atom in the atmosphere
of an extrasolar planet," said Timothy Brown, a scientist
at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research and a co-author
of the study. "This proves it is possible to do a detailed
analysis of an atmosphere so far away."
...
in the initial test, the researchers looked only for sodium,
a chemical that shows up with two colors of light in the yellow-green
portion of the spectrum. "Sodium
is the spectral equivalent of skunk," Brown said. "You
don't need much to detect it."
Researchers
at the Space Telescope Science Institute said that new observations
are planned to look for compounds such as methane, water, carbon
dioxide and ozone. Discovering these compounds in a planet's
atmosphere would suggest strongly that the planet had some form
of life.
Brown
said there was no expectation of finding evidence of life on
the planet orbiting HD209458 - its thick clouds are heated to
about 1093 degrees celsius. "It
is undesirable real estate," said Brown. "If you visited,
the change in your pocket would melt."
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Source:
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