What love, what pain?

'Spy' (in reality Boy B): could you stab someone?
Boy A: i haven't really thought about it
'Spy': well think please
Boy A: ok erm well i watch a lot of films

Boy B started chatting to Boy A in early 2003, posing as a teenage girl. The fictional 16-year-old girl then introduced Boy A to Boy B on an MSM chatroom. Boy A was led to believe the girl was Boy B's step sister, and the pair soon became a "cyber-couple." The fictional stories, later found on Boy B's computer, were lived out in the internet chatroom.

The fictional girl introduced Boy A to what she claimed was her natural brother and Boy B's step brother. Then another boy was introduced, and began to stalk Boy B. Boy B's girlfriend was supposedly killed by the stalker. The girl's brother then committed suicide, leaving Boy A, Boy B and the stalker communicating with each other.

Then another girl was introduced into the web, who was the character of a British spy on a mission to protect Boy B. By this time, Boy A was beginning to doubt his sanity.

The spy, who was then killed off in the chatroom 'story', sent Boy A an e-mail saying: "By the time you read this I will be dead." After this, the main character of the story, a 39-year-old spy, was introduced. She convinced Boy A that he would be recruited as a spy, if he did what she told him to do. She led Boy A to believe that Boy B had a tumour and was costing the government too much money. She ordered Boy A to kill Boy B, and if he succeeded he would be rewarded by being taken on as a spy.

The spy and Boy A planned the killing online, to take place on 28 June 2003. The following day, the boys met at The Trafford Centre, where they bought a kitchen knife before going to Altrincham, Greater Manchester, and Boy A carried out the attack.

Boy A, who is now 17, was served with a two-year supervision order and is allowed no contact with Boy B.
Boy B, who is now 15, received a three-year supervision order and is banned from using the internet unless accompanied by an adult and is not allowed access to chatrooms even if supervised.

(Greater Manchester Police press release)

Even in self-interest, help!

On this International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, I can only think of Sudan...

In Darfur, aid workers predict that besides the 1.2m displaced and 30'000 killed, between 150,000 and 350,000 people will die in the next nine months from hunger and disease if Sudan’s government does not stop hindering relief efforts. Darfur is now probably the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. This alone should merit the rich world’s attention. But the West’s self-interest is also at stake, given that Sudan is now exporting the kind of chaos that could provide cover for al-Qaeda and its supporters.

It was a combination of exhaustion and western pressure that persuaded Khartoum to make peace with the south. More pressure could help pacify Darfur, in the west. The first priority is to get aid to the displaced, to prevent them from starving. But there also needs to be a proper ceasefire, monitored by the United Nations’ blue helmets. Khartoum could be rewarded with aid if it reins in its militia and addresses the grievances of the rebels there; sanctions could be applied if it does not.

For an understanding of the roots of the conflicts, read Darfur's long shadow (Economist).

Beagle's second death

The results of the independent and transparent investigation called after the loss of Beagle 2 are disappointing, "a bungled report into the failure of a Mars lander", as reported in the Economist. First of all, the investigation was all but independent, with most members of the group being or having been on the ESA's payroll. And the report is to remain secret, even from the scientists who designed and built the lander.

Comments made by the ESA on this issue: “we live in an open society too, but it's open in a different way”. And, having the inspector general of ESA chair the inquiry did “a little bit of harm to the word independent”.

Unsurprisingly, then, the main thrust of the report is that if ESA had been in charge, everything would have been better. It also suggests that money for future high-risk space projects should all come from governments, rather than the messy corporate world. The reasoning behind such advice remains a mystery. Such a recommendation neatly ignores the fact that if the agency had its own way from the start, Beagle 2 would have never been built in the first place. Beagle’s innovative approach to raising finance—using popstars and artists to generate interest in the project—did not meet with approval from the European agency.

As to why Beagle crashed, Colin Pillinger, who was the moving spirit behind Beagle 2, believes the most likely explanation for the craft’s failure is that the Martian atmosphere at that time of year was much thinner than anyone, including NASA, had predicted.

At a press conference on May 24th to announce the findings of the secret inquiry, there were hints of a return to Mars under ESA’s Aurora programme. The questions that Beagle 2 sought to answer, such as whether life exists, or existed, on Mars, still need to be addressed.

Source: The Beagle 2 mission (in The Economist)

Conversation with a banker

Me: My dear lady, I want a small, short term loan like you so kindly offer on your website.
Her: Do you have a job?
Me: I have a job offer and I start soon, that's why I need a loan.
Her: No job, no loan.
Me: Well, if I was already earning my salary, I certainly wouldn't be needing a loan.
Her: So why don't you wait until you start your job?
Me: Because I won't have time to use that money when I'm working, and that's why I need the money now.
Her: Tough shit!
Me: You're dumb, because I'm just about to become a "high net worth individual" and if you trust me now, I'll trust you later with my money.
Her: Sorry, but that's another department.
Me: Goodbye, then.

Mucha felicidad!

C'est les examens pour beaucoup de personnes autour de moi: For Jon in Cam, pour Lulu à Annecy, for some of the incredulous Abscond.org crew in London, für SMK hier in St. Gallen (another 12 weeks of learning 8h/d ahead of you, hehe!), pour tous les étudiants de maturité de mon ancien collège à Genève and for me in Zürich (although not for school, since I'm done).

Alors I wish you mucha felicidad (les festivals d'été approchent, autant que ce soit avec le coeur léger!)

Et en passant, bon anniversaire а Judith. Que tes souhaits les plus chers se réalisent (ou qu'ils deviennent meilleur marché!)

Our colourless and lifeless world

"If biodiversity is not taken seriously at high levels our most lasting legacy will be a colourless and lifeless world.", Joy Hyvarinen, the international treaties advisor at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in this BBC News article.

Only nine countries were marking International Biodiversity Day on Saturday. The society called on the government to do more, including fulfilling pledges to set up a network of wildlife sites. "Governments agree that wildlife rich areas should be protected but their reluctance to pay for them suggests they don't really care," said the society's director of international operations Alastair Gammell.

"The escalating rate at which animals are disappearing is horrific and unless governments act quickly, they will deprive future generations of the rich array of wildlife we enjoy."

The RSPB said mining, deforestation, drainage and oil extraction were potentially damaging many locations that were crucial for wildlife.

The 2004 International Biodiversity Day theme is food, water and health for all.

A Quarter Century & Ten Million Dollars

Speculation is ripe about the winner of the X-Prize with word (rumours) that Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne could be the spacecraft to win the $10m reward.

Media interest is growing and the organisers are talking about an expected win by the end of the year, as in this BBC News article.

Today is also a milestone for the face behind this here blog. A quarter century breathing on this planet just went by. Anybody notice?

We Are Returning

Child's drawing in a Palestinian refugee camp depicting the Palestinian people holding a banner with the words "We are returning". In the foreground, the different agreements or summits about the Palestinian issue: Geneva, Oslo, Madrid, Sharm al Sheikh, Aqaba and the roadmap.

No comment

Bush: 'I can see you have a father who loves you very much.'

Girl's father: 'I do, Mr. President, but I miss her mother every day.'

India: democracy and shopping centres

On democracy in poorer parts of India:

"Perhaps we need to emphasise family planning more, because the poorer people are multiplying."

>Excellent article on Indian democracy

A year on...

She died a year ago, the first person truly close to me to die. It changed my way of seeing things a lot... some things I cared about I don't anymore and some others are now of utmost importance.

But I think what changed most is my obsession with time: every minute in life counts, because it can never be brought back. And like I mentioned somewhere else in this blog, the greatest risk of all is taking no risk at all - because you risk walking past your life.

I think about her nearly every day.

Goodbye, Doodie...

Question

Que pensez-vous arrive à la conscience après votre mort? Et pourquoi?

What do you think happens to consciousness after you die? And why do you think so?

It don't matter!

Pictures of caskets draped with the US flag... fallen soldiers displaying the human cost of the Iraq war (actually, some were the caskets of the Columbia astronauts, but never mind)

Pictures of prisoners undergoing ill treatment... the brutality of Allied troups towards Iraqi prisoners (actually, some cannot have been taken in Iraq since the equipment shown wasn't employed, but never mind)

Fakes? Wrong pictures? Who cares! Their visual impact remains and their purpose is thus fulfilled...

CBS is showing a video of a helicopter gunning down enemy combattants in Iraq. One target who appears wounded and is crawling away is hit again. CBS presents this video as the US military killing wounded soldiers in apparent violation of the Geneva conventions. However, the same video appeared on Military.com a few weeks ago but was presented as showing a combattant trying to continue his mission despite being wounded, with the helicopter preventing him from doing so by hitting him again.

In the war of images, the meaning is in the eye of the beholder...