"This mosaic image taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has been further processed, resulting in a significantly improved 360 degree panoramic view of the rover on the surface of Mars."

Link to NASA's Mars moblog, li nk to full-size, 360-degree composite panorama image. Link to SF Chron story with details on the image transmission process. (Thanks, Warren)

European Mars explorer sends back 1st
photos ahead of Christmas rendezvous

New NASA Mars rovers dwarf 1997's
Sojourner wheeled Mars robot

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit lands on
Mars

Tonight: Robots on Mars, hunting for
life on Mars?

Two NASA (news - web sites) Mars landers -- Spirit and Opportunity -- are speeding toward "sweet spot" touch down sites at different, but scientifically attractive locations on Earth's mysterious neighbor.

The opening act in this $820 million drama to place dual robot geologists on Mars is the landing of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) dubbed Spirit tonight at about 8:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST). The target: Gusev Crater -- a possible former lake in a giant impact crater on Mars. Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars

Genoa Color Announces First U.S. Patent
For Multi-Primary Color TV Technology

Mars Express Confirms Water on Mars

ActiveWin.com Exclusive: Microsoft
Hardware 2004 Fall Lineup Photos and
Descriptions (plus Fingerprint Device
Photos)

Washington Post Censors Iraqi Prison
Photos (At the Request of the WH?): Has
More Than 1,000 Photos, But Has Just
Published 10. We Wonder When Karl Rove
Made His Call To Them. 5/11

editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_i d=1000507649
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This mosaic image taken by the
navigation camera on the Mars
Exploration Rover Spirit shows a
panoramic view of the rover on the
surface of Mars

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040104a.html
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A New Lyra Research Report Finds 'The
Year of the Color Laser' Has Finally
Arrived: Color Laser Printer Shipments
Increased a Dramatic 47 Percent Between
2003 and 2004

The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos - It's the
"liberation" of the Iraqi people . These
are just some of the photos that led to
an investigation into conditions at the
Abu Ghraib prison, now run by the
occupation authorities, as revealed in a
shocking report br

albasrah.net/images/iraqi-pow/iraqi-pow
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"The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos - It's the
"liberation" of the Iraqi people . These
are just some of the photos that led to
an investigation into conditions at the
Abu Ghraib prison, now run by the
occupation authorities, as revealed in a
shocking report..."

THINK
GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL: PETER SINGER'S
ONE
WORLD

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I'm opposed to unregulated 'free' trade, very worried about the extraterritoriality of the WTO, NAFTA, Davos and other corporatist captives, strongly opposed to domestic corporations 'offshoring' jobs, using influence with the Bush regime and other right-wing governments to circumvent social and environmental laws and responsibilities, and a great believer in taking the pledge to buy local, and in community self-sufficiency. At the same time, I'm a strong supporter of the UN and other multi-lateral NGOs, and I believe that we each have a responsibility for the well-being of all the people and creatures of this world. Some readers have said this view is inconsistent, and I wasn't quite sure how to respond to such charges. Fortunately, Peter Singer, in his recent book on global ethics, One World: The Ethics of Globalization, has come to my rescue. Singer sees no inconsistency between strong local autonomy, community, and self-sufficient economies on the one hand, and global responsibility on the other. The book is based on the Dwight Terry lectures at Yale in 2000, but has been updated to incorporate reflection on the events of 9/11 and the appalling Bush social, environmental and economic record. I'll have more to say next week about Bush's fraudulent and despicable Earth Day media blitz, and the major media's shameless lack of critical evaluation of the utter nonsense that his propaganda machine has been churning out this week on the environment -- newspeak of Orwellian proportions. The first part of Singer's book deals with environmental responsibility, and his prescription for increasing it -- immediate ratification of Kyoto by the US and other holdout countries, and introduction of an emissions trading mechanism to make the realization of Kyoto feasible (subject to the need for some oversight on the disposition of the proceeds of such trading when it involves autocratic governments). The second part of the book deals with the global economy, and Singer adroitly tears apart the Economist's (and other neocons') naive assertion that economic globalization somehow benefits both rich and poor countries. He then goes on to prescribe a substantial reform of the WTO and the GATT, which could actually lead to more equitable distribution of wealth and more efficient production of economic goods, while safeguarding human rights, labour and the environment. Unfortunately, the multi-national corporations and corporatists who hold sway in the WTO would never tolerate Singer's prescription, since it would entirely divert the benefits of economic globalization from their pockets to those of the world's poor. The third part of the book deals with international law, and Singer lashes out at Bush for his unconscionable refusal to ratify the International Court of Justice, and for the UN's continued hesitancy to accept a duty (not a right) to intervene in situations of genocide and other humanitarian crises, even within a single nation. Singer is sanguine about the limitations and dangers of 'global government', but supports strengthening the UN to enable it to act as a 'protector of last resort', and including in its mandate the responsibility to supervise elections in all member nations. The fourth and final part goes back to ethical principles and proposes that countries must, in this world where national boundaries no longer have any logistic meaning, set aside national interest and embrace, once and for all, global interest, impartially. That does not mean cultural homogenization, but imposes a responsibility for the reduction of inequality, both of economic resources and personal rights and freedoms. Always the pragmatist, Singer concludes by worrying out loud about how the responsibility for a global ethic could be managed: It is widely believed that a world government would be, at best, an unchecked bureaucratic behemoth that would make the bureaucracy of the EU look lean and efficient. At worst, it would become a global tyranny, unchecked and unchallengeable. These thoughts have to be taken seriously. How to prevent global bodies becoming either dangerous tyrannies or self-aggrandizing bureaucracies, and instead make them effective and responsive to the people whose lives they affect? It is a challenge that should not be beyond the best minds in the fields of political science and public administration. I'd like to believe that this was possible, because if it isn't, we're in serious trouble. We cannot expect national governments to set aside parochial interests, especially when this entails accepting a responsibility that would, for the richer nations, inevitably lead to a drastic redistribution of wealth to poorer nations and hence a sudden and sharp reduction in, at least, economic living standards (if not necessarily well-being). But as John Ralston Saul has so eloquently argued, larger organizations and institutions, whether public or private, are almost always, and inherently, less efficient, less agile, more resistant to change, more hierarchic, and less transparent than smaller organizations. So the challenge is to achieve the best of both worlds, having organizations of global scope and authority and responsibility, but broken up into sufficiently small, autonomous and dynamic units that they are sensitive, resilient, responsible and responsive to the people and communities they serve. We can only hope that "the best minds in the fields of political science and public administration", wherever they are, are up to the task.

Rat Lab - Where All the Mad Scientists
Go

Supercomputing Scientists

After Packing M&M’s Together,
Scientists Like What They See

nytimes.com/2004/02/13/science/13MATH.html
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"Non-American scientists"

After Packing M&M's Together, Scientists
Like What They See

Too Few American Scientists? Maybe Not

Scientists see new species born

Scientists Take Stock of Their Ethics

Scientists Recover Tissue From T. Rex

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/24/national/w11060 9S86.DTL
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Scientists in 'Awe' of Color Photos of Mars