'Cool Britannia'..[ 1627 ]

David Cameron dismisses 'Cool Britannia'

David Cameron has said Britain should focus on its heritage and move away from a 'Cool Britannia' image in order to become one of the world's top five tourism destinations.

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Cool Britannia is a media term that was used in the 1990s to describe fashionable contemporary culture which was leading the world Photo: REX FEATURES

 

Published: 9:35AM BST 12 Aug 2010

David Cameron addresses British tourism industry leaders at the Serpentine Gallery, London Photo: PA

The Prime Minister said the income generated from the £115 billion-a-year tourism sector was ''fundamental'' to rebuilding the UK's shattered economy.

In a speech at the Serpentine Gallery in London, he accused the former Labour government of failing to promote Britain properly.

''For too long tourism has been looked down on as a second class service sector. That's just wrong,'' he said.

''The last government underplayed our tourist industry. There were eight different Ministers with responsibility for tourism in just 13 years.

''They just didn't get our heritage. They raided the National Lottery taking money from heritage because it didn't go with their image of 'cool Britannia'.''

He said that the new coalition Government was now committed to building the ''strongest possible tourism strategy''.

''We're going to be a Government that understands the huge potential of our tourism industry, that gets tourism and that gives the industry the backing it needs.''

He said it was now essential to take the opportunity offered by a decade of major sporting events in the UK - starting with the 2012 London Olympics - to restore its fortunes.

''Tourism is a fiercely competitive market, requiring skills, talent, enterprise and a government that backs Britain. It's fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy.

''It's one of the best and fastest ways of generating the jobs we need so badly in this country. And it's absolutely crucial to us making the most of the Olympics and indeed a whole decade of great international sport across Britain.''

Mr Cameron said that between 2008 and and 2009, UK had fallen from sixth to 11th place in the World Economic Forum's travel and tourism competitiveness ratings.

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Cool Britannia is a media term that was used in the 1990s to describe fashionable contemporary culture which was leading the world. The term was prevalent during the 1990s, and was closely associated with the early years of New Labour under Tony Blair.

Taliban torturers..[ 1626 ]

Taliban torture and execute pregnant woman

A pregnant woman was flogged and shot dead in public in a remote part of western Afghanistan after being convicted of having an affair.

• 
  
• / Momento24 en Español

The victim, 48-year-old Bibi Sanubar, was flogged up to 200 times before being shot on Sunday – in the head and chest – in the remote Qades district. Her alleged lover managed to escape.

A Taliban commander carried out the execution, shooting the woman in her head, said Hashim Habibi, the district governor of Qades, which is located in the province.

Gul had been widowed for four years. She was accused of adultery for her relationship with the unnamed man, said Abdul Jabar, the provincial police chief.

Elders in the village of Quds contacted Taliban commanders after the woman’s pregnancy became known. A local official said: ‘She had an illegal relationship with a man who was not her husband.’

But he added: ‘ Her husband died many years before. Then she became pregnant so, according to Islam, we gave her a very strong punishment. It was more than 200 lashes. Then we shot her.’

A Taliban spokesman has since denied any involvement.

“We have not done anything like that in Badghis or any other province,” the spokesman said, calling the report “propaganda” by foreigners and the Western-backed Afghan government.

NASA image of the Day, Aug 11th..[ 1625 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Testing at the Space Power Facility

The Centaur Standard Shroud at Glenn Research Center's Space Power Facility, Plum Brook Station, protects spacecraft during launch. 

 

When it was constructed, the Space Power Facility was the world's largest vacuum chamber. 

It stands more than 122 feet high, 100 feet in diameter and provides a vacuum environment for the study of space propulsion. 

 

Originally commissioned for nuclear-electric propulsion studies, the SPF has been recommissioned for current and future use in the ongoing research and development of space propulsion systems. 

 

Image Credit: NASA

Τετάρτη, 11 Αύγουστος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

The Antikythira Mechanism..[ 1624 ]

The Antikythira Mechanism, Project Overview

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Copied frpm....www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/

 More than a hundred years ago an extraordinary mechanism was found by sponge divers at the bottom of the sea near the island of Antikythera. It astonished the whole international community of experts on the ancient world. Was it an astrolabe? Was it an orrery or an astronomical clock? Or something else?

For decades, scientific investigation failed to yield much light and relied more on imagination than the facts. However research over the last half century has begun to reveal its secrets. It dates from around the end of the 2nd century B.C. and is the most sophisticated mechanism known from the ancient world. Nothing as complex is known for the next thousand years. The Antikythera Mechanism is now understood to be dedicated to astronomical phenomena and operates as a complex mechanical "computer" which tracks the cycles of the Solar System.

Previous researchers have used the latest technologies available to them -such as x-ray analysis- to try to begin to unravel its complex mysteries. Now a new initiative is building on this previous work, using the very latest techniques available today. The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project is an international collaboration of academic researchers, supported by some of the world's best high-technology companies, which aims to completely reassess the function and significance of the Antikythera Mechanism.

The project is under the aegis of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and was initially supported by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, UK. More details bout subsequent funding are here. The project has received strong backing from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which is custodian of this unique artefact. Two of the Museum's senior staff, Head of Chemistry, Eleni Magou, and Archaeologist-museologist, Mary Zafeiropoulou, have co-ordinated the Museum's side of the project and are actively involved with the research.

One UK and two Greek universities are the core of the academic research group -the astronomer Mike Edmunds and the mathematician and filmmaker Tony Freeth (University of Cardiff), the astronomer John Seiradakis (University of Thessalonica), the astronomer Xenophon Moussas and the physicist and historian of science Yanis Bitsakis (University of Athens). And last, but not least, the philologist and palaeographer Agamemnon Tselikas (NBG Cultural Foundation).

During the first data-gathering phase in the autumn of 2005, the most innovative technologies were used to reveal unknown elements of the mechanism. This research was carried out by two world-class high technology companies, Hewlett Packard (US) and X-Tek Systems (UK). X-Tek's superb three-dimensional x-rays were imaged using software from the leading German company, Volume Graphics. Technical support was also provided by the University of Keele (UK). The whole process was filmed by Tony Freeth's Film and Television production company, Images First, for a forthcoming TV documentary.

During September 2005, three specialized scientists from Hewlett-Packard's Mobile and Media Systems Laboratory came to Athens with their innovative digital imaging system to examine the surface inscriptions and other features on the Antikythera Mechanism. The HP team, Tom Malzbender, Dan Gelb and Bill Ambrisco-brought with them a remarkable piece of specialist equipment: a Dome that surrounds the sample under examination and takes a series of still photos to analyze the three-dimensional structure of the surface. This enables astonishingly detailed examination of fine details such as faded and worn inscriptions. It has been a revelation for the research team. See here for this data.

During October 2005, another team of specialists from the cutting-edge company, X-Tek Systems, came to Athens. Led by the company's pioneering proprietor, Roger Hadland, the group of experts consisted of David Bate, Andrew Ramsey, Martin Allen, Alan Crawley and Peter Hockley. Their aim was to use the very latest x-ray technology to look at the internal structure of the mechanism with its complex and confusing gear trains. With them they brought the prototype of a very powerful new x-ray machine, the eight-tonne "Bladerunner". 

Originally designed to search for minute cracks in turbine blades, this machine gives astonishingly detailed three-dimensional x-rays, using the latest "microfocus" x-ray techniques. It has opened a remarkable window on microscopic internal details of inscriptions and gearing at a resolution better than a tenth of a millimeter. 

Inscriptions can now be read that have not been seen for more than two thousand years and this is helping to build a comprehensive picture of the functions of the Antikythera Mechanism. Browse here some of the initial images from the Blade Runner.

This is work-in-progress and results are emerging on a stable basis as the data is analyzed:

- At the autumn of 2006, the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project has organized a major conference in Athens to present their research findings. These results opened a new chapter in the understanding of this extraordinary mechanism. The conference coincided with the publication of the first results at the journal "Nature".

- In July 2008, new results were published in Nature. These were focused on the functions of Back Dials of the Mechanism.

- In July-August 2009, a major symposium was organized within the scope of the 23rd International Congress of History of Science and Technology. Members and collaborators of the research project and leading historians of science and technology discussed the position of the Antikythera Mechanism within the history of science, technology and ideas.

• Ελληνικά/ in Greek

Israeli Army chief defends Gaza flotilla raid..[ 1623 ]

Israeli military chief defends Gaza flotilla raid

Soldiers 'shot those who they needed to shoot' on board Mavi Marmara after underestimating strength of resistance

 

Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israeli military chief of staff, arrives to give evidence at Israel's Gaza flotilla raid inquiry. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

• Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 August 2010 10.38 BST

Israel's chief of staff has defended his troops' actions during the lethal raid on the Gaza aid flotilla as "proportionate and correct".

Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi rejected the blame apportioned to the military for the disastrous outcome during testimony to the inquiry by Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak.

"The commandos exhibited calm, bravery and morality", Ashkenazi told the hearing, adding that he took responsibility for the military's actions.

Nine Turkish activists were killed when the flotilla was intercepted in international waters. It had been attempting to deliver aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. Ashkenazi said he was proud of the soldiers who came under attack by a group of militants on board the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara.

"From the moment the operation began it was clear the circumstances were unprecedented," he said.

"The soldiers legitimately opened fire and shot those who they needed to shoot and not those who they didn't need to shoot."

The military's main mistake, he said, was to assume there were only 10-15 people on the deck of the Mavi Marmara. "We thought we could throw stun grenades, clear (the passengers) and then fast-rope soldiers on to the boat. This was the mistake. We should have used precise fire to incapacitate those preventing the soldiers from boarding the ship to reduce the risk to our soldiers."

He said the Israeli military was a transparent organisation that conducted investigations into its own actions and learned lessons from each operation.

An earlier internal inquiry into military and intelligence planning of the operation found there were serious mistakes in underestimating the strength of resistance Israeli forces would encounter.

Ashkenazi's evidence follows that of Barak and the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, before a five-man panel headed by the former supreme court judge Jacob Turkel.

A UN investigation just launched in New York has already run into a dispute over whether Israeli soldiers can be called to give evidence. Israel is adamant that no IDF soldier will be interviewed.