Satellite waste

Saturday night was spent with a bunch of wonderful mostly norwegians, partying, chatting, eating and drinking. Of the many other interesting encounters, two stood out. One about the different types of drugs one can take and the after-affects of each described quite vividly, followed by a round of who had tried what and not.

The second, was a rather interesting monologue delivered by a guy working with satellite technology. Monologue, because once we got him started he just went on and on, but we hung on each word, the wannabe-space-junkies that we were that night. Did you know there are currently approximately over 19000 + man made satellites orbiting earth?? and that many are just debri, with no fuel, pushed further away and just hanging about in space. A satellite wasteland.

So my selective memory from Saturday night retained some information when I awakened the morning after, and I did some research:

Artificial orbital debris, consists of the leftovers from humanity’s activities in Earth orbit. Every time we put a satellite into space, we end up leaving something behind in Earth orbit. At the very least this is the satellite itself and often times also includes one or more rocket stages and bits of miscellaneous stuff, like explosive bolts, lens caps, and solid rocket exhaust particles. Sometimes these leftover bits themselves shed more pieces through what are called fragmentation events. These events can be minor (a few dozen pieces) to extreme (explosions creating more than a thousand pieces). Within this category of artificial objects we define three basic populations: the trackable, the potentially trackable, and the untrackable.

Trackable: Greater than 10 cm in diameter, Estimated Population: 19,000+
Potentially Trackable: Greater than 1 cm in diameter, Estimated population: Several hundred thousand
Untrackable: Less than 1 cm in diameter, Estimated Population: Many millions to billions

Eat that.

So not only are we polluting the earth we live on we are also doing the same some thousand miles above us. Amazing.

Weekends

What is it about a Friday and the absolute joy that overwhelms us as the clock ticks away the work hours? The journey home is spent usually planning a relaxing evening. It never ceases to amaze me how a quiet day at home with two full holidays infront of it, can bring such solace and peace of mind. Saturday mornings are the best too. Evenings even better.
Soon enough, Sunday arrives and as the evening draws close, work thoughts begin to creep into our minds. We are quick to brush them aside and enjoy the last few hours before falling into a dreamless sleep only waking up to a shrill alarm announcing another week. Monday.

Butterfly and Spiders

I never liked spiders. I was mortified if I ever saw even one spidery leg. And then I met Tommy. He's an insect lover :-) He does not believe in swatting a fly, stamping on a spider or crushing ants dead.
He found a butterfly once in the middle of a cold, snowy January in Oslo. It was a miracle that it survived in our office building in the dead of winter. The butterfly was struggling to live, a bit weak and not so quick to fly. Tommy placed it in an empty matchbox on my desk at work with a yellow post it note. I opened the box and yelped in fear. I spied a few insect legs peeping out and closed the box tightly shut. I contacted him on msn and asked him why he had left a bug on my desk.
Why he had left a bug on my desk!
He came around to me, smiled and picked up the box gently and asked me to accompany him outside. He opened it and the captive butterfly, suddenly realizing the importance of freedom, found the strength to fly.
A butterfly, colourful and lively flying around with all that snow in the backgound shielded by many glass windows.
It is one of the things I will always remember.
I don't mind spiders that much anymore.
That does not mean that I would sleep at all though, if I saw one crawling around nearby. Still.

Eid.Pray.Love.

This is the first year I actually attempted to enjoy eid away from home in Islamabad. It's not that hard if you really try. I feel good at the end of it. Home in Oslo. Eid Prayers, followed by a late brunch with colleagues, relaxing at home and then dinner at a friend's. Next year, we resolved to start sooner. With Chaand raat :)

UN condemns war crimes in Gaza

This says it all I think:

The report "concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population," said the UN statement.

Facts:
Israeli offensive in Gaza Dec 08 to Jan 09
More than 1,400 Gazans killed
3 Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers killed

There are many articles that have started to appear online that discredit the report and Richard Goldstone who has authored the report. Not surprising, since the report findings clearly points the finger at Israel. I am unable to find the 575 page report, we owe it to all the people who died in the conflict to atleast read the report and think for ourselves. I will keep searching for it on the web.

Numbers talk

'The Age of Terror. War on the West.'
This was the title of a documentary on BBC News that I started to watch but could not finish. First, I do not believe the words, they are skewed terribly in the favour of a single point of view and second they are written and spoken to induce and instill fear into people. That we live in an age of Terror, false. That there is a War on the West. False again. If we do a headcount, there are more people in the 'East' who are dead due to the 'War on Terror' then in the West.

What happened on Sep 11, 2001 was horrific, but what has transpired since - the War in Afghanistan (2001-till present) and then in Iraq (2003-til present) is equally deplorable, and much worse, a wicked way to seek retribution.

Total Sep 11 attack deaths - 2,752 persons dead
Total Afgan civilian deaths, no one seems to be keeping count but Wikipedia is the only source giving a total count - 8,773 - 11,570 persons dead
Total Iraqi civilian deaths 93,096 – 101,596