The Jihadist threat within - Understanding the Boston Marathon bombings

The revelation that the alleged perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings are Chechen brothers, Dzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, migrants of a few years to the United States, together with their families adds a new dimension to the nature of the bomb attack. Chechen nationals have been waging a war against the Russian Federation for many years following two wars in the mid 1990s and early 2000s.

In their long, violent struggle against the Kremlin, Chechen radicals have hit soft civilian targets many times. In 2010, two female suicide bombers from Dagestan detonated explosives in the Moscow metro, killing at least 40 people and injuring 100. A year later, another suicide bomber struck Moscow’s airport killing 37 and wounding 180. Other attacks include the infamous Breslan school seige in 2004, where 334 hostages died, most of them children. Intelligence company Stratfor summarises the Boston Marathon bombings thus:

“This case highlights our analysis that the jihadist threat now predominantly stems from grassroots operatives who live in the West rather than teams of highly trained operatives sent to the United States from overseas, like the team that executed the 9/11 attacks. This demonstrates how the jihadist threat has diminished in severity but broadened in scope in recent years -- a trend we expect to continue.

There will always be plenty of soft targets in a free society, and it is incredibly easy to kill people, even for untainred operatives. In this case, the brothers conducted an attack that was within their capabilities rather than attempting something more grandiose that would require outside assistance -- and which could therefore have put them in jeopardy of running into a government informant as they sought help. It is thus important for citizens to practice good situational awareness and to serve as grassroots defenders against the grassroots threat”.

In this sense the West will always be a target. The real question is whether they were acting as a small independant team or were there other connections and associations to extremist groups.

Mesothelioma - the emerging new sinister cause of erionite

erionite

The deadly lung cancer known as Mesothelioma is usually associated with exposure to asbestos, a term commonly associated with various commercial industrial and building products. However in recent years there has been a growing awareness that there are other sources of the deadly fine, durable dust which constitutes the asbestos hazard and these sources of lung disease are far more widely dispersed around the world. Asbestos, in fact, is a common name given to six similar silicate compounds which may be either sodium, magnesium, calcium or iron.  A widely found silicate is termed 'erionite' and is caused by the action of water on volcanic ash with deposits of this substance found in mountainous or rocky areas worldwide including Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The threat of erionite has already been proven with extraordinary mesothelioma mortality rates being found in the Cappadocia region ot Turkey where the silicate occurs naturally in vast tracts of rock and throughout the mountains where people live. As a consequence it is also found in the buildings people occupy in that region. In the early studies of recent years, including animal studies, erionite is found to be more likely to cause cancer than asbestos and in fact does. There is little information about erionite and cell biology interaction and hence the capacity to assess at-risk communities remians poor.

Where to now for Wikipedia ?

Wkipedia remains an astonishing accomplishment despite the many predictions that were first pronounced that such an online encyclopedia which anyone could edit, would never succeed. Wikipedia has reached 25 million entries in 285 languages and continues to operate with additional coverage now provided by Google and Microsoft which draw content direct from the website. However a few challenges are starting to emerge which may yet affect the relevance and impact of the democratised website. Since 2007 the number of active online editors has been decreasing, the database of entries still has vast gaps of knowledge particularly covering developing countries and the website itself has come under attack from spammers and vandals.

The basic statistics for the website are revealing  -

• Number of edits (all languages): 1.29 billion (as at April 2012)
• Number of registered editors: 18.6 million
• Hours spent compiling the English version (up to 2012) 41, 019,000.
• Wikipedia editors who are male: 91 per cent.
• Average largest edits over a three month periond (2010-11) came from the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom - all over 1 million.  Russia and Japan are next with just under a million.
• Australia contributed 378,300 edits over the same three month period.

But will Wikipedia continue to develop at the same pace or will disinterest set in over time from the millions of voluntary editors ?

Theatre Review - Dance Better at Parties - Sydney Theatre Company - 2013 Season

Elizabeth Nabben and Steve Rodgers - Dance Better at Parties

Dancemaker Gideon Obarzanek's first foray into text-based theatre is a modest, relatively simple yet impressive effort with his one act work 'Dance Better at Parties' for the Sydney Theatre Company. The play has only two actors and runs for only around an hour and fifteen minures yet it is a far better production than many of STC's longer plays over recent years. The story is focussed on Dave, a middle aged man overtaken with grief through the loss of his wife in a car accident. On a whim he signs up for a ten week set of dance classes in order to be less awkward and more confident when he goes out to parties and social gatherings (at least that's his explanation). Under the expert guidance of his lithe, patient dance instructor Rachel, slowly the ungainly Dave gains confidence with the rumba, tango, slow step and other ballroom dances. Steve Rodgers as 'Dave' is exceptional being in part, funny, heartbreaking and yet dignified as he persists with mastering the dance routines. Elizabeth Nabben appearing as 'Rachel' is very convincing portraying the dance instructor, handling often sensitive nuances with tact and delicacy.  This is a touching play without excessive and unnecessary emotional devices and delivers its story within a well structured, well-paced format.    

Australia's climate is changing - Climate Commission

The latest report from the Climate Commission, a body created by the Australian Government, continues the regular reporting of climate change data gathering which is simultaneously both mundane and yet necessary in importance. The Climate Commission report has found a variety of mixed results but with one overarching impact - that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and with a higher intensity. As one example, for the cities of Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, the annual number of hot days is increasing more quickly than expected and is already at the level projected for 2030. For another key statistic, sea level has risen by 0.21m and is continuing to rise as the ocean becomes warmer while glaciers and polar ice sheets melt with warmer temperatures. Even a sea-level rise of 0.5m would lead to flooding frequency increasing by several hundred times compared to the baseline data (taken for the period prior to global warming).  A multiplying factor of 100 means that the oft-termed 'one-in-a-hundred' year flooding event can now happen almost annually.

The Forest Fire Danger Index, one of the key measures of bushfire threat has increased at 16 of the 38 weather stations across Australia between 1973 and 2010 with none of the stations recording a significant decrease. The report again underscores the need for further efforts to reduce CO2 emissions at the same time as addressing the need for more adjustment mechanisms for sustainability.

The Archibald prize and all that - 2013 winner

The Archibald portrait prize has come around again in 2013 with this year's winner being Del Kathryn Martin's painting of actor, Hugo Weaving. The work is typical of her style, merging contemporary design and style with a more traditional painting technique used in portraiture. Her style is described as vibrant, figurative imagery.

This is the second time that Del Kathryn Martin has won the prize having also been successful in 2008 with a portrait of herself and her two children. It is also the fourth time she has been chosen to be included in the exhibition. The prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’. This year the prize money is worth a cool $75,000 which is more than enough together with the prestige and promotional value to garner much interest in the arts community.

Film Review - Zero Dark Thirty

Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty by film director Katherine Bigelow is a fictional account of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, leading eventually to his location and assassination. Parts of the film are based on events as far as known with the rest being scripted-in. The story is centred on the lead character, Maya (Jessica Chastain), a young CIA intelligence analyst who has spent her entire career hunting for bin Laden and not much else. The film follows a chronological sequence of events incorporating actual historical incidents into the fictional narrative (such as the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad) weaving fact and fiction into the suspense of the hunt. Internal political divisions in the CIA portray effectively the often contrary nature of opinions and information which influence intelligence work and the ease in which critical information can be overlooked. The baseline in intelligence is often merely a matter of gut instinct when reaching a conclusion, a point which Maya forcefully pursues in her quest to find her target. The film garnered controversy for its portrayal of torture of al Qaeda prisoners in the early scenes however in reality, there are far more confronting images in many other films. Zero Dark Thirty was also criticised for the unattributed use of actual recordings of 9/11 victims from the hijacked flights which hit the World Trade Centre Towers. The film has high production values overall, a reasonable pace and effective acting but remains trapped with an unlikely story line relaying on a single character to carry the plot.