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Traveling Kurdistan with Kaka Hama
Once more I have paid a visit to the Autonomous Kurdistan Region – for short: Kurdistan – in northern Iraq. In this small aspiring (all but independent) country, people fight against ISIS/ISIL while at the same time in large parts of the country everyday life just goes on. In the major cities, you don't have to be afraid of bombs exploding in your face; neither is there constant shooting at the front as it used to be in World War I.
On previous occasions I have simply contemplated this beautiful country, or I have concentrated on visiting particular sites such as refugee camps and Peshmerga army posts. I have talked to politicians of the major parties, the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) and PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), and to a lot of army people from common soldiers to Special Forces and generals. One question that has always struck me is: How is it that these people are constantly fighting – first against Saddam, now against ISIS – and still manage to spend their weekends having fun at an amusement park?
But let's start chronologically: How do you get there in the first place? That is pretty simple. You just book a flight, e.g. from Düsseldorf, Frankfurt or Berlin, and within four hours you arrive at a modern airport where you can purchase a SIM card or an LTE router while waiting for your luggage. In the major cities the mobile Internet connection is as fast as it is in Germany; in the countryside you only get the rather slow EDGE connection, but even so, mobile Internet is accessible from virtually every corner of the country. This time, in approaching landing, the aeroplane spiraled down like a roller coaster. If I hadn't known this to be a civilian airport, it would have felt like "combat landing". But in fact this is safe territory, miles and miles away from the combat zone.
Traveling with Kaka Hama
One thing I have learned about traveling to Kurdistan is not to make any plans in advance. You just go there and see what happens. During my previous visits I had made contact with Muhammad Haji Mahmoud, better known as Kaka Hama or "the Socialist Tank". For the time of my recent visit he invited me into his home and allowed me to take part in his daily life.
From the 1970s to this day, Kaka Hama has always been fighting at the forefront – literally. A lot of the time there was nothing in front of him but unexplored territory – and then the enemy. To understand who the troops are that he leads into military operations, you will have to allow me a little digression.Kaka Hama and Enno Lenze
By and large, the Peshmerga – the Kurdish army – consists of three fractions that belong to
different political parties. From a German point of view this may sound odd, but the historical causes for this aren't that hard to understand. The Iraqi Kurds had already fought against Saddam before political parties were established. The parties developed out of different Kurdish troops whose leaders held slightly differing political views. Nowadays, even though there are political parties now, the soldiers still follow their respective military leaders. Thus, different parts of the army are closely tied to different parties, but on the whole all of them pursue the same goal: a peaceful life for the Kurdish people. Still, no Kurdish soldier would want to serve under the command of a party other than his own. To a certain degree, one might compare this to the federalist system of the German states. All of the federal states cooperate, but still each of them looks after preserving a certain degree of independence. A large fraction of the Kurdish army belongs to the KDP and is known as the 'Barzani Peshmerga', another fraction belongs to the PUK and a notably smaller one to the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party (KSDP), a party founded by Kaka Hama who is also the military leader of the KSDP Peshmerga. His troops have a reputation of being the Kurdish army's intrepid vanguard. I have repeatedly heard stories about Saddam's soldiers taking to their heels as soon as they just saw Kaka Hama: They knew that they could only lose.
Even now, Kaka Hama always has his sniper rifle handy, and he has quite the appearance of a man who wouldn't hesitate to use it as soon as he spotted ISIS fighters. Still, he is not a fanatical militarist, not a manhunter nor a hardliner. He has often engaged in diplomatic missions within the country as well as abroad. He is apt to pose inconvenient questions and to criticize the political and military leaders, yet he is well respected by everybody. It is hardly possible to characterize him in one line or even a paragraph. I have come to know him as a strict military leader, a skilled diplomat, caring father, reflective thinker, persistent journalist, hardworking farmer – and a genuinely funny guy.
He founded the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party in 1976. It has never participated in the
government and has never earned a large share of the popular vote, yet it is firmly established in Kurdistan's political landscape. Around the same time that he founded his party, Kaka Hama joined the military struggle against Saddam and soon began leading his own troops.
In the course of his life he was often wounded, he bears the traces of bullet wounds to his arms and legs and of a graze shot to his head. "As soon as Allah is willing to take my life, he will. But the time hasn't come yet." Over the last 40 years, some 1.000 people were killed at his side, 56 of them were his relatives. Nonetheless, he unmistakably doesn't regard warfare as an end in itself, but merely as a last resort for cases when conflicts cannot be solved politically. Over dinner, he asks my opinion about the JCPOA agreement regarding Iran's nuclear program, and what I think about its possible longterm effects for various regions of the world. That's a tough question after a long and exhausting day of traveling, but also a fascinating one. I must admit I hadn't given the question much thought until then – but Kaka Hama had. Whenever our conversation reaches a point like this, he provides an extensive yet precise explanation of the complex political constellations behind the various decisions or agreements. Time and again I'm amazed by all the people he knows in all kinds of places.
The conversation permanently switches from one topic to another. The situation in Germany, the situation around here. Recent political and military developments in Kurdistan, Syria, Turkey, Iran. How's the family, and do I know how to harvest cucumbers? It is all but impossible to even keep the most important turns of the conversation in mind without keeping notes all the time. And I keep asking myself: How exactly did this or that topic turn up right now?
More or less, though, the whole conversation centers around a single core: How does the current fight against ISIS compare to the fight against Saddam? What is similar, what is different?
One obvious thing that both situations have in common is that people are brutally killed for no reason. Families are torn apart, millions are dispossessed and expelled from their homes. Another similarity lies in the fact that the Kurds once again have to face an overly powerful enemy without much help from the international community. What makes a difference ist that the Kurds had a certain grace period in between. If this is helpful or harmful is a matter of perspective. From a military point of view, it actually causes some problems. Since the Iraqi Kurds hadn't had to fight this hard in 20 years, the younger Peshmerga – those under 40 – are not used to war. They are unaccustomed to the anguish of battle, they lack experience in housetohouse fighting, and they don't know how to approach unsecured terrain. This is why combat units have to be carefully composed of different age groups, and it is why experienced fighters such als Kaka Hama are still held in high esteem. His calm and composure in battle affect the other soldiers. He walks undauntedly through the combat zone, without protective vest or helmet. If you saw something like this in an action movie you would think it highly unrealistic.Kaka Hama harvesting
Another difference is that this time Kurdish civilians do not flee; on the contrary, it is them that accomodate refugees. As of now, 2 million refugees have found shelter in Kurdistan, a country (or region) whose domestic population is only 4 million. Still, today's stories are no less dreadful than those from Saddam's days, yet they are dreadful in a different way. To make up for the bitter experiences of warfare, Kaka Hama applies himself to farming.
We spent hours in the fields and on the plantations where Kaka Hama loves to spend his time. Peaches, tomatoes, pomegranates, cucumbers, sweet peppers and all kinds of tasty crops I don't know. Strawberries and eggplants as far as the eye can see. Right in the middle o fit, a construction site where a small assembly place is being built, including a swimming pool that is also meant for kids. In the future, this is supposed to serve for party meetings. – I'm not just supposed to look around, though: I'm supposed to join. Taste the fruit, help harvesting vegetables – and experience yet another surprise: The place is populated by ostrichs, a certain species of small deer and geese. Kaka Hama is familiar with all of this, has a story to tell about everything. This is a great place to relax – and yet it`s only a stone's throw from Halabja, a place that gained notoriety in 1988 when Saddam bombed this and other towns with deadly chemicals. The other places are all but forgotten nowadays, there were no pictures of them in the news. Thousands of people died instantly, tens of thousands were injured and still suffer from after-effects. – Ten years earlier, there were already the first women fighting in the ranks of the Peshmerga. But they were very few, I am told – a dozen maybe. Kaka Hama's wife was one of them; in fact, she was very likely the first female Peshmerga ever. A female friend of hers who travels with us joined the armed struggle shortly after her. Nowadays, her children can lead a simple life: study, work, live in peace. This ist he great reward for her lifetime achievement. She never earned any money for her service with the Peshmerga, nor does she now, in terms of a pension or anything like that. I interview everybody I meet about the times of their military service, all the while sitting in a vine arbour and eating fresh pomegranates. From the looks of it, it might have been a terrace in Spain.female Peshmerga fights Saddam
We look at loads of pictures and I listen to the sad stories behind them. Many of the people in the pictures are dead or missing. One of the stories I am told goes as follows:
In the days of fighting against Saddam, a man carrying a baby in his arms came from the mountains to a nearby village. He asked if anybody had something to drink. He had lost everything: his wife and children, all of his belongings – except for the baby in his arms. He didn't even have anything to eat or drink and he didn't know how to get the baby through the day. People helped him and a woman offered to take care of the baby. He moved on to keep up the fight, and as he left, he kept turning around to catch a glimpse of his last surviving family member. What became of him or the baby, no one can tell.
Stories like this used to be commonplace in the 1980's and early '90's. Every family has something like this to tell. This was around the same time that the Berlin Wall fell.
Meeting the Kakai
In Kurdistan there are many different religions living together in peace. I had already encountered different Muslim and Christian denominations and also Yezidi. This time we drove up to the front to meet men with thick moustaches and a faith I hadn't heard of yet.ISIL/Peshmerga frontlines with the Kakai
It is always important for me to see the last few miles bordering on ISIS territory. It gives you an impression of how dangerous or how secure the condition is at the moment. The Peshmerga think that far too few people do this – people who report about the region as well as people who have to decide on deliveries of arms. There are always many things to prepare and to consider: what vehicles to use, what to wear and where exactly to go. Armoured vehicles tend to be cumbersome, and the enemies might shoot at the front screen to obscure the driver's view – but generally speaking, these vehicles offer a fair amount of protection. Or how about a big convoy with many soldiers and a lot of ammunition? – That may sound good, but the drawback is that it attracts a lot of attention. And what should you wear? A blue vest with big "PRESS" tags on it? Or would you prefer something more unobtrusive? There are a lot of issues to be taken into account, but having Kaka Hama's second son Erin with me makes it a lot easier. Everybody in their family is well versed in these things. As the ISIS respects neither the Geneva Conventions nor unwritten law, and as the territory near the front is said to be rather insecure, it is advisable not to attract attention. I am given traditional Kurdish clothes, take a pass on too much equipment and confine myself to the essentials: one camera, two lenses, protective vest, helmet and a bottle of water. Up close, I look distinctly different from everybody else, but from a distance I blend in with the group of Peshmerga pretty well. We choose a rather inconspicuous-looking off-road vehicle, albeit equipped with a gun turret – this much fortification seems by all means necessary. We are accompanied by another vehicle with more soldiers. This is regarded as a rather small convoy and shouldn't cause much trouble. Even so, the gun turret draws attention and we have to drive swiftly, especially at checkpoints. These are located on country roads and at city limits, and their purpose is to check vehicles at random. We are always allowed to pass, but we are not supposed to wait in line for too long – which means we just have to scramble through the queue somehow, even through the two-way-traffic if necessary.Im Auto zur ISIS Front
We drive through Kirkuk and further south, down the road to Baghdad. The roads grow emptier as we drive on, but the queues at the checkpoints grow longer. We have long since passed the former border between Kurdistan and the remaining Iraq, but still the flagpoles at the checkpoints fly Kurdish instead of Iraqi colours. The Iraqi army had surrendered the area to the ISIS troops that were subsequently expelled by the Peshmerga. We press on, mile after mile. The Peshmerga in the car tell me about the fightings that have taken place here. Right in the middle of it, one of the Peshmerga asks me about the nuclear power phase-out in Germany. I keep being nonplussed by the turns of conversation.
The frontline runs about 30 kilometers south of Kirkuk – this particular segment of the frontline, that is. On the whole, it isn't a straight line at all, no more so than the Berlin Wall used to be. First we drive to the base of the troops that occupy the several posts around here. The general is going to explain the on-site situation to me and answer all my questions. Additionally, the Kurdish news broadcaster Jamawar sent up a team to cover my visit to the front.
This area is inhibited by the Kakai (also known as Yaresan or Ahl-e Haqq), a religious minority of about a million members worldwide. The men are easily distinguished by their thick moustaches that are part of their culture. After the ISIS had committed the 74th genocide against the Yezidi in the Shingal Mountains, the Kakai feared that they might become the next victims. From the ISIS' point of view, they are "infidels", and they don't have an army of their own. So they turned to Kaka Hama for help, and he conveyed their plea to his old comrade-in-arms Masoud Barzani who is now president of the Kurdistan region and also commander-in-chief of the Kurdish armed forces. Barzani sent several hundreds of Peshmerga for the protection of the Kakai, though their settlements are scattered all over the country. The area we were just visiting was a territory from which Saddam had tried to expel the Kakai back in the 1970's: He had relocated Arab families there in the hopes that this would force the Kakai to leave. A number of them stayed, however, and so did the Arabs. Now they live here peacefully as neighbours.Peschmerga an der Front
After all this had been explained to me, I was shown on a map where exactly the single posts were located and which areas we would be able to drive through. Since we would be within eyeshot of the ISIS troops as soon as we left the base, we were advised to take no more than one or two vehicles and keep our heads down. The latest skirmish had only been hours ago and there were snipers on the other side for whom 200 or 250 meters wouldn't be an impregnable distance. Soon I was able to spot the ISIS flags and their fighters with the naked eye. They moved in the flickering air as black silhouettes. To film with a hand-held 500 millimeter telephoto lens was nothing I had practiced in advance, but to use a tripod would have attracted too much attention. So I lay behind an earth mound trying to record in non-wobbly images what could be so easily seen with the naked eye. Everything around was extremely quiet and I think that it must have looked strange from an outside perspective: A handful of people cowering on an old carpet on the ground behind an earth mound in the middle of nowhere, and nothing happening. Nobody fires, nobody calls, hardly anything in the surroundings even moves. But this is exactly what war is like at the front for most of the time. You just wait. The security team seems calm, but still you can feel the tension. We are advised not to film from one single position for too long, but rather keep moving behind the cover, and soon change our position altogether. The runway on which we drive on is said to be safe, but to the left of us the ground may be mined, so we are not allowed to dismount there. Even though we have a pretty good overview, our convoy's movements are conveyed to the nearest posts by radio. The people at the posts are supposed to monitor the terrain for us, so they always have to know where exactly we are (and with which vehicles). At the nearest post there are about 30 Peshmerga who observe the surroundings in turns. At night it is most dangerous. There is hardly any electricity and there are only a few searchlights. On the other hand, by using searchlights and lamps you give away your exact position; without them, you are merely a shadow. There are no nightscopes and so the Peshmerga are taken by surprise by ISIS fighters every so often. "Last time they were so close that we could hear their 'Allahu akbar' yells", the commander tells me and shows me a video on his phone. Still, up to now they have always been able to repel the attacks. In case of heavier attacks they can always request rocket launchers or air strikes, but obviously it would be better if they had heavy armaments right here at the front so that they could be applied at any time.
There is no shift schedule for guard duty, no fixed daily routine. Those who are tired go to sleep. Those who have some spare time do the cooking and cleaning. The others just stare into the landscape. Which is much more exhausting than you might think. You have to stare into plain nothingness for 12 to 16 hours a day, but you are expected to notice in an instant when there is anything unusual. I am supposed to stay inside the post and only film through the loopholes. When they want to show me something on the outside, I just hold the camera out and watch the display from within. Usually nothing happens in the daytime, they say, but still it's better to lose your hand than your head. For them it's much easier. If and when their god – whatever he is called according to their respective faiths – wants to take their lives, he will. I haven't had much to do with God, Allah etc. so far. I have to put my trust in Kevlar and ceramic plates. Every now and then I wonder if it might be a good idea to commit myself to some kind of religion so I could spare the heavy protective vest and the helmet. My thoughts are interrupted by a warning that I should keep my head down. I had unwittingly turned to the side and my helmet had show above the edge of the wall.
Even around here people are still in good spirits, are happy about my visit and readily share information about everything I am eager to know. They show me pictures of their families on their phones and tell me they want their children to be better off some day. It's the same as anywhere in the world. All that people really want is to have a family and to live in peace. In Germany, we tend to take that for granted after 70 years of peace. But around here it is still a dream.
Before leaving, you always have to take a picture with everybody. They tell me that no journalist had ever been here before and that they wanted to show the pictures of my visit to their friends on Facebook.Frontline-visit in the news
At one of the posts an excavating machine has heaped up a hill that is almost ten meters high. From one side you can go up there on a ramp. On top of it, old carpets lie on the ground and you can hide behind an earth mound. Up there, I have an extensive interview with the general. What is the situation like in this place? What does he need? They feel relatively safe, they thank for the help they have received from Germany. As often before, I'm asked to deliver thanks and regards to German politicians. As always, I will. Last time, foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and defense secretary Ursula von der Leyen were sursprised but pleased. It is not often that they get this kind of immediate feedback from such a place. For chancellor Angela Merkel I've had to make a list, since I haven't been able to meet her yet.
I ask the Arab neighbours how they are. No better or worse than anybody, they say; but they are glad that the ISIS is kept at the other side of the frontline. I ask them if they have any difficulties with the Kurds or the Kakai. No, they say. They simply live alongside each other and don't have an awful lot to do with one another, but there are no real conflicts to speak of. Since there have been reports in German media that the Peshmerga had allegedly blown up Arabs' houses, I ask them if they had heard anything about that. They don't understand. Words fly to and fro, they keep asking: ISIS? Peshmerga? They think I must have confused things. It's the ISIS that blow up houses, whereas the Peshmerga help people. They are eager to set that straight. They haven't heard about blown-up houses or the like from neighbouring villages as well. In fact, they look at me as if there must be something wrong with me because I ask this kind of apparently nonsensical questions. There isn't, of course. The reason why I had posed these questions was that there had been an extensive broadcast on the German news radio station "Deutschlandfunk" that claimed Arabs' houses had been destroyed by Peshmerga troops. The US news site "Foreign Policy" had also spread these allegations. The Arabs I spoke to remarked that there were all kinds of stories circulating on the Internet and you just had to be careful which sources to trust.
We drive back to the base and carefully discuss all the questions that keep coming up in my mind. Here, too, we take some farewell photos. On the way back, the driver gets a little nervous any time he sees young men standing by the side of the road on their own without so much as a bicycle around. This close to ISIS territory, the fear of suicide bombers is ever-present.
Back home, my visit to the front is already on the evening news. I'm surprised that this is such a big deal around here. But apparently only very few Europeans with cameras find their way to the Yezidi or the Kakai, to Mosul or other places I have visited.
Refugeestortured by Assads soldiers
During a traffic control he was arbitrarily pulled out of his car and tortured by Assad's people. The man shows me a video on his phone so I can see what he looked like after they had finally let him go. They had tortured and beaten him for 13 hours until some friends paid a ransom for him. On the video, there are purple and black marks all over his body, as well as purple and green strangulation marks from a rope around his neck. He had lived in Damascus and worked as an artisan, cutting marble to adorn buildings with it. He had been doing well, his family had led a decent life. At least they weren't worse off than most people. Until he experienced that even Arabs are tortured by the regime for no reason, that is. After that, they decided to flee. They drove up to the frontier, then walked. Carrying as much of their belongings as they had been able to preserve, they had to march 15 kilometers through the desert-like plains until they encountered the Peshmerga. They tentatively accommodated them, but they demanded every detail of their story and checked if any people that fitted their description were sought after. First, the family was brought to a detention center, then they were sent all across the country to a camp that is located 30 kilometers from the Iran border. They have been living there since 2013 now. The family shares a house that is merely 15 m² small, are provided with necessaries and are allowed to work. Since the father of the family expects that he can never go home again, he tries to make the best of a situation. He doesn't believe any more that Assad will ever be deposed. He gets occasional jobs from time to time, but no well-paid regular job, so the family stays in the camp. Life there is bearable and with the money he earns he can afford the modest luxury of a mobile phone, a TV and candy for his kids.
You can get stories like this one from anybody around here. Those who are lucky still have their families with them. The others do not like to talk about their getaway. In the camp there are Kurds and Arabs from all parts of Syria, Yezidi from Kurdistan and Kurd and Arabs from Iraq. Each group lives in one corner of the camp, none of them has difficulties with the others. The Arabs only complain that the Kurds find work more easily and especially single male young Arabs are regarded with skepticism. Still, they praise the people in the neighbourhood. Whenever a refugee wants to buy something, the vendors offer extremely low prices without bargaining. It doesn't even upset the other customers who have to pay more despite extensive haggling. People keep up their humanity in all this chaos. When will ISIS be defeated, when will they be able to return to their homes? "Next month, hopefully". It is always "next month, hopefully" – it's been like this for years.
The number of refugees in Kurdistan is constantly on the rise. The country is on the verge of collapsing. Yet it is no option for anybody to close the borders. It is a matter of course for everybody to help their Kurdish "brothers". And all Muslims. And the minorities too. That sums up to helping practically everybody in the vicinity. Is it even affordable? No, not really. It hasn't been affordable in a long time. But what are you supposed to do about it?
Economic state and Baghdad
Baghdad is unapproachable overland. It has been this way for months. This describes the situation in Iraq pretty well. The central government has lost control and the country plunges into chaos. This year's upcoming elections are practically insignificant. The government's actual authority is restricted to some parts of Baghdad – even the so-called "green zone" isn't really secure any more. Kurdistan keeps up public safety and order in its territory, but it needs more financial support from the central government – which is nearly bankrupt and pays the Kurdish civil servants and the Peshmerga either not at all or months behind. The one big leverage that Kurdistan has is oil. Large parts of the oil fields are on Kurdish territory. There have been quarrels about the distribution of money. Kurdistan began to change the payments for its own benefit. Conversely, Baghdad denied paying wages. Kurdish companies refused to pay taxes to Baghdad and Baghdad complained to the media. The conflict escalated. When last month BP wanted to remove the oil that Iraq had sold them from the port, they were left out in the cold: The tanks were empty. Kurdistan hadn't filled them but had sold the oil otherwise instead. The BP executives were furious, and so was Baghdad, but there was nothing anybody could do about it. Since July 1st, Kurdistan has stopped cooperating with Iraq's central government in terms of exporting oil. All the oil from Kurdistan is sold directly by the regional government. The legality of this practice is questionable, but who'll be the judge? In addition to that, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) borrows money from Turkish and German banks.
Thanks to these measures, the economic situation in Kurdistan slightly improves at the moment, but still it's far from what you would call solid conditions. Thus, the next item on the agenda is an independent Kurdish state within the current borders of the autonomous Kurdistan Region. But where exactly are these borders located? The answers to this question vary. What's more, a constitution has to be elaborated, and then a referendum is to be held (which is expected to come off successfully). I have been told that Kurdistan seeks to become independent by 2020. Then there would be no more quarrel with Baghdad over responsibilities, no more difficulties with purchasing arms legally, and a solid state of political affairs.
By now it is Friday noon – the Muslim equivalent to our Sunday. Since the whole country is resting, I make use of the time to complete my report in Kaka Hama's office. I regard his complaisance as very generous and I feel obliged to give thanks all the time. But he just stops me with a wave of his hand. This is what Kurdistan is like: You are simply hospitable towards your guests.
Nighttime air strikesclose to iran
During the night of July 25th someone apparently attacked somebody with fighter aircrafts – this, more or less, was the state of the news in the morning. Either the Turkish or the Iranian air force had attacked either the PKK or the Peshmerga near Dohuk or in the Kandil Mountains. By degrees, things started to straighten out. My current state of information is that the Turkish air force had sent two or four F16 fighter aircrafts to the Kandil Mountains to bomb PKK posts. They flew one attack and then returned to Turkey. I picked up all kinds of rumours about Turkish or Iranian troops invading Kurdistan, and was Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region, going to support the fight against the PKK? The relationship between the Peshmerga and the PKK is tense and polarized. If necessary, they cooperate. Otherwise they leave each other alone. They don't blame one another, they maintain a kind of mutual respect. If you read the Internet, you get quite a different picture. That is because people who post comments to social media usually don't belong to the fighting troops but prefer staying at home and bashing or denigrating other people. That is really annoying because it makes it almost impossible to lead a civilized discussion about the relationship between different Kurdish troops. At any rate, the Kurdish Regional Government and the Peshmerga certainly don't support Turkey's fight against the PKK. When it comes down to it, Peshmerga and PKK basically share the same goal.
As I happened to be rather close to the Iran border, I decided to move closer. No sign of war anywhere. I talked to people who lived along the border – they hadn't heard anything about it. The Peshmerga ministry, too, reassured me that there had been one single operation during the night, and that was that. An official reaction by the Kurdish Regional Government is yet to come; even they first have to find out for sure who has bombed whom, and where, and why.
Convention of the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic PartyMeeting of the Kurdistan socialist party
Actually I had been on my way to attend a convention of the Socialist Party. To attend such a meeting is not without complications when you're a stranger who doesn't speak the language. I know party conventions, I know military meetings, and I have at least some knowledge about worship services; but this was like nothing I had ever experienced. Whereas in Germany a person I either a clergyman or a politician or a military officer, around here it is not uncommon for a person to hold two or three of these positions at once. In Germany it is rather easy to find one's bearings: The most important people are always up front, on the stage. The others keep their mouths shut. You stand up when everybody stands up, and when people leave the hall this either means that the convention is over or that it's time for lunch. And if there's anything else I need to know I can ask the people next to me without anybody taking offense.
Here, by contrast, I entered a room where sofas and armchairs were standing in a wide circle. You'll find this kind of furniture in every larger office around here. The rules are relatively simple: The host and his most important guest occupy the seats up front, next to the flag. The other important people usually sit in the armchairs, the less important ones on the sofas. But you cannot rely absolutely on this seating arrangement. Whatever. I sort of stumbled into the room, was welcomed cordially by Kaka Hama and occupied an empty seat pretty much up front. Everybody looked at me. Did that mean I did something wrong, or were they just being curious? Some of the people I had met before. I was introduced as a journalist from Germany, and everybody greeted me warmly in German and English. Next up there was a Muslim chant performed by three young men. My seatmate explained to me that although they were not, by definition, an Islamic party, practically everybody here was Muslim and so a certain religious element to the meeting was regarded as totally normal – just like a political party in Germany would host an Easter celebration without necessarily being a party of Christian fundamentalists.
One thing that strikes me is that all the politicians and clerics have smartphones – and actually use them. They take pictures, show each other videos and check their Facebook timeline in between. I mention that this would be rather unusual for a German politician, at least if he's 60 years or older. Kaka Hama says that for him the Internet is a relatively new thing as well: He has been using it since 1996, at first via satellite. At the time when smartphones became popular, Kurdistan was peaceful and prospering, so he new technology spread very fast.
As always, we get absorbed in long conversations about cultural differences and similarities – and about the fact that Kurdistan would actually still be a great place for people to spend their holidays – if only people knew. I promise to do my best to convince people in Germany to come to Kurdistan for their holidays. And then it's about time for me to say goodbye.
It has been a fascinating week during which I have, again, learned a lot about this region and have become acquainted with another impressive person, Kaka Hama, whose knowledge, commitment, charm and generosity, among other things, have amazed me over and over again. I cannot help but check my calendar when I will be able to return here.
A video about this trip I coming up.
Thanks for the translation to Monsignore Corpasini
Thanks for the mp3 version to Caro Mahn-Gauseweg


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Google just held its annual Made By Google event, which saw the search firm take the wraps off its latest range of smartphones, tablets, and more, in New York.
The event kickstarted at 8am PT, 11am ET, and 4pm BST. You can watch a re-run of the livestream via YouTube below:
Read more: Google Pixel 3a XL review (early verdict): don't mourn the notch
Last October, Google used its event to unveil the Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Google Home Mini and Home Max smart speakers, as well as the Google Clips AI-powered camera.
For its latest Made By Google event, the company kickstarted proceedings with a new addition to the Google Home smart speaker range, known as Google Home Hub, which sports a 7-inch touchscreen, similar to the Amazon Echo Show.
Google Home Hub
Home Hub sports far-field voice recognition, so it should be able to hear your voice commands from across the other side of the room. Like previous entries in the Home range, owners need to use the wake phrase "OK, Google" or "Hey, Google".
The addition of a touchscreen to the Home Hub allows Google Assistant to display more information based on your various queries and questions. For example, when you ask for the weather, Home Hub will surface detailed forecasts for the next three days in the bottom left-hand corner of the display, which are presented in the same Material Design card-like interface seen across the full suite of Google products.
At launch, Home Hub promises integration with around 5,000 smart home products from 400 different brands. During the keynote, Google showcased how Home Hub owners will be able to watch live feeds from their home security cameras, like Nest, with a voice command like "Hey Google, Show me the front door camera".
If this sounds at all familiar, it's likely because Amazon already offers very similar features with its Echo Show hardware, which can play live video feeds from home security systems, display detailed weather forecasts, and calendar appointments.
Where Google's offering does differ slightly is Home Hub's focus on doubling-up as a digital photo frame. By default, the 7-inch AI-powered home device will automatically cycle through the images stored in your Google Photos account.
Google says the Home Hub uses its AI smarts to work-out which photos you're likely not going to want broadcast to the whole house via the photo frame. According to the company, receipts and blurry images will automatically be filtered out.
Home Hub's 7-inch touchscreen automatically detects and matches the light and ambient colours in any room, so pictures blend right in with your home to ensure the images are not too glaring – useful if you're planning on keeping the device on your nightstand.
Google has also included a control panel similar to the one found in the Home smartphone app, so you can make changes to all the other connected devices you might littered around the house.
Home Hub also supports dual-band (2.4GHx/5GHz) Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth.
Google Home Hub is available to pre-order for £139 today, with the first devices shipping to customers on October 22. It will be available in Chalk, Charcoal, Aqua, and Sand finishes from the Google Store, Currys PC World, Argos, and eBay UK
Google Pixel Slate
Next up, Google unveiled a ChromeOS tablet, known as Pixel Slate.
The new tablet boasts dual stereo speakers, a fingerprint scanner, as well as a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera. Google also includes support for a stylus for handwritten notes and doodles, as well as a keyboard cover accessory for more serious work.
On the front of the Pixel Slate you'll find a lavish 12.3-inch touchscreen that packs more than 6 million pixels. For those who can't do the maths, that works out at around 293 pixels-per-inch, which should be more than enough to keep text looking sharp and family photographs crisp.
Google has included two separate microphones inside the housing for improved noise cancellation when making VOIP or video calls.
The all-new tablet also includes a designated Titan M security chip, which Google says ensures your information, device passwords and operating system are all encrypted and stored on your Pixel Slate – not in the cloud.
Google quotes around 10 hours of battery life under typical usage. Fortunately, when that dries-up, Pixel Slate has support for fast-charging via USB-C, which adds around 2 hours of power to the tablet with a quick 15-minute charge.
The Pixel Slate is available in a variety of different configurations, starting from £549 for an Intel Celeron processor, 32GB of in-built storage and 4GB of RAM, and maxing-out at a cool £1,549 for the model powered by an eighth-generation Intel Core i7 with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
Google claims its new tablet can plugged-into an external monitor, mouse and keyboard to transform the set-up into a fully-fledged desktop. However, those who are looking to use the Pixel Slate as a laptop replacement will likely want to opt for the pricier, more powerful models.
As you'd expect with a Google-branded tablet, AI plays a significant role in the new device and can be used to send an email, update shopping lists and reminders, as well as checking the latest forecasts and news updates.
Google also unveiled a new first-party keyboard accessory for the Pixel Slate, dubbed, perhaps unsurprisingly, Pixel Keyboard. It has a full-size backlit keyboard, complete with a generous trackpad. The £189 accessory connects to the tablet using pogo-pins, so there's no charging or troublesome Bluetooth pairing required.
It's worth noting that Pixel Slate is not a replacement for the PixelBook announced at the Made By Google event last year, which is still available in the Google Store.
Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL
After months of leaks and rumours, Google finally took the wraps off its latest flagship smartphones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, at its annual Made By Google event.
Despite widespread speculation the firm had intentionally leaked a number of dummy Pixel 3 handsets to throw people off the scent of the final design, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL were pretty much exactly what we all expected.
The refreshed handsets boast bigger displays, smaller bezels, improved Portrait Mode, better low-light images, and a new wide-angle dual front-facing camera set-up that means you'll never need to use a selfie stick for your group photos ever again.
Like the previous two iterations of the Pixel, Google has unveiled two different sizes for its new handset. The regular Pixel 3 sports a 5.5-inch OLED display bookended by thin, curved bezels almost identical to those found on the Pixel 2 XL last year.
Meanwhile, Pixel 3 XL has a larger 6.3-inch OLED notched display, marking another step towards omnipresence for the screen design that was the target of a certain amount of ire when it first appeared on the iPhone X last year.
The notch – a deep cut-out at the top of the all-screen design to house the front-facing camera, speaker, and a slew of sensors – enables Google to achieve a higher screen-to-body ratio than it managed with its previous XL model.
Aside from the new screen sizes, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL look remarkably similar to their predecessors, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. On the back of both new handsets, you'll find the same single-lens rear camera, circular fingerprint reader, and two-tone case.
However, since Google is now using Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for the back of its new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL handsets, it has included support for Qi wireless charging this time around, which brings the Pixels up to speed with most modern flagship phones.
One area there are some visible changes are the colours available at launch. Gone are the 'Kinda Blue' and 'Black & White' finishes from last year, replaced instead with 'Just Black', 'Clearly White' and 'Not Pink' – a subtle, pinkish sand-like colour.
But while the new industrial design isn't much of a departure from last year, things have been beefed up on the inside. Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor – that's the same top-of-the-line silicon used in every other Android flagship launched so far year.
Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL also feature a redesigned HDR+ shooting technology to enhance photos taken in low-light conditions. There's also an AI-powered Top Shot function that takes a series of pictures in the background every time you press the shutter button and suggests the best-looking snap. Google says the feature should put an end to those unsalvageable shots where one of your group is blinking.
If you're a fan of the squeezable mechanism found on last year's Pixels, you'll be pleased to know it's making a comeback. Dubbed Active Edge, the feature lets users press-in the frame of the phone to launch the Google Assistant.
Both flagship handsets will ship with the latest version of Google's mobile OS, Android 9.0 Pie, as well as IPX8 water and dust resistance.
Google dropped the 3.5mm headphone port last year, so its no surprise that it's still M.I.A in the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. As a result, charging and audio will be handled by the USB-C port. Thankfully, Google will include wired USB-C headphones in the box with the smartphone this year – a welcome addition.
For those who've shelled-out on a nice pair of wired headphones, Google will also include a USB-C to 3.5mm jack adapter in the box, too.
And that's a wrap for the latest Made By Google announcement. Although Google was tipped to provide an update on its long awaited Wear OS wearable, rumoured to be branded Pixel Watch, nothing materialised at the event.

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Archive for January, 2011
Living forever?
Posted by ryanbegleyonline in death, ethics, health, life extension, old age, science, society, technology on January 28, 2011
One of the more remarkable gifts our technological world is the increase in our life expectancy. Even but a century ago the average life expectancy of a British man was half of that of today, even in the last two decades it's gone up by five years. This increase has a myriad of reasons; an abundance of food, water, law and order, an increase in hygiene and sanitation and finally massive advances in medical science.
Extending one's life and capability through innovative means is part of what makes us human. This trend of increasing life expectancy is one that doesn't seem to be slowing down, indeed as we develop our biosciences we are gaining a deeper understanding as to the mechanisms of ageing. This occurred to me as a topic to talk about when I saw an article on the BBC news website reporting on the state of anti-ageing science. The report highlighted a few issues that were vehemently discussed in the comments, to get to the issues I'll go over a bit of the science behind ageing.
We don't fully understand every mechanism that goes on whilst we age. There are many contributing factors that we have discovered though; the most often touted cause of ageing is the shortening of telomeres. These are stretches of DNA found at the end of chromosomes, every time a cell replicates a bit of these telomeres are cut off. Over time this leads to shortened telomeres and a more likely chance of DNA damage. Other contributing factors include protein build up inside and outside of cells, DNA mutation and cellular replacement (many cell types die faster than they can be replaced, this is more apparent in the elderly). Designing therapies to counter all of these (and any undiscovered causes) would lead to a stabilisation and even reversal of the ageing process.
This is all interesting science but it has far reaching consequences for our society and people have a lot of different ideas about the ethics of life extension. Let's imagine that effective treatments for all the causes of ageing are produced, in this scenario a regime of drugs is introduced to the public that when taken every day reverse your age to a physically fit, healthy 25 year old body and keep it that way. I've heard many arguments for why this is apparently a bad thing. A common argument is that we should not "play god" or "mess with the natural order". The argument states that death is natural and any attempt to prevent death from old age is morally wrong. Whenever I am faced with this argument I simply ask the person if they take medicine, drive cars or use the internet. If the answer is yes then the argument for being unnatural seems pretty thin. Furthermore nobody has ever died from old age; people die from age related disease. Getting old is simply a slow wearing out until finally something vital fails. In curing old age diseases we ramp up the life expectancy. Are these people really going to advocate not researching medicines for these diseases? Are they going to tell elderly patients "we don't have medicine for your kind. It's natural! Accept it"?
Another popular argument is that of overpopulation. Proponents state that if we do not allow people to die the world will be overfull. I'm always sceptical of this claim; firstly it assumes that we cannot support this amount of people. In the year 1800 we could not have supported the 6 billion people we have today because it took over 200 years of technological development for us to be able to support us. The claim that there will be too many people assumes that this progression will not continue. Secondly the claim assumes that we will still give birth to as many people as we do today. Add to that the fascinating discovery made over the last century that if you give women rights, education and prospects they (shock horror) don't want to spend their lives spitting out children like high-throughput human factories! The birth rate in countries with equal rights for women shrinks enormously. Couple this with the decreasing need to have so many children (you don't need to have 12 in the hope 6 will survive to adulthood to take care of you) and we get a scenario of 1 or less children per adult.
For me life extension always makes me wonder; I am 21 years old; once I've lived that many years again I hope to have had kids, be married and have a good career. At that age I can expect that once I've lived that many years again I will probably be dead or close to it. But that is on the basis that near 80 is the age I will kick the bucket. If the regime of drugs we have supposed comes to pass and my life expectancy jumps from 80 to several hundred years I doubt my principles will stay the same. Why have kids at any age before 100? Why not spend a few centuries learning, travelling and establishing a good life before tying myself down with other humans to raise?
Personally I would work for decades then take a sabbatical (instead of retirement) and spend a few decades travelling, studying and generally being on holiday. I'm interested to know what you all think. Do you think age-stabilising drugs would be a good thing? What would you do if your life expectancy jumped by orders of magnitude? How do you think society would change? Ultimately these issues are nothing new, but as science marches on our life expectancy is shrinking over the horizon. So who knows? Perhaps one of you will be mulling over this blog on your 200th birthday…
A comprehensive debunking of Homeopathy
Posted by ryanbegleyonline in alternative medicine, ethics, health, homeopathy, knowledge, medicine, NHS, pseudo-science, science on January 23, 2011
I've stated it before on this blog but these days we are surrounded by people peddling "alternative medicines" and the like in an attempt to gain funding for what ultimately, has either not been proved to work or proved not to work. One of the biggest perpetrators of this is homeopathy also called homeopathic medicine. Homeopathy was concocted by Samuel Hahnmann a little over two hundred years ago. He disliked the philosophies of the then current medicine and instead attempted to develop a field of medicine based on the principle of "like-cures-like". Hahnmann believed that if something was to cause a set of symptoms in one amount then in a much lower amount it would surely cure the same symptoms, specifically if that substance was massively diluted in water and repeatedly shook it would release its 'healing energy' into the mixture which is then called a remedy. He went on to test many different substances by getting people to take them and record every symptom they then suffered. This practice is called "homeopathic proving" and the records of the symptoms from each substance are then stored in books known as "repertoires". Using all of this the practice of homeopathy goes a little like this…
Patient: I have aches in my feet, a swollen neck and am feeling nauseous.
Homeopath: let me consult my repertoire……Ah I see, a teaspoon of X causes those symptoms. Ill prepare a remedy of diluted X and you will be better before you know it.
There is a wealth of evidence showing that homeopathy does not work as a medicine. Aside from the notion of like-cures-like not having any basis in anything other than wishful thinking the dilutions that homeopaths use ought to demonstrate to anyone that this is at best, an outrageous scam and at worse, a dangerous idea. (As a side note like-cures-like does not apply to vaccination which relies on the exposure of antigens to the immune system. I'm not going to go into immunology right now because it is a huge field but if you are interested wikipedia, contrary to popular belief, is quite a good start). To accurately describe how diluted homeopathic 'remedies' are I'm going to have to go over a little bit of chemistry…
All matter is formed of atoms; these atoms can bind together in groups to form molecules. Due to the different masses of different elements (for example; a single oxygen atom masses more than a carbon atom) if we have a gram of one element and a gram of another they will not have the same amount of atoms in them. This is a bit like having a tonne of bowling balls and a tonne of tennis balls; bowling balls are bigger and weigh more so there will be less of them, tennis balls are smaller and weigh less so we need far more than bowling balls to make up a tonne.
If we want to have a sample with one atom of substance A for every one atom of substance B we have to do a bit of working out. There's a useful unit in chemistry known as a mole (not to be confused with a mole), one mole is roughly 6 billion trillion molecules or atoms (depending if the fundamental unit of the substance is a molecule [e.g. water] or an atom [e.g. iron]). To know how many grams of a substance you need to make one mole you need to find out its atomic weight, simply looking at a periodic table will tell you this (I'm not going to get into how we weigh atoms!). The atomic weight of oxygen and carbon are 16 and 12 respectively, therefore 16 grams of oxygen has the same number of atoms as 12 grams of carbon.
So how does this little chemistry lesson apply to homeopathy? I'm going to go through step by step how to make a homeopathic remedy of salt. The first thing a homeopath does is make a 1 in 10 dilution (homeopaths call this a "1X"); salt is made from the molecule NaCl (a molecule of one sodium and one chloride atom). One mole of NaCl is 58 grams; one mole of water (H2O) is 18 grams. To make a 1 in 10 dilution where we have one NaCl molecule to one H2O molecule we can put 5.8 grams of salt into 18 grams of water. Shake the sample to make sure it's evenly mixed and voila! Now we have a 1X solution.
The next step is to do the same thing again, diluting one part of this solution into ten parts water. Now for every NaCl molecule there are 100 molecules of H2O and it doesn't stop there. Homeopaths repeat this shaking and 1 in 10 diluting dozens of times. Remember the number of molecules in a mole? It's 6 billion trillion (or 6×1023), at the beginning when we had an equal amount of salt to water we had this many NaCl molecules, with every dilution we've got 10x less so after twenty-three dilutions there will likely now only be six NaCl molecules in the entire solution. Beyond this limit of only there are only two options; the first is that every time a sample of the solution is taken to dilute in more water some of these six molecules goes with it. This would mean that the 24th dilution was not dilute 10x more than the 23rd. Secondly (and far more likely) these six molecules wont be picked up and all that will be transferred is water, in that case the sample is no longer a dilution but a pure solution of water. From then on any more 1 in 10 mixing is not diluting but merely mixing water on its own. Unfortunately the story gets worse…
Most people could probably see that half a dozen molecules of something is not going to have a great effect on your body but twenty-three dilutions only creates what's called a 12C remedy. Apparently this isn't good enough and this solution is then diluted further, the problem with this is that if the solution only has one molecule of a substance in it then diluting it a further ten times in water means that to maintain just one molecule you need ten times more water. After twenty-three dilutions the sample will contain only water but homeopaths advocate remedies to be diluted sixty times! This is called a 60x solution. It's difficult to understand just how dilute this would be if it still contained just one NaCl molecule;
The Earth is nearly 8000 miles wide. Imagine a globe the size of the Earth but made entirely of water, that's 1 billion trillion litres of water. Now make that globe a member of a team containing 100 globes. Make that team a member of a group containing 100 teams. Make that group a member of a company containing 100 groups. Make that company a member of a cohort containing 100 companies. Finally make that cohort a member of a system containing 100 cohorts. In one system there are 10 billion globes. Add to that just one molecule of NaCl and that's how dilute a 60x salt solution is.
At his point it should be obvious that homeopathic remedies are just water and aren't worth the tap they came out of. But homeopaths in light of this evidence still stick to their guns. When homeopathy was being concocted by Hahnmann it was not known if matter was made of fundamental units or if it could be divided infinitely. Since the discovery of atoms we have known that this is untrue and this leads to preposterous scenarios needed in the dilutions as mentioned above. But homeopaths today try to get round this by arguing that water has memory. Yes they claim that pure water when mixed with a substance and shook repeatedly remembers what was in it and takes on the properties of this substance, purportedly by forming a network of water molecules around the substance to mimic it. But this last attempt at saving their ideology is by far the easiest to prove wrong. To start with if water has memory that doesn't bode to well for our recycling of toilet water into drinking water (hence the expression "homeopathy is full of shit"), secondly this would mean that the water's healing properties are due to it replicating the effect of the substance in it. If this were true it would violate the idea that a dilution is stronger because instead of having just the substance in water the entire water now acts as the substance! Lastly the time in which water molecules change places and orientation to form new networks is on the order of picoseconds (meaning it happens nearly a trillion times per second), far too short a time for any memory.
In spite of having no evidence for like-cures-like, remedies so far diluted they are just water and no evidence for claims of a memory system in water homeopathy is still a huge and active movement in the western world. The matter is only complicated by figures such as Prince Charles (a man with no scientific or medical credentials) stating that homeopathy should be considered. Homeopathy should be considered as much as any unproven or disproven field in medicine, it is not fair if homeopathy get's to sidestep the stringent drug testing that any proper medicine must undergo purely on the basis of people's choice or popular figures ideas. The issue is far worse though, a report by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee revealed that the NHS is spending money on homeopathic treatments. Worryingly there is no exact data on how much is being spent and on what, however it is estimated that homeopathic remedies cost the NHS over £150,000 a year (outrageous when A, it's water from a tap and B, in an earlier post I talked about how some people feel £100,000 a year for Paul Mason was not deserved) and the cost of running the four homeopathic NHS hospitals we have in the UK is quoted as being near £12 million.
The only shred of justification modern homeopathy has is that it can act as a placebo. A placebo is a substance administered to a patient that does nothing biochemically relevant to their condition but due to the patient believing they have taken medicine they show improvement. The placebo effect is controversial as it may only work by making the patient less aware of their discomfort whilst their body heals naturally, it cannot heal beyond what the body can heal unassisted anyway and there is an ethical dilemma in lying to a patient about their treatment. But if homeopathic remedies are an effective placebo then there is no reason why they could not just be replaced, very easily, very cheaply by a nice, refreshing bottle of evian.
I hope this post has enlightened you a little on what exactly homeopathy is and how it claims to work. I hope I have stimulated a curiosity to learn about these things and how we can know if something has evidence or not. In the modern world the veracity of any medicine (and indeed any science) is only confirmed through repeated, demonstrable experiments by different parties. The data from these experiments can then be published (providing the research was logically and methodologically sound) for other scientists to examine, repeat and have their results also published. Through this long meticulous process we can ascertain what works and what does not. Now more than ever we can ill afford to allow untested, unproven medicines and sciences to gain funding at the expense of that that has fairly passed the best tests known to man.
How to spot the cuckoos of science
Posted by ryanbegleyonline in knowledge, medicine, pseudo-science, science on January 21, 2011
The cuckoo is infamous for two things; regularly jumping out of clocks and laying its eggs in other bird's nests. These cuckoo chicks when born sometimes even try to push the other eggs out of the nest before stealing the attention and food of the mother. This situation isn't a unique one in either nature or our society, there are limited resources in this world and in this time of economic recovery and budget cuts there's even less to go around. Ensuring that the right people get the allocation they need is vital however our society is plagued with pseudo-science, everywhere we look we can see adverts and advocates claiming 'scientific' proof for whatever it is they're selling. This is done to add some cloak of authority to whatever is being said and it's a dangerous abuse of trust that leads people to distrust real science. So how do we sort the snake-oil salesmen from the pharmacist, the nutritionist from the dietitian? In short, how can we detect the cuckoos of science?
Without a background in the field it is difficult for anybody to tell if what they are hearing is correct. This is true for all of us; everybody is ignorant of far more than they know. But you don't have to run off and get a PhD in a subject to determine the truth. There are some tell tale arguments that people use when pretending something is science.
- You can't prove me wrong!
Frequently proponents of ideas such as intelligent design cite the fact that they have not been proved wrong as some sort of evidence for their ideas veracity. In arguments on the subject the supporters will often make statements along the lines of "well you can't prove it's not true so I'm going to keep believing it". This is flawed logic. If we assumed that things were true until we proved them wrong we would have to believe in far more than we disbelieved. You can't prove me wrong that there are invisible, intangible pixies whispering in my ear that if I don't jump 100 times a day they will pull my pants down in public so I should do it right? Of course not! That's not to say that we disbelieve everything until its proven correct either, if there is no evidence for or against something then it is an unknown. Something is unknown until there is evidence for it (or evidence to show it is not possible). Remember this, if somebody is claiming to know something that is unknown or unknowable then their claim has no evidence, as such it is not science.
- It's been around for ages.
This argument I've always found particularly odd. People often claim that the older something is the more valid it must be. There is perhaps a grain of truth to this if a method is old then it must work to some respect for it to be used for all that time, but that doesn't mean that a better and newer method doesn't exist. Often with this people claim "science changes its mind all the time". No, science adjusts its views based on what's observed and progresses. If a text book is different to a text book from four years ago it's a good thing, the latest will be more up to date and have more accurate information. Ideas such as herbal medicine and fundamentalist religion often tout how long their practices have been about as if that were evidence for their truth. Be particularly wary of this when it comes to medicine, when people claim that such-and-such medicine has been used to great effect for thousands of years ask them why it is that it is not used in real medicine. The answer may be something along the lines of "big pharma just want to make money and so make synthetic poisons". If you ever hear any conspiracy crap like that just walk away, anything that works as a medicine is investigated thoroughly over years of intensive study. If it works it's called "medicine", if it doesn't it's called "not medicine". There is no such thing as "alternative medicine".
- It's 100% natural.
Alternative medicines and fashionable diets are particular perpetrators of this statement. There is an idea that if something is natural it is better and if something is manmade or synthetic then it must be poison. This fails to take into account that most medicines are natural! Whether a chemical is synthesised by a plant as a byproduct of its biology or in a lab with beakers and test tubes as long as it is the same chemical it will do the same thing. The advantage of synthesising medicines in the lab is that you get just the medicine you need. A prime example is aspirin, derived from willow bark it is an effective analgesic. Eating the willow bark by itself is likely to cause you to throw up. If you're still not entirely convinced just ask yourself this; if natural, unprocessed material straight from Mother Earth was all we needed then why do we have so much disease? Why weren't hunter gather societies healthier than those of today?
There are many other signs to look for that I will probably go into more in later posts. Key things that I look for are the credentials of the proponent of an idea (remember not everyone who calls themselves a doctor ever got an MD or PhD) and their agenda (are they pushing religion? A product they are selling?). It is important for us all to remain vigilant towards those who would deceive us to either get our money or take funding from worthwhile causes. Beyond the economy is it really good for our health if we let medicine that is unproven or proven not to work into our health service? Or that we teach religious views on the origin of our species over what we have evidence for?
Do no harm…?
At the end of Christmas time I settled down to watch what I thought would be one of those typical Channel 4 documentaries called Britain's Fattest Man. If you missed it the documentary was about Paul Mason who became the world's heaviest man weighing in at over 440kg (that's 70 stone or 980lb for all you imperialists)! Not to go through the whole documentary but in essence it was very sad, Paul became this size after suffering a series of devastating blows in his life before becoming addicted to food. He was bedridden and required carers to wash and feed him. Paul was desperate enough to go for a gastric bypass (a procedure that shrinks the available stomach size) which enabled him to shed 120kg in just a matter of months.
You may ask why I am bothering to blog about this, I had no plans to. It was merely one of those stories we hear about and perhaps relay in a shocked tone to others. The thing that really got me about this documentary was the way people treated Paul. Other than receiving hate mail I was dismayed to see a wealth of articles both online and in newspapers lamenting the cost of Paul's care and medical treatment. Per year Paul costs slightly over £100,000 to the NHS and over the fifteen or so years Paul has needed this care he has topped over £1,000,000. Reading through some comments online I couldn't believe the amount of people who were advocating Paul either not receiving this care or not deserving it. This is a bit of a problem for me, I believe in social healthcare. I think medicine should be a right not a privilege. There's two dangerous mentalities here, one is that if you don't contribute you don't deserve (ridiculous, what about students, mentally ill, prisoners and those down on their luck) and the other is that if you did it to yourself you don't deserve help. To me that's a pretty slippery slope to start on.
It is possible to go through your whole life without smoking or exposing yourself to any airborne carcinogens and still get lung cancer. The following numbers aren't real but they illustrate a real point; out of 100 non smokers 20 get lung cancer and out of 100 smokers 60 get lung cancer. Now out of those 60 smokers with cancer 1 in 3 could have contracted the disease independent of their smoking. If we adopt the mentality of "you don't deserve healthcare if you did it to yourself" we have to deny or charge for care for 40 of them. But it's impossible to tell! Do we just deny all of them because they took a risk? Even though every third man didn't cause it themselves? This principle is very damaging and whilst I don't condone Paul Mason eating himself to that size I certainly don't think he is any less deserving than a healthy taxpaying member of society. The whole philosophy of social healthcare is that those who can contribute so that all can receive any and every medicine or treatment that they require.
What do you think? Is Paul justified in receiving medical treatment? At the end of the day would you rather live in a society which takes care of those in need or one that dismisses those who can't help themselves?
What the ruddy hell is this 'science' thing anyway?
Posted by ryanbegleyonline in knowledge, science, society, technology on January 17, 2011
First things first I need to declare that I am indeed one of those long haired, lab coat wearing boffins known as a scientist. I have always been a scientist even before I actually got to wear the coat. From a very young age I wanted to know things, I wanted to figure things out and I wanted to use that knowledge to build wicked stuff (I've still not entirely fulfilled my childhood dream of building my own spaceship but we'll see…). I do accept however that I am in the minority. Most people don't like studying science whether it's because they find it hard or boring or perhaps just have a penchant for something else. But there is a problem with this that I have come to notice over my (admittedly short) career, whilst its absolutely fine if people don't want to be scientists most people don't even know what science is. And that as we shall see is like being a sailor whose doesn't recognise the water beneath him…
It should be self evident to anyone reading this blog that we live in a technologically developed world. I'm touching a variety of pressure sensors that are converting that pattern into a digital code that is then represented on my screen as words and images. That code can be distributed on the interwebz for all to enjoy. Our lives are an expression of an ocean of knowledge that has been painstakingly gathered and built upon over thousands of years. There's little I can point to in my life or the lives of anyone I know that hasn't been affected by science and technology. This brings us neatly to our first question "what's science and whose technology?"
The broad definition of science that most people might say is that it is a process of gathering facts about the world. A more accurate definition though would be that science uses empirical reasoning to build predictive models about the world; it's all about model building. Empirical reasoning in science simply put goes observation – hypothesis – experimentation – conclude. We observe natural phenomenon, we develop a hypothesis about how it occurs (what in colloquial terms may be called a 'theory' or 'idea'), we then test this hypothesis and from that we make a conclusion. Technology is the application of the understanding drawn from these models. We build shiny machines and funny sounding chemicals that run on the principles we have discovered to perform tasks that we find desirable.
What makes science so different? Sometimes in life truths are rather unpalatable for us humans. Whether it's finding out that the Earth doesn't revolve around us, that we are indeed related to other animals or that yes our bum does look big in this there is a plethora of things about the world that many might not like. But whether or not you like an answer has no veracity on its truth. Whilst this seems obvious it's a statement I often see disregarded; just watch Fox News or read the Daily Mail and you're bound to be bombarded with ideas like climate change is a conspiracy, vaccines cause disease and that its only 'fair' to teach fundamentalist religion in school science classes as a matter of 'balance'.
In science no answer, no matter how devastating to our world view, is disregarded or accepted on the basis of what it is. The only reason to accept anything in science is that it has evidence for it no matter what it is. Science isn't about what people think or what people reckon based on personal experience or anecdotes they've read about, it is about demonstrable truth through good, repeatable unbiased experimentation. This doesn't mean that I go and do some experiments then just tell you the answer, other scientists will repeat my work over and over to see if the results are correct, to see if my method was flawed or to see if the results I obtained do not match the conclusions I have made. Nobody's word is taken as gospel in the scientific community, something is considered to be true only when it has been demonstrated time and again by other experts in the field. This is the peer review process and I will go into it in more detail in another post.
So why is it important that everybody understands how science works? We all rely on the fruits of its labour to survive and flourish; in the developed world we live in a Garden of Eden where we suffer little threat from parasites, predators, natural disasters and where food and water are plentiful. All this is a product of science and technology but don't take it as a constant! There are people in this world who have little interest in truth, merely agenda. It is because of these people that we all must have a fair understanding of how science works, if we don't then how can we know what to do about issues such as climate change, pandemics and so on? A scientifically illiterate person has no immunity to the bullshit and propaganda that surround us like wolves beyond the campfire. How can the public know whether it's right to teach evolution or creationism? To vaccinate or not? These are issues that I will address in further depth later on, until then I hope I've sparked a curiosity and shed a little more light on what exactly this ruddy 'science' thing actually is.
How many men does it take to make a light bulb?
Posted by ryanbegleyonline in industry, light bulbs, science, society, technology on January 15, 2011
Not just men in fact but women as well. The question has been one that I've been throwing back and forth for a while now. I've encountered similar questions before all essentially asking "how many people does it take to sustain a technologically developed society?" The question implies a society that we in Britain are used to with as much consumerism, technology, law and light bulbs as we have today. The answer might be a little more than most would guess.
Throughout history we have gone forth and multiplied. Countless times wooden boats have been built carrying less people than the average train on the Tube across waters to new lands where those people have managed to build a society. From that we would think that the answer to "how many people does it take to sustain a technologically developed society?" wouldn't be that much. Perhaps the citizens of our hypothetical society can each be employed only in jobs that are necessary with no overlap or needless jobs (by needless jobs I refer to multiple companies providing the same service which in our hypothetical society can be cut down). In colonial times they would start essentially from scratch and work their way back up with trade and supply from neighbouring lands boosting the fledgling society. But in trying to answer "how many men…" we need to come to a number of how many people we need to maintain the world we are used to rather than rebuild it.
Pre-1900 most things could be constructed by generalist industries (blacksmiths, carpenters, masons etc). Over the past century however our world has exploded into an ecology of superspecialisms. Whilst early machines could be built or maintained by the typical tinkerer in his workshop the complexity of everyday objects today has pushed the reality of one dedicated jack-of-all-trades up to a large interdependent group of masters in one field.
A few examples; today's smartphones contain microprocessors built from transistors just tens of nanometres thick, wires etched a few dozen atoms wide, GPS systems, radio transmitters, microscopic pressure sensors underneath a full colour screen all packaged in a palm sized container. In the medical field rather than having the traditional doctor, surgeon, nurse, dentist we have specialists in far narrower fields like cardiologists, radiologists, neurologists, ophthalmologists etcetera etcetera. Examples like this can be seen in all walks of life and in building our hypothetical society we can forget none of them! A temporal lobe neurosurgeon might seem unnecessarily specialised until you get a tumour that needs to be excised. And for each field we must have a sizable portion educating the next generation. Contrary to Heinlein's popular quote specialisation is not just for insects.
So to address the original question, how many men does it take to make a light bulb? Let's break it down; a typical incandescent light bulb is made up from a glass bulb containing a tungsten filament surrounded by an inert gas. Sounds simple at first but for all of that we need an industry to mine and refine the materials, transport to take those materials to factories (and consequently an industry to maintain that infrastructure), make the bulbs and ship them out to the people. Apply that to every product we have and how many industries do we need now? Sure there may be no overlap in some areas (we may only need one tungsten mine and one infrastructure maintenance consortium) but the sheer complexity of life in the developed world today is mind boggling.
Adding together the populations of large hives of industry such as NAFTA, the EU and China we come to a number of over two billion. This number can be trimmed to about one billion by taking into consideration the communities that provide little overall input (half of China's population is solely agrarian for example). If we take one billion people to be the upper bound we can consider removing as much overlap as possible whilst maximising efficiency but I see no reason as to why the lower bound number would not be less than the high tens or low hundreds of millions. So to live in a society capable of providing all the technologies and services we are used to would require a population greater than that of the United Kingdom today.
This realisation has important implications. For those of an ideology that the world would be a better place with less people simply living in one with nature or those who have a special place in their heart for the idea of living on Mars (or any other non-Earth body) the reality is quite different. To maintain a technologically developed society such as ours we are not going to be living in self sufficient pioneering communities, instead we have to be a thriving interdependent hive of industries, experts and above all specialists.


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COMPANY OVERVIEW Founded: 1973 Headquarters: Reno, NV Ownership: Public Employees: 110 http://www.altairnano.com STATISTICS NASDAQ: ALTI Fiscal Year: Dec. 31 Common Stock: 69,452,000 A/O May 12, 2012 INTELLECTUAL PORTFOLIO U.S. Patents 10 Foreign Patents 23 Altairnano is a component in the following indices: • Merrill Lynch Nanotech Index,(AMEX:NNZ) • Punk Ziegel Nanotech Index • Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Nanotech Index • Global Crown Capital Nanotechnology Index • PowerShares Lux Nanotech ETF (Exchange Traded Fund, AMEX:PXN) • Nasdaq Clean Edge Index (CLEN) • Nasdaq Clean Edge US Liquid Series (CELS) Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. pioneers the discovery, development and manufacture of ceramic nanomaterials, which are used in products that exhibit ground-breaking performance. Altair scientists and product development specialists have produced a diverse range of novel products for power and energy systems, life sciences, and advanced materials applications in Altairnano's 100,000 square-foot facility in Reno, NV and its 30,000 square-foot facility in Anderson, IN. Working with leading marketing partners in their respective industries, Altairnano manufactures and licenses superior product technologies. TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM Altairnano has developed a leading, proprietary technological platform for the commercial manufacture of a wide variety of advanced ceramic materials, including metal oxides, metal titanates and combination crystals, all of which can range in structure from hollow to porous. This patented platform, scaleable across all industries, is unique in the marketplace as it provides precision control of composition, chemical purity and particle size. MARKET FOCUS Altairnano has applied its nanotechnology to develop new materials in four key markets: power and energy systems, life sciences, performance materials and, through AlSher, a joint venture with Sherwin-Williams, the process for the manufacture of white pigment and other nanomaterials. Altairnano Power and Energy Systems Power and energy systems are major growth drivers for the company and will produce long-term value for its shareholders. Altairnano currently has product lines for three markets: transportation, stationary power, and military applications. For a number of years Altairnano has been developing groundbreaking materials to solve the issues plaguing conventional batteries: high power and energy density, cycle life, weight, cost, and the ability to perform in extreme temperatures. Battery systems manufactured with Altairnano's LTO electrodes are environmentally safe, will not display thermal runaway (no graphite), exhibit three times the power of conventional batteries, can recharge in minutes, last 10 to 15 years, and operate in extreme temperatures - from -22° to 480° Fahrenheit. At conferences and automotive shows throughout the U.S., attendees are riding or driving "freeway ready" PMI SUTs and SUVs powered by Altairnano's 35kWh battery system. The battery system provides full-size vehicles with a standard range of 100 to 130 miles, a charge time of less than 10 minutes, and the capability of freeway speeds exceeding 100 mph. PMI plans to ship 500 vehicles utilizing Altairnano's battery packs during 2008. Altairnano is collaborating with Alcoa's AFL Automotive unit for the development of an HEV battery pack system integrated with AFL's Active Power Management System for use in medium-duty, hybrid trucks. Internationally, Altair and Micro-Vett have teamed up and the Micro-Vett Fiat Doblò five-seat station wagon, powered by an 18 kWh NanoSafe battery pack is cruising around a urban delivery circuit in Oslo, Norway. The Doblò will be driven an estimated total of 7,500 kilometers during the demonstration period and will be charged with AeroVironment's high voltage, 125kW rated rapid charging system. With a successful demonstration, there is a potential for shipment of 250 vehicles during 2008. Altairnano is leveraging its product technology in new areas of power and energy storage, which include stationary power and battery systems for heavy-duty electric and HEV vehicle markets. In a joint development with AES, who made a $3 million equity investment in the company, Altairnano is developing and will supply AES with large-scale energy storage systems for use in the storage, conditioning and delivery of power. The first $1 million pilot system, scheduled for shipment in early 2008, will be installed in a major East Coast city. The 2MW system will provide 600 kWh of energy. There is a significant market for the storage and delivery of clean power to the grid during peak usage patterns.
Altairnano Materials Altairnano Materials business has four product lines based on unique nano-materials for advanced coatings that deliver distinctive, proprietary product performance. The product lines are titanium dioxide pigment, nano-titanium products for thermal barrier coatings, nano-titanium products for air and water treatment and nano-material products for corrosion protection. Altairnano has entered into a development agreement with Sulzer Metco, the world's largest provider of thermal sprays and equipment. The agreement has resulted in the launch of Metco 9012, a nano-structured titanium oxide ceramic coating providing extremely high wear resistance for use on bearing sleeves, pumps and sputtering targets in the automotive, aerospace and power generation markets. Altairnano and PPG Industries have entered into an agreement to develop dispersions for use in aerospace primer coatings, which will provide corrosion protections without the use of unsafe hexavalent chromium compounds. Early indications show Altairnano's nano metal oxide technology provides similar corrosion protection and is safe for the environment. There is a letter of intent to commercialize the technology in early 2008, if not before. Altairnano's patented technology platform provides for the first new, viable pigment production process (AHP) in 50 years. Industry analysts forecast the white pigment market to exceed $9 billion with increased growth from third world countries. Altairnano has formed a joint venture with The Sherwin-Williams Company, a leading global manufacturer of paint and durable coatings. The new company, AlSher Titania, will combine the AHP process and the Sherwin-Williams Hychlor Pigment process to develop and produce high quality titanium dioxide pigment for use in paint and coatings. Additionally, AlSher Titania will develop nano titanium dioxide materials for use in a variety of applications, including those related to removing contaminants from air and water. The pilot plant, initially based in Reno, NV, will be demonstrating the AlSher process with further scale-up and production capacity planned for 2008 and 2009. Altair Life Sciences Altairnano's nanomaterials have been used in the development of a phosphate binding drug candidate, RenaZorb™, for treatment of elevated phosphate levels in patients with kidney disease. With a cost effective drug presenting improved patient compliance, the market for phosphate binders is expected to reach $1 billion. The drug has been licensed to Spectrum Pharmaceuticals. Altairnano has applied similar technology to develop Renalan™, a drug for the treatment of elevated phosphate levels in dogs and cats. Renalan, which can be used as a liquid, powder, or pill, is in the process of being licensed to Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly. Elanco is expected to use Altairnano's nanomaterial-based products for the development of multiple products for animal health care. RECENT NEWS:
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Corporate Information: Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. 204 Edison Way Reno, Nevada 89502 775.856.2500 http://www.altairnano.com Financial Relations: McCloud Communications, LLC Marty Tullio 949.553.9748 firstname.lastname@example.com CHARTS


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Process Control Instrumentation
Our industrial condition monitoring systems to manufacturers and users of cooling towers, gas turbines, reciprocating compressors, and other rotating and reciprocating machinery.We provide vibration monitoring products include machinery protection systems, proximity probes, sensors and transmitters, signal conditioners, transducers, high temperature vibration sensors, mechanical switches, electronic switches, programmable electronic switches, impact transmitters, vibration monitors, portable shakers and vibration meters.
Electronic and mechanical vibration switches for overall vibration monitoring and trending without the necessity of complex systems. Models available with Hazardous Area Ratings and explosion-proof housing.
Mechanical Switch
Mechanical vibration switch is designed to meet all requirements in a single, affordable package. It provides vibration protection for low to medium speed machinery.
- Meets all requirements for mechanical switch in a single, affordable package
- Weatherproof and optional hazardous area rating
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- SPDT or DPDT switch output contacts
Electronic Switch
Our electronic switches offer single or dual setpoints, adjustable time delays, external setpoint adjustments and more.
- Microprocessor design, USB or keypad configurable
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- Sensitivity is not affected by rotating speed of machinery
- Solid-state relay contacts used for alarm and/or shutdown
Transmitters provide a 4-20mA DC signal output proportional to the vibration amplitude, and are ideal for applications where a PLC, DCS, or other automation system will be used instead of a stand-alone vibration monitor. Metrix offers seismic transmitters with a wide variety operating temperatures, frequency responses, scale factors, case materials, connector types, mounting options, and hazardous area approvals.
- Centrifuges
- Motors
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A sensor and signal conditioner in a single package.
- Loop terminals with Independent Polarity (IPT)™ prevent incorrect wiring
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- Available with flying leads, terminal block or ML-style connector
Impact Transmitter with integral signal conditioner. Measures mechanical looseness with the convenience of 4-20 mA loop powered sensor technology and a 2 pin MIL-C-5015 style connector.
· Reciprocating Compressors
· Diesel and Recip Engines
· Measures mechanical looseness such as
loose rod nuts, broken or loose bolts,
liquids in the process, excessive clearance
in slipper, loose or worn pins, etc.
· 4-20 mA output, 2-pin MS connector
· Loop-powered, self-contained sensor
· Flying lead (Div 2 rated) or explosion-proof
version (Div 1 rated) available
Digital Proximity System
Metrix features a complete line of Proximity solutions interchangeable to Bently Nevada probes, cables and drivers. Our
- Oil-Lubricated Fluid Film Bearing Machines:
- Centrifugal Pumps
- Turbo Compressors
- Steam and Gas Turbines
- Large Fans and Blowers
- Gear Box Shafts
- Generators
- Large Electrical Motors
Trendsetter™ TXR (Radial) and TXA (Axial) Transmitters
· Two-wire loop-powered transmitter that combines an eddy current probe driver and signal conditioner in a single package
· Compatible with 4 major probe systems and easily factory-calibrated to non-standard shaft material
日本av电影网站 · Provides 4-20 mA signal proportional to vibration level or shaft axial position
TXR5521 RPM Transmitters
· 4-20 mA proportional to shaft RPM
· Dynamic output for vibration
日本av电影网站 · Sensing to 177°C with proximity probes
Proximity Probes and Cables
· Latest technology design including gold hex connectors,Tefzel insulation, ProbeSeal™ and VerniGap™ for easy installation
· Extend life of installed transducers by replacing individual components
· Avoid mismatching probes and cables with ProxMatch Color Coding
· Protect critical machinery at lower cost
· Keep your installed base running longer to avoid obsolescence
Rack based monitoring system
The Monitoring System is a rackbased continuous machinery monitoring platform designed to fully comply with American Petroleum Institute Standard 670 for machinery protection systems. Up to 56 vibration/position/speed channels or 84 temperature channels can be monitored and displayed in a single 19" rack.
日本av电影网站 The system measures and alarms on shaft radial vibration, axial thrust position, casing seismic vibration (both velocity and acceleration),temperature, and shaft rotative speed. All necessary monitoring functionality is provided using only four basic module types, simplifying spare parts requirements.
Deep experience
The Our team possesses deep experience gained through developing and sustaining more than four generations of successive API 670-compliant machinery protection systems. We pay attention to every detail, ensuring the system works the way you need it to work in the real world – where details matter.
Robust, rugged construction
日本av电影网站The rack chassis is constructed entirely of industrial‐grade anodized aluminum and stainless steel – every card guide, every faceplate, every rack panel. In addition to excellent RFI/EMI rejection, these materials are built to last while maintaining their good looks. Thhis system looks professional because it is professional.
Easily adaptable mounting
日本av电影网站The system's design allows the same rack to be used in panel cutout, 19" EIA, or bulkhead mounting configurations by simply employing different rack brackets. The chassis, backplane, and all modules remain the same. This also means that you don't sacrifice valuable space when bulkhead mounting – unlike systems that require twice as much space for bulkhead mounting compared to rack or panel mounting.
High quality, high‐speed backplane
The system uses state-of-the-art backplane connectors and high-speed design techniques to facilitate ultra‐fast data throughput and outstanding reliability.
Full color, backlit touchscreen
With the system's optional touchscreen, users have at-a-glance, real-time visibility of every channel and status in the rack on a single screen – no scrolling, no multiplexing. We worked closely with users to ensure the system's display was intuitive, efficient, and attractive, with a rapid update time so there's no annoying wait for the screen to refresh with current values. It's also easy to see under all lighting conditions – including outdoors. And, because it uses resistive (not capacitive) technology, it works with fingers, gloves, and stylus.
Signal Conditioners & Meters
· Gear Mesh Monitoring on Gear Boxes
· Industrial Fans
· Motors & Generators
· Process Pumps
· Centrifuges
· Natural Gas / Diesel Engines
· Gas Turbines
5534/5544, 5535/5545
· 4-20 mA proportional to vibration level
· Significant savings over rack mount monitors
· Optional display, filter and/or galvanic isolation
日本av电影网站 · Sensor/cable input "OK" light
Vibration Calibrator
Hardy Instruments' portable shakers allow for compliance with OSHA 1910, ISO 9000 or API 670 by providing a means for verifi cation of sensors and associated indicators. These units are programmable with built-in display and self-test features.
· For checking:
– Accelerometers
– Connectors and cabling
– Non-contacting eddy current probe displacement systems
– Transducers
– Instruments
日本av电影网站 – Monitoring systems or indicators
Meet most of the frequency and amplitude requirements for compliance with API 670
Built-in reference accelerometer and indicator features calibration traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Test seismic sensors up to 1.65 lbs (750 grams).Portable design allows for minimal disruption during system checks


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The march
This year is the 30th anniversary of the March for Equality and Against Racism, also known as "Marche des Beurs", the 'walk of the arabs'.
Started in Marseille in reaction to the racist violence inflicted by police on the migrant youth of the suburbs, the walkers covered over a thousand km through France and ended in Paris.
Watch the news report of the time:
A feature film titled 'La Marche' is also released in France today.