Scientists at Cornell University have been able to measure the weight, or mass, of a single cell, in fact an E coli bacterium, and it weights in at 665 femtograms. That is 6.65 × 10-13 or 0.000000000000665 grams.
E coli is unlikely to be a candidate for the South Beach diet any time soon.
Next comes weighing a virus. While bacteria are single cells, viruses are no more than molecules, or chunks of genetic material.
In a questionable reversal from the position taken after Spain's appeasement, Norway's foreign minister Jan Peteresen is now saying Norway will most likely leave Iraq in a few months. That is a horrible timing of a bad decision, and Bjørn Stærk makes the following cynical comments:
Nobody wants to be held responsible for the death of Norwegian soldiers in a conflict associated with George W. Bush. To remain in Iraq would extend our presence dangerously close to the September 2005 election - and we all know what Spain taught al-Qaeda about pre-election terror campaigns.
That is no doubt the rationale behind this cowardly decision. We're sending a strong message indeed:
"Hey, al-Qaeda, we leave of our own free will even before you bomb us."
Islam's prestige in Rwanda increased after genocide
Since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, many Rwandans have left the Roman Catholic church behind in disgust over the role of priests in the massacres in the overwhelmingly catholic country. And the size of the Muslim community in Rwanda has doubled.
Muslim leaders credit the gains to their ability during the 1994 massacres to shield most Muslims, and many other Rwandans, from certain death. "The Muslims handled themselves well in '94, and I wanted to be like them," said Alex Rutiririza, explaining why he converted to Islam last year.
With killing all around, he said, the safest place to be back then was in a Muslim neighborhood. Then as now, many of Rwanda's Muslims lived crowded together in the Biryogo neighborhood of Kigali.
During the mass killing of Tutsi, militias had the place surrounded, but Hutu Muslims did not cooperate with the Hutu killers. They said they felt far more connected through religion than through ethnicity, and Muslim Tutsi were spared.
"Nobody died in a mosque," said Ramadhani Rugema, executive secretary of the Muslim Association of Rwanda. "No Muslim wanted any other Muslim to die. We stood up to the militias. And we helped many non-Muslims get away."
A Sony's QRIO humanoid robot has managed to conduct an orchestra performing Beethoven's 5th, adding to the impressive accomplishments machines have been able to do.
The upside is that most Shiites doesn't like Sadr and his armed thugs. The downside is that they are afraid of aligning themselves too closely with the US, even as they hope the marines will beat Sadr's men:.
Iraq's major Shiite political parties, like the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, are reluctant to stand up to Sadr's militants, afraid they could lose standing for siding too closely with the US.
They're hoping that the US will deal with Sadr's people for them, leaving them free to criticize the operation if public anger grows at the civilian, predominantly Shiite casualties in Baghdad's Sadr City, the holy city of Najaf, and the southern town of Nasariyah.
So they'll sit on the fence for now.
Many have called out for Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani to voice his concern about Sadr or, even better, condemn him. Remember, though, that Sistani survived life under Saddam by keeping his mouth shut. He's not a man likely to take high risks while it is still somewhat unclear what way the wind blows.
The challenge for US forces will be to defeat Sadr without making him look like a martyr. Yes, it is true that the value of martyrs is greatly exaggarated by many western commentators, but in the case of a Shiite cleric I'd make an exception. Self-sacrifice and martyrdom is at the very core of Shiite Islam. However, that said, Sadr is probably still more dangerous alive than dead.
Blenheim Palace in Britain wanted to know, at the 300 years anniversary of the battle for which it was built, wanted to know how many Brits knew anything about the battle. The answer, not very astonishing, was that almosty three quarters had no idea when this glorious English victory over the French happened.
However, they found out a lot more disturbing things about the history knowledge, or lack thereof, among the British.
One in ten thought that Adolf Hitler was a fictional character.
