[#PHOTOS] St. Clair West in the spring evening light, #Toronto

St. Clair West in the spring evening light, a photo by randyfmcdonald on Flickr.

The streetcar awnings set off this stretch of cars and stores well.

[LINK] "Dan Choi, Other Activists, Beaten and Arrested in Moscow"

Thanks to Facebook's Michael for linking to Dan Savage's post reporting on an attack on gay protesters in Moscow by skinheads, apparently with the implicit permission of the police.

Watch on YouTube

denied a permit—but anti-gay skinheads were given a permit. Russian LGBT activists, along with international supporters (including Choi), marched in defiance of the ban on a gay pride demonstration. The police stood by and did nothing while skinheads—some working with the police—beat some marchers, the police then swarmed and arrested other LGBT marchers. You can see the police tackle Choi in the video above. LGBT activists, some skinheads, and a few bystanders were all swept up in the arrests, and they all wound up in cells and courtrooms together. Choi has published an open letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling on her to condemn state-sponsored violence against LGBT people in Russia.

The letter is here, while you can add your signature there, too.

[LINK] "‘Blue Stragglers’ in the Galactic Bulge"

Centauri Dreams' Paul Gilster made an interesting post about the recent discovery of blue stragglers--briefly, old stars that seem younger than they should be--in the galactic core where there should be none.

The galactic bulge is a tricky place to study because foreground stars in the disk compromise our view. But the SWEEPS data led to a re-examination of the target region, again with Hubble, two years after the original observations were made. The blue stragglers could clearly be identified as moving at the speed of the bulge stars rather than the foreground stars. Of the original 42 blue straggler candidates, anywhere from 18 to 37 are now thought to be genuine, the others being foreground objects or younger bulge stars that are not blue stragglers.

Allan Sandage discovered blue stragglers in 1953 while studying the globular cluster M3, leading scientists to ask why a star would appear so much younger than the stars around it. Stars in a cluster form at approximately the same time and should therefore show common characteristics determined by their age and initial mass. A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of a cluster, for example, should show a readily defined curve on which the stars can be plotted.

Blue stragglers are the exception, giving the appearance of stars that have defied the aging process. One possibility is that they form in binaries, with the less massive of the two stars gathering in material from the larger companion, causing the accreting star to undergo fusion at a faster rate. More dramatic still would be the collision and merger of two stars — more likely in a region where stars are dense — which would cause the newly formed, more massive object to burn at a faster rate.

And as it happens, Gilster reports on the suggestion of Canadian astronomer Martin Beech that blue stragglers might--might--be a sign of stellar engineering. (I'd reviewed Beech's Rejuvenating the Sun and Avoiding Other Global Catastrophes here.)

Martin Beech (University of Regina) has suggested looking at blue stragglers in a SETI context, noting that some could be examples of astroengineering, the civilization in question using its technology to mix shell hydrogen into the inner stellar core to prolong its star’s lifetime on the main sequence. It’s an interesting suggestion though an unlikely one given that we can explain blue stragglers through conventional astrophysics. In fact, blue stragglers point to an important fact about the field some are calling ‘interstellar archaeology’ — gigantic astroengineering may be extremely difficult to tell apart from entirely natural phenomena, in which case Occam’s razor surely comes into play.

[LINK] "France Criticizes German Retreat From Nuclear on Emissions"

I agree almost entirely with the sentiments of the French of the German rejection of nuclear energy as ill-judged. I'm skeptical of the idea that a Germany more dependent on coal and oil (but how can it do so and diminish its carbon footprunt?) or on wind and solar energy (but is there enough?) can continue to be an energy exporter. But then, if Germany rejects imports of nuclear-generated energy ... perhaps quantum-foam taps will be coming online shortly?

The German government’s decision to close all its nuclear plants in a decade will lead to greater dependence on fossil fuels, increase carbon emissions and require imported atomic power, French officials said.

“Germany will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and imports and its electricity will be more expensive and polluting,” French Industry Minister Eric Besson said in a statement. German households pay twice as much for power than homes in France, where 80 percent of electricity comes from atomic plants, he said.

[. . .]

“It’s hard to see how they will replace the energy,” Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive officer of state-run Areva SA, the world’s biggest maker of nuclear equipment, said on BFM Radio. “I’m not sure there is enough Polish coal, and it creates carbon problems. Alternative energy sources are intermittent sources. I think they will do what Austria did in its time: import nuclear electricity from neighboring countries.”

The move “will result in higher electricity costs in Germany, with consequences for industry,” said Lauvergeon.

Germany is Europe’s largest power market, followed by France. Germany last year was a net exporter of power to France, sending 16.1 terawatt hours to the country compared with imports of 9.4 terawatt hours, according to data published by grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite.

This trend was reversed last month following the accident at Fukushima and the subsequent decision by Merkel to halt Germany’s oldest reactors. In April, France was a net exporter of power to Germany for the first time since the summer months of June, July and August last year, according to RTE.

Merkel has repeatedly said that Germany must remain a net exporter of energy, stressing that there is no point closing German nuclear plants only to import nuclear power from other countries.

[LINK] "Egypt's Mubarak fined for communications cut"

Reuters' Shaimaa Fayed reports on the symbolic news that former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, already facing a raft of charges has been fined (along with two other) the equivalent of 91 million US dollars for cutting telecommunications services, specifically the mobile and Internet services which played such a symbolic--if not actual--role in organizing the Egyptian opposition in January.

An Egyptian administrative court fined ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two former officials 540 million Egyptian pounds ($91 million) on Saturday for cutting mobile and Internet services during protests in January.

It was the first court ruling to be made against Mubarak since he was ousted on February 11. Mubarak faces more serious charges, including ordering the killing of protesters, a charge which could carry the death penalty.

A judicial source said the administrative court fined Mubarak 200 million Egyptian pounds, former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif 40 million pounds, and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli 300 million pounds.

The court ruled that Mubarak, Nazif and Adli were guilty of "causing damage to the national economy" and the fines would be paid to the country's treasury.

Political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah called the ruling "extremely important," saying it would change the way the Egyptian government deals with the communication revolution.

"This ruling will be a turning point for the standing and decisions of some Egyptian entities still living in an authoritarian culture regarding how to deal with communication services and the freedoms they offer," Abdel Fattah said.

The 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak was largely Web-based, and was organized by groups on Facebook.

[. . .]

Telecoms operator Vodafone said in January it and other mobile operators had no option but to comply with an order from the authorities to suspend services in selected areas of the country during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.

In February, Vodafone also accused the authorities of using its network to send pro-government text messages to subscribers.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Maged Othman said his ministry planned to pay compensation estimated at around 100 million pounds to mobile telecoms operators for losses caused by the service disruption, the state news agency Mean said. It said the figure was reached by independent bodies.