Miss Indonesia in her one piece swimsuit. Photo from Yahoo!/Associated Press
Friday, May 27, 2005
Islamic women (and men) protest that Miss Indonesia is showing off too much skin. Photo taken from Yahoo!/Associated Press
Some Australians are going to start boycotting going to Indonesia (Bali in particular) if Schapelle Corby is found guilty. Photo taken from Yahoo!/Associated Press
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Indonesian conjoined twin girls separated in Singapore go off ventilators, feeding tubes
SINGAPORE (Agencies) - Two 15-month-old Indonesian twin girls formerly fused at the stomach and hips are breathing without ventilators and being fed orally, two days after surgery to separate them, doctors said on Monday.
Previously conjoined twins Anggi and Anjeli were separated in marathon 10-hour surgery involving 16 doctors at Singapore's Gleneagles Hospital on Saturday.
The twins were born fused at the stomach and hip, and they had three legs. Following the surgery, the girls have one leg each and will later be fitted with artificial limbs.
"The twins are very stable. Angeli has also been taken off the ventilator," said lead surgeon Dr. Tan Kai Chah in a statement on Monday. Her sister's ventilator was removed on Sunday.
"We have started to orally feed them water and glucose," Dr. Tan said in a brief statement.
Hospital officials said the discounted cost of the operation was 450,000 Singapore dollars (US$273,000), which was shouldered by an Indonesian sponsor.
Without the discount, it would have cost 700,000 dollars.
It was the third successful separation of conjoined twins in the wealthy city-state, which has emerged as a center for advanced medical operations in recent years.
Taken from The Jakarta Post
Previously conjoined twins Anggi and Anjeli were separated in marathon 10-hour surgery involving 16 doctors at Singapore's Gleneagles Hospital on Saturday.
The twins were born fused at the stomach and hip, and they had three legs. Following the surgery, the girls have one leg each and will later be fitted with artificial limbs.
"The twins are very stable. Angeli has also been taken off the ventilator," said lead surgeon Dr. Tan Kai Chah in a statement on Monday. Her sister's ventilator was removed on Sunday.
"We have started to orally feed them water and glucose," Dr. Tan said in a brief statement.
Hospital officials said the discounted cost of the operation was 450,000 Singapore dollars (US$273,000), which was shouldered by an Indonesian sponsor.
Without the discount, it would have cost 700,000 dollars.
It was the third successful separation of conjoined twins in the wealthy city-state, which has emerged as a center for advanced medical operations in recent years.
Taken from The Jakarta Post
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Asia tsunami quake stronger than first thought
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The earthquake that triggered Asia's deadly tsunami in December was more powerful than scientists originally estimated, according to new studies published in Friday's edition of Science.
"The Earth is still ringing like a bell today," nearly six months after the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, Roland Burgmann, professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, told the journal.
The quake generated a tsunami that killed about 300,000 people in states around the Indian Ocean.
"We've never been able to study earthquakes of this magnitude before, where a sizable portion of the Earth was distorted," said Burgmann, one of the authors of the study.
According to the study, researchers now believe the quake had a magnitude of 9.15. Initial measurements put the quake at 9.0 on the Richter scale, making it the fourth-largest quake since 1900.
Burgmann said adjustments in the earth's mantle could have triggered a magnitude 8.7 earthquake in the same area on March 28.
The quake also set records for the longest fault rupture and the longest duration of faulting, the researchers reported.
Burgmann and other scientists who studied data from the quake found it caused deformations of the earth's crust as far away as 2,800 miles -- five or six times the deformations caused by previous big quakes, the study said.
In another study published in Friday's edition of Science, Yale University professor Jeffrey Park said the quake's rupture moved giant slabs of rock a record distance, equivalent to moving from Florida to New England.
Park warned the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake would continue to affect the region for many years and could trigger more large quakes.
Taken from Yahoo! News/Reuters
"The Earth is still ringing like a bell today," nearly six months after the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, Roland Burgmann, professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, told the journal.
The quake generated a tsunami that killed about 300,000 people in states around the Indian Ocean.
"We've never been able to study earthquakes of this magnitude before, where a sizable portion of the Earth was distorted," said Burgmann, one of the authors of the study.
According to the study, researchers now believe the quake had a magnitude of 9.15. Initial measurements put the quake at 9.0 on the Richter scale, making it the fourth-largest quake since 1900.
Burgmann said adjustments in the earth's mantle could have triggered a magnitude 8.7 earthquake in the same area on March 28.
The quake also set records for the longest fault rupture and the longest duration of faulting, the researchers reported.
Burgmann and other scientists who studied data from the quake found it caused deformations of the earth's crust as far away as 2,800 miles -- five or six times the deformations caused by previous big quakes, the study said.
In another study published in Friday's edition of Science, Yale University professor Jeffrey Park said the quake's rupture moved giant slabs of rock a record distance, equivalent to moving from Florida to New England.
Park warned the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake would continue to affect the region for many years and could trigger more large quakes.
Taken from Yahoo! News/Reuters
Friday, May 20, 2005
Ignoring Indonesia
Despite worldly pretensions, the College ignores vast parts of the globe
Published on Friday, May 20, 2005
By Sahil Mahtani
A typical New England drizzle had me running along Oxford Street before I set foot inside the labyrinthine Museum of Comparative Zoology. The museum is quite a world unto itself, with its desolate corridors, dusty books, and distressing posters of magnified frogs. Wandering, I soon found the Professor of Icthyology, who bid me into his office, where I was to sit my Indonesian language placement exam.
Despite blustering worldly pretensions, Harvard University does not teach the language nor culture of the world’s fourth most populous nation: Indonesia. Search the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Courses of Instruction and you emerge with three courses marginally related to the country—and not even one for the Indonesian language. We teach Bretton and Sumerian, Old Church Slavonic, and Pali— but have omitted Bengali, Javanese, Telugu, and Indonesian—which combined, are spoken by a total of 480 million people around the world. Though it’s true that Indonesia is an archipelago, we’re in trouble if the only Indonesian-speaking professor at this University is one whose specialty is fish.
This argument travels well beyond Cambridge. Since Sept. 11, it is fair to say that many Americans have appreciated their crisis in eastern-literacy—hence the national enrollment spike in Arab language courses. But note that this upsurge only stood at 11,000 students as of 2002, and crucially, such interest does not seem to have extended to other substantial areas of the Muslim world, such as Pakistan and Indonesia.
Which is a pity, because Indonesia has four characteristics that make it one of a kind: it is a secular and moderate democracy, as well as the largest Muslim country on earth. All this should make it America’s new best friend in our color-coded terror era, for the country stands on America’s side of the church-state divide, and is a prime example of Islam’s potential to adapt to the 21st century. A stronger relationship with Indonesia would send the most powerful message yet to the silent, global, Muslim majority that America has distinguished between Islam and Islamism, and stands in solidarity behind the former. This ought to be a small step towards the long-term goal of alleviating rampant anti-Americanism across the globe.
But this is all stargazing unless there is increased scholastic activity within the United States itself. Currently, there are only three universities in America that teach Indonesian literature—and Harvard is not among them. Of over 3,500 American universities, there are fewer than 20 that teach the Indonesian language. Increased diplomatic contact does not arise in a vacuum—it requires strong domestic advocates. This already exists in Indonesia—a better relationship with the last superpower has obvious, tangible benefits. In America, such contact can most easily start in our universities, with their significant base of curiosity and knowledge of the outside world. To this end, Harvard’s East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department, or even the Sanskrit and Indian Studies Department at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences ought to hire a preceptor to teach Indonesian—just one. That is all it takes; cultural understanding can arise when we begin to speak the same language.
The vast resources of this University have not extended to disseminating the culture of a nation of 240 million people—a nation quite nearly the size of the United States. This is unfortunate, and also unnecessary, considering how much we stand to benefit. But mostly, this is just shameful, since such a program exists at a certain other contemptible university—in New Haven.
Taken from The Harvard Crimson Online
Published on Friday, May 20, 2005
By Sahil Mahtani
A typical New England drizzle had me running along Oxford Street before I set foot inside the labyrinthine Museum of Comparative Zoology. The museum is quite a world unto itself, with its desolate corridors, dusty books, and distressing posters of magnified frogs. Wandering, I soon found the Professor of Icthyology, who bid me into his office, where I was to sit my Indonesian language placement exam.
Despite blustering worldly pretensions, Harvard University does not teach the language nor culture of the world’s fourth most populous nation: Indonesia. Search the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Courses of Instruction and you emerge with three courses marginally related to the country—and not even one for the Indonesian language. We teach Bretton and Sumerian, Old Church Slavonic, and Pali— but have omitted Bengali, Javanese, Telugu, and Indonesian—which combined, are spoken by a total of 480 million people around the world. Though it’s true that Indonesia is an archipelago, we’re in trouble if the only Indonesian-speaking professor at this University is one whose specialty is fish.
This argument travels well beyond Cambridge. Since Sept. 11, it is fair to say that many Americans have appreciated their crisis in eastern-literacy—hence the national enrollment spike in Arab language courses. But note that this upsurge only stood at 11,000 students as of 2002, and crucially, such interest does not seem to have extended to other substantial areas of the Muslim world, such as Pakistan and Indonesia.
Which is a pity, because Indonesia has four characteristics that make it one of a kind: it is a secular and moderate democracy, as well as the largest Muslim country on earth. All this should make it America’s new best friend in our color-coded terror era, for the country stands on America’s side of the church-state divide, and is a prime example of Islam’s potential to adapt to the 21st century. A stronger relationship with Indonesia would send the most powerful message yet to the silent, global, Muslim majority that America has distinguished between Islam and Islamism, and stands in solidarity behind the former. This ought to be a small step towards the long-term goal of alleviating rampant anti-Americanism across the globe.
But this is all stargazing unless there is increased scholastic activity within the United States itself. Currently, there are only three universities in America that teach Indonesian literature—and Harvard is not among them. Of over 3,500 American universities, there are fewer than 20 that teach the Indonesian language. Increased diplomatic contact does not arise in a vacuum—it requires strong domestic advocates. This already exists in Indonesia—a better relationship with the last superpower has obvious, tangible benefits. In America, such contact can most easily start in our universities, with their significant base of curiosity and knowledge of the outside world. To this end, Harvard’s East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department, or even the Sanskrit and Indian Studies Department at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences ought to hire a preceptor to teach Indonesian—just one. That is all it takes; cultural understanding can arise when we begin to speak the same language.
The vast resources of this University have not extended to disseminating the culture of a nation of 240 million people—a nation quite nearly the size of the United States. This is unfortunate, and also unnecessary, considering how much we stand to benefit. But mostly, this is just shameful, since such a program exists at a certain other contemptible university—in New Haven.
Taken from The Harvard Crimson Online
Indonesia Quake Shook The Whole Earth
Last Updated: 5/19/2005 3:28:31 PM
New research finds the quake caused the ground everywhere in the world to move at least four-tenths of an inch.
Washington, DC -- Seismologists say the December earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami shook every inch of the Earth's surface.
Research published in the journal Science finds that the quake caused the ground everywhere in the world to move at least four-tenths of an inch. The researchers say the surface waves from the Sumatra quake triggered a swarm of 14 earthquakes in Alaska. And they say for weeks afterward, the planet would periodically tremble for 17 minutes at a time.
The magnitude of the quake is estimated at 9.1 TO 9.3 making it the strongest in 40 years. But 40 years ago, scientists worldwide didn't have the instruments to gather such comprehensive data.
The earthquake and resulting tsunami killed more than 176,000 people in eleven countries.
Associated Press (Taken from WMFY News)
New research finds the quake caused the ground everywhere in the world to move at least four-tenths of an inch.
Washington, DC -- Seismologists say the December earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami shook every inch of the Earth's surface.
Research published in the journal Science finds that the quake caused the ground everywhere in the world to move at least four-tenths of an inch. The researchers say the surface waves from the Sumatra quake triggered a swarm of 14 earthquakes in Alaska. And they say for weeks afterward, the planet would periodically tremble for 17 minutes at a time.
The magnitude of the quake is estimated at 9.1 TO 9.3 making it the strongest in 40 years. But 40 years ago, scientists worldwide didn't have the instruments to gather such comprehensive data.
The earthquake and resulting tsunami killed more than 176,000 people in eleven countries.
Associated Press (Taken from WMFY News)
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