Chapter 5: Shipwreck (Кораблекрушение) 4 страница

Student Benjamin Jordan, 21, from Bury St Edmonds, told the Telegraph: "Using the dimensions of the Ark and the density of the water, we were able to calculate its buoyancy force, which, according to Archimedes’ principle, is equal to the weight of the volume of fluid the object displaces.

"This meant we were then able to estimate the total mass the Ark could support before the gravitational weight would overcome the buoyancy force, causing the Ark to sink."

His fellow student Thomas Morris, 22, from Chelmsford, said: "You don’t think of the Bible necessarily as a scientifically accurate source of information, so I guess we were quite surprised when we discovered it would work. We’re not proving that it’s true, but the concept would definitely work. "The scientists had to hazard a guess that the "gopher" wood described in the Biblical instructions for the Ark could accurately be replaced with cypress wood, with experts uncertain what sort of timber was intended.

And they stressed that their study did not draw any conclusions about feasible living conditions for the animals on board the Ark - or indeed whether they would all fit on at all, beyond the issue of pure weight.

The students completed the study for a special topic module, in which they are encourage to bring basic physics to bear on "the weird, wonderful and everyday". Their findings were presented in a paper for the Journal of Physics Special Topics, a peer-reviewed student journal run by their department.

Adam Withnall

Thursday 3 April 2014

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/noahs-ark-..

Article:

More white peop  le arrested ove  r terroris  m than any ot  her ethnic g  roup for seco  nd year in a row.

The number of white terror suspects being arrested in the UK has outstripped those of Asian appearance for the second year in a row.

Official figures showed that that 117 white people were arrested on suspicion of terror offences in 2019, compared with 111 Asian suspects and 21 black suspects.

“The proportion of white people arrested exceeded the proportion of Asian people arrested for the second consecutive year, having not done previously since 2004,” a Home Office document said.

The change comes after increased police operations against far-right extremists, including members of National Action.

The neo-Nazi terrorist group was banned in 2016 but split into factions that operated under different names, whose members were later arrested in mass raids.

The head of counterterror police declared right-wing extremism as the fastest-growing terror threat in the UK in September, and intelligence agencies have been brought in to tackle it for the first time.

A total of 25 attack plots have been foiled since March 2017 – 16 Islamist, eight far-right and one other.

There were 280 arrests for terrorism-related activity in 2019, two fewer than the previous year.

Lizzie Dearden Security Correspondent

Thursday 5 March 2020

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/white-peo..

Article:

Church cou  rt puts Mug  abe bishop o  n trial

An Anglican bishop who is a vocal supporter of President Robert Mugabe went on trial before an ecclesiastical court in Harare yesterday after an investigation into a range of charges including incitement to murder.

The Anglican Church of Central Africa took the unprecedented step of convening a trial under canon law at which the Bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, became the first Anglican priest on the continent in more than 100 years to face prosecution by his peers.

As well as the most serious charge of incitement to murder, he is accused of sinning against the church, its officials and its flock. He rejects the charges.

If found guilty, the controversial priest could be expelled from the church, and may even face civil charges if allegations of missing church funds are proved.

The 55-year-old clergyman arrived wearing a jewelled cross over his dark suit and crimson shirt at the hearing held at the Royal Harare Golf Club, in the shadow of Mr Mugabe's official residence.

Zimbabwe factfile 30 Jul 2002

The first of 11 charges against Bishop Kunonga is that he sought the assistance of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation and militant "war veterans" to "incite or seek to incite" the murder of 10 prominent Anglicans, including priests and church wardens.

But the charge was temporarily withdrawn yesterday after Bishop Kunonga said he would not accept evidence by telephone from London where an Anglican priest, Father James Mukonga, who fled Zimbabwe last year, was waiting to testify by video link to support his affidavit.

Jeremy Lewis, for the prosecution, told the court: "We withdraw without prejudice but are free to lay a future complaint in another jurisdiction."

After proceedings were adjourned until tomorrow, Mr Lewis said that Father Mukonga could give evidence in person in Malawi.

Other charges faced by Bishop Kunonga are that he tore up the infrastructure of the Harare diocese by sacking 19 priests or church officials, dismissed heads of

most of the church's institutions and banned the choir from singing in Harare's Anglican cathedral.

He is also accused of banning a predecessor, Bishop Peter Hatendi, from participating in services; of abusing the use of church property including vehicles and funds; falsifying minutes of church meetings; and of having removed and "disposed of memorabilia, plaques, tablets from the cathedral", some of historical interest.

Bishop Kunonga's appointment five years ago was accompanied by accusations that he bent canon law to become Zimbabwe's senior Anglican.

He went on to enrage his flock by preaching support for the lawlessness of the Mugabe regime and endorsed the seizure of white-owned farms.

He also preached "racial hatred" according to a group of parishioners, mostly black, who have gathered in Harare to give evidence against him.

Bishop Kunonga, unlike most senior Zimbabwean churchmen, has refused to criticise Mr Mugabe's human rights abuses and became the first priest openly to help himself to two of Zimbabwe's best equipped white-owned farms.

By Peta Thornycroft in Harare12:01AM BST 24 Aug 2005 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandi..

 

Article:

Chernobyl Is St  ill the Wo  rst Nuclea  r Accident fo  r Public He  alth

The 1986 Chernobyl and 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents both share the notorious distinction of attaining the highest accident rating on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scale of nuclear accidents. No other reactor incident has ever received this Level 7 “major accident” designation in the history of nuclear power. Chernobyl and Fukushima earned it because both involved core meltdowns that released significant amounts of radioactivity to their surroundings.

Both of these accidents involved evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents. Both still have people waiting to return to their homes. And both left a legacy of large-scale radioactive contamination of the environment that will persist for years to come, despite ongoing cleanup efforts.

So the tendency is to think of these accidents as similar events that happened in different countries, 25 years apart.

But the IAEA scale isn’t designed to measure public health impact. While Fukushima involved radioactivity exposures to hundred of thousands of people, Chernobyl exposed hundreds of millions. And millions of those received substantially more exposure than the people of Fukushima.

Higher doses of radiation, more health harm

Chernobyl was by far the worst reactor accident of all time. A total of 127 reactor workers, firemen and emergency personnel on site sustained radiation doses sufficient to cause radiation sickness (over 1,000 mSv); some received doses high enough to be lethal (over 5,000 mSv). Over the subsequent six months, 54 died from their radiation exposure. And it’s been estimated that 22 of the 110,645 cleanup workers may have contracted fatal leukemias over the next 25 years.

In contrast, at Fukushima, there were no radiation doses high enough to produce radiation sickness, even among the reactor core workers. Two Fukushima workers who had leaky respirators received effective doses of 590 mSv and 640 mSv. Due to their exposure, the two workers’ lifetime cancer risks will increase about 3 percent, but they are unlikely to experience other health consequences.

Beyond just the plant workers, over 572 million people among 40 different countries got at least some exposure to Chernobyl radioactivity. (Neither the United States nor Japan was among the exposed countries.) It took two decades to fully assess the cancer consequences to these people. Finally, in 2006, an international team of scientists completed a comprehensive analysis of the dose and health data and reported on the cancer deaths that could be attributed to Chernobyl radioactivity.

Using statistical models, the scientists predicted a total of 22,800 radiation-induced cancers, excluding thyroid cancers, among this group of 572 million people.

So that’s 22,800 non-thyroid cancers in addition to the approximately 194 million cancer cases that would normally be expected in a population of that size, even in the absence of a Chernobyl accident. The increase from 194,000,000 to 194,022,800 is a 0.01 percent rise in the overall cancer rate. That’s too small to have any measurable impact on the cancer incidence rates for any national cancer registries, so these predicted values will likely remain theoretical.

Chernobyl’s iodine-131 thyroid effects far worse

Unfortunately, at Chernobyl, the one type of cancer that could have easily been prevented was not. The population surrounding Chernobyl was not warned that iodine-131 – a radioactive fission product that can enter the food chain – had contaminated milk and other locally produced agricultural products. Consequently, people ate iodine-131-contaminated food, resulting in thyroid cancers.

For the local population, iodine-131 exposure was a worst-case scenario because they were already suffering from an iodine-deficient diet; their iodine-starved thyroids sucked up any iodine that became available. This extremely unfortunate situation would not have happened in countries such as the United States or Japan, where diets are richer in iodine.

Beginning five years after the accident, an increase in the rate of thyroid cancers started and continued rising over the following decades. Scientists estimate that there will ultimately be about 16,000 excess thyroid cancers produced as a result of iodine-131 exposure from Chernobyl.

At Fukushima, in contrast, there was much less iodine-131 exposure. The affected population was smaller, local people were advised to avoid local dairy products due to possible contamination and they did not have iodine-deficient diets.

Consequently, typical radiation doses to the thyroid were low. Iodine-131 uptake into the thyroids of exposed people was measured and the doses were estimated to average just 4.2 mSv for children and 3.5 mSv for adults – levels comparable to annual background radiation doses of approximately 3.0 mSv per year.

Contrast this to Chernobyl, where a significant proportion of the local population received thyroid doses in excess of 200 mSv – 50 times more – well high enough to see appreciable amounts of excess thyroid cancer. So at Fukushima, where iodine-131 doses approached background levels, we wouldn’t expect thyroid cancer to present the problem that it did at Chernobyl.

Chernobyl has no comparison

In short, Chernobyl is by far the worst nuclear power plant accident of all time. It was a totally human-made event – a “safety” test gone terribly awry – made worse by incompetent workers who did all the wrong things when attempting to avert a meltdown.

Fukushima in contrast, was an unfortunate natural disaster – caused by a tsunami that flooded reactor basements – and the workers acted responsibly to mitigate the damage despite loss of electrical power.

April 26, 1986 was the darkest day in the history of nuclear power. Thirty years later, there is no rival that comes even close to Chernobyl in terms of public health consequences; certainly not Fukushima. We must be vigilant to ensure nothing like Chernobyl ever happens again. We don’t want to be “celebrating” any more anniversaries like this one.