there are enough dumb shits here already for me. What I'm saying (Enderian?), it doesn't really matter to me if the hyena and her runt stay or go. Two more, two less, blah blah.

Anyway, what I enjoyed in the news, yesterday (the bold part for shortcutters):

Scientists see blast from past -- 13 billion years ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers have seen the furthest back in time ever, measuring light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago, just after the dawn of the universe.

They traced a gamma-ray burst called GRB 090423 to see the light from the massive star that died 630 million years after the Big Bang that brought the universe into being, they reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

Two separate teams measured the redshift of the object at about 8.2. Redshift is the distortion of light as it travels across space and time and is often likened to the sound of a train rising and falling as it approaches and passes the listener.

This extreme redshift -- the highest ever recorded -- shows the burst occurred when the universe was less than 5 percent of its current age, Nial Tanvir of Britain's University of Leicester and colleagues reported.

"The redshift measured for GRB 090423 means that the burst occurred at a time when the universe was about nine times smaller than it is today -- putting the timing of the event at about 630 million years after the Big Bang," Bing Zhang of the University of Nevada wrote in a commentary.

"Gamma ray bursts are the most violent explosions in the universe," he added.

"They are believed to be associated with the formation of stellar-sized black holes or rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron stars during cataclysmic events such as the collapse of a massive star or the coalescence of two compact stellar objects."

In this case, the star's death long ago was bright enough to outshine even galaxies and will help scientists understand what happened in the early days of the universe. (article)

Especially that last sentence .. "the early days" .. imagine that, 630 million years = the early days. I love it. I wonder if that was done intentionally. Anyway, made my day. And I guess my point: nobody anywhere can really imagine 630 million years, let alone a week.

Now today, as reported by BOTF stalwart Michael somebody (ditto),

US to Pay Taliban to Switch Sides

October 28, 2009 "BBC" -- The US military in Afghanistan is to be allowed to pay Taliban fighters who renounce violence against the government in Kabul. The move is included in a defence bill which President Obama is set to sign. Such payments have already been widely used by US commanders in Iraq, but it is the first time the system is being formally adopted in Afghanistan.

Early on Wednesday, Afghan troops were engaged in a shootout with suspected militants at a house in Kabul. A day earlier eight US soldiers were killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan. The deaths make October the deadliest month for American forces in the eight-year war in Afghanistan.

President Obama is yet to decide whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan. Mr Obama has said he will not risk their lives "unless it is absolutely necessary". The latest attacks come amid heightened tension in Afghanistan in the run-up to the second round of a presidential election marred by widespread fraud in favour of incumbent President Hamid Karzai.

The Commander's Emergency Response Programme, or Cerp, was set up to give the US military the means to clear roads, dig wells and provide other urgent humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, the BBC's Richard Lister in Washington says.

But in Iraq, the money can also be given to insurgents provided they switch sides. Backers of the Cerp scheme say it enabled some 90,000 formerly hostile Iraqis to form local militias and protect their towns from militants, our correspondent says. He adds that now the same authority is being given to US commanders in Afghanistan.

A clause in the annual defence appropriations bill says they can use the money to support the "re-integration into Afghan society" of those who have renounced violence against the Afghan government. Although $1.3bn (£691m) has been authorised for the fund as a whole, no specific sum has been allocated to the re-integration programmes, our correspondent says. The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin, has said he envisages the money being used to pay former Taliban fighters to protect their communities. (article)

It's about time. I know it's not news (or "new news"), but it's the only logical thing to do and let's hope this is being done with even more vigour and purpose and money at some higher levels. "Stick to your knitting and all that."