Nuke Propulsion / VASIMR

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/nuclear-propulsion-in-space/

Between 1955 and 1972, the United States spent more than $1.4 billion in then-year dollars on developing nuclear rockets and related technologies. At the end of that period, when the Nixon administration cut NASA’s budget generally and NERVA’s specifically, the United States was well on its way to developing nuclear power for spacefaring and space purposes.

One major reason is that NASA picks its propulsion systems based on its targets — and true exploration of the solar system and beyond hasn’t really been a serious goal, the Constellation plans for a return to the moon aside.
McDaniel agreed that the targets drive things, citing the general decline of pure technology development research at NASA.
“Until we commit to going back to Mars, we’re not going to have a nuclear rocket,” McDaniel said.
Or perhaps a new nuclear-powered Russian spacecraft could get anxious minds at the Pentagon and NASA worrying about the need to keep pace with the Ivanovs.


http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-rocket-vasimr-nasa.html

"In the early days... NASA support for the project was rather minimal because the agency did not emphasize advanced technologies as much as it's doing now," Chang-Diaz told AFP.

Movies to watch

http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2010/10/pusan-2010-noise-review.php

Bombay has become Mumbai. With this and many other changes in the past two decades the population has grown to around 13 million. The directorial duo Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru use the city as their canvas to present the viewer three layers of a modern society in the city of Mumbai. Three intertwined stories from the wealthy upper class, middle class, and poor lower class. We follow them through the bustling metropolis as one by one they inevitably get lost in the noise.

director Mark Hartley set out to take audiences on a guided tour of the wild world of Australian exploitation film in Not Quite Hollywood. The result was not just a wildly good time.  Also made Machete Maidens Unleashed about Phillipine explotation movies.

An asian movie called Starfish Hotel with a giant evil dirty rabbit  amidst a bustling queue.
GANTZ live action 2 parter (and anime series), Ghost in the Shell _Solid State Society (and 2 seasons of SAC), Storm WArriors (2010 sequel) and Storm Riders animated movie & tv show,

Opium prices Soar

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/13/AR2011011306738_2.html?tid=wp_featuredstories&sid=ST2011011400552

"Most of the trafficking we see is in Kandahar, and we have no control there," Ahmadi said. "We have a lot of security checks at the airports, with special scanners and equipment, but the VIPs and the organized crime people know how to avoid them."

While the use of hashish and opium is a traditional part of Afghan society, experts say the introduction of heroin - especially by exiles returning from Iran - has brought crime, homelessness, disease and mental illness to the drug culture. 

"When we started here in 2002, it was hard to find a single drug user on the streets of Kabul. Now there are close to 1 million all over the country," said Tariq

"The price of opium is now seven times higher than wheat, and there is a $58 billion demand for narcotics, so our farmers have no disincentive to cultivate poppy," said Mohammed Azhar, deputy minister for counternarcotics. "We have gotten a lot of help, but it is not enough. Afghanistan is still producing 85 percent of the opium in the world, and it is still a dark stain on our name."

the value of Afghan opium skyrocketed from $29 per pound in 2009 to $77 per pound in 2010, fueling fears that production levels will soon follow upward. 

MONGOLIA

Alcoholism, domestic abuse and homelessness are some of the many problems the country faces. Here, an inmate peers through his cell at the boy's prison in Ulaanbaatar on June 28, 2010.

Independent miners, aka "ninjas," play pool on a worksite near Uyanga on June 17, 2010. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/101228_Mongolia_fadek_088.jpg

Splintering off states

This instability is the cartographic expression of an underlying geopolitical phenomenon afflicting much of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia: post-colonial entropy. Except for a few, rare cases, many of the colonies that gained their independence a half-century ago have since experienced unmanageable population growth, predatory and corrupt dictatorship, crumbling infrastructure and institutions, and ethnic or sectarian polarization.

Such a legitimate process has given cover to China to reorient its policy as well, balancing its staunch support for the regime of Omar Hassan al-Bashir in Khartoum with upgraded relations with the Southern government in Juba, which has in return promised to honor the China National Petroleum Corp.'s contracts. (Sixty percent of Sudan's oil exports currently go to China.)

A Palestinian woman holds aloft her national flag as she walks past Israeli soldiers during a protest against Israel's controversial separation barrier in the village of Bilin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Dec. 31, 2010. Palestinian leaders have said they will seek U.N. recognition of their country within its 1967 borders, despite Israel's disputed claim to some of that territory.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/13/breaking_away?page=0,6

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/13/breaking_up_is_good_to_do