Supervirus informatic attacca partes importante del infrastructura irani.

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Portuguese, English)

Un tipo de virus informatic, inter le plus sophisticate detegite usque nunc, pote haber como su objectivo le infrastructura irani de “alte valor”, secundo un gruppo de specialistas que studia malware.

Le complexitate del virus Stuxnet, un programma que permitte le accesso remote a un computator infectate, suggere que illo debe haber essite create per alicun governamento national. Iste specialistas crede que le virus es le prime specialmente create pro attaccar systemas de infrastructura grande, como plantas hydroelectric e fabricas.

Un investigation per Symantec, un compania american de securitate informatic, suggere que quasi 60% de omne le infectiones informatic mundial occurre in Iran.

“Le facto que nos vide un quantitate plus grande de infectiones in Iran que in ulle altere parte del mundo nos face pensar que le pais mesme esseva le objectivo”, dice Liam O’Murcho, de Symantec.

Le virus Stuxnet esseva detegite per un compania de securitate in Belarus in junio, ben que illo ha circulate desde 2009 e ha essite intensemente studiate desde tunc.

Le virus Stuxnet, al contrario del majoritate del viruses, non es connectate con le Internet. Illo infecta computatores que usa Windows per medio de portas USB e pen drives usate pro transportar archivos. Un vice que illo infecta un computator de un intranet, un rete interne de un compania, le virus cerca un configuration specific de un logiciel pro controlo industrial facite per Siemens.

Le virus Stuxnet tunc move pro dar nove instructiones “disaccopulante motores, confundente le monitoramento de temperaturas, e disaccopulante refrigeratores, pro exemplo”, dice O’Murchu. “Nos nunquam ha vidite iste tipo de attacco antea. Si illo non trova un configuration specific, le virus remane inoffensive. Su structura face uso de multe technicas que nos non ha vidite usque nunc. Illo es un projecto enorme, multo ben financiate e planificate.”

Con le evidentia que nos ha, il es multo probabile que le virus Stuxnet es un arma de sabotage que usava information industrial sophisticate”, diceva un specialista in technologia de information industrial, Ralph Langner, in un articulo publicate in le Internet. “Iste virus non es le creation de un hacker qui travaliava independentemente in su apartamento. Illo ha un quantitate incredibile de codices que debeva esser attentemente planificate per un equipa de programmatores sophisticate. Pro mi, le ressources necesse pro realisar un attacco como isto solmente pote esser montate per un governamento que es determinate a attaccar systemas informatic importante de un altere governamento.

Langner suggereva que le virus Stuxnet pote haber attaccate le planta nuclear de Bushehr. Altere specialistas speculava que le virus pote star a attaccar le planta de inricchimento de uranio de Natanz. Ma O’Murcho e alteres dice que il non ha evidentia de quales esserea le objectivos specific.

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Supervírus de computador ataca partes importantes da infraestrutura iraniana.

Um tipo de vírus de computador, dos mais sofisticados já detectados, pode ter como alvo infraestrutura iraniana de “alto valor”, segundo um grupo de especialistas que estudam malware.

A complexidade do vírus Stuxnet, programa que permite o acesso remoto a um computador infectado, sugere que ele deve ter sido criado por algum governo nacional. Estes especialistas acreditam que o vírus seja o primeiro especialmente criado para atacar sistemas de infraestruturas grandes, como usinas hidroelétricas e fábricas.

Uma pesquisa da Symantec, empresa americana de segurança informática, sugere que quase 60% de todas as infecções informáticas mundiais ocorrem no Irã.

“O fato de que vemos mais infecções no Irã do que em qualquer outra parte do mundo nos faz pensar que o país mesmo era alvo”, diz Liam O’Murchu, da Symantec.

O vírus Stuxnet foi detectado por uma empresa de segurança de Belarus em junho, embora esteja circulando desde 2009 e vem sendo intensivamente estudado desde então.

O vírus Stuxnet, ao contrário da maioria de vírus, não está conectado com a Internet. Ele infecta máquinas Windows por meio de portas USB e pen drives usados para transportar arquivos. Uma vez que infecta uma máquina de uma intranet, uma rede interna de uma empresa, o vírus busca uma configuração específica de um software para controle industrial feito pela Siemens.

O virus Stuxnet passa então a dar à máquina novas instruções “desligando motores, confundindo o monitoramento de temperaturas e desligando refrigeradores, por exemplo”, diz O’Murchu. “Nunca vimos este tipo de ataque antes. Se não encontrar uma configuração específica, o vírus permanece inofensivo. Sua estrutura faz uso de muitas técnicas que não temos visto até agora. É um projeto enorme, muito bem financiado e planejado.”

“Com as provas que temos, é muito provável que o víris Stuxnet seja uma arma de sabotagem direcionada, que contou com informações industriais sofisticadas”, disse um especialista em tecnologia da informação industrial, Ralph Langner, num artigo publicado na Internet. “Este vírus não é a criação de um hacker que trabalhou independentemente em seu apartamento. Ele tem uma quantidade incrível de códigos que tinham de ser cuidadosamente planejados por uma equipe de programadores sofisticados. Para mim, os recursos necessários para realizar um ataque como este só podem ser montados por um governo que está determinado a atacar sistemas informáticos importantes de outro governo.”

Langner sugeriu que o virus Stuxnet pode ter atacado a usina nuclear de Bushehr. Outros especialistas especularam que o vírus pode estar atacando a usina de enriquecimento de urânio de Natanz. Mas O’Murchu e outros dizem que não há evidências de quais seriam os alvos específicos.

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A computer supervirus is attacking important parts of Iranian infrastructure.

A type of computer virus, the most sophisticated ever detected, can target Iranian “high value” infrastructure, according to a group of experts studying malware.

The complexity of the Stuxnet virus, which allows remote access to an infected computer, suggests that it must have been created by some national government. These experts believe the virus is the first specifically created to attack large infrastructure systems such as hydroelectric power stations and factories.

An investigation by Symantec, an American computer-security company, suggests that almost 60% of all world-wide computer infections occur in Iran.

“The fact that we are seeing more infections in Iran than in any other part of the world makes us think that the country itself was targeted,” says Liam O’Murchu, of Symantec.

The Stuxnet virus was detected by a security company in Belarus in June, although it has been circulating since 2009 and has been intensively studied since then.

The Stuxnet virus, unlike most viruses, is not connected to the internet. It infects Windows machines via USB and pen drives used to transport files. Once it infects a machine on an intranet, a company’s internal network, the virus searches for a specific configuration of software for industrial control made by Siemens.

The Stuxnet virus then moves on to give new instructions to the machine “disconnecting motors, confusing the monitoring of temperatures, and turning off refrigerators, for example,” says O’Murchu. “We have never seen this kind of attack before. If it does not find a specific configuration, the virus remains harmless. Its structure makes use of many techniques that we have not seen up to now. It’s a huge project, very well financed and planned.”

“With the evidence we have it is quite likely that the Stuxnet virus is a controlled weapon of sabotage, which included sophisticated industrial information,” said a specialist in industrial information technology, Ralph Langner, in an article published on the Internet. “This virus is not the creation of a hacker who worked independently in his apartment. It has an incredible amount of code that had to be carefully planned by a team of sophisticated programmers. As far as I am concerned, the resources required to perform such an attack can only be assembled by a government that is determined to attack important computer systems of another government.”

Langner suggested that the Stuxnet virus may have attacked the Bushehr nuclear plant. Other experts speculated that the virus may be attacking the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. But O’Murchu and others say there is no evidence of what would be the specific targets.

Double-Column Presentation of the Texts of “Interlingua multilingue”

For language students, the most effective way of presenting the texts of “Interlingua Multilingue” would be in a double- or multi-column format in with the first paragraphs of all texts lined up at the same horizontal level. This would make it very easy for people to compare these texts for their similarities and differences.

Because electronic text-editing systems were not designed for language students, multi-column presentations of this sort are not easy to format. That is why I have presented the texts of “Interlingue multilingue” in a sequential instead of a multi-column format. Nevertheless, I hope that in the future someone (or a group of people) will see these texts as important enough to reformat in columns.

Probably the best way of easily presenting them on current computer screens will be to use bicolumnar formats with Interlingua on one side and one of its source languages on the other.

As I have said many times before, if others decide to work with these texts further, they are welcome to re-edit both the Interlingua and the source-language texts to fit their preferences in the use of any of these languages. They are also welcome to add materials to any of these texts if they feel inclined to do so.

The editing process comes down to taking a given text and either inserting new text into it or taking text out of it. Electronic editing makes this process very easy.

In many of my publications in Interlingua, I have started out with some text that I have used as a seed to produce the final texts. In my Interlingua conversation course, for example, I started out with another foreign-language conversation course and adapted it into Interlingua, occasionally adding new text to it if I felt inspired to do so.

This kind of editing, while useful for producing materials for studying languages, is not respectable in many academic circles, where it is condemned as a form of plagiarism. But long before copyright laws were enacted (especially in the case of surviving ancient texts) this kind of activity in the production of new texts was quite common. The current versions of the Bible, for example, are reworked combinations of older texts from a variety of sources.

I don’t know how much longer I will be able to continue working on “Interlingua multilingue.” I have just received some bad news from my cardiologist that after my second operation for a mitral-valve prolapse, my heart is starting to fail, and he has referred me to my surgeon for an evaluation of the possibility of a third operation.

I expect that these problems with my heart will kill me before all that long. Nevertheless, I will continue working on “Interlingua multilingue” for as long as I am physically able and as long as I have the necessary computer equipment and internet connections to continue with this project. I hope that after I am forced to give it up, others will continue to add to it or rework what I have published up to to now to make it useful for future students of Interlingua and its source languages.

Le Senato del Statos Unite rejecta le debatto sur gays in le fortias armate del Statos Unite.

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Portuguese, English)

Le Senato del Statos Unite rejectava un nove tentativa de initiar le debatto sur un possibile lege pro permitter que homosexuales serve in le fortias armate american, revelante apertemente su preferentia sexual.

Actualmente, homosexuales es admittite in le fortias armate, ma illes pote esser expellite si illes revela apertemente lor orientation sexual, in un politica cognoscite como “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. Le presidente Barack Obama habeva promettite reverter iste politica.

Ma con forte resistentia del opposition republican, le proposition de initiar le deliberation sur le cambio de politica finalmente esseva rejectate, recipiente le appoio de 56 senatores, quatro minus que le numero necesse pro approbar le cambio. Altere 43 votava contra iste proposition.

Le criticos del lege dice que le cambio poterea afficer le moral del soldatos.

Le democratas, qui appoia iste cambio, pote essayar a aperir iste projecto pro debatto in le Senato un altere vice ante que le anno termina.

Gruppos de defensa del derectos del gays dice que illes time que, si le democratas perde sedes in le Congresso in le electiones de novembre, un nove tentativa de approbar le lege essera etiam plus difficile.

Robert Gates, le Secretario de Defensa del Statos Unite, diceva que ille esseva disponite a accptar iste cambio, ma ille voleva executar lo lentamente pro evitar possibile effectos sur le moral del truppas.

Gates diceva que ille non vole le approbation de iste lege ante le conclusion de un studio del Pentagono sur le effectos de iste cambio sur le militares.

Obama promitteva que nulle cambio esserea implementate ante le publication del studio le prime die de decembre.

Un sondage Gallup indica que le majoritate del americanos accepta soldatos apertemente gay in le fortias armate del pais.

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O Senado dos Estados Unidos rejeita debate sobre gays nas forças armadas dos Estados Unidos.

O Senado dos Estados Unidos rejeitou uma nova tentativa de iniciar o debate sobre uma possível lei para permitir que homossexuais sirvam nas forças armadas americanas revelando abertamente sua preferência sexual.

Atualmente, homossexuais são admitidos nas forças armadas, mas podem ser expulsos se revelarem abertamente sua opção sexual, numa política conhecida como “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. O presidente Barack Obama tinha prometido reverter esta política.

Entretanto, com forte resistência da oposição republicana, a proposta de iniciar a deliberação sobre a mudança da política acabou recebendo o apoio de 56 senadores, quatro a menos do que os necessários para aprovar a mudança. Outros 43 votaram contra esta proposta.

Os críticos da lei dizem que a mudança poderia afetar o moral dos soldados.

Os democratas, que apóiam essa mudança, podem tentar abrir este projeto para debate no Senado, mais uma vez antes do ano terminar.

Grupos de defesa dos direitos dos gays dizem temer que, se os democratas perderem assentos no Congresso nas eleições de novembro, uma nova tentativa de aprovar a lei ficará ainda mais difícil.

Robert Gates, o Secretário de Defensa dos Estados Unidos, disse que ele estava disposto a aceitar essa mudança, mas queria executá-la lentamente para evitar possíveis efeitos sobre o moral das tropas.

Gates disse que ele não quer a aprovação desta lei antes da conclusão de um estudo do Pentágono sobre os efeitos desta mudança sobre os militares.

Obama prometeu que nenhuma mudança seria implementada até que o estudo seja divulgado, em primeiro de dezembro.

Uma pesquisa Gallup indica que a maioria dos americanos aceitariam soldados abertamente gays nas forças armadas do país.

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U.S. Senate rejects debate on gays in the American military.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday rejected a new attempt to begin debate on a possible law to allow homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military while openly revealing their sexual preference.

Today, homosexuals are accepted in the military, but they can be expelled if they openly reveal their sexual orientation, a policy known as “Don’t ask, Don’t tell.” President Barack Obama promised to reverse this policy.

However, with strong resistance from the Republican opposition, the proposal to begin deliberations about reversing this policy finally received the support of 56 senators, four fewer than needed to approve the change. Another 43 voted against this proposal.

Critics of the law say the change could affect the morale of soldiers.

The Democrats, who support this change, may try to open up this project to debate in the Senate once again before the year ends.

Gay rights advocacy groups say they fear that if the Democrats lose seats in Congress in the November elections, a new attempt to pass the law will be even more difficult.

Robert Gates, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, said that he was willing to accept this change but wanted to implement it slowly to avoid possible effects on the morale of the troops.

Gates said that he does not want approval of this law before the completion of a study by the Pentagon on the effects of this change on the military.

Obama promised that no changes would be implemented until the study is released on December 1.

A recent Gallup poll indicates that most Americans would accept openly gay soldiers in the armed forces of the country.

Phobos esseva formate per un enorme explosion in Marte.

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Spanish, English)

Pro multe tempore le origine del satellites de Marte, Phobos e Deimos, ha essite un mysterio pro le astronomos.

On ha suggerite que ambe lunas poterea esser asteroides capturate per le gravitate del planeta rubie.

Ma nunc il ha un gruppo de investigatores del Instituto National de Astrophysica in Italia qui dice que illes ha evidentia firme que proba que Phobos--le plus grande del duo satellites--se formava con roccas que entrava in orbita circum le planeta post un explosion massive in su superficie.

Le studio, presentate durante le Congresso Europee de Scientia Planetari que se ha celebrate in Roma, considera varie possibilitates.

Le prime es que roccas que vadeva al spatio desde le superficie de Marte post un collision con un asteroide se reuniva per le fortia de su proprie gravitate pro formar Phobos.

Un altere es que Phobos se ha formate con le restos de un luna plus vetule, destruite per le fortias gravitational de Marte. Le altere luna anque se haberea originate desde le superficie martian.

Observationes anterior de Phobos in longitudes de de unda de luce visibile e del infrarubie proxime al luce visibile habeva essite interpretate como indicative del possibile presentia de chondritas carbonacee, que se trova in meteorites que ha collidite contra le Terra.

On crede que iste material roccose ric in carbon, que remaneva post le formation del Systema Solar, se originava in le asteroides ubicate inter Marte e Jupiter.

Ma nunc, con le datos del sonda Mars Express del Agentia Spatial Europee, le hypothese del captura de asteroides pare minus probabile.

Le observationes recente in longitudes de unda del infrarubie thermic, effectuate con le uso del Spetrometro Planetari Fourier del Mars Express, monstra que le roccas in Phobos non corresponde con ulle tipo de meteorite que se ha trovate in le Terra.

Isto pare appoiar le modelos que suggere que roccas del superficie del planeta rubie esseva expulsate a in un orbita circum Marte e postea se agruppava e formava Phobos.

“Nos detegeva per le prime vice un tipo de material appellate phylosillicato in le superficie de Phobos, particularmente in areas al nordest del Stickney, su crater de impacto plus grande”, explicava le doctor Marco Giuranna, co-autor del studio.

On crede que iste roccas de phylosillicatos se formava in le presentia de aqua previemente sur le superficie de Marte. Tal roccas jam se ha observate in le superficie del planeta rubie.

“E isto es multo interessante proque illo implica le interaction de materiales de silicato con aqua liquide in le superficie de Marte ante su accumulation in Phobos”, diceva le doctor Giuranna. “Alternativemente, le phylosillicatos poteva haber se formate in situ, ma isto poterea significar que Phobos necessitava sufficiente calentamento interne de maniera que le aqua liquide poteva mantener se stabile.”

Altere observationes de Phobos pare corresponder con le tipo de minerales identificate in le superficie de Marte. De iste maniera, dice le scientistas, le formation de Phobos pare esser plus proxime a Marte in su structura que al asteroides inter Marte e Jupiter.

“In ultra”, diceva Pascal Rosenblatt, del Real Observatorio de Belgio, “Le scenario de captura de asteroides non pote explicar nos le existentia del actual orbita quasi circular e quasi equatorial del lunas martian”.

Le investigatores anque utilisava le Mars Express pro obtiner le mensuras le plus precise que on ha facite usque nunc del densitate de Phobos.

“Iste numero es significativemente plus parve que le densitate del material meteoritic associate con asteroides”, diceva le doctor Rosenblatt. “Isto implica un structura simile a un spongia con vacuos que forma inter 25 e 45% del interior de Phobos..”

Un asteroide altemente porose probabilemente non superviverea se illo esseva capturate per Marte. In ultra, ille structura porose de Phobos poterea haber resultate del reaccretion de bloccos rocose in le orbita de Marte.

In 2011 Russia lanceara un mission robotic al luna martian, le qual investigara con plus detalio le composition del satellite.

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Fobos fue formado por una enorme explosión en Marte.

Durante mucho tiempo el origen de los satélites de Marte, Fobos y Deimos, ha sido un misterio para los astrónomos.

Se ha sugerido que ambas lunas podrían ser asteroides capturados por la gravedad del planeta rojo.

Pero ahora hay un grupo de investigadores del Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica en Italia que afirman que tienen evidencia firme que prueba que Fobos--el mayor de las dos satellites--se formó con rocas que entraron en órbita alrededor del planeta después de una explosión masiva en su superficie.

El estudio, presentado durante el Congreso Europeo de Ciencia Planetaria que se ha celebrado en Roma, está considerando varias posibilidades.

La primera es que rocas que fueran al espacio desde la superficie de Marte después de una colisión con un asteroide se reunieran por la fuerza de su propia gravedad para formar Fobos.

Otra es que Fobos se haya formado con los restos de una luna más antigua, destruida por las fuerzas gravitacionales de Marte. La otra luna también se habría originado de material lanzado a la órbita desde la superficie marciana.

Observaciones anteriores de Fobos en longitudes de onda de luz visible y del infrarrojo cercano habían sido interpretadas como indicativas de la posible presencia de condritas carbonáceas, que se encuentran en meteoritos que han chocado contra la Tierra.

Se cree que este material rocoso rico en carbono, que quedó tras la formación del Sistema Solar, se originó en los asteroides ubicados entre Marte y Júpiter.

Pero ahora, con los datos de la sonda Mars Express de la Agencia Espacial Europea, la hipótesis de la captura de asteroides parece menos probable.

Las observaciones recientes en longitudes de onda del infrarrojo térmico, efectuadas utilizando el Espectrómetro Planetario Fourier del Mars Express, muestran que las rocas en Fobos no corresponden con ningún tipo de meteorito que se ha encontrado en la Tierra.

Esto parece apoyar los modelos que sugieren que rocas de la superficie del planeta rojo fueron expulsadas hacia la órbita marciana para después agruparse y formar a Fobos.

“Detectamos por primera vez un tipo de material llamado filosilicato en la superficie de Fobos, particularmente en áreas al noreste del Stickney, su mayor cráter de impacto”, explicó el doctor Marco Giuranna, coautor del estudio.

Se cree que estas rocas de filosilicatos se formaron con la presencia de agua previamente en la superficie de Marte. Tal rocas ya se han observado en la superficie del planeta rojo.

“Y esto es muy interesante porque implica la interacción de materiales de silicato con agua líquida en la superficie de Marte antes de su acumulación en Fobos”, dijo el doctor Giuranna. “Alternativamente, los filosilicatos pudieron haberse formado in situ, pero esto podría significar que Fobos necesitó suficiente calentamiento interno para que el agua líquida pudiera mantenerse estable.”

Otras observaciones de Fobos parecen corresponder con el tipo de minerales identificados en la superficie de Marte. Por lo tanto, dicen los científicos, la formación de Fobos parece estar más estrechamente relacionada a Marte que a los asteroides entre Marte y Júpiter.

“Además”, dijo Pascal Rosenblatt, del Real Observatorio de Bélgica “el escenario de captura de asteroides no puede explicarnos la existencia de la actual órbita casi circular y casi ecuatorial de las dos lunas marcianas”.

Los investigadores también utilizaron la Mars Express para obtener las mediciones más precisas que se tienen hasta ahora de la densidad de Fobos.

“Este número es significativamente menor que la densidad del material meteorítico asociado con asteroides”, dijo el doctor Rosenblatt. “Esto implica una estructura similar a una esponja con vacíos que forman entre 25 y 45% del interior de Fobos.”

Un asteroide altamente poroso probablemente no sobreviviría si fuera capturado por Marte. Por otra parte, esa estructura porosa de Fobos podría haber resultado de la reacreción de bloques rocosos en la órbita de Marte.

En 2011 Rusia lanzará una misión robótica a la luna marciana, la cual investigará con más detalle la composición del satélite.

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Phobos was formed by a massive explosion on Mars.

For a long time the origin of the satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, has been a mystery to astronomers.

It has been suggested that both could have been asteroids captured by the gravity of the red planet.

But now there is a group of researchers at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy who say they have firm evidence proving that Phobos--the larger of the two satellites--was formed by rocks that fell from the surface of the planet during a massive explosion.

The study, presented at the European Planetary Science Congress held in Rome, considered several possibilities.

The first one is that rocks that went into space from the Martian surface after a collision with an asteroid came together through the force of their mutual gravity to form Phobos.

Another is that Phobos was formed from the remains of an ancient moon, destroyed by the gravitational forces of Mars. The other moon would also have originated from material thrown into orbit from the Martian surface.

Previous observations of Phobos at wavelengths of visible light and near infrared have been interpreted as indicative of the presence of carbonaceous chondrites, which are found in meteorites that have collided with Earth.

It is believed that carbon-rich rock, which remained after the formation of the Solar System, had its origins in the asteroids located between Mars and Jupiter.

But now, with data from the Mars Express of the European Space Agency, the hypothesis of asteroid capture seems less likely.

Recent observations at thermal-infrared wavelengths made using the Fourier Planetary Spectrometer on the Mars Express show that the rocks on Phobos do not correspond with any chondrite meteorite that has been found on Earth.

This seems to support models that suggest that rocks of the red planet’s surface were ejected into orbit around Mars and then gathered together to form Phobos.

“We detected for the first time a kind of material called phyllosilicate on the surface of Phobos, particularly in areas northeast of Stickney, its largest impact crater,” said Dr. Marco Giuranna, co-author of the study.

It is believed that these phyllosilicates rocks were formed in the presence of water previously on the surface of Mars. Such rocks have been observed on the surface of Mars.

“And this is very interesting because it involves the interaction of silicate materials with liquid water on the surface of Mars before their accretion on Phobos,” said Dr. Giuranna. “Alternatively, the phyllosilicates may have formed in situ, but this could mean that Phobos needed enough internal heat so that liquid water could be kept stable.”

Other observations of Phobos seem to correspond to the type of minerals identified on the surface of Mars. Therefore, scientists say, the formation of Phobos appears to be more closely related to Mars than to asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.

“Also,” said Pascal Rosenblatt, of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, “the asteroid-capture scenario cannot explain the existence of the current nearly circular and nearly equatorial orbit of the two Martian moons.”

The researchers also used the Mars Express to obtain more precise measurements than have been made so far of the density of Phobos.

“This number is significantly lower than the density of meteoritic material associated with asteroids,” said Dr. Rosenblatt. “This implies a structure similar to a sponge with voids that form between 25 and 45% of the interior of Phobos.”

A highly porous asteroid probably would not survive if captured by Mars. Moreover, the porous structure of Phobos could have resulted from the reaccretion of blocks in the orbit of Mars.

In 2011 Russia will launch a robotic mission to the Martian moon, which will investigate in more detail the composition of the satellite.

Slovianski, un "interlingua" pro le familia slave

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, English)

Slovianski es un “interlingua” slave create in 2006 per un gruppo de slavophonos de diverse paises. Su scopo es facilitar communication inter gente de differente nationes slav, e anque pro facilitar le communication con slavophonos per personas qui non cognosce ulle lingua slave. Pro tal personas, illo pote esser un introduction excellente al familia linguistic slave.

Slovianski pote esser classificate como un lingua semi-artificial. Illo ha su radices in le diverse formas linguistic improvisate per slavophonos pro communicar inter se, pro exemplo in ambientes in Internet ubi diverse linguas slave se usa.

Le scopo de slovianski es usar le diversitate de iste formas pro constuer un lingua sur un base scientific. Assi, e le grammatica e le vocabulario de slovianski se basa sur elementos que es commun inter omne le linguas slave, e elementos artificial non ha essite usate in su construction. Le objectivo es le comprehension immediate per nativos de ulle lingua del familia slave.

On pote scriber slovianski in le alphabetos roman e cyrillic.

Trans le seculos, on ha facite numerose effortios pro construer un lingua franca planificate pro omne slavophonos. Le major parte de iste efforios ha su radices in le pan-slavismo.

Ben que le pan-slavismo non ha essite un movimento importante post le collapso del Union Sovietic e de Yugoslavia, on pote trovar adherentes de iste ideologia intra gruppos de personas ubi il ha émigrés slave e in Internet, e le uso augmentante del Rete anque ha incoragiate le apparentia de nove linguas pan-slave.

Lo que es commun inter iste linguas es que illos ha su base in le familia slave, particularmente in le assumption que le linguas de iste familia es satis simile pro permitter le emergentia de un lingua franca slave que es facile a comprender pro le usatores de omne le linguas slave.

Ma il ha un diversitate de opiniones sur questiones grammatic. Un alte quantitate de simplification, un characteristica pro le major parte de linguas international auxiliar, facilita lor studio pro personas qui non es nativos del linguas slave. Ma tal simplification da a tal linguas characteristicas que augmenta le intercomprehensibilitate de illos per nativos del familias linguistic ex le quales iste linguas se deriva.

Le projecto pro disveloppar slovianski comenciava in Martio, 2006, quando diverse personas de differente paises del mundo credeva que il habeva un necessiatate pro le creation de un lingua slave neutral que slavophonos poterea comprender sin studio previe. Illes voleva evitar le artificialitate de slovio, le melio cognoscite lingua franca slave construite usque tunc, que ha un grammatica simile a illo de esperanto e un predominantia de parolas derivate de formas russe.

Le disveloppatores de slovianski voleva crear un lingua naturalistic que consisterea de formas lexicic e grammatic que existeva in le major parte del linguas slave sin le addition de ulle elementos artificial. Assi, slovianski ha tres generos (masculin, feminin, e neutre) e sex casos, e un systema de conjugation pro le verbos.

In despecto de iste characteristicas, slovianaski ha un alte grado de simplification proque su desinentias es simple e completemente sin ambiguitate, e il ha un minimo de irregularitate.

Secundo le inventores de slovianski, slovio es un lingua esperantesc, durante que slovianski es pro le linguas slave lo que interlingua es pro le linguas romanic. Un altere characteristica de slovianski es que, como in le caso de interlngua, il es su usatores qui collectivemente lo disveloppa in vice de un “academia” linguistic.

Slovianski se usa principalmente in messages publicate in Internet, e illo anque ha un publication que es le equivalente de “Panorama” pro interlingua, le “Slovianska Gazeta”. Usque nunc tamen le sloviano non ha disveloppate un corpore de litteratura tan grande como interlingua.

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Slovianski is a Slavic “Interlingua” created in 2006 by a group of Slavic speakers of various countries. Its purpose is to facilitate communication among people from different Slavic nations, and also to facilitate communication with Slavic speakers by people who do not know any Slavic language. For such people, it can be an excellent introduction to the Slavic language family.

Slovianski can be considered a semi-artificial language. It has its roots in the various linguistic forms improvised by Slavic speakers to communicate among themselves, for example in Internet environments where different Slavic languages are used.

The purpose of Slovianski is to use the diversity of these forms to construct a language on a scientific basis. Thus, the grammar and vocabulary of Slovianski is based on elements that are common to all the Slavic languages, and artificial elements have not been used in its construction. The objective is immediate comprehension by natives of any language in the Slavic family.

Slovianski can be written in both the roman and Cyrillic alphabets.

Through the centuries numerous efforts have been made to construct a planned llngua franca for all Slavic speakers. For the most part, these efforts have their roots in Pan-Slavism.

Though Pan-Slavism has not been an important movement after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, it is possible to find adherence to this ideology among groups of people where there are Slavic émigrés and on the Internet, and the increasing use of the Net also has encouraged the appearance of new pan-Slavic languages.

What is common among these languages is that they are based on the Slavic family, particularly on the assumption that the languages of this family are similar enough to allow for the emergence of a Slavic lingua franca that is easy to understand by the users of all the Slavic languages.

But there are various opinions on grammatical questions. A large amount of simplification, a characteristic for most international auxiliary languages, facilitates their study by people who are not native speakers of the language families from which these languages are derived.

The project to develop Slovianski began in March, 2006, when various people from different countries in the world believed that there was a need for the creation of a neutral Slavic language that Slavic speakers could understand without previous study. They wanted to avoid the artificiality of Slovio, the best known Slavic lingua franca constructed up to then, which has a grammar similar to Esperanto’s and a predominance of words derived from Russian forms.

The developers of Sloviansky wanted to create a naturalistic language that would be made up of lexical and grammatical forms that existed in most of the Slavic languages without the addition of any artificial elements. Thus, Slovianski has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and six cases and a verb-conjucation system,

Despite these characteristics, Slovianski has a high degree of simplification because its word endings are simple and completely without ambiguity, and there is a minimum of irregularity.

According to the inventors of Slovianski, Slovio is an Espertesque language, while Slovianski is for the Slavic languages what Interlingua is for the Romance languages. Another characteristic Slovianski is that, as is true for Interlingua, it is its users who collectively develop it instead of a linguistic “academy.”

Slovianski is used principally in messages published on the Internet, and it also has a publication that is the equivalent of “Panorama” for Interlingua, the “Slovianska Gazeta.” Up to now, however, Slovianski has not developed as large a corpus of literature as Interlingua.

Quaranta annos post su morte, Jimi Hendrix es recognoscite como possibilemente le plus innovator de omne le guitarristas de rock.

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Spanish, English)

Quaranta annos post su morte accidental in London, Jimi Hendrix es recognoscite como forsan le plus importante de omne le guitarristas de rock, a causa de un stilo innovator que totevia sona tan actual e un grande quantitate de musica recentemente publicate que augmenta su fama e que continua a dar nove ideas a guitarristas contemporanee de rock.

Hendrix includeva in su compositiones un mixtura de elementos de rock, pop, blues, gospel, e musica classic in cantos con parolas specialmente poterose e poetic e un serie de innovationes instrumental in le quales a vices le guitarra pare parlar, critar, e gemer. A vices, ille mesmo faceva sonar le guitarra con le dentes.

Ille faceva uso de un varietate de vibratores, synthetisatores, e altere equipos electronic connectite a su guitarra pro producer un varietate de effectos special, conjunctemente con multe sequentias melodic subtil.

Quando Hendrix arrivava al Olympic Studios in London al comenciamento de 1967 post su prime successo “Hey Joe”, le ingeniero assignate a travaliar con ille esseva Eddy Kramer.

Quando Hendrix portva al studio un grande quantitate de amplificatores, Kramer non non sapeva exactemente como ille iva a combiner los in un registration succedite, e illle improvisava feberilmente. Post registrar unes pauc numeros, Hendrix vadeva al cabina de controlo pro cognoscer le resultatos. A ille placeva multo lo que Kramer habeva facite, e ille continuava a travaliar con Kramer in le tres albums de studio que ille publicava durante su breve carriera.

Hendrix sovente videva su musica in terminos de color, e Kramer apprendeva rapidemente lo que ille voleva dicer quando ille parlava sur su colores musical. Verde, pro exemplo, significava le reverberation, e le altere colores significava un grande varietate de effectos special que Kramer rapidemente dominava.

Hendrix esseva un musico prolific e infatigabile qui nunquam cessava su activitates de componer musica e parolas pro su cantos, e ille sempre stava a experimentar con nove sonos musical in le studio.

“Jimi esseva multo disciplinate. Ille habeva un capacitate de concentration como un laser”, affirmava Eddie Kramer. “Ille entrava in le studio e sapeva exactemente lo que ille voleva e continuava con su experimentos musical usque obtiner exactemente le tipo de sono que ille cercava.”

A causa de su grande productivitate, Hendrix produceva un immense quantitate de excellente musica registrate que superviveva su morte le 18 de septembre de 1970. Multo de iste musica se ha miscite de novo pro publication in le ultime decadas, ganiando nove fans pro ille e augmentante su fama musical.

Ille formava un parte del selecte club de rockeros del blues Britannic, como Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimy Paige, Pete Townsend, Peter Green y John Mayall, qui se trovava multo impressionate con su virtuosimmo.

Le musica de Hendrix ha habite un influentia significative in le ultime generationes de musicos, como Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen y John Mayer. Ille anque ha habite un grande influentia sur differente generos musical, como reggae, heavy metal, punk, e hip hop, e il es multo probabile que le musicos del futuro continuara a esser inspirate per su travalio durante que illes disveloppa nove formas musical in le futuro.

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Cuarenta años después de su muerte, Jimi Hendrix es reconocido como posiblemente el más innovador de todos los guitarristas de rock.

Cuarenta años después de su muerte accidental en Londres, Jimi Hendrix es reconocido como quizás el más importante de todos los guitarristas de rock, debido a un estilo innovador que aún suena tan actual y una gran cantidad de música recién publicada que incrementa su fama y sigue dando nuevas ideas a guitarristas contemporáneos de rock.

Hendrix incluyó en sus composiciones una mezcla de elementos de rock, pop, blues, gospel y música clásica en canciones con letras especialmente poderosas y poéticas y una serie de innovaciones instrumentales en las que a veces la guitarra parecía hablar, gritar y gemir. A veces incluso tocaba la guitarra con los dientes.

Hizo uso de una variedad de vibradores, sintetizadores y otros equipos electrónicos conectados a su guitarra para producir una variedad de efectos especiales, junto con muchas secuencias melódicas sutiles.

Cuando Hendrix llegó al Olympic Studios en Londres a principios de 1967 después de su primer éxito “Hey Joe”, el ingeniero encargado de trabajar con él fue Eddy Kramer.

Cuando Hendrix llevó al estudio un montón de amplificadores, Kramer no sabía exactamente cómo iba a combinarlos en una grabación exitosa, e improvisó febrilmente. Después de jugar unos pocos números, Hendrix fue a la cabina de control para conocer los resultados. A él le gustó mucho lo que Kramer había hecho y continuó trabajando con Kramer en los tres álbums de estudio que dio a conocer al público durante su corta carrera.

Hendrix veía a menudo su música en términos de color, y Kramer aprendió rápidamente lo que quería decir cuando hablaba de su colores musicales. Verde, por ejemplo, significaba la reverberación, y los otros colores significaban una gran variedad de efectos especiales que Kramer rápidamente dominó.

Hendrix fue un músico prolífico e incansable que nunca dejó de componer música y escribir letras para sus canciones, y él siempre estaba experimentando con nuevos sonidos musicales en el estudio.

“Jimi era muy disciplinado. Tenía una capacidad de concentración como un laser”, afirmó Eddie Kramer. “Entraba en el estudio y sabía exactamente lo que quería y continuó con sus experimentos musicales hasta conseguir exactamente el tipo de sonido que buscaba.”

Debido a su gran productividad, Hendrix produjo una inmensa cantidad de música grabada excelente que sobrevivió su muerte el 18 de septiembre de 1970. Mucha de esta música se ha mezclado y lanzado al público en las últimas décadas, ganando nuevos fans para él y aumentándo su fama musical.

Formó parte del selecto club de roqueros del blues británico, como Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimy Paige, Pete Townsend, Peter Green y John Mayall, que estaban muy impresionados con su virtuosismo.

La música de Hendrix ha tenido una influencia significativa en las últimas generaciones de músicos, como Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie, Van Halen y John Mayer. Él también ha tenido gran influencia en diferentes géneros musicales, como reggae, heavy metal, punk y hip hop, y es muy probable que los músicos del futuro seguirán siendo inspirados por su trabajo a medida que desarrollen nuevas formas musicales en el futuro.

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Forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix is recognized as possibly the most innovative of all rock guitarists.

Forty years after his accidental death in London, Jimi Hendrix is recognized as perhaps the most important of all rock guitarists because of an innovative style that still sounds so current and a large amount of newly published music that increases his fame and still gives new ideas to contemporary rock guitarists.

Hendrix included in his compositions a mixture of elements of rock, pop, blues, gospel, and classical music in songs with uniquely powerful and poetic lyrics and a series of instrumental innovations in which at times the guitar seemed to talk, scream, and moan. Sometimes he even played the guitar with his teeth.

He made use of a variety of vibrators, synthesizers and other electronic equipment connected to his guitar to produce a variety of special effects coupled with many subtle melodic sequences.

When Hendrix came to the Olympic Studios in London in early 1967 after his first hit “Hey Joe”, the engineer in charge of working with him was Eddy Kramer.

When Hendrix brought to the studio a lot of amplifiers, he did not know exactly how he would combine them into a successful recording, and he improvised feverishly. After playing a few numbers, Hendrix went into the control booth to hear the results. He really liked what Kramer had done and continued to work with Kramer on the three studio albums that he released to the public during his short career.

Hendrix often saw his music in terms of color, and Kramer quickly learned what he meant when he spoke about his musical colors. Green, for example, signified reverberation, and the other colors signified a variety of special effects that Kramer quickly mastered.

Hendrix was a prolfic and tireless musician who never stopped composing music and writing lyrics to his songs, and he always was experimenting with new musical sounds in the studio.

“Jimi was very disciplined. He had an ability to focus like a laser,” said Eddie Kramer. “He entered the studio and knew exactly what he wanted and continued with his musical experiments until he got exactly the kind of sound that he was looking for.”

Because of his great productivity, Hendrix produced an immense amount of excellent recorded music that survived his death on September 18, 1970. A lot of this music has been mixed and released to the public over the past decades, gaining for him new fans and increasing his musical fame.

He formed part of the select club of British blues rockers, such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimy Paige, Pete Townsend, Peter Green and John Mayall, who were greatly impressed with his virtuosity.

Hendrix’s music has had a significant influence on recent generations of musicians, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen and John Mayer. He has also had a great influence on different musical genres, including reggae, heavy metal, punk, and hip hop, and it is very likely that musicians of the future will continue to be inspired by his work as they develop new musical forms in the future.

Le population del mundo sta a devenir plus vetule, menaciante le systemas de retiro in le futuro.

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Portuguese, English)

Nos nos trova al initio de un grave crise demographic. In le majoritate del paises, le population sta a devenir plus vetule. Isto ha, inevitabilemente, consequentias dramatic pro systemas de retiro e altere systemas de appoio pro gente vetule.

Primo, le numero medie de annos que le gente sta a viver devini plus grande. Un infante nascite in 1960 habeva un expectation de vita de 52 annos. Hodie ille etate se ha augmentate a 69 annos. In le medietate de iste seculo, iste numero debe augmentar etiam plus, ultra 70 annos.

In ultra, le gente sta a haber minus filios. In 1960 esseva registrate 33 nascimentos pro cata mille personas. Nunc le numero es 20, e illo debe cader etiam plus.

Isto anque pote esser vidite como un bon nova proque illo pote resultar in un stabilisation del population global, ben que in un nivello substantialmente plus alte que illo de hodie.

Iste information es derivate de medias global, e le scenario varia de un pais a un altere. Alicun ha vidite le expectativa de vita cader durante le ultime duo decadas, debite al impacto del contagio de AIDS, specialmente in le sud de Africa. Ma le patrono general es illo de vitas plus longe, e de minus filios.

Ben que iste duo tendentias pote esser vidite como positive, illos creara un nove problema. Il ha un quantitate de personas minus grande in le etate economicamente active in relation a cata persona vetule. Le dimunition in le taxas de natalitate significa que il habera minus travaliatores pro pagar pro un quantitate de gente retirate plus grande.

In 1950, 8% del population mundial habeva plus que 60 annos. Nunc, iste numero es de 11% e, in le medio de iste seculo, le numero debera esser 22%, secundo projectiones del Nationes Unite. In alicun partes del mundo (Japan, Macau, e Korea del Sud) le indice essera de 40%.

Multe systemas public de adjuta social es sustenite per moneta que veni de contribuentes active in le mercato de travalio. Illo significa que, in le futuro, il habera minus contribuentes pro pagar pro un numero plus grande de personas retirate.

Le systemas private de retiro es differente, ma alicun economistas crede que un population economicamente active que es plus parve resultara in le eventual reduction del valores del activos financiari, que tunc habera un effecto sur le systemas de retiro in le futuro.

E il ha anque le crise financiari. Multe personas qui se retirava durante le crise esseva afficite con le depreciation del activos usate pro pagar pro fundos de retiro. Assi, multe personas retirate debe conviver con multo minus moneta que lo que illes sperava.

Il pare que le economias sta a crescer plus lentamente, como resultato del crise--un tendentia que prejudicara le valor del activos de fundos de retiro.

In le sector public, le contributiones pro gente retirate esseva afficite per salarios plus basse e indices de disempleo plus elevate.

Le historia es differente in paises in disveloppamento. Un quantitate minus grande de personas ha ulle tipo de systema de retiro. In le major parte de Africa, minus que 5% del fortia de travalio actual ha derectos de retiro. In multe paises asiatic, includente China e India, le indice se trova inter 5% e 25%.

Durante que un numero agumentante de gente migra al citates, le gente vetule qui vive in zonas rural ha un quantitate reducite de parentes qui pote custodiar les.

In le paises disveloppante, le preparationes pro le vetulessa es quasi sempre informal e basate in le familia. Ille systema confronta su proprie pressiones, derivate anque de un population que deveni plus vetule.

Un persona vetule typic habera minus filios qui potera custodiar le. Iste tipo de appoio functiona melio si lor familias se trova presso illes. Ma ille ligamines anque sta a reducer se per le migration de juvenes in cerca de travalio.

Il ha alicun variationes importante in relation a como paises differente es afficite per iste phenomenos. Ma istes es tendentias global, e le majoritate del paises essera afficite, de un maniera o de un altere.

Il es difficile, in iste momento, determinar como iste problemsas essera tractate de un maniera efficace in un futuro que essera progressivemente dominate per iste tendentias demographic.

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A população do mundo está se tornando mais velha, ameaçando os sistemas de aposentadoria do futuro.

Estamos no início de uma grave crise demográfica. Na maioria dos países, a população está ficando mais velha. Isto tem, inevitavelmente, consequências dramáticas para sistemas de aposentadorias e outros sistemas de apoio a idosos.

Primeiro, o número médio de anos que a gente está vivendo agora está ficando maior. Uma criança nascida em 1960 tinha expectativa de vida de 52 anos. Hoje, essa idade aumenta para 69. Na metade deste século, este número deve aumentar ainda mais, para além dos 70 anos.

Além disso, a gente está tendo menos filhos. Em 1960, eram registrados 33 nascimentos por cada mil pessoas. Agora o numero é 20, e deve cair ainda mais.

Isto também pode ser visto como boa notícia pois pode levar a uma estabilização da população global, embora em um nível substancialmente mais alto que o de hoje.

Esta informação é derivada a partir das médias globais, e o cenário varia de acordo com os países. Alguns viram a expectativa de vida cair ao longo das últimas duas décadas, devido ao impacto do contágio pela Aids, especialmente no sul da África. Mas o padrão geral é o de vidas mais longas, e de menos filhos.

Embora estas duas tendências podem ser vistas como positivas, elas criarão um novo problema. Há menos pessoas em idade economicamente ativa em relação a cada idoso. O decréscimo nas taxas de natalidade significa que haverá menos trabalhadores para pagar por mais aposentadorias.

Em 1950, 8% da população mundial tinha mais de 60 anos. Agora, este número é de 11% e, até a metade deste século, o número deverá ser de 22%, de acordo com projeções das Nações Unidas. Em algumas partes do mundo (Japão, Macau e Coréia do Sul) o índice será de 40%.

Muitos sistemas públicos de previdência social são sustentados por dinheiro vindo de contribuintes ativos no mercado de trabalho. Isso significa que, no futuro, haverá menos contribuintes para pagar por mais aposentadorias.

Os sistemas privados de aposentadoria são diferentes, mas alguns economistas acreditam que uma população economicamente ativa que é menor resultará na eventual redução dos valores dos activos financeiros, que por sua vez, terão um efeito sobre os sistemas de aposentadoria no futuro.

E há ainda a crise financeira. Muitas pessoas que se aposentaram durante a crise foram afetadas com a desvalorização dos ativos usados para pagar por fundos de pensão. Assim, muitos aposentados têm que conviver com muito menos dinheiro do que eles esperavam.

Parece que as economias estão a crescer mais lentamente, como resultado da crise--uma tendência que irá prejudicar o valor dos activos dos fundos de pensão.

No setor público, as contribuições para aposentadorias foram afetadas por salários mais baixos e índices de desemprego mais altos.

A história é diferente em países em desenvolvimento. Menos pessoas têm qualquer espécie de aposentadoria. Na maior parte da África, menos de 5% da força de trabalho atual tem direitos de aposentadoria. Em muitos países asiáticos, incluindo China e Índia, o índice está entre 5% e 25%.

À medida que mais gente migra para as cidades, os idosos que vivem em zonas rurais têm menos parentes que possam cuidar deles.

Nos países em desenvolvimento, os preparativos para a velhice são quase sempre informais e baseados na família. Esse sistema enfrenta suas próprias pressões, derivadas também do envelhecimento da população.

Um idoso típico terá menos filhos de quem depender. Este tipo de apoio funciona melhor se as famílias estão por perto. Mas esses laços também são minados pela migração de jovens de áreas rurais para áreas urbanas, em busca de trabalho.

Há algumas variações importantes em relação a como países diferentes são afetados por estes fenômenos. Mas estas são tendências globais, e a maioria dos países será afetada, de um jeito ou de outro.

É difícil, neste momento, determinar como estes problemas serão tratados de forma eficaz em um futuro que será cada vez mais dominado por estas tendências demográficas.

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The population of the world is becoming older, threatening the retirement systems of the future.

We are at the beginning of a serious demographic crisis. In most countries, the population is getting older. This inevitably has tragic consequences for pension systems and other support systems for the elderly.

First, the average number of years that people are now living is getting larger. A child born in 1960 had a life expectancy of 52 years. Today, that age has gone up to 69. In the middle of this century, this number should increase even further, beyond 70 years.

Moreover, people are having fewer children. In 1960, 33 births were recorded per thousand people. Now the number is 20 and should fall further.

This can also be seen as good news because it may lead to a stabilization of global population, though at a level substantially higher than today’s.

This information is derived from global averages, and the scenario varies by country. Some have seen life expectancy drop over the past two decades due to the impact of contagion by AIDS, especially in southern Africa. But the general pattern is that of longer lives and fewer children.

Although these two trends can be seen as positive, they will create a new problem. There are fewer people of working age for every elderly person. The decrease in birth rates means that there will be fewer workers to pay for more people who are retired.

In 1950, 8% of the world’s population was more than 60 years old. Now, this number is 11%, and up to the middle of this century, the number should be 22%, according to United Nations projections. In some parts of the world (Japan, Macau and South Korea) the index will be 40%.

Many public systems of social welfare are supported by money coming from contributors active in the labor market. This means that in the future there will be fewer taxpayers to pay for more retirements.

Private retirement systems are different, but some economists believe that an economically active population that is smaller will result in an eventual reduction in the values of financial assets, which in turn will have an effect on retirement systems in the future.

And there is the financial crisis. Many people who retired during the crisis were affected by the depreciation of assets used to pay for pension funds. Thus many people have to live with much less money than they expected.

It seems that economies are growing more slowly as a result of the crisis--a tendency that will undermine the value of assets of pension funds.

In the public sector, contributions to pensions have been affected by lower wages and higher unemployment rates.

The story is different in developing countries. Fewer people have any kind of retirement. In most of Africa, less than 5% of the current workforce has the right to pensions. In many Asian countries including China and India, the index is between 5% and 25%.

As more people migrate to cities, the elderly living in rural areas have fewer relatives who can take care of them.

In developing countries, preparations for old age are often informal and family-based. This system is facing its own pressures, also derived from an aging population.

A typical elderly person will have fewer children to rely on. This type of support works best if families are close-by. But those ties are also undermined by the migration of young people from rural to urban areas in search of work.

There are some important variations in relation to how different countries are affected by these phenomena. But these are global trends, and most countries will be affected one way or another.

It is difficult at this moment to determine how these problems will be effectively addressed in a future that will be progressively more dominated by these demographic trends.

Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity (by Richard Dawkins)

This is the full text of the speech that I planned to give at the London rally against the Pope, 18th Sept 2010. The speech as actually delivered in Whitehall was much shorter, mostly because the rally was so huge (an estimated 15,000) that the speeches started late and had to be curtailed.

Should Joseph Ratzinger have been welcomed with all the pomp and ceremony due to a Head of State? No. As Geoffrey Robertson has shown in The Case of the Pope, the Holy See's claim to statehood is founded on a Faustian deal in which Mussolini handed over 1.2 square miles of central Rome in exchange for Church support of his fascist regime.

Should Ratzinger, then, be welcomed as the head of a church? By all means, if individual Catholics wish to overlook his many transgressions and lay out the red carpet for his designer red shoes, let them do so.

But don't ask the rest of us to pay. Don't ask the British taxpayer to subsidize the propaganda mission of an institution whose wealth is measured in the tens of billions: wealth for which the phrase “ill-gotten” might have been specifically coined. And spare us the nauseating spectacle of the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and assorted Lord Lieutenants and other dignitaries cringing and fawning sycophantically all over him as though he were somebody we should respect.

Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, was respected by some as a saintly man. But nobody could call Benedict XVI saintly and keep a straight face. Whatever this leering old fixer may be, he is not saintly. Is he intellectual? Scholarly? That is often claimed, although it is far from clear what there is in theology to be scholarly about. Surely nothing to respect.

The unfortunate little fact that Joseph Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth has been the subject of a widely observed moratorium. I’ve respected it myself, up to now. But after the Pope’s outrageous speech in Edinburgh, blaming atheism for Hitler, one can’t help feeling that the gloves are off. Did you hear what he said?

“Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews . . . As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century . . .”

You have to wonder about the public-relations skills of the advisors who let that paragraph through. Oh but of course, I was forgetting, his senior advisor is that Cardinal who takes one look at the immigration officials at Heathrow and concludes that he must have landed in the Third World. The poor man was no doubt prescribed a bushel of Hail Marys, on top of his swift attack of diplomatic gout. And one can’t help wondering whether the afflicted foot was the one he puts in his mouth.

At first I was annoyed by the Pope’s disgraceful attack on atheists and secularists, but then I saw it as reassuring. It suggests that we have rattled them so much that they have to resort to insulting us, in a desperate attempt to divert attention from the child-rape scandal.

It probably is too harsh to expect the fifteen-year-old Ratzinger to have seen through the Nazis. As a devout Catholic, he would have had dinned into him, along with the Catechism, the obnoxious idea that all Jews are to be held responsible for killing Jesus--the ‘Christ-killer’ libel--not repudiated until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). The German Roman Catholic psyche of the time was still shot through with the anti-Semitism of centuries.

Adolf Hitler was a Roman Catholic. Or at least he was as much a Roman Catholic as the 5 million so-called Roman Catholics in this country today. For Hitler never renounced his baptismal Catholicism, which was doubtless the criterion for counting the 5 million alleged British Catholics today.

You cannot have it both ways. Either you have 5 million British Catholics, in which case you have to have Hitler too. Or Hitler was not a Catholic, in which case you have to give us an honest figure for the number of genuine Catholics in Britain today--the number who really believe Jesus turns himself into a wafer, as the former Professor Ratzinger presumably does.

In any case, Hitler certainly was not an atheist. In 1933 he claimed to have “stamped atheism out,” having banned most of Germany’s atheist organizations, including the German Freethinkers League whose building was then turned into an information bureau for church affairs.

At the very least, Hitler believed in a personified “Providence,” presumably akin to the Divine Providence invoked by the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich in 1939, when Hitler escaped assassination and the Cardinal ordered a special Te Deum in Munich Cathedral, “to thank Divine Providence in the name of the Archdiocese for the Führer’s fortunate escape.”

We may never know whether Hitler identified his “Providence” with the Cardinal’s God. But he certainly knew his overwhelmingly Christian constituency, the millions of good Christian Germans with Gott mit uns on their belt buckles, who actually did his dirty work for him. He knew his support base. Hitler most certainly did “do God”. Here’s part of a speech he made in Munich, the heart of Catholic Bavaria, in 1922:

“My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Saviour as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who--God's truth!--was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter.

“In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison.

“Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross.”

That is just one of numerous speeches, and passages in “Mein Kampf,” where Hitler invoked his Christianity. No wonder he received such warm support from within the Catholic hierarchy of Germany. And Benedict’s predecessor, Pius XII, is not guiltless, as the Catholic writer John Cornwell devastatingly showed, in his book “Hitler’s Pope.”

It would be unkind to prolong this point, but Ratzinger’s speech in Edinburgh on Thursday was so disgraceful, so hypocritical, so redolent of the sound of stones hurled from within a glass house, I felt that I had to reply.

Even if Hitler had been an atheist, as Stalin more surely was, how dare Ratzinger suggest that atheism has any connection whatsoever with their horrific deeds--any more than Hitler and Stalin’s non-belief in leprechauns or unicorns--any more than their sporting of a moustache, along with Franco and Saddam Hussein.

There is no logical pathway from atheism to wickedness. Unless, that is, you are steeped in the vile obscenity at the heart of Catholic theology. I refer (and I am indebted to Paula Kirby for the point) to the doctrine of Original Sin.

These people believe--and they teach this to tiny children, at the same time as they teach them the terrifying falsehood of hell--that every baby is “born in sin”. That would be Adam’s sin, by the way: Adam who, as they themselves now admit, never existed.

Original sin means that, from the moment we are born, we are wicked, corrupt, damned--unless we believe in their God--or unless we fall for the carrot of heaven and the stick of hell.

That, ladies and gentleman, is the disgusting theory that leads them to presume that it was godlessness that made Hitler and Stalin the monsters that they were. We are all monsters unless redeemed by Jesus. What a vile, depraved, inhuman theory to base your life on.

Joseph Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity!

He is an enemy of children, whose bodies he has allowed to be raped and whose minds he has encouraged to be infected with guilt. It is embarrassingly clear that the Church is less concerned with saving child bodies from rapists than with saving priestly souls from hell--and most concerned with saving the long-term reputation of the church itself.

He is an enemy of gay people, bestowing on them the sort of bigotry that his church used to reserve for Jews.

He is an enemy of women, barring them from the priesthood as though a penis were an essential tool for pastoral duties. What other employer is allowed to discriminate on grounds of sex, when filling a job that manifestly doesn’t require physical strength or some other quality that only males might be thought to have?

He is an enemy of truth, promoting barefaced lies about condoms not protecting against AIDS, especially in Africa.

He is an enemy of the poorest people on the planet, condemning them to inflated families that they cannot feed, and so keeping them in the bondage of perpetual poverty. A poverty that sits ill with the obscene riches of the Vatican.

He is an enemy of science, obstructing vital stem-cell research, on grounds not of morality but of pre-scientific superstition.

Less seriously from my point of view, Ratzinger is even an enemy of the Queen’s own church, arrogantly endorsing a predecessor's dissing of Anglican Orders as “absolutely null and utterly void,” while shamelessly trying to poach Anglican vicars to shore up his own pitifully declining priesthood.

Finally, perhaps of most personal concern to me, he is an enemy of education. Quite apart from the lifelong psychological damage caused by the guilt and fear that have made catholic education infamous throughout the world, he and his church foster the educationally pernicious doctrine that evidence is a less reliable basis for belief than faith, tradition, revelation and authority--his authority!

Le visita del Papa al Regno Unite inspira polemica.

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Portuguese, English)

Si le papa habeva visitate Anglaterra durante le regno de Elizabeth I, ille haberea essite arrestate e incarcerate. Elizabeth II tamen le recipera a su residente official in Scotia.

Le viage de Benedicto XVI al Regno Unite es vermente historic. Illo es le prime visita de Stato de un pontifice al pais.

Mesmo assi, le visita del Papa ha provocate polemica. Con le scandalos de pederastia, le accusationes de homophobia, e un declaration papal durante un conferentia in le Universitate de Regensurg in 2006 que offendeva le musulmanes, il ha multe personas qui vole exprimer lor disdigno pro le doctrina que Benedicto XVI representa.

Ante Benedicto XVI, Johano Paulo II visitava le Regno Unite. In despecto de non esser invitate per le regina, ille captivava multitudes, essayava a persuader le Exercito Republican Irlandese a abandonar lor armas, e esseva recipite como un actor famose de Hollywood a causa de su charisma.

Ma illo esseva ante 28 annos, e Benedicto XVI non ha le charisma de su antecessor, e ille sta a diriger un ecclesia que sta a confrontar multe problemas.

Gruppos como Catholic Voices for Reform (Voces Catholic pro le Reforma) es fortemente critic del position del Ecclesia in relation al celebato, le ordination de mulieres, le falta de democratia in su institutiones, e su condemnation del homosexualitate.

Ma le catholicos qui critica iste aspectos del doctrina del Ecclesia confronta un serie problema proque un del characteristicas le plus distinctive de esser catholic es acceptar que le Papa es le representante directe de Jesus Christo e Deo, e su position religiose de infallibilitate como chef del Ecclesia non lassa multe spatio pro opiniones personal del catholicos individual.

Nonobstante, multe catholicos liberal sta a comenciar a concluder que lor religion es un prision medieval e sta a devenir inactive o mesmo sta a abandonar le Ecclesia, que non essera capace a recuperar les si illo non passa trans un processo de renovation pro escappar su crescente irreleventia pro un numero crescente de su proprie membros.

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A visita do Papa ao Reino Unido inspira polêmica.

Se o Papa tivesse visitado a Inglaterra durante o reinado de Elizabeth I, ele teria sido preso e encarcerado. Elizabeth II, no entanto, irá recebê-lo em sua residência oficial, na Escócia.

A viagem de Bento XVI para o Reino Unido é verdadeiramente histórico. É a primeira visita de Estado de um pontífice ao país.

Ainda assim, a visita do Papa tem provocado polêmica. Com os escândalos de pedofilia, acusações de homofobia e de uma declaração papal durante uma palestra na Universidade de Regensburg em 2006 que ofendeu os muçulmanos, há muitas pessoas que desejam expressar seu desdém pela doutrina que Bento XVI representa.

Antes de Bento XVI, João Paulo II visitou o Reino Unido. Apesar de não ser convidado pela rainha, ele cativou multidões, tentou persuadir o Exército Republicano Irlandês a abandonar suas armas, e foi recebido como um ator famoso de Hollywood por causa de seu carisma.

Mas isso foi há 28 anos, e Bento XVI não tem o carisma de seu antecessor, e ele está liderando uma igreja que está enfrentando muitos problemas.

Grupos como Catholic Voices for Reform (vozes católicas para a reforma) estão fortemente criticos da posição da Igreja em relação ao celibato, a ordenação de mulheres, a falta de democracia em suas instituições e sua condenação da homossexualidade.

Mas os católicos que criticam estes aspectos da doutrina da Igreja confrontam-se com um sério problema, porque uma das características mais distintivas de ser católico é aceitar que o Papa é o representante direto de Jesus Cristo e Deus, e a sua posição religiosa de infalibilidade como chefe da Igreja não deixa muito espaço para opiniões pessoais dos católicos individuais.

No entanto, muitos católicos liberais estão começando a concluir que a sua religião é uma prisão medieval e estão tornando-se inativos ou mesmo estão abandonando a Igreja, que não será capaz de recupera-los a menos que atravessa um processo de renovação a fim de escapar de sua crescente irrelevância para um número crescente de seus próprios membros.

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The Pope's visit to the United Kingdom inspires controversy.

If the Pope had visited England during the reign of Elizabeth I, he would have been arrested and imprisoned. Elizabeth II, however, will receive him at her official residence in Scotland.

Benedict XVI’s trip to the United Kingdom is truly historic. It is the first state visit by a pontiff to the country.

Still, the Pope’s visit has provoked controversy. With pedophilia scandals, accusations of homophobia and, a papal declaration during a lecture at the University of Regensburg in 2006 that offended Muslims, there are many people who want to express their disdain for the doctrine which Benedict XVI represents.

Before Benedict XVI, John Paul II visited the United Kingdom. Though not invited by the Queen, he captivated crowds, tried to persuade the Irish Republican Army to abandon their weapons, and was received like a famous Hollywood actor because of his charisma.

But that was twenty-eight years ago, and Benedict XVI does not have the charisma of his predecessor, and he is leading a church that is confronting many problems.

Groups like Catholic Voices for Reform are strongly critical of the position of the Church with regard to celibacy, the ordination of women, the lack of democracy in its institutions, and its condemnation of homosexuality.

But Catholics who criticize these aspects of Church doctrine are faced with a serious problem, because one of the most distinctive features of being Catholic is to accept that the Pope is the direct representative of Jesus Christ and God, and his religious position of infallibility as head of Church does not leave much room for personal opinions of individual Catholics.

Nevertheless, many liberal Catholics are beginning to conclude that their religion is a medieval prison and are becoming inactive or even abandoning the Church, which will not be able to reclaim them unless it goes through a process of renewal in order to escape its increasing irrelevance to growing numbers of its own members.

Le imam qui planifica un centro communitari islamic in New York dice que...

Le imam qui planifica un centro communitari islamic in New York dice que ille sta a “explorar optiones” sur le possibilitate de trovar un nove location pro le projecto.

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Portuguese, English)

Le imam (leader Islamic) Feisal Abdul Rauf, qui sta a planificar le construction de un centro communitari islamic e un moschea presso le sito del attaccos del 11 de septembre, 2001, in New York, indicava que nulle decision esseva prendite sur le futuro del centro.

“Nos sta a explorar omne le optiones”, diceva Rauf in un discurso in le Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “Toto se trova sur le tabula.”

Le construction del centro e del moschea presso le location del attacco ha provocate polemica.

Sondages de opinion indica que le majoritate del americanos es contra le projecto, considerante lo irreverente al memoria del attaccos per le rete extremiste islamic Al-Qaeda.

Durante le sabato, le none anniversario del attacos, il habeva manifestationes pro e contra le construction del centro islamic in New York.

Le imam qui sta a planificar le construction del cento diceva que ille esseva surprendite con le polemica generate per le projecto e insisteva que ille vole resolver le impasse.

“Lo que comenciava como un disputa sur un centro communitari in le sud de Manhattan cresceva e se transformava in un polemica multo plus grande sur le relationes inter mi amate religion e mi amate pais--inter le Islam e le Statos Unite”, diceva Rauf.

“Nos nos trova vermente committite a resolver le impasse”, affirmava ille. “Io da mi parola.”

Le controversia deveniva multo plus accentuate post que un pastor de un parve congregation in Florida annunciava su intention de combruer copias del Koran, le libro sacrate del musulmanos, pro marcar le anniversario del attaccos.

Le pastor Terry Jones abandonava su planos post le surgimento de numerose protestos e forte criticismo in diverse paises.

Jones mesmo diceva que le protesto esseva cancelate post un accordo con Rauf pro alterar le location del centro Islamic. Rauf, non obstante, negava ulle accordo con Jones, addente que le fortia del radicales in le mundo islamic esserea considerabilemente plus grande si ille esseva obligate a cambiar le location del centro cultural.

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O imã que está planejando um centro comunitário islâmico em Nova York diz que está “explorando opções” sobre a possibilidade de encontrar um novo local para o projeto.

O imã (líder islâmico) Feisal Abdul Rauf, que está planejando a construção de um centro comunitário islâmico e uma mesquita perto do local dos ataques de 11 de setembro de 2001, em Nova York, indicou que nenhuma decisão foi tomada sobre o futuro do centro.

“Estamos explorando todas as opções”, disse Rauf em uma palestra no Council on Foreign Relations em Nova York. “Tudo está sobre a mesa.”

A construção do centro e da mesquita perto do local do ataque provocou polêmica.

Pesquisas de opinião indicam que a maioria dos americanos é contra o projeto, por considerá-lo desrespeitoso da memória dos ataques, perpetrados pela rede extremista islâmica Al-Qaeda.

No sábado, o nono aniversário dos ataques, houve manifestações a favor e contra a construção do centro islâmico em Nova York.

O imã que está planejando a construção do centro disse que ficou surpreso com a polêmica gerada pelo projeto e insistiu que ele quer resolver o impasse.

“O que começou como uma disputa sobre um centro comunitário no sul de Manhattan cresceu e se transformou em uma polêmica muito maior sobre as relações entre minha amada religião e meu amado país--entre o Islã e os Estados Unidos”, disse Rauf.

“Estamos realmente comprometidos em resolver o impasse”, afirmou. “Dou minha palavra.”

A controvérsia tornou-se muito mais acentuada depois que um pastor de uma pequena congregação na Flórida anunciou sua intenção de queimar exemplares do Alcorão, o livro sagrado dos muçulmanos, para marcar o aniversário dos ataques.

O pastor Terry Jones abandonou os seus planos após o surgimento de numerosos protestos e fortes críticas em vários países.

Jones disse ainda que o protesto foi cancelado após um acordo com Rauf para alterar a localização do centro islâmico. Rauf, no entanto, negou qualquer acordo com Jones, acrescentando que a força dos radicais no mundo islâmico seria consideravelmente maior se fosse obrigado a mudar a localização do centro cultural.

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The imam who is planning an Islamic Community center in New York says he is “exploring options” about the possibility of finding a new location for the project.

The imam (Islamic leader) Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is planning the construction of an Islamic community center and a mosque near the site of the attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York, indicated that no decision was made on the future of the center.

“We are exploring all options,” Rauf said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “Everything is on the table.”

The construction of the center and mosque near the location of the attack has provoked controversy.

Opinion polls indicate that most Americans are against the project, considering it disrespectful to the memory of the attacks perpetrated by the Islamic extremist network Al-Qaeda.

On Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks, there were demonstrations for and against the construction of the Islamic center in New York.

The imam who is planning the construction of the Islamic center said that he was surprised by the controversy generated by the project and insisted that he wants to resolve the impasse.

“What started as a dispute about a community center in lower Manhattan has grown and evolved into a much larger controversy about the relations between my beloved religion and my beloved country--between Islam and the United States,” said Rauf.

“We are really committed to resolving the standoff,” he said. “I give my word.”

The controversy became much more pronounced after a pastor of a small congregation in Florida announced his intention to burn copies of the Koran, the sacred book of Muslims, to mark the anniversary of the attacks.

Pastor Terry Jones abandoned his plans after the emergence of numerous protests and strong criticism in various countries.

Jones even said that his protest was canceled after an agreement with Rauf to change the location of the Islamic center. Rauf, however, denied any agreement with Jones, adding that radicals in the Islamic world would be strengthened if he were forced to change the location of the cultural center.