Reads: Chelsea Manning, Guantánamo & More
[A wrap up of some of the interesting reads from across the Web.]
Bradley Manning's sentence: 35 years for exposing us to the truth - The Guardian
Whether Chelsea (Bradley, before announcing gender transition) Manning received a fair trial for leaking classified Iraq war files to Wikileaks may be debatable, but by sentencing her to 35 years in prison the USA's witch-hunt to suppress uncomfortable truths about its operations has undeniably come out in the open. If not for Manning's disclosures, I doubt we would be asking these questions today, and unfortunately we have reached a stage where shooting the messenger has become the tradition.
By deeming Manning psychologically unfit, the entire trial hinged on that one fact to expound her decision to handover the top-secret documents to Wikileaks in 2009. But then is keeping mum the sanest thing to do?
I want to thank Bradley Manning for the service he has done for humanity with his courage and compassionate action to inform us, so that we have the means to transform and change our societies for the better. I want to thank him for shining light into the shadows. It is up to each and everyone of us to use the information he provided for the greater good. I want to thank him for making our world a little better.
... we are seeing the state acting like a wounded tiger, cornered and lashing out in rage – attacking the person who speaks the truth in order to frighten the rest of us into silence. But to that, I have only one answer: it won't work. >>
After Guantánamo, Another Injustice - The New York Times
The Cuban military detention camp is a crying shame of horrors! That the USA is still reluctant to close the controversial prison aside, what writer John Grisham found about Nabil Hadjarab, a 34-year old Algerian detained for 11 years for no legitimate reason, left him deeply horrified.
Nabil has not been the only “mistake” in our war on terror. Hundreds of other Arabs have been sent to Gitmo, chewed up by the system there, never charged and eventually transferred back to their home countries. (These transfers are carried out as secretly and as quietly as possible.) There have been no apologies, no official statements of regret, no compensation, nothing of the sort. The United States was dead wrong, but no one can admit it. >>
The smashing science behind particle accelerators - Engadget
Ever wondered how the Large Hadron Collider beneath the Franco-Swiss border functioned? Not only is it an engineering marvel, the particle accelerator has also been instrumental in discovering the Higgs boson, the particle that makes up all the matter we see around us. An informative trip on the science behind them:
[P]article accelerators have revealed the existence of elementary particles such as quarks, led to the discovery of antimatter and generally helped us unlock the mysteries of the universe. And once they were done splitting atoms and probing the darkest corners of theoretical physics, accelerators often led to breakthroughs in medical imaging and cancer research. >>
John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln… but who killed John Wilkes Booth? - The Verge
After shooting president Abraham Lincoln in the head at Ford's Theater in 1865, famous American stage actor John Wilkes Booth fled the scene, and although it's generally accepted that he was shot down 12 days later by a Union soldier in Virginia, there are theories abound of his escape from the country eventually to lead a life of adventure. The Verge's thoroughly interesting feature traces all this history and more:
The president had entered the theater to a standing ovation and the orchestra striking up "Hail to the Chief." Later, as Lincoln sat in the presidential box high above the audience, John Wilkes Booth climbed the stairs. He stood in the dark, narrow passageway with a dagger clasped in his left hand, a Philadelphia Deringer in his right. He’d long planned this moment, believing Lincoln’s death would rejuvenate the Confederacy. "Our cause being almost lost," he had written in his diary, "something decisive and great must be done."
He stepped forward, shot Lincoln in the back of the head, slashed his dagger across the arm of a bystander who tried to subdue him, and leaped over the railing onto the stage. He paused for a melodramatic flourish, facing the stunned crowd and yelling, Sic semper tyrannis — Latin for "Thus always to tyrants." He fled the theater and, amazingly, escaped the capital on horseback. >>
Where the will has a way - The Hindu
A disability is not the end of the world, and who can tell this better than Mogalamma. Despite being crippled at a very young age due to fever, the physical impediment didn't deter her from standing on her own and become the "principal" bread-winner of the family. Harsh Mander's heart-rending and inspirational account of her life:
Carrying her little child, she would travel far, to many towns, exhausting her life savings, trying every potion and cure each doctor prescribed. In the end, a kind doctor explained to her: it is best that you accept that nothing can be done for the child. Ramulamma was distraught. She explained to me her worries as I sat 20 years later in her village home: “For a child not to be able to walk — more so a girl child — means a lifetime of dependence and shame. Who will marry her? How will she work?” >>
Bradley Manning's sentence: 35 years for exposing us to the truth - The Guardian
Whether Chelsea (Bradley, before announcing gender transition) Manning received a fair trial for leaking classified Iraq war files to Wikileaks may be debatable, but by sentencing her to 35 years in prison the USA's witch-hunt to suppress uncomfortable truths about its operations has undeniably come out in the open. If not for Manning's disclosures, I doubt we would be asking these questions today, and unfortunately we have reached a stage where shooting the messenger has become the tradition.
By deeming Manning psychologically unfit, the entire trial hinged on that one fact to expound her decision to handover the top-secret documents to Wikileaks in 2009. But then is keeping mum the sanest thing to do?
I want to thank Bradley Manning for the service he has done for humanity with his courage and compassionate action to inform us, so that we have the means to transform and change our societies for the better. I want to thank him for shining light into the shadows. It is up to each and everyone of us to use the information he provided for the greater good. I want to thank him for making our world a little better.
... we are seeing the state acting like a wounded tiger, cornered and lashing out in rage – attacking the person who speaks the truth in order to frighten the rest of us into silence. But to that, I have only one answer: it won't work. >>
After Guantánamo, Another Injustice - The New York Times
The Cuban military detention camp is a crying shame of horrors! That the USA is still reluctant to close the controversial prison aside, what writer John Grisham found about Nabil Hadjarab, a 34-year old Algerian detained for 11 years for no legitimate reason, left him deeply horrified.
Nabil has not been the only “mistake” in our war on terror. Hundreds of other Arabs have been sent to Gitmo, chewed up by the system there, never charged and eventually transferred back to their home countries. (These transfers are carried out as secretly and as quietly as possible.) There have been no apologies, no official statements of regret, no compensation, nothing of the sort. The United States was dead wrong, but no one can admit it. >>
The smashing science behind particle accelerators - Engadget
Ever wondered how the Large Hadron Collider beneath the Franco-Swiss border functioned? Not only is it an engineering marvel, the particle accelerator has also been instrumental in discovering the Higgs boson, the particle that makes up all the matter we see around us. An informative trip on the science behind them:
[P]article accelerators have revealed the existence of elementary particles such as quarks, led to the discovery of antimatter and generally helped us unlock the mysteries of the universe. And once they were done splitting atoms and probing the darkest corners of theoretical physics, accelerators often led to breakthroughs in medical imaging and cancer research. >>
John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln… but who killed John Wilkes Booth? - The Verge
After shooting president Abraham Lincoln in the head at Ford's Theater in 1865, famous American stage actor John Wilkes Booth fled the scene, and although it's generally accepted that he was shot down 12 days later by a Union soldier in Virginia, there are theories abound of his escape from the country eventually to lead a life of adventure. The Verge's thoroughly interesting feature traces all this history and more:
The president had entered the theater to a standing ovation and the orchestra striking up "Hail to the Chief." Later, as Lincoln sat in the presidential box high above the audience, John Wilkes Booth climbed the stairs. He stood in the dark, narrow passageway with a dagger clasped in his left hand, a Philadelphia Deringer in his right. He’d long planned this moment, believing Lincoln’s death would rejuvenate the Confederacy. "Our cause being almost lost," he had written in his diary, "something decisive and great must be done."
He stepped forward, shot Lincoln in the back of the head, slashed his dagger across the arm of a bystander who tried to subdue him, and leaped over the railing onto the stage. He paused for a melodramatic flourish, facing the stunned crowd and yelling, Sic semper tyrannis — Latin for "Thus always to tyrants." He fled the theater and, amazingly, escaped the capital on horseback. >>
Where the will has a way - The Hindu
A disability is not the end of the world, and who can tell this better than Mogalamma. Despite being crippled at a very young age due to fever, the physical impediment didn't deter her from standing on her own and become the "principal" bread-winner of the family. Harsh Mander's heart-rending and inspirational account of her life:
Carrying her little child, she would travel far, to many towns, exhausting her life savings, trying every potion and cure each doctor prescribed. In the end, a kind doctor explained to her: it is best that you accept that nothing can be done for the child. Ramulamma was distraught. She explained to me her worries as I sat 20 years later in her village home: “For a child not to be able to walk — more so a girl child — means a lifetime of dependence and shame. Who will marry her? How will she work?” >>
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