Moldova's Way Ahead

Chart of Moldovan Parties and Their Ideology Towards Romania. From Morning in Moldova

When we last examined Moldova the pro-Europe opposition rioted while using Twitter and then the Communist majority of sixty parliamentarians was unable to gather sixty-one votes to elect a new president and by default forced new elections.

The new election results are in and how they were reported reflects poor understanding of different political procedures. The Communist Party earned forty-eight seats while the closest opposition group, the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova, only won seventeen. This lead to some news reports stating that the Communists had won. However, the opposition combined won fifty-three seats. The four parties (a center-right pro-EU party, a pro-EU and ex-Christian Democratic party, a social-liberal yet pro-market party, and a socialist party) have all vowed to create a unity government.

If the personality-driven opposition parties can work together as promised then they will appoint the prime minister. However, with fifty-three seats they are eight short of electing a president. The opposition will have to work with the Communists to find a president who will do basically nothing so not to upset anyone a la Lebanon's Michel Suleiman.

The feud between Moldova against Russia and Transnitria will continue, it may be a little more tense with a pro-Europe prime minister but the lack of sixty-one plus majority will allow the pro-Russian Communists to keep any anti-Russian moves in check. And while there is still a strong drive in some Moldovans to unite the country with Romania, the pro-European parties' leadership is unlikely to support these efforts (they now see the benefits of ruling their own little fiefdoms). However, this election will reassure many in Europe about Moldova's desire to part-take in the European Union and foster better integration between the EU and Moldova.

If Americans cannot find a place on a map, does it matter?

"If Americans cannot find a place on a map, does it matter?" That is the question The American Conservative asks as it links to Juan Cole's piece on why the United States should not care about Afghanistan and Pakistan's woes. He sees them as "the tribal struggle for control of obscure villages in the foothills of the Himalayas."

Catholicgauze retorts that the above is a stupid question. According to My Wonderful World, only 37% of American teens can find Iraq on a map. Meanwhile only 19% only have a map. (And only half can find New York on an American map!)

Besides that point there is real geopolitics that matters in the Stans. The Taliban were a product of an ever enlarging world connectivity. The student movement was first aided by the transport mafia who wanted to freely trade within an Afghanistan lacking warlord tolls. Next Pakistan backed the Taliban to be the advanced guard of a Pashtun-style Islamic movement. Finally, the Taliban began to affect the United States and the first first with opium (which they at first profited from before banning), then oil pipelines meant to bypass Russia, and finally terrorism.

In the globalized, connected world countries have interests beyond their own borders. This is not to justify imperialism or any military expedition. However, in a connected yet fragile world people must realize that if a tribe launches raids against the government-owned pipeline then the price of oil goes up followed by gas prices and the web is finalized with an increase in food for not just us but also people barely getting by around the world.

Instead of saying "it does not matter we cannot find it on a map" we should be teaching ourselves and others to grab a map, find it, and figure out the spatial relationships.

New Zealand Pulled Closer to Australia by Earthquake

Last week, the largest earthquake so far this year moved the southwest tip of New Zealand's South Island one foot (30 centimeters) closer to Australia. The quake was a slow, rolling one rather than a sharp action that would have caused more damage. The rolling style allowed the section of continental shelf to vibrate a geologically major distance towards Australia. Those hoping for a physical union of the two Commonwealth states will have to wait millions of years; however, until plate tectonics accomplish reunion.

Jordan Revokes Citizenship for Palestinian-Jordanians

The Kingdom of Jordan has been a major source for the trouble the Palestinian people have gone through since 1948. When the Arab states decided to reject the partitioning of the Palestinian Mandate between Jews and Arabs, there were two competing thoughts of what to do with the land. The Kingdom of Egypt favored establishing the Arab nation-state Palestine. Jordan on the other hand wanted to annex the land and reunite Transjordan. The Arab war against Israel failed and the two ideas implemented themselves separately. Jordan annexed the West Bank while Egypt established the All-Palestine Government in the Gaza Strip to be a puppet state and curb the influence of Jordan among the Palestinians.

Even though Jordan lost control of the West Bank in 1967 they inherited Palestine, its people to be precise. Quickly a majority of Jordan were Palestinians and the Jordanian Arab elite refused to grant the refugees and their children rights. After Jordan fought the Black September civil war against the Palestinians things began to slowly change. Jordan became the only Arab country to allow Palestinians to become citizens and work rather than be forced into craps like in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt.

For almost two decades Jordan has been viewed as a moderate Arab state and an example of how Palestinians could avoid being screwed over by their Arab neighbors. However, Jordan is realizing the cultural difference between Jordanians and Palestinian-Jordanians. About seventy percent of Jordanians are now Palestinians. To curb this massive change Jordan is beginning to revoke citizenship to refugees. Jordan is probably worried about becoming a major part of the pretty-much-has-to-exist-but-needs-to-moderate Palestinian state.

Because of that fear and cultural conflict Jordan will hurt Palestinians continuing the cycle of pain that is the Middle East.

650 Million Years of Continents Moving

650 Million Years in 1 Min. and 20 Sec. - Watch more Funny Videos

Video starts 400 million years ago and goes 250 million years into the future

The Creation of the Moon

Frequently Catholicgauze will refer to the Moon as the eighth continent. This is because since the Apollo lunar missions brought back samples of the lunar surface the leading theory of the Moon's creation involves it being a breakaway part of the Earth. A part that broke away during a period of great violence.

The Giant Impact Hypothesis states that Earth was indirectly impacted, a deep glancing blow, by another planet referred to know as Theia. Massive debris flew everywhere with most of it falling back down to the now apocalypse going on the surface of Earth. Some material would stay in space though. The material that was flung far enough to avoid falling back while still stuck by Earth's gravity would begin to merge together. Eventually this would form what we know as the moon today.

It is hard to say exactly (geological terms) when this event happened but it would have to be close to Earth's creation but far enough away for most of the Earth's iron to submerge to the core. While there is some iron on the Moon, the core is believed to be lacking in iron. This equates to maybe 4.4 billion years ago.

Like all scientific theories this one is subject to being taken as truth until the next best theory comes around. But signs do point towards this idea being the one that actually happened.

The Moon has long been thought as a dead rock that floats in the sky. I; however, view it as the only landmass visible from any point on the Earth that came from the most active period of geomorphic creation since creation.

We will only return to the Moon when we act like all other explorers

The ancient Greek geographer Pytheas went on a fantastic journey. During his epic voyage around 325 BC he sailed past the British Isles to a point where the ocean was blocked with drift ice. When he came back some thought he was a liar while others believed him but were uninterested in his reports of lands rich in timber and copper. The Greeks missed out on any colonization or trade with the lands Pytheas visited. It took the Roman Empire more than three hundred years to finally exploit these resources for the benefit of the Mediterranean World.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon in 1969. A few more followed in their footsteps. The purpose of these trips were to give the United States the honor of being first on the Moon. The only scientist to walk on the Moon, geologist Harrison Schmitt, was on the last flight. From 1972 up to today, no human has walked on the Moon. Robotic probes have flown around, crashed, and roomed around on the surface but humanities attention has been elsewhere. NASA and other space agencies have played scientific games on space stations, launched probes to other planets and into deep space, and been accused by politicians and the public for wasting money.

The best minds are right now torn between a Moon base or a manned Mars mission. They offer no reason but to say we went. If they win with that arguement these missions will suffer the fate of Apollo and the International Space Station: praised then abandoned.

The only way humanity will return to the Moon and stay is to follow in the footsteps of the Chinese. The Chinese Lunar Program (publicity website by China Daily) is headed by the geologist Ouyang Ziyuan. Ziyuan knows the Moon is rich in iron and the nuclear fuel Helium 3, something that is rare on Earth. Ziyuan has the full blessing of the People's Republic of China to create a exploration program that will eventually lead to full scale mining with a population on the Moon. This puts China firmly on the path of other great explorer powers such as Rome, Spain, and the United Kingdom who's drive for geographic exploration was fueled not by a "we traveled for traveling sake" but for resources.

The rest of the world will then follow like all the other powers who went on explorations. Envy led the Portuguese to shift from Africa to the New World and the Americans to follow the Russians into space. It will also drag the rest of the world to the Moon, Mars, and the stars.