A woman’s online bid to find a rich husband in New York City caused an internet stir, but was then quickly withdrawn following a particularly business value-based response.
An anonymous 25 year-old woman was seeking advice on Craig’s list on how to find a male New York City resident that earned $500,000 a year.
“I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all,” wrote the woman, who described herself as “spectacularly beautiful” and “superficial”.
“I dated a business man who makes average around 200 -250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. $250,000 won’t get me to Central Park West,” she said, asking questions like “where do rich single men hang out?”
A mystery banker, who said he fit the bill, offered the woman an analysis of her predicament - but described it as “plain and simple, a crappy business deal. Your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity ... in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!” the banker wrote.
“So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset,” he said. “Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you! It doesn’t make good business sense to ‘buy you’ (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease,” he said.
While the woman has since removed her posting from Craigslist, the ad and the response have become popular e-mail traffic both within and outside New York City where online dating has become commonplace.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Search For The "Dino-Killer"
We have all heard the prevailing theory that the dinosaurs were killed off by the impact of a colossal meteor slamming into Earth.
It is widely believed that the Chicxulub crater near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is the impact site of that meteor hit 65 million years ago.
It is also widely believed that another colossal meteor strike on our planet is a matter of “when” and not “if”.
Scientists have been running computer models to try to determine where this colossal meteorite came from to see if there might be a way to at least predict when or where the next strike will come from.
Their computer models have developed an interesting theory. They say the models show that 160 million years ago, two “mega-asteroids” in the asteroid belt collided, strewing debris across the solar system.
They believe that a fragment from one of these “mega-asteroids” eventually made its way to Earth 95 million years later, creating the impact on the Yucatan peninsula.
The models also show that debris from the same impact created the Tycho crater on our moon.
Scientists said that they worked backwards to reach this conclusion, looking at the masses of asteroids that they believe to have originated when the two “mega-asteroids”, one 37-miles wide and one 106-miles wide, slammed into each other and broke apart.
They applied a more modern theory that sunlight traveling through space can actually effect a small amount of force on an object over time.
With nothing but time, the asteroid debris was moved little by little until it finally came into the path of Earth’s orbit and gravitational pull.
It is widely believed that the Chicxulub crater near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is the impact site of that meteor hit 65 million years ago.
It is also widely believed that another colossal meteor strike on our planet is a matter of “when” and not “if”.
Scientists have been running computer models to try to determine where this colossal meteorite came from to see if there might be a way to at least predict when or where the next strike will come from.
Their computer models have developed an interesting theory. They say the models show that 160 million years ago, two “mega-asteroids” in the asteroid belt collided, strewing debris across the solar system.
They believe that a fragment from one of these “mega-asteroids” eventually made its way to Earth 95 million years later, creating the impact on the Yucatan peninsula.
The models also show that debris from the same impact created the Tycho crater on our moon.
Scientists said that they worked backwards to reach this conclusion, looking at the masses of asteroids that they believe to have originated when the two “mega-asteroids”, one 37-miles wide and one 106-miles wide, slammed into each other and broke apart.
They applied a more modern theory that sunlight traveling through space can actually effect a small amount of force on an object over time.
With nothing but time, the asteroid debris was moved little by little until it finally came into the path of Earth’s orbit and gravitational pull.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Hackers Targeting By Name...
We are all aware that there is an entire underground army of hackers and phisers that are trying to scam us every time we even look at a computer, but we must also be very aware that they are continually becoming more brazen and crafty with each passing day.
MessageLabs, a security vendor that offers email filtering services to catch spam and malicious attachments reports that in May 2007, people in senior management positions received 10 emails per day, up from just 1 a year before.
10 emails might not seem like much, but it is the content of those emails that is alarming.
Many of the emails contained the name and title of the executive in the subject line, as well as a malicious Microsoft WORD document containing executable code.
The hackers are trying to trick the victim into thinking the email is from one of the top-level executives in the company, creating a false sense of security and an eagerness to quickly open the attachment before realizing that the email did not come from within the company.
The malicious code is most likely software the records and reports key-strokes, allowing hackers to obtain user names, passwords, and even top-secret company information.
Though MessageLabs would not divulge which large companies had been attacked in this manner, they did contact the individual executives involved and were told by those executives that their family members had also received emails with their name on it at their family members’ personal home email addresses.
MessageLabs, a security vendor that offers email filtering services to catch spam and malicious attachments reports that in May 2007, people in senior management positions received 10 emails per day, up from just 1 a year before.
10 emails might not seem like much, but it is the content of those emails that is alarming.
Many of the emails contained the name and title of the executive in the subject line, as well as a malicious Microsoft WORD document containing executable code.
The hackers are trying to trick the victim into thinking the email is from one of the top-level executives in the company, creating a false sense of security and an eagerness to quickly open the attachment before realizing that the email did not come from within the company.
The malicious code is most likely software the records and reports key-strokes, allowing hackers to obtain user names, passwords, and even top-secret company information.
Though MessageLabs would not divulge which large companies had been attacked in this manner, they did contact the individual executives involved and were told by those executives that their family members had also received emails with their name on it at their family members’ personal home email addresses.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
An Underground Race
There is a race going on right now that very few of us have heard about. It is between two competing energy companies, one in Australia and one in Switzerland.
The competition is to be the first energy company in history to tap deep enough into the Earth’s core to use its heat to generate steam-based power on a commercial scale.
The energy companies hope to use a system of water pumps that send water down into the Earth’s depths, then bring it up once it is heated so that it can then drive steam-powered generators to make electricity.
These power companies hope that by using heat from the Earth itself, they can reduce reliance on fossil fuels and cut down on emissions.
There has been a set-back, however. “The glass vases on the shelf rattled, and there was a loud bang,” Catherine Wueest, a tea shop owner from the Swiss city of Basel, on the Rhine River, recalls. “I thought a truck had crashed into the building.”
It was not a truck, but in fact, the result of drilling by Geopower Basel that set off a magnitude 3.4 tremor. There have been several other, smaller tremors since December. So many, in fact, that the city has asked the power company to halt the project.
Scientists say that if we could tap just 40% of the geothermal heat below the United States, we could meet our annual energy demand 56,000 times over, eliminating entirely our dependence upon fossil fuels for energy production.
The obstacle, however, is the cost. It costs $1.4 million to drill a new oil well, but would cost about $7 million to drill each geothermal well.
Geothermal wells would also tap out an area’s heat energy in a couple of decades, needing to be re-drilled about every 20 years.
Then, of course, there is the problem that Basel Geopower is facing, which is earthquakes that might be set off by tapping into the Earth that far.
Basel Geopower is currently researching their options, but for now, drilling in Switzerland has stopped, giving the Australians time to take the lead.
The competition is to be the first energy company in history to tap deep enough into the Earth’s core to use its heat to generate steam-based power on a commercial scale.
The energy companies hope to use a system of water pumps that send water down into the Earth’s depths, then bring it up once it is heated so that it can then drive steam-powered generators to make electricity.
These power companies hope that by using heat from the Earth itself, they can reduce reliance on fossil fuels and cut down on emissions.
There has been a set-back, however. “The glass vases on the shelf rattled, and there was a loud bang,” Catherine Wueest, a tea shop owner from the Swiss city of Basel, on the Rhine River, recalls. “I thought a truck had crashed into the building.”
It was not a truck, but in fact, the result of drilling by Geopower Basel that set off a magnitude 3.4 tremor. There have been several other, smaller tremors since December. So many, in fact, that the city has asked the power company to halt the project.
Scientists say that if we could tap just 40% of the geothermal heat below the United States, we could meet our annual energy demand 56,000 times over, eliminating entirely our dependence upon fossil fuels for energy production.
The obstacle, however, is the cost. It costs $1.4 million to drill a new oil well, but would cost about $7 million to drill each geothermal well.
Geothermal wells would also tap out an area’s heat energy in a couple of decades, needing to be re-drilled about every 20 years.
Then, of course, there is the problem that Basel Geopower is facing, which is earthquakes that might be set off by tapping into the Earth that far.
Basel Geopower is currently researching their options, but for now, drilling in Switzerland has stopped, giving the Australians time to take the lead.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Squirrel Rattlesnake Defenses
California squirrels, the little guys that we see around town sometimes and at all the turn-outs up and down the coast, have recently been discovered to have a very unique way of fending off rattlesnake attacks.
A little known fact about the California squirrel is that a full-grown, healthy squirrel can actually survive a rattlesnake bite with a developed immunity to the venom.
Small and weaker squirrels, however, can still succumb to the rattler attack.
To fight this vulnerability, a California squirrel, when faced with a rattler, can heat up its tail. The rattlesnake, which can sense infrared radiation from heat, takes the heated tail to mean that it has been discovered by the squirrel and has lost the element of surprise, causing the rattlesnake to just move on.
Researchers are not sure just how the squirrels cause their tails to heat up, but they think it may be by moving warm blood from the body core to the tail. They do know, however, thanks to some careful observations, that it is not a reflex, but a premeditated action.
Researchers have discovered that when the squirrels sense a gopher snake, they will vigorously move their tails, but will not heat them up like they do when they sense a rattlesnake.
They make the same tail movement with a rattler, but add the heated tail to their defense arsenal. Researchers also observed that the squirrels will make more vigorous tail movements and generate even more heat in their tails when they sense a rattlesnake during cooler night temperatures.
A little known fact about the California squirrel is that a full-grown, healthy squirrel can actually survive a rattlesnake bite with a developed immunity to the venom.
Small and weaker squirrels, however, can still succumb to the rattler attack.
To fight this vulnerability, a California squirrel, when faced with a rattler, can heat up its tail. The rattlesnake, which can sense infrared radiation from heat, takes the heated tail to mean that it has been discovered by the squirrel and has lost the element of surprise, causing the rattlesnake to just move on.
Researchers are not sure just how the squirrels cause their tails to heat up, but they think it may be by moving warm blood from the body core to the tail. They do know, however, thanks to some careful observations, that it is not a reflex, but a premeditated action.
Researchers have discovered that when the squirrels sense a gopher snake, they will vigorously move their tails, but will not heat them up like they do when they sense a rattlesnake.
They make the same tail movement with a rattler, but add the heated tail to their defense arsenal. Researchers also observed that the squirrels will make more vigorous tail movements and generate even more heat in their tails when they sense a rattlesnake during cooler night temperatures.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
“Send In The Squirrels!"
“No, I had not heard about this, but it does not surprise me, foreign countries are always meddling in Iran,” said Hassan Mohmmadi, an Iranian fastfood vendor.
This was Mohmmadi’s response when he was told that the Islamic Republic News Agency was reporting that 14 squirrels had been captured by Iranian police near the Iranian border because they were found to have been equipped with eavesdropping devices.
Has the West finally run so far down on our list of options in dealing with a potential threat from the Iranian government that we have deployed our highly-skilled, agile, and possibly deadly squirrel special agents?
Do you think they won’t fall for that type of propaganda on the streets of Tehran? When asked where he thought the squirrels had come from, Hassan Mohmmadi didn’t miss a beat in replying, “I bet they were British squirrels, they are the most cunning.”
Maybe the reports are not that far off base. We used pigeons to carry intelligence out of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. We currently have chickens deployed in Kuwait to give us an early warning of chemical attacks. And, of course, we are using well-trained dolphins to help us locate underwater mines.
Don’t tell me that you cannot picture the scene in the melodramatic Tom Clancy knock-off movie where the CIA Director pounds his fist on his desk and exclaims, “Send in the squirrels!"
This was Mohmmadi’s response when he was told that the Islamic Republic News Agency was reporting that 14 squirrels had been captured by Iranian police near the Iranian border because they were found to have been equipped with eavesdropping devices.
Has the West finally run so far down on our list of options in dealing with a potential threat from the Iranian government that we have deployed our highly-skilled, agile, and possibly deadly squirrel special agents?
Do you think they won’t fall for that type of propaganda on the streets of Tehran? When asked where he thought the squirrels had come from, Hassan Mohmmadi didn’t miss a beat in replying, “I bet they were British squirrels, they are the most cunning.”
Maybe the reports are not that far off base. We used pigeons to carry intelligence out of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. We currently have chickens deployed in Kuwait to give us an early warning of chemical attacks. And, of course, we are using well-trained dolphins to help us locate underwater mines.
Don’t tell me that you cannot picture the scene in the melodramatic Tom Clancy knock-off movie where the CIA Director pounds his fist on his desk and exclaims, “Send in the squirrels!"
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Toilet Paper Regulation
It has finally happened...technology is about to invade one of the most private spaces we occupy...the bathroom stall.
Sure, there have been technological advances since the outhouse, but none as intrusive as the new toilet paper dispenser from bathroom supply magnate Kimberly-Clark.
Sure, you’ve seen new toilet paper dispensers come and go, but I guarantee that you’ll take note of this one. One year in the making, this new electronic dispenser is going to limit you to taking just five sheets of toilet paper at a time.
That’s right, America, the number of toilet paper tissues that you are allowed to use at a time is about to be regulated by the evil corporations. Want proof that they are trying to oppress you? Here’s a quote from Kimberly-Clark’s director of washroom business, Richard Thorne. “Most people will take the amount given,” he says. “People generally will take what you give them.”
Let’s hope Overlord Thorne stays working at the toilet paper company and doesn’t run for office any time soon.
Apparently, Kimberly-Clark spent a good deal of time with focus groups and conducted a good deal of internal research to determine just how much toilet paper was the right amount for us to use.
They report that we gluttonous Americans use twice the toilet paper in a “sitting” as our European counterparts. While Americans are known to use 40 inches of toilet paper a pull, Kimberly-Clark feels that we should be using more like 20 inches, or five standard 4-inch squares. Their new machine can be adjusted to restrict us to a stingy 16 inches, or lavish us with a generous 24 inches, but either way, watch out America...your days of using 40 inches of toilet paper per pull in public restrooms may be numbered.
Sure, there have been technological advances since the outhouse, but none as intrusive as the new toilet paper dispenser from bathroom supply magnate Kimberly-Clark.
Sure, you’ve seen new toilet paper dispensers come and go, but I guarantee that you’ll take note of this one. One year in the making, this new electronic dispenser is going to limit you to taking just five sheets of toilet paper at a time.
That’s right, America, the number of toilet paper tissues that you are allowed to use at a time is about to be regulated by the evil corporations. Want proof that they are trying to oppress you? Here’s a quote from Kimberly-Clark’s director of washroom business, Richard Thorne. “Most people will take the amount given,” he says. “People generally will take what you give them.”
Let’s hope Overlord Thorne stays working at the toilet paper company and doesn’t run for office any time soon.
Apparently, Kimberly-Clark spent a good deal of time with focus groups and conducted a good deal of internal research to determine just how much toilet paper was the right amount for us to use.
They report that we gluttonous Americans use twice the toilet paper in a “sitting” as our European counterparts. While Americans are known to use 40 inches of toilet paper a pull, Kimberly-Clark feels that we should be using more like 20 inches, or five standard 4-inch squares. Their new machine can be adjusted to restrict us to a stingy 16 inches, or lavish us with a generous 24 inches, but either way, watch out America...your days of using 40 inches of toilet paper per pull in public restrooms may be numbered.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
$2000 For 70 At 11% = $30M
If you put aside $2000 each year, beginning the year that your child is born, and keep that money invested in the stock market, at age 40, your child will be a millionaire, and at age 70, your child will have over $30 million.
This is contingent upon the market’s past 70-year return of 11% on average repeating itself, but if you, then later, your child work on putting away and investing just $2000 per year each year, there might just be a $30 million nest egg as your child’s reward when they hit 70.
Financial advisors recommend that you set up a trust that your child cannot touch, though, because your child will come into control of a $100,000 party fund on their 18th birthday.
Of course, there is no guarantee that your child will not be just as frivolous with the nest egg at 40 or 50, but with your discipline and your child’s discipline, a fantastic retirement nest egg is possible.
This is contingent upon the market’s past 70-year return of 11% on average repeating itself, but if you, then later, your child work on putting away and investing just $2000 per year each year, there might just be a $30 million nest egg as your child’s reward when they hit 70.
Financial advisors recommend that you set up a trust that your child cannot touch, though, because your child will come into control of a $100,000 party fund on their 18th birthday.
Of course, there is no guarantee that your child will not be just as frivolous with the nest egg at 40 or 50, but with your discipline and your child’s discipline, a fantastic retirement nest egg is possible.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Whale Survived 1890 Attack
Each year, under the supervision of the International Whaling Commission, 10 Alaskan villages are allowed to harvest 255 whales, which are still used as a major source of food for Alaska’s natives.
This year’s hunt revealed something absolutely amazing.
A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast had a 3 1/2 inch arrow-shaped projectile under its blubber that researchers dated back to 1890 through old manufacturing records.
These researchers believe that the arrow-shaped projectile was a bomb-lance cylinder used in whaling around 1890, and matches a similar find from a whale hunted in 1980.
Researchers place this bowhead at somewhere between 115 and 130 years old.
While this whale is an amazing find because of the rarity of whales this age, it is widely believed that some of the oldest bowhead whales live to be to nearly 200 years old.
This year’s hunt revealed something absolutely amazing.
A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast had a 3 1/2 inch arrow-shaped projectile under its blubber that researchers dated back to 1890 through old manufacturing records.
These researchers believe that the arrow-shaped projectile was a bomb-lance cylinder used in whaling around 1890, and matches a similar find from a whale hunted in 1980.
Researchers place this bowhead at somewhere between 115 and 130 years old.
While this whale is an amazing find because of the rarity of whales this age, it is widely believed that some of the oldest bowhead whales live to be to nearly 200 years old.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
We Didn't Need To Find Nemo...
The orange and white clownfish star of the hit cartoon movie “Finding Nemo” really is able to find his own way home after spending months at sea, an Australian-led team of international researchers said on Friday.
“When they are out in the open water they are actually quite sophisticated. They can swim well, they can smell, they can see, they can hear well, and they use a whole suite of senses,” joint team leader Glenn Almany told Reuters.
Studying a tiny coral reef in Papua New Guinea, the researchers found 60 percent of baby clownfish find their way back to their home reef - only 1,000 feet wide - after being swept into the open ocean at birth.
The fish were identified using a world-first tagging method in which adult clownfish and butterflyfish were injected with a harmless barium isotope which they then passed on to their offspring, allowing identification of their juveniles.
The finding, announced in the international journal Science, will help researchers understand the extent to which young fish return to their home area or go off to interbreed with more distant populations.
That in turn could help determine which populations needed protection or better management for sustainable fishing.
Almany said the team still had no idea how the clownfish knew which reef they came from, or how far they travelled in open sea during a journey lasting around 11 days.
“How they actually determine whether that reef is home or not is anyone’s guess, but as an educated guess I would say that there might be some sort of chemical imprinting going on when they are born,” he said.
The team of Australian, French and U.S. scientists, working out of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at Queensland’s James Cook University, planned follow up studies in Australia with larger fish species.
“When they are out in the open water they are actually quite sophisticated. They can swim well, they can smell, they can see, they can hear well, and they use a whole suite of senses,” joint team leader Glenn Almany told Reuters.
Studying a tiny coral reef in Papua New Guinea, the researchers found 60 percent of baby clownfish find their way back to their home reef - only 1,000 feet wide - after being swept into the open ocean at birth.
The fish were identified using a world-first tagging method in which adult clownfish and butterflyfish were injected with a harmless barium isotope which they then passed on to their offspring, allowing identification of their juveniles.
The finding, announced in the international journal Science, will help researchers understand the extent to which young fish return to their home area or go off to interbreed with more distant populations.
That in turn could help determine which populations needed protection or better management for sustainable fishing.
Almany said the team still had no idea how the clownfish knew which reef they came from, or how far they travelled in open sea during a journey lasting around 11 days.
“How they actually determine whether that reef is home or not is anyone’s guess, but as an educated guess I would say that there might be some sort of chemical imprinting going on when they are born,” he said.
The team of Australian, French and U.S. scientists, working out of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at Queensland’s James Cook University, planned follow up studies in Australia with larger fish species.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Tallest Man Saves Dolphins
The long arms of the world’s tallest man reached in and saved two dolphins by pulling out plastic from their stomachs.
The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province, China.
Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins’ stomachs contracted in response to the instruments, the China Daily newspaper reported.
Veterinarians then decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms, state media said. Bao, 54, was confirmed last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest living man.
Chen Lujun, the manager of the Royal Jidi Ocean World Aquarium, told The Associated Press that the shape of the dolphins’ stomachs made it difficult to push an instrument very far in without hurting the animals.
People with shorter arms could not reach the plastic, he said. When we failed to get the objects out we sought the help of Bao Xishun from Inner Mongolia and he did it successfully yesterday,” Chen said. “The two dolphins are in very good condition now.”
Photographs showed the jaws of one of the dolphins being held back by towels so Bao could reach inside the animal without being bitten.
“Some very small plastic pieces are still left in the dolphins’ stomachs,” Zhu Xiaoling, a local doctor, told Xinhua. “However the dolphins will be able to digest these and are expected to recover soon.”
The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province, China.
Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins’ stomachs contracted in response to the instruments, the China Daily newspaper reported.
Veterinarians then decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms, state media said. Bao, 54, was confirmed last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest living man.
Chen Lujun, the manager of the Royal Jidi Ocean World Aquarium, told The Associated Press that the shape of the dolphins’ stomachs made it difficult to push an instrument very far in without hurting the animals.
People with shorter arms could not reach the plastic, he said. When we failed to get the objects out we sought the help of Bao Xishun from Inner Mongolia and he did it successfully yesterday,” Chen said. “The two dolphins are in very good condition now.”
Photographs showed the jaws of one of the dolphins being held back by towels so Bao could reach inside the animal without being bitten.
“Some very small plastic pieces are still left in the dolphins’ stomachs,” Zhu Xiaoling, a local doctor, told Xinhua. “However the dolphins will be able to digest these and are expected to recover soon.”
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The Geneva Conventions...
The Geneva Conventions are a series of international treaties designed to lessen some of the horrors of warfare. They were first adopted over a century ago and expanded over the years. The conventions prohibit torture, the taking of hostages, mass deportations, summary executions, and other atrocities. The conventions state prisoners “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion, or faith, sex, birth or wealth.” More than 190 nations, including the U.S. have signed on to follow the conventions.
The Geneva Conventions were created in 1859 by a Swiss businessman named Henri Dunant who, while seeking an audience with Napoleon II, witnessed horrible atrocities on the Battlefield of Solferino. On the Battlefied of Solferino, the Italian state of Piedmont was fighting the Austrians for independence. On a day where 40,000 men were killed or wounded, Dunant witnessed injured soldiers who were abandoned and left for dead in vast, stinking cesspools of vermin-infested filth and rotting bodies.
Dunant resolved to stop such misery from ever happening again and upon returning home, mobilized government officials, lawyers, and industrialists to convene a “Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.”
The resulting treaty, signed in Geneva in 1864 by 12 nations, was the first to ever declare that injured or sick combatants must be cared for. For his efforts, Dunant shared in the first Nobel Peace Prize, in 1901.
The Second Geneva Convention, which was held in 1906, extended compassionate treatment to combatants at sea, not just those on the field.
The Third Geneva Convention, which was held in 1929, required that belligerents treat prisoners of war respectfully, supply information about their status to their nations of origin, and permit visits from representatives of neutral states.
Following the horrors of World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention was convened in 1949 and it was declared that POWs must receive adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment; have access to mail; and be allowed to worship as they please.
The treaty also specifies that prisoners cannot be used as human shields, forced into dangerous work, or subjected to medical experimentation. The signatory nations thought that in 1949, they had everything covered, but what was to come in the years of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the conflicts of the Middle East, was new type of warfare where combatants didn’t always wear uniforms and march under the flag of a sovereign nation, recognized by other nations of the world.
In 1977, the so-called Fifth Geneva Convention, amendments governing “wars of self-determination” and civil wars were added. Under these protocols, combatants are “obliged to distinguish themselves” from civilians and carry weapons openly. A captured fighter who fails to do so is not considered a POW under the treaty. In a contradiction, however, a combatant that does not identify him or herself as a combatants is still supposed to receive “protections equivalent in all respects” to those given to POWs.
The 1977 amendments also state that a combatant can be deemed a POW of fighting “against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes.”
So, why is the 1977 convention called the “so-called Fifth Geneva Convention? It is because only 160 nations, not the full 190 nations ratified the 1977 protocols.
Here in the U.S, we have only signed on the first four conventions and never agreed to follow the amendments of 1977. It is the current policy of the United States, and always has been the policy of the United States, to not classify combatants that are not in uniform, do not carry their weapons openly, or attack civilian targets, as POWs.
Though the current Bush White House seems to get the credit for making this policy, it was, in fact, solidified way back in 1977 under the Carter White House, when the U.S. did not ratify the so-called Fifth Geneva Convention. It is this policy under which captured terrorist are currently being classified as “unlawful combatants” as opposed to “POWs.”
The Geneva Conventions were created in 1859 by a Swiss businessman named Henri Dunant who, while seeking an audience with Napoleon II, witnessed horrible atrocities on the Battlefield of Solferino. On the Battlefied of Solferino, the Italian state of Piedmont was fighting the Austrians for independence. On a day where 40,000 men were killed or wounded, Dunant witnessed injured soldiers who were abandoned and left for dead in vast, stinking cesspools of vermin-infested filth and rotting bodies.
Dunant resolved to stop such misery from ever happening again and upon returning home, mobilized government officials, lawyers, and industrialists to convene a “Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.”
The resulting treaty, signed in Geneva in 1864 by 12 nations, was the first to ever declare that injured or sick combatants must be cared for. For his efforts, Dunant shared in the first Nobel Peace Prize, in 1901.
The Second Geneva Convention, which was held in 1906, extended compassionate treatment to combatants at sea, not just those on the field.
The Third Geneva Convention, which was held in 1929, required that belligerents treat prisoners of war respectfully, supply information about their status to their nations of origin, and permit visits from representatives of neutral states.
Following the horrors of World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention was convened in 1949 and it was declared that POWs must receive adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment; have access to mail; and be allowed to worship as they please.
The treaty also specifies that prisoners cannot be used as human shields, forced into dangerous work, or subjected to medical experimentation. The signatory nations thought that in 1949, they had everything covered, but what was to come in the years of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the conflicts of the Middle East, was new type of warfare where combatants didn’t always wear uniforms and march under the flag of a sovereign nation, recognized by other nations of the world.
In 1977, the so-called Fifth Geneva Convention, amendments governing “wars of self-determination” and civil wars were added. Under these protocols, combatants are “obliged to distinguish themselves” from civilians and carry weapons openly. A captured fighter who fails to do so is not considered a POW under the treaty. In a contradiction, however, a combatant that does not identify him or herself as a combatants is still supposed to receive “protections equivalent in all respects” to those given to POWs.
The 1977 amendments also state that a combatant can be deemed a POW of fighting “against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes.”
So, why is the 1977 convention called the “so-called Fifth Geneva Convention? It is because only 160 nations, not the full 190 nations ratified the 1977 protocols.
Here in the U.S, we have only signed on the first four conventions and never agreed to follow the amendments of 1977. It is the current policy of the United States, and always has been the policy of the United States, to not classify combatants that are not in uniform, do not carry their weapons openly, or attack civilian targets, as POWs.
Though the current Bush White House seems to get the credit for making this policy, it was, in fact, solidified way back in 1977 under the Carter White House, when the U.S. did not ratify the so-called Fifth Geneva Convention. It is this policy under which captured terrorist are currently being classified as “unlawful combatants” as opposed to “POWs.”
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