Accidental Blogger

The weather is hot, blog traffic is down and I am out of ideas. So it’s links time again. The stories here range from extra terrestrial thrills to earthly narrow mindedness, with a bit of not so well known history thrown in the mix. Enjoy!

Phoenix Mars Lander unearths (un-Martiates?) Martian polar ice. 

LOS ANGELES — The apparent discovery of ice near Mars’ north pole has scientists asking: Did the frozen water melt at some point in the planet’s long history to create an environment friendly for life?

The Phoenix spacecraft exposed bright white crumbs at the bottom of a trench while digging near Mars’ north pole earlier this week. The bits disappeared in new photos sent back on Thursday, convincing scientists that the magic act was evidence of ice that vaporized after being exposed to the sun.

"The fact that there’s ice there doesn’t tell you anything about whether it’s habitable," chief scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona said Friday during a teleconference from Tucson.

To judge whether the Martian polar environment could be hospitable, scientists are using the spacecraft’s instruments to study minerals in the soil and ice for hints of carbonates and sulfates, which are formed by the action of liquid water.

Water is a prerequisite for life, but it’s just one piece of the equation. Scientists generally agree that organic carbon and an energy source like the sun are also considered necessary ingredients.

Mars today is arid and dusty, constantly bombarded by radiation and with no apparent trace of water on its surface. But carvings of channels and gullies on the Martian surface suggest a wetter past. Some scientists speculate that water may have evaporated into the atmosphere and the rest trapped beneath the surface in the form of ice.

"The holy grail is to find water near the surface of Mars," said astrobiologist Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Mass., who is not part of the mission.

Hurt feelings in Houston: Two groups are expressing umbrage over a couple of public events – one a movie …

The Love Guru tells the story of Maurice Pitka, played by Myers, an American orphan left at the gates of an Indian ashram. He returns to the United States to try and make it in the world of self-help and spirituality.

The film is "rife with stereotyping," Chronicle film critic Amy Biancolli says in her review. "But the target is less Hinduism (the word never pops up) than the saffron-colored accouterments of the faith and its watered-down transference to the self-help industry."

Girish Naik, president of the Hindus of Greater Houston, found the film’s depiction of yoga poses vulgar. Vijay Pallod, a Houston Hindu activist, plans to go and see it this weekend – even though he hasn’t liked what he has seen in the movie trailers. He wants to have solid examples of portrayals or scenes he feels are disrespectful to his faith.

Some Hindu members in attendance at Thursday’s screening worried that audiences might think the movie is targeted at a particular spiritual leader.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, popularly known as Hare Krishnas, released a statement Friday rejecting calls to protest the movie. "We find it to be a typical satire that does not intend to hurt religious sentiments," the statement said, encouraging other Hindus "to view the film in its context as a comedy, and to draw on the tolerance and broadmindedness that are hallmarks of our faith."

Deepak Chopra, a friend of Myers and a New Age icon, who has a cameo in the film, thinks the issue has been blown out of proportion. The Hindu community needs a better sense of humor, he said.

But to Pallod and Shukla, it has nothing to do with humor."I have seen many people try to defame Hinduism, and as a Hindu activist, we have to protest and stand up," Pallod said. "In the past we kept quiet about movies, but we believe we have to do it because the media is very powerful."

….and the other a newpaper ad for a religious celebration.

Pakistan Times publisher Sheikh Najam Ali has been looking over his shoulder every day for a month since running an ad that proved controversial in the local Muslim community.

The ad, announcing a local Ahmadiyya celebration and describing the faith as Muslim, prompted death threats from anonymous callers, cancellations from advertisers and the removal of his papers in bulk from various distribution sites, he said.

The ad and subsequent coverage of the event has drawn criticism from some Muslims who say Ali has insulted them by giving authenticity to a sect that they consider non-Muslim.

"I had no idea there would be this kind of reaction" said Ali, whose free Urdu weekly has a circulation of 15,000 in the Houston area.

Members of the Ahmadiyya faith, an estimated 70 million worldwide, follow Islam’s main tenets. But contrary to mainstream Muslims, they don’t recognize Muhammad as the final prophet. Instead, they believe another prophet followed in the 19th century named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who came in the spirit of Christ to revive the religion of Islam, said Mohammed Zafarullah, a local imam for Ahmadiyya followers. Established in 1889 in Punjab, India, the faith is considered non-Muslim by Pakistan’s constitution and heretical by some Muslims.

Ali’s decision to run the newspaper ad, twice, and cover the event in a subsequent news article brought his values as a businessman and journalist against his sensitivity toward offending fellow Muslims. So far, he’s put his job first.

"I don’t care how many advertisers I lose. I’m taking a stand on this one. I have rights," said Ali, who is Shia. "It was just an advertisement. It has nothing to do with my beliefs."…

Some Muslims in Houston have been vocal about their disapproval of Ali’s decision to run the ad, in which the group calls itself Muslim and says the second coming of a religious reformer has already arrived.

A similar ad ran in English in a local South Asian weekly, Voice of Asia, but received no reaction, according to its editor.

Yankee Slave Traders

Katrina Browne’s wealthy Rhode Island clan has a secret. The well-mannered Yankees would rather not speak of it, but their forefathers were perhaps America’s biggest slave-trading dynasty.

After introducing her ancestors via distinguished-looking oil paintings in the family mansion, now a museum, Browne sets out to retrace the physical route and the rocky emotional terrain of how her forefathers built their fortune.

The journey — from tearful soul-searching to squirming at the dinner table when confronted with the family’s obvious elitism — makes for a stunning documentary.

Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North, airing Tuesday on PBS’s P.O.V., is eye-opening and important, digging deeper than what may be comfortable into what stands in the way of race relations in this country.

The filmmaker, Browne, is a seventh-generation descendant of Mark Anthony DeWolf, the family’s first slave trader. From 1769 to 1820, the DeWolfs trafficked in human beings.

They sailed their ships from Bristol, R.I., to West Africa with rum to trade for African men, women and children. Captives were taken to plantations that the DeWolfs owned in Cuba or were sold at auction in Havana or Charleston, S.C. The proceeds bought sugar and molasses in Cuba, which were shipped to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol.

Rum was traded for slaves, slaves were traded for sugar, and sugar was used to make rum.

Over the generations, the family owned 47 ships that transported thousands of chained Africans across the Middle Passage into slavery. By the end of his life, James DeWolf was reportedly the second-richest man in the United States. He was also a U.S. senator who was granted political appointments and other favors from none other than Thomas Jefferson.

The film upends stereotypical notions about the American North fighting for abolition while slaves toiled away down South. Browne documents how crucial the slave trade was to New England for more than 200 years. Individual homes may have acquired one or two slaves, as opposed to the masses on plantations in the South, but the textile mills, banks and insurance companies in the North were built on profits from the slave trade.

The film is to air on Tuesday on PBS. Check your local listing for broadcast time.