Tools of Cyber Terrorism

Cyber terrorists use certain tools and methods to unleash this new age terrorism. These are :

(a) Hacking: The most popular method used by a terrorist. It is a generic term used for any kind of unauthorized access to a computer or a network of computers. Some ingredient technologies like packet sniffing, tempest attack, password cracking and buffer outflow facilitates hacking.

(b) Trojans: Programs which pretend to do one thing while actually they are meant for doing something different, like the wooden Trojan Horse of the 12th Century BC.

(c) Computer Viruses: It is a computer program, which infects other computer programs by modifying them. They spread very fast.

(d) Computer Worms: The term 'worm' in relation to computers is a self contained program or a set of program that is able to spread functional copies of itself or its segments to other computer systems usually via network connections.

(e) E-Mail Related Crime: Usually worms and viruses have to attach
themselves to a host program to be injected. Certain emails are used as host by viruses and worms. E-mails are also used for spreading disinformation, threats and defamatory stuff.

(f) Denial of Service: These attacks are aimed at denying authorized persons access to a computer or computer network.

(g) Cryptology: Terrorists have started using encryption, high frequency encrypted voice/data links etc. It would be a Herculean task to decrypt the information terrorist is sending by using a 512 bit symmetric encryption.

Preamble of Indian Constitution

"We the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens JUSTICE; social, economic and political, LIBERTY; of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship.

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity and to promote among all its citizens;

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation.

In our Constituent Assembly this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution."

Reading through the Preamble, one can see the purpose that it serves, namely, the declaration of
(1) the source of the constitution
(2) a statement of its objectives
(3) the date of its adoption.

The opening words of the preamble ('we the people of India') emphasise the ultimate authority of the people from whose will the constitution emerges. Since the Constituent Assembly enacted and adopted the constitution in the name of the people of India, the question has been asked whether the Assembly was really representative of the people of India. This question was raised both within and outside the Assembly. The circumstances under which the Constituent Assembly came into being shows that it was impracticable to constitute such a body in 1946 with adult suffrage as its basis. No part of the country had the experience of adult suffrage.

To prepare an electoral roll on the basis of adult suffrage for the country and to hold elections on that basis would have certainly taken a number of years. It was rightly thought unwise to postpone the task of constitution making until such an election was held. This was the main justification for accepting the Cabinet Mission Plan for constituting the Assembly through indirect election. Everyone will definitely agree with what Dr. Ambedkar said in the floor of the Constituent Assembly in 1949, "I say that the Preamble embodies what is the desire of every members of the House, that the constitution should have its root, its authority, its sovereignty from the people that it has".

The Preamble proclaims the solemn resolution of the people of India to constitute India into a 'Sovereign socialist, secular democratic republic'. The words 'socialist' and 'secular' were introduced into the preamble in 1976 by the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution.

India is 'Sovereign', in as much as it is free from any external control and having independent power and authority. Sovereignty of India does not come in the way of its remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Though the Queen of the UK is its symbolic head, it is a voluntary association and so does not violate India's sovereign status.

India is 'democratic', as it has chosen a representative and responsible system of government under which those who administer the affairs of the state are elected by the electorate and accountable to them. The term "republic' implies an elected head of the state. By declaring to become a republic, India has chosen the system of electing one of its citizens as its President- the head of the state at regular intervals.

Socialism in India has been accepted in the meaning of 'Democratic Socialism'. The main aim of the expression was to bring about a balance in the existing economic disparities. India is 'secular,' because it maintains perfect neutrality in religious matters. It does not have anything as state-religion and the people are free to accept or reject any religion of their choice.

The Preamble proceeds further to define the objectives of the Indian Republic. These objectives are four in number: 'Justice', 'Liberty', 'Equality' and 'Fraternity'. The essence of justice is the attainment of the common good. It embraces the entire social, economic and political spheres of human activity.

The term 'liberty' used in the Preamble is not merely a negative, but a positive concept. It signifies not only the absence of any arbitrary restraint on the freedom of individual action but also the creation of conditions which are essential for the development of the personality of the individual. 'Liberty' and 'Equality' are complementary. Equality does not mean that all human beings are equal mentally and physically. It signifies equality of status, the status of free individuals and availability of opportunity to everyone to develop his potential capacities.

Finally, it is the spirit of brotherhood, that is emphasised by the use of the term "fraternity" in the Preamble. India being a multilingual and multi-religious state, the unity and integrity of the nation can be preserved only through a spirit of brotherhood that pervades the entire country, among all its citizens, irrespective of their differences.

The Preamble of the Constitution of India is one of the best of its kind ever drafted. Both in ideas and expression it is an unique one. It embodies the spirit of the constitution to build up an independent nation which will ensure the triumph of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. One of the members of the Constituent Assembly (Pundit Thakur Das Bhargav) rose to poetic heights when he said, "The Preamble is the most precious part of the Constitution. It is the soul of the Constitution. It is a key to the Constitution. It is a jewel set in the Constitution."

Tatun volcanoes, Taipei

The capital of Taiwan, Taipei, sits close to the convergence of three tectonic plates - the Eurasian, Phillipine Sea and South China Sea plates. The Eurasian and Phillipine Sea plates are rapidly colliding at more than 8 cm per year. The high and narrow mountain range that runs north to south along Taiwan (a landmark of Formosa - the beautiful island) is one consequence. Volcanism is another.

The Tatun volcanoes shown here are located within the Taipei metropolitan area, 15km north of the capital and west of Keelung. Known to have been active through the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary, they have long been assumed to be extinct, but recent studies suggest they may simply be dormant, with hot springs, fumaroles, and swarm-type seismicity all suggestive of magma still present beneath. Although forming beautiful mountains, more than 1000m above the nearby sea level, these volcanoes may pose a yet-unrecognised threat to the nearby population of more than 6.7 million people. In view of the potential volcanic threat, some have also raised questions about the suitability of the area as host for the two nuclear power stations sited close by.

Black Sea not site of Noah's flood.

In recent years the controversial hypothesis that the biblical event was a transmitted oral memory of the catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea by post ice age rising sea levels has been advanced, notably by Robert Ballard of Titanic fame. While it is clear that the freshwater lake did fill with salt water around 12000 years ago, and that people had lived around it and moved away, new geochemical evidence published in Geology implies that this rise was gradual rather than sudden.

The lake's chemistry changed from oxygenated to anoxic during this transition, as the sea spilled over the Bosporus sill (a natural dam of intruded igneous rock). Currently the chemocline between oxygenated surface fresh water and deeper salt anoxic water is at 150M, and the surface water from rivers is exchanged for salt water from the Aegean.

Researchers used a combination of iron isotopes (to trace the changes in oxygen levels) and molybdenum (to trace changes in salinity) in sediment cores to reconstruct the history of the lake's evolution and gradual conversion to anoxic conditions. The results showed that the change had happened over thousands of years, between 12,000 and 3,000 BCE.

On another note, the image shows phytoplankton blooms in the Black Sea, due to fertiliser runoff flowing down the Danube, Don and Kuban rivers. Following the current flooding in Central Europe, another large bloom is a near certainty, which will temporarily change the level of the chemocline.

Laacher See

This placid seeming lake in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in western Germany was once the site of an enormous eruption that spewed ash all over west and central Europe, reaching the British Isles and northern Spain. On a summer day, families will be picnicking by and people sailing on its blue waters, with little thought of the violent events that occurred nearly 13,000 years ago. The large Plinian eruption is estimated to have had a volcanic explosivity index of 6/8 (same as Mt. Pinatubo in 1991), leaving a 2Km caldera behind.

Known as maars, these bowl shaped craters form when groundwater meets rising lava, resulting in an explosion. The tuff rings from surge deposits are clearly visible at the crater's rim, now covered in forest. The eruption occurred in early summer, and the initial ash plume is thought to have risen up to 35Km high. Phreato-magmatic explosions then created pyroclastic flows and surges, that filled all the valleys with tephra within a 10Km radius, and probably wiped out most life within a circle of 50Km. They estimate around 6.5 cubic kilometres of lava were erupted. The resultant deposits are used as marker beds to correlate stratigraphy by geologists and archaeologists throughout west-central Europe.

The deposits also dammed the nearby Rhine, creating a 140 square Km lake. When the dam broke a huge flood surged downstream, leaving evidence of its passing as far north as Bonn. The phonolitic (high alkali/medium-high silica) lava had a high sulphur content, which cooled the atmosphere for several years afterwards, so the next few summers would have been pretty miserable. Among the deposits are ejecta of rare intrusive carbonatite lavas, the youngest plutonic carbonatites worldwide, attesting to some pretty complex geochemistry churning down below. Human culture was set back, as the local communities disappeared, and were replaced some years later by less advanced ones (in terms of tool quality and the like, not necessarily culture).

It is the only caldera in central Europe, as the magma chamber underneath collapsed after emptying. Located on the Rhine Graben (a downfaulted block resulting from extensional tectonics), the magma is probably related in some complex way to the collision of Africa and Europe, that also built the Alps and Pyrenees. Part of the East Eifel volcanic field, these sporadic eruptions have been ongoing for several million years, and their timing seems to correlate with the cyclic accumulation and melting of ice sheets.

The field is still active, lava is gently bubbling down below, as thermal anomalies under the lake and degassing of CO2 into the region's lakes (including Laachersee) and rivers testify. Some rare minerals were formed by this volcanism, and Hauyne was first identified in these German volcanic fields. While still active, there are no current signs of imminent eruption, and the British newspaper the Daily Mail was forced to retract a story last year that a super-eruption that would devastate Europe was imminent.

A Benedictine monastery lies on its shores (visible at the lower left of the photo), and the tuff was quarried for centuries as building stones and to make querns for grinding corn.

Fuji-San

                                                Fuji-San awarded world heritage status.
                 Japan's highest peak (3776m), central to its legends and culture and famously depicted in paintings by Hokusai was awarded UNESCO world heritage status today. Dormant since 1708, this perfect stratovolcano sits 100Km from Tokyo and overlies several of its ancestors. The current edifice is about 10,000 years old, has a complex geology and is located at a triple plate junction between the Okhotsk, Amur and Philippine plates.

Cat got your tongue ?

Have you ever wondered why a cat's tongue feels so rough? Check out this close up shot.

A cat's tongue is covered in backwards facing spines, about 500 microns long. These are called papillae and they contain keratin (the same stuff your fingernails and hair is made of) making them quite rigid. These are used in grooming and act almost like a hairbrush.

I won't show you a photo of this, but a cat's tongue isn't the only body part to have spines. The penis has a band of about 120–150 backwards-pointing penile spines, which are about one millimeter long. These rake the inside of the females vagina, triggering ovulation.

So there you go. Now you know why a cat's tongue feels like sandpaper, and why female cats make such a loud noise when mating!