Science roundup

Via Advanced Nanotechnology, I read that:

quantum cyptography company id Quantique SA (Geneva) has teamed with Australian cyptography company Senetas Corp. Ltd. (Melbourne) to create what the partners claim in the world's first 1- to 10-Gbit/s secure network that combines uncrackable quantum keys with classical encryption.
[...]
The uncrackable codes rely on single-photon emitters and receivers that detect whether a hacker has viewed a polarized photon—flagging the intrusion by switching any bit that has been observed, thereby alerting the recipient to an eavesdropping attempt.

So that's Australia and Switzerland. Over to Egypt, where Egyptian Researcher Dr. Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyed Explains the "Science" behind His Demand to Abolish Greenwich Mean Time and Replace It with Mecca Time:

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: When British colonialism or the British kingdom were in control, and it was "an empire on which the sun never sets," it imposed Greenwich Mean Time. This creates two problems for the world. The first problem is that in Greenwich, the magnetic field of Earth is 8.5 degrees, whereas in Mecca the magnetic field is zero.

[...]

Interviewer: Before the break, we talked to Dr. Abd Al-Baset about the centrality of Mecca, and about the importance of measuring time according to the latitude of Mecca, and not according to the latitude of Greenwich... Why is it?

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: It has been proven that there is a certain discrepancy if we calculate it according to Greenwich. This discrepancy has been estimated as 8.5 minutes between the northern and southern hemispheres.

Interviewer: How much?

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: 8.5 minutes. Air traffice cannot be organized this way. They are aware of this, and so they try to change it.

Interviewer: Really?

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes. If they calculated time according to Mecca, it would be the same in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Interviewer: Surely they know this...

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes, but we have to work on these things. We must declare this, and we must convene a large conference with them, and tell them that time must be calculated according to Mecca.

Interviewer: What other benefits are there to calculating time according to Mecca?

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: If you calculate time according to Mecca, those 8.5 minutes... The magnetic field of Earth, for example... What I say is that there are people at the North Pole and the South Pole who cannot come here in multitudes.

Interviewer: Really?

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: This is because the magnetic force is concentrated there, which affects people's blood and the biological movement of life. It has been proven that if magnetism, anywhere, exceeds 1,000 gauss, which equals one tenth of a tesla, it affects the ability of the hemoglobin in the blood to carry oxygen to the body's tissues, the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the tissues.

Interviewer: In other words, the ability to live...

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes, to live... This means is that when you are in Mecca, the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the tissues is greater than anywhere else in the world.

Interviewer: That's why, when people travel to Mecca, they return full of energy.

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: In Mecca, you don't exert any effort. That's why you may see an old man, who cannot walk, or who walks with crutches, and even though it gets very crowded around the Ka'ba, he is filled with great strength, and he circles the Ka'ba. You do not exert any effort, and you are filled with energy, because you are in a place in which there is no magnetic force.

[...]

Anybody who studies human chemistry knows that all circulation in the human body is to the right. All the components are called "dextro-rotatary," which means circulating to the right. They call it dextro-rotatory, which means circulating to the right. When I'm circulating [the Ka'ba] from right to left, anti-clockwise, I increase my body's circulation, and consequently I am filled with energy.

Interviewer: I get filled with energy too?

Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes, because the right-to-left circulation in my body increases.

(via lots of blogs)

One of these three countries is a net recipient of international aid. Can you guess which?

Meanwhile, The Guardian gives a platform to Intelligent Design and militant religious advocates.

Last time there was a prolonged period of Labour government, we had to be bailed out by the IMF. Nice to see the Guardian working to make that happen again, in its own way.