When Tenet exclaimed "It's a slam dunk case!" it was in the context of the case to be made to the public.

In the memoir, Bush himself recalls having declared: "Surely we can do a better job of explaining the evidence against Saddam."

Bush writes in the memoir: "No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn't find weapons of mass destruction. I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do."

But as David Corn also points out Bush famously treated the missing WMDs like a big joke at a March 2004 press dinner. "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere," he said as he narrated a slideshow of pictures of him looking out his window and under his furniture.

And Bush of course never actually tells us who he's angry at, or what exactly sickened him. He's certainly not willing to say that he was angry at himself, or that going to war was a sickening mistake.

LAUER: Was there ever any consideration of apologizing to the American people?

BUSH: I mean, apologizing would basically say the decision was a wrong decision, and I don't believe it was a wrong decision.

In fact, despite everything, Bush continues to indulge in the same unfounded rhetoric to this day"For all the difficulties that followed, America is safer without a homicidal dictator pursuing WMD and supporting terror at the heart of the Middle East," he writes.

And the cherry-picking of the intelligence continues, as well. As Walter Pincus wrote on Monday (in a story the Washington Post buried on page A29), the book "makes selective use" of a Jan. 27, 2003, report to the U.N. Security Council by chief inspector Hans Blix, "citing elements that support the idea that Hussein was not cooperating and leaving out parts that indicate his government was. More to the point, however, Bush fails to mention two subsequent Blix pre-invasion reports in February and early March, weeks before U.S. bombs struck Baghdad. Those show Iraq cooperating with inspectors and the inspectors finding no significant evidence that Hussein was hiding WMD programs."

George W. Bush was no reluctant warrior. The U.S. went to war in Iraq because he wanted to. The war he launched was arguably an illegal act of aggression. And the costs have been enormous.

The United States has spent $750 billion and counting on the war in Iraq. More than 4,400 members of the U.S. armed forces have perished, with nearly 32,000 wounded in action, and somewhere in the ballpark of 500,000 more suffering from brain injuries, mental health problems, hearing damage and disease. Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated to number at least 100,000 andmore than a million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes.

Bush told Lauer it was worth it: "I will say, definitely, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power, as are 25 million people who now have a chance to live in freedom."

But author Nir Rosen recently addressed Bush's claim:

Certainly the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis are not better off. Their families aren't better off. The tens of thousands of Iraqi men who languished in American and subsequently Iraqi gulags are not better off. The children who lost their fathers aren't better off. The millions of Iraqis who lost their homes, hundreds of thousands of refugees in the region, are not better off. So there's no mathematical calculation you can make to determine who's better off and who's not.....

Saddam Hussein is gone, that's true. The regime we've put in place is certainly more representative, but it's brutal and authoritarian. Torture is routine and systematic. Corruption is also routine and systematic. There are no services to speak of, no real electricity or water. Violence remains very high. So, there's nothing to be proud of in this. The Iraqi people deserve much better, and they're the real victims of Bush's war.

In what was perhaps the single most preposterous assertion of his book tour, Bush seemed to suggest to Lauer that he was actually against going to war:

LAUER: So by the time you gave the order to start military operations in Iraq, did you personally have any doubt, any shred of doubt, about that intelligence?

 

BUSH: No, I didn't. I really didn't.

LAUER: Not everybody thought you should go to war, though. There were dissenters.

BUSH: Of course there were.

LAUER: Did you filter them out?

BUSH: I was -- I was a dissenting voice. I didn't wanna use force.

For the nation's journalists to allow this outrageous lie to go uncontested is particularly galling. During the run-up to war, one of the elite media's most common excuses for marginalizing or ignoring the true voices of dissension and doubt was that everyone knew an invasion was a foregone conclusion.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

In 1995, scufundatorul american Scott Cassel se afla pe plaja californiana din laguna San Ignacio, dupa o zi de filmat balene. Langa focul ce incerca sa alunge racoarea serii, cei doi mexicani ce-l insoteau, incepand sa depene amintiri legate de pescuit, au ajuns la un subiect ce l-a facut pe Scott sa devina  atent...

Devorator de oameni

Dosidicus gigas este numele stiintific al calmarului gigant, supranumit „demonul rosu” sau calmarul lui Humboldt. Unul dintre mexicani isi amintea ca intr-o noapte, cu cativa ani in urma, se intorcea impreuna cu tatal sau de la pescuit, cand au observat in apropierea tarmului o barca a altui pescar, aparent goala. Lucru straniu, deoarece stiau ca nici un pescar nu-si abandoneaza vreodata vasul. Totusi, intr-adevar, nimeni nu se afla la bord. Doar o multime de calmari in agonie.

Deodata, la lumina lanternelor, au observat un amanunt socant: pe marginile barcii erau cateva unghii umane rupte si urme de sange, in mod cert de la maini care se zbatusera sa se prinda de un punct de sprijin. Urmele unei lupte! Singurul scenariu plauzibil pe care l-au putut reconstitui pornea de la capturarea unui calmar urias (cele mai mari exemplare cantaresc in jur de 100 de kilograme!), care l-a ranit grav pe nefericitul om. Incercand sa traga in barca animalul, barbatul probabil cazuse in apa si „demonul rosu” il tarase in adancuri, pentru a-l sfasia si a-l devora, impreuna cu alti congeneri.

Aventura in bratele mortii

Scott a crezut si nu prea povestea. Totusi, pentru el era o provocare deosebita si, cum fostul militar nu se temea de eventualii monstri ai marii, a abandonat balenele si s-a deplasat la cateva sute de kilometri mai spre sud, intr-un alt port californian, La Paz. Acolo a inchiriat o barca de pescuit, si-a pus echipamentul de scufundare, a luat camera video subacvatica si a plonjat. In cateva minute, era inconjurat de o intreaga familie de calmari la fel de mari ca el.

Unul dinte acestia i-a smuls camera din maini, apoi i-a aruncat-o in plina figura; altul si-a incolacit tentaculele cu ventuze pe bratul sau, anesteziindu-i instantaneu umarul; un al treilea s-a indreptat catre fata lui, moment in care s-a simtit tras in jos, brusc. Intr-o clipa, banda octopodelor l-a impins la 20 de metri adancime, parca pregatindu-se de festin. Temerarul aventurier nu a inteles niciodata ce miracol a facut ca bestiile sa dispara la fel de rapid cum aparusera. Abia ajuns din nou in barca, a observat ca echipamentul sau fusese transformat in zdrente. Totusi, ramasese fascinat de ceea ce vazuse acolo, jos.

Canibalul cu 72.000 de dinti

Calmarul lui Humboldt nu e o faptura terifianta, pentru cercetatori, ci mai degraba interesanta. El face parte din familia cefalopodelor (e un fel de var al... melcilor), care a aparut acum 500 milioane de ani si s-a adaptat conditiilor din toate marile globului. Pana in prezent, s-au identificat peste 700 de specii, dimensiunile lor variind intre 15 milimetri si mai mult de 20 metri (Architeutis). Toti au un cap inzestrat cu ochi evoluati, comparabili cu cei umani, care le permit sa vada la distanta si in intuneric, nu insa si sa distinga culorile.

Creierul este suficient de mare, pentru a le da si o anume inteligenta. Deosebit de interesante sunt tentaculele: opt, scurte si doua mult mai lungi, specializate in capturarea prazii, dar si in „imbratisarile” din perioada imperecherii. Pe ele se afla nu mai putin de 2000 de ventuze, fiecare avand cate 36 de dinti dispusi circular. Un dispozitiv perfect de sfasiat. De altfel, calmarul are si faima proasta de canibal: daca vreunul din grup este ranit, ceilalti il sfasie si il mananca imediat.

La fel de interesant este si sistemul de propulsie subacvatica – un sifon cu ajutorul caruia trimite apa in sensul opus deplasarii, putand ajunge astfel la 25 km/ora, adica de trei ori viteza unui inotator de performanta. Desi se cunosc multe despre acest animal, care in cei doar 2 ani de viata poate ajunge la dimensiuni incredibile, el ramane inca un mister al lumii vii. Suficient de „seducator”, dar nu chiar atat incat vreun om sa-si doreasca imbratisarea celor 8 plus 2 tentacule si „sarutul” ventuzelor dotate cu „numai” 72.000 de dinti...

ADRIAN-NICOLAE POPESCU - magazin.ro

And in June 2008, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller described the conclusions of his committee's exhaustive report on the Bush administration's public statements regarding Iraq:

Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence. In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.

It is my belief that the Bush Administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. To accomplish this, top Administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and al Qaeda as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11. Sadly, the Bush Administration led the nation into war under false pretenses.

There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.

It was, in short, a propaganda campaign. As former Press Secretary Scott McClellan wrote in hisrevelatory 2008 memoir, Bush's advisors "decided to pursue a political propaganda campaign to sell the war to the American people.... A pro-war campaign might have been more acceptable had it been accompanied by a high level of candor and honesty, but it was not."

And as Jonathan Landay wrote for Knight Ridder in 2005, the materials that had become public to date demonstrated "that the White House followed a pattern of using questionable intelligence, even documents that turned out to be forgeries, to support its case -- often leaking classified information to receptive journalists -- and dismissing information that undermined the case for war."

That's what made Patrick Fitzgerald's prosecution of the Valerie Plame case so essential. It promised a public view into the heart of the administration's dirty tricks department -- and a chance to find out once and for all who the mastermind was. But Cheney aide Scooter Libby's lies stymied Fitzgerald, and we never found out for sure -- even though the signs pointed pretty clearly to Libby's boss.

Even if Cheney was the driving force behind the war campaign's deceptions, however, Bush was undeniably the chief cheerleader.

Precisely to what extent pressure from the White House was responsible for the intelligence community's totally inaccurate assessment of Iraq's WMDs remains unclear. Bush's own WMD commission, not surprisingly, gave him a pass in their final report. But there was no doubt the community knew what its chief customers wanted to hear, and gave it to them.

Even so, the intelligence did not support Bush's insistence at the time that those weapons posed an imminent threat.

Paul R. Pillar, the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, wrote in 2006 that it was only through the overt, intentional misreading, cherry-picking and politicization of intelligence findings that the case could be made for war:

If the entire body of official intelligence analysis on Iraq had a policy implication, it was to avoid war - or, if war was going to be launched, to prepare for a messy aftermath. What is most remarkable about prewar US intelligence on Iraq is not that it got things wrong and thereby misled policymakers; it is that it played so small a role in one of the most important US policy decisions in recent decades.

Intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs did not drive Bush's decision to go to war, Pillar continued:

A view broadly held in the United States and even more so overseas was that deterrence of Iraq was working, that Saddam was being kept "in his box," and that the best way to deal with the weapons problem was through an aggressive inspections program to supplement the sanctions already in place. That the administration arrived at so different a policy solution indicates that its decision to topple Saddam was driven by other factors.

For Bush, the intelligence findings Cheney and others were feeding him -- and the media -- were not factors that needed to be weighed carefully as part of a decision-making process. There wasno decision-making process. The intelligence findings were simply elements of a sales campaign.

The one time Bush is recorded as having pushed back at the intelligence at all was in the famous late 2002 Oval Office scene with Tenet. However, contrary to popular mythology, Bush's concern was manifestly not about the intelligence itself, but about its marketing potential.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

Confruntati cu transformari climatice fara precedent, savantii se tem ca ne ameninta o era de calamitati naturale, incalzirea planetei putand provoca, in opinia lor, o catastrofa de proportii. De ani de zile, suntem avertizati, pe toate canalele mass media, de iminenta dezastrului provocat de asa-numitele „gaze cu efect de sera”. O descoperire de ultima ora arata ca, pe langa rolul nociv, aceste gaze pot aduce si importante beneficii omenirii.

Si aceasta dupa ce chimistii de la Universitatea San Diego, California, condusi de profesorul Clifford Kubiak, au demonstrat fezabilitatea exploatarii luminii solare, in transformarea gazelor cu efect de sera intr-un produs util. Ei au realizat chiar un prototip care poate inmagazina energia solara, o poate converti in energie electrica si apoi o poate „separa” in monodix de carbon (CO) si... oxigen.

Rezultatele initiale, prezentate la intrunirea de luna trecuta a Societatii Americane de Chimie, au atras atentia intregii lumi stiintifice asupra descoperirii. „Procesul este mult mai eficace decat cel ce vizeaza separatia apei, pentru producerea de hidrogen. In alta ordine de idei, pe langa oxigen, element indispensabil vietii pe Terra, obtinem monoxid de carbon, un produs chimic foarte cautat care, lichefiat, ar putea fi folosit drept combustibil, fiind mai putin nociv pentru mediu decat actualii combustibili.

Prin urmare, procedeul inventat de noi duce la economisirea de combustibili conventionali, produce o substanta chimica utila si reduce nivelul gazului cu efect de sera”.  Dispozitivul imaginat de Kubiak si colaboratorii sai pentru a separa dioxidul de carbon utilizeaza un semiconductor si doua straturi extrem de fine de catalizatori, generand monoxid de carbon si oxigen in cadrul unui proces trifazic. Prima faza este capturarea fotonilor solari cu ajutorul semiconductorului, a doua conversia in energie electrica, de catre semiconductor, iar a treia dirijarea acestei energii catre catalizatori. Catalizatorii vor converti dioxidul de carbon in monoxid de carbon, pe o parte a dispozitivului, si in oxigen, pe partea opusa. Pentru ca aceste reactii duceau la o pierdere de electroni, era necesara folosirea unui tip special de catalizator, care sa poata converti energia electrica in energie chimica.

Un puzzle stiintific

Cercetatorii americani au creat o molecula avand in centru trei atomi de nichel, care s-a dovedit catalizatorul ideal in acest proces. Alegerea semiconductorului este fundamentala pentru o separare eficienta a dioxidului de carbon, sunt de parere savantii. Semiconductorii folositi de echipa californiana au astfel ceea ce ar putea fi numit „benzi de energie”, catre care electronii sunt dirijati. Lumina solara ii face pe electroni sa sara de pe o banda pe alta, generand astfel un potential electric. Diferenta de energie dintre benzi determina cata energie solara este absorbita si cata energie electrica va fi produsa.

Kubiak a folosit initial un semiconductor de silicon, dar a realizat curand ca acest material este prea „moale” pentru a asigura suficienta energie. Astfel incat el si-a indreptat atentia spre un semiconductor construit pe baza de fosfura de galiu, capabil sa absoarba de doua ori mai multa energie solara si sa o si transmita mai repede. „Proiectul e pentru noi un fel de puzzle stiintific. Avem toate datele necesare, in teorie ideea functioneaza, ramane sa o definitivam in practica. Exista multe piese care trebuie puse inca la locul lor, dar suntem pe drumul cel bun”, crede Kubiak.

Autor: GABRIEL TUDOR - magazin.ro

In the first tell-all book from inside Bush's national security team, Richard A. Clarke wrote in 2004of a meeting he had with Bush the day after 9/11:

The president in a very intimidating way left us, me and my staff, with the clear indication that he wanted us to come back with the word there was an Iraqi hand behind 9/11 because they had been planning to do something about Iraq from before the time they came into office....

I think they had a plan from day one they wanted to do something about Iraq. While the World Trade Center was still smoldering, while they were still digging bodies out, people in the White House were thinking: 'Ah! This gives us the opportunity we have been looking for to go after Iraq.'

Clarke notes that the following day, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained in a meeting that there were no decent targets for bombing in Afghanistan and that the U.S. should consider bombing Iraq, which had better targets.

At first I thought Rumsfeld was joking. But he was serious and the President did not reject out of hand the idea of attacking Iraq. Instead, he noted that what we needed to do with Iraq was to change the government, not just hit it with more cruise missiles, as Rumsfeld had implied.

Just over two months later, on Nov. 21, 2001, Bush formally instructed Rumsfeld that he wanted to develop a plan for war in Iraq. Sixteen months after that, in March 2003, the invasion began.

In the period during which Bush claims he was wringing his hands about whether or not to attack, he and his aides were instead intensely focused on building the public case for what was, in their minds, an inevitability.

The first concrete bits of evidence to that effect were the Downing Street Memos, first published in May 1, 2005, which documented the conclusions of British officials after high-level talks in Washington in July 2002:

Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.

And just recently, the independent National Security Archives completed a major analysis of the historical record, including a new trove of formerly secret records of both the Bush administration and the British cabinet of Tony Blair. John Prados, co-director of the archives' Iraq Documentation Project, summed up their findings this way: "The more we learn about how the Iraq War began the worse the story gets."

Prados wrote that the cumulative record clearly "demonstrates that the Bush administration swiftly abandoned plans for diplomacy to curb fancied Iraqi adventurism by means of sanctions, never had a plan subsequent to that except for a military solution, and enmeshed British allies in a manipulation of public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic designed to generate support for a war."

That's right: There never was another plan. And therefore -- ironically enough, considering the title of Bush's book -- there never was an actual "decision point" either. There were some debates about how to invade Iraq, and when, but not if.

Prados writes:

In contrast to an extensive record of planning for actual military operations, there is no record that President George W. Bush ever made a considered decision for war. All of the numerous White House and Pentagon meetings concerned moving the project forward, not whether a march into conflict was a proper course for the United States and its allies. Deliberations were instrumental to furthering the war project, not considerations of the basic course.

Former CIA director George Tenet admitted as much in his own memoir, in 2007. "There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat," he wrote, nor "was there ever a significant discussion" about the possibility of containing Iraq without an invasion.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Va sugeram o realizare ce pare insolita si... imposibila, pentru fizicienii deschisi exclusiv catre litera manualelor traditionale. Totusi, dispozitivul respectiv exista si inventatorul sau nu poate decat sa-i mai adauge, in joaca, mici noutati, deoarece fondurile necesare imbunatatirii ii lipsesc. Ca mai mereu, cand vine vorba despre energie ieftina, curata si care nu presupune rostogolirea de sume fabuloase, in diverse conturi.

Laboratorul de... apartament

Se numeste Daniel Bulimar Henciu, are doar 31 de ani si traieste in Lugoj, impreuna cu sotia, din modestele venituri de depanator tv. Pasiunea pentru electronica marturiseste insa ca a aparut pe la 10 ani, cand de altfel a si inceput activitatea practica in domeniu, sub indrumarea unor profesori din localitate. Treptat, teoriile fizicii legate de circuite electrice si electronice au prins un contur fascinant pentru tanarul banatean si, in ultimii 12 ani l-au orientat catre un gen de cercetare pe cont propriu, asumata cu buna-stiinta, inclusiv prin investirea in directia respectiva aproape a tuturor resurselor sale financiare.

Asa se face ca anul trecut a aparut si ceea ce cititorul nostru considera a fi prima invetie cu-adevarat demna de interes: „un dispozitiv care folosea la intrare o baterie de ceas, de tip AG-3, si putea sa aprinda pentru o secunda un bec de 12V/21w”. Daniel Bulimar a avut curajul sa-si faca publica descoperirea, sperand ca va primi macar o vorba de incurajare. Aceasta era insa, cum s-ar zice, „socoteala de-acasa”!

Critici, in loc de incurajari

„In urma acestei aparitii nu am primit decat critici, deoarece toti credeau ca stiu rezolvarea inventiei (...) Am primit un telefon de la un centru de cercetare din Bucuresti si ei imi spuneau sa-mi vad de treaba, ca asa ceva nu se poate si ca bateria probabil are calitati deosebite.”

Desigur, nu avem calitatea de a da verdicte, dar povestea cititorului nostru din Lugoj e trasa la indigo dupa altele, asemanatoare: un inventator oarecare, foarte pasionat, realizeaza prin priceperea si eforturile personale un dispozitiv in masura sa aduca mari avantaje economice (de obicei, in domeniul energiei) si totodata sa urneasca putin din loc o mentalitate autosuficienta, dar avand o anume putere de decizie.

Inventia e ridiculizata, inventatorul marginalizat, iar o idee macar potential valoroasa e strivita in controverse sterile. Daniel Bulimar a continuat totusi sa „se joace” si de curand a trecut la un nivel superior: „un invertor de tensiune, care alimentat la 14V/1,8A aprinde un bec de 220V/4-100W”.

Zarurile au fost aruncate

Cel mai in masura sa-si prezinte (si sa-si apere!) inventia este chiar tanarul Daniel Bulimar Henciu, caruia in final ii dam cuvantul. „Acest dispozitiv, pe care l-am numit BHD, este deosebit din doua motive: nu respecta prima lege pe care o cunoastem din fizica (puterea din primarul unui transformator trebuie sa fie egala cu puterea din secundar); este construit intr-un spatiu foarte redus (initial, o carcasa de CD, dar ulterior la dimensiunile de numai 6x5x1 cm si totusi cu aceleasi performante).

Doresc sa pot demonstra astfel ca putem obtine transformarea curentului continuu in curent alternativ, prin metode mai moderne si mai eficiente. Eu am realizat BHD in conditii artizanale, de amator, dar in conditii de laborator ii va creste eficienta cu cel putin 30%, iar spatiul ocupat va fi chiar mai redus (...) Eu consider ca, atat cat cunosc, e o descoperire noua in fizica, la care am ajuns doar datorita circuitelor digitale. Pare incredibil: o baterie care nu se mai descarca niciodata, fara acizi, ci doar cu un circuit electronic care, odata activat, functioneaza non-stop.”

Sa fie chiar atat de incredibil, incat inventia lugojanului sa-i lase indiferenti pe fizicieni? Mentionam ca, pentru eventualele reactii la cele aratate si realizate de Daniel Bulimar, acesta poate fi contactat prin intermediul redactiei noastre.

ADRIAN-NICOLAE POPESCU - magazin.ro

Faimoasa exploratoare Maria Uca Marinescu cred ca nu mai are nevoie de prezentari detaliate. In schimb, mai mereu ne obliga sa-i actualizam biografia, caci la cei saizeci si... de ani ai sai inca nu are astampar, raspunzand mereu unei vechi chemari a departarilor. De putin timp, s-a intors poate din cea mai stranie, mai tulburatoare expeditie polara, prilej cu care a mai stabilit un record personal, national si mondial: dupa ce a devenit prima femeie din lume care a ajuns (in acelasi an!), pe schiuri, la Polul Nord si la Polul Sud, in martie 2007 a dus tricolorul romanesc pana la Polul Nord magnetic. De data aceasta insa, aventura cunoasterii, prin care a dorit sa marcheze un inceput de sarbatorire a Anului Polar International, a fost dublata de o experienta pe alocuri halucinanta.

„Privirea” din neant

Uca Marinescu este o veritabila enciclopedie, care se pricepe sa te surprinda si sa te fascineze cu toate informatiile si imaginile adunate de-a lungul anilor, din intreaga lume. Totusi, despre anumite intamplari traite vorbeste cu fireasca reticenta a omului rational care stie ca mentalitatea si educatia ne determina deseori sa punem noi insine bariere gandirii.

Exista astfel o limita a credibilului, o zona crepusculara unde putini se incumeta sa se aventureze, chiar daca inteleg destul de bine ce se intampla acolo. Temerara noastra insa nici macar nu fusese avertizata de cunoscatori, inainte sa ia contact direct cu misterele Nordului. Iar primul impact de acest gen a avut loc in conditii speciale. Se afla in Yukon, in anul 1996, intr-o tentativa de a merge spre nordul extrem al Canadei.

Se produsesera insa inundatii si cu foarte mare greutate a gasit un loc intr-un mic avion pentru cercetari stiintifice; cinci persoane, incluzand si membrii echipajului. La un moment dat, s-a zburat mai jos, se vedeau turme de caribu, dar Uca a avut o senzatie nemaitraita: „Cineva” parca o privea insistent in ceafa, incercand sa-i patrunda in minte. O senzatie de panica amestecata cu jena a facut-o sa-i priveasca pe ceilalti, pe furis. Nimic nu parea sa-i deranjeze, oamenii se comportau normal...

Santinelele magnetice

Abia dupa aterizare, spaima inexplicabila a inceput sa mai piarda din forta, dar oricum o domina, astfel ca in camera de cazare si-a luat toate masurile de siguranta pentru a sta la distanta, pe cat posibil, de acea prezenta nevazuta si terifianta. Timp de un an, nu a vorbit nimanui despre strania experienta. S-a intamplat atunci sa cunoasca un experimentat pilot american, care i-a povestit despre o imprejurare absolut similara traita de el, dar avea si explicatia: influenta magnetismului terestru, foarte puternic catre Poli, asupra creierului uman.

Oarecum linistita, Uca nu s-a gandit ca avea sa mai intalneasca sfredelitoarea „privire” a neantului. In aprilie 2001, mergand pe schiuri catre Polul Nord geografic, alaturi de alti zece exploratori din mai multe tari, incerca sa-si invinga un sentiment de atingere a propriilor limite, gandindu-se la lucruri placute. Mai aveau vreo 40 de kilometri pana la punctul terminus, stia ca in urma se afla Kim, un coleg chinez, cand l-a observat pe acesta in dreptul ei, in timp ce o depasea. A fost un moment derutant. Brusc, desi se afla in aer liber, a simtit ca trebuie sa se aplece, ca pentru a trece pe sub o bariera nevazuta. Facand miscarea respectiva, l-a vazut pe Kim procedand la fel, evitand in mod inexplicabil ceva ce nu exista pentru cele cinci simturi omenesti!

Dincolo de spatiu si de timp

Totusi, explicatia a venit si de la data aceasta. Viktor, colegul rus care studia magnetismul terestru, le-a vorbit despre niste centuri magnetice extrem de puternice, care isi fac simtita prezenta... nevazuta, in apropierea relativa a Polilor terestri. De altfel, fenomenele care se petrec aici depasesc pana si fantezia unui Jules Verne. O „joaca” inegala si innebunitoare pentru orice om mai slab de inger, intre cei doi Poli, ajunge sa spulbere pana si granitele fixate de simturile noastre pentru spatiu si timp.

„Grupul celor 11” a fost permanent supravegheat si indrumat prin satelit, astfel ca stiau in permanenta distanta exacta pana la Polul Nord. Pana pe la 41-42 km, cand au constatat, dimineata, ca de fapt au mai putin de mers. Insa, dupa kilometrul 37, in ziua urmatoare s-a intamplat invers, distanta era mai mare, ceea ce le dadea un sentiment acut de zadarnicie. Totusi s-au obisnuit, asa ca, dupa atingerea punctului extrem-nordic al planetei, cand au constatat ca saniile lasate la 2 km spre sud se aflau de fapt la 4 km, au inteles ca au de-a face cu un (alt) fenomen explicabil: „plimbarea” insesizabila a banchizei, sub influenta amintitului joc intre nord si sud.

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Am lasat la urma poate cel mai senzational episod din timpul recentei aventuri nordice a Ucai Marinescu. Foarte pasionata si talentata autoare de fotografii, a surprins cateva instantanee, pe cand se afla intr-un avion de cercetari care zbura spre nord, la -48 grade Celsius. Era inceputul lunii martie 2007. Cu toate acestea, data inregistrata pe imaginile aparatului foto este 01.01.2025 sau 05.01.2025! O calatorie in timp?

Aici, e cazul sa ne abtinem de la comentarii. Cel putin, fiindca atat in zona Polului Nord, cat si in cea a Polului Sud, se efectueaza de multi ani si alt gen de cercetari decat cele stiintifice... Pe de alta parte, trebuie sa spunem ca episoadele insolite traite de Uca in calatoriile sale sunt mult mai numeroase si speram sa avem prilejul de a vi le impartasi, in articole viitoare.

ADRIAN-NICOLAE POPESCU - Sursa: Revista Magazin
(Imaginile fac parte din fototeca exploratoarei Uca Marinescu)