Now We Know Why US Is Adamant To Conquer Afghanistan...

Report: US finds mineral riches in Afghanistan


WASHINGTON – A team of U.S. geologists and Pentagon officials has discovered vast mineral wealth in Afghanistan, conceivably enough to turn the scarred and impoverished country into one of the world's most lucrative mining centers, The New York Times reports.

"There is stunning potential here," Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, told the paper in a report published Monday. "There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant."

Americans discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, including iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium, according to the report. The Times quoted a Pentagon memo as saying Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and cell phones.

The report said the U.S. Geological Survey began aerial surveys of Afghanistan's mineral resources in 2006, using data that had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Promising results led to a more sophisticated study the next year.

Then last year, a Pentagon task force that had created business development programs in Iraq arrived in Afghanistan and closely analyzed the geologists' findings. U.S. mining experts were brought in to validate the survey's conclusions, and top U.S. and Afghan officials were briefed.

So far, the biggest mineral deposits discovered are of iron and copper, but finds include large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, as well as rare earth elements and large gold deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan, the report said.

Mars Hoax Circulates: 'Big as the Moon!'

Joe RaoSPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
– Wed May 20, 3:51 pm ET

Once again it appears that a Mars hoax that has widely circulated through the Internet since its first appearance during the summer of 2004 has begun to circulate yet again. It comes in the form of an e-mail message titled "Mars Spectacular," which originated from an unknown source.
In turn, this message has gotten passed on to others who couldn't resist forwarding it to their entire address book.
The e-mail declares that on the night of Aug. 27, the planet Mars will come closer to Earth than it has in the past 60,000 years, thereby offering spectacular views of the Red Planet. The commentary even proclaims, with liberal use of exclamation marks, that Mars will appear as bright as (or as large as) the full moon.
The problem is that "Aug. 27" is actually Aug. 27, 2003. Mars made a historically close pass by Earth that night (34.6 million miles, or 55.7 million km). The Hubble Space Telescope used the opportunity to make a great photo of Mars. But even then, to the naked eye Mars appeared as nothing more than an extremely bright yellowish-orange star, not at all like the full moon.
This year, Mars is actually much dimmer and far-less conspicuous than in 2003.
You can find Mars in the early morning sky right now, however, located not far from the dazzling planet, Venus. This week, the moon serves as a guide to spotting the red planet -- and you can easily compare them to see just how different they appear in size.
"In the past, the rapid spread of this information was like some sort of brain info-virus, and led to at least one daily newspaper comic that showed Mars crashing into a home while the husband and wife were indoors, debating how close the planet will come," said Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium.
In terms of actual size, Mars (approximately 4,213 miles, or 6,780 km. in diameter) is almost twice the size of our moon (about 2,160 miles, or 3,475 km). But the great distance between Mars and Earth never allows it to appear anywhere near as large as the moon in our sky.
The average distance of the moon from Earth is 238,000 miles (382,900 km). So for Mars to appear to loom as large as the Moon does from Earth, it would have to be about twice the Moon's distance, or roughly 476,000 miles (766,000 km.).
In fact, right now the red planet remains is 189 million miles (304 million km) from Earth.
So, plain and simple, if you have already received this infamous Mars E-mail -- or eventually receive it this summer -- be advised that it is totally bogus.
Or Tyson suggests: "Now it's time for you to send this antidote to all the infected people in your address book!"