somebody please forward this to netgoth

Yeah, I know there are more pressing issues facing Iraq, but here's something interesting I hadn't really thought about. Kindly refrain from hailing me with "Your priorities are fucked" replies -- I'm offering this information free of political or philosophical analysis. :)

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There's a shitload of Iraqi scientists. Saddam funded lots of non-weapons-related research. Some say this was meant to camouflage the research aimed at warlike stuff. Regardless of why the scientists exist, theres about 10,000 Ph.D.'s out there, and they did useful stuff, like agricultural genetics (desert heat resistant chickens!), while completely isolated from the rest of the world for 12 years (no journals after '92, no collaboration, etc.).

After shit blew up, the looters came. They broke everything they could not steal in laboratories and universities across the country. They took the light switches and cut the wiring out from the walls. They set fires.

Now, the Iraqi scientists and professors didn't have much stuff to begin with (one was recently surprised to learn about the Internet), and now they have nothing.

There's a magazine called The Scientist. They're offering to act as a conduit for offering equipment and help to the Iraqi scientific community. Email iraqiscience@thescientist.com for instructions on packaging and sending stuff (old apparatus, old computers, friggin' light bulbs, whatever).

(See July 14, Vol. 17, No. 14 issue of The Scientist. Also www.thescientist.com)