Aristotle writes in The Politics " … man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all…" But the philosopher leaves one conundrum to us to solve it: how is it that when no one is separated from law and justice someone is the worst of all? For instance, regarding recent violence surrounding Nippon Garments at Tongi, Dhaka, labourers say they were very much within the jurisdiction of the law to claim their overdue pay, owners supported by BGMEA say it was legal to announce closure of their factory with a few hours notice and police say they were doing their legal duty. Yet, violence erupted, claiming at least two lives. The question is: who is the culprit that represents the worst kind of mankind? r

It did not work out for Loretta and George but honeymooning or even matrimony in space seems a reality in near future. Private sector entrepreneurs in the US are already investing billions of dollars in commercial space travel related projects while Shimizu Space Systems, a Japanese corporation, is planning to pioneer hospitality in space. Meanwhile NASA has announced November 16 as the date for its space shuttle Atlantis to take off for ISS in LEO.

But vacation in space needs to be short-lived for over there the more the time spent the higher the incidence of getting affected by malignant microbes and having the body immune system weakened as a result.


Statistics show that most statistics are questionable; subject to the kind of recipe for them, they can be used to mislead people. But being misled into being optimistic is not without merit.

We feel relieved when we hear that China has cut down on its CO2 emissions by 1.5 billion tons since 2005 although critics claim that the country outmanoeuvred the number one CO2 emitter, USA, in 2008. And we congratulate UK on the reduction in emissions to 623.8 million tonnes in 2008 from 636.6 million tonnes in 2007, although UKSA chairman Sir Michael Scholar contests the claim.

Who wants to be disillusioned by the reality that global carbon dioxide emissions amounted to 31.5 billion metric tons in 2008, a 1.94 percent rise compared to the previous year?