Air Crash in Polynesia

An Air Moorea Twin Otter that took off from Mo'orea for the seven-minute flight to Tahiti crashed in the sea, killing all aboard, Tahitipresse reports.

Polynesian Follies Yet Again

French Polynesia's politicos are at it again.

It seems the "autonomist" (pro-French) group obtained a few defectors and threw out pro-independence President Oscar Temaru. Part of the deal, however, was that the Ferdinand Marcos of Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, would not be put back in office. Instead, Gaston Tong Sang was made President.

Now there has been a falling-out between the Gastons. Five ministers resigned, and Gaston No. 1 has been meeting with Oscar to strike a deal, to the dismay of many. The deal might provide for an independence referendum some time in the future, say 2028, when Gaston No. 1 and Oscar will either be dead or won't know what country they are living in, anyway.

Gaston No. 1 was a pal of former French President Jacques Chirac, who has problems of his own (a criminal investigation, now that he no longer has immunity). The French have let it be known that the highest level of subsidy might depend upon the return of some degree of political stability.

The French in Polynesia are a distinctly unpleasant bunch, but they do subsidize the place. The independence dilemma is that without the subsidies, even with fewer duties and trade preferences for the métropole, the economic would go to hell in a handbasket. Hence the independence faction is for independence--but not quite yet.

Don't count Gaston-Ferdinand out until he's dead--with a stake through the heart.

More Fun With Science

I'm not meticulous enough to do it, probably, but I love reading about it. Much more so than doing what many of my fellow middle-class, middle-aged, white male compatriots like--watching basketball on TV.

First, they've found enough water on the south polar icecap to cover the whole planet, although 90% of the water that used to be there seems to have disappeared. Liquid water is necessary for life as we know it, and there's probably some at the toe of the icecap:

"Life as we know it requires water and, in fact, at least transient liquid water for cells to survive and reproduce. So if we are expecting to find existing life on Mars we need to go to a location where water is available," Plaut said.

"So the polar regions are naturally a target because we certainly know that there's plenty of H2O there."

Some of the new information even hints at the possible existence of a thin layer of liquid water at the base of the deposits.

I'd rather not meet any Martians, even if, as is probably the case, they're microbes. Remember what our microbes did to the Martian invaders in War of the Worlds.

They've recently released results from studies of pig DNA from around the Pacific. Pigs did not radiate out from Taiwan to Oceania, as the linguistic evidence suggests happened with the people. (There are, or used to be, several Austronesian languages on Taiwan that separated a long time ago, suggesting it as the point of origin.)

The study is titled "Phylogeny and Ancient DNA of Sus Provides Insights into Neolithic Expansion in Island Southeast Asia and Oceania." Sus is the genus of pigs. Neolithic refers to Stone Age people who have developed agriculture.

Bollt says this does not mean the authors believe Polynesians originated or even visited Southeast Asia, or even that they necessarily sailed from Taiwan without pigs. They may have lost their pigs. They could have stopped at some point along what is now Vietnam and traded for or captured pigs, and then moved on, leaving no trace. Or perhaps the pigs were carried into the Lapita islands by other people, and the folks who would populate Polynesia picked them up there.

"It does support a more complex theory of migration that is not as linear as we've thought," Bollt said.

The paper suggests that there are other explanations than the popular "Speedboat out of Taiwan" theory, which argues that a single culture moved through Oceania, evolving as it went but without much outside influence. An alternative view is that there may be "multiple origins of the various cultural components," the paper said.

I've always been fascinated by domestication. It seems so improbable, except maybe for dogs domesticating themselves, yet apparently happened repeatedly, all over the world.

Apres Gaston, Oscar. Apres Oscar, Gaston.

Independence advocate Oscar Temaru was replaced by Gaston Tong Sang, the Mayor of Bora Bora, as President of French Polynesia.

M. Tong Sang is an "autonomiste" (pro-French) poliitician, and a colleague and supporter of Gaston Flosse, the former President, a buddy of Jacques Chirac.

The Assembly is full of tiny parties, whose coalitions fragment and re-form.

Recently, the cost of living has been going through the roof.

Polynesians' backs are curved from supporting all those fat Frenchmen.

Polynesia: Temaru Out Again

Independence advocate and President Oscar Temaru was ousted yet again in a narrow vote in the parliament.

There had been a series of incidents incited by former President Gaston Flosse's thugs, organized in the GIP (Polynesian Intervention Group), ostensibly a disaster-relief squad.

The cost of living is up.

There will be elections December 12th.