Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Wealth gap between Colombian rich and poor (November 23rd)

Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas known as Alfonso Cano the 63 year old commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) a Marxist rebel group has been killed in action by the Colombian Army in an air raid. Vargas was shot and killed in during a government led offensive in Cauca named ‘Operation Odyssey’. The Colombian president Juan Santos confirmed the death on national television, following the pursuit of Vargas when he fled his stronghold in Tolima months earlier. Cano believed the rebellion was a class struggle which initially set out to reduce the wealth gap between rich and poor in Colombia, and did not hesitate to kidnap politicians and the wealthy as hostages to fund the war effort or to exchange for hundreds of his jailed colleagues. Vargas assumed the leadership of FARC in 2008 after the founder and leader Manual Vélez died of a heart attack.

Inspired by Simon Romero http://ow.ly/7rMgd image source victimasdelterrorismo http://ow.ly/7rMmp

Postponed his honeymoon for 18 months (November 15th)

Alexey Sitev the 39 year old Russian marine engineer who postponed his honeymoon for 18 months, after only two weeks of marriage before embarking as commander of simulated mission to Mars, has returned. Although Sitev did not actually leave, he has returned from his confinement on the Mars500 simulated voyage to Mars and back taking a total of 520 days to complete. The experimental simulation is unprecedented in isolating six highly trained professionals for such duration, and subjected to elaborate and often invasive experimentation. Mars-500 is an international multi-part experiment simulating a manned flight to Mars, with a crew of volunteers living and working in a mockup spacecraft with limited supplies of consumables. The objective of the simulation is to yield medical and psychological data on the effects of long-term isolation. Sitev is a specialist in life support systems.

Inspired by Ian Sample & Miriam Elder http://ow.ly/7kegx image source ESA http://ow.ly/7kevh