May 14, 2006
Johann Hari
This is the story of the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler's armies marched across Europe; a war that has not ended. But it is also the story of a trail of blood that leads directly to you: to your remote control, to your mobile phone, to your laptop and to your diamond necklace.
In the TV series Lost, a group of plane-crash survivors believe they are stranded alone on a desert island, until one day they discover a metal cable leading out into the ocean and the world beyond. The Democratic Republic of Congo is full of those cables, mysterious connections that show how a seemingly isolated tribal war is in reality something very different.
This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed 4 million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's.
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<http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3245293>
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The most important isotope of plutonium is 239Pu, with a half-life of 24,110 years.
...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/