"God Particle" Menyisakan Soal

http://sains.kompas.com/read/2013/05/01/10204735/.God.Particle.Menyisakan.Soal
BRIGITTA ISWORO LAKSMI


The Salt Lake Tribun

KOMPAS.com - Jagat cilik jagat gede. Dunia mikrokosmos dan dunia makrokosmos. Manusia hadir di keseluruhan - ”dunia kecil” dalam dirinya (batinnya) dan ”dunia besar” (di luar dirinya). 

Dalam kisah fiksi sains Carl Sagan, Cosmos, digambarkan bahwa dalam elektron yang berukuran dengan orde 10-15 terdapat alam semesta, demikian seterusnya, pada setiap regresi terdapat alam semestanya.

Dari waktu ke waktu, kosmologi — ilmu untuk memahami alam semesta mulai dari lahirnya, perkembangannya, bentuk, ukuran, dan nasibnya di saat akhir — selalu menarik perhatian karena terkait dengan asal-usul.

Seperti dituliskan Karlina Supelli, kosmologi dalam sejarahnya merupakan bidang ilmu yang terletak di perbatasan karena menggunakan data dan pendekatan beragam bidang ilmu tanpa terkendala batas-batas metodologis yang ketat, tetapi juga tak menyangkal adanya pembidangan ilmu pengetahuan (”Ciri Antropologis Pengetahuan” dalam buku Dari Kosmologi ke Dialog, Karlina Supelli, 2011).

Meski bermula dari pendekatan mistis, religius, dan empiris, sesuai perkembangan ilmu modern, kosmologi kini semakin bertumpu pada ilmu fisika teoretik energi tinggi. Dalam ilmu fisika energi tinggi, tingkat energi mencapai orde 1 Tera electron Volt.

Penemuan partikel Higgs boson menjawab adanya massa pada partikel di alam semesta. Penemuan ini menjawab pertanyaan fundamental yang muncul sejak tahun 1960-an.

Penemuan terjadi pada percobaan dengan mesin atom smasher (pembelah atom) Large Hadron Collider yang berada di wilayah Perancis - Swiss dekat Geneva. Fasilitas yang dibangun pada 1998-2008 itu merupakan yang terluas dan paling kompleks.

Pada 14 Maret lalu, para ahli di laboratorium milik European Organisation for Nuclear Research itu mengonfirmasikan penemuan partikel yang muatannya sesuai dengan partikel Higgs boson. Partikel tersebut dikenali pada Juli 2012, tetapi mereka baru mengonfirmasikan secara resmi pada Maret lalu setelah melakukan sejumlah pengujian.

Hasil pengujian menunjukkan bahwa Higgs boson yang ditemukan ternyata adalah Higgs boson yang muncul dari mekanisme Higgs. ”Mekanisme Higgs menjelaskan bagaimana massa terbentuk di alam semesta,” ujar pengajar Ilmu Fisika Teoretik Energi Tinggi pada Fakultas Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam Institut Teknologi Bandung, Freddy P Zen kepada Kompas. Mekanisme Higgs terjadi saat partikel skalar yang tidak stabil mencapai titik stabil.

”Partikel skalar ini tak bermassa dan spinless, seperti foton partikel cahaya,” kata Freddy. Selain itu, mekanisme Higgs juga menjelaskan tentang teori mengembangnya semesta (universe inflation) yang ditemukan ilmuwan AS: Saul Perlmutter, Brian P Schmidt, dan Adam G Riess yang menerima Penghargaan Nobel bidang Fisika tahun 2011.

Setelah mekanisme Higgs menjadi ada partikel bermassa dan partikel Higgs. Peristiwa penting pembentukan alam semesta ini terjadi pada waktu 10- 37 setelah peristiwa Big Bang (Ledakan Besar).

Bukan itu saja peran mekanisme Higgs. Setelah mekanisme Higgs, dimulailah dominasi materi (matter dominated), seperti alam semesta yang kita kenal sekarang.

”Dengan demikian, peran partikel Higgs dipandang demikian penting terhadap terjadinya alam semesta seperti yang kita kenal ini sehingga Higgs boson disebut sebagai ’partikel tuhan’ (god particle). Padahal, sebenarnya ada banyak partikel lain yang juga punya peran penting dalam proses terjadinya alam semesta, seperti foton, partikel skalar, dan sebagainya,” papar Freddy.

Berbagai teori

Perkembangan kosmologi sebagai upaya memahami alam semesta diwarnai oleh berbagai teori yang silih berganti muncul untuk menjawab berbagai pertanyaan. Alam semesta sedemikian masif ukurannya, sementara orde usianya pun mencapai orde miliaran (!).

Teori Ledakan Besar menyebutkan bahwa alam semesta terbentuk saat terjadi ledakan besar pada kondisi densitas dan tekanan yang ekstrem tinggi. Pada masa itu, alam semesta didominasi radiasi. Energinya banyak berupa foton dan berbagai partikel tak bermassa atau bermassa demikian kecil, seperti neutron, yang bergerak dengan kecepatan cahaya.

Menggunakan penghitungan konstanta Gravitasi (G) dari teori fisika klasik, C (kecepatan cahaya) dari teori relativitas Albert Einstein, serta konstanta Planck dari teori kuantum.

”Ditemukan bahwa ledakan besar selesai pada waktu 10-43 detik (imaginery time Einstein) dari waktu awal,” ujar Freddy.

Begitu ledakan besar selesai, suhu kosmos turun secara drastis. Hanya dalam tempo seperseratus detik, temperatur kosmos turun menjadi sekitar 100 miliar Kelvin (suhu kelvin = suhu celsius + 273,15) dan kecepatan rata-rata partikel pun meningkat.

Suhu pada saat terbentuknya alam semesta diperkirakan sekitar empat triliun derajat celsius. Percobaan dilakukan dengan Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) yang dibangun di kedalaman di bawah kota New York, AS.

”Temperatur ini cukup untuk melelehkan proton dan neutron,” tutur Steven Vigdor saat pertemuan the American Physical Society di Washington, tiga tahun lalu. Suhu alam semesta saat ini, menurut Freddy, 2,73 Kelvin.

Penemuan Higgs boson bukan langsung melegakan semua pihak. Para ilmuwan justru gundah karena Higgs boson yang ditemukan terlalu sederhana, sesuai dengan Standard Model, padahal diharapkan ada Higgs boson lebih kompleks yang terkait fenomena mengembangnya alam semesta. ”Mungkin kita bisa tahu pada dekade mendatang,” ujar Michael Peskin, ahli fisika di SLAC-Laboratorium Akselerator di Stanford University.

Selain itu nama Higgs boson juga menuai protes karena teori partikel Higgs juga dimunculkan Francois Englert (Belgia), Carl Hagen (AS), dan Gerald Guralnik (AS), bukan hanya oleh Peter Higgs (Inggris).

Kesalahan Kecil Berpeluang Jadi Besar

http://cetak.kompas.com/read/2013/05/01/02201161/kesalahan.kecil.berpeluang.jadi.besar
Daoed Joesoef
Alumnus Universite Pluridisciplinaires Pantheon-Sorbonne

Filsuf Aristoteles telah mengingatkan, ”a little mistake at the beginning becomes a big mistake at the end”.

Hal ini yang sekarang terjadi dengan Qanun Aceh Nomor 3 Tahun 2013 tentang Bendera dan Lambang Aceh yang saat pengibarannya diiringi dengan azan. Jadi, keseluruhan lambang Aceh dengan sadar dan sengaja dibuat serba Islami, perwujudan dari ci- tra ideal Aceh Serambi Mekkah.

Menjelang akhir 1960-an Teungku Daoed Beureueh singgah di Paris. Dia diiringi beberapa orang intelijen pemerintah saat mengunjungi beberapa negara Arab dan negara ”modern” di Eropa agar memperoleh pandangan mencerahkan. Dubes RI di Perancis ketika itu, Jenderal Askari, sudah mengenal pemimpin DI/TII atau NII ini.

Sewaktu periode revolusi fisik 1945-1949, Pak Askari, ketika itu berpangkat Letkol, adalah Paman Artileri yang cakap. Ia didetasir pemerintah pusat di Aceh menjadi penasihat militer Buya Daoed Beureueh, pejabat Gubernur Militer Aceh, Langkat, dan Tanah Karo/Komandan Divisi X, berpangkat mayor jenderal.

Dubes Askari menyelenggarakan makan siang di rumahnya guna menjamu Teungku Daoed Beureueh yang dia hormati. Dalam makan bersama ini, yang diundang rupanya hanya saya sendiri. Pak Askari tak keberatan bila saya mengajukan pandangan kritis terhadap tamunya asalkan suasana keintiman dan kesantaian tetap dijaga.

Aceh Serambi Mekkah

Dalam kesempatan itulah saya mengkritik ide Aceh Serambi Mekkah. Menurut saya, jauh lebih tepat dan mengena kalau disebut ”Aceh Serambi Indonesia Merdeka”. Adalah suatu kenyataan yang diakui Zentgraaf, penulis buku Aceh, bahwa hingga 1938, meski resminya Aceh sudah takluk kepada Belanda, masih sering terjadi penyerangan gerilyawan Aceh terhadap patroli tentara Belanda, hingga ada ucapan bahwa sebenarnya Aceh tak pernah menyerah kepada Belanda. Ia merupakan satu-satunya daerah Republik Indonesia yang tak pernah diduduki Belanda ketika berusaha menjajah kembali sesudah Perang Dunia II. Jadi, di luar Pulau Jawa, daerah Aceh berfungsi sebagai modal utama perjuangan kemerdekaan nasional.

Saya lihat wajah Buya Daoed Beureueh berkerut masam tanda tak senang. Di Aceh, karisma pribadinya sangat besar. Jangankan mempertanyakan kebijakannya, jika ada bayi menangis di saat dia sedang berbicara, ibu bayi itu dihardik semua hadirin dan diusir keluar ruang pertemuan. Konon, apa-apa yang diucapkannya merupakan ”wer”, pegangan absolut bagi semua dan tiap orang.

Meski berwajah masam, Buya Daoed Beureueh menjawab kritik saya dengan suara datar bahwa julukan ”Aceh Serambi Mekkah” bukan berasal dari dia atau orang Aceh lain. Julukan ini datang dari Bung Karno, Sang Proklamator Kemerdekaan yang dia hormati dan dikagumi rakyat Aceh. Bung Karno mengucapkannya di muka rapat umum, hadir alim ulama, tokoh pejuang, dan pemerintahan Aceh ketika untuk kali pertama menginjakkan kaki di ranah rencong, Juni 1948, selaku Presiden RI.

Inilah kesalahan kecil Bung Karno yang kemudian menggelinding menjadi besar bagai bola salju, pembawa bencana nasional yang tak terbendung. Betapa tidak! Ucapan yang semula dimaksudkan sekadar pujian tulus terhadap kehidupan religius di Aceh diterima komunitas Muslim Aceh sebagai citra ideal kehidupan yang perlu dipertahankan at all costs. Begitu rupa hingga citra ini berubah menjadi dunia tersendiri yang otonom, setara dengan dunia nasional yang dicitrakan revolusi kemerdekaan 45.

Setiap kali ada pemimpin Aceh yang kecewa terhadap kebijakan pemerintahan nasional, dia ajak kelompok etnisnya masuk ke dunia Daar al Islaam (Darul Islam) sebagai basis melawan dunia nasional. Hal ini yang dilakukan Teungku Daoed Beureueh ketika menggerakkan pemberontakan di Aceh dengan DI/TII dan ditiru Hasan Tiro pada 1976 dengan GAM dan kini oleh penggagas Partai Aceh.

Kekuatan Nalar

Kini penggunaan simbol GAM sebagai bendera dan lambang Aceh, alih-alih mempersatu, malah merusak kohesi sosial di Aceh. Sekarang bermunculan menampilkan diri aneka ragam suku Aceh, masing-masing menonjolkan jati diri etnisnya yang unik, yang dahulu tidak pernah terjadi, yang menjurus ke pembentukan provinsi baru yang terpisah dari dan setara dengan Provinsi Aceh yang sekarang secara politis dikuasai Partai Aceh.

Benar kata antropolog Teuku Kemal Fasya bahwa simbol GAM seperti lepas dari konteks Aceh (Kompas, 16/4). Simbol itu bahkan tidak menggambarkan kejayaan Aceh masa lalu di zaman pra-kemerdekaan nasional.

Islam memang sudah jadi bagian kehidupan di Aceh sejak abad XIII. Pergolakan yang kini marak di dunia Muslim mengingatkan kita untuk merenungi betapa Islam istilah yang kelihatannya memberi peluang timbulnya banyak kebingungan. Yang paling destruktif: yang mencampuradukkan kredo dan sejarah.

Tak sedikit penafsir yang memegang ide bahwa Rasulullah menciptakan suatu nukleus negara Islam di Madinah, suatu komunitas yang majemuk dalam berkeyakinan religius. Namun, bukanlah wahyu Allah yang dipercaya turun pertama kalinya di kota ini berbunyi, ”tidak ada paksaan dalam agama” (AQ, 2:256). Apakah Rasulullah seorang raja? Jika ketika masih hidup dia memang telah menciptakan negara Islam, mengapa dia tak membuat satu disposisi apa pun guna menjamin kontinuitasnya?

Ketika masih hidup Rasulullah malah lebih sering mengingatkan umatnya supaya selalu menggunakan nalar, aqala, yang didapat melalui pengaktifan otak, olah pikir (tafakkur, dabbara, nazara). Nalar penting karena ia pencetus dan pengolah ilmu pengetahuan. Bukan kebetulan kalau ia disebut sampai 44 kali dalam Al Quran. Di bagian akhir hayatnya, dia mendorong usaha pengembangan budaya keilmuan. Begitu rupa hingga, sesudah abad pertama hijrah, kota-kota Islam berkembang jadi intelectual workshop yang mampu menggerakkan pertumbuhan ilmu yang begitu pesat.

Itulah awal zaman keemasan Islam yang berlangsung dalam tahun 750-1100, jadi selama 350 tahun terus-menerus. Sesudah itu budaya keilmuan Islam mulai merosot, digantikan oleh peningkatan kejayaan keilmuan Barat. Dalam kondisi merosot inilah, sekitar tahun 1350, Islam baru datang di Aceh. Itu pun tak dibawa ilmuwan, tetapi pedagang Arab dan India yang mendarat di Peureulak dan berangsur-angsur tersebar di seantero Nusantara. Jadi, Islam yang ke sini miskin dalam nilai-nilai keilmuan dan budaya serta semangat ilmiah. Islam yang sudah jatuh dari kebesaran penalarannya.

Kalau orang Aceh, toh, mau tetap menjunjung tinggi nilai keis- laman, mengapa tak menghayati dan mendorong perkembangan kekuatan nalar dan budaya keilmuan yang terkait erat dengan itu melalui kegiatan pendidikan dan kebudayaan yang relevan, seperti yang dilakukan Rasulullah semasa hidup. Kegiatan yang masih kental bersifat Islami ini, selain sesuai dengan tuntutan kemajuan zaman, pasti akan mengokohkan kohesi sosial masyarakat Aceh yang ternyata dibentuk oleh beberapa kelompok etnis.

Kini, kian jelas pengorganisasian baru yang membagi peran keagamaan: menangani spiritualitas di tingkat individu dan menangani nalar yang bertugas mengatur kehidupan bermasyarakat yang serba majemuk, berbangsa, dan bernegara. 

It's official... women CAN'T park the car (And men are much better at reversing)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331530/Driving-tests-Its-official--women-CANT-park-car--men-better-reversing.html

• Women most likely to fail driving tests for parking or reversing faults
• Men more guilty of driving recklessly or ignoring mirrors and signs
• However twice as many females as males faulted on reverse parking

By GAVIN MADELEY

As a stereotype of the fairer sex, it’s right up there with their supposed inability to change a plug or assemble flatpack furniture.

But official proof has now emerged that appears to settle one long-running skirmish in the battle of the sexes – women really cannot park the car.

New data reveals that women drivers are most likely to fail their driving tests for parking or reversing faults, while men are more guilty of driving recklessly or ignoring mirrors and road signs.

But the greatest gender disparities emerged when drivers were asked to park.  When tasked with every learner’s nightmare, reverse parking, there were twice as many faults committed by females as by males.

While the latter committed 1,652 errors by failing to control their car during the manoeuvre, the figure rose sharply to 3,367 among women.

RAC spokesman Pete Williams said yesterday: ‘The debate about who makes the better drivers, men or women, is almost as old as the motor car itself.

‘These results do apparently demonstrate that there are some differences when it comes to reversing and parallel parking. Clearly, there are some traits and talents that are more prominent in the different sexes.’

The figures, released under freedom of information legislation, show that women learners committed 68,217 serious or dangerous faults while sitting practical tests in Scotland last year, compared to 52,144 by men.

But the figures from the Driving Standards Agency provided some ammunition for women drivers as well, as more men proved to be guilty of a wider range of faults in tests.

Jim Kirkwood, managing director of AA Driving School, said: ‘Problems like failing to stop at traffic signs and issues with manoeuvring are more likely to come down to nerves on the day. 

‘If you fail your test for something like failing to stop or incorrect use of mirrors, then you really need to work on your observation skills before you try the test again.

‘If manoeuvring is your downfall,  then practice is the key, as well as remaining calm on the day.

‘Learners, regardless of their gender, should get a good night’s sleep, take some deep breaths before they start and try to remember they wouldn’t be taking their test if their instructor didn’t think they were ready.’

The category failed by the fewest drivers in 2012 was lack of knowledge of the Highway Code.

Traditionally, lower car insurance premiums enjoyed by women suggest they go on to become safer drivers than men.

'The Sumatran rainforest will mostly disappear within 20 years'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/26/sumatra-borneo-deforestation-tigers-palm-oil
John Vidal
In only a few years, logging and agribusiness have cut Indonesia's vast rainforest by half. The government has renewed a moratorium on deforestation but it may already be too late for the endangered animals –and for the people whose lives lie in ruin

Our small plane had been flying low over Sumatra for three hours but all we had seen was an industrial landscape of palm and acacia trees stretching 30 miles in every direction. A haze of blue smoke from newly cleared land drifted eastward over giant plantations. Long drainage canals dug through equatorial swamps dissected the land. The only sign of life was excavators loading trees onto barges to take to pulp mills.

The end is in sight for the great forests of Sumatra and Borneo and the animals and people who depend on them. Thirty years ago the world's third- and sixth-largest islands were full of tigers, elephants, rhinos, orangutan and exotic birds and plants but in a frenzy of development they have been trashed in a single generation by global agribusiness and pulp and paper industries.

Their plantations supply Britain and the world with toilet paper, biofuels and vegetable oil to make everyday foods such as margarine, cream cheese and chocolate, but distraught scientists and environmental groups this week warn that one of the 21st century's greatest ecological disasters is rapidly unfolding.

Official figures show more than half of Indonesia's rainforest, the third-largest swath in the world, has been felled in a few years and permission has been granted to convert up to 70% of what remains into palm or acacia plantations. The government last week renewed a moratorium on the felling of rainforest, but nearly a million hectares are still being cut each year and the last pristine areas, in provinces such as Ache and Papua, are now prime targets for giant logging, palm andmining companies.

The toll on wildlife across an area nearly the size of Europe is vast, say scientists who warn that many of Indonesia's species could be extinct in the wild within 20-30 years. Orangutan numbers are in precipitous decline, only 250-400 tigers remain and fewer than 100 rhino are left in the forests, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Millions of hectares are nominally protected, but the forest is fragmented, national parks are surrounded by plantations, illegal loggers work with impunity and corruption is rife in government. "This is the fastest, most comprehensive transformation of an entire landscape that has ever taken place anywhere in the world including the Amazon. If it continues at this rate all that will be left in 20 years is a few fragmented areas of natural forest surrounded by huge manmade plantations. There will be increased floods, fires and droughts but no animals," said Yuyun Indradi, political forest campaigner with Greenpeace southeast Asia in Jakarta.

Last night the WWF's chief Asian tiger expert pleaded with the Indonesian government and the world to stop the growth of palm oilplantations. "Forest conversion is massive. We urgently need stronger commitment from the government and massive support from the people. We cannot tolerate any further conversion of natural forests," said Sunarto Sunarto in Jakarta.

Indonesia's deforestation has been accompanied by rising violence, say watchdog groups. Last year, more than 600 major land conflicts were recorded in the palm plantations. Many turned violent as communities that had lost their traditional forest fought multinational companies and security forces. More than 5,000 human rights abuses were recorded, with 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

"The legacy of deforestation has been conflict, increased poverty, migration to the cities and the erosion of habitat for animals. As the forests come down, social conflicts are exploding everywhere," said Abetnego Tarigan, director of Walhi, Indonesia's largest environment group.

Scientists fear that the end of the forest could come quickly. Conflict-wracked Aceh, which bore the brunt of the tsunami in 2004, will lose more than half its trees if a new government plan to change the land use is pushed through. A single Canadian mining company is seeking to exploit 1.77m hectares for mining, logging and palm plantations.

Large areas of central Sumatra and Kalimantan are being felled as coal, copper and gold mining companies move in. Millions of hectares of forest in west Papua are expected to be converted to palm plantations.

"Papuans, some of the poorest citizens in Indonesia, are being utterly exploited in legally questionable oil palm land deals that provide huge financial opportunities for international investors at the expense of the people and forests of West Papua," said Jago Wadley, a forest campaigner with the Environment Investigation Agency.

Despite a commitment last week from the government to extend a moratorium on deforestation for two years, Indonesia is still cutting down its forests faster than any other country. Loopholes in the law mean the moratorium only covers new licences and primary forests, and excludes key peatland areas and existing concessions which are tiger and elephant habitats. "No one seems able to stop the destruction," said Greenpeace International's forest spokesman, Phil Aikman.

The conflicts often arise when companies are granted dubious logging or plantation permissions that overlap with community-managed traditional forests and protected areas such as national parks.

Nine villages have been in conflict with the giant paper company April, which has permission to convert, with others, 450,000 hectares of deep peat forests on the Kampar Peninsula in central Sumatra. Because the area contains as much as 1.5bn tonnes of carbon, it has global importance in the fight against climate change.

"We would die for this [forest] if necessary. This is a matter of life and death. The forest is our life. We depend on it when we want to build our houses or boats. We protect it. The permits were handed out illegally, but now we have no option but to work for the companies or hire ourselves out for pitiful wages," said one village leader from Teluk Meranti who feared to give his name.

They accuse corrupt local officials of illegally grabbing their land. April, which strongly denies involvement in corruption, last week announced plans to work with London-based Flora and Fauna international to restore 20,000 hectares of degraded forest land.

Fifty miles away, near the town of Rengit, villagers watched in horror last year when their community forest was burned down – they suspect by people in the pay of a large palm oil company. "Life is terrible now. We are ruined. We used to get resin, wood, timber, fuel from the forest. Now we have no option but to work for the palm oil company. The company beat us. The fire was deliberate. This forest was everything for us. We used it as our supermarket, building store, chemist shop and fuel supplier for generations of people. Now we must put plastic on our roofs," said one man from the village of Bayesjaya who also asked not to be named.

Mursyi Ali from the village of Kuala Cenaku in the province of Riau, has spent 10 years fighting oil plantation companies which were awarded a giant concession. "Maybe 35,000 people have been impacted by their plantations. Everyone is very upset. People have died in protests. I have not accepted defeat yet. These conflicts are going on everywhere. Before the companies came we had a lot of natural resources, like honey, rattan, fish, shrimps and wood," he said.

"We had all we wanted. That all went when the companies came. Everything that we depended on went. Deforestaion has led to pollution and health problems. We are all poorer now. I blame the companies and the government, but most of all the government," he continued. He pleaded with the company: "Please resolve this problem and give us back the 4,100 hectares of land. We would die for this if necessary. This is a life or death," he says.

Greenpeace and other groups accuse the giant pulp and palm companies of trashing tens of thousands of hectares of rainforest a year but the companies respond that they are the forest defenders and without them the ecological devastation would be worse. "There has been a rampant escalation of the denuding of the landscape but it is mostly by migrant labour and palm oil growers. Poverty and illegal logging along with migrant labour have caused the deforestation," said April's spokesman, David Goodwin.

"What April does is not deforestation. In establishing acacia plantations in already-disturbed forest areas, it is contributing strongly to reforestation. Last year April planted more than 100 million trees. Deforestation happens because of highly organised illegal logging, slash-and-burn practices by migrant labour, unregulated timber operations. There has been a explosion of palm oil concessions."

The company would not reveal how much rainforest it and its suppliers fell each year but internal papers seen by the Observer show that it planned to deforest 60,000 hectares of rainforest in 2012 but postponed this pending the moratorium. It admits that it has a concession of 20,000 hectares of forest that it has permission to fell and that it takes up to one third of its timber from "mixed tropical hardwood" for its giant pulp and paper mill near Penabaru in Riau.

There are some signs of hope. The heat is now on other large palm oil and paper companies after Asia Pacific Resources International (APP), one of the world's largest pulp and paper companies, was persuaded this year by international and local Indonesian groups to end all rainforest deforestation and to rely solely on its plantations for its wood.

The company, which admits to having felled hundreds of thousands of acres of Sumatran forest in the last 20 years, had been embarrassed and financially hurt when other global firms including Adidas, Kraft, Mattel, Hasbro, Nestlé, Carrefour, Staples and Unilever dropped products made by APP that had been made with rainforest timber.

"We thought that if we adopted national laws to protect the forest that this would be enough. But it clearly was not. We realised something was not right and that we needed a much higher standard. So now we will stop the deforestation, whatever the cost. We are now convinced that the long term benefits will be greater," said Aida Greenbury, APP's sustainability director. "Yes. We got it wrong. We could not have done worse."

on Obama

The covert commander in chief

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-the-covert-commander-in-chief/2013/05/24/7a3e6948-c48d-11e2-8c3b-0b5e9247e8ca_story.html

By David Ignatius

Watching President Obama's compelling speech on counterterrorism policy Thursday, one couldn’t help wondering what he might accomplish if he could apply the same intellectual focus and intensity to governing the nation that he has shown as covert commander in chief.

By announcing new restraints on the use of armed drones for targeted killing and pushing again for the closure of the Guantanamo prison, Obama signaled more strongly than ever that he means to turn the page of American history that began on Sept. 11, 2001.

“This war, like all wars, must end,” he said in the signature line of the speech. He said he wants to amend or repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, the catch-all legal justification for the global war on terror. He wants to take America off its permanent war footing so that presidents have to justify future use of force prudently, on a case-by-case basis.

Stating this new reality required intellectual clarity, and it took guts, too. It’s a paradox that this president, with such limited management and political experience, has been so sure-footed in the realm of secret warfare — knowing when to step it up, as he did with drone strikes and the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and knowing when to step it down, as he now proposes to do.

An unscripted Obama moment came when a heckler interrupted his review of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence problems. The president didn’t lose a step — defending not just the heckler’s right to speak but much of her critique of how America’s policies are unintentionally damaging the country.

It bothers Obama that he inherited a red-hot rhetorical war on terror from George W. Bush, one framed on loose rules and policy assumptions about a long (i.e., endless) war. He’s taken down the rhetoric and tightened the rules — wise on both fronts.

Some policies are still fuzzy. The president says he wants to move away from “signature” drone strikes and target only those who pose a “continuing and imminent threat” to Americans, but not yet and not everywhere. He knows that “imminent” doesn’t mean instantaneous, and to protect Americans, he may take out a bomber thousands of miles away and months in advance. For that unflinching recognition, he has the country’s thanks.

Many details are still to come: In the Afghan theater (which includes the tribal areas of Pakistan), he plans to use drones aggressively until U.S. combat forces leave in 2014. What does Pakistan say about this? The president wants to move drones from the CIA’s deniable arsenal to the military’s more transparent framework, but he doesn’t explain how he’ll do that. He wants more oversight of targeted killings, but he has constitutional and practical objections to either a special court or an executive review panel. He wants to close the embarrassment of Guantanamo, but he can’t unless some members of Congress join him in showing some backbone.

Not a perfect plan for transition, but what the nation saw Thursday was a president who has taken to heart the warning he quoted from James Madison that “no nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” That wariness of perpetual conflict doesn’t just apply to drones; Obama hasn’t yet seen a plan for U.S. military force in Syriathat he thinks will work, so he’s refusing to sign off on one.

Obama understands the lonely predicament of leadership since 9/11: Nobody wants to challenge a presidential decision at the time it’s made, but everybody wants to second-guess. He’s right that both sides of the equation must change.

In his wily role as covert commander in chief, Obama seems to have internalized theadmonition of Bob Gates, his deeply cynical defense secretary during the first term. Gates cautioned that “every day, someone, somewhere in the federal government, is screwing something up, and it could come back to bite the White House.” In running America’s secret wars, a Gatesian Obama tightened loose military and intelligence rules — but alsodecided to attack bin Laden knowing the 15 ways that disaster could strike.

The challenge for Obama, now that he has begun to “right-size” America’s counterterrorism policies to the actual threats, is to apply a similar rigor and toughness — combined with frank, public debate — to the larger problems of governing America. Watching Obama on Thursday, one sensed that he still has the smarts and savvy to lead the country out of its dysfunctional mess, which is surely why the country reelected him: So get on with it!

Read more from David Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

Obama renews his anti-terrorism strategy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-renews-his-anti-terrorism-strategy/2013/05/23/aa8c67d8-c3d6-11e2-8c3b-0b5e9247e8ca_story.html

Washington Post Editorials

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FOUR YEARS almost to the day since outlining a vision of how to fight terrorism, President Obama traveled Thursday to the National Defense University to deliver a self-evaluation, course correction and proposed way forward. The speech offered some valuable explanations of administration action and opened the door to constructive negotiation with Congress, while leaving unanswered some key questions.

In his 2009 speech at the National Archives, Mr. Obama was clearer about what he believed President Bush had done wrong than about how he would govern differently, and where he was clear he has not always been able to follow through. He ruled out “enhanced interrogation techniques,” an important accomplishment. But Congress, circumstances and inadequate commitment have prevented him from closing the Guantanamo Bay prison as promised. Though he vowed to develop with Congress a new detention regime, his armed forces in the subsequent four years have killed many alleged terrorists in places like Pakistan and Yemen with drones and captured almost none.

Four years wiser — and, he argues, with the world in a very different place — Mr. Obama wants to try again on some fronts while rethinking some of the assumptions in place since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He renewed his vow to close Guantanamo, urging Congress to stop making the work more difficult. There are measures Mr. Obama can take, even without congressional approval, to repatriate some of the 166 prisoners still in the Cuban prison, and his promise to step up that effort was welcome. He acknowledged, as he did four years ago, that some prisoners will be too dangerous to release but impossible to try in court, yet again he proffered no answer to this quandary other than to say he is “confident that this legacy problem can be solved.”

We agree with Mr. Obama’s contention thatfederal courts are capable of trying many alleged terrorists. We also think he is right that drone strikes, if properly limited, offer an important means of self-defense, in many cases less dangerous to civilians than is more traditional military force. His intention to have the Pentagon replace the CIA in the execution of such attacks is also welcome if it leads to greater accountability and open debate. We certainly agree that a key to U.S. security is “patiently supporting transitions to democracy in places like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya . . . strengthen[ing] the opposition in Syria, while isolating extremist elements . . . training security forces in Libya” — all policies that have been inadequately supported until now.

The fundamental question with which Mr. Obama wrestled Thursday is the nature of the war — if it is still a war — in which the United States remains engaged. With the core of al-Qaeda much reduced, Mr. Obama said, and the U.S. combat role in Iraq and Afghanistan ended or ending, “we have to recognize that the scale of this threat closely resembles the types of attacks we faced before 9/11.” That may be true; but it is also true that the U.S. response to those pre-9/11 attacks, which relied heavily on the FBI and occasional cruise missile attacks, was wholly inadequate. Mr. Obama is not recommending a return to that paradigm, which would be foolhardy; but he also is worried about a thoughtless embrace of unending war.

“This war, like all wars, must end,” Mr. Obama said. True; but America’s enemies will have a say in the timing. The president said he is open to “refining” the war-making authorities that Congress granted the president in 2001, a process Congress also has begun to contemplate. We hope they move forward together.

Santet dan Kumpul Kebo

http://cetak.kompas.com/read/2013/05/23/02294544/santet.dan.kumpul.kebo

Kamis, 23 Mei 2013

Oleh JE Sahetapy

Kita sudah memasuki abad digital dan penerbangan ruang angkasa. Namun, di Indonesia justru ada yang berusaha memutar jarum jam: kembali ke masa sebelum abad pertengahan dengan menjadikan santet sebagai suatu perbuatan pidana atau kejahatan.

Lalu, ada anggota DPR yang hendak melakukan studi santet ke Eropa. Sepanjang yang saya ketahui, santet hanya menjadi problematik hukum di beberapa negara di Afrika dan Kanada.

Bila santet mau dijadikan suatu perbuatan pidana, bagaimana merumuskan elementen (unsur) dan atau bestanddelen (bagian yang menentukan). Menurut Prof Vrij, itu adalah dua hal pokok

menyangkut santet, bukan melatih polisi menentukan ada tidaknya unsur-unsur perbuatan pidana santet.

Salah menghukum

Yang mengherankan saya, dari hubungan kausal secara kriminologis dan viktimologis, mengapa si peminta/penganjur yang mendatangi tukang santet juga tidak ikut dituduh atau dipidana sebagai medepleger atau pelaku peserta. Hal ini mengingatkan saya kepada larangan mengemudi mobil berpenumpang kurang dari tiga di jalan tertentu pada jam-jam tertentu. Yang ditindak polisi ternyata bukan pengemudi/pemilik mobil, melainkan mereka yang menyediakan diri sebagai "penumpang gelap" untuk beberapa ribu rupiah.

Secara mutatis mutandis, hal itu juga berlaku kepada peminta agar orang tertentu disantet. Peminta tidak dipidana, tetapi tukang santet yang dipidana.

Kalau santet itu benar, mengapa para koruptor dan pelaku/penjual narkoba tidak disantet saja sebagai jalan pintas. Sesungguhnya, kalau dikaji secara kriminologis-viktimologis, problematik santet itu pada dasarnya hanyalah problematik "penipuan" belaka. Isu santet diterima rakyat akar rumput yang percaya hal gaib, termakan balas dendam tanpa alasan rasional medis.

Budaya lama

Kumpul kebo pun kini mau diatur. Padahal, fenomena kumpul kebo setua budaya manusia. Di era primitif, orang tidak mempersoalkan kumpul kebo. Saat manusia mulai membangun komunitas dengan skala nilai sosial, aspek budaya, dan faktor struktural masyarakat, orang mulai membedakan berzina, melacurkan diri, dan fornication.

Ketika orang mulai menata norma hukum, berzina menjadi istilah yang mencakup semua hubungan seksual tidak sah, baik yang sudah menikah maupun yang belum. Orang membedakan overspel, yaitu yang sudah menikah, lelaki atau perempuan, dengan yang belum menikah dalam hal hubungan seksual yang tidak sah/resmi.

Bagian ritual

Beberapa abad lampau sampai sekarang, pelacuran dikenal sebagai bagian dari upacara/ritual "agama" tidak dalam arti seperti sekarang. Kini, pelacuran dimaknai macam-macam, termasuk gratifikasi seksual oleh KPK.

Sementara fornication adalah hubungan seksual yang berlawanan seks atas dasar suka sama suka dari mereka yang belum kawin/menikah.

Dalam pengertian baku menurut agama mana pun, semua hubungan seksual yang tidak sesuai ketentuan agama dilarang. Lalu, mengapa orang-orang yang terpelajar dan beragama resmi melakukan hubungan seks yang jelas-jelas terlarang?

Meski demikian, bila ada yang mau memakai hukum pidana untuk menegakkan norma agama, itu soal lain, dan Indonesia bukan negara agama. Apalagi, kalau ada adat-adat tertentu yang mengizinkan kumpul kebo untuk tujuan tertentu, atau karena tidak mampu menyelenggarakan upacara perkawinan.

Adalah diskriminatif bila seseorang kemudian dipidana dengan dalih kumpul kebo. Bagaimana dengan masyarakat adat yang belum mengenal aksara yang tunduk pada sobural adat? Janganlah mereka dipidana dengan dalih kumpul kebo.

Pejabat daerah yang kawin dengan dalih apa pun dan beberapa hari kemudian menceraikan istrinya itu, apakah juga mau diklasifikasi sebagai kumpul kebo?

Di Jakarta, menurut gosip, banyak pejabat kumpul kebo. Sesungguhnya itu juga suatu bentuk pelacuran terselubung. Kata orang Belanda, "Hoe groter geest, hoe groter beest". Artinya, makin tinggi status sosial atau makin pandai seseorang, makin tinggi "kebinatangannya".

Van Hamel, Guru Besar Hukum Pidana Belanda, sebelum Perang Dunia II, menulis (vide disertasi Sahetapy, 1978), "Door slechte strafwetten kan het zedelijk leven van een volk worden vergifigd, de vrijheid gedood, de veiligheid vernietigd, de onschuld geofferd worden". Artinya: melalui undang-undang pidana yang jelek, kehidupan kesusilaan rakyat (dapat) diracuni, kebebasan dimatikan, keamanan dihancurkan, dan yang tidak bersalah dikorbankan.

Camkan dan renungkan dengan etik yang bermoral!

JE Sahetapy Guru Besar Emeritus Universitas Airlangga

(Kompas cetak, 23 Mei 2013) 

People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
By Macrina Cooper-White

Our technology may be getting smarter, but a provocative new study suggests human intelligence is on the decline. In fact, it indicates that Westerners have lost 14 I.Q. points on average since the Victorian Era.

What exactly explains this decline? Study co-author Dr. Jan te Nijenhuis, professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam, points to the fact that women of high intelligence tend to have fewer children than do women of lower intelligence. This negative association between I.Q. and fertility has been demonstrated time and again in research over the last century.

But this isn't the first evidence of a possible decline in human intelligence.

"The reduction in human intelligence (if there is any reduction) would have begun at the time that genetic selection became more relaxed," Dr. Gerald Crabtree, professor of pathology and developmental biology at Stanford University, told The Huffington Post in an email. "I projected this occurred as our ancestors began to live in moresupportive high density societies (cities) and had access to a steady supply of food. Both of these might have resulted from the invention of agriculture, which occurred about 5,000 to 12,000 years ago."

As for Dr. te Nijenhuis and colleagues, they analyzed the results of 14 intelligence studies conducted between 1884 to 2004, including one by Sir Francis Galton, an English anthropologist and a cousin of Charles Darwin. Each study gauged participants' so-called visual reaction times -- how long it took them to press a button in response to seeing a stimulus. Reaction time reflects a person's mental processing speed, and so is considered an indication of general intelligence.

Hipp chronoscope, a device used to measure short intervals of time with an accuracy of 1/1,000th of a second. Hipp chronoscopes were used to measure reaction time in experimental psychology labs in the late 19th Century.

In the late 19th Century, visual reaction times averaged around 194 milliseconds, the analysis showed. In 2004 that time had grown to 275 milliseconds. Even though the machine gauging reaction time in the late 19th Century was less sophisticated than that used in recent years, Dr. te Nijenhuis told The Huffington Post that the old data is directly comparable to modern data.

Other research has suggested an apparent rise in I.Q. scores since the 1940s, a phenomenon known as the Flynn Effect. But Dr. te Nijenhuis suggested the Flynn Effect reflects the influence of environmental factors -- such as better education, hygiene and nutrition -- and may mask the true decline in genetically inherited intelligence in the Western world.

This new research was published in the April 13 issue of Intelligence.

SOCIAL NETWORKING The Tragic Beauty of Google+

http://techland.time.com/2013/05/16/the-tragic-beauty-of-google/?xid=newsletter-weekly
By Harry McCracken

Google likes to use the word “beautiful” a lot when describing its own products. That would be grating if it weren’t for one fact: more and more, the company is building beautiful stuff. And I’m not sure if it’s ever built anything more beautiful than the new version of its Google+ social network which debuted on Wednesday during the Google I/O keynote.

The service, which was already pretty darn slick, is now among the most attractive and engaging web apps I’ve ever seen. Streams of activity are now laid out as one, two or three columns of tiles, depending on available screen real estate, with some oversized photos spanning the whole width. (Judging from my stream, some Google+ aficionados like the old format better — they can switch back to one column — but I find the new one less claustrophobic.) The left-hand toolbar which used to hog space now disappears until you need it; throughout, the level of visual polish is high, with pixel-perfect design and subtle little animations as you click on different controls.

Google+ can now auto-hashtag your items, a feature which is useful because you can click on any hashtag and then flip through related items shared by other people, without leaving the page you’re on. When it figures out a hashtag based on words in your post, it’s neat. But in some cases, it can also analyze a photo to determine a relevant hashtag, a feat which can be downright dazzling. I uploaded a shot from Disneyland and a drawing of Superman; it correctly identified both and linked appropriately.

The photo features, already practically a service unto themselves, get a thorough makeover. In a feature which reminds me a bit of Everpix, Google+ gives you a page of “highlights” which it chooses algorithmically: shots with family members, shots with smiling people, shots which it just deems to be aesthetically pleasing. There’s an auto-enhancement feature, which would be nice, but no big whoop except that you can tell Google+ to apply it to all your photos without your intervention. And “auto-awesome” features proactively create panoramas, animated-GIF-like loops and other special photos if they notice suitable images in your collection.

Then there’s Hangouts — a new standalone app for Android and iOS that spins off Google+’s Hangouts video-chat feature into its own world, a sort of social-network-within-the-social-network. The Hangouts app does video and text chat and photo sharing, and is designed for both impromptu one-time interactions and ongoing conversations that could go on over a period of days or longer. I can imagine it appealing both to Google+ diehards and people who aren’t otherwise active on the service.

Overall, Google+ doesn’t do anywhere near as many things as Facebook, but the things it does, it does well. Once a me-too service that seemed to exist solely because Facebook posed a potentially existential threat to Google’s dominance of the web, it now has its own style and signature features. Where Facebook is rather stolid – it has its own beautification initiative going on, but feels hamstrung by its need to retain some visual consistency with its past self — Google+ is exuberant. It’s fun to use.

And yet I’m pretty positive I won’t spend remotely as much time in it as I will in Facebook.

You might have already guessed why: My friends, family and acquaintances are all on Facebook, where they add up to a bustling community I enjoy being part of.  More than any particular feature that Mark Zuckerberg and company have cooked up, it’s the people in my life that make Facebook, well, Facebook.

Over on Google+, I find some worthwhile material to peruse, but in far smaller quantities. The smattering of people I encounter hardly replicates my real-world social connections.  The conversations are less warm, personal and interesting. As a social experience, it often feels perfunctory.

I don’t, by the way, claim that any of that is Google+’s fault. In fact, at least some of it is my fault: I’m kind of an absentee landlord of my Google+ page, dropping in only occasionally and sharing items even more sporadically. You can’t complain about the quality of a community unless you try to be part of it. Also, it’s always dangerous to assume that your experience on a social network is representative — I have friends who favor Google+ over Facebook specifically because they find it more lively and personal.

Still, I don’t feel guilty about favoring the social network that feels more like an extension of my world. That’s Facebook. And since Facebook exists, I don’t have much of an incentive to pour more energy into Google+. The two services aren’t identical in particulars and emphasis — today’s Facebook seems to be built on the philosophy that everyone should share everything at all times, sometimes in an automated fashion, and Google+ isn’t like that at all — but ultimately, they scratch the same itch.

Therein lies Google+’s great challenge. Even if it’s good — even if it’s great — it’s not going to displace Facebook as the world’s primary social network. And most people don’t need a second social network. (Or at least a Facebook-like social network: Twitter, Pinterest and others that don’t take Facebook on directly can and do thrive.)

Mind you, there are worse fates than being the world’s second biggest general-purpose social network. After less than two years since Google+’s debut, Google says, 190 million people are active members. A total of 390 million take advantage of its features across Google, such as video calls in Gmail. Google+ isn’t going anywhere. But it has little mindshare among normal everyday folks, and it’s not clear what Google can do to change that. Unless Facebook implodes — hey, it’s not utterly unthinkable — Google’s service might never be more than what it is now: a beautiful disappointment.

MORE: Complete TIME Tech coverage of Google I/O 2013