Russia's military was not attacked. Syria's 40-year-old "rusting junk" Soviet missiles shot down 71 missiles, so they say.
Undefended "key buildings" and "storage facilities" were damaged without casualties and, miraculously, without releasing poison gas.
Syrian TV showed people in T-shirts and jandals walking around the ruins; and showed crowds dancing in the streets, waving Syrian and Russian flags.
Expect the regime's next "gas attack" in a few weeks' time, after America has assembled a large aircraft carrier strike force, and before the soccer World Cup.
ALAN DAVIDSON
Gonville
Deeper thought
In Thought for Today, it is good to see some deeper thought from Hans Vaastra of the Whanganui Reformed Church. Thank you.
At school we learned the first lines of Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711): A little learning is a dangerous thing./ Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring;/ There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,/ And drinking deeply sobers it again.
As a student Christian for over 75 years, I continue to study daily and try to practise the Christian life. Much of what I learned 60-70 years ago has been considerably modified and even turned upside-down by modern science, philosophy and theology.
Tom Pittams (letter, April 16) tries to shock with his little learning about the Romans and Jews, the Jerusalem ossuaries and the Dead Sea scrolls, all of which scholars have known about for years and continue to debate. You can't learn history or theology (or become a Christian) by reading second-hand books over an Easter weekend. Study needs considerably more structure and depth.
Anyway, please continue to seek for more intelligent (but not necessarily intellectual) content for Thought for Today. Some of us readers continue to grow up and are not bound to the shallow beliefs and dogmas of the Billy Graham type.
RICHARD PEIRCE
Marton
A matter of mass
John Archer, your letter shows the immensity of the masses involved in the fusion of stars, but — as Keith says — it's "not that simple".
Mass and energy are interchangeable, that's the famous E = MCC. So mass is just a serious concentration of energy. Energy cannot be destroyed — only converted to a different form.
The total energy of the cosmos is zero. Mass and energy are positive energy, gravitation is negative energy, and the two cancel out to give zero.
A similar, but mind-bendingly smaller example of the Big Bang is shown when physicists observe a pair of positive and negative particles appear out of nothing in a vacuum. After a brief time they recombine and disappear.
The universe consists of about 3 (followed by 53 noughts) kg of ordinary matter. This is about 5 per cent of the total mass. There is mass of about 25 per cent dark matter and 70 per cent dark energy. We know what these are not but don't know what they are, and they do have gravitation.
Many astronomers think dark energy is causing the expansion of the universe.
The universe is so vast that the average density of ordinary matter is about 6 protons per cubic metre.
To learn more, just Google "Mass of the Universe" and follow the links.
MIKE PHILO
Whanganui
There for all
I'm replying to R Pearson (letter April 16) about the river — water — and the mountains also.
They don't belong to anyone, in fact they are there for all to enjoy.None of us has any rights over water or any rivers.
So, Potonga Neilson, this is fact, and I agree with R Pearson
J.M.J. MORRIS
Whanganui
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