Tuesday, May 06, 2008
What Crime? Oh, That Crime? Didn't Happen.
It's not a crime if you don't report it as a crime.
Police in Norfolk, UK are planning to "reduce" crime by ending the reporting of some crimes, such as vandalism and criminal mischief.
Somewhere George Orwell is laughing cynically.
Police in Norfolk, UK are planning to "reduce" crime by ending the reporting of some crimes, such as vandalism and criminal mischief.
Somewhere George Orwell is laughing cynically.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Amy Winehouse: Not Long Before The End
My prediction, made this 5th day of May, 2008: Amy Winehouse will, barring intervention from true friends or the authorities, be dead of her own excesses before May 5th comes around again.
Disturbing pictures of someone who was reasonably attractive at one time.
If you read biographies of Keith Richards, you'll discover an endless parade of people like this, all trying to emulate Keith's indestructible debauched lifestyle. Some have died: most famously, country musician Gram Parsons. Keith has seen it happen plenty of times, and even warned Amy in print that it was happening to her, but the victims always seem oblivious.
Disturbing pictures of someone who was reasonably attractive at one time.
If you read biographies of Keith Richards, you'll discover an endless parade of people like this, all trying to emulate Keith's indestructible debauched lifestyle. Some have died: most famously, country musician Gram Parsons. Keith has seen it happen plenty of times, and even warned Amy in print that it was happening to her, but the victims always seem oblivious.
Marcel's Talkin' Chainsaw, NC Edition
A Lincoln County man was charged with assaulting his wife with a chainsaw during a domestic dispute, authorities said Monday.
Ray Lee Correll, 27, of Iron Station was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflicting serious injury. He was being held without bond in the Harven A. Crouse Detention Center.
Not Obama voters, obviously.
*snort* Haaaaaaw! They GAVE Marcel the beer joint!
Ray Lee Correll, 27, of Iron Station was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflicting serious injury. He was being held without bond in the Harven A. Crouse Detention Center.
Not Obama voters, obviously.
*snort* Haaaaaaw! They GAVE Marcel the beer joint!
Regarding the Danes
A fine article from UPI. It's in their "Emerging Threats" section, which the Danes aren't, obviously. The story is there probably because of the Mohammed cartoons controversy.
UPI, once one of the two great news services along with the Associated Press, sort of disappeared off the map for a while. Now they are one of the better news sources out there, especially in the area of serious-minded analysis. Check them out sometime.
UPI, once one of the two great news services along with the Associated Press, sort of disappeared off the map for a while. Now they are one of the better news sources out there, especially in the area of serious-minded analysis. Check them out sometime.
The Ultimate In Vaginal Flagellation
A Los Angeles man has won the right to use his wife's surname instead of his own.
To commemorate the event, they had his peanut-sized testes bronzed, and his wife now wears them on her keychain.
To commemorate the event, they had his peanut-sized testes bronzed, and his wife now wears them on her keychain.
Maytag Ain't Always Around When You Need It.
In Afghanistan or Iraq, the desire of a soldier or Marine to clean his/her uniform is sometimes complicated by the lack of available laundry facilities. If you happen to have a bucket of water and a washboard, however, you can wash your uniform pretty much anywhere.
The story of the very last washboard manufacturer in the United States, and their relations with the troops overseas.
The story of the very last washboard manufacturer in the United States, and their relations with the troops overseas.
And Bears! Oh My!
NEW ORLEANS — Having a 400-pound black bear living in the middle of the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary strikes Warden Burl Cain as a very good thing.
"I love that bear being right where it is," Cain said on Monday. "I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It's like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer."
It should be noted that black bears only rarely attack people, but the presence of the bears might provide a tiny deterrence in the minds of the humans who end up in Angola Prison.
The article goes on to mention a substantial population of alligators, rattle snakes and vicious wild pigs, which apparently are part of the prison's unpaid prison escapee deterrence team.
So we'll have none of that skippin' down the Yellow Brick Road to freedom, y'hear?
"I love that bear being right where it is," Cain said on Monday. "I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It's like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer."
It should be noted that black bears only rarely attack people, but the presence of the bears might provide a tiny deterrence in the minds of the humans who end up in Angola Prison.
The article goes on to mention a substantial population of alligators, rattle snakes and vicious wild pigs, which apparently are part of the prison's unpaid prison escapee deterrence team.
So we'll have none of that skippin' down the Yellow Brick Road to freedom, y'hear?
Hitch Bitch?
There is apparently a new feature at Vanity Fair called Hitch Bitch. It appears to be a forum for readers of Christopher Hitchens to comment on his various writings.
Update It's been going on since February? I wonder why I haven't seen it mentioned on the VF website before now?
Update It's been going on since February? I wonder why I haven't seen it mentioned on the VF website before now?
Sunday, May 04, 2008
"Angel," Wife of Paul Harvey, Dead At 92
My condolences to Paul Harvey over the death of his wife, Lynne Cooper Harvey.
Story here.
If you're my age (46), you remember the pre-Rush Limbaugh days when Paul Harvey's 15-minute radio broadcast was the only conservative programming on the entire radio dial.
Story here.
If you're my age (46), you remember the pre-Rush Limbaugh days when Paul Harvey's 15-minute radio broadcast was the only conservative programming on the entire radio dial.
Multiculturalism Killed The UK National Songbook
LONDON, May 4 (UPI) -- An attempt to create a song-book for all British primary schools has fallen apart after officials couldn't agree on which tunes to include, organizers say.
Sing-Up member Gareth Malone, whose group was tasked with creating the national song-book, said the musical effort was doomed by cultural arguments about what songs belong in it, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
*shakes head sadly*
Sing-Up member Gareth Malone, whose group was tasked with creating the national song-book, said the musical effort was doomed by cultural arguments about what songs belong in it, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
*shakes head sadly*
"Pricking Science's Silly Sausages"
The irreverent Jeremy Clarkson looks dubiously at food shortages and other food "science."
There are food riots in Haiti and Bangladesh. In Kenya hunger has driven half the population to set fire to the other half. In Bolivia they are fighting over vegetables. And even in Italy people took to the streets to complain about the price of pasta.
So you might imagine that all of the world’s scientists are currently in their bunkers, desperately trying to figure out why the world is running out of food all of a sudden and, more importantly, what can be done. For sure, they had a stab a while back at genetically modifying wheat so that it would grow – with no water, sunlight or soil – into a prepacked, presliced loaf. Sadly, though, the whole thing had to be abandoned when some antiGM food activists turned up in white boiler suits and rolled all over the experiment.
My favorite passage: All of which brings me on to a bunch of boffins in Australia who are warning people not to flush their tropical fish down the lavatory.
I know several people who keep such fish in England and none has ever felt the need to put his often very expensive collection in the khazi. Apparently, though, that’s what they do in Oz; and now one particular breed, called the platys, has made it to the ocean, where it’s causing havoc.
It was bred to live in an aquarium because it suffers from what I call Hammond syndrome – an inferiority complex resulting from the fact that it’s about 6ft short of being a shark. It is also tough and bright. Not only is it capable of dealing with the complexities of a U-bend, but it can also swim through several miles of Australian faeces just so it can get into the Pacific, where it is now decimating fish stocks, eating frogs and generally running around shouting: “You’re going home in a f****** ambulance.”
*laughs*
There are food riots in Haiti and Bangladesh. In Kenya hunger has driven half the population to set fire to the other half. In Bolivia they are fighting over vegetables. And even in Italy people took to the streets to complain about the price of pasta.
So you might imagine that all of the world’s scientists are currently in their bunkers, desperately trying to figure out why the world is running out of food all of a sudden and, more importantly, what can be done. For sure, they had a stab a while back at genetically modifying wheat so that it would grow – with no water, sunlight or soil – into a prepacked, presliced loaf. Sadly, though, the whole thing had to be abandoned when some antiGM food activists turned up in white boiler suits and rolled all over the experiment.
My favorite passage: All of which brings me on to a bunch of boffins in Australia who are warning people not to flush their tropical fish down the lavatory.
I know several people who keep such fish in England and none has ever felt the need to put his often very expensive collection in the khazi. Apparently, though, that’s what they do in Oz; and now one particular breed, called the platys, has made it to the ocean, where it’s causing havoc.
It was bred to live in an aquarium because it suffers from what I call Hammond syndrome – an inferiority complex resulting from the fact that it’s about 6ft short of being a shark. It is also tough and bright. Not only is it capable of dealing with the complexities of a U-bend, but it can also swim through several miles of Australian faeces just so it can get into the Pacific, where it is now decimating fish stocks, eating frogs and generally running around shouting: “You’re going home in a f****** ambulance.”
*laughs*
Purple Hearts Urged For PTSD Sufferers
A military psychologist suggests making troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder eligible for the Purple Heart to help remove the stigma of a disorder affecting about 20 percent of combat veterans.
Such a move would be a major change in the Purple Heart awards policy, which does not classify PTSD as a combat wound.
My own opinion is that if you don't have a physical wound, you don't need the Purple Heart. It goes to the very concept of manhood, I think. Yes, a lot of cheap Purple Hearts have been issued (John Kerry, anyone?), but cheapening the award by allowing PTSD sufferers (Shell Shock, Combat Fatique) to wear it is a mistake.
Of course, that's just my opinion; I could be wrong, as Dennis Miller says.
Update: of course, PTSD was the subject of Pat Barker's fine novel of WWI doctors and shell-shock patients: Regeneration, and discusses the psychology of the disorder in soldiers much better than any small article could.
Military Playboy Ban: Soldiers Speak
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany – Legislation that would restrict the sale of certain men’s magazines on U.S. military bases around the world would be bad for morale, according to soldiers at Grafenwöhr.
The usual roundup of opinions. The soldiers mostly resent it, because they already give up many rights by joining up; it's like the ban on alcohol for under-21 soldiers.
One military spouse in the story brings up the for the children argument, which presumably trumps all other arguments in the US these days.
The usual roundup of opinions. The soldiers mostly resent it, because they already give up many rights by joining up; it's like the ban on alcohol for under-21 soldiers.
One military spouse in the story brings up the for the children argument, which presumably trumps all other arguments in the US these days.
Stopping Insurgency One Brick At A Time
Unit revives factory in Shiite town to lure Iraqis away from criminal behavior with work.
NARHWAN, Iraq — Before Lt. Col. Mark Sullivan arrived in this city of 120,000, he had his eye on the map.
On the outskirts of Narhwan a big smoke-belching brick factory, once the economic engine of the region, was sitting idle. Before the start of the war, it employed more than 10,000. In the years that followed, though, it degenerated into a den of extortion. The extremists were shaking down the business owners.
“It was a sanctuary. Weapons and ammunition were stored out there,” Sullivan said.
But Sullivan, commander of the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, sensed an opportunity at the onetime employment hub turned weapons storage center.
“We saw it on the map and said we’re going to go after this sucker,” Sullivan said.
Seven months later, the mules are in motion. Conveyors are spitting out the bricks, which are being stacked up by the million. While the violence rages to the west in Sadr City, tensions have eased in Shiite-dominated Narhwan.
The reason is simple: People are too busy going to work every day, he said. “You have to provide an alternative to criminal behavior.”
The factory is once again the largest employer in Mada’in, an area southeast of Baghdad where the 3rd Heavy Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division has been operating since March of 2007.
It's been a success so far. I got the story from the Stars and Stripes, the only paper that will consistently publish stories like this, for obvious reasons.
NARHWAN, Iraq — Before Lt. Col. Mark Sullivan arrived in this city of 120,000, he had his eye on the map.
On the outskirts of Narhwan a big smoke-belching brick factory, once the economic engine of the region, was sitting idle. Before the start of the war, it employed more than 10,000. In the years that followed, though, it degenerated into a den of extortion. The extremists were shaking down the business owners.
“It was a sanctuary. Weapons and ammunition were stored out there,” Sullivan said.
But Sullivan, commander of the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, sensed an opportunity at the onetime employment hub turned weapons storage center.
“We saw it on the map and said we’re going to go after this sucker,” Sullivan said.
Seven months later, the mules are in motion. Conveyors are spitting out the bricks, which are being stacked up by the million. While the violence rages to the west in Sadr City, tensions have eased in Shiite-dominated Narhwan.
The reason is simple: People are too busy going to work every day, he said. “You have to provide an alternative to criminal behavior.”
The factory is once again the largest employer in Mada’in, an area southeast of Baghdad where the 3rd Heavy Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division has been operating since March of 2007.
It's been a success so far. I got the story from the Stars and Stripes, the only paper that will consistently publish stories like this, for obvious reasons.
Moderate Muslim "Peace Corps" In Pakistan
Sufi-led Turks are trying to bring a more moderate, tolerant Islam to Pakistan by establishing schools.
KARACHI, Pakistan — Praying in Pakistan has not been easy for Mesut Kacmaz, a Muslim teacher from Turkey.
He tried the mosque near his house, but it had Israeli and Danish flags painted on the floor for people to step on. The mosque near where he works warned him never to return wearing a tie. Pakistanis everywhere assume he is not Muslim because he has no beard.
“Kill, fight, shoot,” Mr. Kacmaz said. “This is a misinterpretation of Islam.”
But that view is common in Pakistan, a frontier land for the future of Islam, where schools, nourished by Saudi and American money dating back to the 1980s, have spread Islamic radicalism through the poorest parts of society. With a literacy rate of just 50 percent and a public school system near collapse, the country is particularly vulnerable.
Mr. Kacmaz (pronounced KATCH-maz) is part of a group of Turkish educators who have come to this battleground with an entirely different vision of Islam. Theirs is moderate and flexible, comfortably coexisting with the West while remaining distinct from it. Like Muslim Peace Corps volunteers, they promote this approach in schools, which are now established in more than 80 countries, Muslim and Christian.
The model is the brainchild of a Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gulen. A preacher with millions of followers in Turkey, Mr. Gulen, 69, comes from a tradition of Sufism, an introspective, mystical strain of Islam. He has lived in exile in the United States since 2000, after getting in trouble with secular Turkish officials.
Mr. Gulen’s idea, Mr. Aytav said, is that “without science, religion turns to radicalism, and without religion, science is blind and brings the world to danger.”
The schools are putting into practice a Turkish Sufi philosophy that took its most modern form during the last century, after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founder, crushed the Islamic caliphate in the 1920s. Islamic thinkers responded by trying to bring Western science into the faith they were trying to defend. In the 1950s, while Arab Islamic intellectuals like Sayyid Qutub were firmly rejecting the West, Turkish ones like Said Nursi were seeking ways to coexist with it.
Well worth the reading. I hope they succeed.
KARACHI, Pakistan — Praying in Pakistan has not been easy for Mesut Kacmaz, a Muslim teacher from Turkey.
He tried the mosque near his house, but it had Israeli and Danish flags painted on the floor for people to step on. The mosque near where he works warned him never to return wearing a tie. Pakistanis everywhere assume he is not Muslim because he has no beard.
“Kill, fight, shoot,” Mr. Kacmaz said. “This is a misinterpretation of Islam.”
But that view is common in Pakistan, a frontier land for the future of Islam, where schools, nourished by Saudi and American money dating back to the 1980s, have spread Islamic radicalism through the poorest parts of society. With a literacy rate of just 50 percent and a public school system near collapse, the country is particularly vulnerable.
Mr. Kacmaz (pronounced KATCH-maz) is part of a group of Turkish educators who have come to this battleground with an entirely different vision of Islam. Theirs is moderate and flexible, comfortably coexisting with the West while remaining distinct from it. Like Muslim Peace Corps volunteers, they promote this approach in schools, which are now established in more than 80 countries, Muslim and Christian.
The model is the brainchild of a Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gulen. A preacher with millions of followers in Turkey, Mr. Gulen, 69, comes from a tradition of Sufism, an introspective, mystical strain of Islam. He has lived in exile in the United States since 2000, after getting in trouble with secular Turkish officials.
Mr. Gulen’s idea, Mr. Aytav said, is that “without science, religion turns to radicalism, and without religion, science is blind and brings the world to danger.”
The schools are putting into practice a Turkish Sufi philosophy that took its most modern form during the last century, after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founder, crushed the Islamic caliphate in the 1920s. Islamic thinkers responded by trying to bring Western science into the faith they were trying to defend. In the 1950s, while Arab Islamic intellectuals like Sayyid Qutub were firmly rejecting the West, Turkish ones like Said Nursi were seeking ways to coexist with it.
Well worth the reading. I hope they succeed.
Tetrodotoxin Update
I only said Tetrodotoxin for the fun of it.
*laughs*
Tetrodotoxin, the poisonous component of the puffer fish, is in the news in Japan:
SHIMONOSEKI, Japan — Poison has been as integral to fugu, the funny-looking, potentially deadly puffer fish prized by Japanese gourmands, as the savor of its pricey meat. So consider fugu, but poison-free.
Thanks to advances in fugu research and farming, Japanese fish farmers are now mass-producing fugu as harmless as goldfish. Most important, they have taken the poison out of fugu’s liver, considered both its most delicious and potentially most lethal part, one whose consumption has left countless Japanese dead over the centuries and whose sale remains illegal in the country.
But what could be seen as potential good news for gourmands has instead been grounds for controversy: powerful interests in the fugu industry, playing on lingering safety fears, are fighting to keep the ban on fugu livers even from poison-free fish.
So you have licensed fugu chefs worried about their livelihoods because of harmless farmed fugu puffers. It's a long article, but if you're a food enthusiast or have an interest in poisonous and venomous creatures, it's a good article.
*laughs*
Tetrodotoxin, the poisonous component of the puffer fish, is in the news in Japan:
SHIMONOSEKI, Japan — Poison has been as integral to fugu, the funny-looking, potentially deadly puffer fish prized by Japanese gourmands, as the savor of its pricey meat. So consider fugu, but poison-free.
Thanks to advances in fugu research and farming, Japanese fish farmers are now mass-producing fugu as harmless as goldfish. Most important, they have taken the poison out of fugu’s liver, considered both its most delicious and potentially most lethal part, one whose consumption has left countless Japanese dead over the centuries and whose sale remains illegal in the country.
But what could be seen as potential good news for gourmands has instead been grounds for controversy: powerful interests in the fugu industry, playing on lingering safety fears, are fighting to keep the ban on fugu livers even from poison-free fish.
So you have licensed fugu chefs worried about their livelihoods because of harmless farmed fugu puffers. It's a long article, but if you're a food enthusiast or have an interest in poisonous and venomous creatures, it's a good article.
Curse Of Bond
The Daily Mail is flogging a ridiculous "Curse of Bond" meme.
During the first Bond movie with Daniel Craig starring, the meme was Craig is a wimp. Instead he turned out to be the best Bond since Connery.
During the first Bond movie with Daniel Craig starring, the meme was Craig is a wimp. Instead he turned out to be the best Bond since Connery.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
The Men In Brown Vs. The Colonel
United Parcel Service (UPS) and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) have a side-bet on the results of the Kentucky Derby.
There is a lot riding on the Kentucky Derby for two charities in Louisville. Two corporations have bet on different horses, and if either of those wins, the charity chosen by the victorious bettor will be $10,000 richer.
Thus, if Big Brown, the leanly sculptured colt who is sponsored by United Parcel Service — also known as Big Brown — crosses the finish line first, U.P.S. will donate $5,000 to Metro United Way, and the KFC Corporation, operator of the chicken restaurant chain, will match that gift.
Should Colonel John end up wearing the roses, KFC will donate $5,000 to Colonel’s Scholars, a KFC program that provides college scholarships to needy students, and U.P.S. will make a matching donation.
The wager was struck between D. Scott Davis, chief executive of U.P.S., and Gregg R. Dedrick, president of KFC, which is a division of Yum Brands and is based in Louisville, where U.P.S. also has a large presence. The two men know each other as corporate peers and are big fans of the race.
That should be a lot of fun, and a chance to show that US corporations aren't evil entities out to screw the little guy.
There is a lot riding on the Kentucky Derby for two charities in Louisville. Two corporations have bet on different horses, and if either of those wins, the charity chosen by the victorious bettor will be $10,000 richer.
Thus, if Big Brown, the leanly sculptured colt who is sponsored by United Parcel Service — also known as Big Brown — crosses the finish line first, U.P.S. will donate $5,000 to Metro United Way, and the KFC Corporation, operator of the chicken restaurant chain, will match that gift.
Should Colonel John end up wearing the roses, KFC will donate $5,000 to Colonel’s Scholars, a KFC program that provides college scholarships to needy students, and U.P.S. will make a matching donation.
The wager was struck between D. Scott Davis, chief executive of U.P.S., and Gregg R. Dedrick, president of KFC, which is a division of Yum Brands and is based in Louisville, where U.P.S. also has a large presence. The two men know each other as corporate peers and are big fans of the race.
That should be a lot of fun, and a chance to show that US corporations aren't evil entities out to screw the little guy.
Hillary's Ambassador To The Rednecks
DUNN, N.C. — For Burns Strider, this was something close to heaven on earth. The smoke from the roasting pig was wafting over him, the Carolina sunshine was pouring down and he had a small-town preacher in his grasp.
Propped against a white Chevy pickup truck with a plastic-foam plate of barbeque in his hand, he leaned in. “Brother, let me ask you this,” he said to the Rev. Ron Spears, pastor of the 150-member Faith and Power Christian Center in Dunn, a town astride Interstate 95 in southeast North Carolina. “In the black community here, is there a meth problem? I know it’s eating these towns up. My brother is a sheriff over in Mississippi, and when they get on this stuff, they can’t get off.”
The visit went on in this vein for 20 minutes, while former President Bill Clinton addressed a small crowd 30 yards away. Mr. Strider, an aide to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton who was touring rural North Carolina with Mr. Clinton this week, wanted to know if the pastor’s church could afford to provide him health care (it cannot), if he was bi-vocational (no, he did not have another job), if he had ties to the military (his father was a Green Beret).
He did not ask whom Mr. Spears was supporting in the Democratic presidential contest. Mr. Strider is a political operator, no doubt, but this is the soft sell, the only kind he knows.
Mr. Strider carries the title of senior adviser and director of faith-based operations for the Clinton campaign, but that only begins to describe his mission. A native of Grenada, Miss., he is the emissary from and to rural and religious voters, particularly in the South. His job is to close the God Gap and the Bubba Gap, helping Mrs. Clinton connect with evangelicals and veterans and Nascar fans, the kind of voters that Senator Barack Obama clumsily referred to as bitter small-towners who cling to their God and their guns in times of economic hardship.
It's worth reading the whole thing.
Propped against a white Chevy pickup truck with a plastic-foam plate of barbeque in his hand, he leaned in. “Brother, let me ask you this,” he said to the Rev. Ron Spears, pastor of the 150-member Faith and Power Christian Center in Dunn, a town astride Interstate 95 in southeast North Carolina. “In the black community here, is there a meth problem? I know it’s eating these towns up. My brother is a sheriff over in Mississippi, and when they get on this stuff, they can’t get off.”
The visit went on in this vein for 20 minutes, while former President Bill Clinton addressed a small crowd 30 yards away. Mr. Strider, an aide to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton who was touring rural North Carolina with Mr. Clinton this week, wanted to know if the pastor’s church could afford to provide him health care (it cannot), if he was bi-vocational (no, he did not have another job), if he had ties to the military (his father was a Green Beret).
He did not ask whom Mr. Spears was supporting in the Democratic presidential contest. Mr. Strider is a political operator, no doubt, but this is the soft sell, the only kind he knows.
Mr. Strider carries the title of senior adviser and director of faith-based operations for the Clinton campaign, but that only begins to describe his mission. A native of Grenada, Miss., he is the emissary from and to rural and religious voters, particularly in the South. His job is to close the God Gap and the Bubba Gap, helping Mrs. Clinton connect with evangelicals and veterans and Nascar fans, the kind of voters that Senator Barack Obama clumsily referred to as bitter small-towners who cling to their God and their guns in times of economic hardship.
It's worth reading the whole thing.
UK: Tories Shining Brightly
It was a bad night for the Labour government of Gordon Brown. The Tories swept to victory in many traditional Labour strongholds, and the New Liberals made gains, as well. Worst of all, Tory Boris Johnson defeated Red Ken Livingstone to become the new mayor of London.
In a New York Times story on the election, the M word - - Malaise - - is actually trotted out to explain the losses, bringing to mind the 1980 US Presidential election in which Ronald Reagan trounced the hapless Jimmy Carter:
“This was the first big test of Gordon Brown and David Cameron,” said Stephan Shakespeare, a co-founder of YouGov, a polling company, speaking of the Conservative Party leader. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of debate and a lot of polling, and until this moment the general feeling of malaise that hung over this government hasn’t been made concrete or specific. Now it has. It shows that something has profoundly changed in British politics.”
Johnson, the new London mayor, was his usual goofy self during his victory speech:
“Tomorrow we’ll work like crazy,” said Mr. Johnson, who gave up alcohol during the campaign, “but tonight we’ll have a drink.”
Hilarious.
Maybe, just maybe, UK can start trying to seriously deal with its crime problem and other abuses of the British people that the Labour party has allowed for the last decade.
In a New York Times story on the election, the M word - - Malaise - - is actually trotted out to explain the losses, bringing to mind the 1980 US Presidential election in which Ronald Reagan trounced the hapless Jimmy Carter:
“This was the first big test of Gordon Brown and David Cameron,” said Stephan Shakespeare, a co-founder of YouGov, a polling company, speaking of the Conservative Party leader. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of debate and a lot of polling, and until this moment the general feeling of malaise that hung over this government hasn’t been made concrete or specific. Now it has. It shows that something has profoundly changed in British politics.”
Johnson, the new London mayor, was his usual goofy self during his victory speech:
“Tomorrow we’ll work like crazy,” said Mr. Johnson, who gave up alcohol during the campaign, “but tonight we’ll have a drink.”
Hilarious.
Maybe, just maybe, UK can start trying to seriously deal with its crime problem and other abuses of the British people that the Labour party has allowed for the last decade.
Friday, May 02, 2008
They'll Burn In Hell For That
Time Magazine leaves Pope Benedict XVI off its list of 100 world's most influential people.
Good thing that most journalists and other media types are godless atheists, otherwise they'd burn in Hell for that.
Good thing that most journalists and other media types are godless atheists, otherwise they'd burn in Hell for that.
Media: How Can We Cover Military Funerals From Waaaaay Over There?
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Army plans to develop new ground rules for press coverage of military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery after reporters complained that they are stationed so far from the grave site that they can neither see nor hear the ceremony.
The Army met with Pentagon press corps members Wednesday to discuss the issue, which came to a head after an article by Dana Milbank appeared last week in The Washington Post.
Titled “What the family would let you see, the Pentagon obstructs,” Milbank’s piece criticized the way the military handled press coverage of the April 22 funeral of Lt. Col. Billy Hall.
Even though Hall’s family had given permission for the media to attend the funeral — the only way media is allowed to cover the otherwise private events — the reporters were cordoned off in a group too far to hear or see the service.
That is Arlington’s policy, Thurman Higginbotham, Arlington Cemetery’s deputy director, said during Wednesday’s meeting.
Apparently the rules will be changed slightly to make the funerals more accessible; you have to wonder, though, if the simmering hostility between the media and the military was at the root of this policy.
The Army met with Pentagon press corps members Wednesday to discuss the issue, which came to a head after an article by Dana Milbank appeared last week in The Washington Post.
Titled “What the family would let you see, the Pentagon obstructs,” Milbank’s piece criticized the way the military handled press coverage of the April 22 funeral of Lt. Col. Billy Hall.
Even though Hall’s family had given permission for the media to attend the funeral — the only way media is allowed to cover the otherwise private events — the reporters were cordoned off in a group too far to hear or see the service.
That is Arlington’s policy, Thurman Higginbotham, Arlington Cemetery’s deputy director, said during Wednesday’s meeting.
Apparently the rules will be changed slightly to make the funerals more accessible; you have to wonder, though, if the simmering hostility between the media and the military was at the root of this policy.
Japan: No "Violent" Sailors Wanted Here
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A new program will identify sailors who are prone to violent behavior that could harm U.S.-Japanese relations, Navy officials said this week.
Sailors with violence problems will not stay in Japan, Commander U.S. Naval Forces Japan Rear Adm. James D. Kelly told Yokosuka city officials Wednesday.
But removal will be used as a last resort, as CNFJ has started a new program to identify sailors struggling with violence and help them, said CNFJ spokeswoman Hanako Tomizuka.
Called “CARE” (Combined Anti-Violence Reflection Education), the program aims to prevent violence with vigilance, education and training of sailors and civilians in Japan.
Kelly told Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya on Wednesday that CARE is already in effect CNFJ-wide, Tomizuka said.
CARE comes on the heels of the March 19 slaying of a 61-year-old taxi driver. Yokosuka Seaman Olatunbosun Ugbogu was indicted last week on a charge of robbery-murder. While Ugbogu, 22, publicly admitted to the stabbing, he denied the motive of robbery, saying instead that he has mental health issues and that those close to him were aware of his problems.
According to the tenets of CARE, Navy leaders will be given an “indicator” that will help identify their subordinates’ potential for violence, Tomizuka said.
Kelly did not give specifics about the indicator as it is an “internal document,” but he told reporters Wednesday it was similar to a checklist, Tomizuka said.
Sailors identified as having violent tendencies will first receive counseling and help; if that fails, they will face stricter measures, and if those don’t work, there is the potential for the sailor to be separated out of the Navy or sent back to the U.S., Tomizuka said.
I think it's possible that this "internal document" is being kept secret because it recommends racially profiling African-American servicemembers. The notorious 1995 rape of an Okinawan girl was committed by African-American Marines, and the more recent case of USMC Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott appears to involve an African-American, as well. The US Navy sailor mentioned in the article above, Olatunbosun Ugbogu, is a Nigerian national serving in the US Navy. The disproportionate number of rapes committed in the US by African-American men is well known to the Japanese authorities.
I don't really want to post this, because I'll get called racist, but it needs to be out there. If the Japanese are trying to start a program to determine "violent" behavior based on secret criteria, it needs to be exposed in the media.
Sailors with violence problems will not stay in Japan, Commander U.S. Naval Forces Japan Rear Adm. James D. Kelly told Yokosuka city officials Wednesday.
But removal will be used as a last resort, as CNFJ has started a new program to identify sailors struggling with violence and help them, said CNFJ spokeswoman Hanako Tomizuka.
Called “CARE” (Combined Anti-Violence Reflection Education), the program aims to prevent violence with vigilance, education and training of sailors and civilians in Japan.
Kelly told Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya on Wednesday that CARE is already in effect CNFJ-wide, Tomizuka said.
CARE comes on the heels of the March 19 slaying of a 61-year-old taxi driver. Yokosuka Seaman Olatunbosun Ugbogu was indicted last week on a charge of robbery-murder. While Ugbogu, 22, publicly admitted to the stabbing, he denied the motive of robbery, saying instead that he has mental health issues and that those close to him were aware of his problems.
According to the tenets of CARE, Navy leaders will be given an “indicator” that will help identify their subordinates’ potential for violence, Tomizuka said.
Kelly did not give specifics about the indicator as it is an “internal document,” but he told reporters Wednesday it was similar to a checklist, Tomizuka said.
Sailors identified as having violent tendencies will first receive counseling and help; if that fails, they will face stricter measures, and if those don’t work, there is the potential for the sailor to be separated out of the Navy or sent back to the U.S., Tomizuka said.
I think it's possible that this "internal document" is being kept secret because it recommends racially profiling African-American servicemembers. The notorious 1995 rape of an Okinawan girl was committed by African-American Marines, and the more recent case of USMC Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott appears to involve an African-American, as well. The US Navy sailor mentioned in the article above, Olatunbosun Ugbogu, is a Nigerian national serving in the US Navy. The disproportionate number of rapes committed in the US by African-American men is well known to the Japanese authorities.
I don't really want to post this, because I'll get called racist, but it needs to be out there. If the Japanese are trying to start a program to determine "violent" behavior based on secret criteria, it needs to be exposed in the media.
Excellent Grasp of the Obvious Award...
...goes to the Kinsey Institute for discovering that:
Among the revelations from their focus groups in which men talked about what influenced their sexual desire and arousal: one man's turn-on is often another's turn-off; an erection doesn't always signal arousal; and not every guy wants to jump into bed at the drop of a hat.
Just how often does this fact have to be rediscovered?
Among the revelations from their focus groups in which men talked about what influenced their sexual desire and arousal: one man's turn-on is often another's turn-off; an erection doesn't always signal arousal; and not every guy wants to jump into bed at the drop of a hat.
Just how often does this fact have to be rediscovered?
Conservative Blogger As Gadfly
Michael Brodkorp, wreaking havoc with Al Franken's senate campaign.
Brodkorp's blog can be found here.
Bravo Zulu!
Brodkorp's blog can be found here.
Bravo Zulu!
UK: Labour Party In Trouble
Story.
Red Ken Livingstone, the Mayor Of London, may be put out to pasture. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Red Ken Livingstone, the Mayor Of London, may be put out to pasture. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Mark Steyn's Muslim Europe: Incorrect?
A study in France suggests the possibility that increasing birth rates are not due to Muslim immigrants.
WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The news that France has overtaken Ireland to boast the highest birthrate in Europe is intriguing for three different reasons.
The first is that for a Europe that is worried about too few children being born to support the fast-growing numbers of elderly retirees, it suggests that public policy can make a difference. France now pays any mother with a third child about $1,200 in child support, along with massive discounts on train and public transport and subsidized day care. These incentives seem to work.
The second development to note is that INED, France's National Institute of Demographic Studies, has done some detailed research and concluded that France's immigrant population is responsible for only 5 percent of the rise in the birthrate and that France's population would be rising anyway even without the immigrant population.
In fact in France, like everywhere else in Europe, the birthrate among immigrant mothers drops quickly toward the local norm in less than two generations. The measure most commonly used in international statistics is the Total Fertility Rate, which seeks to measure the number of children born to the average woman in her fertile years. (The formal definition of TFR is the average number of children a woman would have during her reproductive lifetime if current age-specific fertility rates remained constant over her reproductive life.)
The third item of real interest is that France is not alone. Birthrates are also rising in the Netherlands, Britain, Sweden and Germany.
If this report is accurate, then it will be good news for Europe, since it will mean less likelihood of wars and/or genocides based on religious differences. We can only hope that is correct.
WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The news that France has overtaken Ireland to boast the highest birthrate in Europe is intriguing for three different reasons.
The first is that for a Europe that is worried about too few children being born to support the fast-growing numbers of elderly retirees, it suggests that public policy can make a difference. France now pays any mother with a third child about $1,200 in child support, along with massive discounts on train and public transport and subsidized day care. These incentives seem to work.
The second development to note is that INED, France's National Institute of Demographic Studies, has done some detailed research and concluded that France's immigrant population is responsible for only 5 percent of the rise in the birthrate and that France's population would be rising anyway even without the immigrant population.
In fact in France, like everywhere else in Europe, the birthrate among immigrant mothers drops quickly toward the local norm in less than two generations. The measure most commonly used in international statistics is the Total Fertility Rate, which seeks to measure the number of children born to the average woman in her fertile years. (The formal definition of TFR is the average number of children a woman would have during her reproductive lifetime if current age-specific fertility rates remained constant over her reproductive life.)
The third item of real interest is that France is not alone. Birthrates are also rising in the Netherlands, Britain, Sweden and Germany.
If this report is accurate, then it will be good news for Europe, since it will mean less likelihood of wars and/or genocides based on religious differences. We can only hope that is correct.
Obama Staying Out Of The 'Hood
Story.
It's been my contention all along that Obama has been campaigning as a white man, and avoiding all situations that would cause him to be perceived as black. This story only confirms that original assessment.
He still has problems appealing to working-class white voters, though, because of his leftist positions on gun control and abortion. You'll know he's really desperate for those votes when you see him in a commercial sitting in a recliner, wearing a wife-beater t-shirt and drinking a beer out of the can.
It's been my contention all along that Obama has been campaigning as a white man, and avoiding all situations that would cause him to be perceived as black. This story only confirms that original assessment.
He still has problems appealing to working-class white voters, though, because of his leftist positions on gun control and abortion. You'll know he's really desperate for those votes when you see him in a commercial sitting in a recliner, wearing a wife-beater t-shirt and drinking a beer out of the can.
Ick!
Discovering a tick upon oneself is always good for a minor freakout. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the little bastards didn't carry Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Google Earth Image Of The Day
Clipperton Island, an atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Mexico, out in the middle of nowhere, named after a pirate.
When I was around 12 or 13 I purchased a Rand McNally map of the world and taped it to the wall next to my bed. I would lay there and look at the map for hours, wanting even then to be away from everyone else, and trying to find that perfect place where I could live as a hermit. Clipperton was one of the places that fascinated me, because it was so far from everything else.
It's a terrible place, Clipperton; no water on the island, except what you bring, or what rainfall you can catch. The lagoon in the center of the atoll is closed to the sea and undrinkable brackish water. There is no human population there; the wildlife consists mainly of seabirds, rats, and land crabs. The island is in the path of eastern Pacific hurricanes. Occasionally tuna boats from Mexico stop there, and in such a remote place, who could trust his fellow human?
I crossed it off the list of places to live a long time ago; too harsh a life, too dangerous.
The Trivial Pursuit Edition of History
Before Plymouth, there was Cuddyhunk.
History rarely taught in grade school, not because it's the stuff we'd rather forget, like slavery, but because it's stuff that is easy to forget...like Cuddyhunk.
History rarely taught in grade school, not because it's the stuff we'd rather forget, like slavery, but because it's stuff that is easy to forget...like Cuddyhunk.
Can't Grow Grass...
...might as well grow moss.
DAVID BENNER hasn’t watered his lawn since the Kennedy administration. He hasn’t mowed it, either. And it’s doing just fine. On a late-April afternoon, the two-acre property surrounding his ranch house in Bucks County was a carpet of green, uniformly lush and velvety under a canopy of shade trees.
Mr. Benner, 78, a retired professor of ornamental horticulture, is also a longtime practitioner and advocate of what he calls “the moss approach” to lawn maintenance. “Every time I give a lecture, I go into this spiel: get rid of your grass, and grow moss,” he said. “And now it’s finally gaining momentum.”
Much of my own yard is covered in moss, so we've been ahead of this trend for 10 years at least. Good story; the fact that the stuff is basically maintenance free is an advantage.
DAVID BENNER hasn’t watered his lawn since the Kennedy administration. He hasn’t mowed it, either. And it’s doing just fine. On a late-April afternoon, the two-acre property surrounding his ranch house in Bucks County was a carpet of green, uniformly lush and velvety under a canopy of shade trees.
Mr. Benner, 78, a retired professor of ornamental horticulture, is also a longtime practitioner and advocate of what he calls “the moss approach” to lawn maintenance. “Every time I give a lecture, I go into this spiel: get rid of your grass, and grow moss,” he said. “And now it’s finally gaining momentum.”
Much of my own yard is covered in moss, so we've been ahead of this trend for 10 years at least. Good story; the fact that the stuff is basically maintenance free is an advantage.
Oud In Iraq, Oud In America
A land of peace, a land of war. Music welcome where it isn't really appreciated, forbidden where it is needed the most.
BAGHDAD — Dhia Jabbar hides his oud in a sack when he walks down the street in his Baghdad neighborhood.
He used to teach students in the back room of a photo shop, where the sound could not be heard. But last week, militia gunmen invaded the store, destroying one of his instruments and ordering him to stop teaching. He had dreamed of a performing career, but now he has lost hope.
“Iraq is dead,” he says.
It's worth reading the whole story. Sometimes we take our freedom from oppression too lightly, so that we don't really value it.
BAGHDAD — Dhia Jabbar hides his oud in a sack when he walks down the street in his Baghdad neighborhood.
He used to teach students in the back room of a photo shop, where the sound could not be heard. But last week, militia gunmen invaded the store, destroying one of his instruments and ordering him to stop teaching. He had dreamed of a performing career, but now he has lost hope.
“Iraq is dead,” he says.
It's worth reading the whole story. Sometimes we take our freedom from oppression too lightly, so that we don't really value it.
Those Gnomes Get Around
One of those globe-trotting gnomes was caught by the volcano cam on top of Mt. St. Helen's in Washington:
A Comment About Subway
Your new Philly Cheesesteak sub, 12", is not worth $8.99 per sandwich. $5.99, maybe; $8.99, most definitely not.
Hotel Work
The Wachovia Open is currently playing here in Charlotte, my hotel is accommodating some of the caddies, who typically have been rising early (before 4 a.m.) to leave for the golf course.
One of the caddies called at 3:00 a.m. for a 3:45 wakeup call. Yes, he'd been awake all day. I programmed the wakeup call.
At 4:00 his friends called him, and finally managed to wake him up. When he came down he immediately began dressing me down for not programming his call, then walked out before I could respond. I checked the telephone log, and sure enough, he had slept through three wakeup calls, five minutes apart, at 3:45.
I documented everything and left it for the front office manager. I hope the little jerk tries to show his ass again.
One of the caddies called at 3:00 a.m. for a 3:45 wakeup call. Yes, he'd been awake all day. I programmed the wakeup call.
At 4:00 his friends called him, and finally managed to wake him up. When he came down he immediately began dressing me down for not programming his call, then walked out before I could respond. I checked the telephone log, and sure enough, he had slept through three wakeup calls, five minutes apart, at 3:45.
I documented everything and left it for the front office manager. I hope the little jerk tries to show his ass again.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Google Earth Image Of The Day
Fort Redoubt is on the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, home of the Blue Angels. It was built around 1840, and guarded the landward approach to nearby Fort Barrancas, which defended the entrance to Pensacola Bay. I don't know if it is in use now, but in 1981 when I was training with the Navy, it was unused, but maintained by the Navy.
I'll Take You With Me!
Remember that poster you used to be able to buy in Spencer's Gifts in the 70's and 80's? Last Great Act of Defiance?
Well, this story makes that look tame by comparison:
A hawk was found dead along a California highway with the claw of a songbird protruding from its chest.
It's not clear, however, if the partially digested meal, one claw somehow managing to get back out from a terribly wrong location, had anything to do with the hawk's death.
Look at the pic, though, and tell me that this wasn't a sparrow that went down fighting:
One badass little bird.
Well, this story makes that look tame by comparison:
A hawk was found dead along a California highway with the claw of a songbird protruding from its chest.
It's not clear, however, if the partially digested meal, one claw somehow managing to get back out from a terribly wrong location, had anything to do with the hawk's death.
Look at the pic, though, and tell me that this wasn't a sparrow that went down fighting:
One badass little bird.
Treasure Horde Unearthed In Sweden
LUND, Sweden, April 29 (UPI) -- A 9-year-old and his grandfather have discovered what may be Sweden's largest collection of medieval silver coins, archaeologists said.
Alexander Granhof and his grandfather, Jens, were exploring the site of the Battle of Lund, part of the Scanian War in 1676, when Alexander found a few silver coins coated in verdigris, Swedish News Agency TT reported Tuesday.
Archaeologists from Sweden's National Heritage Board said they visited the site the following day and discovered two clay containers filled with more than 7,000 silver coins that are believed to be from around the year 1300.
"I never thought I'd experience anything like this," said archaeologist Mats Anglert.
"I suspect we may have doubled the number of English coins from the Middle Ages ever found in Sweden," Anglert said.
That's two treasure posts in one day. I'm in heaven.
Alexander Granhof and his grandfather, Jens, were exploring the site of the Battle of Lund, part of the Scanian War in 1676, when Alexander found a few silver coins coated in verdigris, Swedish News Agency TT reported Tuesday.
Archaeologists from Sweden's National Heritage Board said they visited the site the following day and discovered two clay containers filled with more than 7,000 silver coins that are believed to be from around the year 1300.
"I never thought I'd experience anything like this," said archaeologist Mats Anglert.
"I suspect we may have doubled the number of English coins from the Middle Ages ever found in Sweden," Anglert said.
That's two treasure posts in one day. I'm in heaven.
It's A BIRD, For Chrissake.
Or maybe mice. Or a joke.
Whatever it is, it has women in - - guess where? California! upset.
LOS ANGELES, April 29 (UPI) -- Environmentalists are attempting to have a sign reading "Titmouse Park" removed from Los Angeles' Ballona Wetlands area, saying the sign insults women.
Environmentalist Roy van de Hoek said the park was not named after titmouse birds, which are not native to the area. Rather, the name was chosen as an insult to a group of women who blocked local businessmen from turning the area into a parking lot 20 years ago.
Van de Hoek said he had a conversation about 18 months ago with a businessman who claimed to have participated in the naming.
"He said the name came about because he and his buddies were playing a joke on the women," he said. "It was a reference to a woman's body part. He was chuckling and laughing."
However, retired sign painter Bud Harris said he painted the park sign, naming the area after a group of mice he encountered that he mistakenly thought were titmice.
Whatever it is, it has women in - - guess where? California! upset.
LOS ANGELES, April 29 (UPI) -- Environmentalists are attempting to have a sign reading "Titmouse Park" removed from Los Angeles' Ballona Wetlands area, saying the sign insults women.
Environmentalist Roy van de Hoek said the park was not named after titmouse birds, which are not native to the area. Rather, the name was chosen as an insult to a group of women who blocked local businessmen from turning the area into a parking lot 20 years ago.
Van de Hoek said he had a conversation about 18 months ago with a businessman who claimed to have participated in the naming.
"He said the name came about because he and his buddies were playing a joke on the women," he said. "It was a reference to a woman's body part. He was chuckling and laughing."
However, retired sign painter Bud Harris said he painted the park sign, naming the area after a group of mice he encountered that he mistakenly thought were titmice.
Russian Submarines: Toothless?
Story.
It's possible that they failed readiness standards.
WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) -- Russian nuclear submarines conducted only three patrols last year, indicating Moscow may have effectively abandoned their use as a deterrent, says a new report.
The Federation of American Scientists published its Nuclear Notebook this week, revealing that the number of deterrence patrols conducted by Russia's 11 nuclear ballistic missiles submarines decreased to only three in 2007 from five in 2006.
In comparison, U.S. nuclear subs conducted 54 patrols in 2007, more than three times as many as all the other nuclear-weapon states combined.
Owing to "changed strategic circumstances" Moscow has apparently concluded "they don't need this (submarine deterrent capability) for their security," the federation's Hans Kristensen told UPI, citing principally the end of the Cold War nuclear standoff.
It's possible that they failed readiness standards.
WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) -- Russian nuclear submarines conducted only three patrols last year, indicating Moscow may have effectively abandoned their use as a deterrent, says a new report.
The Federation of American Scientists published its Nuclear Notebook this week, revealing that the number of deterrence patrols conducted by Russia's 11 nuclear ballistic missiles submarines decreased to only three in 2007 from five in 2006.
In comparison, U.S. nuclear subs conducted 54 patrols in 2007, more than three times as many as all the other nuclear-weapon states combined.
Owing to "changed strategic circumstances" Moscow has apparently concluded "they don't need this (submarine deterrent capability) for their security," the federation's Hans Kristensen told UPI, citing principally the end of the Cold War nuclear standoff.
Novelist: I Hate My Mother
Mother: I hate you, too.
Michel Houellebecq is a literary icon whose novels have been acclaimed by critics as the cruel illumination of a troubled era.
But France's most celebrated and controversial contemporary author could be pushed off his pinnacle following an astonishingly vitriolic attack from a critic with a unique insight into his oeuvre.
She is his mother - and she is threatening to knock his teeth out with her walking stick if he mentions her again in one of his works.
In a book of her own to be published next week, Lucie Ceccaldi depicts the cult writer as an untalented social climber whose ego is only matched by his dishonesty.
“What are these novels where nothing ever happens?” she says.
“This individual, who alas! came out of my tummy, is a liar, an impostor, a parasite and especially, especially, a little upstart ready to do anything for fortune and fame,” Mrs Ceccaldi, 83, writes in L'Innocente, an autobiography. The onslaught on the petit con (little git) is the revenge of a woman who has been scorned and disparaged by her son in public comments and writings.
Here's mommy:
Her face is mostly skull, isn't it?
Michel Houellebecq is a literary icon whose novels have been acclaimed by critics as the cruel illumination of a troubled era.
But France's most celebrated and controversial contemporary author could be pushed off his pinnacle following an astonishingly vitriolic attack from a critic with a unique insight into his oeuvre.
She is his mother - and she is threatening to knock his teeth out with her walking stick if he mentions her again in one of his works.
In a book of her own to be published next week, Lucie Ceccaldi depicts the cult writer as an untalented social climber whose ego is only matched by his dishonesty.
“What are these novels where nothing ever happens?” she says.
“This individual, who alas! came out of my tummy, is a liar, an impostor, a parasite and especially, especially, a little upstart ready to do anything for fortune and fame,” Mrs Ceccaldi, 83, writes in L'Innocente, an autobiography. The onslaught on the petit con (little git) is the revenge of a woman who has been scorned and disparaged by her son in public comments and writings.
Here's mommy:
Her face is mostly skull, isn't it?
While Mining Diamonds, They Find...Gold
The DeBeers diamond people have found a shipwreck in Namibia containing gold coins and ivory elephant tusks.
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- De Beers, the world's biggest undersea diamond miner, said its geologists in Namibia found the wreckage of an ancient sailing ship still laden with treasure, including six bronze cannons, thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins and more than 50 elephant tusks.
The wreckage was discovered in the area behind a sea wall used to push back the Atlantic Ocean in order to search for diamonds in Namibia's Sperrgebiet or ``Forbidden Zone.''
``If the experts' assessments are correct, the shipwreck could date back to the late 1400s or early 1500s, making it a discovery of global significance,'' Namdeb Diamond Corp., a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government, said in an e-mailed statement from the capital, Windhoek, today.
The site yielded a wealth of objects, including several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and the gold coins, which were minted in the late 1400s and early 1500s, according to the statement.
Buried treasure...
*sigh*
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- De Beers, the world's biggest undersea diamond miner, said its geologists in Namibia found the wreckage of an ancient sailing ship still laden with treasure, including six bronze cannons, thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins and more than 50 elephant tusks.
The wreckage was discovered in the area behind a sea wall used to push back the Atlantic Ocean in order to search for diamonds in Namibia's Sperrgebiet or ``Forbidden Zone.''
``If the experts' assessments are correct, the shipwreck could date back to the late 1400s or early 1500s, making it a discovery of global significance,'' Namdeb Diamond Corp., a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government, said in an e-mailed statement from the capital, Windhoek, today.
The site yielded a wealth of objects, including several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and the gold coins, which were minted in the late 1400s and early 1500s, according to the statement.
Buried treasure...
*sigh*
My Kind Of Girl
Australian swimmer Libby Lenton, in order to swim competitively in the Olympics, had to do the unthinkable: increase the size of her butt.
No, no butt shots in the link, damnit, but as a general rule, I heartily approve of big butts.
No, no butt shots in the link, damnit, but as a general rule, I heartily approve of big butts.
McKellen To Play Gandalf Again
Story.
Good. I wonder whether they'll be able to get Ian Holm to reprise as Bilbo Baggins? And jeez, what about all those dwarves?
Good. I wonder whether they'll be able to get Ian Holm to reprise as Bilbo Baggins? And jeez, what about all those dwarves?
Red And Blue...Blues?
David Brooks, in a fine NY Times op/ed, discusses the divergent halves of the Democrat party: Demography Is King.
Good passage: Some liberals believe income inequality drives everything. They wait for an uprising of economic populism. Other liberals divide the country morally, between the enlightened urbanites and the racist rednecks who will never vote for a black man.
Good passage: Some liberals believe income inequality drives everything. They wait for an uprising of economic populism. Other liberals divide the country morally, between the enlightened urbanites and the racist rednecks who will never vote for a black man.
Can't Keep A Good Flash Down
Barry Allen, the second Flash and the most popular of all of them, is back from the dead.
Which I'm happy about. The Flash was always my favorite of the DC superheroes, and he had a fun set of opponents, the Rogues.
Which I'm happy about. The Flash was always my favorite of the DC superheroes, and he had a fun set of opponents, the Rogues.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Google Earth Image Of The Day
The Reserve Fleet moored in the James River, Virginia. The ship at the bottom of the picture is labeled as the USS Guadalcanal (LPH-9), a helicopter carrier. I served on her sister ship, the USS Guam (LPH-6).
Bald Eagle Hatched At Norfolk Botanical Gardens
NORFOLK, Va., April 28 (UPI) -- A botanical garden in Norfolk, Va., has announced the hatching of a baby eagle in a nest at the facility.
A spokeswoman for the Norfolk Botanical Garden said the eaglet was "feeding and active" after it hatched Sunday and the baby bird's mother and father were keeping a close watch on their newborn, the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press reported Monday.
Dagnall said the garden's Web site offers visitors the chance to view streaming video of the baby bird at all times via the park's "Eagle Cam."
After I met my ex-wife-to-be in the Navy, we spent a lot of time at the Botanical Gardens. There usually weren't a lot of people there, and the gardens were big enough to get pretty good exercise walking around the park. We would spend a lot of time in the rose gardens, trying to determine which individual rose had the best fragrance.
Update: link to the Botanical Gardens website (and Eagle Cam) here. I checked it out, it's pretty neat.
A spokeswoman for the Norfolk Botanical Garden said the eaglet was "feeding and active" after it hatched Sunday and the baby bird's mother and father were keeping a close watch on their newborn, the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press reported Monday.
Dagnall said the garden's Web site offers visitors the chance to view streaming video of the baby bird at all times via the park's "Eagle Cam."
After I met my ex-wife-to-be in the Navy, we spent a lot of time at the Botanical Gardens. There usually weren't a lot of people there, and the gardens were big enough to get pretty good exercise walking around the park. We would spend a lot of time in the rose gardens, trying to determine which individual rose had the best fragrance.
Update: link to the Botanical Gardens website (and Eagle Cam) here. I checked it out, it's pretty neat.
Monday, April 28, 2008
GTMO Among World's Ten Most Notorious Jails?
According to the Times of London, it is.
Here's the list:
Black Beach, Equatorial Guinea
La Sabaneta prison, Venezuela
Bangkwang jail, Thailand
Camp Delta, Cuba
Diyarbakir prison, Turkey
Mendoza prison, Argentina
Nairobi prison, Kenya
Tadmor military prison, Syria
La Santé prison, France
Carandiru Penitentiary, Brazil
I'm surprised the bastards didn't throw Abu Ghraib in there, too. No prisons from China, North Korea or Russia. None from Castro's Cuba, either. I would have thought that the jails of Columbia would probably qualify, too. No jails from Zimbabwe? South Africa?
Here's the list:
Black Beach, Equatorial Guinea
La Sabaneta prison, Venezuela
Bangkwang jail, Thailand
Camp Delta, Cuba
Diyarbakir prison, Turkey
Mendoza prison, Argentina
Nairobi prison, Kenya
Tadmor military prison, Syria
La Santé prison, France
Carandiru Penitentiary, Brazil
I'm surprised the bastards didn't throw Abu Ghraib in there, too. No prisons from China, North Korea or Russia. None from Castro's Cuba, either. I would have thought that the jails of Columbia would probably qualify, too. No jails from Zimbabwe? South Africa?
Nature Moment
It's pouring down rain outside; much needed rain, that will help fill the local lakes and get this part of North Carolina off of water rationing and drought conditions.
In a tree outside, a red-shouldered hawk is stoically accepting the shower (s)he is receiving.
No, I don't have a camera, damnit. Soon, though.
In a tree outside, a red-shouldered hawk is stoically accepting the shower (s)he is receiving.
No, I don't have a camera, damnit. Soon, though.
World's Best Scotch Is...Japanese.
Yoichi 20-year-old single malt won in a blind taste test.
The Japanese walked off with the best blended Scotch award, too.
The Japanese walked off with the best blended Scotch award, too.
What Heroes Came Home To.
The barracks buildings that the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC, is expected to live in are in horrible condition.
Check the YouTube video shot by a soldier's father, who is righteously enraged over this. It's basically a repeat of the Walter Reed Army Hospital fiasco.
Check the YouTube video shot by a soldier's father, who is righteously enraged over this. It's basically a repeat of the Walter Reed Army Hospital fiasco.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Orangutan Fishes With Spear
A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish.
It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.
The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers' shops.
And you know where that inevitably leads:
So I think I'll run down to Wal-Mart and pick up some ammo.
It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.
The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers' shops.
And you know where that inevitably leads:
So I think I'll run down to Wal-Mart and pick up some ammo.
US Navy: Return of the 4th Fleet
Almost 60 years after closing shop, the Navy’s 4th Fleet, which oversaw the hunt for German subs in the South Atlantic, is coming back. Only this time, the prey is drug runners in the Caribbean.
The Navy announced April 24 the re-establishment of 4th Fleet, to be based at Naval Station Mayport, Fla. The command will operate as the naval component of U.S. Southern Command and will have a SEAL at the helm.
Rear Adm. Joseph Kernan, head of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., has been chosen to command the new fleet. Kernan will take control of 4th Fleet and the current Naval Forces Southern Command.
Effective July 1, the command will oversee maritime operations in Central and South American waters, similar to the command structure of 5th Fleet, which is also dual-hatted as Naval Forces Central Command, the naval component of U.S. Central Command. With the fleet’s creation, sailors can expect to spend more time in that part of the world, not only taking part in counternarcotics operations, but also humanitarian relief and goodwill tours.
The 4th Fleet was responsible for anti-submarine warfare in the Caribbean and Panama Canal zone in WWII.
This is the sort of periodic reorganization that you get used to in military life. Fundamentally it is meaningless, and a way for the Navy to justify its budget to Congress, or even ask for more money when the economy is booming.
If the Navy really wanted to make an improvement they'd reinstate Admiral Dan's Pandemoniacs and base them out of Puerto Rico again, and actually have them compete against the best of the Trinidad steel bands.
The Navy announced April 24 the re-establishment of 4th Fleet, to be based at Naval Station Mayport, Fla. The command will operate as the naval component of U.S. Southern Command and will have a SEAL at the helm.
Rear Adm. Joseph Kernan, head of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., has been chosen to command the new fleet. Kernan will take control of 4th Fleet and the current Naval Forces Southern Command.
Effective July 1, the command will oversee maritime operations in Central and South American waters, similar to the command structure of 5th Fleet, which is also dual-hatted as Naval Forces Central Command, the naval component of U.S. Central Command. With the fleet’s creation, sailors can expect to spend more time in that part of the world, not only taking part in counternarcotics operations, but also humanitarian relief and goodwill tours.
The 4th Fleet was responsible for anti-submarine warfare in the Caribbean and Panama Canal zone in WWII.
This is the sort of periodic reorganization that you get used to in military life. Fundamentally it is meaningless, and a way for the Navy to justify its budget to Congress, or even ask for more money when the economy is booming.
If the Navy really wanted to make an improvement they'd reinstate Admiral Dan's Pandemoniacs and base them out of Puerto Rico again, and actually have them compete against the best of the Trinidad steel bands.
BBC: Gun-Crazed USA Is...Heavenly
Despite the fact there are more than 200 million guns in circulation, there is a certain tranquility and civility about American life.
To many foreigners - and to some Americans - the tolerance of guns in everyday American life is simply inexplicable.
As a New York Times columnist put it recently:
"The nation is saturated with violence. Thousands upon thousands of murders are committed each year. There are more than 200 million guns in circulation."
Someone suggested a few days ago that the Democrats' presidential candidates might like to take up the issue of gun control.
Forget about it.
They were warned off - in colourful style - by a fellow Democrat, the Governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer.
"In Montana, we like our guns", he said.
"Most of us own two or three guns. 'Gun control' is hitting what you shoot at. So I'd be a little careful about blowing smoke up our skirts."
Democrats would like to win in the Mountain West this November. Enough said.
Brits arriving in New York, hoping to avoid being slaughtered on day one of their shopping mission to Manhattan are, by day two, beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. By day three they have had had the scales lifted from their eyes.
I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns.
"It seems so nice here," they quaver.
Well, it is!
Violent paradox
Ten or 20 years ago, it was a different story, but things have changed.
And this is Manhattan.
Wait till you get to London Texas, or Glasgow Montana, or Oxford Mississippi or Virgin Utah, for that matter, where every household is required by local ordinance to possess a gun.
Folks will have guns in all of these places and if you break into their homes they will probably kill you.
They will occasionally kill each other in anger or by mistake, but you never feel as unsafe as you can feel in south London.
It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream.
Peace and serenity
What surprises the British tourists is that, in areas of the US that look and feel like suburban Britain, there is simply less crime and much less violent crime.
Doors are left unlocked, public telephones unbroken.
One reason - perhaps the overriding reason - is that there is no public drunkenness in polite America, simply none.
I have never seen a group of drunk young people in the entire six years I have lived here. I travel a lot and not always to the better parts of town.
It is an odd fact that a nation we associate - quite properly - with violence is also so serene, so unscarred by petty crime, so innocent of brawling.
Virginia Tech had the headlines in the last few days and reminded us of the violence for which the US is well known.
But most American lives were as peaceful on this anniversary as they are every day.
h/t Instapundit
To many foreigners - and to some Americans - the tolerance of guns in everyday American life is simply inexplicable.
As a New York Times columnist put it recently:
"The nation is saturated with violence. Thousands upon thousands of murders are committed each year. There are more than 200 million guns in circulation."
Someone suggested a few days ago that the Democrats' presidential candidates might like to take up the issue of gun control.
Forget about it.
They were warned off - in colourful style - by a fellow Democrat, the Governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer.
"In Montana, we like our guns", he said.
"Most of us own two or three guns. 'Gun control' is hitting what you shoot at. So I'd be a little careful about blowing smoke up our skirts."
Democrats would like to win in the Mountain West this November. Enough said.
Brits arriving in New York, hoping to avoid being slaughtered on day one of their shopping mission to Manhattan are, by day two, beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. By day three they have had had the scales lifted from their eyes.
I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns.
"It seems so nice here," they quaver.
Well, it is!
Violent paradox
Ten or 20 years ago, it was a different story, but things have changed.
And this is Manhattan.
Wait till you get to London Texas, or Glasgow Montana, or Oxford Mississippi or Virgin Utah, for that matter, where every household is required by local ordinance to possess a gun.
Folks will have guns in all of these places and if you break into their homes they will probably kill you.
They will occasionally kill each other in anger or by mistake, but you never feel as unsafe as you can feel in south London.
It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream.
Peace and serenity
What surprises the British tourists is that, in areas of the US that look and feel like suburban Britain, there is simply less crime and much less violent crime.
Doors are left unlocked, public telephones unbroken.
One reason - perhaps the overriding reason - is that there is no public drunkenness in polite America, simply none.
I have never seen a group of drunk young people in the entire six years I have lived here. I travel a lot and not always to the better parts of town.
It is an odd fact that a nation we associate - quite properly - with violence is also so serene, so unscarred by petty crime, so innocent of brawling.
Virginia Tech had the headlines in the last few days and reminded us of the violence for which the US is well known.
But most American lives were as peaceful on this anniversary as they are every day.
h/t Instapundit
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Shipwreck Blog: Moonlight
The Moonlight, a Great Lakes schooner that sank in 1903 in a storm.
ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) — In her day, she was the archetype of the trim, speedy Great Lakes schooner.
Carrying a full set of canvas aloft, with cargos of grain and iron ore, she was a magnificent vision; widely regarded as the biggest, fastest and most beautiful of all the three-masted lakes schooners of the age.
She was the "Moonlight," a wooden ship in an era of iron men and near-mythic triumph and tragedy on the Great lakes. She is renowned in sea-shanties that recall her grace, beauty and speed, her epic sailing duels with other schooners, racing the wind for home, and she is sadly remembered for her ignominious end, foundering in a fall gale near the Apostle Islands in September of 1903.
Fast-forward 102 years.
On July 30, 2004, shipwreck hunter Jerry Eliason is conducting a systematic searching for the legendary bulk freighter Marquette, which had sunk in the area of Michigan Island.
Instead, in some 240 feet of water, he discovered something he hadn't even been looking for: the broken remains of the once majestic Moonlight.
Later that year, Bob Olson, Rick Peters and Ken Merryman, divers for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, found the vessel to be an astonishing archaeological treasure trove, amazingly intact after more than a century in the icy, preserving cold waters of Lake Superior. There the divers found the ship's china, lanterns, anchors and the original steering wheel — all items that are commonly quickly looted from the sunken remains of vessels in shallower, more accessible waters.
"One of the best stories about this ship is how well she is preserved," said Tamara Thomsen of the Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program of the Wisconsin Historical Society, which collaborated with the Shipwreck Preservation Society to get the Moonlight listed on the Wisconsin Register of Historic Places as a preliminary to inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
The State Historic Preservation Review Board of the Wisconsin Historical Society met last week and voted to include the Moonlight shipwreck on the state registry.
Ships that sink in cold, oxygen-depleted water tend to fare better than other shipwrecks. I remember watching a special on a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, and that ship (can't recall the name) was in a truly remarkably state of preservation.
ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) — In her day, she was the archetype of the trim, speedy Great Lakes schooner.
Carrying a full set of canvas aloft, with cargos of grain and iron ore, she was a magnificent vision; widely regarded as the biggest, fastest and most beautiful of all the three-masted lakes schooners of the age.
She was the "Moonlight," a wooden ship in an era of iron men and near-mythic triumph and tragedy on the Great lakes. She is renowned in sea-shanties that recall her grace, beauty and speed, her epic sailing duels with other schooners, racing the wind for home, and she is sadly remembered for her ignominious end, foundering in a fall gale near the Apostle Islands in September of 1903.
Fast-forward 102 years.
On July 30, 2004, shipwreck hunter Jerry Eliason is conducting a systematic searching for the legendary bulk freighter Marquette, which had sunk in the area of Michigan Island.
Instead, in some 240 feet of water, he discovered something he hadn't even been looking for: the broken remains of the once majestic Moonlight.
Later that year, Bob Olson, Rick Peters and Ken Merryman, divers for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, found the vessel to be an astonishing archaeological treasure trove, amazingly intact after more than a century in the icy, preserving cold waters of Lake Superior. There the divers found the ship's china, lanterns, anchors and the original steering wheel — all items that are commonly quickly looted from the sunken remains of vessels in shallower, more accessible waters.
"One of the best stories about this ship is how well she is preserved," said Tamara Thomsen of the Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program of the Wisconsin Historical Society, which collaborated with the Shipwreck Preservation Society to get the Moonlight listed on the Wisconsin Register of Historic Places as a preliminary to inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
The State Historic Preservation Review Board of the Wisconsin Historical Society met last week and voted to include the Moonlight shipwreck on the state registry.
Ships that sink in cold, oxygen-depleted water tend to fare better than other shipwrecks. I remember watching a special on a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, and that ship (can't recall the name) was in a truly remarkably state of preservation.
Friday, April 25, 2008
How Often Do You Read A Narwhal Story?
And I'm sure there's more than a few of you out there that don't even know what a narwhal is.
Here's some:
It's why you don't hear much about them. Whalers didn't chase them much, since the males had a nasty habit of leaping out of the water and impaling the harpooners.
Well, they could have.
Ok, I lied. They don't do that. It's still a good story, though.
Click on the link for more info. Apparently the narwhals are in danger from global warming. Truthfully, they haven't been studied nearly enough, being secretive and living in the inaccessible Arctic.
Here's some:
It's why you don't hear much about them. Whalers didn't chase them much, since the males had a nasty habit of leaping out of the water and impaling the harpooners.
Well, they could have.
Ok, I lied. They don't do that. It's still a good story, though.
Click on the link for more info. Apparently the narwhals are in danger from global warming. Truthfully, they haven't been studied nearly enough, being secretive and living in the inaccessible Arctic.
An Excellent Grasp Of The Obvious.
Landing an AV8B Harrier on a US Navy ship takes over four years of specialized training:
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — Landing an AV-8B Harrier on the cramped deck of a Navy ship that is pitching and rolling on the ocean takes practice.
A lot of it.
According to Capt. Scott Buerstatte, a pilot who participated in the training, it’s easy to tell if a landing has gone wrong.
When a pilot is landing a Harrier vertically, he shouldn’t see the landing area.
“If you can see it, then you’ve missed it on landing,” Buerstatte explained.
Because of the constant up-and-down motion of a ship, pilots are trained to look at the horizon to ensure their decent is level to the ship, he said.
As for the training at Kadena, Buerstatte said it’s better to miss the practice pad on the flight line and still land on concrete than it would be to miss on the ship and land in the ocean.
See? He has his head screwed on straight.
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — Landing an AV-8B Harrier on the cramped deck of a Navy ship that is pitching and rolling on the ocean takes practice.
A lot of it.
According to Capt. Scott Buerstatte, a pilot who participated in the training, it’s easy to tell if a landing has gone wrong.
When a pilot is landing a Harrier vertically, he shouldn’t see the landing area.
“If you can see it, then you’ve missed it on landing,” Buerstatte explained.
Because of the constant up-and-down motion of a ship, pilots are trained to look at the horizon to ensure their decent is level to the ship, he said.
As for the training at Kadena, Buerstatte said it’s better to miss the practice pad on the flight line and still land on concrete than it would be to miss on the ship and land in the ocean.
See? He has his head screwed on straight.
Last Of The Pinball Tycoons
MELROSE PARK, Ill. — Being inside a pinball machine factory sounds exactly as you think it would. Across a 40,000-square-foot warehouse here, a cheery cacophony of flippers flip, bells ding, bumpers bump and balls click in an endless, echoing loop. The quarter never runs out.
But this place, Stern Pinball Inc., is the last of its kind in the world. A range of companies once mass produced pinball machines, especially in the Chicago area, the one-time capital of the business. Now there is only Stern. And even the dinging and flipping here has slowed: Stern, which used to crank out 27,000 pinball machines each year, is down to around 10,000.
It's worth reading the whole thing. I grew up with pinball; when I first started, a single game was a dime, and you could get three games for a quarter. I watched as the pinball manufacturers did things that pissed me off, such as changing from short, stubby flippers to longer flippers that were mushy, and adding zeroes to all of the scoring widgets so that it took millions of points to score a free game. Stupidity.
Ideally, a machine for me would work on the 1 game/dime 3 games/quarter principle, and each game would consist of 5 balls. The scoring widgets would be set to 2-and 3-digit numbers, so you could calculate at a glance how many points you'd need for a free game. The board would be honest, with a fair chance to keep the ball in play, without a lot of clutter in the center area.
But this place, Stern Pinball Inc., is the last of its kind in the world. A range of companies once mass produced pinball machines, especially in the Chicago area, the one-time capital of the business. Now there is only Stern. And even the dinging and flipping here has slowed: Stern, which used to crank out 27,000 pinball machines each year, is down to around 10,000.
It's worth reading the whole thing. I grew up with pinball; when I first started, a single game was a dime, and you could get three games for a quarter. I watched as the pinball manufacturers did things that pissed me off, such as changing from short, stubby flippers to longer flippers that were mushy, and adding zeroes to all of the scoring widgets so that it took millions of points to score a free game. Stupidity.
Ideally, a machine for me would work on the 1 game/dime 3 games/quarter principle, and each game would consist of 5 balls. The scoring widgets would be set to 2-and 3-digit numbers, so you could calculate at a glance how many points you'd need for a free game. The board would be honest, with a fair chance to keep the ball in play, without a lot of clutter in the center area.
Army Medics Treat Civilians In Sadr City
BAGHDAD — Shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday, there was a desperate wail at the back gate of B Company’s compound in Sadr City. A woman had been badly burned and her relatives were begging for help.
With little in the way of emergency services and travel hampered by blocked streets, nightly curfews and sporadic firefights, a steady trickle of Iraqis has been turning to the American soldiers here for medical care.
Good story, especially for the New York Times. Maybe, finally, they're deciding to be on the side of their own country when reporting.
With little in the way of emergency services and travel hampered by blocked streets, nightly curfews and sporadic firefights, a steady trickle of Iraqis has been turning to the American soldiers here for medical care.
Good story, especially for the New York Times. Maybe, finally, they're deciding to be on the side of their own country when reporting.
Girls! Want To Retire Early?
Get a career as a whore!
When most schoolgirls were playing with their Barbie dolls, Amanda Brooks was dreaming of growing up to be a prostitute.
"When I was in fourth grade, it sounded like a good idea for me. To me it sounded like a really interesting way to make a living and not having to follow other peoples' rules," she said by telephone from Texas where she lives.
Retired at 29 with a steady boyfriend after two-and-a-half years working as an escort, she has published the Internet Escort's Handbook series for aspiring call girls everywhere.
The series so far contains two books. The first book, called "The Foundation" covers "basic mental, emotional and physical considerations in escort work". The second, "Advertizing and Marketing," gives tips on how to set up a Web site and advertize online."When I began working I had a lot of questions and there wasn't really any way to find out answers. I did what they always tell authors to do: I wrote the books that I wished I had been able to read," she said.
That first sentence ought to be taught in journalism school as a perfect example of a hook lede. Who's not going to read the rest of that story?
When most schoolgirls were playing with their Barbie dolls, Amanda Brooks was dreaming of growing up to be a prostitute.
"When I was in fourth grade, it sounded like a good idea for me. To me it sounded like a really interesting way to make a living and not having to follow other peoples' rules," she said by telephone from Texas where she lives.
Retired at 29 with a steady boyfriend after two-and-a-half years working as an escort, she has published the Internet Escort's Handbook series for aspiring call girls everywhere.
The series so far contains two books. The first book, called "The Foundation" covers "basic mental, emotional and physical considerations in escort work". The second, "Advertizing and Marketing," gives tips on how to set up a Web site and advertize online."When I began working I had a lot of questions and there wasn't really any way to find out answers. I did what they always tell authors to do: I wrote the books that I wished I had been able to read," she said.
That first sentence ought to be taught in journalism school as a perfect example of a hook lede. Who's not going to read the rest of that story?
Amy Winehouse Arrested
Story.
Good, maybe they'll do a psych evaluation and commit her for her own good, she's going to die if she doesn't get off the drugs.
Two pics:
And:
Good, maybe they'll do a psych evaluation and commit her for her own good, she's going to die if she doesn't get off the drugs.
Two pics:
And:
An Immigration Metaphor
Apparently the squirrel immigration plan in the UK isn't going too well.
"Mutant Black Squirrels" from Russia are the latest to push in, upsetting the plans of the American Grey Squirrels, who thought that they had the native British Red Squirrels nearly subjugated:
Mutant 'testosterone-fuelled' Russian black squirrels in Cambridgeshire are giving their grey cousins a taste of their own medicine and driving them from their homes.
A Cambridge academic believes the unusual black squirrel now makes up half of the total squirrel population in the area from which they have originated.
The upstarts are the genetic mutations of grey squirrels. And although nuts may be their food of choice there have been reports of their hungry Russian counterparts savaging stray dogs.
It has also been suggested black squirrels could be spreading as they are more aggressive than greys due to higher levels of testosterone, but this has not yet been proved
The first black squirrels were spotted around Letchworth Garden City, near Royston, home to the UK's largest colony.
Since then, they have gradually migrated northwards and eastwards as far as Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. They are also common in some parts of North America.
Three years ago, a pack of Russian black squirrels bit to death a stray dog in a Russian park. They were said to have scampered off at the sight of humans, some carrying pieces of flesh.
Ok, I call bullshit on that last sentence.
The protagonists, left to right: British, American and Russian Mutant squirrels.
"Mutant Black Squirrels" from Russia are the latest to push in, upsetting the plans of the American Grey Squirrels, who thought that they had the native British Red Squirrels nearly subjugated:
Mutant 'testosterone-fuelled' Russian black squirrels in Cambridgeshire are giving their grey cousins a taste of their own medicine and driving them from their homes.
A Cambridge academic believes the unusual black squirrel now makes up half of the total squirrel population in the area from which they have originated.
The upstarts are the genetic mutations of grey squirrels. And although nuts may be their food of choice there have been reports of their hungry Russian counterparts savaging stray dogs.
It has also been suggested black squirrels could be spreading as they are more aggressive than greys due to higher levels of testosterone, but this has not yet been proved
The first black squirrels were spotted around Letchworth Garden City, near Royston, home to the UK's largest colony.
Since then, they have gradually migrated northwards and eastwards as far as Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. They are also common in some parts of North America.
Three years ago, a pack of Russian black squirrels bit to death a stray dog in a Russian park. They were said to have scampered off at the sight of humans, some carrying pieces of flesh.
Ok, I call bullshit on that last sentence.
The protagonists, left to right: British, American and Russian Mutant squirrels.
Great Article On Christopher Hitchens
It's in Prospect.
Be sure to follow the second link to out-takes from the article.
Alexander Linklater spent three days with Hitchens, and a lot of information about that extraordinary man was gathered. One hilarious passage concerned Hitchens' homoerotic infatuation with Martin Amis; I recommend reading it for yourself, so you can enjoy it as told by Hitchens himself.
Be sure to follow the second link to out-takes from the article.
Alexander Linklater spent three days with Hitchens, and a lot of information about that extraordinary man was gathered. One hilarious passage concerned Hitchens' homoerotic infatuation with Martin Amis; I recommend reading it for yourself, so you can enjoy it as told by Hitchens himself.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Shhh. Don't Anger Them.
The new Maoist government is unhappy with the Gurkhas.
KATHMANDU, April 24 (Reuters) - For nearly two centuries, Nepal's valiant Gurkha soldiers have battled their foes with guns and their lethal kukri knives, which tradition demands must draw blood every time it is unsheathed.
But in a narrow lane off Nepal's parliament complex, they prepare for a battle of a different kind -- not with weapons but printing machines and fliers. Their enemy: a life-altering new diktat from Nepal's rulers-elect, the Maoists.
The Maoists, who won a surprise election this month after a decade of civil war, want to stop a 200-year-old tradition of Gurkhas enrolling in the British and Indian armies, calling the practice humiliating and mercenary.
It is a charge the Gurkhas do not deny, but Nepal's crushing poverty and unemployment have pushed the valiant warrior tribe into a moral dilemma of choosing between dignity and livelihood.
"Nothing stirs a Gurkha more than his honour dared, but here we are in a fix," Mahendra Lal Rai, the general secretary of the largest former Gurkha soldiers group, told Reuters.
One of the Gurhkas was heard to mutter, I will give up my Kukri when you pry it from my cold, dead hand.
KATHMANDU, April 24 (Reuters) - For nearly two centuries, Nepal's valiant Gurkha soldiers have battled their foes with guns and their lethal kukri knives, which tradition demands must draw blood every time it is unsheathed.
But in a narrow lane off Nepal's parliament complex, they prepare for a battle of a different kind -- not with weapons but printing machines and fliers. Their enemy: a life-altering new diktat from Nepal's rulers-elect, the Maoists.
The Maoists, who won a surprise election this month after a decade of civil war, want to stop a 200-year-old tradition of Gurkhas enrolling in the British and Indian armies, calling the practice humiliating and mercenary.
It is a charge the Gurkhas do not deny, but Nepal's crushing poverty and unemployment have pushed the valiant warrior tribe into a moral dilemma of choosing between dignity and livelihood.
"Nothing stirs a Gurkha more than his honour dared, but here we are in a fix," Mahendra Lal Rai, the general secretary of the largest former Gurkha soldiers group, told Reuters.
One of the Gurhkas was heard to mutter, I will give up my Kukri when you pry it from my cold, dead hand.
Gwyneth Paltrow's Shoe Fetish
I can't imagine that they are particularly comfortable, but Gawwwwd, are they hot!
Check these out:
More pics at the link.
Check these out:
More pics at the link.
US Stopped Doing This In WWII.
A UK mother has her husband and three sons all serving in Iraq.
The USA doesn't do this anymore, because of The Sullivan Brothers.
The USA doesn't do this anymore, because of The Sullivan Brothers.
Even The NY Times Calls BS On It.
Roger Cohen, in an op-ed, calls bullshit on the ethanol-fueled food shortage:
"The supposed crimes of biofuels are manifold. They’re behind soaring global commodity prices, the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, increased rather than diminished greenhouse gases, food riots in Haiti, Indonesian deforestation and, no doubt, your mother-in-law’s toothache.
Most of this, to borrow a farm image, is hogwash and bilge."
I'm confused; are hogwash and bilge biofuels?
"The supposed crimes of biofuels are manifold. They’re behind soaring global commodity prices, the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, increased rather than diminished greenhouse gases, food riots in Haiti, Indonesian deforestation and, no doubt, your mother-in-law’s toothache.
Most of this, to borrow a farm image, is hogwash and bilge."
I'm confused; are hogwash and bilge biofuels?
Putin The Patriarch
Christopher Hitchens mentioned this in an interview with Hugh Hewitt a while ago: Vladimir Putin for some strange reason is intent on making the Russian Orthodox faith dominant in Russian life.
It's a good article. Look at the accompanying photo, when I first saw it I thought it was a painting by Ilya Repin:
Repin:
It's a good article. Look at the accompanying photo, when I first saw it I thought it was a painting by Ilya Repin:
Repin:
Irony of the Day
Remember the Buddha statues at Bamiyan that the Taliban destroyed with dynamite? Well, because of the destruction and the overthrow of the Taliban, researchers at the site have discovered the world's oldest oil paintings.
Oil paintings have been found in caves behind the two ancient colossal Buddha statues destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, suggesting that Asians — not Europeans — were the first to invent oil painting.
Many people worldwide were in shock when the Taliban destroyed the Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan.
Behind those statues are caves decorated with paintings from the fifth to ninth centuries.
New experiments performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) show that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique emerged in Europe.
Oil paintings have been found in caves behind the two ancient colossal Buddha statues destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, suggesting that Asians — not Europeans — were the first to invent oil painting.
Many people worldwide were in shock when the Taliban destroyed the Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan.
Behind those statues are caves decorated with paintings from the fifth to ninth centuries.
New experiments performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) show that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique emerged in Europe.
Ukrainian Action Figure: Hitler!
Move over, Barbie and GI Joe. Der Fuehrer is in the house.
The pics with the story are great. Hitler has a spare happy head:
And to go along with the Happy Hitler Head, "He has glasses that are round, in the manner of pacifist Jon Lennon".
See for yourself:
Maybe Tony Zirkle will want one.
The pics with the story are great. Hitler has a spare happy head:
And to go along with the Happy Hitler Head, "He has glasses that are round, in the manner of pacifist Jon Lennon".
See for yourself:
Maybe Tony Zirkle will want one.
The Tell-Tale...Tampon?
I don't think this is what Poe had in mind.
TOKYO (AFP) - The monthly discomfort many women see as a curse could pay off someday as Japanese researchers say menstrual blood can be used to repair heart damage.
Scientists obtained menstrual blood from nine women and cultivated it for about a month, focusing on a kind of cell that can act like stem cells.
Some 20 percent of the cells began beating spontaneously about three days after being put together in vitro with cells from the hearts of rats. The cells from menstrual blood eventually formed sheet-like heart-muscle tissue.
Combine this Japanese technology with Japanese film-making, and you could end up with a 100' tall living tampon that destroys Tokyo...
This story will be the butt of a thousand jokes in the next week, I'll bet.
TOKYO (AFP) - The monthly discomfort many women see as a curse could pay off someday as Japanese researchers say menstrual blood can be used to repair heart damage.
Scientists obtained menstrual blood from nine women and cultivated it for about a month, focusing on a kind of cell that can act like stem cells.
Some 20 percent of the cells began beating spontaneously about three days after being put together in vitro with cells from the hearts of rats. The cells from menstrual blood eventually formed sheet-like heart-muscle tissue.
Combine this Japanese technology with Japanese film-making, and you could end up with a 100' tall living tampon that destroys Tokyo...
This story will be the butt of a thousand jokes in the next week, I'll bet.
DIA: Training Spies With Video Games.
In the wake of the intelligence bungles that propelled the United States into the Iraq war, it's no secret that the nation's spies have been working to improve the quality of their analysis. Now the top U.S. military intelligence agency has come up with a new tool for teaching recruits critical thinking skills: videogames.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has just taken delivery of three PC-based games, developed by simulation studio Visual Purple under a $2.6 million contract between the DIA and defense contractor Concurrent Technologies. The goal is to quickly train the next generation of spies to analyze complex issues like Islamic fundamentalism.
Given a choice between a droning classroom lecture or a videogame, the best method for teaching Generation Y was obvious. "It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach," says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA's Joint Military Intelligence Training Center.
Worth the reading. But doesn't it defeat the purpose of training if our training methods, and even the training materials, are publicly available?
Just askin'.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has just taken delivery of three PC-based games, developed by simulation studio Visual Purple under a $2.6 million contract between the DIA and defense contractor Concurrent Technologies. The goal is to quickly train the next generation of spies to analyze complex issues like Islamic fundamentalism.
Given a choice between a droning classroom lecture or a videogame, the best method for teaching Generation Y was obvious. "It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach," says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA's Joint Military Intelligence Training Center.
Worth the reading. But doesn't it defeat the purpose of training if our training methods, and even the training materials, are publicly available?
Just askin'.
Bimbos In Burqas
Or, How To Spot A Persian Prostitute.
Tehran's former police chief Reza Zarei attempted suicide in prison yesterday, a month after being arrested for consorting with six naked women in a brothel. In the aftermath of the scandal, the Times, the Associated Press, and the BBC all reported that prostitutes are becoming more visible on Iranian streets. Given the Islamic dress code, how do Persian prostitutes signal their trade?
Location, location, location. In the 1970s, Bostonians looking for a proverbial good time went to the "Combat Zone" and New Yorkers flocked to 42nd Street; in contemporary Iran, the holy city of Qom is known (unofficially) as a place of "both pilgrimage and pleasure." There, prostitutes wearing veils and even chadors mill about temples or sit together in public courtyards where men can inspect them. Sometimes a male go-between offers "introductions," at which point the prostitutes pull aside their headgear so the potential client can get a glimpse, but the whole process is fairly subtle. For an outsider, it's difficult to pick a street girl out of a crowd.
And it's even possible to get away with this legally, thanks to the loophole's in Sharia, and with the connivance of an Imam:
The penalties for prostitution are severe—ranging from whipping to execution. But there's a loophole in Islamic law called sigheh, or temporary marriage. According to Shiite interpretation, a man and a woman may enter an impermanent partnership with a preset expiration date. There's no legally required minimum duration (a day, a week, anything goes) and no need for official witnesses—unless the woman is a virgin, in which case she needs the consent of her legal guardian. An Iranian who's wary of arrest can simply escort a prostitute to a registry, obtain a temporary contract from a Muslim cleric, and then legally satisfy his sexual needs.
Which makes the Imam a pimp, after a fashion?
Tehran's former police chief Reza Zarei attempted suicide in prison yesterday, a month after being arrested for consorting with six naked women in a brothel. In the aftermath of the scandal, the Times, the Associated Press, and the BBC all reported that prostitutes are becoming more visible on Iranian streets. Given the Islamic dress code, how do Persian prostitutes signal their trade?
Location, location, location. In the 1970s, Bostonians looking for a proverbial good time went to the "Combat Zone" and New Yorkers flocked to 42nd Street; in contemporary Iran, the holy city of Qom is known (unofficially) as a place of "both pilgrimage and pleasure." There, prostitutes wearing veils and even chadors mill about temples or sit together in public courtyards where men can inspect them. Sometimes a male go-between offers "introductions," at which point the prostitutes pull aside their headgear so the potential client can get a glimpse, but the whole process is fairly subtle. For an outsider, it's difficult to pick a street girl out of a crowd.
And it's even possible to get away with this legally, thanks to the loophole's in Sharia, and with the connivance of an Imam:
The penalties for prostitution are severe—ranging from whipping to execution. But there's a loophole in Islamic law called sigheh, or temporary marriage. According to Shiite interpretation, a man and a woman may enter an impermanent partnership with a preset expiration date. There's no legally required minimum duration (a day, a week, anything goes) and no need for official witnesses—unless the woman is a virgin, in which case she needs the consent of her legal guardian. An Iranian who's wary of arrest can simply escort a prostitute to a registry, obtain a temporary contract from a Muslim cleric, and then legally satisfy his sexual needs.
Which makes the Imam a pimp, after a fashion?
Emergency At Work
The one a.m. hour this morning was busy, one of the guests called down to say that her husband was unresponsive and having trouble breathing, I called 911. Police arrived in two minutes, paramedics 5 minutes later. It took a while to stabilize the husband for transport, I'd hazard he had a heart attack or possibly a stroke; none of the responders would tell me. They transported the husband at just past 1:30, and everyone was gone again by 1:45.
Update, 3:30 a.m. The wife just returned to the hotel: the husband died. Massive heart attack, she says.
Update, 3:30 a.m. The wife just returned to the hotel: the husband died. Massive heart attack, she says.
Follow-Up
Follow-up to my blog here regarding the "empty holster protest" at University of North Carolina (Charlotte).
Link to the finished Charlotte Observer story is here.
It's fairly even-handed. News story rather than opinion column. An amusing line is at the end:
Solesby and school officials worked out guidelines for the protest. Participants had to give their teachers a heads-up at the start of class if they wore a holster.
The holster is guilty by association, I guess.
Update: Welcome, Instapundit readers!
Link to the finished Charlotte Observer story is here.
It's fairly even-handed. News story rather than opinion column. An amusing line is at the end:
Solesby and school officials worked out guidelines for the protest. Participants had to give their teachers a heads-up at the start of class if they wore a holster.
The holster is guilty by association, I guess.
Update: Welcome, Instapundit readers!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Sometimes You Want To Blog...
...other times you just want to watch free Viv Thomas video clips.
Sorry for the light posting.
Sorry for the light posting.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Two US Navy Ships Fail Readiness Standards.
Most of the missiles couldn’t be fired, and neither could any of the big guns. The Aegis radars key to the ships’ fighting abilities didn’t work right.
The flight decks were inoperable.
Most of the lifesaving gear failed inspection.
Corrosion was rampant, and lube oil leaked all over.
The verdict: “unfit for sustained combat operations.”
Holy crap, what's going on with the Navy? When I served back in the 80's there was a system called PMS, Preventive Maintenance System, which required that each maintenance job on the ship be logged at regular intervals, and the work inspected by supervisors and signed off, also. Apparently if this system is still in place (and the story indicates that it is), it's being viewed as simply paperwork to be filled out, rather than work to be done.
The flight decks were inoperable.
Most of the lifesaving gear failed inspection.
Corrosion was rampant, and lube oil leaked all over.
The verdict: “unfit for sustained combat operations.”
Holy crap, what's going on with the Navy? When I served back in the 80's there was a system called PMS, Preventive Maintenance System, which required that each maintenance job on the ship be logged at regular intervals, and the work inspected by supervisors and signed off, also. Apparently if this system is still in place (and the story indicates that it is), it's being viewed as simply paperwork to be filled out, rather than work to be done.
Charlotte Observer Soliciting Story Assistance
It's regarding the "empty holster" protest being waged on college campuses this week:
If you're a college student involved in the national Students for Concealed Carry on Campus empty holster protest this week, we want to hear from you. We'd also like to hear from members of a local college community with opinions about guns on campus. If you're willing to be interviewed for a story in tomorrow's Observer, send a e-mail to rsutherland@charlotteobserver.com.
Story link here.
We'll see what sort of story they write about this. The Observer is reliably leftist, and never met a gun control measure it didn't support.
If you're a college student involved in the national Students for Concealed Carry on Campus empty holster protest this week, we want to hear from you. We'd also like to hear from members of a local college community with opinions about guns on campus. If you're willing to be interviewed for a story in tomorrow's Observer, send a e-mail to rsutherland@charlotteobserver.com.
Story link here.
We'll see what sort of story they write about this. The Observer is reliably leftist, and never met a gun control measure it didn't support.
"Chemical Ali" Hussein Suffers Heart Attack
He's under sentence of death, too.
So they're going to nurse him back to health so they can hang him?
Weird world.
So they're going to nurse him back to health so they can hang him?
Weird world.
Three Years In Prison...
...for failing to declare a $25 box of rifle cartridges at Customs in Russia?
WTF? The guy is a 58-year-old preacher. They can't think he's a CIA spy, can they?
I'm baffled.
WTF? The guy is a 58-year-old preacher. They can't think he's a CIA spy, can they?
I'm baffled.
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