Saturday, August 26, 2006

[men and women] 6 reasons not to be a feminist - a woman speaks out

My fragmented profession brings me into contact [last count] with 125 ladies and 8 gentlemen per working week and those are the types of odds which keep me over here.

Let me set out my stall. In me you’ll find a door opener, a flower bringer, an impulsive present giver and the physical biz is very nice as well. In short, I like women, [as distinct from loving them]. And the more intelligent, the more accomplished, the better.

What I can’t handle, not at all, are special interest groups. I’ll not speak of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hare Krishnas and political movements but I shall speak and vehemently so, of the Feministi and give these reasons why, when you see one approaching, you should hide until she’s gone:

1. Men and women were designed for one another. Does it have to be spelled out - any man who ever stayed more than one night with his woman knows that. So when you read such pap as ‘a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle’, once we’ve smiled at the wit, the very next gesture must be to shake the head and to sigh sadly for the woman who uttered it.

Full text here.

[blog] fixations

Interesting how writers often get locked into a topic which they keep returning to over and over, providing more and more information until they become seen as authorities on the topic. Some have fixations about Noam Chomsky, some about Petron Corp, some about the Saudis, some about Hezbollah.

I'm currently quite hot under the collar about Pluto.

Very difficult to find an unbiased writer. Is there such an animal, politically and socially eclectic, a sort of cultural tourist? I ask only for information.

[world round-up] news in three or less paragraphs

Today: Iran, USA [3], UK, Switzerland, France, Japan, Pakistan

Iran Aljazeera.net reports that the Iranian president has inaugurated a new phase in the Arak heavy-water reactor project, part of Iran's atomic programme which the West fears is aimed at producing bombs.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the project and toured the site at Khondab, which is near Arak, 190km southwest of the capital Tehran. The plant's plutonium by-product could be used to make atomic warheads.

USA A tornado touched down in east Massapequa early Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed. The F-0 tornado knocked out power, uprooted trees and smashed cars, but no injuries were reported.

Long Island Rail Road trains were delayed for some time because trees fell across the tracks and the twister touched down as severe thunderstorms swept through the Tri-State area, flooding roads and causing transit delays.

Heavy downpours caused residential roads to flood in areas of Long Island. The hardest-hit areas were Gilmore and Marsalis streets as well as Hillside and Liberty streets.

...continues with the UK here.

Friday, August 25, 2006

[the coming oil disaster] petron is doing everything possible

I’m just reading the latest Underwater Times article about the Solar 1, still lying on the seabed, still rusting, still with 450 000 gallons of oil ready to spill. Just skimming down looking for Petron’s plan to raise the tanker and prevent the ecological disaster:

"For us, it's a moral responsibility to help the people clean up the oil spill," said Peter Paul Shotwell, Petron's supply operations and planning manager.

Shotwell said a team from a Japanese firm, Fukuda Salvage and Marine Works, is due to arrive in Guimaras on Saturday or Sunday to retrieve the sunken ship, motor tanker Solar I. He said the team has already left Japan.

Shotwell said the firm will be bringing in a vessel, Shinsei Maru, which is equipped with a remote operated vehicle that can search the seabed down to 2,000 meters and take photos to determine the ship's condition underwater.

That’s a start.

"That's part of our commitment," said Shotwell, referring to the cleanup and subsequent rehabilitation of areas that have been affected. "Petron is coordinating with Siliman University (SU), University of the Visayas (UV), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and they are giving us some help" in the development of a long-term rehabilitation plan. He hoped that the cleanup would be finished in 45 days."

Petron officials are "to provide protective measures to prevent the oil spill from reaching the other shorelines that are threatened.

Yes, fine but isn't the tanker the main priority now?

[presidential election looms] vive la nouvelle france!

Good article from The Age, abridged here:

What is France’s place in the world? Can it keep its character and difference, or will it be overwhelmed by globalisation?

President Jacques Chirac's decision on Thursday to commit 2000 troops to the Lebanon peacekeeping force was also about national identity: France's standing on the world stage.

Last year's riots in poor suburbs, the failure to win the 2012 Olympics, France's catastrophic loss of primacy within the European Union after its voters rejected the European Constitution in a referendum in May 2005, the end of labour market reform and the presidential hopes of Dominique de Villepin] have not been good for French pride.

As people return to work after the long summer break, the country enters the last nine months before the presidential election in May. Some commentators say the nation's future hangs on the result.

Full text here.

[russia] putin was right to imprison khodorkovsky

You could be forgiven for looking at the smartly attired, well groomed Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky and thinking butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. In fact, there is ample evidence that he had plans to establish a parliamentary republic in Russia and who could possibly be the leader of that republic?

President Putin accused Khodorkovsky of accumulating enormous amounts of oil reserves and yet not contributing to the state, through the vehicle of taxation. Of course this was par for the course with such oligarchs, as long as they were onside with the administration.

In other words - onside with the stable governance of Russia. Because, whatever your personal opinion, Putin and the Duma are the state. But Mikhail Borisovich was a driven man. Or rather, he’d had the sniff of power and threatened to take Russia back to the lawlessness of Berezovsky and Co.

[casino royale] daniel craig to do just three films as james bond

Daniel Craig has not had a smooth ride. He’s been criticized and there’s even a website or two against his choice as Bond.

As a keen fan, naturally I have many pics both of him and of Eva Green and I can say, without reservation, that Craig’s no sissy and that this movie might just take fans by surprise.

Mi6 reports:

The Daily Mirror (UK) are reporting that James Bond star Daniel Craig plans to spend his pay packet from the new 007 blockbuster buying paintings. The actor, who was criticised for wearing a life jacket when he was unveiled as Bond, is reportedly pocketing £1.5 million for Casino Royale.

Art-lover Craig, 38, confessed he couldn't wait to snap up some rare pictures when he cashes in on Bond's global fame. He said: "I'd love to get into buying art, though I haven't started making money yet."

But the craggy-faced blonde actor has not proved a popular choice as 007 in the latest £60 million film due out in November. Angry fans set up a website which asked: "Is the new Bond a sissy?" Craig has revealed how he conquered a fear of heights during filming but was forced to use stunt doubles. Despite his new-found worldwide fame, Craig also hinted he will walk away from 007 after another two movies.

Thanks to `Grunther` for the alert.

[canada] love women – hate the feministi


Several pro-Conservative Internet blogs have signed onto a campaign to eliminate Status of Women Canada, a Trudeau-era federal agency that promotes women's equality and advancement.

The campaign was kickstarted by REAL Women of Canada, one of Canada's most vocal organizations of social conservatives. It has long urged the federal government to axe Status of Women — but this time its message is being widely discussed and supported among some in the Conservative Internet community.

“Like typical radical feminists, they have decided that they speak for all women, and they only consult those groups and women that agree with their agenda,” says an entry on the Big Blue Wave blog from Suzanne, who does not give her last name.

“So it's a bunch of radical feminist bureaucrats consulting radical feminists to hear what they want to hear to promote more radical feminism on my dime.”

[iceland] vast increase in social security number applications

From the land where the headline IS the story, comes this top story today [and there is absolutely no irony here]:

Staff of the National Registry of Iceland have recently been inundated with new applications for Icelandic social security numbers, the so-called ‘kennitala’.

The waiting period for a ‘kennitala’, which traditionally has been one day, is currently up to five weeks. This has among other things created difficulties in the registration and monitoring of foreign workers in Iceland. This is reported by RÚV online.

According to a National Registry spokeswoman, the number of applications has increased exponentially over the last few years, or since the Kárahnjúkavirkjun dam project got underway in east Iceland. Some 100 new applications are submitted every day, many of which lack the requisite information and therefore take longer to process.

Also on the rise is the number of individuals who wish to do business in Iceland or who want to open Icelandic bank accounts, and who require a ‘kennitala’ for that purpose.

[environment] china dumps toxic waste in russian river

Over here, we don’t have a very high opinion of the Chinese authorities. This is one of the reasons why:

Chinese officials insisted Thursday that toxic waste dumped into a tributary of the Songhua River posed no threat to Khabarovsk and other Russian cities downstream, Interfax reported.

The Songhua River flows across the border and becomes the Amur River in Russia. The Amur supplies water to Khabarovsk, a city of 580,000. The Xinhua news agency reported that a chemical company in the city of Jilin had illegally dumped xylidine into the Mangniu River on Monday. Xylidine can damage the liver, lungs and kidneys.

The slick was brought under control Wednesday after 1,000 emergency workers built dams on the river and used activated carbon to absorb the pollutants. In November 2005, a similar spill forced the Chinese city of Harbin to temporarily shut down running water to 3.8 million people.

[cosmos] pluto no longer a planet - official

Pluto was stripped of its status as a planet in Prague on Thursday, when astronomers from around the world redefined it as a "dwarf planet," leaving just eight classical planets in the solar system. Pluto is no stranger to controversy. In fact, it's been dogged by disputes ever since its discovery in 1930.

Many astronomers contend the ninth rock from the sun never deserved to be a full planet in the first place.

Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh of Arizona's Lowell Observatory, Pluto was classified as a planet because scientists initially believed it was the same size as Earth. It was the only known object in the Kuiper Belt and in 1978, it was found to have a moon - Charon. But in the 1990s, more powerful telescopes revealed numerous bodies similar to Pluto in the neighborhood.

Scientists agree that to be called a planet, a celestial body must be in orbit around a star while not itself being a star. It also must be large enough in mass for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape and have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pluto's reaction to its downgrading has not been recorded.

[petron again] chicken feathers and human hair

Everything’s linked and syndicated these days. I got this story from Oil and Gas, who got it from Reuters, under Science News [?].

Well, it’s getting stranger by the day.

The Philippine Coast Guard appealed on Thursday for chicken feathers and human hair to help sponge up the country's worst oil spill. Petron, in which the Philippine government and Saudi state oil firm Saudi Aramco each have a 40 percent stake, said a fresh spill was spotted late on Wednesday.

"We are appealing for the supply of indigenous absorbent materials like chicken feathers, human hair and rice straw," Harold Jarder, head of the Coast Guard in Iloilo, a province north of Guimaras, told Reuters. Jarder said San Miguel Corp., Southeast Asia's largest food and beverage conglomerate, promised to donate one tonne of chicken feathers a day from its plants in Iloilo and nearby Bacolod City.

Les Reyes, owner of one of the country's largest hairdressing chains, said his 200 shops had started collecting hair clippings on Tuesday. "This is in response to the call of Greenpeace," Reyes said, adding he had also asked other salons to donate hair to the Coast Guard.

Jarder said chicken feathers and human hair will be placed in sacks tied to bamboo poles and placed along the coastlines of affected villages. Some communities in Guimaras are already using rice straw in sacks to try to contain the spill, which has affected 27 coastal villages and a marine reserve and is spreading in a northeast direction toward the islands of Negros, Cebu and Masbate.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

[blogging] 6 reasons to continue

Can’t resist the temptation to reflect.

Tomorrow marks a special occasion for me – one month since I began this blog - and therefore 23:59 today will give me my month’s stats. The Glenfiddich is at the ready [my beloved single malt can’t be bought over here] and now I’ll attempt neither to be embarrassing nor unethical:

1…First up - why blog? To put it another way, into which categories do bloggers fall? Seems to me there are five sorts:

i…those who need a blog because they are either journos, pollies or a combination of both, who have regular column inches or minutes of airtime and their hits are stratospheric. Good luck to them because they work hard at it.

ii…those selling something, e.g. Apple.ru are about to open a forum/blog and many other firms do the same. Then there are the specialist music blogs with info on what’s on and where.

Full text here.

[nuclear] iran's answer to the 'gang of six' proposals

This is a summary of the key points in Bill Samii’s* article on Iran’s 23 page response to the ‘gang of six’:

· Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani gave representatives from China, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland (representing US interests) a 23-page written response to an international incentives package at a meeting in Tehran.

· Mohammad Saidi, of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that although suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment was no longer an appropriate precondition, Tehran was willing to hold talks. Iran has also rejected the possibility of suspending uranium enrichment.

· The proposal called on Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities" and "resume implementation of the Additional Protocol" of the NPT.

Full text here.

[life] of images of the lord, flat tyres and burnt toast

Today, everything is going wrong and it’s still morning. I usually pick up my best mate and we go to Ikea for a coffee and a bite to eat and to chew the fat over this and that. A number of things happened.

Firstly, leaving the car park, my front passenger tyre suddenly deflated. No problem. Next, only one part of the jack was there. Next, the bolts were rusted. No problem – find a piece of metal tubing to put over the star spanner.

Spanner broke. OK, no problem. I have another. Finally the bolts give and the wheel is changed. It goes flat. I don’t know why, it just went flat. OK, it’s raining and in this carpark, the dirt has become a quagmire. It’s over the arms, trousers, shirt, everywhere.

So out comes the little pump they supply you with, with the plastic nozzle, which is broken. OK. Hold it on the valve and foot pump at the same time. Eventually we get to Ikea and we always have a discussion paper. Today was Tom Cruise [the last posting].

[hollywood] how tom cruise lost his career

Hollywood and in particular, Paramount, has had enough. It takes a lot for Hollywood to castigate a wayward star so why, in Cruise’s case?

The thing was that Cruise combined a number of distinct negatives which finally tipped the balance over what were perceived as waning positives.

Shifting away from movies to sport for one moment, the great rugby star David Campese, known as much for his mouth as for his truly breathtaking onfield style, once said:

It’s OK to be a big mouth, as long as you can back it up on the field.

Or in this case - on the movie set. This is what Tom Cruise has failed to appreciate. Fine, espouse Scientology ad nauseam. Fine, speak of eating your wife’s placenta. Fine, hide your baby from the world. Fine, bounce up and down on a couch like a little boy. And even then you can still be taken seriously in Hollywood.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

[healthy living] just a little overweight and you’re gone

Here's a thought if you're carrying a bit extra:

A 10-year study of more than 500,000 American adults found that those who were just slightly overweight in their 50s were 20 to 40 per cent more likely to die in the next 10 years.

Another study involving more than 1 million Korean adults, also being published in The New England Journal of Medicine this week, produced similar results.

The studies were aimed at helping resolve a long debate over whether the millions of people who are not obese but are nevertheless considered overweight are at significant risk.

Sceptics remained unconvinced, saying the analysis was flawed and would alarm people unnecessarily.

"I think they are just adding to the obesity hysteria," said Glenn Gaesser, of the University of Virginia. "They are presenting the data in a way that paints overweight and obesity in the worst possible light."

Washington Post

[norman geras] an interesting take on hezbollah and israel

Norm has provided an intriguing analysis, some of which I’m posting below:

Did Hamas and Hezbollah provoke an Israeli invasion because it suits their strategic interests? Do they secretly desire the very Israeli occupation that they claim to resist?

The answer depends on what you mean by "occupation." It's not that Arab extremists are disingenuous when they claim to fight against occupation. It's just that their use of the word "occupation" has a particular meaning. They're not referring to the West Bank or Gaza - they mean the whole of Palestine.

Ending what we call the occupation is essential to Israel's long-term existence - the only way the Jewish state can survive in the face of new demographic realities and avoid unsustainable moral costs. Ending what they call the occupation means ending the state of Israel.

The intriguing part follows.

[oil spill] petron doing a wonderful job, according to petron

A Japanese salvage ship was due in the Philippines on Saturday to begin siphoning industrial fuel from a sunken tanker off the central island of Guimaras, oil refiner Petron Corp. said on Wednesday.

Experts from the Japanese and U.S. coast guards joined Philippine disaster officials to assess the damage to dozens of communities in the provinces of Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

"While aerial surveys indicate that the leak has stopped, we have been gravely concerned about the possibility that the oil in the vessel will continue to be released," Petron Chairman Nicasio Alcantara said in a statement.

Coast guard and Petron officials have given conflicting statements about whether there are new leaks from the tanker, which is estimated to be 640 meters (2,100 feet) under water. The slick has since spread to 27 fishing villages in the towns of Concepcion and Ajuy in Iloilo, with officials saying it now threatens the islands of Negros, Cebu and Masbate.

Petron said it was employing an average of 740 people per day in Guimaras, paying them 200 pesos each to clean the beaches and mangrove trees of the black sludge.

[liban] la situation la plus explosive qui soit

«Nous sommes ces jours-ci dans la situation la plus sensible et la plus explosive qui soit » : c’est en ces termes que la ministre israélienne des Affaires étrangères, Tzipi Livni, a dépeint le tableau israélo-libanais, mercredi, à Paris.

Selon elle, l’urgence de la situation impose « une action extrêmement rapide » de la communauté internationale au Liban.

« Plus le Hezbollah pourra interpréter l'action internationale comme étant hésitante, plus les choses resteront difficiles », a-t-elle argué. «Le temps œuvre contre ceux qui veulent voir cette résolution (1701, mettant un terme aux hostilités, ndlr) appliquée».

Text ici.

[oil spill] ship rusts away, fishermen prepare class action

A fisherfolk group is preparing a class action against Petron Corp. for the oil spill in Guimaras that has affected more than 26,000 people and seen to be in danger of turning into a "catastrophe."

Well, that’s a relief. Just for one moment there was some chance they’d be out there keeping back the spill, pressing for the salvage and so on. Not a bit of it. Inspired by the giants, the Pamalakaya are taking care of the dosh first.

Fernando Hicap, national chairman of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), said the Saudi Aramco-owned oil firm should be held accountable for economic and environmental crimes.

"A class suit can be filed against Petron either in the Philippines or in any international court. Something must be done to stop a transnational giant like Petron from destroying our environment and people’s livelihood," he said.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

[in brief] thought for the day

I think that I will never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all. [Ogden Nash 1933]

[poll result] how you breakfast

Thanks to the 39 people who contributed to the poll. It's the quality, not the quantity, eh? One visitor explained that the poll looked like some sort of marketing ploy to get you in but actually, it was just there for academic interest.

Results on what you eat when you get up in the morning were:

31%..........hearty breakfast
15%..........light breakfast
54%..........little more than coffee

I'll be running a piece soon on dietary trends.

[technical things] warning – only for blogging beginners

Ever had a look around inside your template?

You must have done, if you blog, if only to insert html and java code from freepolls, technorati and so on. Do you understand it all? Have you ever wanted to experiment with different colours and formats within the same template?

Have you ever wanted to just – well – design?

I first went looking for the explanation of colour coding and that comes up in the next post. Then I came upon this site, which answered all my initial questions about those pesky little symbols. No wonder my whole blog distorted out of recognition the first time I tried it – I eventually found the blogger button skulking somewhere down the corner of the backyard.

Oh, just two more things. Firstly, be wary of sites which use the word ‘beginner’ – they suck you in with mock advice and then, halfway down the page, hit you for the folding stuff. The second is what the code in the photo [to the left] says, in plain English:

An Unordered List:
. Coffee
. Tea
. Milk

[oil and gas] brinkmanship means a long cold winter for ukrainians

Ukraine may still face an energy crisis this winter, Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Klyuev said on Thursday, Aug. 17, despite assurances from Russia that it will not sharply raise the price of gas supplies to its neighbour.

Simple statement, yes? The DPM should know, right? Yes, he knows all right – knows how to play the game of brinkmanship with his fellow countrymen and women. This thing is all about the subsidized gas Vladimir Putin alluded to when, at the press meeting in Moscow before the G8, he said:

Let’s work out uniform rules together. You, for example, represent a German news agency. Why should German consumers pay 250 USD for 1000 cubic metres and Ukrainians 50? If you want to give Ukraine such a gift, why don’t you pay for it? Why do you want us to give such presents?

Full text here.

[oil disaster] finally the world takes notice

It took so long for anyone to wake up.

The Solaris 1 tanker is still an ecological "ticking time bomb" as it sits in 900 meters of water with 450,000 gallons [not litres, as I previously incorrectly reported] of oil ready to burst open. Petron has now said it is coordinating with an international fund assembly to finance the pullout of a tanker that sank off Guimaras island.

Petron spokeswoman Vivian Ruivivar said in an interview with Magandang Umaga Pilipinas, "We have been coordinating with the International Oil Pollution Council for funds." Ruivivar said Petron does not have the capability nor financial capacity to re-float the submerged vessel by itself.

What utter bilge.

She said the IOPC was set up to assist private companies in oil spill disasters worldwide and that Petron has also sought the services of a contractor to survey the situation of the tanker settled at the bottom of Guimaras sea. The survey is needed to determine the cost of the tanker’s pullout.

Ruivivar further said the liability for the sunken vessel and the oil spill rests solely with the owner of Solar 1, Sunshine Maritime. "We already took the moral responsibility that’s why we are very active in that area doing the cleanup and arranging for the salvage of the vessel."

Greenpeace, since their late arrival on the scene, is investigating reports that the captain of the ill-fated tanker was not properly trained to handle the ship. The government, meanwhile, has ordered "round-the-clock" operation to contain the oil.

Monday, August 21, 2006

[food and drink] join me for afternoon tea

Couple of days old but still ...

More money is spent on eating out than eating at home in Britain, official figures showed on Friday.

Spending on food and drink consumed outside the home doubled between 1992 and 2004 to 87.5 billion pounds, nearly two billion more than spending on food and drink for the home.

Many Brits now pride themselves on their exotic diet, yet the British still do eat in - it being the cheaper alternative. Spending on food and drink at home still rose by more than 50 percent between 1992 and 2004.

[far-east] latest in the lead up to the poll

Old stereotypes come out in the Japanese electoral race.

[latest news] darkness comes to reykjavík

What I adore about this latest front page news from Iceland is that the text below was the leader and then when I clicked – it was the article as well. I love Iceland:

The Reykjavík city council yesterday approved a request from the organizers of the Reykjavík International Film Festival to turn off all city lights for 30 minutes in the evening of 28 September this year, the Festival’s opening day, including all street lights. This is reported in all the main media.

Hrönn Marinósdóttir, Director of the Festival, told Morgunbladid that city residents would be able to see the world’s largest movie screen: “The sky itself. It’s very apt that it should be on the opening night of the Reykjavík International Film Festival.”

[good news] makes a change from the doom and gloom

The press trust of India reports that Pakistan has detained members of banned terror groups. Islamabad has put over 400 members of banned terrorist groups on a 'watch list' and proceeded to detain them.

The Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC), which met on Saturday, has put 400 'alleged extremists' on a watch list. They would be proceeded against under the Anti-Terrorist Act and detained for a year. However, their cases would be reviewed every three months, local daily The News quoted officials as saying.

Besides JuD and LeT, the names of other banned outfits like Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) figured prominently in the local and foreign media. While JuD was accused of using the funds for the earthquake relief to finance the plot, the key suspect, Rashid Rauf arrested for the plot was closely connected with JEM. Rauf is married to JeM chief Masood Azhar's close relative and was arrested from Bahawalpur, the headquarters of JeM.

Well, that makes it all much clearer.

[in brief] thoughts for the day

Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of birds; and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of birdsong. [Rachel Carson 1962]

And that will be England gone – the shadows, the meadows, the lanes, the guildhalls, the carved choirs. There’ll be books; it will linger on in galleries but all that remains for us will be concrete and tyres. [Philip Larkin 1974]

If you drive in the Australian outback as well, you’ll see dead animals and the remains of tyres. I’ve seen garbage on the roadside in Vancouver and in Reykyavik. Despite the best efforts of the minority, the desolation proceeds, with little check.

I count myself a conservative – certainly in society and relationships – and conservative, to me, means not so much wanting the status to remain quo but striving for a higher level of responsibility.

[spy v spy] russia’s kgb and the clairvoyants – grasping at straws?

Would you fear an international intelligence service which employed clairvoyants?

Correspondents of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily said that not long before he passed away, Professor Alexander Spirkin, well-known scholar and co-author of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, admitted in an interview that the Soviet KGB employed clairvoyants to spy on their enemies.

Alexander Spirkin used to head a secret lab under the Soviet government and worked closely with clairvoyants hired to carry out special missions for the Kremlin.

“I used to work closely with hundreds of all sorts of extrasensory individuals,” Mr. Spirkin recalled in a conversation with Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondents.

Full text here.

[environmental disaster in the making] get that tanker up - now!

All the words in the world are not going to get that tanker off the ocean floor and 450 000 litres are ready to spill now. Until that tanker's salvaged, all talk of who's responsible and how deeply Petron is into graft, all such talk is just so much oil on the water.

After that, Sunshine Marine Development Corp., the owner of the Solar I, which sank off Guimaras two weeks ago, needs the most rigorous investigation into how they could commission such a derelict ship through such an environmentally sensitive area on such a mission.

Officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources investigating the oil spill have promised to release the results of their inquiry sometime this week.

Oh yes? Like National Power Corp. off Semirara island last year? The NAPOCOR barge spilled 364,000 liters of fuel and ruined vast stretches of the coast of Antique province.

This current oil spill from the Solar I, which sank in rough seas August 11, has affected over 200 kilometers of the Guimaras coastline, including beaches and mangroves—killing wildlife and disrupting the livelihood of at least 10,000 Guimareños.

The cleanup has been haphazard and ineffective, the spill happened right smack in the middle of the monsoon season but much worse is that they plus Greenpeace are expending their energy on ‘why it happened, how to prevent another etc. and meanwhile:

Full text here.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

[environmental disaster] greenpeace finally moving

Black Quill, bless him, is running a piece on the oil disaster and now, finally, after a week and a half, Greenpeace is becoming involved:

As Greenpeace is getting involved, I think James’ worries will be answered soon, however, there are a few confusing things …

Quinlan’s piece over there is good but I don’t share his enthusiasm for Greenpeace. Here is their ‘urgent assistance’:

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace said on Sunday that it was “shocked” by the extent of damage caused by the Philippines’ worst ever oil spill and called on the government to treat the raising of the sunken tanker as a matter of urgency.

“It’s really bad out there,” Athena Ballesteros, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace International, said. “The extent of damage to such a wonderful part of the Philippines shocked us all.”

“The government must treat, as a matter of urgency, the raising of the tanker before more damage is done,” she said.

Greenpeace says it will take several months to draw up its report on the full environmental impact of the spill.

Now where is the ‘urgent action’? Go to their site. Where are the banner headlines about it? I hope Black Quill is right [and the anomalies he draws attention to are indeed curious] but again:

Where is the effective action?

[in brief] thought for the day

There's only one way to find out if a man is honest - ask him. If he says yes, you know he's a crook. [Groucho Marx]

[history] the anomalies of kaspar hauser

Many know the story quite well and of the way he was famously portrayed by Klaus Kinsky. If you’re one who delights in reading the fine print though, you can’t help noticing certain anomalies in the story.

Not so much concerning the court intrigues and whether he was royalty or nay – but rather in the boy’s own story. These anomalies are possibly more intriguing than the mystery itself.

The strange and tragic case of Kaspar Hauser first came to public attention in the month of May, 1828, when he stumbled through the New Gate of the German City of Nuremberg.

Full text here.

[food and drink] the great coffee vs chocolate debate

My friend and I see eye to eye on most things but not in our preferences in women and not in the matter of coffee and chocolate. We had quite a little debate about the latter and so I’m throwing it open to you.

Hypothetically: If you were asked to wait in someone’s dining room and help yourself to anything you saw and you went in and sat down; and there, in front of you, was a coffee pot of that steaming, aromatic substance and beside it, a selection of little squares of chocolate of all kinds, would you:

1. Pour yourself a coffee first, take a sip then think about which choc to select
2. Take one little piece of choc to be going on with, then pour yourself a coffee
3. Some other variant?

Full text here, in a nice shade of chocolate and coffee.

[far-east] yet more remissions for the bali bombers

Does anyone remember the Bali bombings?

They probably didn’t grip the US and the UK quite so much as home grown disasters, being largely an Australian affair and yet they were no picnic for the families and friends of the 202 people killed and scores injured in one of the worst terrorists bombings of recent times.

Just to fill you in, Paddy's Bar in the Bali town of Kuta, a very popular nightclub, especially with Australian tourists, was gutted by bombs on the night of October 12, 2002 and the aftermath was as you’d imagine.