Saturday, September 09, 2006

[la france] la mutation des cafés de paris

Le tout temps, les bistrots ont fait l'esprit et la réputation de Paris. Pour le promeneur, ils font partie du décor. Dès lors, la moindre évolution de leur décoration change l'allure des rues. Le vrai, le mesurable ou bien le moins contestable de l'entreprise, c'est l'impulsion donnée à la ville, ou plutôt la visibilité accordée à l'irréductible besoin de sociabilité. Suivez.

[gesundheit] brisante balance zwischen krebs und diabetes

Wenn der Körper die Entstehung von Krebszellen unterdrückt, zahlt er einen hohen Preis: Jene Stoffe, die einen Tumor verhindern, töten die anfälligen Zellen vorsichtshalber. Forscher fanden jetzt heraus, wie ein Zellwächter dabei nicht nur schützt - sondern auch schadet. Die Geschichte ist hier.

[spoiler] answers to village quiz embedded in text

Here are the promised answers, only you'll have to skim through the text to find out.

[parallels] the implosion of labour

"This week we have seen the resurfacing of traditional Labour politics," wrote former foreign minister Denis MacShane. "If this takes root, Labour may - like its Australian counterpart - face years in the wilderness." Do you know what actually did happen in Australia? I have a parent living in Australia, as Spike Milligan did, and word was it was all to do with a man named Mark Latham. This is a short, personal perspective.

[england] how well do you know your villages

All right. Are you sitting comfortably two-square on your botty? Then I’ll begin. Here are five villages: Virginia Water, Filey, Haworth Village, Ottery St Mary and Boscombe. There are twenty statements here, associated with these villages. Answers will appear today at 2100, London time, in the form of the original five articles from which the facts were drawn. [America – your turn is tomorrow.] Good luck!

[geographical mysteries] adrift on the the sargasso sea

This is part one of a new series on spots in the world which have puzzled man for centuries. The Sargasso Sea [see map] is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, lying roughly between the West Indies and the Azores. Here, the heart of the Bermuda Triangle is covered by the strangest and most notorious sea on the planet - named after a kind of seaweed which lazily floats over its entire expanse, called sargassum. The myths [and maybe truths] about this sea predate the more infamous Bermuda Triangle by a considerable period. Read on.

[madness] the cost of women’s clothing

Nothing unusual in this quote, except that it’s from a woman herself: "What is this sock madness? Is it possible for a pair of socks to actually be worth $30, to contain that much expensive labor and fine yarns? No, socks are one of the least labor-intensive apparel products to produce. But really, that's a rhetorical question, akin to asking a woman whether a pair of shoes is actually worth $400. What's the price of pleasure?" [Robin Givhan, Washington Post Fashion Editor]. I might add that a man who would pay $420 for a Hermes scarf [and was it genuine anyway?] himself raises the question in all this, ‘Who’s the fool?’

[blair and brown] it all could have been avoided

There are known knowns and known unknowns. We knew the moment Tony Blair made his rash statement, all hell would break loose. It has, on Gordon Brown: "deluded control freak", "massive weakness is that he can't work with people", " totally, totally uncollegiate" etc. And it all could have been avoided. Why oh why will the British not look at the parallel situation in Australia where John Howard also has Peter Costello waiting, disgruntled, in the wings but has done it far more cleverly? Downunder - Guardian and Independent type polls and the media circus can’t get a foot in. Or failing that, why not look at the Bush situation?

[amazon.com] now in the movie download business

Amazon.com Inc. is now in the on-line TV and movie business with Unbox, offering thousands of television shows, movies and other videos from CBS, News Corp., Fox, MTV, Nickelodeon, PBS, BBC, A&E, Discovery Channel, Comedy Central and The History Channel, among others. General Electric Corp.'s NBC and Walt Disney Co.'s will cost $1.99 per episode, and most movies will go for $7.99 to $14.99; movies can also be rented for $3.99. ABC, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central are owned by Viacom Inc and will not be included.

Friday, September 08, 2006

[да или нет] путина на третьем президентском сроке

Как Вы думаете? Мне кажется, что эта хорошая идея. Вы не видете другой вариант? Напишите мне на этом вопросе. Как Вы думаете на вопросе референдума? Доклад здесь.

[arnie and that latino] so what’s all the fuss

Here’s part of that articulate audio tape: Susan Kennedy: Bonnie Garcia is great. She's a ball-buster. Is she Puerto Rican? Arnie: She seems to me like Cuban. Kennedy: She's not Mexican. Arnie: No. Kennedy: I thought she was Puerto Rican. Arnie: She maybe is Puerto Rican or the same thing as Cuban. I mean, they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it. Bonnie Garcia: Actually, I’m a hot-blooded latino. My question: Er - is there actually an issue here somewhere which would get both the LA Times and Washington Post into a lather?

[top gear] settling for a lemon

The RAC has said that 29 percent of buyers fail to spot faults before buying used vehicles. In 11 percent of mechanical faults, drivers had to pay out up to 400 pounds for repairs. In 6 percent of cases, the faults were so serious the cost of repair was up to 800 pounds. Lack of mechanical knowledge was the main reason quoted. Despite this, only 39 percent had bothered to pay for a professional vehicle examination and 48 percent of buyers had spent less than 30 minutes carrying out checks before buying. [Reuters]

[journalistic bias] two versions of the same story

"With US society sliding towards theocracy and with religious belief - even fundamentalism - on the rise in every continent we have to take a stand," says Roy Brown, President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. “With the godless madness passing and US society finally returning to the traditional values which nurture and protect the family, we have to take a stand that it does not slide back to the dark age of humanism.” More.

[iceland] long cold winter possible for foreigners

Not everything’s roses up there at sleepy hollow. Jobs appear to be plentiful on the Icelandic labour market at present, although perhaps not everyone is able to find their dream job, according to a report in Morgunbladid today. It might be difficult for foreigners this winter. Rivetting, cutting edge news as usual, only from Iceland.

[normblog] of death and cricket

Norm’s in fine form today: [C]ricket more than any other sport helps a person work through the experience of loss by virtue of forcing its participants to come to terms with symbolic deaths on a daily basis. It's an idea Mike Brearley says he's been forced to reconsider. It kind of goes with Chess and the Dance of Death, though I must say I'd never previously thought of losing one's wicket in quite that way. Makes you think, doesn’t it? What makes me think even more is why [c]ricket was spelt that way.

[oil and gas] russia tells exxon mobil nothing doing

Exxon Mobil, by their own lights, have a right to expect a small sweetheart payback. After all, they have committed substantially, both upstream and in R&D and have shown themselves indispensable in terms of know-how. Nothing doing. With the discovery of new reserves near or at Sakhalin-1, Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry has told Exxon Mobil it will not automatically enlarge their license territory. It will go to auction. More here.

[hewlett packard] has patricia's luck run out

There's an old maxim, 'Be nice to people on the way up because you'll meet them again on the way down'. Las Vegas raised daughter of a showgirl and vaudevillian, Patricia Dunn was dealt a lucky hand and her recipe for success was preparation flavored with luck. But a gambler’s luck can also run out, especially when engaged in the tactics which Ms Dunn now appears to have engaged in. Just a little more.

[site poll] results of last survey

To the question of which was your preferred holiday destination [of three], responders said Venice [88%], Paris [12%] and Vienna [0%]. Current poll is now open.

[canada & china] the humiliation worsens

Dalai Lama [ Globe and Mail]

This thing between Canada and China has its antecedents. So it was always going to displease Beijing when the Dalai Lama touched down, scheduled to talk with the Conservatives, while the Chinese patiently waited in the ante-room to meet with the Foreign Office and there may be more than a little ‘sticking it up the Sinos’ in this. The Chinese prefer to call it ‘an accumulation of slights’ and I expostulate: 'To hell with them.'

[men and women] sad, sad times for the west

It is always the woman who holds the relationship together, the one who defines its nature – of that I am absolutely certain. And it is also the woman who destroys it - the man just goes along for the ride and does his protective, bring-home-the-bacon thing. Over here in the east, a girl of twenty-four I was with yesterday, pulling down a substantial salary as an uber-economist, was plotting how to get into the family making, devoted to a devoted husband and tempering her glittering career. Is she a dying breed? The Telegraph thinks so.

[middle-east] passing of ayotollah means crazies can now rule

Ayotollah Ali al-Sistari

Why would an Ayotollah’s passing be a matter of anything but glee to a cautious west? Because in this little noted case, as Sami Moubayed of the Asia Times comments, ‘It is the passing of the last voice of reason in Iraq.’ Now the Shi’ite militia crazies can rule. In a little trumpeted announcement, al-Sistani has now retreated into discussing solely religious matters and one of the west’s greatest reasoned influences in the region has been lost. The details.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

[hewlett packard] how nice are patricia dunn’s tactics

It’s gradually emerging how Patricia Dunn actually operates and what HP actually have on their hands in their CEO. Anyone who has skimmed through this blog knows I prefer the direct assault to the mudslinging and yet this woman seems to be crying out for a bit of the slushy stuff over the mush. The Slashdot [theodp] report is here.

[from the blogger] some puzzling trends

The Most Viewed section to the left is genuine and is changed daily, as all things should be. The surprises are the stories which won't go away, like the Asset Swapping, Russian Oil and French Dressing. Big mover is the 25 Minutes with the Russian Girl. Niagara has done well too. I'd hoped the Khodorkovski and the Daniel Ellsberg/Mordecai Vanunu stories might have 'taken' more. Actually, I'm redoing the Russian girl on Monday because she wasn't satisfied with the last interview.

بعد انقلاب أنصاره عليه.. بلير يتنحى خلال عام

أعلن رئيس الوزراء البريطاني توني بلير، الذي يواجه معارضة متزايدة من البريطانيين وحتى من داخل قاعدته في حزب العمال، أنه سيتنحى عن السلطة خلال عام
واكد بلير يوم الخميس خلال زيارته لمدرسة في لندن انه سيغادر السلطة في غضون سنة

I don't know - I just felt that Tony Blair's departure needed a more original setting.

[oil and gas] significance of the chevron gulf tap

So what’s with the oil find in the gulf? What it basically means is soft demand in the nearest future and perceived steady supplies in the long term should shift the power balance away from the middle-east a little. Seems to me Saudi and other Arab nations playing with a “full house” won’t exactly find themselves bidding on a “pair of knaves” but if the gulf find checks out, it must shore up falling US cred or at least give it room to move in its negotiating position. More here.

[colour schemes] the culture of green

Ah, green, eternal green - life, abundant in nature, signifying growth, renewal, health, and environment but against that, green is also jealousy or envy and inexperience. With the calming attributes of blue but without blue’s association with cold, clinical evil, time moves faster in a green room. Strongly associated with Ireland and Islam, reminiscent of spring, coupled with red it's a Christmas colour. More on green here.

[global warming] now the threat is from below

There appears to be growing evidence that there is a perpetuating, renewable global threat beginning to be released from below the earth’s surface – methane – trapped under the permafrost, which is now melting; the results are beginning to appear which oil and gas people have been aware of for decades. Is this the earth finally striking back? Here are the essentials from the AP report.

[technology] today blackberry; tomorrow the world

Jesse D'Aguanno, director of research at Praetorian Global, has created an attack program called BBProxy, which can penetrate computers behind a corporate firewall and attack systems worldwide once it is installed on a BlackBerry device. He has released his source code - BlackBerry Attack Toolkit - to the public. Research in Motion, makers of BlackBerry say the threat can be prevented by using the correct settings built into its BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Hmmmm. Anyone with a BlackBerry out there? [Globe and Mail]

[hewlett packard] has patricia dunn for hp

Further to the earlier story about the trouble at Hewlett Packard, Vox Day made a reference to it in the course of his misogynist rant and I decried it in a comment. Now it appears he’s right and all the people resigning, storming out, leaking to the press and general unhappiness all centres around one woman – chairwoman Patricia Dunn. Perfect example of how not to run a company. More here.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

[corrective services] hamburglar goes to prison

The Department of Correction is serving up a plan to put a fast-food restaurant in New York City's Rikers Island jail system, giving thousands of workers there greater meal options. Currently, the jail guards eat the same food as the crims. More of this gripping tale here.

[writing] the secret to getting yourself published

Whether you're an incarcerated ex-tycoon or just a bog-standard blogger like the rest of us, once that urge to scribble gets into the psyche, Mr. Gibbon, we just have to produce another damned square book, don't we and get it published. But how to break into the literary world? Perhaps Vancouver has the answer. Story here.

[mid-week blogwatch] scoop fever

Is it just my imagination or do the posts on other blogs get more interesting towards mid-week? Do bloggers save up their best material for Wednesday? A glance around the blogs this evening reveals four more than interesting stories indeed. Story continues here.

[russia] putin's approval rating high

Despite appearances and concerns in the west about Vladimir Putin’s ‘return to the old Russia’, over half the people would vote for him if there were an election now and a substantial number trust him as well. His current visit to South Africa is a sign of what Russia is now up to. Article here ...

[oil and gas] ‘poor’ geophysique buys ‘poorer’ veritas

As you might know, French oil and gas field surveyor Geophysique is buying U.S. rival Veritas in cash and stock, establishing a major new global player in the oil exploration industry. Associated Press says that companies offering seismic surveys and other oil exploration services are doing strong business around the world, amid the broadly rising demand for oil and pressure on reserves.

So why are the seismic companies unhappy with the oil companies? Article here...

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

[james bond] eva reluctant bond girl

New Bond girl Eva Green has revealed that she never wanted to be a Bond girl for fear of being typecast - reports Entertainment Wise. But after reading the script for ‘Casino Royale’ she changed her mind and will be appearing as Vesper Lynd in the forthcoming film. Article continues here.

[global obesity] get off your backsides and exercise

You know where this came from ? Al Jazeera. And from where did they get it? From AP. Everything’s syndicated these days.

Exploding numbers of overweight children could make today's generation the first to die before its parents, say health experts. Article continues here ...

[toilet talk] for the hypersensitive

The thing to decide throughout this entire piece by Anne McIlroy is whether the woman is for real or not.

You open the door of the gas station washroom, scanning and sniffing for biohazards. It seems safe. No overflowing urinals or toilets. No sewer stench and your shoes don't stick to the floor. Article continues here ...

[vale steve irwin] killed in stingray attack

This story is now 23 hours old but it wouldn’t be right to let it go any further without comment. I plan to do a longer piece on him later today after my day job. Why should we worry about someone the bulk of the world has never heard of? Because of the nature of his death. More here.

[film & television] 3 of my favourite comic moments

Rev Mervyn Noote

What are your favourite comic moments? These are three of mine:

1. when Derek, having taken tablets for his headache, discovers that he has, in fact, imbibed relax-a-cat tabs, prescribed for unblocking the episcopal feline plumbing.

2. when Bernard, castigated by Jim Hacker for not attending to the ministerial needs, quietly answers, 'CBE, Minister, CBE.' To Hacker's dumbstruck expression, he adds, 'Can't be everywhere.' More here.

[in brief] message for the small blogger

When elements of doubt creep into your resolve; when you feel that only a significant handful are heeding your message, it’s as well to remember the words of a quite significant writer, whose observations still echo today:

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all others.

[afghanistan] opium might be the solution

As if the Afghan pipeline wasn't in enough trouble, Chris Dillow writes further of Afghanistan's seeming hope for the future:

Afghanistan clearly has a comparative advantage in the production of opium; given its meagre land, labour and capital endowments, it can do little else. Opium production is, then, it's best hope of developing the economy. Read the full piece.

[petron-solar 1] disaster around the corner, surmise japanese

A minisubmarine inspecting the wreck of the Solar 1 on Friday found an open oil compartment and another one leaking small quantities of oil. They reported that not only had the oil spill not ceased but that the rest of it was waiting to rupture. Deafening silence greeted this around the world. Article continues here ...

[far-east] bankruptcy law change signals cultural change


The new Chinese law regarding the bankruptcies of state owned enterprises is a major move. Effectively, creditors now have top priority in liquidation moves, as distinct from the old ‘state nanny’ which was committed to paying off the workers first and then the creditors. This is not just a legal change, nor even a work practice change - it means a radically different mindset and a commitment to vigorously compete within the world economy. Story here.

Monday, September 04, 2006

[dress and fashion] to tie or not to tie

BBC Magazine ran this in February but today, as I discarded the tie in scorching twenty degree temperatures, the mind went back to the topic:

Doctors should stop wearing ‘functionless’ ties which could pose a hygiene risk, says the British Medical Association - as part of the drive to stop the spread of hospital superbugs. So what is the point of a tie? Full text here.

[health] you might have wilson’s syndrome

Do you suffer from cold the way I do? Possibly not - because I think I might have a nodding acquaintance with Wilson’s Syndrome. Chronic low body temperature, also known as Wilson's Syndrome, is related to many other syndromes.

Whenever I’m feeling poorly, the first question, the standard question over here is always, ‘Do you have a temperature?’ ‘No.’ ‘Oh well then,’ they reply, meaning that I’m just a malingering n’er-do-well. But is it so? Story here.

[middle-east] hezbollah seeking out lebanese defectors

You may have seen this one already:

Next to a UN jeep, the Hezbollah intelligence men had parked their aging white Mercedes. One of them had flattened himself behind the chassis and was watching a Lebanese man on the Israeli side through binoculars.

"If you come with me, we'll go in and get that m*********r back," another Hezbollah man told a member of the international press. "They won't shoot at a journalist," he whispered in an aside in Arabic to his colleague.

With Hezbollah and the UN men having overheard the Lebanese man conversing with the Israelis in Hebrew, they were almost certain that he was an agent of the Jewish state trying to escape the wrath of a victorious Shi'ite political party that claims to have routed Israel over 34 days of conflict.

Analysts say Israel used Lebanese collaborators who remained in the south after its forces' withdrawal in 2000 as human intelligence to identify Hezbollah cadres in each village.

A Shi'ite source with good connections to Hezbollah and local knowledge said that only the houses of Hezbollah members were destroyed in his southeastern village of Blaat. The Hezbollah center of Khiam - formerly a base for Israel's proxy South Lebanon Army - was also largely wrecked from shelling, air strikes and pitched battles between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers.

Since the latest war, Hezbollah has been particularly anxious to dismantle Mossad networks inside Lebanon that have used everyone from a Druze villager in the southern village of Hasbaya to Sudanese doormen in Beirut's Shi'ite al-Daahiah suburbs to pinpoint buildings affiliated with Hezbollah or that house its cadres.

Israeli intelligence has reportedly equipped collaborators inside Lebanon with radios and sophisticated satellite equipment to stay in contact and receive sensitive information on Hezbollah's movements. In one case, it was discovered that Israeli spies in south Beirut were marking buildings with crosses that were invisible to the naked eye but could be detected by sensors inside Israeli fighter jets.

In addition, an Israeli website specializing on intelligence affairs (www.debka.com) revealed that Hezbollah's security service has begun, in the northern Bekaa Valley, Baalbek and southern Lebanon, rounding up people suspected of tipping off Israeli intelligence on the location of the storehouse holding long-range, Iranian-supplied Zelzal missiles.

Iason Athanasiadis is an Iran-based correspondent with Asia Times.

[oil and gas] afghanistan stymied by uprising

Stay with this one. This is how a nation’s fortunes can be dashed by local issues.

Anti-government violence in Pakistan has followed the killing of a tribal leader by the military. On Tuesday, explosions and gunfire were reported after more than 10,000 people attended memorial prayers for Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was fighting for greater autonomy for his gas-rich but underdeveloped province of Balochistan. Pakistani government helicopter gunships and ground troops attacked his mountain cave hide-out.

With about 6 million people, Balochistan's population is almost half that of Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi. But in terms of mineral wealth it is the country's richest region. Islamabad has been planning a deep-sea port at Gwadar and a road link through Afghanistan to Central Asia from the province.

The TAP, which would carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to India through western Afghanistan, would pass through Balochistan. An alternative route through Pakistan's North West has been threatened by the resurgence of the Taliban.

The 2,000km pipeline deal was in the final stages of approval with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and without the huge India market, the project, which is estimated to cost US$2-3 billion [one estimate pitches the final cost at $7 billion], may not be profitable.

But domestic security concerns in Afghanistan and Pakistan and an armed uprising led to the setting up of a force of trained and semi-trained tribesmen known as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). Pakistani authorities have maintained that Bugti tacitly supported both these forces and the unrest.

Pakistan's Human Rights Commission has documented widespread violations by security forces but Islamabad says they were required to secure domestic gas installations.

Last week, a top Indian official in Delhi confirmed the participation of a high-level team in the TAP meeting next month as a partner-in-the-project and yet India seems to have got cold feet over the violence; political commentators speculate that it may be strong opposition from the United States that has made India put the deal on the back-burner.

Due to its location between the oil and natural gas reserves of the Caspian Basin and the Indian Ocean, Afghanistan has long been a potential energy transit corridor. During the mid-1990s, US-based Unocal had pursued a possible natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad-Donmez gas basin via Afghanistan to Pakistan, but pulled out after the US missile strikes against Afghanistan in August 1998.

Thus, the stirring up of local unrest threatens the prosperity of three nations and maybe even four.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

[proche-orient] mahmoud et kofi

Kofi Annan ne croit pas à l'efficacité de sanctions contre Téhéran. Pourquoi pas? Suivez:

تأكيد رئيس جمهور برلزوم تلاش بيشتر دبيركل سازمان ملل متحد براى اجراى آتش بس در جنوب لبنان

[poll] results on the topic of seasons

The last poll is closed. Results for the question: During which season do you feel most comfortable? were:

38% spring - predictable
0% summer - big surprise
12% autumn - nice
50% winter - I'm not alone

One reader wrote: Tempest. The new poll is open, if you'd care to vote.

[algeria] the western veil of silence

I’ve been accused of writing slanted articles about Muslims but of never attacking the Jews.

I think if you look at the comments section of stephenpollard.com you’ll see ample evidence of digs at the Jews. In case that’s not enough, I invite you to send me researched material on Jewish atrocities and I’ll gladly run it.

More than once I’ve looked at the actions of the Irgun, the Lehi/Stern gang, Lord Moyne, Martin and Paice, to name but a few.

I’m not Jewish, I hold no candle for the Jews and I’m as critical as anyone has a right to be. On the other hand, articles such as the following from Gary Brecher are interesting, if only because no one else seems to be addressing this issue. There is a wall of silence from Nizhni Novgorod to New York.

Why? Brecher’s article offers one explanation. Warning – though it is written in a jaunty, readable style, the content is fairly unpalatable if you have a queasy tummy:

Some wars make it onto the TV news, and some don't. It's got nothing to do with how bloody or big they are. There are lots of pathetic little "wars" that get more press than they deserve.

[celestial regions] do you know your angels

Most of us would have to admit we wouldn’t recognize an angel if it bit us on the bottom. So how does one recognize that it’s – er – an angel we’re dealing with? I mean - do you know your order of angels and their hierarchies?

On the grounds of better-be-safe-than-sorry, maybe it’s time you got the whole angel thing down pat in your mind … just in case, you understand.

Firstly, the Angels are organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs. There are three Hierarchies, Spheres or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three Orders or Choirs. In descending order of power, these were:

First Hierarchy: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones [or Ophanim]
Second Hierarchy: Principalities, Virtues, Powers
Third Hierarchy: Dominions, Archangels, Angels

During the Middle Ages, many other schema were proposed, some drawing on and expanding on Pseudo-Dionysius, others suggesting completely different classifications but don’t heed them, the revisionists.

We’re all familiar with the lower orders because these are the ones certain people come into contact with but what of the ones you never see up there? The angels of the first sphere were thought to serve as heavenly counsellors.

Seraphim: There are four of them surrounding G-d's throne, where they shine eternally from love and zeal.

Cherubim: The Cherubim (singular "Cherub") are beyond the throne of G-d; they are the guardians of light and of the stars. They have four wings. They also have four faces, one of man, ox, lion and eagle. Cherubim are considered the elect beings, for the purpose of protection.

Thrones: The Ophanim are the companion angels of the planets. Also, they have been described as a wheel intersected by another wheel. One to move forward and back, the other to move side to side. These wheels are then dotted with innumerable eyes.

Now, I can’t see why it can't be so. In fact, I can believe anything, however improbable it might seem, just as Sherlock Holmes could plus the other side also believes in these things. Ask any 32nd degree Mason about it or failing that, ask Osiris.

For the atheists and rationalists out there – you can’t prove beyond doubt they don’t exist, can you; and proof is very important to you guys, isn’t it? On the other hand, there are ample indicators which keep coming back from time to time, that something's going on up there.

Perhaps we should just take the classic atheistic position, put the head in the sand and say angels don’t exist. Period.