Saturday, December 23, 2006

[blogfocus saturday] lean, mean christmas edition

The theme for the early part this post is, of course, Christmas but one or two other themes have also forced their way into the Blogfocus in the latter stages. Let’s kick off the Christmas theme with a real Mystery Blogger, if ever there was one, whom I’ll call Tony Sharp and his authoritative blog has a cautionary message for all:

1 If people refuse to get the message that drinking and driving increases the likelihood of having an accident then the punishment for those caught needs to be significantly tougher. There is no excuse for anyone driving after drinking. But safety cameras are of little help in catching drink-drivers because they only record speeding motorists. They are ineffective in identifying drunk drivers, those who are driving dangerously and those who are driving unroadworthy or untaxed vehicles.

2 The peerless Man from Croydon ponders the different culture of gift giving in the commercial HQ of the world:

Apparently 80% of our friends on the other side of the Pond would rather have the equivalent of a book token - a gift card - than a normal present for Christmas. Details here. I cannot find any details as to research method, so I'm taking this with a pinch of salt. Pretty miserable nevertheless.

3 From over that side of the pond, Matt has somehow stumbled upon a strange thing concerning the end of the year:

It's amazing the similarities between this time right now and last year. For instance, last year I was at home. I am at home this year. I hadn't done anything of note by this time last year. The same is true of this year. Last year, being my first year at college, was supposed to be that "great" beginning of time. It wasn't, as you all know. This year is better but I still find some things lacking.

Eleven more bloggers here plus the Mystery Blogger …

[stress] take the test

James Higham - Your Stress Level is: 51%
You are somewhat prone to stress, especially when life gets hard.
When things are good, you resist stressing over little problems.
But when things are difficult, you tend to freak out and find it hard to calm down.
How Stressed Are You?
Thanks Colin Campbell at Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe.

[scotland and england] the new feudalism

This blog is diametrically opposed to the Wilhelmsbad Declaration [1782]: the abolition of all ordered governments, private property, inheritance, patriotism, the family, religion; and the creation of a one world government. The most fundamental reason to oppose it is because of who will control it and yet that is precisely where we are now headed.

Focusing on the first plank – abolition of ordered governments, it’s not too fanciful to suggest that this refers to nationality and the latter plank of abolition of patriotism would seem to support that contention. Three very clear trends:

1] steady erosion of freedoms;
2] move towards continental control of every aspect of citizen’s lives;
3] individual nation states fragmenting, e.g. Britain, Canada.

The first two have been blogged about by almost everyone. On the third, this comes from euro-know:

What on earth is happening to the nation state? Before our eyes it is dismembering itself into the smaller pieces from which it was once composed - not yet quite the 'city-states' of ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy, but firmly in that direction … The triggers for break-up come in many forms.

The trend is simply away from the nation state which, despite its myriad faults, has always been a bulwark against and a major obstacle to globalization and the facilitation of the Wilhelmsbad agenda. Doesn’t matter whether it’s fragmentation into smaller units or incorporation into a larger, the nation state as we know it is on the way out and a new feudalism is replacing it.

The Scottish and English situation follows …

[taliban] almost ready for spring offensive

The Taliban's efforts are focused on next spring, after the harsh winter weather eases, while NATO forces aim to "nip this evil in the bud", using the province of Kandahar as their strategic base. From there, they want to contain and encircle the Taliban in their bases all over southwestern Afghanistan.

Central to this plan is the use of air power, even though the Taliban have come down from the mountains and entrenched themselves in civilian populations in carefully chosen pockets. They also have a headquarters in the rugged mountains of Baghran Valley in Helmand province.

To date, the Taliban have mostly engaged their pawns against NATO, with key leaders based safely in the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Once the final push starts, though, they will move to the fringes of the southwestern Pashtun heartland, Baghran, in preparation for the removal of President Hamid Karzai's administration in Kabul.

However, NATO spokesman Mark Laity does not agree with this assessment. "Their [Taliban] intent was to hold the Panjwayee [district of Kandahar province] as a necessary part of their plan to encircle or take Kandahar city. In Helmand [province] they certainly intended to take Sangin, Musa Qala and Nowzad in the north and Garmsir in the south, with the desire to disrupt and isolate Lashkhar Gah [the capital of Helmand province]. In all of these respects, they failed," Laity told Asia Times Online.

Article continues here …

Friday, December 22, 2006

[le brouillard] heathrow dans le chaos

Le Figaro dit: Le "fog" qui recouvre Londres conduit à l'annulation de centaines de vols. Des dizaines de milliers de voyageurs sur le départ à l'approche des fêtes de Noël se retrouvent donc cloués au sol. Une fois de plus, le "fog", véritable "purée de pois" dont la Grande-Bretagne est coutumière, vient gâcher les projets des habitants de l'île.

La compagnie British Airways a supprimé tous ses vols intérieurs et certains vols européens. La totalité de ceux vers Paris et Bruxelles ont été annulés. Et de nouvelles annulations de vols, à destination de Stockholm, Düsseldorf, Hambourg, Sofia, Madrid et Tripoli notamment, sont prévues. Les aéroports de Gatwick, Norwich, Southampton et Coventry sont également touchés. Comble de malchance, le brouillard devrait recouvrir l'Angleterre au moins jusqu'à lundi, le jour de Noël, selon les prévisions météos.

Il semble que le chaos n’est pas seulement Parisien de nature.

[tagging] progress report

I wondered what would happen when I started this meme and some of the lists are quite revealing, some quite moving and some plain funny. One blogger said he couldn't see what was of interest in what he'd posted but I think it was nice to have that little glimpse into another blogger's world.

[us airlines] have they improved … or not

I was about to post an update on the Northwest article when one on Delta airlines popped up about dissatisfaction with their treatment of the passenger. At about that time, Cityunslicker posted his excellent comment on US airlines and now comes this news:

Delta has this week spurned US Airways’ merger offer, saying that its own plan for emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in spring 2007 will stand it in better stead. Jerry Grinstein, Delta’s chief executive officer, said: “Our progress over the past year attests to the strength of the Delta brand and the resolve of our 45,000 people who are transforming this company through their hard work.

Delta is well along in the process of a top to bottom transformation – implementing changes that have made a vast improvement in our performance. Our plan for a fundamentally new and different airline is working and is creating real value. We will emerge as a thoroughly new Delta that will be a strong global carrier with a solid foundation for profitable growth in a highly competitive environment.”

All of which begs the question: “Why are they in this situation in the first place?” and no, the economy and spiralling fuel costs cannot solely be blamed. The US commuter is quite happy to spend when the airline is good. All of which brings us back to Cityunslicker’s comment on the last post. Do read it.

[conscription] on the cards yet again - whatever for

Don't get me wrong. I am a [small 'l'] conservative, believe our troops should have nothing but the best gear, they should be supported by one and all and if we were directly under threat, I'd be one of the first to attempt to sign up [age might preclude me]. However:

The Selective Service System, which has remained in existence despite the abandonment of conscription three decades ago, is planning a comprehensive test around 2009. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson prompted speculation about the draft Thursday when he told reporters in New York that "society would benefit" if the U.S. were to bring back the draft. Later he issued a statement saying he does not support reinstituting a draft.

Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said such a proposal would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list. The military drafted people during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. Reincorporated in 1980, the Selective Service System maintains a registry of 18-year-old men, but call-ups have not occurred since the Vietnam War.

It would be retrograde on a number of fronts: 1] the regs don’t like draftees who can’t be fully relied upon in battle and this, in turn, saps morale 2] it is only used in times of dire threat and that ain’t now. There is no credible threat at this time which would require militarization of this nature. The Iraq War does not come under that category in the least.

It’s another case of the mobilization, in high places, for a war which does not exist and at a period of relatively full employment and sound economic prospects for the world in general. Trade has globalized and dialogue takes place. In other words, there is no current, viable reason for there not to be peace. So why the first overtures concerning the draft?

[japan] population to plunge

Japan's population is forecast to drop by almost a third by the middle of the century, bringing with it an impending labour shortage and ballooning pension costs to maintain an increasingly ageing population, a government report has said. To address this, the government said it will spend more to ease the burden of raising families.

A 30 per cent drop in population will see ballooning medical and pension costs, the elderly to increase by 10 million in 2055, making up 40 per cent of total population and the working population will stand at 46 million or slightly above 50 per cent.

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, said: "It's not as if the pension system will collapse. We need to do whatever we can to implement measures to resolve the falling birth rate to prevent the rate from going any lower."

The implications are clear in far-eastern terms and come as the Chinese hegemony slowly approaches. Japan has more than a few worries coming up.

[northwest airlines] have they improved … or not

Just been re-reading Bill Bryson’s Big Country [Black Swan, 1997], where he writes of the shoddy service on Northwest Airlines, symptomatic of the airline industry as a whole.

This was in 1997 when his family were given seats in different parts of the aircraft, on a 6 hour flight, including a 2 and a 4 year old. When they asked for the problem to be solved, they were told: “Not our responsibility. Check your boarding passes next time.”

If Bryson can be believed on this, it’s a staggering indictment of the attitudes of airlines to the paying customer. Everyone knows the term “cattle class” already. So I thought I’d see if Northwest has improved and here are some customer reports from 2006:

Plane was old, seats were very old. Flight attendant was, for a change, nice and smiling. Return was pathetic, plane was very late, but there was no information about the delay. Many frustrated passengers (with connections) were told to call the 1-800 number instead of talking to the attendant at the gate.

Crew must have been having a competition as to who could show the least amount of facial expression. The plane was late departing due to late arriving crew. The FA was clearly disconnected from her job and just going through the motions. She was so out of it she was still collecting garbage as the plane touched down. Will fly NW only if convenient.

Passengers on these same flights should eat their meals in the airport, as choices are limited to junk food once airborne; and their bag drop method, where agents shout out passengers names to come forward to have their bags tagged, is inelegant to say the least.

Seats were the old World Business Class types. No amenity kits or socks, for a flight that was more than 6 hours long! Food service was ok - but crew were inattentive and disappeared most of the time into the galleys.

Domestic service on 757 and 320 aircraft was fine and seating comfortable. Non alcoholic drinks were free. The only food option was a $5 snack box. Revolting. I don't know why they don't sell sandwiches on the longer domestic flights.

Returning to Bryson, when he questioned why an overhead baggage locker on an overland domestic service was filled with an inflatable life-raft, he was told, after the initial snappy “This plane meets FAA safety regulations” to sit down.

Northwest Airlines – clearly profit is no motive to them. Only passenger comfort and satisfaction. Read this for a further testimonial to this great company.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

[icelandic pervert] window peeper busted in akureyri

[Photo by Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson. Courtesy of Snow Magic]

I’m still not sure if this one is for real or not. Is it a regular festive thing or what? Is it some kind of tradition?

Window Peeper, the tenth yule lad, was arrested when peeping through windows in Akureyri, northeast Iceland, last night and accused of being a pervert. The yule lad had climbed up a gutter to get a better look through the windows on the upper floor of a fancy-looking house.

Suddenly a man peered out through the window and Window Peeper was so startled that he fell to the ground. Júlli.is reports. The man called out through the window that Window Peeper was a peeping tom and that he had called the police. The poor lad had twisted his ankle in the fall and couldn’t run.

When police arrived, they took Window Peeper to the hospital where his injury was attended to and then the police locked him up in a prison cell. “But I didn’t mind,” Window Peeper tells icelandreview.com. “Prisons are always talked of as ‘rocks’ but my cell is pretty comfy. They gave me lots of food and a small window with changing pictures, so I can observe people all the time,” he adds.

The ballad Jólasveinarnir describes Window Peeper as the nosiest of the 13 yule lads. He sneaks into town all year round to peep through windows. But Christmas is his favorite time of year, because he loves decorations and everything that glitters. He grabs any shiny thing that catches his eye.

The poor lad had twisted his ankle? I wrote once before about the journos up in Iceland and wrote to the paper to ask if they were for real. What do you think in this case? I'm puzzled.

[tagged] the seven best things you did this past year

Sorry to have to do it, coming up to Christmas - but they might go away before I tag them.

What are the seven [7] best things you did this past year?

Victims tagged:

Paul Linford [who tagged me last time]
Tom Paine [fellow citizen]
Notsaussure [the new breed of blogger]
Iain Dale [some of his own medicine back]
Mr. Eugenides [have to get Scotland in somehow]
Bel is thinking [one of the top ladies]
Gracchi [representing my mates]

Apologies to the Tin Drummer and Imagined Community, my comrades-in-arms. And my seven best things I did?

1] Started blogging and met those I did;
2] Kept the wolf from the door and kept in reasonable health;
3] Got involved in Blogpower with many of you;
4] Made the Swearbloggers Roundup;
5] Kept none of my new year’s resolutions from last year;
6] Remained incognito;
7] Didn’t run the other guy’s Mercedes off the road as I was tempted to do.

Someone please tag Praguetory and Tim Worstall.

[mass-murderer freed] bashir’s release a mockery

Indonesia's Supreme Court has ruled that convicted mass-murderer, cleric Abu Bakar Bashir did not give his blessing after all to the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 88 Australians,. The ruling overturns Bashir's conviction on conspiracy charges in the Bali bombings that killed a total of 202 people.

"The decision came out this morning from chief judge German Hoediarto. It says to free the defendant from all charges," Lauris Ramly, the head of the Supreme Court's judicial review unit said yesterday.

A five-judge panel of an Indonesian court ruled in 2005 that Bashir had known in advance of the Bali nightclub attacks. Western and regional intelligence officials say Bashir was the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a South-East Asian extremist group blamed for the Bali bombings and a string of other deadly attacks in Indonesia in recent years.

This makes a complete mockery of both the Indonesian judicial system and by association, the Islamic religion, by showing once and for all that it is not interested in truth and justice but in collusion and the sanctity of murder.

[propaganda] persuasion through deception

Here’s an interesting one:

Wikipedia states: “What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness to change people's understanding through deception and confusion, rather than through persuasion and understanding. “

When the press stoops to slanted articles and coloured terminology, under the guise of a supposedly reasoned and neutral editing policy, it is dispiriting. Example:

Humanists seek to halt religious advance [Robert Evans, Reuters, Geneva, July 3, 2005]

Humanists and atheists from East and West meet in Paris this week [July 4-7] to forge a common platform against what they see as a growing threat from religions and religious politicians across the globe.

Continued here …

[feng shui] worth weighing in the balance

The next time you walk into an office for a meeting, try to sit in a location where no sharp corner such as the corner of a desk, coffee table or filing cabinet is pointing at you . Why? It keeps you out of cutting chi, which will make you feel more comfortable, help you think more clearly and, perhaps, even be more creative.

Chi is one of the principles of feng shui, [fung shway] and means "wind and water" in Chinese and is an ancient Chinese science devoted to positioning buildings in the environment and objects within buildings to take advantage (or avoid the harmful effects) of chi, a form of energy which flows among all things in the universe. You radiate your own chi, and it collects within you and your surroundings.

Cutting chi is caused when a flow of chi energy passes a sharp corner, which causes it to eddy and swirl. If you're positioned within this swirl, it causes your personal chi to swirl as well, creating confusion, lowering your ability to think at your best.

There are four aspects - environment, structure, occupants and time. A feng shui consultant usually does considerable work with floorplans and compass readings to develop an analysis of a building and its effect on its inhabitants.

The building must be well-placed in its setting to protect the occupants from negative or stagnant chi, as well as from fast-flowing chi. The placement and use of rooms within the building, and furniture within the rooms, have their positive or negative effects on chi as well.

Feng shui uses a chart called the bagua that relates the points of the compass to sets of elements: the seasons, the major elements of fire, water, metal, soil and tree, the colors of the spectrum and the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Psychology, ecology, philosophy ergonomics, and thoughtful design are at the base of feng shui principles. At the center of the bagua is the yin-yang symbol, which expresses the idea that elements are opposite but not opposed.

The yin and the yang teach balance - hard and soft elements, masculine and feminine. Your workspace should balance and blend. And you should balance your life as well - working to the point of burnout doesn't pay off, either.

Some feng shui advice follows here …

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

[winning debates] two simple principles

Calling all Daleks: Carter versus Ford

No, I can’t claim it as one of my own [only wish]. It’s one of Vox’s:

It is amazing how many debates one can win by applying two simple measures:

1. Always ask your opponent to explain his open-ended statements.

2. Always be prepared with an answer for the questions that are most likely to be raised by your own statements.

Do those two things and you'll not only win 90 percent of your debates within the first two minutes, but you'll usually make the other person look like a drooling idiot besides.

It took me a long time to accept how little thought goes into the vast majority of human speech, but now that I've finally accepted that the average individual really does suffer from a virtual chromosome disorder, I no longer find myself in a constant state of bemused astonishment.

[good news] vitamin d may lower ms risk

From CNN: the "sunshine vitamin" may do more than promote healthy bones; it may ward off multiple sclerosis, one of the most common neurological diseases affecting young adults.

A study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health offers some of the strongest evidence yet that people with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood were at lower risk for later developing the disease.

Researchers found that among white people, the risk for multiple sclerosis was lowest among those with the highest vitamin D levels, and highest for those with the lowest vitamin D levels. Among black people, who researchers say have a naturally lower level of vitamin D in their blood because of the pigment in their skin, no significant associations between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis risk were found.

Doctors still don't know what causes MS, but many are convinced heredity plays a role. Women with MS tend to outnumber men 3-1. Where you live and exposure to sunlight are also factors. Research has shown in regions where there is more sunlight and vitamin D levels are higher, there are fewer cases of MS than in those with less sunlight.

Vitamin D is unique. The fat-soluble vitamin is found naturally in foods such as milk, cheese, fish and fortified juices and cereals. It can also be produced in the body by exposure to sunlight. More is not better: The Institute of Medicine warns that excessive intake of supplemental vitamin D can have serious, toxic effects on the body, including excessive calcium levels in the blood, high blood pressure, nausea, poor appetite, weakness, constipation, impaired kidney function and kidney damage.

So, smoked salmon, cream cheese and a glass of Kefir seem to be indicated.

More on Vitamin D here.
[Please note that the CNN link for this story doesn't work - distorts the page and takes the photo.]

[good news] freedom tower rises from the ashes

Three steel beams, one bearing the signatures of 9/11 victims' families, were put into place in a groundbreaking ceremony, as work has finally begun on the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in New York. Three huge steel beams, one of which was covered with poignant messages from families of 9/11 victims, were ceremoniously lowered into place Tuesday to mark the beginning of the construction work.

Construction workers, politicians and architects looked on and applauded as a massive crane lifted the first 31-foot (9.3-meter) beam and set it in place on the southern edge of the tower's base. The 25-ton column was painted with an American flag and the words "Freedom Tower."

The downside is that human remains were recently discovered at the Ground Zero site but we needn’t go into that. For once, let’s lay aside our cynicism, our political views, our search for ulterior motives and let’s applaud a new beginning - the rebirth of a badly shaken nation. Attack the politicos by all means, attack the policies but let's support the people.

[good news] milan bans the waif

Why do they always look so empty? Because they’re half-starved, poor dears

Well, the homosexual fashion mafia have finally been brought to heel.

The Italian fashion capital Milan has formally barred ultra-skinny and under-age models ahead of its February catwalk shows, as the fashion world comes under pressure to promote a healthier image. The agreement signed on Monday between the city and its powerful fashion industry bans models under 16 and those with a body mass index of less than 18.50 from Milan's shows.

The accord also includes courses on healthy eating and exercise and calls for a variety of clothing sizes in shows. Body mass index is the ratio of weight to the square of height - so that a 1.73 m (5 foot 8 inch) model who weighed less than 55.4 kg (122 lb) would be barred. Brazil and Spain are also involved in banning under-age, under-weight models.

Now let me do a quick calculation here … height … square of height … divide … hmmm … my body mass index comes to … 234.8! No, that can’t be right. Let me try again. Er … 26.72. Yes, 26.72. Expect to see me on the catwalk next season, people – I’ll be the slightly balding one in the tutu waddling and pirouetting, not unlike John Belushi in the Blues Brothers.

[notices] apology, blogpower, spammer

When I sent the Blogfocus advices out last evening, I'd already briefly posted the piece to get the url to put in the letter. Then I saved it to 'draft' and awaited 21:00. When I opened it again to post for real, a small change occurred at the end of the url, I know not how, thus rendering all links I'd sent out useless. For this I sincerely apologize.

Blogpower update: apart from blowing out to proportions I'd never thought possible when I did that rant, the Tin Drummer has gone offscreen [can't get replies to e-mails, can't comment on his site] but I think one of the explanations is that he is in Cheltenham today being interviewed by Chris Vallance for 5 Live on the topic of Blogpower. Should be entertaining. I don't know what time, sorry and I don't think he was sure of that either. Hope it goes well.

On the theme of sending out notices, I really try to individualize as much as possible and only send to blogfriends who are half expecting it. I'm diametrically opposed to spamming people to come to this site - hence nourishing obscurity and my miniscule site stats. And yet that is precisely what some new conservative blogger did in the last two days.

It began with something like: "Hi, I'm one of the regular visitors to your site ..." and so on. He was a conservative and he said I was already blogrolled at his site. Though it appeared, in tone, to be a form letter, when I visited it seemed to be a genuine new site, until I saw that I was not blogrolled at all but the big names - Dale, Fawkes etc., were blogrolled. Did this happen to you too?

I deleted the letter from this man.

[festive season] looking rationally at this thing

I’ve already posted twice on Christmas and New Year here and here but I was hardly expecting the peerless Doctor Vee to come out with similar sentiments on this enforced enjoyment. As Duncan says:

...Except that people don’t enjoy themselves at Christmas time. They just get totally stressed out. That’s what I hate about Christmas. It’s not Christmas itself. It’s the whole fuss that surrounds it. It completely misses the point for me, which is to cheer yourself up during the winter. Ideally, the run-up to Christmas would last for a week, rather than three months. I haven’t even started any of my Christmas shopping yet — mostly because I haven’t had the time. Most Christmas traditions completely pass me by.

But now I am faced with a dilemma. Colleagues have been giving me Christmas cards. It must be at least four years since I personally received a Christmas card. For me, exchanging Christmas cards is one of the most insincere things that people do at this time of year, and that really is saying something.

I mean, I never receive Christmas cards from my friends, and I never give them cards either. Does that mean I wish them a rubbish Christmas? Of course it doesn’t. It just means I’m not wasting as much paper. I can just wish people a Merry Christmas anyway. Why give them a card? Often the process of gift-giving is completely avoided as well. Two of my friends ceremoniously exchange five pound notes every year...

Please don't get me wrong. It's not the bonhommie, the coming together of family and the pleasure that brings I'm so down on. I hope it's wonderful that way for you. No, it's the way commercialism has hijacked the time of year and the way people seem to take leave of their senses in wanting to force you to do the same.

There's one other aspect. Having lost my last remaining family member this August and having only one lady companion to call family, there's not a lot for me and I'm sure, for many others, to celebrate at this time. I by no means begrudge you your joyous hearth but all it does for me is make me feel loneliness and longing for those who have gone.

My blogheader is my way of saying to you all: “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and may love abound at your hearthplace.”

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

[lexicon] next ten handy shakespearean taunts

Short of a barbed taunt to hurl at the object of your ire? The first ten can be found here. The second ten are below:

1] [Thou art] as loathsome as a toad. [Troilus and Cressida]
2] Thou art baser than a cutpurse. [The Two Noble Kinsmen]
3] Thou thing of no bowels thou! [Troilus and Cressida]
4] Come, come, you talk greasily; your lips grow foul. [Love's Labour's Lost]
5] [Thou hath] not so much brain as ear wax. [Troilus and Cressida]
6] Thou art the rudeliest welcome to this world. [Pericles]
7] Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, start up and stand on end. [Hamlet]
8] Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee. [All's Well That Ends Well]
9] Thou mewling dizzy-eyed flirt-gill! You are a fishmonger. [Hamlet]
10] Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth. [Hamlet]

[blogfocus tuesday] everything you wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask

When it comes to sex, straight down to it is often the best way:

1 Sex is not always what you were expecting it to be. Blognor Regis wonders why a transsexual got all upset over the reaction he [or she] was accorded:

Well what did this person expect? One week you're a burly fitter with bulging biceps and a mighty butt cleavage and the next you're going for a cockectomy and growing a pair of jugs. You think nobody is going to mention it? And isn't it a bit arrogant of the person to demand everybody around him/her/it holds their tongue? Of course people are going to talk about your sex change. Far better to leave your job and start a fresh somewhere new where they won't know the old you if you're going to get touchy about it.

2 Still in the ‘out of the ordinary’ category, Tea & Margaritas [and you should check out this girl’s photo] explains what has to be done when the real thing is not available:

Finally, I made it to the inflatable doll section. I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute as a passenger in my truck so I could use the car pool lane during rush hour. Finding what I wanted was difficult. Love dolls come in many different models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could do things I'd only seen in a book on animal husbandry. I settled for "Lovable Louise." She was at the bottom of the price scale. To call Louise a "doll" took a huge leap of imagination. On Christmas Eve, with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life.

3 Political sex is a time-worn tradition in English and American politics – well, all politics really – and Iain Dale’s recent piece reports on the latest cheeky contribution:

Rumour has it that Lembit Opik has ditched his fiancee, weathergirl Sian Lloyd for one of the Cheeky Girls. The full story's in [the] Mail on Sunday. There may well be a good reason for him being fancied by a Cheeky Girl. According to an MP of my acquaintance, he is, er, how shall I put this... Well, he's at the opposite end of the scale to John Prescott in a particular area. I'll leave you to guess the rest.

Sizzling snippets from 12 more bloggers here plus this evening’s well known Mystery Blogger...

[litvinenko] why were the statements made in russian

The news said that tests on two staff members at the Millennium Hotel in central London and on one at the Sheraton Hotel have shown exposure to polonium-210, Britain's Health Protection Agency said. Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare said a Swede who had visited one of the hotels had "slightly elevated" levels of polonium.

What I find interesting is why they have to translate the statements made in Moscow into English back in London. Why were the statements made in Russian in the first place, seeing as it was a British investigative team? The category of witness who so far has been and would have been involved in this case would almost certainly speak tolerable English, so why this retreat into ‘no speako Angliski’?

In the last five years, it’s fair to say that the majority of young people and much of the business community in the major Russian cities have learnt English, at least to conversational level, there are teachers of English everywhere who would have been more than competent and even if it had to be done formally, there are translation services dotted around. But the thing is, once again – most speak English. I can only see the insistence on speaking Russian as obstructive in this situation.

[think it through] libya sentences nurses to death

My first thought on seeing this was ‘not guilty’ but slowly, I began to wonder – what if? What if they had done it? And for good reason too. But I get ahead of myself. Here’s the story in a nutshell, depoliticized and expunged of Bulgarian and Libyan protests and Western outrage:

Six foreign health workers jailed in Libya for years on charges of deliberately infecting children with the AIDS virus were convicted and sentenced to death in a case that has long sparked international outrage and did so again Tuesday. The nurses and doctor have been in jail since 1999 on charges that they spread the HIV virus to more than 400 children at a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi during a botched experiment to find a cure for the disease.

Western nations blame the infections on unsanitary conditions at Libyan hospitals and accuse Tripoli of using the six health workers as scapegoats. Detained for nearly seven years, the defendants had previously been convicted and condemned to death, but Libyan judges granted them a retrial last year after international protests over the fairness of the proceedings.

An international legal observer, Francois Cantier, of Lawyers Without Borders, promptly criticized the retrial as lacking scientific rigor. Research published this month said samples from the infected children showed their viruses were contracted before the six defendants started working at the hospital in question.

Luc Montagnier _ the French doctor who co-discovered HIV - testified in the first trial that the virus was active in the hospital before the Bulgarian nurses began their contracts there in 1998. More evidence for that argument surfaced on Dec. 6 _ too late to be submitted in court _ when Nature magazine published an analysis of HIV and hepatitis virus samples from the children.

Idriss Lagha, the president of a group representing the victims, rejected the Nature article, telling a news conference in London on Monday that the nurses had infected the children with a "genetically engineered" virus. He accused them as doing so for research on behalf of foreign intelligence agencies.

Whew! Gadhafi asked Bulgaria for compensation which it rejected and that might be behind the convictions too. On the other hand, that last accusation of a "genetically engineered" virus – why not? Stop one second before you angrily click out of my blog. The scientific community has always chafed against ethical constraints which forces them to experiment on animals.

This is why such scientific advances were made in World War II because the shackles were off. There were plenty of Jews to do with as they wished. We know that many of these scientists were at large and there’s no reason to believe that scientific enquiry has ceased since that time. Science is dispassionate. It also needs money. Where is this sort of money? The US and Europe of course. Where are human rights of a lower order in Europe and people’s threshold of what they’re prepared to do for money somewhat lower? The fSU of course.

Now – where could one experiment and get away with it? Africa? Where else? Also, if you wanted to wipe out a few million people, especially those who are being a tad tiresome, e.g. Muslims, who better to experiment on than Gadhafi’s people? And Iran’s. But you couldn’t get your foot into Iran and you’re already in Iraq. Gadhafi, though, has been trying to butter up to the world lately and you might be able to do some exchange whereby you provide medical ‘help’. In other words, you have an ‘in’ into Libya which you don’t have elsewhere.

I’m not saying this is so but I really think we should ponder a little about the victims’ advocate’s words before deciding.

Monday, December 18, 2006

[olfactory issues] the nose knows

How much of this do you believe? Do you believe that:

Humans can detect very small concentrations of certain chemicals, experts said. One example is androstenedione, a compound present in human sweat. If you put a drop of it in an Olympic-size swimming pool, a human being is able to tell the difference between the pool with the drop and the pool without it.

Researchers suggest that humans may use their nostrils in a way similar to how they use their ears to locate a sound. If you drop a coin on the floor, you know where to look. The brain converts auditory information into spatial information. The brain does a very fast computation to tell you where things are. Similarly, the human brain takes advantage of different sensory input from the right and left nostril to locate the smell.

Traditionally, women spend more time in the kitchen, and studies have shown that they are generally better smellers than men. Women are not necessarily born with a better olfactory sense, it's that they pay more attention to smells because of cooking and putting on perfume.

More here …

[brave new world] of america and euroscepticism

Nicholas Biddle, object of Jackson’s ire

I’d like to thank Martin Kelly for drawing my attention to Pat Buchanan’s blog. It gives a US perspective but still, it’s equally applicable to Europe – more so because of the EU and that’s the primary reason I’m Eurosceptic. It’s a training run for the real thing.

I’d forgotten the House memorandum he quotes: On November 21, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote a letter to Col. Edward Mandell House, President Woodrow Wilson’s close advisor:

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson… "

That there is such a thing as a cabal of power brokers who control government behind the scenes has been detailed several times in this century by credible sources. Professor Carroll Quigley was Bill Clinton’s mentor at Georgetown University. President Clinton has publicly paid homage to the influence Professor Quigley had on his life. In Quigley’s magnum opus Tragedy and Hope (1966), he states:

"There does exist and has existed for a generation, an international … network which operates, to some extent, in the way the radical right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups and frequently does so. I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960s, to examine its papers and secret records.

I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments. I have objected, both in the past and recently, to a few of its policies… but in general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known."

[brave new world] tony’s not to blame

Once, at a stag night, the stripper took me aside and said: ‘You’re not taking this seriously. It makes me nervous.’
She was right about that. Once, as a schoolboy, my report said and I remember exactly: ‘Inclined to take the more serious aspects of [that institution] too flippantly.’

Another way it comes through: If you’ve rubbed up against real money once or twice, you’d know it’s certainly intoxicating. Once, in a hotel lounge in a European capital, I got talking with a chap and one thing led to another, we were whisked away to a location where some sort of party was going on, then to a high rise building I know not where in the night and the thing which struck me most was the hush and the hygiene.

Everything was clean, the carpet was plush, the double doors opening were silent, the leather car seats transported us behind darkened windows and in silence, except for discreet music on the CD, everywhere we were met by big smiles and opened doors. The lift was interminable as a padded cell, nothing was a problem, there was absolutely no fuss.

Then, in clinches of conversation, glass in hand, you were either summed up and marginalized or lifted, raised into some newer echelon. Level by level you went up and up but you had to care. I never cared. But many do and one top blogger recently wrote of this marginalization. He cared and it hurt. Once you've tasted this water, you couldn't bear to think of being parted from it.

Tony Blair

[puzzled] where is everyone this evening

I wonder what’s going on? Came home just now and though it was a bit after peak hour, still – you’d expect some traffic on the roads but it was virtually empty and I went past only three road accidents – three! Hometime is usually good for five or six. Went to the shop to pick up groceries and usually this involves queues – empty.

Came home, checked my site stats and it’s the lowest number of visitors since my very first month. Am I missing something here? Do people not like the apocalyptic articles or women’s issues? Have I posted one too many embarrassing rants?

Well, the proverb I’ve always lived by is, “If you’re treading on thin ice, you might as well dance,” so what else but to follow this up with an uber-uber-rant and really go down in flames?

[mutual support monday] magnificent day

As we awake to the new working week, let's declare today magnificent Monday, mutual support Monday, when we concentrate all our mental energies on positivity and block all attempts to bring us down. Today is going to be a lovely day and we're going to do at least one nice thing in the middle of the rest of the mayhem.

[the blair agenda] the inexorable militarization of society

Chicken Yoghurt’s current toon

Chicken Yoghurt has a category under “pet peeves” called the evil of banality. This is a nice switcheroo of the quote about Eichmann. My last post is so banal it bores and will doubtless attract few readers today.

Yet it is so glaringly obvious for those who would see – this is the progressive militarization of society and is in accordance with [which is NOT the same as saying ‘directed by’] the hidden power which is not Blair [he’s just the puppet who does their will]. I’m more than aware that each blogger has his ranting topic [e.g. managerialism, erosion of rights etc.] and mine is the hidden power.

Every single move by the Blair government, from the quiet acceptance of judicial decisions favouring the perpetrator to the NHS Spine to the EU Beast [which they brazenly and openly state and Blair favours], every move of Bush and Cheney, the provocation of the Muslim world which let loose the crazies onto the west, thereby giving the Power the terrorist justification for draconian legislation, the erosion of all moral values, supplanted by the acquisitive instinct as paramount – all of it points to a momentum directed against the family and the individual human being.

All of you write about these things each day but don’t tackle the Power behind it. You have your reasons. As for me, I’ll keep writing until they shut me down or feel I’m sufficiently marginalized not to bother about [then they’ll pick me up later when my readership drops to 20 or so].

[big brother] of espionage and road pricing

Toll station requiring e-cards which they euphemistically label "e-z cards"

Gavin Ayling writes of Road Spying and clearly the issue hasn’t reached some people’s consciousness yet. Gavin writes: If you:

• care about civil liberties
• drive a car/motorcycle/van
• rely, ever, on anyone who does (plumber, carpenter, gardener, Royal Mail)
• ever break the speed limit

... which most people will do all of, then sign the Road Pricing Petition!

A commenter, Benvolio Foster, queries: How is this an issue of Civil Liberty?

Your current poster responds: Because, Benvolio, it's the coupling of road pricing PLUS tracking. It's the tracking they've slipped in there virtually unnoticed and that is a major issue of civil liberty. They could easily have a drop bin at turnpikes or a man on a window and true, he could note vehicle reg they're looking for but the plastic card e-system stinks. It is police state tactics.

The rule of thumb with absolutely anything the outgoing New Labour is doing is to look at the fine print and see which civil issue is coupled or tacked on at the end. Fortunately, there are a few eagle-eyed bloggers about who see these things and THAT is one of the prime reasons for blogging and blogsurfing.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

[modern mother speaks out] to marry or to co-habit

Morag has just bent my mind on a topic I’ve been itching to get stats on – marriage versus cohabiting.

She asks: What does this topic have to do with politics?

I say: Everything! It’s symptomatic of the whole screwball way our society has gone.

She continues: So, however much we don’t like it, there are some home-truths we might need to face up to. Here are a few things we may want to think about:

• Unions where people are cohabiting are more likely to break up than marriages.

• Most such unions last less than 2 years before breaking up (or sometimes changing to marriage)

• Co-habitations with children are more likely to end

• 50% of women who have children in a cohabitating relationship will end up as lone-unmarried mothers

• Looking at children born in 1997 show that 70% of those born into households where their parents are married will spend their entire childhood with both their parents, whereas only 36 % of those children born into cohabiting households will have that experience. (*Civitas.org.uk goes into all this in more detail)

More than anything children crave stability. Also there are often very radical financial consequences which cause additional changes and far-reaching repercussions for a very young child to deal with. I have walked this path and continue to do so. Morag is just a parent trying to close the distance between what we read in the papers and what we live in our own lives.

There’s nothing really to add to this.

[breastfeeding] does it make children smarter

Are breastfed children smarter? Three Scottish scientists say the evidence points in both directions, making a definitive conclusion impossible. They found that breastfed children scored higher on measures of cognitive functioning than other kids. The key question is what accounts for the higher score?

Is it something intrinsic in mother's milk or in the profoundly physical and emotional act of breastfeeding itself? Are long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in mother's milk important for the development of the central nervous system and intelligence or is it the intimate contact between a mother and her baby while breastfeeding that might affect the brain's development in ways still not understood?

Previous research has indicated that premature infants realise larger gains in mental functioning after being breastfed than full-term babies, suggesting that this form of nutrition might be particularly important for neurological development. Against that, "Children who were breastfed had mothers with higher IQ and with more education and who were older, less likely to be in poverty or to smoke and more likely to provide a more stimulating and supportive home environment," the reserchers wrote.

And for all mums, including those fighting for the right to breastfeed in public without being hassled, the truth remains: "It's almost always better to breastfeed, without exception, even though we don't know all the answers to all the questions we have about its impact," said Brenda Snyder, breastfeeding coordinator for the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Maybe we should just think about it one moment. Which would you rather feed on – a piece of rubber or something more natural and which would leave you feeling warmer and happier afterwards?

[royal family] glastonbury, roslyn and the grail

Prince William and friends

I was puzzling over the significance of Glastonbury for William and Roslyn Chapel for the Queen but now it’s a bit clearer.

Sothely glastenbury is the holyest erth of england. loseph Ab Arimathia, with his sone losefes, went into Fraunce to seynt Phylyp and he sent Joseph and his sone with others into Brytayne & at last they came to a place then called Inswytryn, nowe called glastonburye (Prose Life of Joseph [1516]; ed. Skeat, pp. 33-4.)

In the late twelfth century Joseph's name turns up in the French Grail romances when, in an early continuation of Chretien de Troyes' unfinished poem Perceval ou Le Conte du Graal, it is narrated that the nebulous object described by Chretien is none other than the very dish in which Joseph collected Christ's blood after the Crucifixion - the elusive Grail is seen in the continuation as a relic from the Crucifixion.

Shortly before 1200 Robert de Boron wrote a five-part sequence of poems concerning the complete history of the Grail and its travels from the Holy Land to Britain. Later, in Perlesvaus, it’s related that Joseph collected the Holy Blood at the time of the Crucifixion and was later imprisoned by the Jews for burying Jesus.

Miraculously escaping from prison Joseph travelled to Britain where he became the ancestor of an unbroken line of valiant knights. When Perlesvaus departed from this castle he took Joseph's body with him on the red-cross ship which carried him to the Other World.

Read on for some snippets about our royals and other goodies …