Saturday, October 20, 2007

[england] not this time, lads

Oh well, we can but dream.

[blogfocus saturday] controversial opinions

1. David Farrer gets half the issue right on warming:
This week's newspaper reviewers were Carol Thatcher and "Comedian and Actor" Patrick Kielty. I took an instant dislike to Mr Kielty because he spent the programme squatting on one of his legs so that his shoe looked like it was scuffing the license-payers' sofa. Straightaway I had him marked down as a leftist.

Sure enough my intuition was proven correct when the subject of Al Gore's Nobel Prize for Fiction Peace was discussed. To be fair, Kielty wondered why Gore was getting a Nobel Prize for Peace. (Kielty is from Northern Ireland.) But he spoiled it all by saying that Gore was merely stating the obvious - that the world is heating up. But that's not what Gore is on about. Gore claims that global warming is primarily caused by the actions of humans - and that's certainly not accepted by all scientists.
The thing is that it is actually happening but it has been cynically seized on to the point that detractors of the cynics swing wildly the other way and deny anything is due to human agency. Remember, David, that Them is "human agency" too - not just the common man.

2. Matt Sinclair is writing about political bias at the LSE but as I commented, it has always been the way at universities, particularly if the opinion is leftist. Impartial is not a word which comes into student politics very much:
Also, the LSE is a very international university and, although I can't find statistics, I know that Israeli students do attend. This kind of massively biased language coming from Students' Union officers who are supposed to be looking after students' interests could contribute to creating a real climate of fear. We've all grown accustomed to students saying crazy things but the manner in which this extremism was expressed makes it worrying in the way a lone crank sounding off is not.
3. The Morningstar challenges lovers of good armchairs to rethink their values:
Armchairs really are the problem, I need an armchair that will keep me upright and stop me from slumping to one side while it supports my back, it also need solid arms at the right height to help me stand up. Most modern armchairs fail as they are more like bean bags with vestigial arms, I might as well sit on a bin bag filled with jelly. A lot of the fancy recliners fail for just being too low or they swivel in a way that means I can’t use them to support myself as I get up.
4. Julie is perhaps taking this obesity permission a bit literally:
Obesity 'not individuals fault' - BBC - so straight down to Greggs the Baker for me in the morning, then, it is. Yipee!

..except it appears to be a disappointingly misleading headline which is not supported by what follows - an outline of a report calling for more wide-ranging government initiatives to help in addressing the issues of obesity rather than merely assuming that people will be able to look after their own health and weight in view of the bad food stuffs which flood the market, and today's sedentary lifestyles.

I really am fancying one of those cream doughnuts by now, though...I do love cakes...and biscuits...and chocolate. I am sure half the people in this town have put on an extra stone since Greggs the Baker opened here a couple of years ago. :-)

[science quiz] about time for another

1. What name is "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" now known?

2. The prefix mega- is a millionfold in the SI units and giga- is a billion. Tera is a trillion but what is the quadrillionfold (10 to the power of 15) prefix?

3. What does CAT stand for in a CAT-scan?

4. What is 0º Fahrenheit in centigrade?

5. What is an eolic power station?

6. What is an Ishihara test used for?

7. What is panphobia?

8. Where, in a household, would you find a magnetron?

9. What would a Conchologist be interested in?

10. Which crop is attacked by the boll weevil?

Answers here

[isolation] ye olde iceland

Not too long ago there were inhabited places in Iceland that were not served by roads.
The Öraefi at Skaftafell, in the shadow of Vatnajökull glacier, was one the most isolated places in Europe, blocked on all four sides by the glacier in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the south and mighty rivers to the east and west.
The excerpt above, from Iceland Review, highlights the problem of tourism - thousands traipsing through hitherto untouched communities and landscapes and what it does to both the environment and the locals.

Though the article says that there is still a rustic welcome for the "guest", it must, by definition be different - if only in the spirit of community greed. And the behaviour of tourists generally must exacerbate that problem.

I saw an appalling instance in France many years ago where the man really did drop into Pidgin French after he'd gone through the hard business of finding an "authentic" French cafe - it was highly embarrassing.

Years ago, at a pub in Goathland, I was entertaining a young lady whose stock answer to mention of any geographic destination was: "Did that". China? "Did China last October."

How does one "do" China? Intercourse with the majority of residents in each city? How many tourists take a "been there, intercoursed that" approach?

Simplified and yet to the point article here about "the ugly tourist":
The principle reason for this aberrant behavior comes from a simple case of cultural shock. The travel industry endorses a “museum-scope” perspective by promoting traveling mainly as entertainment, not as an enriching experience of cultural exchanges.

It presents a tight schedule of sightseeing and show performances but neglects to provide an exchange program for tourists to interact actively in the local environment with the people. Therefore, the tourists expect to absorb all they can without giving up any part of themselves (set of beliefs or values) in the learning part of international exchange.
Maybe it's not just the travel industry - surely it's the purpose of the visit and in this the dollar or euro reigns.

Most people I know would bridle at being called a tourist - independent traveller sounds so much better - and yet one wonders how far the dislocation to communities and even wildlife can be countenanced.

I plan to ask the dolphins at Monkey Mia one day that very question but then I'd just be another tourist - Catch 22.

[england] swing low, sweet chariot?

The Big Day cometh:

"I'd like to be able to erase the memories of a 36-0 defeat but unfortunately they don't go away," said Vickery.

"But whatever has happened in the past counts for nothing, it's a one-off game.

"We thoroughly deserve our chance but being here is not good enough - we want to go out and perform and retain our trophy."

Ashton said in his final news conference on Friday: "All in all it's been a very good, relaxed week's training.

"There have been one or two changes tactically, which I will keep to myself for you to hopefully see tomorrow, but we're feeling good. Will there be something different from us? Maybe."

Friday, October 19, 2007

[cecilia] you're still breaking my heart

Nothing here to change this opinion. Forgive me but I still think she's spoilt.

[new mac] fourth post

Part 1

Well, this is really weird stuff. This is a test post and I'm sitting in an armchair blogging with the new Mac.

My dream, though, is somewhat different - to blog from the phrontistery - the loo! The Airport remote thingy is working well so far but the new printer was making awful noises before it settled down and acclimatized to its new home.

So, having written this, time to try the graphics. Oh wow, they actually work! Down side is that with Safari, there are no hyperlinks in Blogger so clearly some way to go still.

Boys' toys, didn't one of the girls say?

Part 2

Well, well, downloaded Firefox and for a while I thought the lack of Justifying and Hyperlinks were problems of the Blogger/Mac interface but fortunately Firefox solved it. Yippee! I can link to you now.

Now, do you remember what I threatened to do at the beginning of this post? Yep - that's where I am now. Just thought you needed to know that. Hope I press the right button. :)

[new mac] third post

I feel like a Time Lord who's just about to go through a regeneration.

This is the last post on the old system and then I attempt this evening, all on my ownsome, to install the new Mac, WiFi, new printer and some sort of internet to tide me over until they eventually install the cable.

Here's Russia in a nutshell - the idea was that for a most reasonable sum, this company comes in, zip, whir, bang and cable's installed. A few minutes later it's configured to the new base station.

Easy peasy.

First, they didn't turn up when arranged. Phone calls through the next few days and their phone calls back which missed my Russian friend who's negotiating this thing and we're now in an endless loop.

Today I insisted he track them down.

OK - early evening, some sing-song girl calls me from the company and asks me things in rapid-fire Russian. I refer her back to my friend then call him back. She wondered if I wanted TV and radio and a trip to the moon for a most reasonable extra charge.

Er, no - we'd just like the fr-gg-n' cable put in, if it's not too much trouble [of course we didn't say that]. My friend now explains to me that actually they have 21 days to put it in from the timing of the contract.

I see. That had not been mentioned earlier.

I explain that I have an old system which only boots on the third attempt, which allows me two windows at a time, which takes 7 minutes average these days, as it gets more and more geriatric, to enter someone's blog and another 3 to comment, if I'm lucky the first time.

"Well, you've got the Mac and the new printer," [the old one doesn't match the new Mac], he points out, "why don't you install it all and use the dial-up facility until the cable people arrange a time?"

"Because it costs half my worldly goods for an hour in the net that way. I'm currently on call-back under the old system and it costs chicken feed [concept needed explaining to a city slicker]."

"Well that company you're with also offer broadband. I don't know why you don't use it, now you have the equipment."

"Because I didn't know about it. It's all in Russian."

So that's how it was all left. Atheists - wish me luck please and Believers - pray that it all now works. If you ever hear from me again, it will be in a new incarnation, just like the good Doc.

[blogfocus friday] blogpowerers present and past

1. Colin Campbell, birthday boy, is musing on the sun:

Living in the sunniest country in the world, it always surprised me that there wasn't a solar cell on every house. Now I know part of the reason why. Those climate change denying, coal loving politicians who run this country just didn't believe in one of the leading technologies underpinning solar power, developed here in Australia and sold to a German company, which has exploited it and is now exporting it back to Australia. This kind of short sighted thinking is very typical of this mob, where Big Coal is King.

2. Lady Macleod live-blogs and fills us in on her rooting [slight cultural, lexical mix up here]:

I had a very productive day indeed. The weather is bloody brilliant – heavy misting rain to outright downpours and 10 to 12 degrees C. Thank you Canada. I love it! My other suitcase (the one with my clothes) arrived during the night, and was delivered to my room this morning. The FedEx package with my shoes and the Princess coat arrived shortly thereafter – so I’m dressed now.

The hotel is nice, and my room has a huge picture window, a roomy couch, desk, and tables, along with a big comfy bed, and a view of the mountains. Good lighting in the bathroom (this is important chaps believe me), and good service so far.

3. Shades has been whacked, apparently:

Googlewhack! I received an unsolicited email this morning telling me that my blog is a Googlewhack. I contrived to make it one once before but this is genuine and discovered by someone else. I'm the only website in the world with an onomatapapaeic carpet. Check it is still the case here.

4. Cassilis is neither pro-Europe nor anti, as far as I can gather:

With one or two notable exceptions I find both sides in this debate intensely irritating. Too often the Europhile agenda seems built on nothing more substantial than an intense self-loathing, distrust of the US and a belief that further integration will help facilitate more social democracy than any Westminster election could deliver.

Exaggerated fear?

The Europhobe agenda often boils down to an exaggerated fear of that same social democratic ‘creep’, a ridiculously outdated view on ‘Johnny Foreigner’ and a geopolitical outlook still rooted in the 19th century. As with most issues the middle ground between these extremes probably represents the sensible way forward but navigating this path is all but impossible in the current climate.

[courtney] on what free speech really means

Courtney Hamilton doesn't come out with posts all that often but when he does, they're usually gems:

Unlike some left leaning political commentators in the blogsphere, who argue that they 'support free speech, but...' - my belief in the right to free speech is unconditional.

That means there is no such thing as partial free of speech, or free speech for me, but not for them. As far as I'm concerned, free speech is not divisable - we either have it or we don't - and I say, we should have it all.

The worst thing about this whole affair is that the BNP and its supporters can now occupy the high moral ground and claim it is they who are the real champions of free speech.

So yes, seeing Nick Griffin and Irving standing on a public platform arguing that 'no one can take their freedom away' is enough to make me puke - but those on the left standing outside the Free Speech Forum with placards demanding bans are in mine eye, even more sickening.

[europe] broon, sarko and the day freedom died

"I told you not to worry, Alfred! I told you I'd stitch Britain up, didn't I?"

"Yes but what about England, Broony?"

"Didn't we agree not to mention that unspeakable place again? Take it from me, Freddy - those bstds have no chance."

Firstly, will you all bow your heads for one minute and say a silent prayer of farewell for freedom in Europe:

Thursday, October 18th

Sad day for Europe, sad day for the World.

Secondly, it's not as if French workers weren't warned - train drivers and electricity workers get benefits "which allow them to retire on full benefits as early as 50" and are a product of post-war Europe.

Such a system now costs the government around 6bn euros (£4.18bn; $8bn) a year and Mr Sarkozy insists the state coffers simply do not have enough money any more for these generous handouts. Only if negotiations with the unions fail would he force through a solution, he promised, but the unions are clearly taking no chances.

It's very interesting - the old capital v labour issue of the 1880s with one added factor: "v EU". As in the USSR, workers have enjoyed conditions which are no longer supportable in a market economy and yet … and yet.

A glance at the map above shows that the city workers largely went for Segie and now here is the opponent removing their benefits, with the approving nods of regional and well off blue sections of the country.

This blogger has always been sceptical of the desire of one part of a population to legislate for another, such as socialist attempts to "redistribute" other people's earnings. I'd like to know how the blues would react to being dispossessed too - if there are to be cuts, let all share the misery equally.

Sarkozy stands with the EU and French flags intertwined but if the obscene EU corruption and wastage were reversed and France truly looked after French interests instead of subsidizing already bloated, invisible plutocrats, substantial benefits could still be passed on to the workers.

Of course, that was the devil's EU bargain with Sarko - he'd get the nod if he'd squeeze the workers but perhaps there's a little of the rogue elephant to him and he might wangle something out of the EU which Segie clearly could not have done.

"Work more to earn more" sounds a fine mantra but it doesn't seem so wonderful in a different form: "work more to subsidize obscene EU wastage".

Thirdly, the divorce was inevitable really, wasn't it?

Dangerous to pontificate, without knowing the whole story but I can't help feeling that both Segelene's partner and Sarkozy's could have been a little less "into me" and a little more "for France" - neither greatly impress as human beings.

You could say that about Sarko and Segie too [living in sin with four children and loopy ideas about sexuality] but they are not just themselves - they are the nation. There is no sexism in this - her man should have realized the conditions. First Lady, First Man - the rules of the game are the same.

Say what you like about the British Firm being a dysfunctional family but they knew what duty was, something the Queen Mother had in great measure but Diana never took on board. For all her faults, I'd prefer the Queen Mother.

So, here we are back in the United Scottish Kingdom and we need a referendum on the EU. Any chance, Broon?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

[colin campbell] haggiso ageth

Happy Birthday to Colin;
Happy Birthday to Colin;
Happy Birthday to Colin Campbell;
Happy Birthday to Haggiso!

48 years old - yippee!!!

My prezzie to you, Colin, is here. I flatly refuse to kiss you as your wife and children did.

[segie and sarko] googling free

Do you have a particular post which people seem to Google a lot? Mine is here, according to Sitemeter and today they're hitting it like crazy. I've written a lot of posts on Segie and Sarko so why this one in particular, I fail to see. Still, who's complaining?

[blogfocus thursday] define the word - normal

1. Attention, attention, we have a French, Hawaiian, Sicilian blogger on our hands - Jacquelyn le Blanc:

I have a really short attention span. If it's longer than an MTV video...I get bored. Shopping with my mom is MUCH LONGER than an MTV video to the tune of two and a half hours in the NEX. But it was her birthday so I kept my squirming and snarling to myself. And tried to keep my father entertained.

2. I always believe every word of Mutley's:

Having escaped from the mountain of pies I decided to repair to The Woodman to enjoy a few pints of Old Lesbian No.3 - a special red autumnal brew now on sale - where who should I met but my old friend Menzies (Ming) Campbell! I did not see him as I went in - two radioactive howler monkeys were arm wrestling at the bar and eating cherries from a saucer.

3. Ólafur Kr. Ólafsson - Á daginn er hægt að finna mig í Nordic eMarketing þar sem ég er að nördast við markaðssetningu á internetinu. Svipað um kvöld og helgar!

Það var tekið til þess hvað kappinn sýndi fallega ásetu og hafði góða stjórn á fáknum. Það leyndi sér ekki að hér var á ferð vanur hestamaður. Hópurinn reið af stað og reiðmaðurinn mikli sýndi áfram nokkuð góða takta. Klárinn reyndist ljónviljugur og töltið var ágætt!!!

4. If you don't visit Beaman's Bazaar, I'm personally going to come round and talk "Them" to you until you reach for a paper bag. So get over there to the lad now and see what he has to offer. OK?

Ladies and gentleman, respected guests and foreign dignitaries, I proudly present Beaman's Bazaar!
It is now open to the public and ready to take orders from anywhere in the world. We provide fast, secure and dedicated service to all who shop with us and special offers for those who create an account. Not to mention 4 free DVD rentals with each purchase for UK customers!

Take a moment to browse around Beaman's Bazaar. Perhaps you are looking forward to that perfect romantic evening and want to drive him wild with passion. We offer a wide range of sexy lingerie from Chemises to Teddies and erotic fancy dress outfits.

More tomorrow, if we're still alive.

[rat pack] last member dies

Joey Bishop, the last of the later version of the Rat Pack, has died [he's the one in the centre].

According to Stephen Bogart, members of the Holmby Hills Rat Pack were Sinatra (pack master), Garland (first vice-president), Bacall (den mother), Luft (cage master), Bogart (rat in charge of public relations), Swifty Lazar (recording secretary and treasurer), Nathaniel Benchley (historian), David Niven, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, George Cukor, Michael Romanoff and Jimmy Van Heusen.

Little quiz for afficianados:

    1. Who was the shortest member of the Rat Pack? [Hint: He was 5' 3" tall.]

    # Dean Martin

    # Frank Sinatra

    # Sammy Davis, Jr.

    # Peter Lawford

    2. Who was considered the "straight man" of the Rat Pack even though he wrote many of the comedy lines used onstage in their performances? [Hint: He later hosted his own TV show.]

    # Dean Martin

    # Peter Lawford

    # Joey Bishop

    # Sammy Davis, Jr.

Answers: Sammy Davis Jnr., Joey Bishop

[compartmentalization] and other tricks of the mind

A few of us today were remembering a colleague whom we knew some years back. Basically, as I recalled, whenever we met, he'd made every error under the sun. Take a simple meeting for a drink:

1. He'd leave up to three mobiles switched on, terrified to miss any business opportunity;

2. Therefore he'd never relax and would be only marginally engaged in the current conversation;

3. He'd do that with even potential partners who didn't like being treated that way and so the opportunities became sparser.

Even worse than that was:

4. He'd carry his problems with this partner or that supplier around with him in his head and couldn't relax, waking in the middle of the night, [so he said], and planning out schemes to solve the problems he'd let himself in for;

5. He'd become crankier and crankier and those under him, in his top-down company, really suffered the sharp end of his tongue, his health went down and the more it did, the more he attended an expensive businessman's gym, in no fit state to do this.

One of us saw him recently and apparently the chap was a mess. Someone had taken him for a ride, he'd lost all but he was still trying to carry on the easy lifestyle, popping into an expensive café restaurant here, picking up a girl there and so on and assuring himself that the big change was around the corner.

Leaving the spiritual side out of it for the moment, it seems clear he needed to make some fundamental changes:

1. The luxurious lifestyle depends on money actually banked, not on what a man aspires to and a potential partner can pick up immediately if the other will do anything to clinch a deal. Our friend had even bought a Subaru for a potential partner, to cajole him along - an easy touch and with a reputation for this.

Message - get a bit more savvy about dodginess, learn to be soft with serious partners but offload timewasters the instant you perceive it in them. Politely say no when necessary and no later than that;

2. Carrying worries like baggage is a no-no and will destroy you.

Message - train yourself to compartmentalize your mind and treat each issue in its own box. Build firewalls between the boxes and stonewall anyone who tries to drag an issue from one timespace into another. Schedule downtime [mine is when I'm on the tram and no one can reach me];

3. If a problem just won't go away and keeps niggling and niggling you, it's going nowhere.

Message - time for wholesale changes. The number of issues with a foreigner and a car in this country were becoming ridiculous for me. Logical solution was to offload the car and deploy the money into something really needed. For example, the laser printer arrived today.

All of this is fine and dandy but it needs enormous willpower and that touch of bloody-mindedness. This last is possible if you can see, as clear as day, that the end result can only be beneficial to all;

4. Hankering after lost loves or lost opportunities is as bad as repeating the words "if only".

Message - be inexorable in your logic. If it didn't work, there was a reason and it might just have been partly due to you. If you can't accept that, you really do have problems. Carry out failure analysis, cut your losses, start over again, next time play to your strengths and recognize your limitations. There's always another love or another potential partner, even if you're convinced there's not at this moment. The expression "this horse won't run" was never truer than today.

[travel] which way do you book

The online travel agency has only been in action for about a decade. Now, 60 per cent of travel plans in the US are made online. And travel is the most popular product purchased online, according to expedia's research.

Likewise, expedia.com offers a friendly phone service to support customers who may be a little cautious of spending big online.

"We offer 75,000 hotels, you will never get that in a travel brochure, you will never get that in a local agent. It gives you a lot more resources."

Against that, there is a feeling that, just like reading dead tree books, walking into a travel agency and receiving personal service will never die out. Like the Bloody Midland Bank who initially felt a drop in business when they went computerized but eventually recovered, there is a feeling of resistance among some.

Surely it's a question of what you want. If it's a trip to Frankfurt, well, a phone call and auto-charging to your account is fine. If it's a world tour, only the personal touch will do IMHO.

What do you think?

[blogfocus wednesday] of bags and caps

The format has had to change, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Rather than eight bloggers, twice a week, a certain number of bloggers will be posted every evening, the number depending entirely on available time.

It would typically comprise from 3 to 5 and would reflect a blog round of maybe 20 blogs overall, with more on the weekend. I think it will work - if you know that every evening 3 to 5 blogs will be featured, it allows more overall during the week.

Heavy stuff tonight, readers so hope the eyes are focussed and the brain in gear:

Bag praises technology for catching paedophiles whilst bemoaning its overall effect on surveillance:

It's long been known that people have been using technology to identify the scrambled faces on documentaries and so it is a bit surprising that they have not moved on from there. Ah well. You live and learn although in this guy's case the learning curve will be steep and I can only hope it hurts a lot as well.

The Dodo boys remember analogue technology in all its glory and infamy:

Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s Analogue Television had the nation enthralled(5), but by the noughties it was facing competition from a new rival. Digital Television was young and slim and able to woo the nation with the promise of hundreds of new television channels (admittedly generally showing exactly the same programmes) and the government with the prospect of flogging off the old analogue broadcasting spectrum to the highest bidder.

Deogolwulf takes some reading but the conclusions are hard to argue with:

It is regrettable, however, that words can work upon men much as bells did upon Pavlov’s dogs, and furthermore that many a man is swayed by the most intemperate or unfair of opinions, even against his better judgement, if it be that they whisper in his mind’s ear what he wishes to hear, or set fire in his belly against his enemies, and if he has not first guarded against the inferior part of his constitution. All effective propagandists understand this, and appreciate moreover that the mass-mind is a dumb and ignoble one, albeit with the power to overthrow the nobler part of a man’s constitution.

David Johnson bemoans BP's latest plan to devastate the environment:

Amazingly, time continues to dull our recollection of the consequences humans have suffered in the recent past due to careless dumping into the Great Lakes. Just 60 short years ago, 5% of the residents living in the city of Chicago contracted Cholera, with an additional 1.25% afflicted with Typhoid Fever as a result of having their drinking water drawn from Lake Michigan that was so filthy at that time, those diseases persisted despite the best sanitation measures. Others may recall that in 1960, Lake Erie was declared officially "dead" due to it's inability to support life of any kind, as a result of the massive quantities of phosphates discharged by the Detroit automobile industry.

Fabian Tassano, at Heraklites, wants accounting techniques altered to snooth price caps:

One argument in favour of allowing depreciation rather than expected capital expenditure as a cost in calculating permitted revenue is that the resulting price cap is likely to be much less stable under the latter method. Annual depreciation typically has a much smoother profile over time than capital expenditure.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

[curses] rained down on blogger

Blogger is playing up. It won't load photos, then it will, then it won't post, then it will. The latest was the last straw.

I had Blogfocus Wednesday ready and guess what? It wouldn't publish but it did save and even said what time it saved. The joke was that when I went to Manage Posts, it wurnt thar, wur it?

Bstds!!! Now I'm too tired and have to go to bed. Sob. I'll try tomorrow morning.

[michaëlle jean] hot haitian in top role

The maple leaf motif in the top left corner is courtesy of All Postersdotcom.

The first thing is that she's undoubtedly "hot", there's no getting away from it - the Segie tradition rolls on.

Online to all Canadians

She connects with the young very well - here is her official site and here is her personal website, Citizen Voices, where you can contact her.

Then it seems, she has not done too much wrong in her first years in the role, judging by asides and the lack of press on the issue. She even seems to have laid the separatist ghost:

Jean's father, Roger Anthony Jean, who moved his family from Haiti to Quebec four decades ago, clearly was offended by earlier suggestions that his daughter had sympathized with Quebec separatists.

"That's a lie," he declared. "She has never been a separatist. Never. Never. Never."

The Throne Address with Stephen Harper, who is supposedly not all that enamoured of the GG.

There's apparently something called the Travers column in Canada and when I read this:

"Michaëlle Jean once joked that Paul Martin chose her as governor general because she's "hot". It's not so funny now that Stephen Harper has her on ice."

… it soured her a bit for me, if she truly did say that. It seems as pratty as John Lennon's quip about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus Christ.

Are beauty, intelligence and personal achievement enough?

The Travers column further debated PM Harper's less than warm relations with the GG:

At most, it suggests that the Conservatives do not respect the GG because she lacks qualifications *other* than being a good looking woman and an immigrant. The article *does* emphasize that the GG is treading on thin constitutional ice with her meddling in political affairs.

So, not everyone appears to love her. The Globe & Mail invited reader comments and here is one by Thomas Baxter:

1 First and foremost, the Governor-General is not the head-of-state of Canada, nor the "queen" of Canada, but only the representative of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The out-going Governor-General often usurped her role, and also the one she was supposed to represent. Adrienne Clarkson went on tours masquerading as the head-of-state. She was seen in public, captured on camera, upstaging the Queen, and failing to meet protocol.

Michaëlle's own coat of arms

When the official papers were prepared for former N.B. premier, Frank McKenna, to report as Canada's Ambassador to the United States, the Queen's name was removed and the papers were sent on behalf of the Governor-General. The government has no such power. The Opposition parties should have screamed loudly. The Governor-General should have sent these papers back to be re-written before she signed them.

Michaëlle seems to be fairing better than Adrienne [so far]

I checked out Adrienne Clarkson and she does seem to have been pretty appalling, apart from being a "devout Anglican". She seems to have been full of her role and a spendthrift to boot:

Under her tenure, the office's spending increased almost 200%...

So what to make of Michaëlle Jean? Here is another comment:

2 Another woman, another media person, and another who was not born in Canada. Surely, there must be some Canadian born person that could represent the Queen? [Susan Marsh]

Perhaps it's still too early to say whether she has graced Rideau Hall, something less or something more. Canada has clearly gone modern, which might be in keeping with a "new nation" but the role and the magnificent mansion surely demand a certain gravitas and "presence" in the incumbent.

We can't judge solely from the photo below but it's an indicator. Does she have the necessary gravitas [she's the one centre front, next to the large lady in white]?

[ricky martin] sensitive and profound talent

It was long ago I first made the pilgrimage to Hollywood and Vine to see the Immortals in stone and so I missed the 2,351st - one of Puerto Rico's top-selling artists, Ricky "Swivel Hips" Martin.

He's well known for his aptly named campaign against human trafficking and sexual exploitation - the Ricky Martin Foundation.

Ricky immortalized his thoughts on female sexuality in his sensitive double-entendre hit She Bangs:

And she bangs, she bangs
Oh baby
When she moves, she moves
I go crazy
'Cause she looks like a flower but she stings
like a bee
Like every girl in history
She bangs, she bangs

I'm wasted by the way she moves
No one ever looked so fine
She reminds me that a woman only got one thing on her mind.

Thank you, Ricky for reaching to the depths of my libidinous soul with that one and for your message to your millions of shrieking, hysterical teen fans.

Ricky's Star of Fame was, also appropriately, placed outside the Virgin Megastore at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

Was it apocryphal that when asked his opinion of table dancing, he replied: "Who doesn't love jumping up on the table when the music starts?"

What a guy! Go, Ricky! Yo!

[canada] election in the offing?

Canada looks interesting just now:

Governor-General Michaelle Jean, Canada's ceremonial head of state, delivered the throne speech, a tradition under the Commonwealth country's parliamentary system. It will be voted upon three times, with the first vote expected on Thursday night and the final one on 24 October.

If the Liberals vote down the Throne Speech, which they're unlikely to do, being not yet ready to fight an election and the other opposition parties are certain to do, there'd be an election, largely on Afghanistan and Kyoto.

If an election happens, it would be the third in as many years, making Canada quite unstable as a democracy. Still, that doesn't seem to have worried Italy.

As they hold only 126 seats in the 308-seat parliament, Stephen Harper's Conservatives need the support of at least one of the three main opposition parties to see the vote through.

* Conservatives: 126

* Liberals: 96

* Bloc Quebecois: 49

* New Democrats: 30

* Independent: 3

* Total: 308 (including 4 vacant seats)

[cousins] seems to be genuine

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

[non-blogfocus] bits and pieces

Sackerson [from whom I snitched the pic] looks at the perils of buying gold, after asking: "Can we make a paradise here … ?" but Wolfie is not so sure. He thinks the party is over, having less than a high opinion about the pollies, pollies also being the subject of Tiberius Gracchus' ire here and here.

Sean Jeating [who has just had a birthday, unsung by any of us so let's get over there and wish him well], constructed a clever dialogue with some of those pollies.

And I'm going to mention Liz, Welshcakes and JMB just because I want to.

One last thing: On the same day I reported the problem about the stats, a real human being at Sitemeter replied and gave a full explanation for what had happened and their intention to remedy the hit from somewhere on my stats. They then promptly did that. Would that every large organization could act like this. Most impressive.