[poll] old poll finished, new poll up

Result of previous poll on "Who'll be Prez?"

Obama 82%
The Lizard Queen 2%
Giuliano 11%
McCain 0%
A dark horse 5%
[55 votes total]

New poll: Regarding 7/7, did Tony Blair:

Know before
Not know before
Had a fair idea

Please leave your vote in the right sidebar.

[tony blair] honest, upright leader we can all count on

Paul Linford is showing surprising horror at what has been quite obvious for some time from a close scrutiny of the documentation. Under the heading "Be afraid...be very afraid", he states:

My attention has been drawn to an excellent but extremely disturbing post on Rachel from North London today predicting some potentially shattering forthcoming revelations with regard to the use of intelligence prior to the 7/7 bombings.

Meaning perhaps that Blair was involved? No Paul, that could never be - Tony is an honest, decent man who never lies. Here's evidence he never lies:

1998 Hansard:

Mr. Gill: To ask the Prime Minister which members of his Government have attended meetings of the Bilderberg Group. [34298]
The Prime Minister [holding answer 16 March 1998]: None.
30 Mar 1998 : Column: 377

Very interesting:

Tony Blair From Elitewiki
Current OccupationPrime Minister, United Kingdom, 1997+Patron, Westminster Foundation for Democracy 2005
Previous Occupation Shadow Home Secretary, Labour Party 1992 - 1994 Shadow Secretary of State for Energy, Labour Party - 1988
Political ActivityParticipant, World Economic Forum 2005 Attendee Bilderberg 1993 April 22nd - 25th

Also interesting:

1991 Conference, Baden-Baden, Germany, 6-9 June

United Kingdom -
Gordon Brown (Opposition MP - Parliament)
Lawrence Freedman (Professor)
Christopher Kgg
Andrew Knight (Editor - News International)
Lord Roll of Ipsden (Conservative Politician, Warburg Banker)
John Smith (Leader of the Opposition)
Patrick Wright (Head of Diplomatic Service)

Captain, oh my Captain, Tony. I shall sail with you into oblivion. [Hat tip: Martin]

[blogfocus wednesday] twelve true tales of today

1 Matt must indeed be An Insomniac to be in so many places at one time. Here he gives a very neat little justification for meat eating, not that I needed any encouragement:

Cutting costs ultimately means a drop in the quality of living conditions for livestock – lower quality food, less room, more chemicals to speed up growth, etc. The consequences of this will be that smaller producers will be squeezed out of the market, as large scale industrial farms can afford to put out cheaper (if lower quality) meat and withstand market pressure better. So convincing people to become vegetarian, whatever its symbolic value, will favour industrial farming methods and lead to worse conditions for livestock.

2 Welshcakes, cuisine blogger extraordinaire at Sicily Scene, writes of Modica and in doing so, says much about Sicily itself:

Modica has a lovely and charming theatre, the Teatro Garibaldi and for years when I first used to come here I was frustrated because I could never get inside: it was always in restauro. Finally it was restored to its former glory but in 2001 the new roof fell in! Miraculously, no one was injured. Now six of those involved in that restoration project have received suspended prison sentences. I should add that the theatre is now functioning again and if you are in Modica it really is worth a visit.

3 Westminster Wisdom certainly comes out with the good oil on whatever issue he tackles, usually historical but this time it's the Scooter Libby question:

Libby's fall though has prompted people to raise some more provocative questions about the longterm in the United States. Jonathan Martin thinks that it makes it very difficult for the Republicans in 2008, Frank Luntz is speculating about the long term future of the Republican party itself. Personally I think that's overblown- the damage will be to Bush and to this administration, it might make it harder for a Republican but I still think their candidate will have a chance in 2008 besides a lot may change by then.

Another nine bloggers here.

[international women's day] march 8th in russia

Age cannot wither her nor custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.

[Will the Bard 1607]

You can try. You can try your level best to inure yourself against women, to self-containedly lose yourself in books and blogging, to strive for self-sufficiency but when once woman comes close and fixes you with those eyes and does this little thing and that little thing and licks her lips - there is no defence. When she surrounds you with her companionship and you see how dire life would be without her, you're gone. Unless you're a fish.

[rape ad] dolce and gabbana belatedly withdraw

I was searching around for a nice story to counterbalance my current shocking mood and the raft of grim posts I've posted in the last two days. Didn't have much luck - I came across this instead:

Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana will withdraw an advertisement that shows a man pinning a woman by her wrists after widespread criticism. "We have decided to cancel ... the advertising image that has caused such repercussions within human interest groups and individuals," Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said in an emailed statement. "We were looking to recreate a game of seduction in the campaign and highlight the beauty of our collections," the designers said.

Let's have that again: "We were looking to recreate a game of seduction in the campaign and highlight the beauty of our collections."

Seduction? Beauty? Are these people sane?

[garuda crash] imagine you were in it

Have you ever imagined yourself actually being aboard a plane when things like this happen?

Passengers on a Garuda plane in which dozens of people are feared dead have told of panic and screams as people tried to escape the flaming wreckage. Dozens of people were killed when the aircraft crashed and burst into flames after landing in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta.

Dien Syamsuddin described the moment when the plane crashed, saying it landed heavily before overshooting the runway by about 300 metres.

"The aircraft was swaying and there was maybe something wrong with the engine. (The landing) was very hard the first time and the second time, the aircraft was outside the boundary of the airport. The lights on board went out and the cabin filled with smoke after the plane came down heavily. I felt the emergency exit was empty, nobody there, behind me there was also screaming. That was all I can tell."

Ruth Bamggadan said she was sitting near the emergency exit when the plane came to rest.

"One of my colleagues, she told everybody to stay calm and leave their belongings. People were panicking, it was really chaotic. Some people were helping the older ladies but we were really close to the door so we had to get out first. After I get out of the plane an explosion started. I think it is from the right side of the plane because we get out from the left side and the left side there are no fire yet at the moment.Then some explosions come again and I didn't see the whole flames.''

One of the crashes I always come back to is the Tenerife crash between KLM and Pan Am. It keeps coming back to haunt me because I know every detail of it. We're always just 'that' far away from it. The closest I came, apart from turbulence and steep drops, was at Heathrow in 2000, when the BA plane suddenly dropped 5 000 feet, as it was circling, on orders from the tower. We all saw the other plane out of the windows, so the pilot came on to the intercom and said:

"You've probably seen our neighbour over on the starboard side. Don't worry, he's on a different flight path to us."

Er, yeah.

[fragility] one click and your blog is gone

This has been blogged on by many, the poor man:

Earlier this month, Abdel-Karim Suleiman, a 22-year-old former law student at al-Azhar Islamic university, became the first Egyptian jailed for his blogging when he was handed a four-year prison sentence. The case against Suleiman, a Muslim and a liberal who uses the name Kareem Amer on his blog, was based on a complaint by al-Azhar University about eight articles written since 2004.

Suleiman accused the conservative Sunni institution of promoting extremist thought and described some companions of the Prophet Mohammed as "terrorists". He also compared President Hosni Mubarak to the dictatorial Pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

Could it have been otherwise for Suleiman in such a regime? But before we start to congratulate ourselves that it could not be so in our own increasingly oppressive regime, it only takes one click and you're blocked, mate. Or something more draconian - Blogger gets shut down in one blow. What have we left? The telephone? The e-mail?

I always operate on the basis that each time I go to my site, it's just not going to be there. Of course, that's a completely different thing to being thrown into prison for having an opinion.

[blogfocus] tomorrow evening, wednesday

Starting yesterday, unfortunately, they've put an extra three hours a day on me for the next three weeks and something has to give. The way round it is to run a slightly shorter Blogfocus tomorrow but this evening I simply can't, sorry - I have to prepare for these people tomorrow. I'll try to get a post up later and another tomorrow morning. Bear with me, please.

[diana] … and one last thing, if I may

There are three fundamentally illogical positions taken by the 'it was simply an accident' devotees:

1] The Butler-Sloss position is not illogical in itself but it has the greatest gall if it hopes to be taken seriously. You can't blame her for doing as she has in defending her department but the notion that it was in any way a fair and impartial analysis or an impartial decision is a hoot. Hence the jury hearing, which in itself is capable of being rigged.

This is exactly like Tony doing his own investigation of cash-for-honours, then gravely announcing to the country his personal self-exoneration, announced by the most impartial and venerated commoner in the realm - namely himself.

2] The second illogical position is for someone to say: "Well, I don’t believe in all that conspiracy theory stuff. Let's just move on. Everyone's sick of it."

Well, you'd be pleased to know that this blog is also dead against conspiracy theory. The evidence in the last post was all on the record [though parts of it have subsequently been expunged by person or persons unknown] and the worst that can be said is that it is circumstantial. But it's certainly not theory. Those people really did see and say those things.

3] The third illogical position is to read but not comment, then post a counter argument without addressing the issues in this one or refuting the evidence. As if this article had never been written, in other words. When someone writes that black is white, when everyone can clearly see it's black, then either the person who wrote it is not completely au fait with the evidence or else he or she has an agenda.

This Diana thing might have been the fault of the paparazzi, it might have been the fault of Henri Paul, it might have been the sheer incompetence of officials but one thing it most certainly was not - it was not an accident.

[diana] when these are answered, we may move on

About the only PC term this blog would concur with is 'closure'. Like Hamlet's ghost, ofttimes the business is unpleasant and all anyone ever desires is to lay the matter to rest but a soul can never rest until justice is finally done.

I am no ghoul. I have not the least desire to rake over old coals. However, to gloss over clear anomalies in the name of 'moving on' when it is as clear as day that we can't move on under the current circumstances, this is plain wrong.

So, at the risk of my readership, I re-present some unanswered points:

Tony Blair's plane

The RAF crew which flew Tony Blair from his Sedgefield constituency to London to greet the Princess’s repatriated body had been on continual standby to make the flight from two days earlier.

Sir Robin Janvrin was based in the equerries' room, where he also fielded incoming messages. He was on duty because his superior — the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Robert Fellowes, had taken a weekend's leave.

Two senior MI6 gave evidence to Lord Stevens, then later produced tickets and documents dating from 1997 which prove they were not in Paris that weekend. One was in the South of France with his wife and in-laws. The other was taking a short trip to Greece.

A middle-aged, English wireless operator at the embassy in Paris came on duty in the early evening of August 30, expecting his night shift to be routine, sending encrypted phone calls and messages from the embassy via UK listening stations …

Article continues here.

[sources] the msm is still the one to trust

Mr Eugenides had this today:

And they wonder why people don't trust blogs? It's the sheepish yet graceless retraction this morning that makes this funny.

He was referring to the Alex Hilton post, reporting Maggie Thatcher's death. Hilton says he was given dud info by a 'journo friend'. Some friend.

Whether or not Hilton did it just to boost his traffic, [which of course it did - enormously] or whether he made a genuine mistake late at night and didn't check his sources sufficiently, it does bring the blogosphere under severe scrutiny and temporarily relieves the pressure on the MSM.

I'd been planning to write a piece anyway, defending the MSM, but this Hilton biz has already done it for me.

What it also does is make me scrutinize my own posts, for example the very last one, on Diana's death. I'd like to say I scoured 17 articles of all hues before coming out with that and I'm preparing a follow up right now with 10 questions the enquiry needs to answer.

One mustn't make statements unless they can be backed up. I hope that mine can be; I think they can. I suppose when we can't find backup, we're faced with a dilemma.

For example, I certainly had a piece on file, before my computer crash, asking why an 'older' man was seen by one of the orderlies going into the emergency room unaccredited and not wearing surgical clothing and why he was standing at the foot of where Diana lay, speaking some phrases repeatedly, then was not there when the orderly returned.

I had that piece on file but then it and dozens of others on my 'D' disk were lost in the crash, along with all the programmes. Does that mean that this information can then never see the light of day? In the MSM that's so - unless it's double sourced, it doesn't go in.

The Voluntary Code Free Zone banner above is clear enough but now I don't know if we shouldn't at least follow some basic protocols on sourcing. That's if we wish to be taken seriously, that is.

[diana] butler-sloss well out of order on this one

As Ian Hislop once said: "If this is justice, then I'm a banana."

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, pre-empting the jury inquiry, said on Monday she had not seen "a shred of evidence" to back up claims she had been murdered.

Now I'm no lawyer, unlike some of my learned fellow bloggers but this seems to me to be well out of order, offering an opinion before an investigation she'll be co-heading even gets underway.

Appeal court judge Janet Smith, on the other hand, said: "Mr Al Fayed has alleged that the Duke of Edinburgh and the security services conspired to kill the princess and Dodi Al Fayed. The allegation must be inquired into."

Damned right. Fayed knows exactly what went on in the emergency room and who was in there when Diana was taken in there. He knows why the delay in getting her to emergency, so that certain persons could be present and he probably knows why they had to be there in a non-medical capacity. And why they departed soon after.

It will be interesting to see if this comes out or not.

[russian president] ivanov and medvedev firm favourites

The biggest question in Russia just now is what Putin is up to, vis a vis the presidential election.

He certainly doesn't seem to be running, himself, as he announced "a reshuffle on Thursday, appointing defence minister Sergei Ivanov as first deputy prime minister, equal to Dmitry Medvedev, who already holds that position, and who has been widely tipped as Ivanov’s main rival in the 2008 presidential election."

“Thus begins the unfolding of Putin’s answer to the 2008 problem,” the daily Izvestia wrote. “There will be no 'successor' to the post of president, the voters will have to chose between absolutely equal candidates.”

The speculation can now begin as to Putin's broader game. If the two deputies will have to fight it out and if both are now being given a free rein to boost themselves before the poll and if there is no clearcut winner at the poll, would that mean Putin would be waiting in the wings to take over again in 2012?

Or is it Putin's way of observing which one to throw his weight behind, thus truly ending his era and ushering in a new? Surely Putin will be very much in the background, perhaps as some sort of elder statesman. And what of Khodorkovsky? When he comes out, won't revenging himself be very much on his mind?

Either Vladimir Putin is playing his cards close to his chest or else he's simply playing according to the rules, thereby enhancing the chances for genuine democracy in Russia, despite what his fiercest critics say.

Or perhaps he has a third motivation - to leave office a Russian statesman who put a divided country back together and back on the world map. His legacy may be very close to his heart, more so than continuing in power.

Or else he knows of the coming world disaster the Finance is planning and doesn't want to be at the helm at that time.

Intriguing.

[britblog 107] from the keyboard of mr eugenides

Get thee over to Mr Eugenides henceforth, for the first non-Tim Worstall Britblog Roundup and a humdinger it is too.

[sunday quiz] is your history hazy or honed

Sorry it's a bit late:

1 The ancient region of Nubia is in which two modern countries?

2 Eboracum is the roman name for which city?

3 In which country is Waterloo, where the battle took place?

4 The Condor Legion was the name of the German air force flying for Franco's nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War. What was the name of the Irish volunteers on Franco's side?

5 The War of Jenkin's Ear (1739) was waged between which two countries?

6 Was Operation Sea Lion in the Second World War the invasion of Britain or the evacuation at Dunkirk ?

7 What was the name of Haile Selassie before he was crowned in 1930?

8 What was the name of the cult that Charles Manson led which killed at least seven people and what was the similar sounding name the British Royal family gave itself, particular in the days of the last Georges?

9 Which Republic has existed in France since 1958? [1st, 7th, 14th or which?]

10 Which other country joined the EEC at the same time as Ireland and Denmark?

Answers here. How did you do?

[iceland news] no fatal traffic accidents this year

This blog adores Icelandic news. As Euroserf once commented, "In the middle of a hectic day of a hectic life, Iceland seems somehow peacefully inviting doesn't it?" Now here's their latest classic:

No one has been killed in traffic in Iceland in the first two months of 2007. In January and February last year four people lost their lives in traffic accidents, and on average in 2006, one person died in traffic every 12 days. “The goal of the road safety plan of the government is that there will be no more fatal traffic accidents in Iceland than in countries where the situation is best,” stated an announcement from the Road Traffic Directorate.

“It is important to continue this development by respecting speed limits, using safety equipment in cars and using it right, and do everything we can to prevent driving under the influence of alcohol and other euphoric substances,” the announcement continued. Furthermore, it was stated: “2006 was the second worst year regarding fatal accidents in Iceland in 25 years. A civilized nation cannot accept that.”

I don't know what it is about Iceland - is it the provincial nature of their largely non-news, presented seriously and fully attributed, even down to "Morganbladdid said this"? Or is it the quaint English, such as 'euphoric substances' in the above post? Or is it the amazing Icelandic names such as Bjorgolfur Gudmansson and Vilhjalmur Th. Vilhjamsson?

Or the quaint thinking processes? I once wrote to Iceland Review, asking if they were serious and had a very prim and proper reply but the niceness of the lady made me feel a cynical, curmudgenonly heel and I vowed never to take the p--s again. And yet here are some classics which can bring tears to the eyes:

Icelandic bitch has record number of puppies;

German author publishes fantasy novel about Iceland;

… and these stories demanded their own posts:

[icelandic pervert] window peeper busted in akureyri

[bloody vikings] no spam for these boys

My favourite though was a two paragaph post trying to beat up the fact that it was + 17 degrees at the start of summer. It concluded:

Many people have taken the day off. This explains why not much is happening in the country, as you can see from the lack of news.

[flawed hero] the tragedy of gary ablett

Nobody's interested in someone else's sport. The Americans skip over English football, the English ignore New Zealand club rugby. Goals, points, handpasses - when they're not your local heroes, they're simply a yawn.

Just occasionally, sportsmen like Beckam, Bradman, Alabama Pitts, Truman, Jordan, Shaq, Babe Ruth, Jona Lomu, Tyson, George Best, Shane Warne and Popov come along and their ability is inconceivable. Transcending the field of sport, soon to be cultural icons, more often than not their off field antics, their inability to simply live as human beings, makes them the stuff of legends and of course, of tragedy. Everyone is fascinated by a tragedy.

Such a man was Gary Ablett, of the AFL team Geelong, at a time when I was living in Australia in the 80s. He ended up, like Eric Clapton, being called G-d in the graffiti and in the flow of adulation which engulfed him everywhere he tried to turn. Everyone wanted a piece of him.

And on Saturdays, they'd flock to see the goliath perform his superhuman antics, often seeming to suspend the laws of physics as he quite legally, under the laws of the Australian game, bestrode other men's shoulders in his climb to the stratosphere to take in a high grab. Once asked about a particular spectacular he'd taken, he replied: "It was a good mark but wasn't such a good landing."

Therein lies the story of Gary Ablett. Not the most articulate of men, his tale is one of soaring for the stars then crashing heavily to earth and he rarely let you down on the field. When opposition fans saw him take a grab or whip up the ball from the turf, shoulders sagged all round and they'd mutter: "Bloody Ablett," with a touch of awe. The goal was usually a foregone conclusion.

He came from the right side of the tracks for a footballer - a street fighting, bar brawling country boy, with massive shoulders and an athlete's body; he'd been on the shady side of the law more than a few times, he'd once hospitalized a man. When he hit the big smoke, he was no immediate hit, joining his brothers' club and stifling in its atmosphere. Then he went to the flashy, lightning quick Geelong, of the western district 'old money', a one town club who knew how to worship a hero. Ablett was on clover but even here lay the seeds of the later tragedy.

Gary Ablett's story concludes here.

[blogfocus saturday] mainly britsphere this evening

Only one non-Brit this evening but this situation will be reversed on Tuesday.

1 It's very, very difficult to access Lord Nazh's blog but it's worth persevering a few minutes for he's always unpredictable and to the point. Besides, a man who heads his blog with an ever changing toon, [such as the one I've swiped above, which you can't read, as the print's too small here and thus will have to go to the site], is OK by me. Here he reports that recent, dangerous, international incident few might have been aware of:

What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein. According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers from the neutral country wandered more than a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

2 This wonderful curmudgeonly piece from The Man from Islington had me falling off my mobility scooter:

I do not like young people much. They have far too good a time. I shuffle to work everyday like a miserable Monk, being harvested by the State for my life force, while they skip and cavort with sexy new media projects and have "vibrant" web communities of smarmy Conservative Future members. I see them laughing in that revoltingly carefree way and the bile rises in my throat, the bitter acrid fumes sting my nostrils. I crush a paper cup with silent disgust. “Oh bugger off and have a Craveor whatever it is you do,” I shout, waving an imaginary stick and expectorating …

And so on.

3 The intriguing, enigmatic and sartorial Benedict White [born in march 1968 in a small village in Hertfordshire, just north of London.] has this to say about an event to be held this coming Monday:

The Adam Smith Institute (as in the free market think tank named after the author of the Wealth of nations, rather than the Sith Institute) has an event organised for Monday March the 5th, in London, with Stephan Shakespeare [founder of 18 Doughty Street] and Fraser Nelson [Political Editor of The Spectator] as speakers. Should be good. I will be there. If you are wondering who I am, I will be the twit charming man with the beard and ponytail. Possibly handing out business cards as well as cards with my blog address on it as I am as always a shameless self publicist!

Another nine bloggers here.

[james elsewhere] gone over to annoy lady ellee

I've done a little piece on the former Soviet Union and my reasons for staying there and Lady Ellee has kindly invited me to post it at her site. It might be of some interest to you, particularly the comments by Newmania and Tom Paine, which add to the overall picture.

If you like the piece and if you'd like more, then maybe one day Ellee will invite me again.

[airbus] a camel designed by a committee

Airbus is a troubled monster.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has revealed he'd talked with Chancellor Angela Merkel about the problems at Airbus and confirmed it is seeking to cut 10,000 jobs, saying, "This company is largely Franco-German, very European and there needs to be an equitable distribution of efforts between the countries."

Translated, that means that while profits need to be slanted France's way, job losses must be equitably distributed. Germany's Financial Times Deutschland has said that German carmaker DaimlerChrysler was responsible for halting the planned restructuring because it was worried France would keep too much of the manufacturing work and had concerns over the cost-cut targets.

American Thinker says that Reuters notes:

Franco—German friction is at the heart of a management feud that has gripped parent firm EADS and stalled appointments of a new Airbus chief executive, new EADS co—CEOs and a boss for its defence business.

The BBC notes:

Sad but true - the news of yet more delays to the Airbus A380 comes as little surprise. In recent weeks there has been widespread speculation that the problems revealed by the company in June were just the tip of the iceberg.

AM goes on to say:

Airbus has always been an odd entity, cobbled together from formerly—autonomous aerospace manufacturers in France, Germany, and Spain, with additional participation by British Aerospace. Airbus headquarters remain in Toulouse, France, Sud's former home base. It may be a European company, but to many it looks quite French.

Therein lies the squabbling plus one other factor - the French obsession with glory. A glance at my own field of sailing reveals that the French are at the heart of speed records, new concepts such as variable geometry trimarans and so on. For the French, it is shining glory which counts, rather than structural integrity and thus the A380 monster was born:

Because the new airplane is both massive and extensively employs state—of—the—art composites in its structure, the nightmare scenario would involve threats to its structural integrity. The smaller Boeing Dreamliner also employs composites, but its smaller size means that stresses due to sheer mass will be less of an engineering obstacle.

If you have only two major players in world aviation, namely Boeing and Airbus, then it is logical that the statistically few crashes around the world will be down to one or other of these. And yet, in Airbus' case, it is the nature of the structural failure which garners such attention. Not pilot error, not airport difficulties - structural errors. It has always been so. Look at some of the continuing disasters:

New York, leading to this Federal directive, Jamaica, Irkutsk, the Persian Gulf, Moscow, Canada, the list goes on.

The best way I can summarize it is Alec Issigonis' comment that the camel is an animal designed by a committee. When design and construction teams must comprise politically acceptable elements from the various nations, the result is not a think tank but a mish-mash.

[homelessness] as far away as your sanity

Some years ago I had a lady friend who was into Tarot, palm reading and the whole biz. Together with the Chinese birth years, these things pointed out that I'd likely die old, alone and in pain. I ignored it.

Now that I'm closing in on those years and have lost my entire family infrastructure for various reasons, most of them through my own fault, through my own stubbornness, the prospect of sleeping rough on the streets fills me with dread. It really does.

That's why, when I saw this first hand article, it needed to be read. It deals with how people get to that point and if I'm annoyingly self-focused here, please forgive me. Fleeing from domestic violence [not me], alcohol [not me], losing one's mind and reason [slowly, slowly] or losing one's family and friends. Ah, yes. And from pride. Most certainly.

When you sleep rough, your existence takes on an unequivocal fragility. You're exposed to the elements and frequently succumb to illness. Your blankets and possessions are often stolen. You stand a good chance of being physically assaulted, harassed or openly mocked just for being who you are.

A 70-year-old homeless woman I worked with told me how one night she woke up in a shop alcove to discover a man in a suit urinating on her. Is it any wonder that the homeless often conceal themselves from prying and judgemental eyes?

How can people live and die on the streets in a country as rich as ours [and] why do people live this way when there's help available? The truth is, the help is severely limited. People who are homeless and over 40 report being too frightened of using crisis housing because they've heard stories of younger residents' drug use or violence. How long they remain there often depends on their mental health and physical strength.

Our income depends on our mental acuity - in my case, I live on my wits. Once that becomes erratic, the cash dries up and when that happens, I'm out there. It's just a question of time. People might say, from kindness, 'James we'd never let you fall so far.' They're judging by the James they know. They might quietly slip away from the James of twenty years from now. They'll most probably not even be there by that stage.

Who knows when it will strike?

[lizard watch] hillary's not getting hollywood funds

Take the poll in the right sidebar!

"Clinton fatigue", voting for the Iraq war, losing the black vote to the very vanilla Obama, Hillary is not doing so well and her prospects against the likely Republican opponents have also grown bleak. The Rasmussen and Zogby polls taken last weekend have Giuliani ahead by as much as nine percentage points.

Pollsters place much significance on the favourable-unfavourable ratings and the Post-ABC News poll has her at 49-48, which means opinions about her are set in stone. For every voter who likes her, one detests her. Giuliani and Obama both have unfavourable ratings in the mid-20s with sky-high approval ratings.

Sherry Bebitch Jeffe says: "Her support's softened in Hollywood and there's definitely not that sense of inevitability about her being the Democratic presidential nominee any more. This is all important right now because we're in the middle of the primary fundraising season and Hollywood is a major fundraising engine for the Democrats."

The entertainment business rivals unions and trial lawyers as the biggest source of money for Democrats. Since 1989, Hollywood has given more than $US100million ($127 million) to Democrats for federal campaigns alone; this is on par with what the oil and gas industry has raised for Republicans in that time.

David Geffen, a former Clinton confidant who is now backing Obama said: "I don't think that another incredibly polarising figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is - and god knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? - can bring the country together," he told The New York Times.

"Everybody in politics lies," he said about the Clintons. "But they do it with such ease, it's troubling. It's overstating it to say Hillary's lost Hollywood, but she's not winning right now," says Jeffe.

Still, it's early days yet.

[may-december] even with the best will in the world

Mention was made today of an older man with a 17 to 21 year old girl.

So much has been written about May-Decembers, mostly either the outraged morality of those who have never been there or the wishful naivety of someone who has been smitten. The old rule of half your age plus ten has much to recommend it: 30-25, 40-30 or 50-35 but 55-17 is something else again.

A seventeen year old girl can have a veneer of maturity, especially these days and especially if she's of a serious disposition. She can look and act the goods and he's the catalyst which instils confidence in her and makes her seem even more mature, just as he gets a new lease of life himself. By nineteen or twenty she's almost a different person and that is half the problem.

What he's dealing with is not a fully-fledged adult but a girl who's still 30 to 40% her mother, who lacks the experience to make a life decision of this magnitude, given the gulf between them and whose needs and directions are going to alter as she hones her purpose in life. He, on the other hand, knows where he is and what he's doing. It's just that he's smitten.

To shy away from a serious commitment with such a girl immediately raises other issues - just what does the older man then want her for? If he says: 'Do I have to want her for anything?' this is sweet and actuated only by the purest motives but how, practically, can they then relate? How does he deal with her parents?

If he says there's no sexual component, then what will he do in the long term? How can he keep her from that which comes naturally at this age? Is he being honest with himself or with her? And what of the state of play with his own sexuality?

With the best will in the world, even if he's in peak physical condition, has most of his hair and desire has still not outstripped performance, even if his musical tastes more than 50% coincide with hers, even if she loves him more than he loves her, it is still fraught.

She has a different rhythm, differing perspectives even if they agree on an issue and he can only take the mentor thing so far, can only show her so much of the world and give her so much of the earth. He'll believe that in his case it's different, that he has the flexibility and sensitivity to make it work; that she is also old enough to decide.

It still doesn't work, in the end. I've not only been there twice but two friends over the last two decades also did the same thing, one even marrying. I'm not being mean - it simply doesn't work. Sooner or later the question of children also arises and this now becomes an extended family affair. And will the broader community of relatives give the happy couple an easy time?

'So, we'll go to another country,' he or she suggests. But she doesn't know what it is to be cut adrift from her moorings and when the reality finally sets in, what then? It's a lovely ideal, they might just love each other to bits but reality will finally bite.

Of course, none of this even begins to touch on the ladies 'of a certain age' whose motherly eyes lightly fall on a young man of promise in his 20s. That's another question again.

[friday] thought for the day

Friday afternoon, Friday afternoon - the two most beautiful words in the English language [with apologies to Henry James].

May Freya’s tears turn to gold for you on this day.

[napping] yet more evidence of its efficacy

Friday is a great day to point you in the direction of this piece in the Melbourne Age:

Is this the shape of things to come? There's a new batch of stimulants, eugeroics, coming on to the market. More effective than caffeine and amphetamines, it's said, because they tweak specific sleep-related mechanisms in the brain. The result: users don't feel jittery or wired, they just stay alert with their radar on.

Welcome to the future of work, according to this report. Still, workers are getting mixed messages. A new study by Greek scientists suggests that a daily nap is actually better for your work and reduces the risk oif cardiovascular disease.

Indeed, great nappers in history have included Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Edison, Salvador Dali and US presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. You can read about that here. By all accounts it didn't get in the way of their work.

As Churchill famously said:

"You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That's what I always do. Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one - well, at least one and a half."

Still, the findings of the Greek study might be inconclusive. "Napping is a great solution if you are energetic and active and if you have adequate exercise during the day, but it's not a great solution if you are a couch potato," one physiologist and businessman told Workforce Management.

Whatever the answer, the studies raise a few interesting questions.

With more of the workforce in casual employment, or coming in as contractors, is there more pressure on people to stay awake? What do we make of the companies that champion the managers who put in 80-hour weeks, or the road warriors who move from hotel to hotel? Are you more sleep deprived these days because of work? Or is other stuff keeping you up?

Maybe all you need to do is nap a little. If you feel too guilty for that, think of your increased productivity in your workplace, your increased energy and your all round well-being.

[tourism potential] how about africa

This is an abridged version of the original:

South Africa has been ranked 62nd out of 124 for attractive environment for developing the travel and tourism industry, according to the first ranking of its kind in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2007, released yesterday by the World Economic Forum. Regional rival Mauritius was ranked 39th.

Countries were evaluated for, among other things, policy and environmental regulation; safety and security; natural and cultural resources; health and hygiene; air transport; ground transport; tourism and communications infrastructure; labour practices; price competitiveness and the priority which the government gives the sector.

Switzerland, Austria and Germany have the most attractive environments for developing the travel and tourism industry, Iceland, the US, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, Luxembourg and the UK complete the top 10 list, Australia and New Zealand ranked 13th and 14th respectively while Spain, the world’s second-largest tourist destination, was ranked 15th.

In South Africa, safety and security is of serious concern, health and hygiene, low doctor density and poor sanitation and drinking water.

Anyone for a safari? Jeremy?

[volcanoes] do you know where they are

These are some of the more famous volcanoes in the world:

Pelee, Caribbean, Arenal, Costa Rica, Katmai, Alaska, Santa Maria, Guatemala, Nyiragongo, Congo, Santorini, Greece, Ruiz, Colombia, Hekla, Iceland, Yellowstone, Wyoming and Mount St. Helens, Washington

Can you put a country to these ones?

Merapi, Krakatau, Agung, Tambora

El Chichon, Popocatepetl, Colima, Paricutin

Vesuvius, Stromboli, Etna

Fuji, Sakurajima

Ruapehu, White Island

Long Valley, Lassen Peak

Rabaul, Lamington

Kilauea, Mauna Loa

Mayon, Taal

Choices:

Hawaii, Indonesia, California, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, New Zealand.

Answers here.

[sicily scene] need we rescue our friend

Two big lava flows burst out of Stromboli's side on Tuesday, sending up vast plumes of steam as they plunged into the Mediterranean waters below.

Authorities said there was no immediate risk to people living on the island, off the coast of Sicily.

Do we need to mount a rescue operation for Welshcakes? Will the lava destroy her latest culinary delight?

[richard m. daley] how to read the man

Mayor Richard M. Daley has just won a landslide victory over two relatively obscure challengers here Tuesday, putting him in a position to become the city’s longest serving mayor. With 87 percent of the precincts reporting, Mr. Daley had captured 72 percent of the vote, well over the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.

“Thank you, Chicago, thank you again,” Mr. Daley told a boisterous crowd in a Hilton Hotel ballroom.

The battle rages as to whether he is a good man or a bad man and whether it even matters. Does Chicago, not particularly noted for a history of benign altruism, actually need such a man as Daley? One view:

Mayoral challenger Bill "Dock" Walls argued that Obama "just stepped into the cesspool of corruption by endorsing the most corrupt mayor" Chicago has ever had." Walls accused Obama of ignoring Daley's role as state's attorney during the torture of 192 African-American and Latino men by former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge, "hundreds of millions" lost to the Hired Truck scandal, a 50 percent drop-out rate in the Chicago Public Schools, and a 40 percent unemployment rate in many black neighborhoods.

Another view:

When I think of Daley, I do think of cronyism and I do question whether that is good for the city. On the whole, I support the Feds' efforts to route out corruption where it exists in the city government. However, when I think of Daley, I also think about the cooperation he has fostered between the different groups in the city, groups which in decades past bickered and stifled progress in the city.

I think about his beautification efforts and environmental initiatives and how they have made the city more livable. I think about his education reforms and how his administration has continually driven new initiatives to improve the quality of education in Chicago.

I think about his ability to partner city initiatives with local business and community groups (a la Millenium Park). I think about his grand vision for a Chicago Olympics and wonder what benefits to the city such dreams could bring.

[in house] on sitemeter and stats

On the impossibility of getting a monolithic organization to respond to you: I am currently locked into an impossible situation, caught between two monoliths:

New Blogger and Sitemeter.

New Blogger tolerates my old template only under sufferance and the instant I try to do anything to the template, it will be rejected. That's not the end of the world as there's a new template to instal.

The bigger problem is Sitemeter. All my traffic count will be lost the moment I change templates because New Blogger doesn't recognize Sitemeter code. Clearly, the code must change. To do that, one must go into Sitemeter Manager.

I last did that so long ago that the password's lost. Also, my oasis e-mail is no longer operative. Therefore, I can't access the password to change ... etc. etc. So why not contact Sitemeter?

I have done so - over and over, day after day after day and there's not even an automated response. They have no facility to respond to the questions users might have. Sorry to sound so frsutrated but:

Sitemeter is a monolith which is not remotely interested in responding.

Thus this template is left in limbo, unable to be changed.

As for stats, The Cityunslicker made a comment about his and I commented on Iain Dale's. Chris Dillow, of Stumbling and Mumbling once said to me that it all comes with time. It really does expand, providing you're prepared to do a bit of work and offer something on your site. Plus, the Dales of the blogosphere are professionals, whereas we have day jobs.

In Ellee Seymour's case, she has a number of pluses - lovely modest lady, high profile Tory, interesting site. As for CityUnslicker, may I say his site and his content are so much improved and I'd say he's become pretty regular reading for many now. Seems to me that these things are what it's all about.

UPDATE: Sitemeter have responded and the issue seems to have found partial resolution.