[icelandic logic] food prices down, alcohol up

Here’s a perfect example of the type of government interference which makes Tim Worstall and Chris Dillow fume, only this time in Iceland:

Minister of Finance Árni M. Mathiesen submitted a bill yesterday aimed at lowering food prices after 1 March next year. If passed, the price of alcoholic beverages would rise. The bill includes the abolishment of excise taxes on food products and the lowering of VAT to 7 percent. As a consequence, the VAT of alcohol will also go down to seven percent, automatically lowering the price of alcohol as well. Fréttabladid reports.

Mathiesen said the purpose with the bill had been to lower food prices, not alcohol prices, as the tax decrease on alcohol would deprive the state budget of an income of several ISK billions (ISK 1 billion = EUR 11 million, USD 15 million). To prevent that, the government has decided to raise the price of alcoholic beverages. The cost of some brands of beer could go up by 17 percent. The Federation of Trade & Services and The Icelandic Travel Industry Association have objected to the government’s plans.

At least the government is being honest about it. They didn’t try to claim it was to prevent the spread of alcoholism or to protect children – they admitted it was to rake in the kroner.

[litvinenko] one or two developments

Although tests have been conducted on dozens of people who came into contact with Litvinenko after he fell ill — including the doctors who treated him — an Italian investigator named Mario Scaramella is so far the only one to show more than a negligible amount of radiation in his body. Scaramella has said all along that he felt fine. The health agency would not say how much radiation he had ingested, only that he had "a significant quantity."

Scaramella was a consultant for a parliamentary commission in Italy looking into reported connections between the KGB and Italian politicians. In the process, the group — the Mitrokhin Commission, created during the tenure of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — created dossiers on a number of opponents of Berlusconi, including the present prime minister, Romano Prodi. It was disbanded earlier this year.

Litvinenko also worked for the Mitrokhin Commission, Goldfarb said. The two met regularly in London. Their last meeting took place at the Piccadilly branch of the Itsu sushi restaurant on Nov. 1, the day Litvinenko became sick. The Health Protection Agency also said Thursday that someone who could only have been Litvinenko’s wife "had tested positive for low levels of radiation exposure. "

Scaramella told reporters that during the meeting he presented Litvinenko with e-mailed documents showing their names on a list of people whose lives were in danger from Russian criminals. Scaramella said the same criminals had killed Anna Politkovskaya, a well-known Russian investigative journalist, in October.

Meanwhile, the 2008 question is getting closer and closer and so far there don’t appear to be any credible alternatives to Putin in the offing. A quick scan of today’s Russian news sources reveals nothing new except opinion pieces and that is truly the state of play. Countless journos are offering up opinion but the only ones who seem to have some of the facts at hand are the British investigators. As my contact said on Thursday, better to wait and see what happens.

That, of course, does not satisfy the need for a daily fix of shocking revelations and following this blog's withdrawal from the Litvinenko/Politskaya issue on Thursday came an immediate drop in site visitors. Perhaps it was just coincidence.

[better technology required] ufo crashes in siberia

An unidentified flying object has crashed in Krasnoyarsk Region, Siberia, causing a forest fire, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Friday.

The crash took place in the taiga between the towns of Yeniseisk and Lesosibirsk, the agency said, quoting the local Interior Ministry Directorate. The crash was reported by local villagers and traces of forest fire could be seen. Air traffic officials said that no aircraft were scheduled to fly in the region at the time of the crash and no air vessels were missing.

A group formed of police investigators, representatives of the Transport Prosecutors Service and representatives of the aircraft safety watchdog Rosavianadzor has started to the site of the crash from Krasnoyarsk. The Local Emergencies Directorate has sent a helicopter to the site.

This is not good enough.

This blog feels that 1] these alien life forms should be required to submit documentation, in triplicate, on air safety standards compliance and craft reliability before entering terrestrial airspace; 2] should cease attempted abductions of terrestrial lifeforms henceforth until approval is granted 3] as this is a clear case of threat from alien sources [hostile], all citizens should report to their local ARP shelter Monday morning for implantation of the bio-data ID verichip in their right forearms.

[grimm tale] little red riding hood

One afternoon a big wolf was waiting in a dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket of food to her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come along and she was carrying a basket of food.

'Are you carrying that basket to your grandmothers?' asked the wolf. The little girl said yes, she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he disappeared into the wood.

When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she could see that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on.

She approached no nearer than three metres from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother at all but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look the least like anybody's grandmother. So the little girl took an automatic pistol out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.

Moral. It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.

James Thurber:Fables for Our Time [adapted]

[london olympics] just who should foot the bill

Lady Ellee asks: Should UK taxpayers pay towards the Olympics? Is it fair that London taxpayers should bear the full brunt of the astonomical costs for the 2012 Olympics, a national event that will benefit other parts of the country too?

Teri says: Here’s the sticking point Elle: It’s in London. If it had been somewhere like the Midlands or in the North then maybe a large number of people would agree that it’s fair to distribute the cost.

james higham says: It’s a good point about the dweller in the north. He’s hardly likely to get down and see them but on the other hand, he’ll bask in the national glory. I don’t know if it should be national or city. What about the expats too? Don’t they reap some of the radiated glory?

[food & wine] red wine, mediterranean diet, as we thought

New research from the William Harvey Research Institute and the University of Glasgow shows that red wines from areas of greater longevity in southwest France and Sardinia have higher levels of procyanidins - a type of flavonoid polyphenol with potent protective effects on blood vessels.

The team tested wines from two specific regions in southwest France and Sardinia, associated with increased longevity, to see if they differed to wines sourced from other countries across the world. The 'traditional' wines revealed surprisingly high levels of procyanidins, with often five to 10 times more than some new world wines.

Welshcakes Limoncello said… "Vino vecchio ed olio nuovo" = "old wine and new olive oil" - that's what they say the secret is here, James.

Forbes agrees: people who eat a "Mediterranean" diet rich in fruits, vegetables, olive oil, legumes, cereals and fish have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers report. Another study finds that taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements slows cognitive decline in some patients with very mild Alzheimer's disease.

"It seems that this diet is [health] protective," Scarmeas said. "Taking into account that this diet is protective for other conditions such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, obesity and a series of cancers, it seems to make sense to follow this diet anyway, and the diet may also protect from Alzheimer's disease."

It all seems pretty clear to me.