[country quiz 4] 10 more tricky ones for you

1] If you crossed the Panama Canal from the Atlantic (Caribbean) to the Pacific, in which general direction would you be going?

2] If you saw the letters BWI after a country on a postal address, where would you expect the letter to be delivered?

3] If you were in Molokai, in which country would you be?

4] In which city is Marco Polo airport?

5] In which city is the HQ of the Central Bank of China?

6] In which country is water considered so precious that it gives name to the currency: the Pula?

7] London's Fleet Street runs from the Strand to Ludgate Circus and has become the former home of British journalism. What is it named after?

8] Name the eastern-most and western-most state in the United States.

9] Jebel Musa is acknowledged to be one of the Pillars of Hercules, the end of the world according to Mediterranean cultures. What is the other one?

10] Valencia Island is off the coast of which European country?

Answers here …

[bryan appleyard] why the right blogs are more successful

Bryan has this to say about the success of the “rightish” British blogs:

[The] left's rhetoric has been inhibited by a variety of self-imposed restraints - broadly those known as 'politically correctness', but also by certain, as it were, theological dogmas such as the need to blame America for everything and to insist that America can only do evil. PC and dogmatism have progressively tightened the gag on the rhetoric of the left so that, in effect, they can say less and less about more and more.

The right, by contrast, has not really acquired any such fixed dogmas. It is more pluralist. The reason for this is the left's dogmatism and package of prejudices combined with an “if you're not for us, you're against us” mindset. This restricts entry to the left club and excludes anybody who might dissent too readily from the prevailing orthodoxy.

My take: The left is incessantly on about rights and legislating for inclusion, citing a mythical 'pie in the sky' of which they want their slice. The right realizes there are no rights, save what we create for ourselves by dint of hard work. We make our own contacts, we conduct our own business, we 'makes' our money, we protect those dear to us and ourselves. Providing everyone else also has a 'trade' mentality, it works well. Along the way, our network of contacts gives us all the protection we're ever likely to get.

[managers] treading a fine line

The most successful small companies in this part of the world are those with strong managers who act with vision and according to sound business practice but are known for their open-door policy and frequent planning meetings. They therefore have to tread a fine line between managerialism and fiasco.

Yet it’s in the interests of any manager worth his salt to listen, digest and to adopt, to initiate discussions and to give weight to what is put forward and this is the hardest task with the hands-on, start-up type of free-wheelers who manage companies over here. Divisional and sub managers can certainly contribute – that’s what they’re paid to do – but would they assume personal liability for any company action? In small companies, one man takes the rap and only has himself to blame, so best practice and the free flow of ideas are in his own best interests.

If staff feel they are appreciated for their input, this is far more important than making decisions by enforced democratic vote. As Alec Issigonis said: ‘A camel is a horse designed by a committee.’ If a staff member can have room to move in his particular specialization and if he can see the result of his input reflected in company policy, then why would he want to be the one with his head directly on the block? Indirectly, he still stands or falls by his decisions and the thing has a tendency to self-actualization.

It’s a fine line. Unfortunately, many get it wrong and the result is dysfunction. Like a car with an engine that can't fire on all cylinders, a business that's dysfunctional may move forward for a while. But eventually it stops running. Companies don't start out maladjusted, of course. It just tends to happen over time.

"The hallmark of a dysfunctional organization is a gap between reality and rhetoric," says Ben Dattner, a New York organizational psychologist. Once diagnosed, the corrosive effects of such problems can be corrected. But make no mistake: It's neither easy nor immediate. Joanna Krotz, of Marketing Intelligence, identifies three signs of dysfunction.

Read on …

[worst movie ever] competition details

There's something fascinating about an atrocious movie. That's why this blog is currently running a 'Worst Movie of all Time' competition [I know, I know it's been done ad nauseam]. Rules are:

1] it must have been made for cinematic release, not as a garage movie;

2] they can’t have set out to make a bad movie. This last criterion would seem to put out Attack of the Killer Tomatoes which was intended as trash but ended up being quite a cult flick;

3] you must include a blurb and link;

4] pic would help.

First four nominations from you good people are here:

1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4

[the big three] shift in the hegemony

“The West's international oil majors are in real trouble as regards the collapsing of their control over global energy reserves and face a global wave of nationalization, forced renegotiation of existing agreements, inability to get access to new exploration and production acreage and rising taxes. It is a caustic mix that is dissolving the glue that holds together the US-backed oil order.”

It must be pretty clear to all who observe that there’s a three way struggle for global pre-eminence. America’s hegemony, based on its undisputed financial clout is very much under threat from the might of China with all its convoluted alliances and questionable agenda and methods.

While America remains oil dependent, Russia and Saudi also hold very strong hands and Russia, for one, is fully aware of it and playing hardball. The rejection of Exxon-Mobil’s and Shell’s advances over Sakhalin are a case in point. Reluctantly, America is paying greater attention to exploring bio-fuels and the Mexican gulf but it’s certainly a slap in the face nonetheless. America will never be weak because of the very nature of its competitive instinct and the willingness of its people to spend and yet … and yet …

Iraq is a perfect example of how to bleed America dry – not to cripple it, of course but to weaken it enough for China and the Muslim Alliance to take centre stage and set the agenda, with Russia still strong for another 30 years at least. The following article, from www.GeoStrategyMap.com, addresses Russia itself.

Read it here ...

[hollywood nativity] of movies and spirituality

Very interesting article in the Globe and Mail which I reproduce in abridged form below. The thing is that the humanists will be uneasy by definition but it would be perhaps harder to see how a Christian could be equally uneasy. Surely this is precisely the break they’ve been looking for.

Er … no. First the article:

Two years after Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, a film rejected by every major studio, earned more than $600-million (U.S.) worldwide, Hollywood is finally beginning to believe in the possibility of a Christian audience.

Earlier this year, executives at New Line Cinema — the Time-Warner subsidiary that first came to fame with slasher flicks in the eighties, and achieved major studio status by producing The Lord of the Rings trilogy — sat down in a Los Angeles screening room and were given a class in what they dubbed “Christianity 101.” The teachers included a Pauline nun who doubles as a film critic, an evangelical preacher and a Presbyterian minister.

Continued here …