[rubbish day] nice evening

Maybe it's just us, JMB and myself but we didn't know Dr. Michelle was back to blogging. Delighted - a fine blog she had [has]. We missed her and were so glad to see the avatar here.

Today started awfully and the wind was so strong here that it almot blew out the balcony windows - had to do some reinforcements and then the traffic buildup and pile-ups had to be seen to be believed. Russia doesn't do things by halves.

The Kabaeva/Putin story is doing the rounds, the uni girls were a bit cranky and then a nice little interlude ensued in the evening and home to some nice surprises. It's going to be an early one tonight.

I wish the peace of the night to everyone I corresponded with today - everyone.

[net neutrality] euphemism for control

The analogy is not far-fetched at all

First the news about "net neutrality"

Silicon Valley high-tech entrepreneurs told the Federal Communications Commission yesterday that there needed to be more oversight of phone and cable companies at the agency's second off-site hearing on broadband Internet rules.

However, none of the largest service providers -- Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner -- attended the hearing yesterday, despite requests by the FCC to participate, according to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin.

At issue is whether the Internet needs rules that mandate it remain open and unfettered by network operators.

It seems to this blogger to be the thin end of the wedge. I'd like to see pornography thrown off the web altogether but to place the net under governmental agency control seems something that is being angled for.

This is the standard tactic - create a malaise so that the public demands something be done. In step the regulators to address the problem - voila, the government now controls it.

[eurovision] chanson sung in english

Marianne feels Sebastien Tellier should not perform "Divine" at Eurovision -- unless it is in French.

"A song represents the soul of a country," said Marc Favre d'Echallens, who heads a group dedicated to defending French against the growing use of English.

"It appears logical that a song representing France be a French song sung in French," he said, denouncing cultural "uniformity" and the "hegemony" of the English language in the world today.

It's the latest battle in a war France has waged for decades to defend French against the encroachment -- some call it the invasion -- of the English language.

The televised May 24 Eurovision contest, with entries from Andorra to Russia, drew some 100 million viewers last year -- when France placed 22 out of 24 finalists, with 19 points.

And the French are less than amused by the British attempt to mock them:

Les journaux britanniques qui ne manquent pas une occasion de se moquer de la France, s'amusent beaucoup en ce moment. Le Times en tête, ils racontent avec délectation comment la France envoie au concours de l'Eurovision, un candidat qui chante en… anglais. «Après des décennies de scores très embarrassants, la France a trouvé une étrange parade pour remporter le concours à Belgrade, le 24 mai prochain» , écrit perfidement le Times.

This blogger feels that the song should be sung in the native language by a native of the country to a reasonable number of generations.

English is a big enough language to accommodate that - there's hardly a need for this fixation for everything to be in English.

This blogger also feels that people should perhaps be a little less over-sensitive about some things and that good relations are more important than imagined slights.

Sebastien Tellier: "Divine"

[thought for the day] thursday evening

Each man has found himself in the situation, somewhere along the line, where a woman is not speaking to him. How many have been in the situation where three women from different parts of the world are simultaneously not speaking to him? Interesting, huh?

A misplaced line here, a regretted word there - that's a situation which clearly calls for Shakespeare, for example, from Othello:

O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial, grrrr!

[He scurries back to his lair.]

[настоящая любовь] может ли это быть правдой?

Update from the western press

А новой избранницей президента России якобы уже стала олимпийская чемпионка, дважды чемпионка мира и обладательница громких европейских титулов Алина Кабаева. 12 мая молодой красавице исполнится 25, она младше Путина на 30 лет.

Московский корреспондент утверждает, что среди московских компаний, занимающихся организацией корпоративных праздников, уже объявлен закрытый тендер на право проведения свадьбы Путина и Кабаевой.

Сама же свадьба якобы состоится на Троицу, которая в этом году приходится на 15 июня.

Местом проведения торжества выбран Константиновский дворец под Санкт-Петербургом.

This is sweeping Russia today but no one knows if there's anything in it or not.

There is a video montage below of her career.

She's always been my favourite gymnast along with Nadia Comaneci. Music in the clip is by HiFi.

Mой весьма информированный источник, пожелавший остаться неназванным...

кроме того, было много слухов по поводу того, что путин неравнодушен к Анне Нетребко - оперной примадонне и не зря он наградил ее званием народной артистки и гос премией. кстати, она гораздо лучше обеспечена деньгами - звезда!

I'm also told she is Ukrainian but born in Russia, with two citizenships - Russian and Austrian.

Still, I feel Kabaeva's the one.

[32 years on] where is she now

Fine looking woman, yes? Would you believe she's 47 years old? Here's an earlier shot of her:



I sometimes ask the Russians if they've heard of her - almost no one has. In Soviet days her name was never mentioned.

[city cars] clever privo might be the answer

Nunyaa got me thinking about city cars. She mentioned the Nissan Privo:

The car is run by lithium-ion batteries and has ZERO emissions. The entire cabin of the car swivels which makes parking in tight spots a breeze. While the word Pivo means beer in Russian and several other Slavic languages, the car design has nothing to do with beer cans or keg barrels.

Perhaps it's based on the Russian "privod":

привод I м. тех. (передача) drive, driving gear

Earlier, in 2006, the Clever concept was also unveiled:

... a three-wheeled car that, at a metre wide, is designed to squeeze into the tiniest of parking spaces, funded by the European Union and backed by BMW, called Clever (for compact low emission vehicle for urban transport, and a possible swipe at the Smart car brand), launched at Bath University in south-west England.

Its developers hoped to see it on European streets within five years at a cost of as little as £5000. Clever's most striking feature is the way the chassis tilts, like a motorcycle, when the vehicle rounds a corner. The tilt system, designed by the engineers at Bath, is controlled electronically to make sure the car is balanced at all speeds.

The vehicle emits about a third as much carbon dioxide as conventional family cars, with fuel consumption equivalent to 2.17 litres per 100 kilometres. It has a top speed of 100 km/h and takes seven seconds to get from zero to 65 km/h. It can carry one passenger in a seat behind the driver.

I don't see anything current on this vehicle on the web so we'll ahve to look out for the Privo.

[blog notes] patterns of visitors

To look at this, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a U.S. blog. Look at mid-evening, London time though and the story is usually so different. Last evening I had my best Brit stats in a long while - 55% of readers were from the U.K.

I never planned the blog to be that way and yet it's a delight and I now try to plan the posts with the target readers in mind.

Days of the week is another very consistent thing. There've rarely been weeks, except with a major holiday, where it varies. Saturday is usually my shocker for visitor numbers, Sunday picks up, Monday and Tuesday peak, Wednesday begins the slide down to Saturday.

What's your pattern?

[boris] still leading the race for mayor

I want to be Mayor for all Londoners


I wanted to run an analysis rather than a eulogy. In today's Telegraph, Iain Martin says about Red Ken:

He is now really up against it. The payola machine Livingstone built for partially reconstructed Marxists at city hall is seamlessly interwoven with his network of activists across the city, giving him real reach in campaigning terms.

Livingstone may well be tired, but he still has a very good chance of sneaking back in.

Johnson has to hope to persuade Tories in outer London to care enough to vote this time. The bad news for undecided voters is that a flirtation with the Liberals or the Greens is pointless.

The electoral system means that the top two candidates' names will first be identified and then only the second votes cast for those two are added to their first vote totals. If a voter wants it to count, their second vote should be cast for either Boris or Ken.

Johnson's campaign is showing signs of faltering as the winning post comes into view. The problem has not been that he has avoided playing the clown, rather it is a lack of grasp of detail. He needs to work out a series of coherent answers to questions such as: how much will his new Routemaster buses cost? Who will be in his team if he wins?

Beyond policy specifics - and there is much in his promises on knife crime, policing, open spaces and recycling that is worth commending - ultimately this is a set-piece battle in a culture war.

Johnson is the Cavalier fighting Ken's politically-correct Roundhead forces whose grip has been strongest in municipal government. In office his natural inclination would be to do a bit less, "don't just do something, stand there," as Ronald Reagan put it, rather than spraying money at friends and quangos.

In the end, I suspect a weary London will see the two names and opt for the fresher voice which seems to offer some hope for London. Boris is that fresher voice.

Not greatly relevant but here was a quick poll I ran last October on my site:

Ken the Newt………………….27%

Boris the Beefy………………73%

15 votes total

Well, all right - not all that scientific but some real indicators show that Boris, on balance, is still the best choice.

[twilight zone] america in chartered territory

["Chartered" is not a mistake in the title.]

1. The U.S. economic downturn

Take your pick of sources on this issue and this is happening just as the the second factor below comes into play.

2. The SPPNA

From the SPP site:

"The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or change the American system of government designed by our Founding Fathers […] The SPP is a White House-driven initiative."

It only regulates these areas:

a. defense

b. the judiciary

c. education

d. social security

e. opens the borders and creates access and egress via the state constructed NAFTA Superhighways

f. creates a free economic zone within NA shores

g is advised by the North American Advisory Council [CFR appointees - p53]

In real terms, NAFTA has had this effect already:

The big beneficiaries of NAFTA and the application of the neoliberal model have been the transnational companies in the U.S. and the sectors of the Mexican oligarchy whose wealth has increased substantially. The world’s second-richest man is no longer Warren Buffet of the U.S.; it is Carlos Slim of Mexico. The big losers have been the farmers and the working people, who have seen a substantial drop in their wages and standards of living.

... and ...

[T]here is an additional detail, not to be sneered at. As Alberto Arroyo, member of the Mexican Action Network Against Free Trade, said at the Sixth Hemispheric Conference Against the Free Trade Area of the Americas held in Havana in early May, [2007], the SPPNA’s objective is "to strengthen the military and security schemes to deal with the resistance of the people." The idea "is to try to create a close coordination (with plans concerted among the governments) to improve schemes of security that serve to confront social movements as if they were criminals."

As stated by them, nothing was signed by Bush, Martin and Fox on March 23rd, 2005 and yet this "advisory role" is set down to begin in March, 2009.

3. Barack Obama

Ross Fountain observes:

Obama has been lucky so far that his novelty as the first serious black candidate for the office of President of the United States has caused people to overlook just how wearisomely familiar his brand of faded radical chic mixed with elitism is.

Which is not to say Obama will get in - there's a long way to go and the McCain factor of course. One of the commenters at The Swamp wrote:

What Mark Silva won't tell Swamp readers: Republican John McCain is leading both Clinton II and Obama in the latest Gallup Poll. And the LA Times/Bloomberg Poll. And the Rasmussen Poll. Guess the Democrats at the Swamp only cite Gallup if the Gallup numbers look bad for Republicans.