[too funny for words] rough justice

This is a screenshot. Click on the pic to go to Rick's site to see this.

If you have a moment, check this Far Queue gallery out while you're about it.

[boat design] maximum numbers or maximum safety

This is not the first time this blog has referred to this matter. Look at the naval vessel in the first photo and the ferry in the second. What immediately strikes you is their relative stability. Now look at the third photo and see what you think. Does the expression "top heavy" spring to mind?

Oh yes, you say, but these boats are designed to be stable. They have stabilizers below and all that. Don't they? Well, perhaps you can consider this and this when deciding if things perform as they are "designed" to.

You do as you wish but I wouldn't be caught dead on the boat in the third picture or similar. As a sailor, I'd just like to point out that there are things called storms and big waves and freak conditions out on the ocean.

There's also a thing called human error.

[segolene royal] tricky time for her and for her party

The BBC seem to have put the salient points on the run-off vote here:

In the first round, Ms Royal gained 42.5% of the vote, Ms Aubry 34.7% and Mr Hamon 22.8%. Ms Royal - who had won a pre-convention ballot with 29% of members' votes - accused her rivals of clinging to "outdated" ways after they refused to rally behind her leadership bid. France's media have said the Socialists showed themselves at the Reims convention to be "ungovernable".

Segolene Royal is the best known, of course and wasn't far off securing the presidency last time. Of course she has the stigma of being a one time loser and being that much older next time round, also without the support of her former partner. Yet she seems the only viable alternative for the socialists in being able to bring the party into line long enough for the population to vote for them.

Le figaro says:

Le Parti socialiste est au moins sûr d'une chose : il sera dirigé pour la première fois par une femme ... En revanche, «Royal progresse nettement. Ces premiers chiffres montrent une dynamique en sa faveur. Si elle échoue au second tour, cet échec résoudra moins de problèmes au PS qu'il n'en créera de nouveaux», selon ce professeur à Sciences Po.

How far the outgoing Hamon's preferences flow to Aubry is the critical factor here. One key problem is that many don't wish to make a choice between what is seen as three bad choices:

C'est le cas par exemple du président du groupe PS à l'Assemblée, Jean-Marc Ayrault. «Je ne veux pas participer à l'aggravation des fractures que nous avons connues à Reims, a-t-il déclaré mardi. Je voterai jeudi et peut-être vendredi, mais je n'exprimerai pas publiquement de préférence.»

Sarko would not be altogether unhappy with the current state of the socialists in France.

[defend the perpetrator] ignore the victim

Bunny writes:

I have a cousin who used to be a great guy. He was funny, clever and had everything going for him. He used to be one of my favourite people to spend time with.

But not anymore.

Because now my cousin is a junkie bastard who can't see anything past getting his next fix. I used to love my cousin who was a great guy. I'd laugh at his jokes, we'd tell stories. He used to be a go to guy.

But not anymore.

Because now my cousin is up for culpable homicide because he bought heroin for a girl and she overdosed and died. I hope they make an example of him and I hope he spends a long time in jail.

Someone replied:

Heroin is actually the easiest drug to get inside. He'll end up a victim, he'll come out a broken, miserable wreck.

To which Bunny replied:

What he needs is a gold star and big fu--ing cup of tea for helping that girl kill herself.

Right on. Why, oh why do people insist on concerning themselves with the "poor" perpetrator's broken heart the whole time? Touching but what about the victims? Take your pick of issues where this is the case. Here's one:


[T]here is a practice of giving the victim and the perpetrator almost equal billing, often with the implication that the perpetrator's background, family situation or personal woes somehow mitigate his/her criminal act.


Enough!

And another thing - the media should be castigated over its constant beat-ups and complete lack of concern or connection with the events they sensationalize.

Sheesh.

.

[dinoquiz] slip back a few million years

Carnotaurus

Thanks, Wiki, for this:

1. The term "dinosaur" was coined in 1842 by _______ .

2. Which of these were not dinosaurs: the pelycosaur Dimetrodon, the winged pterosaurs, and the aquatic ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs.

3. There is an almost universal consensus among paleontologists that birds are the descendants of _______ dinosaurs.

4. Which came first - the Triassic or Jurassic period?

5. The tallest and heaviest dinosaur known from good skeletons is _______ (also known as Giraffatitan). Its remains were discovered in Tanzania between 1907–12.

Answers here.

[frame up] favoured ploy of the fallen

All the reviews seem to pan the film The Fallen [1998, Denzel Washington]. That's as maybe but the idea is quite neat and I imagine close to reality.

The plot, in a nutshell, is that a serial killer is caught and gassed for his crime but he was, in fact, possessed and the daemon can switch hosts either by touch or over a certain distance, otherwise it dies. Its game is to frame cops for murders, by having the cop kill whichever innocent was possessed at the time and then to move on, once the innocent is dead and blood is on the cop's hands.

Of more interest to me was the frame-up, as this was one theme in this post as well, which is about when black is presented as white and white as black. It also seems applicable to many things going on today. It would be horrific being framed, even down to your own fingerprints being there to incriminate you and all that just to continue the agenda of someone or something which revels in distrust and destruction.

You'd have no way out and would have to watch as friends and family began to think you'd either gone off your brain or were guilty. If you accept the stool pigeon as a frame-up of sorts, then Oswald might fall into that category and htere is evidence that Dean was initially meant to take the rap for Watergate as well.

Very difficult to counter.

[the obama bunch] here's a story ... of a ...

[frankensteins] when mammoths and neanderthals roam again

Here's the scheme:

Reconstruct the genome of the woolly mammoth from its hair, implant the DNA in an elephant egg, then, after successive generations, the mammoth would be reconstructed. Don't forget:

The same would be technically possible with Neanderthals, whose full genome is expected to be recovered shortly ...

So, we get back to the good old days of Neanderthals and mammoths, exterminate the pesky human vermin of the current day and hey presto - controllable, reduced population and a food source. How much would the initial step take?

Stephan Schuster ... at Pennsylvania State University ... estimated [it] would cost $10 million.

[germaine greer] who listens to her anyway

And these are the things Germaine Greer is concerned with, in her struggle for women's rights?

Germaine Greer says the dress Michelle Obama wore to her husband's US election declaration was a "butcher's apron" and looked like a "geometrical hemorrhage".

Deep.

Adding to her credentials as an intellect of note, Ms Greer pronounced last year that Princess Diana was a "devious moron" and that Steve Irwin, crocodile hunter, "deserved it" when he was killed.

The movement's in good hands, sisters.

[supertanker revisited] piracy on the high seas

This post did not seem to garner a great deal of interest and yet the issue has now forced itself onto the world consciousness - the return of piracy on the high seas. Naturally, the shipowners are calling for protection:

This was reinforced on Wednesday when the Hong Kong Shipowners' Association called for preventive action by the world's navies as well as for humanitarian help in war-torn Somalia.

For a start, what is in it for the worlds' navies and how can they patrol the area the pirates are now operating in? As mentioned in the previous post on the issue:

Perhaps the answer is that if there were any rescue attempt, the cargo would be sunk and whilst the pirates lose millions in this particular deal, it is better for Saudi Arabia and the company to pay out a few million in ransom and save the 995 million left over.

My friend came up with the only solution I've so far heard which might work - pay them the ransom, get the ship and cargo back then send in the warships, subs and gunboats and destroy the pirate HQ in its entirety and most importantly, take over the port area. Yes, the pirates would relocate, like the Hezbollah but it would eventually prove to be yet another less port to operate from.

The alternative of arming the merchant ships is not so good because that would also mean offensive capability.