June 30, 2009
I think I know where this is headed
Japanese spaceship Kaguya has detected uranium on the Moon.
...
The findings could help decide where to build future lunar colonies, since manned outposts will need energy, and could potentially derive it from nuclear power plants.
Just take care with your recycling programs.
Related: Hot women of Space: 1999.
Update: Mike Campbell offers another possible destination.
A fairly big deal
Commenting on Japan Times editorial, Dancing with the dragon, John Opie claims the Obama administration whose incoherent foreign policy is governed by the two poles of domestic cronyism and sucking up to China (both links via White Peril).
For most countries, the US Ambassador is a fairly big deal, representing the US in that country. Sending a party hack or giving the post away to one of the party faithful is a clear sign of disinterest that many countries recognize and while they may not like this, there is virtually nothing they can do.
Sending these Ambassadors sends a clear message: you're not really very important. Remember who has been Ambassador to Japan in the past: President G.H.W. Bush (aka Bush 41) was Ambassador there way back when. That is the quality of people you send, not an internet and biotechnology lawyer who just happened to be one of President Obama's premier fundraisers.
Another difference that makes a difference: Japan and India are both democracies. Mainland China practices a system of government preferred by Obama and his supporters in the establishment left.
June 29, 2009
Most Canadians struggle to identify Canadian icons
A trickier question is why anyone should be bothered.
The online survey conducted by Ipsos Reid for the Dominion Institute was released in time for Canada's 142nd birthday. But there's little in the findings to celebrate. Most Canadians -- 88 per cent -- could name international pop star Celine Dion from a photograph, and 77 per cent correctly named Wayne Gretzky.
But a paltry 19 per cent could identify the father of Medicare Tommy Douglas, sometimes considered the greatest Canadian, and only 27 per cent could name Metis leader Louis Riel.
Because knowing what Tommy Douglas' face looks like is... actually, we have no need for this information. I would be happier if the Dominion Institute encouraged Canadians to consider the meaning of the words "free health care".
Update: Chris Taylor via email.
One wonders, if we were to make a similar quiz for Americans, would the professions be weighted with such a heavy slant to politics? Which solitary American performer would make the cut—Elvis Presley, Clara Bow, Nat 'King' Cole or Scarlett Johansson? And who would be the lone civil rights activist? Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony or Martin Luther King? Would the single captain of industry be Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Juan Trippe, or Bill Gates? And the sole artist should be Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Louis Comfort Tiffany or Man Ray?
Canadian history also has a similar galaxy of notable stars, but we don't get taught about them at all. In this country, they are invisible to educators and historians alike.
To be blunt the Dominion Institute's icons list are heavily weighted in favour of history nerds who idolize politicians. Being a history nerd, naturally I got 10/10, but I am not a big fan of politicians. Politicians may get the glory, but it is the blood sweat and tears of ordinary Joes that makes a country run. And I fully understand that regular civilians who spend most of their waking hours focusing on things other than history and politics are naturally not going to give a damn. Whole sectors of achivement get left out of Canadian social studies education. Successful Canadian businessmen? Ha. Sure, we hear about businessmen when they are fitted into the narrative of political initiative (like the transcontinental railroad) or social change (like the Winnipeg General Strike). But ordinary joes climbing out of obscurity to become titans in their fields? Never. Did anybody ever hear the names Edward Robert Peacock, Ezra Butler Eddy, K.C. Irving or Grant McConachie in high school history? Of course not. They didn't devote themselves to serving a political purpose, nor become an object lesson on how not to treat the proletariat. They are outside the narrative.
I have some respect for the Dominion Institute since they periodically remind the public of the existence of Canadian history, but their time would be more profitably spent widening the scope of Canadian history education, and not bemoaning the fact that everyone forgets the boring, heavily distorted narrative that we all get crammed into our heads at younger ages. If anything, that's a bit of a blessing. We'd all be NDP voters otherwise.
But not for thee
Daily Mail Deputy Political Editor, Tim Shipman, introduces Labour's British homes for British workers policy.
Let's see if understand this correctly. "British homes for British workers" prioritizes the British over immigrants and asylum seekers and, as such, addresses a far-right grievance held by former Labour voters wooed by the British National Party.
Some questions: How does Labour introducing the same far-right policy - especially with this Orwellian name - change its presumed racism? Further, why does the Daily Mail deputy political editor not feel it necessary to describe the perceived unfairness which sees immigrants with large families vault to the top of the council house list? Or are we all meant to intuitively grasp such unfairness (and as such intuitively empathize with this far-right policy)?
Finally, what other policy inspiration is Gordon Brown's Labour party planning to take from the BNP?
Cabin Crew: Star To Fall
June 28, 2009
Queen: I want to break free
On an unrelated note: My comments are still fried and I do not see a quick fix. My apologies for the inconvenience.
Armed Forces Day
Secretary of State for Scotland, Jim Murphy, described as "sickening" a noisy protest by a small number of Irish republicans objecting to Britain's first Armed Forces Day (formerly Veterans Day). I may have shared his opinion had I been exposed to the protesters myself though how anyone can express the least surprise at Irish republicans objecting to Her Majesty's armed forces is beyond me.
Far more sickening is the apparent nonchalance evinced by his government at the current state of Her Majesty's armed forces. The first Type 45 destroyer is to set to sea without a fully operational air defence system while a "black hole" in defence funding may sink what is left of the Royal Navy and with it much of the UK's nuclear deterrent.
They argue that Britain should no longer struggle to maintain a full range of defence capability like the US and instead consider scrapping up to £24bn of future "big ticket" projects - including two new aircraft carriers, the F35 joint strike fighters designed to fly from them, six new Type 45 destroyers, four new Astute hunter-killer submarines and the replacement of the Vanguard submarines carrying Trident.
While they are at it, I shall consider cutting my passport in half and mailing it to Buckingham Palace.
June 27, 2009
Heirs to Fortuyn
Defend the rights of women and you are a racist. Defend gay men from violence and you are racist. Defend the right of Muslims to be free from their own extremists and you are a racist. Bruce Bawer documents massive Muslim immigration to Europe and massive support for sharia law, for jihad and a contempt for their host nations, let alone their values.
Non-Muslims aren’t the only targets of Muslim violence. A mountain of evidence suggests that the rates of domestic abuse in these enclaves are astronomical. In Germany, reports Der Spiegel, “a disproportionately high percentage of women who flee to women’s shelters are Muslim”; in 2006, 56 percent of the women at Norwegian shelters were of foreign origin; Deborah Scroggins wrote in The Nation in 2005 that “Muslims make up only 5.5 percent of the Dutch population, but they account for more than half the women in battered women’s shelters.” Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-Dutch advocate for democracy and women’s rights, would no doubt say far more than half: when she was working with women in Dutch shelters, she writes, “there were hardly any white women” in them, “only women from Morocco, from Turkey, from Afghanistan—Muslim countries—alongside some Hindu women from Surinam.” When she and filmmaker Theo van Gogh tried to highlight the mistreatment of women under Islam in the 2004 film Submission: Part I, he was killed by a young Muslim extremist.
More and more Western Europeans, recognizing the threat to their safety and way of life, have turned their backs on the establishment, which has done little or nothing to address these problems, and begun voting for parties—some relatively new, and all considered right-wing—that have dared to speak up about them. One measure of the dimensions of this shift: owing to the rise in gay-bashings by Muslim youths, Dutch gays—who ten years ago constituted a reliable left-wing voting bloc—now support conservative parties by a nearly two-to-one margin.
June 26, 2009
The death of Captain Eo
Yes, Michael Jackson was arrested and charged with child molestation but then he cared about love and peace and he loved children, etc. so all cultures are beautiful and it's all relative, right? Let he who voted for Obama cast the first stone.* One can only imagine the pain of Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II this morning or, indeed, most mornings.
Leading up to a much anticipated London concert series, Peter Conrad discussed Michael Jackson's freaky talent. I believe the following captures much of Jackson's brio and the genesis of Jackson's weltschmerz.
How often have I asked myself the same question? Without further ado: A Michael Jackson video you may not have seen umpteen times.
* I was probably the only person who thought that was funny the first time I wrote it.
How an Indie Musician can make $19,000 in 10 hours using Twitter
Off to study Amanda Palmer's Twitternomics. Warren Ellis posts a retweet by way of summary.
cash made by @amandapalmer in one month on Twitter = $19,000; cash made by @amandapalmer from 30,000 record sales = $0
The devil is in them
Information Dissemination identifies an alarming technical detail of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) reported to be by Red China; second stage control fins which would make this a ballistic missile without a fixed trajectory.
You see, if the launch is accurately detected, trajectory can be determined based on the launch. When we shoot our SM-3, because ballistic missiles have a fixed trajectory, our interceptor knows where the missile is going to be and can intercept it.
But if a ballistic missile changes course in flight, our AEGIS BMD interceptor finds itself in the wrong place, because it calculated the intercept based on the initial trajectory, not the new trajectory following the mid-course change.
This technical detail is why I call bullshit with the Navy's suggestion that we have a critical need for more DDG-51s specifically for ballistic missile defense. The Burke is not capable of intercepting this ballistic missile, and we are going to need a new radar that can track the mid-course change accurately, and new software to very quickly do the math for identifying a new intercept point if we are going to defeat this weapon. That is going to be enormously expensive, which is why when I say I think the Navy is going to need $6 billion nuclear cruisers if they are going to evolve ballistic missile defense towards 21st century threats, I'm not kidding.
Update: Chris Taylor responds via email.
We could always use that other integral part of AEGIS BMD, the ability to intercept targets in the terminal (i.e. final) phase, rather than an earlier phase (like midcourse). In other words, wait until after the second stage does it manouvre, then plonk the warhead. It just means you probably won't get a lot of second chances; the first volley has to matter.
Also, the missile doesn't have to do much in the way of target search. You can have some dopey trawler or sub shadow the target and give you a halfway-decent lat/long fix. In the sixteen minutes it will take for the ASBM to reach its target 3000km distant at mach 10, a carrier is not going to move a few hundred miles at 30 knots max speed. It will move 8 nautical miles at best. What are the odds you can develop a seeker/terminal guidance sensor small enough to fit into the 1.4m diameter of a DF-21 ASBM, but big enough to have a search range of say, 16nm? 1.4m is big enough to put a fullblown F-22-style AN/APG-77 AESA array (0.98m diameter) in there with a detection and targeting range of 125 nm.
I dunno what to make of it really. None of the concerns he has raised seem to be insurmountable technical challenges for either side.
Another update: I should explain my comments system appears to be having some sort of indigestion. Consequently, I am posting another response via email; this from Armored Facilities Manager.
Initial trajectories will be off, but if the Ballistic missile is launched at the Surface Action group itself, then there will be very little ballistic correction to make.
I have to wonder whether SM-2 would in fact do the job neatly.
The other aspect is that the guidance is mostly software. I doubt that the folks at Hughes are sitting on their backsides NOT coming up with tweaks to effect positive intercepts of a maneuvering terminal ballistic missile were there a problem.
Note, SM-3 intercepted a satellite which was in effect maneuvering a touch due to atmospheric effects on it's irregular shape. They HAD to do final calculations to get the hit to kill warhead on the satellite.
June 25, 2009
The shape of things to come
Drone pilot trainees are now the majority in the United States Air Force.
Egypt's Grand Imam says burka not obligatory in Islam
Egypt's Grand Imam, Sheikh Mohammad Tantawi, says the face veil is not compulsory in Islam and says every head of state had the right to accept or prohibit it.* Which should end the argument so far as Canada's human rights heresy commissions are concerned. But won't.
The burka debate has been raging for a while in Europe with countries like the Netherlands banning it in universities and the British press reporting that Muslims and non-Muslims alike are calling for a ban on the face covering attire.
* Which means he is obviously a racist and a tool of the Americans. /sarcasm
June 24, 2009
McCarthyism
Richard Shulman on the thin skin of the Israeli left; quick to criticize their foes, quick to cry McCarthyism when they are criticized in turn. The charge is used in the same way and for the same purposes as calling someone a "racist".*
Unfortunately, most people are not skeptics, except for something new and improved. They swallow what the Establishment feeds them. They have no idea what is being put over on them.
The other half of the people outside the Establishment are skeptical, but of those whom the Establishment suggests they suspect. They are made skeptical of the U.S. when it is upholding civilization but not when it is upholding the enemies of civilization as in the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon. They are made skeptical of Israel when it is defending itself but not when its suborned or blackmailed or pressured leaders make concessions to their people's enemies. They are made skeptical of "settlers" when they are Jews but not when they are Arabs seeking to aggrandize themselves, dreaming of returning to a situation as when the Arabs had the biggest empire.
* The first and last pejorative for the real racists in Israel and the rest of the West; the people who think an apartheid based immigration, education, legislative and human rights system is progressive. If you oppose real, quantifiable, institutionalized racism, learn to be denounced as a racist.
He who fears corruption fears life
Jonah Goldberg on "the one immutable fact" of President Obama's foreign policy toward Iran: "It's over."
There is nothing "almost" about it.
Related: On the plus side, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday extended the tenure of Mossad chief Meir Dagan for an eighth year,
The strong must be protected from the weak
In defiance of his public school educated party leader, former grammar school boy David Davis calls for a return to the grammar school system.
'And out of this catastrophe there was only one winning group. Do you know who they were?
'Yes, the public schools. Who teach just 7 per cent of the population.'
Mr Davis said public school boys now 'run Britain', adding: 'The media, the law, business - they are all dominated by public school boys.'
One wonders what the over/under is on an "egalitarian" having gone to a public school. The consequences of the destruction of the grammar school system may not be as unintentional as Davis believes them to be.
War is the highest form of struggle for resolving contradictions
A high-power chemical laser aboard the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) aircraft has been fired in flight for the first time. Good news for Boeing and the United States Air Force. Now we just have to wait until the People's Liberation Army Air Force produces an economical version for mass production to see how it works.
"This successful test is a major step toward bringing directed energy capability to the warfighter," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems.
June 23, 2009
Embassies to take injured to. Be safe.
Google maps hosts a list of embassies accepting injured people in Tehran (map and image via Binks).
Conspicuous by their absence: Embassies from Muslim countries accepting injured people in Tehran.
Canada talks tough, does nothing
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the reaction of the Iranian government to recent street protests in Iran is "wholly unacceptable." Kudos to Mr. Harper especially for having already described the Iranian regime as "obviously evil". But a few words would not comfort me if I were Maziar Bahari, a Canadian journalist working for Newsweek who was disappeared by Iran's police services during the recent troubles.
In related news: Canada has a military.
Also related: Canadian journalist, Zahra Kazemi - who was tortured, raped and murdered by Iran's government - is still dead.
A trip through the way-back machine to 2008 and Canada's former Prime Minister Jean Chretien may prove instructive. One wonders how much Chretien's little junket earned him.
David Guetta: Baby When The Light
Guitar tone in the age of digital effects pods.
June 22, 2009
History teaches us that man learns nothing from history
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers Lessons from the Sudetenland. Seriously, read the whole thing.
Moreover, the Germans reversed causality, claiming that the Czechs were trying to precipitate a European crisis in order to prevent the breakup of their state, that the choice between war and peace in Europe was in Czech hands, and even that "this petty segment of Europe is harassing the human race."
But there was a simple way to simultaneously avoid war and achieve justice, Hitler said. The Western powers - meaning Britain and France - could force the Czechs to do what was necessary for the sake of peace: Czechoslovakia had to relinquish the "occupied territories."
The British and the French have learned nothing; or rather, their elites are still bent on doing the wrong thing. I pray the Israelis have learned better than to trust them with their land or their lives. That goes double for the Czechs.
Selected not elected
I have no idea what is going on in Iran; just an FYI. But it seems to me the Iranian government has had some help from ACORN and Chicago's important Undead-American community as Iran managed more than 100% voter turnout in fifty cities.
...
"Statistics provided by the candidates, who claim more than 100% of those eligible have cast their ballot in 80-170 cities are not accurate -- the incident has happened in only 50 cities," Kadkhodaei said.
Only 50 cities. It sounds as though Iran's Guardian Council press representative has been channeling Jennifer Lynch. Call it Canadian Content.
Related: Have you written about the thought police at the Canadian Human Rights Commission? Blazing Cat Fur explains how! Strangely enough, we both thought of Lynch in connection with Iran's own robust notion of public debate.
My suggestion - file an Access to Information request with the CHRC, instructions below. I'm kinda lookin forward to seeing my own posts redacted in the CHRC's reply.
Scarborough Shoal
Information Dissemination follows up with more details on the incident with the USS John S McCain (DDG 56), its towed sonar array and a Red Chinese submarine off Subic Bay.
It turns out the incident may have occurred some considerable distance off Subic Bay.
Out to sea, in fact, by the contested Scarborough Shoals.
The picture in Google Earth is smudged for a reason, and it isn't a bad assumption that the reason is related in some way to the reason a PLA Navy submarine is operating that close to the shoals, or why a US Navy destroyer would be hunting a PLA Navy submarine in that area.
These territorial issues in the South China Sea are no joke. If China has no problem harassing the US Navy over territorial rights, it is a good bet they look at the Philippines with disdain on the issue and will be equally aggressive and provocative... perhaps even more so. As for me, I don't like the lack of transparency from Google Earth in a region we are having naval incidents with the PLA Navy. That just doesn't look right to me.
Thanks to the magic that is "the internet" we can all do our own satellite intelligence from home. Here is a Google Map showing the relative position of Scarborough Shoal with Philippines and China and the Scarborough Shoal Wikipedia entry that meant I did not have to go through the laborious process of typing "Scarborough Shoal" into Google.
June 20, 2009
Rendition: Guantanamo
Kristia Cavere's article XBox and the Execution of U.S. Soldiers is the first I have heard of what is likely to be some very bad publicity for Microsoft.
The game is seen through the perspective of a detainee in Guantanamo. The premise of the video game's story is that the facility was sold by the U.S. Government to an agency called Freedom Corp. Before the prisoner is tortured and has scientific experiments performed on him, he escapes and attempts to kill as many of his captors as possible. Points are accumulated for each soldier who is murdered.
The game is indeed seen through the perspective of a detainee in Guantanamo; Moazzam Begg's perspective, to be exact. The game developer hired an al Qaeda trainee who had been held at the facility before his new life as a game consultant.
Electric Light Orchestra: Dont Bring Me Down
What do you call a guy who hangs out with three musicians?
June 19, 2009
Government by received wisdom
The case of Abousfian Abdelrazik suggests received wisdom (these days flying "PC" colours) rather than Abdelrazik's human rights - let alone national security - was the impetus for his immanent return to Canada. Still better than received wisdom, naked opportunism explains a total incoherence revealed in the government's position. The state has decided an about face will calm the waters of 905 before a general election and calm waters is what 905 is to have; damn the rest of us.
Here is the government's position - which I defended - now dropped without explanation.
Which turns out to be nonsense. Chris Selley explains.
Selley offers an excellent list of questions left unanswered by the government's decision to allow Abdelrazik's return. We have been offered no explanation of how we can meet both the terms of the federal court decision against the government and how we can meet our obligations under international law, given the government's original argument. We have been offered no assurance Abdelrazik's return poses no danger to the public and no red faced apology if the government has belatedly, genuinely decided Abdelrazik represented no danger to the public in the first place.
Pace the wounded dignity, inconvenience and future legal actions of Mr. Abdelrazik, the Canadian public as a whole has reason for concern. Part of our contract with Leviathan includes an understanding the government - and particularly the security services - has access to information withheld from the general public. This being the case, we can sometimes trust the government knows why an individual might turn up on a United Nations "no fly" list even if we - or our court officials - do not.
Given the government's volte face, we can no longer be confident in this assumption so long as Stephen Harper remains in office. Or until the man admits and explains the mistake.
And as difficult for this might be for Abdelrazik as an innocent man, a mistake is what we must now surely hope it was. If not, a known associate of al-Qaeda is about to be feted as a celebrity by Canada's "left". But then they were celebrating al-Qaeda on the afternoon of 9/11; there are precious few new steps to be seen in this kabuki dance at the end of civilization.
June 18, 2009
False consensus bias
Ryan Sager is writing about Barack Obama's (entirely predictable) underbussing of equal rights for gay people. But substitute "Harper" for "Obama" and "freedom of speech" for "gay rights" and the argument should look all too familiar to Canadian conservatives.
But wait til he gets a majority!
Related: Allahpundit expands on the limitations of bloc voting.
Get out of here
You may laugh now but give it twenty years and swatting flies will be illegal in Canada. So too will making jokes about it. And smoking, obviously.
PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.
Impossibly shiny and tidy
Peter Hitchens pens a longer piece on his travel to Japan.
As a Japanese friend said: 'We are on another planet here, the only place that has not globalised.'
A fact that means entries in both the credit and debit columns. Too much to summarize so RTWT if Lost in Translation left you thinking of a move to Tokyo.
Civilization
Civilization by Marco Brambilla from CRUSH on Vimeo.
By Marco Brambilla.
June 17, 2009
June 16, 2009
The pillar of cloud by day
"A dusty old Ford Explorer stands abandoned on a track before a towering inferno of wind and Kansas dirt in an image that feels like a scene from the Wizard of Oz."
Getting rid of discrimination and demanding equal rights with men is the number one priority for women in Tehran
Michael Ledeen makes an interesting aside as he points out - helpfully, in my opinion - that nobody, not even the actors involved, knows what is going on in Iran, how it will turn out or even how key figures want it to turn out. One actor I had not heard of, and whose existence may be a hopeful sign, is Zahra Rahnavard, wife of erstwhile president Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
And kudos to The Guardian for getting up the regime's noses. More than could be send of the BBC or, for that matter, the al-Jazeera farm team at the CBC.
Pipe dream
Exxon Mobil has decided to join Trans-Canada on Governor Sarah Palin's ambitious Alaska gas pipeline project; a significant step for what is left of American industry.
Other doubters had suggested the pipeline could never happen because of a global gas glut, making the pipeline uneconomical. But with the project slated for completion in 2018, and the need for natural gas expected to rise between 20% and 40% by 2030, it's precisely now that such a project should be built.
"I think it's very shortsighted" to assume that "market conditions are going to stay as they are today," Palin told CNN. In an interview with IBD last July when gasoline hit $4 at the pump, she noted that if drilling had started in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge just five years ago, when policymakers were dismissing the idea of $100-a-barrel oil, "we wouldn't be in our predicament today."
The Beatles: Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
June 15, 2009
Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome
The world's leading authority on the neurobiology of the living dead, Dr. Steven C. Schlozman is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Education. Dr Scholzman has reportedly co-authored a ground breaking work on Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome, or ANSD, which describes zombie brain function.
But to the meat of the issue:
Schlozman says "no," observing that "the infected" possess "some sort of higher cortical function going on that allows them to hunt humans." Moreover, the fake zombies in 28 Days Later exhibit fluidity of motion. They can run, jump, climb and quickly change direction-activities that the true Romero zombies are incapable of performing.
Villans
I hear was me thinking tattoos are haraam.
But now there is fresh evidence that some of the Taliban were raised in the UK with the revelation that one fighter killed in a battle had an Aston Villa football club tattoo on his body.
Hat tip to Five Feet of Fury.
Speculation
Information Dissemination considers the case of the vanishing Chinese submarine story.
Second, if the PLAN submarine hit the towed array, it means the submarine was positioning itself behind the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56), meaning just like the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) was hunting the submarine, the submarine was hunting the destroyer.
June 14, 2009
James May, Top Gear and the North Pole
Sunday afternoon entertainment for Flea-readers everywhere. First, this rather excellent James May interview.
It wasn't that May dislikes King Crimson, Yes and Genesis - although he wishes Clarkson's tastes extended to The Stooges or Guns N' Roses - it was that Clarkson likes to talk over music, whereas May likes to listen to it. The pair argued almost constantly - until they almost went through the ice.
'That was the most scared we've ever been. Every muscle in my body was primed for death. There was a hammer in the car for breaking the window in the event of going under, and I'd loosened it so that I could free it with one finger. I was rehearsing it in my mind - "If we go through the ice, I'll do that, that and that to free myself, grab Jeremy if necessary..."
Second, this Top Gear polar special.
In which the English demonstrate they do not understand quite how dangerous is the winter.
Short Attention Span Theater
With the promise of a five episode story arc to launch Torchwood season 3, the Guardian TV&Radio Blog yearns for a return to episodic science fiction television.
Inexorably, though, it became clear that JMS, a control freak who wrote 92 of the show's 110 episodes himself, had an overarching vision. It involved a portentous brew of big themes – politics, destiny, war, peace, love. If you tried to start watching Babylon 5 with series three, you were left hopelessly confused.
Which is to confuse a story told over five episodes and a story told over five years (or, for B5, 4 years +). Comments to the piece point out there would not have been much Doctor Who if the show had been strictly episodic.
Building the World Trade Center Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (1983)
June 13, 2009
Wojciech Kilar: Prologue - My Life Before Me
Something beautiful (with Gustav Klimt thrown in for illustrative purposes).
Mob rule
16-year-old Ben Kinsella was knifed to death for "showing disrespect" to three street thugs, since convicted. Now a north London crime family - the aptly named "Adams family" - have reportedly put a price on the heads of his murderers causing them to fear for their lives despite enjoying the shelter of Her Majesty's prison system.
If a London crime family is no longer convinced the Crown is willing or able to uphold the law - let alone justice - on the streets of the capital we should not be surprised. A north London crime family is still a family and consequently unwilling to sit by as the British Establishment steers what is left of British civilization on to the rocks.
Leviathan may sleep but there will be law, albeit the rule of King Mob.
Update: Ric Locke comments by email. Kudos to the State of Nature; Flea comment system chastised. Emphasis added.
An organization which keeps order by using violence is a Government -- that's the /definition/.
The one place where I depart most strenuously from Thomas Paine is what happens to "men in a state of Nature". They'll evolve a Government, all right, but they won't do it by consensus or rational methods such as election. The biggest, baddest mofo who can also collect the biggest coterie of assistant big bad mofos rules.
At the moment, and for all practical purposes, Britain doesn't have a Government, since the members of the organization so styled refuse to use force to maintain order. It is not at all surprising to find big bad mofos assembling in groups to fill the vacuum.
Regards,
Ric
(I note that you have boobytrapped TypePad, apparently to discourage comments. This was worth comment anyway. If you'd like to post it publicly, feel free)
(I can only plead guilty. The crankier TypePad gets; the happier I am.)
June 12, 2009
The Great Game
Alan Cullison sees Russian meddling - and political violence - in Kyrgyzstan as a continuation of the Great Game between Moscow and Washington.
Fair enough. But a rather more dramatic example involves a Indian troop build up on its border with China.
Arunachal Pradesh Governor J.J. Singh said earlier this week that two Army divisions of around 30,000 soldiers each would be deployed along the disputed border as part of a “planned augmentation of [India’s] capabilities to defend the country.” Mr. Singh’s statement followed reported claims from officials that Chinese incursions into Indian territory had become more frequent in the past one year.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters on Thursday that China “cannot accept such an allegation.”
Nor keep its story straight. A Chinese news source belittles India's influence and makes vague threats.
India’s growing power would have a significant impact on the balance of this equation, which has led India to think that fear and gratitude for its restraint will cause China to defer to it on territorial disputes.
But this is wishful thinking, as China won’t make any compromises in its border disputes with India. And while China wishes to coexist peacefully with India, this desire isn’t born out of fear.
Hafod Eryri
An £8 million cafe perched atop Mount Snowdon is the UK's highest cafe, replacing a 1935 construction Prince Charles described as "the highest slum in Wales."
The name of the building was chosen from hundreds of entries from members of the public. Eryri means Snowdonia but Hafod which is an old Welsh term for a shepherd's summer residence on high land has no direct translation.
It is an impressive structure but could do with a massive beacon or possibly monumental images of forgotten kings for the finishing Tolkien touch.
Construction enthusiasts will enjoy the many images of work in progress at Snowdon Summit Blog.
Maiden Castle
Remains of fifty headless bodies near Maiden Castle may be evidence of Vespasian's march to the sea. Or high spirits. Taking heads was a bit of a local pass time with the British before the Romans turned up.
Vespasian led a force south-westwards for Emperor Claudius. His aim was to secure coastal ports and harbours, as well as tin and silver mines in Cornwall and Somerset. Along the way, he captured 20 hill forts - including Maiden Castle, according to archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler.
June 11, 2009
Numbers 11:9
An Israeli firm offers a new approach to an established technology.
May it offer an alternative to oil. May it deliver us from evil.
No set of proposals can now overcome the fact that this is a Parliament that has lost its moral authority
Second look at: William Hague.
Fibe-Mini
Lettuce + lemons = kick ass!
This one goes with a shout out to the Neighbour of the Flea. May he return to the True Faith.
June 10, 2009
Swotty and annoying is an excellent way to go through life, actually
Emma Watson - pictured above with house elf Dobby - is the new face of Burberry.
Related: J.K. Rowling quotes about Hermione Granger.
Quantity does provide a quality
DefenseTech argues fear over China's growing military prowess at sea are misplaced. It is not much of an argument, frankly, though I am glad to see they noticed the number "55" in China's diesel-electric submarine column.
The U.S. Navy's ability to detect these craft, especially in littoral areas is limited. This was demonstrated for two years when the U.S. Navy operated against a Swedish AIP submarine, the Gotland, "loaned" for anti-submarine exercises. According to the Swedish officers, the U.S. carrier battle groups operating against the Gotland off the southern California coast invariably failed to locate the craft.
Related: News of China's Type 094, or Jin-class, SSBN.
June 09, 2009
Toronto's boyfriend
Last night's Luminato event An Evening with Neil Gaiman sold out in three minutes. It also most probably resulted in elevated atmospheric estrogen levels in the greater Toronto area; hardly surprising for a city Gaiman calls "his first girlfriend".
"The very first public reading I did was organized by The Beguiling, the Toronto comics store in ... I think it was about 1992. They basically said we'd like you to come up and do an event for the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund.
"They had this big old church hall and they sold tickets for it, and I remember I was terrified at the idea that I was going to do this thing. And I did it anyway, because they asked, and I walked out of there going, `Oh my God, I can do this.' And all of the reading tours I've done, they all go back to that one I did in Toronto."
By turns inspiring and irritating, Gaiman is one of those people whose example makes it manifestly obvious I am not working hard enough.
Though on balance I have to credit the fellow. Judging by my ongoing longitudinal correlational study of the subject, Gaiman attracts the kind of women who are attracted to me and who, by happy coincidence, also tend to be the kind of women to whom I am attracted (a characteristic he shares with Trent Reznor, in just a moment it will be clear why I am bringing him up).
Pro tip for single men attending this sort of event: You are the remora. Gaiman is the shark.
I do not have much to add to the Toronto Star piece (linked above). I am only publishing these observations as a segue to pointing out I got to hear Neil Gaiman read from his new Newbery Medal-winning The Graveyard Book
Which is a shame really because I think she would have got more out of it than I did.
Related: Toronto is the world's 4th most livable city, apparently. Which would explain my natural zest. Also, vim.
No. 2 with a bullet
With an estimated spending of 84.9 billion dollars in 2008, Red China is now second in military spending only to the United States. Imagine how much that adds up to in a hard currency like the yuan.
The French now spend more on arms than the British, btw. Which is just as well. Arms spending leads to members of the British armed forces smoking on television.
June 08, 2009
We will only win this thing if we stop paying the enemy to fight us
As a matter of law (and conscience), Pakistan does not consider al Qaeda a terrorist organization. Congratulations to the Bush administration for pissing away billions of dollars and a far greater expense in lost time and effort.
June 07, 2009
New Labour and Blue Labour
Peter Hitchens discusses the arrogant parasites running the United Kingdom. He might be describing any country in what is left of Christendom. RTWT.
Now, when did you ever vote for this feeble treatment of criminals? That’s right. You didn’t. The arrogant parasites of New Labour and Blue Labour, who run this country by turns, decided it without asking you, as they decide everything else.
Most interesting for Americans and Canadians are we watch our media distort and undermine the electoral system: "Tory" leader David Cameron is up to his ears in the expenses scandal, not that the BBC cares to let anyone know.
June 06, 2009
D-Day and beyond in colour
Thrilling stuff. Except the bit about liberating France. Bit of a waste of effort in retrospect.
June 05, 2009
We can bear neither our shortcomings nor the remedies for them
Tony Blankley sees a man on a horse at the end of the American republic (via Ace).
...
In Rome, eventually a contradiction arose between Romans' concern for the tasks that needed to be performed and their concern for their form of government. The contradiction was resolved and the problems solved at the price of their republic: Came Gaius Julius Caesar.
Next up in the Alinsky playbook: Calls for the 22nd Amendment to be repealed so BHO can save the Republic from the crisis he and his fellow travelers have instigated.
Purefold
Ridley Scott announces a Blade Runner prequel web series.
Don't get too excited: The production does not have the rights to the 1982 film or the PKD book upon which it is (loosely) based. It will instead be based on the themes explored by Blade Runner. So... not Blade Runner.
Which is just as well, actually. I would like to be able to watch one film from my childhood without feeling as though I am being molested by George Lucas.
From the Peru desk
Dear Telegraph editors,
The capital city of the Inca empire was Cusco, not Machu Picchu as your article and photo caption suggest.
Yours,
The Flea
June 04, 2009
Heino: Carnival in Rio
You ever feel like you wake up and you are in Counterfactual Earth where the British lost the War. Like that. All part of the Flea's commitment to cultural outreach.
From the comments. So powerful.
He sounds like Tarzan.
The disbelief of lemmings
Max Hastings asks who will put this exhausted, discredited and ridiculous regime out of its misery.
It was probably inevitable that, after 12 years of office, the Labour Government should have run out of road. But the sheer indignity and chaos of this administration's predicament defies belief. Gordon Brown has lost control, and it seems fanciful to suppose he can ever get it back. The British people deserve to be delivered from a regime that has become ridiculous.
Unfavourable
Pakistan's Daily Times reports Americans see Muslims at war with the United States.
There was this thing on the Left that something good had happened
Jamie Glazov talks about family life as dissidents in the Soviet Union, about coming to America and about an ideology - a pscyhopathology - that delights in spectacles of torture and death for the sake of an ideal.
Who would want to destroy these towers? I was scared to walk out of my house because it was so personal to me that I have a lot of leftist friends and acquaintances and I could already predict what was going to come out of their mouths. I wasn’t ready for it but I ventured outside and then I got what I expected. You know, “Oh, the United States, you know, they really had this coming to them.” And, you know, “The Americans are really mediaizing this.” I’m not even sure what it even means that the United States was mediaizing 9/11, but you know the different tactics that are used by the Left. And so there was a cheer, there was a glee. There was this feeling amongst the Left that the oppressed and the downtrodden had finally struck back. Finally the United States got its just rewards.
I knew many leftists who were devastated by the fall of the Soviet Union. These people were devastated. I can think of about five of them off the top of my head who, from 1991, walked around like the life had been taken out of them. And a couple of them complained to me, “There’s no alternative to capitalism anymore.” And then 9/11 gave them their lives back. Their chins were up, their chests were out. Finally something was happening again for them and I knew something was very wrong.
June 03, 2009
Why bother to pretend it is democracy
Too depressing to summarize in detail: The Dutch establishment has rigged the outcome of the next "parliament" and in so doing protected itself from the electorate and - for a short spell - from history.
As a consequence, a significant result for Geert Wilders' Freedom Party will contribute seats to its electoral opponents and guarantee continued government by a losing party. Read the whole thing for the math.
David Eddings, dead at 77
The SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) twitterfeed has announced David Eddings has died. Fiction Matters comments.
Prince Kheldar was a Flea-fav.
If Leviathan is not up to the job, the people will find another monster to replace it
Edwin Dyer's experience of Tuareg culture, music, crafts and sport was capped off by an old fashioned Tuareg kidnapping, ransom demands and beheading. Such are the holiday expectations of a British tourist less than a decade after 9/11.
In his statement today Mr Brown warned Mr Dyer's killers: 'This tragedy reinforces our commitment to confront terrorism. It strengthens our determination never to concede to the demands of terrorists, nor to pay ransoms. I want those who would use terror against British citizens to know beyond doubt that we and our allies will pursue them relentlessly, and that they will meet the justice they deserve.'
Mr Brown sent his condolences to the family of Mr Dyer, and said they would be offered 'every possible support'.
I do not believe the British Prime Minister. I do not believe Dyer's family will be supported in any meaningful way. I do not believe Dyer's murderers have anything whatsoever to fear from this government, from British justice or from Her Majesty's armed forces.
My only question is what happens to civil society once the majority of my fellow citizens reach the same conclusion.
Inflation
First the Jimmy Carter foreign policy and now the hyper-inflationary utopian economics.
On the plus side: At about this time in 1976, Ronald Reagan was a figure of fun, some dimwit extremist Republican governor. If only we had one of those in the wings...
Related: Bond vigilantes (via Dust My Broom).
Best of all, from a President of no fixed address
Israeli Government Press Director Daniel Seamen responds to the Obama administration (via Mitchieville).
June 02, 2009
Labour in third place behind UKIP and the Tories, for the first time
Now curious to learn the over/under on "British" Establishment political parties banning their opposition before it has the chance to take office. A Committee on Public Security should do the trick.
The Conservatives drop four points to 30 per cent, compared with the poll three weeks ago. Labour drops nine points to 16 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats fall eight points to 12 per cent. UKIP are the beneficiaries, rising 13 points to 19 per cent, ahead of Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The Greens rise to 10 per cent, and the BNP is up three points at 5 per cent.
Related: Niall Ferguson offers boring comparisons with 1830 and in so doing completely misses the point. It's not the economy, stupid.
Slow learners
Matt Patterson may be more of a downer than I am with his prognostications of a bloody century ahead. He offers four short scenarios that will only read like science fiction until the moment someone decides to implement them.
Small wonder we are condemned to repeat this sort of thing. We have created a world where casual speculation about genocide elicits less outrage than the emotional well-being of reality show contestants.
2) Russia, seeing no push back from its invasion of Georgia and seeing the United States all but renounce its missile defenses, begins to swallow its former slave states — Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, et al — one by one. It shuts off fuel supplies to Western Europe and blackmails them into accepting this Soviet-light expansionism.
3) European society, no longer under any credible American protection and threatened from without by the encroaching Russia and from within by its increasingly violent immigrant population, crumbles. As has happened so often in the past, a dictator steps in to restore order.
4) Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, segments of the American population resist the sudden and convulsive socialization of their republic — peacefully first, then more forcefully. China refuses to buy any more of our debt, and trillion dollar deficits finally overwhelm the greatest economic engine the world has ever seen. The U.S. economy fails, dragging the entire world down into depression, sparking global violence and chaos. China moves on Taiwan and the North Koreans push south, both confident that the United States is in no position to stop them.
I dimly remember a time when beheading and crucifixion were symbols of a barbaric, dimly remembered time. Criticize either practice too closely these days and you are liable to end up in front of a "human rights" commission. Change.
The price we pay for not having a genuinely conservative party in Parliament
David Warren considers the $1.4 million spent to "save" each failed auto sector job in Canada (via Kathy Shaidle).
Best of all are "conservative" politicians who imagine $1.4m a head will be enough to swing auto worker votes away from the NDP.
Test Dept / Brith Gof: Gododdin - Trichant Eurdorchog
And a documentary piece on Gododdin; the Celts always enthusiastic at the prospect of an heroic defeat.
June 01, 2009
Various species of Cystoidea, extinct allies of the starfish
Sean Michael Ragan argues that plate 90 of Earnst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature lithographs has had an "extremely broad-reaching influence on the imagination of alien and other-worldly life in the twentieth century."
A revolutionary mood
Amir Taheri suggests England may be on the verge of a revolution. It is wrong, however, to assume this is primarily a result of the recent economic crisis.
This is precisely what has happened to the British political elite. The loss of legitimacy started wit the loss of credibility. The average citizen could not understand why his rulers did not know what was going on in the global economy or, if they knew, why they did not inform him.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did not help either. Many Britons feel they should not have remained involved in two distant wars for such a long time. Some believe that the performance of the British military in the latter stages of the Iraq war was marked by incompetence and cowardice.
Will the expenses scandal the straw that broke the camel's back.