July 31, 2009
Mattikhan Lumley View
The Gurkhas have honoured Joanna Lumley by naming a sacred hill after their best ambassador and advocate to Her Majesty's government.
Bless.
Let's start with what is and move on to what ought
Given the complexity and scale of America's health care it is difficult for the lay person to come to grips with the system as it is let alone make an informed judgment as to the system as it ought to be. Dr John Barrasso and Dr Tom Coburn are in the enviable position of being able to offer expert opinion on both health care and public policy as both men are MDs and United States Senators.
Both men are Republicans and, obviously, this will incline them toward market based solutions. Whatever your particular political inclinations it seems to me their views merit more attention than many legislators found time to lend to a health care bill most supporters could not be bothered to read.
July 30, 2009
It's in our power
I am pleased to note the provenience of the engines powering the new Predator C "Avenger". Pictures suggest it may be stealthier than its predecessors too.
Anak Krakatoa redux
These stunning pictures show the latest activity during the rebirth of the infamous volcano which holds a long-standing record for causing the highest number of human deaths ever - a staggering 36,000 in 1883.
July 29, 2009
Kim Jong-il's love of the people in the military-first era
It is a small stand against incalculable evil but if Italy's move to block the sale of two yachts gets up Kim Jong Il's nose I am all in favour. Also encouraging, in a roundabout way, is news of a new North Korean "luxury" resort hotel. Note to enthusiastic undergraduates, sheltered academics and one Manchurian president: This is the best statism has to offer.
The broadcast said the Majon Hotel "is equipped with top-class accommodation and recreation facilities such as an indoor swimming pool, a steam sauna, a public bath, and even a beach resort."
An accomplishment that could be matched and exceeded by an average Korean immigrant family to Canada with a bank loan and dream.
Brutally related: North Korea Economy Watch hosts the "most authoritative" map of North Korea on Google Earth. The map includes a baffling array of mines and monuments making it a bit tricky to find the concentration camps, test sites and military facilities formerly viewable only by intelligence analysts and now available for your cubicle-based perusal.
The Saturdays: If This Is Love
Nice to hear that hook take on a second life.
The Saturdays - If This Is Love [Official Music Video]
Uploaded by TheSaturdays. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.
July 28, 2009
Drive your way
Lockheed Martin teaming up with Hyundai to build Aegis warships does conjure an amusing image until one stops to consider Hyundai Heavy Industries is the largest ship builder on Earth.
No word on if the warranty covers ten years or 100000 miles...
And another thing: Also delivery bang for bucks, the B-2 Spirit is nearly ready to deploy the 30,000 pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).
By a happy coincidence, I can think of all sorts of dirt, rock and reinforced concrete that needs shifting.
July 27, 2009
EVE Online ISK
Crisper considers the broader implications of the second life of the ISK (Icelandic króna) as the official medium of exchange for EVE Online. Brilliant. Seriously, I love this.
The in-game currency of EVE Online is the ISK. That's right, the Icelandic króna. And where most multiplayer games have attempted to ban the translation of in-game assets to and from real-world money, EVE Online has not only permitted it but actively embraced it - so much so that daily speculation on world/game financial leverage is conducted openly on the official game web boards. As a result, the EVE Online ISK has remained fairly stable against virtually all the real currencies of the world for a few years now, fluctuating but not spiking, not crashing. There are people out there making an income, a real-life income, just handling the trades on the "floor".
All of which is to say: Iceland has collapsed so thoroughly that at this point, its only economically viable export may very well be an internet spaceship game, and that internet spaceship game's króna is for all intents and purposes a more real and valid and valuable currency than the actual country's actual money.
Time for Canada to consider turning to the gold standard.
Robogeisha
Quite probably the greatest film ever conceived (with a hat tip to the Neighbour of the Flea) (and an emphatic NSFW/taste-level warning).
July 26, 2009
Destroyer of the enemy
With INS Arihant, India's first indigenously-built nuclear-powered submarine - and its existing land- and air-based capabilities - the world's largest democracy takes a big step toward a second-strike capable nuclear triad.
"On Sunday, we join a select group of five nations who possess capacity to build a nuclear-powered submarine," the Prime Minister noted.Code-named Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), Arihant will carry 'Sagarika' (K-15) missile that has a range of 700 kms.
As India has declared "no first use" of nuclear weapons, the country's weapons system must survive a first strike for retaliation. Therefore, Arihant's primary weapon is stealth as it can lurk in ocean depths of half a kilometre or more and fire its missiles from under the sea.
With the caveat that the Indians still have a lot of work to do to make this thing work.
Related: India is set to begin construction on its third Antarctic research station.
To shout the truth where words lie
Noted anthropologist, authority on nonverbal and inter-cultural communication
After earning his doctorate degree from Columbia University in 1942, Hall joined the Army and commanded an African American regiment in Europe and the Pacific from 1942 to 1946. In the 1950s he was director of the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute program that prepared diplomats to work in different cultures. He has taught at the University of Denver, Bennington College, the Harvard Business School and Northwestern University, among other places.
July 25, 2009
Virtual AGC and AGS
Abeceda
The book, 1926.
July 24, 2009
Gryffindor vs Slytherin
An intriguing way to showcase clothes and accessories from which I gather Alexander McQueen Satin panel pumps are the norm at Hogwarts regardless of house affiliation.
Nelly Furtado and Charlotte Church: Crazy
Charlotte Church rocks it like she's Anne Boleyn. Hot.
July 23, 2009
Wouldn't a dictatorship be simpler?
Ireland’s foreign minister Micheál Martin (the "á" indicates authentic Irishness) makes a telling half-joke about Ireland and the European Union.
Daniel Hannan elaborates.
Indeed, in order to keep an essentially undemocratic project in operation, the 27 member states are obliged to surrender a measure of their internal democracy, too. It’s the phenomenon I call the EU’s “hideous strength“.
Thus, in the case of Ireland, the Pro-Treaty Forces have secured changes in the referendum rules, which used to provide for equal airtime for both sides. This means, of course, that all future Irish referendums, not just those on European integration, will be less balanced. Thus does the the EU serve to vitiate democracy within its participating members.
Hey, isn't Canada a "supra-national state"? Just checking.
An obscenity
Instead of languishing in prison - or an unmarked grave - IRA Brighton bomber Patrick Magee has been invited to participate in the official commemoration marking the 25th anniversary the bombing.
He has yet to decide whether or not to travel to Brighton.
I will quote from the comments.
Blizzard Entertainment®’s award-winning Warcraft®
I have resisted any engagement with World of Warcraft
July 22, 2009
2NE1: I Don't Care
Catchy. This one goes with a superfluous shout out to the Neighbour of the Flea.
July 21, 2009
He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach
David Tennant may play Bilbo Baggins in the forthcoming film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
Much as I think she would have preferred Ian Holm reprise his role from the recent film adaptation of LotR, I believe my Mum would have approved of Tennant stepping into Holm's shoes (if not Bilbo's, obviously).
Medieval Soldier Database
Did your ancestors fight at Agincourt? War records of 250,000 medieval soldiers who fought in the Hundred Years War between 1369 and 1453 have gone online at the Medieval Soldier Database.
Something has to give
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard points to Ireland as a harbinger of things to come for the "gold-plated state structures" of the West (including Japan).
Following his claims about demographic pressure on those structures, I think we may not have to replicate "the left"''s long march through the institutions after all. Having bankrupted their countries societies, reality will lead to a concentrating of the mind as the dialectic does its thing.
A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year.
Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland.
Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments must be cut 5pc, child benefit by 20pc. The Garda (police), already smarting from a 7pc pay cut, may have to buy their own uniforms. Hospital visits could cost £107 a day, etc, etc.
"Something has to give," said Professor Colm McCarthy, the report's author. "We're borrowing €400m (£345m) a week at a penalty interest."
Ouch.
July 20, 2009
Girls Aloud: Something Kinda Ooh
Blame my new found Cheryl Cole fixation.
July 19, 2009
Moscow Symphony - Arthur Arnold, conductor: Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
July 18, 2009
Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure
The Black Sisters offer their assessment of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in Part 1 of the following movie review (spoilers, also pincers).
July 17, 2009
Chapterhouse
The Secret Palestinian Jews: These are the images the elders used to make, this is the Star of David, but they would hide them... (via Solomonia).
The concept of greatness is irritating and threatening
To think I came back to Canada. I blame both dimorphism and the process of sexual reproduction.
And I still wish someone would explain Mark Steyn's "Canadian" accent to me. It deserves to be sea-lifted from Lebanon and attacked on talk radio as a Canadian accent of convenience (via Five Feet of Fury)
Update: Mark Steyn's mystery accent was resolved by email. Best left a mystery here though. :-)
July 16, 2009
A legitimate love letter to Star Wars fans
A perhaps unanticipated side effect of the society of the spectacle is its sheer scope and consequently the prospect I will never hear of - let alone enjoy - vast swathes of the nonsense that interests me.
Take Fanboys, for example.
The trailer is underwhelming but a photo of Kristen Bell as Slave Leia is all the advance marketing they would have needed. Note to Hollywood publicity machines: Get on that.
Always read the fine print (especially if it is in bold): Kristen Bell faux lesbian dance below the fold.
One word answer: Berzerkers
Stephen Hawking asks why the galaxy is not crawling with self-designing mechanical or biological life forms.
Hawking continues: "What is the explanation of why we have not been visited? One possibility is that the argument, about the appearance of life on Earth, is wrong. Maybe the probability of life spontaneously appearing is so low, that Earth is the only planet in the galaxy, or in the observable universe, in which it happened. Another possibility is that there was a reasonable probability of forming self reproducing systems, like cells, but that most of these forms of life did not evolve intelligence."
...
Intelligence, Hawking believes contrary to our human-centric existece, may not have any long-term survival value. In comparison the microbial world, will live on, even if all other life on Earth is wiped out by our actions. Hawking's main insight is that intelligence was an unlikely development for life on Earth, from the chronology of evolution: "It took a very long time, two and a half billion years, to go from single cells to multi-cell beings, which are a necessary precursor to intelligence. This is a good fraction of the total time available, before the Sun blows up. So it would be consistent with the hypothesis, that the probability for life to develop intelligence, is low. In this case, we might expect to find many other life forms in the galaxy, but we are unlikely to find intelligent life."
Two further considerations offer an alternative conjecture. Intelligent life arises but is wiped out as soon as it gets noticed. Only quiet species are moving between the stars...
The corollary of this line of thinking being the consequent choice between a mad race to perfect weapons against the hypothetical death machines on their way or a retreat into the apparent safety of a new Dark Age. I suspect the choice is going to be made for us.
July 15, 2009
I detect a weakness in his plan
"I want to adopt," says Ryan Reynolds as wife Scarlett Johansson stars in sultry advert (pictured at link).
Reynolds, who married 24-year-old Scarlett in a very private ceremony in Canada last year, told Glamour magazine he planned to adopt.
A much better idea leaps to mind.
Robert Henke + Christopher Bauder: Atom
"Robert Henke and Christopher Bauder's poetic music and light sculpture, executed in a cloud of moving, illuminated balloons, forms a three-dimensional matrix coordinated with live music..."
Gets thumpy in part deux.
July 14, 2009
Engorgio is emphasized on the second syllable
You may have felt a disturbance in the Force as legions of fanboys cried out at once and were silent. Hard on the news of Marilyn Manson's latest symptom, the Flea has learned Emma Watson may be in line to be Mansonized (hat tip to Agent Bedhead, who doubts the rumour's veracity).
The 19 year old will don her dancing shoes to play a princess in Manson's as yet untitled Gothic musical, a retelling of the Cinderella fairytale.
In fairness, this could have been yet another Tim Burton snoozefest so, you know, small mercies.
Make. Give. Sell. Share. Release. Start. Engage. Film.
Create Digital Music posts a handy round-up of Trent Reznor's advice to new artists in light of our skepticism toward Reznor's (proven) give-it-away-and-make-a-mint music production model.
Note to self: Must set up download/check-out interface to my music site...
Trent Reznor posted yesterday that the Beastie Boys’ Ill Communication reissue is “how you sell music today”. As a rebuttal to the usual “that only works for established artists” replies, he’s followed this up with an extended post on what artists who haven’t reached the Beasties or NIN level of profile can do to get established.
Reznor's opinion is of direct interest to me, obviously, but I think he is also offering food for thought to anyone trying to have a go with a small business that needs promoting in a newly wired world.
July 13, 2009
The Larger Agenda
Victor Davis Hanson thinks that while the stimulus package has failed to turn around the economy it may succeed in accomplishing its actual purpose, i.e. to Canadianize the United States.
Soon we will all end up after each April 15 about making the same, driving the same sort of cars and using the same sort of mass transit, living in about the same sorts of houses, and having about the same sorts of “‘they’ will take care of it for me” philosophies — all overseen by brilliant, but highly ranked and exempt Platonic Guardians who suffer on our behalf as they jet and limo at breakneck speed ensuring our welfare.
A friend of mine used to say Revenue Canada should send out notices to anyone making fifty thousand or more a year: "Congratulations! You have now achieved your income."
Guilty until proven guilty
Theodore Dalrymple - to whom the Flea is a mere padawan of bile - considers the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and its place in our witch trial culture ten years on. RTWT (Dalrymple, not the Inquiry).
On the very next page, however, Sir William quoted approvingly the assertion of an association of black police officers: “Institutional racism leads officers to act, albeit unconsciously, and for the most part unintentionally, and treat others differently because of their ethnicity or culture.” In other words, if you treat people the same, you are racist; but if you treat them differently, you are racist. It is clear that we are here in the realm not of the rule of law but of the Malleus Maleficarum, and that Macpherson is acting not as judge but as witchfinder-general.
Perpetuum Jazzile: Africa
Give them a couple minutes to warm up their fingers. Hat tip to the Sister of the Flea.
July 11, 2009
Brain hacking
Scientists anticipate security problems for neural devices and the possibility of hackers trying to take over your brain.
"It happened on two separate occasions," said computer science graduate student Tamara Denning, a co-author on the paper. "It's evidence that people will be malicious and try to compromise peoples' health using computers, especially if neural devices become more widespread."
In some cases, patients might even want to hack into their own neural device. Unlike devices to control prosthetic limbs, which still use wires, many deep brain stimulators already rely on wireless signals. Hacking into these devices could enable patients to "self-prescribe" elevated moods or pain relief by increasing the activity of the brain's reward centers.
July 10, 2009
July 09, 2009
To Heaven By Water
I am not normally one for literary fiction and, thanks to a Telegraph review, am experiencing some trepidation at the prospect of Radio 4's adaptation of Justin Cartwright's To Heaven By Water. Still, I will take whatever clues I can get - fictional, in this case - about this strange business of mortality. Also, Bill Nighy rocks.
Radio 4 will only have each installment of To Heaven by Water
Róisín Murphy: You Know Me Better
I am publishing Murphy's unplugged Covent Garden rendition below the fold. Hot.
July 08, 2009
They attacked us. Now it's our turn to attack them.
I am not certain which Biblical aphorism cum admonition covers this one. Quite a few, I expect.
The authorities swiftly imposed a curfew on the restive city in an attempt to quell what the government has already described as the worst riots since the foundation of the People's Republic 60 years ago. Police attempted to disperse today's mob with teargas as they headed towards a predominantly Uighur area, but many were still on the streets armed with whatever came to hand: wooden staves, iron bars, metal chains, nunchuks, shovels and axes.
Rioters smashed Uighur restaurants, threw rocks at a mosque and threatened residents of Uighur areas, although moderates in the crowd attempted to restrain them.
"They attacked us. Now it's our turn to attack them," one protester told Reuters. Another said: "We're here to demand security for ourselves. They killed children in cold blood."
"It's your time to suffer," they shouted at some of the five- and six-storey apartment blocks lining Xinfu Road.
In Eastern Europe, that last but one would qualify as a political platform. Fascism is with us. We have forgotten.
Spires That in the Sunset Rise: Party Favors in the Snow Party Favors in the Snow Category: Music Tags: Spires That in the Sunset Rise Folk music
July 07, 2009
More heresy
News of the "Star Wars" ( <--- these quotation marks indicate derisive sarcasm) live action series suggests we are in for another "chick show" pretending to be science fiction.
The quality and style of writing that will be used will be of the highest quality, and local, and writers will be sourced from outside traditional Science Fiction shows. Several big names within the Australian industry (including writers from the Award-winning Love My Way and the Award-winning Secret Life of Us) have been approached by Star Wars uber-producer, Rick McCallum.
Love My Way and Secret Life of Us can be characterised by the focus on relationships and emotional landscapes (traditional 'chick shows', if you will). Bringing this element into the world of Star Wars sees a marked departure of the final three films and animated Clone Wars, where the primary audience was children.
This throws the new series into a whole new spotlight, and should excite fans of the Star Wars universe looking towards more adult fare.
More solidification of rumour into fact will come as soon as possible.
Here's a thought: Try making science fiction which involves flying fast spaceships, blowing up other fast spaceships and confronting evil aliens. Also, try hiring an English-speaker when you want content for a press pack. The computer generated version lacks a certain I-do-not-know-what.
Nothing against the Star Wars bubble bath pictured above, you understand. I just figured that even granted slow summer traffic another Slave Leia image would qualify as gratuitous.
Related somehow: Drawing Princess Leia in her slave outfit.
Zero 7: Distractions
An emotional landscape for your consideration. Galactic warfare is much simpler by contrast.
July 06, 2009
Flea Comment Defense System: ACTIVE
With thanks to Agent Bedhead for the inspiration; I would have taken much longer to get round to fixing them otherwise. For those of you who have never dared my comment registration system, it will still be bloody awkward.
July 04, 2009
The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
David McCullough: No painting by an American artist has been so familiar to so many people for so very long as John Trumbull's "The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776."
Subjects of "national history, of events of the Revolution," he later wrote, had become "the great objects of my personal life." In the course of a conversation in Jefferson's library, Jefferson drew a floor plan of the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House as he remembered it, and on the opposite side of the same sheet of paper Trumbull made a tiny rough sketch remarkably close to what would turn out to be the final composition.
Canadian Flea-readers will understand I would have marked Dominion Day on July 1 if only such a day yet existed here in "Canada".
July 03, 2009
This little joke on Thomas Jefferson
Cryptologist Lawren Smithline cracks a code and solves a mystery that had frustrated generations of Jefferson scholarship.
The cryptic message was sent to President Jefferson in December 1801 by his friend and frequent correspondent, Robert Patterson, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. President Jefferson and Mr. Patterson were both officials at the American Philosophical Society -- a group that promoted scholarly research in the sciences and humanities -- and were enthusiasts of ciphers and other codes, regularly exchanging letters about them.
In this message, Mr. Patterson set out to show the president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence what he deemed to be a nearly flawless cipher. "The art of secret writing," or writing in cipher, has "engaged the attention both of the states-man & philosopher for many ages," Mr. Patterson wrote. But, he added, most ciphers fall "far short of perfection."
Alex Gaudino Feat. Shena: Watch Out
Some might object. All I can say is traffic does not generate itself. Comments are still down, sad to say.
July 02, 2009
To thy unhappy coast repair
The UK's aircraft carrier program is now one billion pounds over budget.
Say goodbye to the Royal Navy.
Work on the two warships - HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales - had been delayed in December but was due to begin soon.
By their fruits shall ye know them: Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa. Canadian Flea-readers should take little comfort in the news; our violence rate places sixth in the top ten with double the reported rate in the United States. I blame sociology.
July 01, 2009
Commentary
Those few of you who have fought your way through my comment defense system will have noticed the system is still down. My apologies. I will take a look under the hood but, frankly, I do not put much hope in making it work. I will see if I can disable them completely if I cannot get them up and running again.