Thursday, May 20, 2010
Photographer Fabio Polenghi Killed in Thailand #uglystuff
Italian freelance photographer Fabio Polenghi was shot and killed today while covering the street clashes between Thai authorities and anti-government protesters in Bangkok, according to the Associated Press.
Polenghi was shot in the stomach when police rushed a barricade where protesters were gathered. AP says that according to other journalists at the scene, Polenghi was wearing a bullet-proof vest. He was rushed to a hospital, but doctors were unable to save him.
AP cited Polenghi's age as 45 and 48 in separate reports. The wire service says that Polenghi's had been in Thailand for three months on assignment for an unnamed European magazine. At the end of the day, it is just humans.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Holy Moly Just Incredible ISS, Shuttle transit the Sun! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
Holy.
Hale.
Akala.
The big yellow thing is the Sun. But look at the upper right section. See those two dark blips? The one on the left is the Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis and on the right is the International Space Station! Incredibly, Thierry caught them as they passed directly in front of the Sun! To give you an idea of how talented Thierry is, the entire transit lasted just over half a second.
The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street: hell that spawned a classic - Telegraph
The Rolling Stones’s Exile On Main Street is an album so shrouded in myth it practically defines the bohemian, decadent, counter-culture appeal of Seventies rock ’n’ roll. It is wild, electric music played by narcotic demigods with one foot in the 20th century and the other in some ancient, mystic swamp of steamy, primal passion. From the freak show photo montage on the original gatefold cover to the four sides of black vinyl crammed with a weird concoction of ragged r&b, country, soul and gospel, this was a voodoo jam from a band of outlaw rockers on the run.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
GAIA PHOTOS » India: Alley Of Magic
A petite settlement in north-west Delhi has a shade of wonder added to it! The ‘Kathputli Colony’ - as it is popularly known is no different from a typical Indian slum with its worn-out shanties, dirty lanes and pitiable basic infrastructure. But the people who throng the alleys of this illegal skid row are sorcerers in their own ways. Walking the lanes one might bump into a juggler honing his skills in front of a discoloured wall or a fire eater practicing his passion on a roof-top.
Over the past 5 decades skilled performing artist - magicians, acrobats, jugglers, musicians, dancers and puppeteers bearing their indigenous art forms from various parts of India have converged here in Kathputli Colony.
These professionals earn a living out of their art. Some who have garnered success are called at 5-star hotels or by Maharajas of feudal estates, also traveling across the globe on invitations to perform at international fairs and festivals. Others are regulars at private parties, marriages etc.Admirations and accolades have also come naturally. But nothing has distanced these 2000 families from the place where they dwell and live in a tangle.
Thus at the end of every journey they come back to these dingy lanes, which has become a part of their identity - a resort woven in passion of art and touched with the magic of life.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Photo Hunt: Easter Hunters
When we have an Easter Egg Hunt, it is very important that our kids get half each.
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Adelaide Advertiser refuses to run Sex Party’s Abbott ad – Crikey
News Limited’s Adelaide tabloid The Advertiser has refused to run an Australian Sex Party advertisement that featured a photoshopped version of opposition leader Tony Abbott clinging desperately to the leg of a woman in fishnet stockings.
The image, which is an advertisement for the Sex Party’s stall at this weekend’s Sexpo event, has the young woman saying to Abbott: “No Tony, I’m going to Sexpo. You can do the ironing.”
Video: Ian Hickie outraged over lack of money for mental health in Australia
Worst performing area of the health system. Why is this so politically easy to dodge?
Feathers of earliest birds 'would not have supported flight' | Environment | The Guardian
The first birds to make a mark in the evolutionary record might have sported an impressive plumage, but they would never have got off the ground, scientists say.
An examination of fossilised feathers belonging to the ancient birds Confuciusornis and Archaeopteryx shows their wings were too weak to support the birds in flight.
At the very best, the creatures might have used their wings to glide between trees or from vantage points to lower ground, researchers report today in the journal Science.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
ABC The Drum - Nostalgie de la booze
The casual sexism of my workplaces in the 70s - only a decade on from the world portrayed in Mad Men - was invisible to us at the time. If asked, we'd have all said at the BBC that it was an equal-opportunity environment. Yet I remember with shame a group of a dozen or so men, some young, some not, reporters and producers of the country's leading current affairs program, standing around a swimming pool at a Panorama summer party, while the lone female producer on the team swam around in the water. Someone had pulled her bikini top off, and was dangling it over her head.
Of course, as Mad Men also showed, we all smoked like chimneys and we all drank like fish. Looking back on it, how we did our jobs at all through the alcoholic haze is hard to comprehend. After all, there were no word-processors, no fax machines and no mobile phones; when I started, there were no photocopiers. The internet wasn't even a dream. TV graphics were laboriously built up with layers of black cardboard.
So in theory, finding stuff out, and writing scripts, and getting programs to air should have been far more time consuming and labour-intensive than it is today. Yet somehow we all found time to drink.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Power politics: maps from the British Library | Culture | guardian.co.uk
Love old maps. These are great, reflecting political, financial and emotional influences.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Expert demolishes the myths and delusions about weight loss - The Daily Record
Expert demolishes the myths and delusions about weight loss
May 9 2010 Exclusive by Toby Mcdonald, Sunday Mail
A LEADING scientist has warned fatties making excuses for not losing weight that they are kidding themselves.
Alexandra Johnstone says people claiming to be "big boned" or who "only have to look at a cream cake to put on weight" are deluded.
Scotland is second only to America in its battle against the bulge - with one in five adults now classified as clinically obese.
It costs the NHS in Scotland £200million a year to cope with the fallout, with the bill expected to double in 10 years.
Dr Johnstone leads a research programme at the Human Nutrition Unit of Aberdeen's Rowett Institute and has produced a guide on why certain diets are destined to fail.
She said: "There is no one simple answer to tackling the problem of obesity but with 50 per cent of the Scottish population collectively overweight or obese, there is a desperate need to provide scientifically-proven advice on how to lose weight.
"Obesity and excessive weight gain does not happen overnight and therefore the solution is not a 'quick fix'.
"Eating should be enjoyable and it is still possible to achieve this and lose weight to improve health.
"Weight loss can be achieved under the right conditions.
"However, there are a lot of misconceptions or myths associated with obesity and weight loss."
Here Dr Johnstone tackles some of the common claims about weight gain...some true, but others false.
I Only Have To Look At A Cream Cake To Gain Weight
This implies that some people gain weight more easily than others and led to the concept of 'small and large eaters' in the 1980s.
It was thought that small eaters had lower energy expenditure, making them predisposed to gaining weight.
However, it is widely recognised that getting people to report their food intake accurately is almost impossible.
I'm Fat Because I Have A Slow Metabolism
The opposite is true. Obese people have a higher Body Metabolic Rate in comparison to lean people.
If a lean subject was given a sack of potatoes to carry around for a day, then he or she would expend more energy.
I'm Not Fat, I'm Big Boned
Unlikely as bones only make up four per cent of body weight. Water is, in fact, the largest component in the body, being 60-70 per cent of the weight of the body mass.
I'm Fat But This Is My Natural Weight
A myth as there is no concrete evidence of one set body weight in humans.
Rapid Weight Loss Is All Water Loss Anyway
This is partly true as rapid weight loss often invokes a greater loss of water mass, likely to be linked to mobilisation of muscle mass and/or glycogen stores.
Opt for a slower rate of weight loss to enhance fat mass loss.
There's No Point In Trying To Lose Weight Because I Quickly Regain It
It is true that most people who lose weight regain it but obesity is a problem that occurs over years, with people often gaining weight steadily.
A key message is to weigh yourself regularly and to halt the upward incline of weight by eating a healthy diet and maintaining levels of physical activity.
I Can't Lose Weight Because I'm Too Tired
Rapid weight loss can make you feel tired and irritable. Aim for a small but steady weight loss to avoid fatigue, rather than crash dieting.
Biologically it is more difficult to lose weight than it is to gain weight. The human body's appetite system is designed to protect us from weight loss, sending signals to either increase food intake or reduce energy expenditure.
Being Fat Is In My Genes
It is not the case that major gene defects are unlikely to be the cause of obesity.
While it is true that you can have a genetic predisposition to gain weight, biological inheritance accounts for only 20 to 30 per cent of these variables.
Environmental factors are of more importance.
Weight Loss Lowers My Metabolism
Larger people have a higher metabolic rate than smaller people, so when you lose weight, your metabolic rate will decline. This may be why some people plateau with weight loss.
Surprised at how many Scottish people are clinically obese. Second to the Yanks. Must be all the deep fried mars bars and beer.
Trololo Hohoho Lolololo - Jungle Book version
This is great, but watch the original.
Eduard You are Way Way Khil Trololo Ho Ho Ho LOL LOL
Sounds like the Black and White Minstrels, with a bit of Russian Pizzaz, kitch and love the brown.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist - Sex and Drugs and the Spill
“Obama’s Katrina”: that was the line from some pundits and news sources, as they tried to blame the current administration for the gulf oil spill. It was nonsense, of course. An Associated Press review of the Obama administration’s actions and statements as the disaster unfolded found “little resemblance” to the shambolic response to Katrina — and there has been nothing like those awful days when everyone in the world except the Bush inner circle seemed aware of the human catastrophe in New Orleans.
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Fred R. Conrad/The New York TimesPaul Krugman
Readers' Comments
Share your thoughts.Yet there is a common thread running through Katrina and the gulf spill — namely, the collapse in government competence and effectiveness that took place during the Bush years.
The full story of the Deepwater Horizon blowout is still emerging. But it’s already obvious both that BP failed to take adequate precautions, and that federal regulators made no effort to ensure that such precautions were taken.
For years, the Minerals Management Service, the arm of the Interior Department that oversees drilling in the gulf, minimized the environmental risks of drilling. It failed to require a backup shutdown system that is standard in much of the rest of the world, even though its own staff declared such a system necessary. It exempted many offshore drillers from the requirement that they file plans to deal with major oil spills. And it specifically allowed BP to drill Deepwater Horizon without a detailed environmental analysis.
Surely, however, none of this — except, possibly, that last exemption, granted early in the Obama administration — surprises anyone who followed the history of the Interior Department during the Bush years.
For the Bush administration was, to a large degree, run by and for the extractive industries — and I’m not just talking about Dick Cheney’s energy task force. Crucially, management of Interior was turned over to lobbyists, most notably J. Steven Griles, a coal-industry lobbyist who became deputy secretary and effectively ran the department. (In 2007 Mr. Griles pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his ties to Jack Abramoff.)
Given this history, it’s not surprising that the Minerals Management Service became subservient to the oil industry — although what actually happened is almost too lurid to believe. According to reports by Interior’s inspector general, abuses at the agency went beyond undue influence: there was “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” — cocaine, sexual relationships with industry representatives, and more. Protecting the environment was presumably the last thing on these government employees’ minds.
Now, President Obama isn’t completely innocent of blame in the current spill. As I said, BP received an environmental waiver for Deepwater Horizon after Mr. Obama took office. It’s true that he’d only been in the White House for two and half months, and the Senate wouldn’t confirm the new head of the Minerals Management Service until four months later. But the fact that the administration hadn’t yet had time to put its stamp on the agency should have led to extra caution about giving the go-ahead to projects with possible environmental risks.
And it’s worth noting that environmentalists were bitterly disappointed when Mr. Obama chose Ken Salazar as secretary of the interior. They feared that he would be too friendly to mineral and agricultural interests, that his appointment meant that there wouldn’t be a sharp break with Bush-era policies — and in this one instance at least, they seem to have been right.
In any case, now is the time to make that break — and I don’t just mean by cleaning house at the Minerals Management Service. What really needs to change is our whole attitude toward government. For the troubles at Interior weren’t unique: they were part of a broader pattern that includes the failure of banking regulation and the transformation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a much-admired organization during the Clinton years, into a cruel joke. And the common theme in all these stories is the degradation of effective government by antigovernment ideology.
Mr. Obama understands this: he gave an especially eloquent defense of government at the University of Michigan’s commencement, declaring among other things that “government is what ensures that mines adhere to safety standards and that oil spills are cleaned up by the companies that caused them.”
Yet antigovernment ideology remains all too prevalent, despite the havoc it has wrought. In fact, it has been making a comeback with the rise of the Tea Party movement. If there’s any silver lining to the disaster in the gulf, it is that it may serve as a wake-up call, a reminder that we need politicians who believe in good government, because there are some jobs only the government can do.
Sign in to Recommend More Articles in Opinion » A version of this article appeared in print on May 10, 2010, on page A23 of the New York edition.
Nothing very surprising here. Dig and drill until you can't
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Friday, May 07, 2010
Thursday, May 06, 2010
When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea | Dear Scotland
This week an interesting football match broke out in Scotland! The final Old Firm game of the season was expected to be a strange affair and surely it was -- strangely full of decent attacking football and strings of passes from both teams. Maybe the lack of meaning in the game allowed football to emerge instead of the usual frenzy.
It was also notable, after the fact, for an outburst of plain speaking from the two managers. Wily Walter Smith raged against Celtic’s Andreas Hinkel’s pre-match comments (“He should ask himself if he is proud of the way they have played over the last few seasons”) while Neil Lennon retorted that it is not Smith’s place to criticise Celtic players -- that’s his job.
This makes me wonder. Why don’t football people speak the truth more often instead of the usual facile platitudes?
I can think of a handful of footballing people who give good quote: Mourinho, Ferguson, Strachan, Holloway. Wenger’s recent Playstation football comparison for Lionel Messi was genius. Cantona’s quote, the title of this article, has achieved cult status. But interview most managers and almost any player and you get blandness on a Michael Owen scale: at the end of the day, it’s all about putting the ball in the net, the players are 100% behind the manager, blah blah blah.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Experts astounded by 'city of gonads' jellyfish - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Tasmanian scientists have discovered a new species of jellyfish in Hobart's Derwent River and given it a sexy name.
The species is only a few millimetres wide and looks like a flying saucer with a cluster of gonads, or sex organs, on top.
Scientists discovered the jellyfish while surveying the waters outside the CSIRO in Hobart.
The new species has been named Csiro medusa medeopolis, meaning "jellyfish from CSIRO" and "city of gonads".
Launceston jellyfish expert Lisa-Ann Gershwin says it is an astounding discovery.
"It's absolutely different from every other jellyfish that's ever been known," Dr Gershwin said.
"So we not only put it into its own new species and its own new genus, but it's actually a brand new family."
Dr Gershwin says the jellyfish is harmless to humans.
Moonchanting ala Topaz McGonagall
THE MOON
by William McGonagall
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou seemest most charming to my sight;
As I gaze upon thee in the sky so high,
A tear of joy does moisten mine eye.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the Esquimau in the night;
For thou lettest him see to harpoon the fish,
And with them he makes a dainty dish.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the fox in the night,
And lettest him see to steal the grey goose away
Out of the farm-yard from a stack of hay.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the farmer in the night,
and makes his heart beat high with delight
As he views his crops by the light in the night.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the eagle in the night,
And lettest him see to devour his prey
And carry it to his nest away.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the mariner in the night
As he paces the deck alone,
Thinking of his dear friends at home.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the weary traveller in the night;
For thou lightest up the wayside around
To him when he is homeward bound.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the lovers in the night
As they walk through the shady groves alone,
Making love to each other before they go home.
Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,
Thou cheerest the poacher in the night;
For thou lettest him see to set his snares
To catch the rabbit and the hares.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Global Cola: 10 Pepsi-Cola Flavors you may not get in your neighbourhood - Web Urbanist
The so-called “Cola Wars” have gone global, with battles for soft drink supremacy being waged around the world with flavors you wouldn’t think
would be possible. This post looks at Pepsi-Cola, a huge multinational corporation that’s trying harder and harder to catch up to number one, Coca-Cola. How hard are they trying? These bizarre soda flavors and the creative advertising used to sell them give a good indication.
Whaurs the Irn Bru?
Improbable research: The repetitive physics of Om The Guardian
Two Indian scientists are wielding sophisticated mathematics to dissect and analyse the traditional meditation chanting sound "Om". The Om team has published six monographs in academic journals. These plumb certain acoustic subtleties of Om, which these researchers say is "the divine sound".
Om has many variations. In a study published in the International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, the researchers explain: "It may be very fast, several cycles per second. Or it may be slower, several seconds for each cycling of [the] Om mantra. Or it might become extremely slow, with the mmmmmm sound continuing in the mind for much longer periods but still pulsing at that slow rate. It is somewhat like one of these vibrations:
'OMmmOMmmOMmm...
'OMmmmmOMmmmmOMmmmm...
'OMmmmmmmmOMmmmmmmmOMmm'."
The important technical fact is that no matter what form of Om one chants at whatever speed, there is always a basic Omness to it.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire Best Tap dancers ever!
Astonishing. I am just happy not to stand on my partners toes.
Geologists: We May Be Slowly Running Out Of Rocks - How will Rudd fund mining tax? via@Rod3000
RALEIGH, NC—A coalition of geologists are challenging the way we look at global stone reserves, claiming that, unless smarter methods of preservation are developed, mankind will eventually run out of rocks.
Enlarge ImageGeologists theorize that areas like this may have once been filled with rocks.
"If we do not stop using them up at our current rate, rocks as we know them will be a thing of the past," renowned geologist Henry Kaiser said at a press conference Tuesday. "Igneous, metamorphic, even sedimentary: all of them could be gone in as little as 500,000 years."
"Think about it," Kaiser added. "When was the last time you even saw a boulder?"
The scientists warned that, although people have long considered the world's rock supply to be inexhaustible, it has not created a significant number of new rocks since the planet cooled some 3.5 billion years ago. Moreover, the earth's rocks have been very slowly depleting in the last century due to growing demand for fireplace mantels, rock gardens, gravel, and paperweights.
Kaiser claims that humanity has "wreaked havoc" on the earth's stones by picking them up, carrying them around, and displacing them from their natural habitat.
"A rock can take millions of years to form, but it only takes a second for someone to skip a smooth pebble into a lake, and then it is gone." Dr. Kaiser said. "Perhaps these thoughtless rock-skippers don't care if they leave our planet completely devoid of rocks, but what about our children? Don't they deserve the chance to hold a rock and toss it up and down a few times?"
Continued Kaiser, "We are on a collision course to a world without rocks."
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe | Environment | The Observer
Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.
The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.
The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, which means that bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy.
Potential causes range from parasites, such as the bloodsucking varroa mite, to viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition stemming from intensive farming methods. The disappearance of so many colonies has also been dubbed "Mary Celeste syndrome" due to the absence of dead bees in many of the empty hives.
US scientists have found 121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax and pollen, lending credence to the notion that pesticides are a key problem. "We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies," said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS's bee research laboratory.
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
On second thoughts, maybe not timeless. Put your shirt on Iggy. Just focus on the singing.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
South Pacific tribe preparing for return of ’god’ Prince Philip - Telegraph
On a remote island in the South Pacific, villagers are counting the days until they welcome their god back to his rightful home.
The people of Yaohnanen on the island of Tanna believe a man descended from one of their spirit ancestors will return next month to live among them. While he was away he lived in a vast palace, but when he comes home he will sleep in a hut and hunt wild pigs with his tribe.
The man they are waiting for is the Duke of Edinburgh and they claim he promised them more than 30 years ago that he would return on June 10, his 89th birthday, to Tanna, which is part of the nation of Vanuatu.
Siko Nathuan, the chief of Yaohnanen, said: “He made a promise that in 2010, on his birthday, he will arrive in Tanna. We know he is a very old man, but when he comes here he is going to be young again, and so will everyone else on the island.” I wonder if he will pop over to see if the wogs are still throwing spears and eating each other
Photo Hunt: Black
Photographs from one of our scary parties.
And the only partially black member of our family, Spotty. Also potentially scary. Not!