Quiz
1 The lady shown on this headstone was portrayed in a film, name the film.
2 Name the actress who played.
3 What was the name of the area known as that they lived in.
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Filed under: Diversions, Wiggia
Like a some other diseases we were all congratulating ourselves had been defeated by the modern world, eradicated. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water it looks like the end of piracy was premature also.
Well we all knew it was dangerous to take a ship anywhere near the west African Coast/Horn of Africa. Somalia. We are not talking internet so called piracy here.
No it is the real deal. Cold eyed killers who see their victims as walking (or maybe sailing) rolls of money.
Now. Hadn’t it used to be a hanging offense all over? Piracy. Didn’t navies hunt them down and string them up? That was then and this is now. You do have to wonder if the “West” really is able to survive if it can’t be tough enough to call in the rat man.
Having seen how the so-called powerful nations are unable to stop piracy at sea it looks like there is some copy catting in the yellow sea, where some poor Chinese fishermen have been captured and demands for ransom made. In Chinese waters of all things. It sounds like these pirates are operating out of North Korea.
Is it with government backing? You do hear nothing happens there without the state’s say so, but you also hear people are grindingly poor.
Things are so bad the UK Foreign office has posted Piracy warnings for:
The Indian Ocean, particularly off the coast of the Horn of Africa
Off the coasts and on rivers of some South American countries
The Malacca Straits
South China Sea
The Red Sea
They say that If you are attacked you should report the incident to the nearest British Embassy, the relevant naval authorities, the relevant law enforcement authorities and the IMB Piracy Reporting Office in Kuala Lumpur. That’ll stop it absolutely for sure.
They advise against taking along nasty things like guns, in case it gets you in ter-rubble.
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Filed under: History & Culture, Moggsy
Works well for hanging ‘em high …
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Filed under: Diversions, haiku, Technology & ideas
Not a minute too soon, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is creating “environmental justice” units that will be empowered to oversee regulations in conjunction with local governments throughout the country. The framework for the Environmental Justice Working Group includes eleven federal government agencies, including the TSA, the Secret Service and FEMA. Go big or go home, right?
“Environmental justice” describes the commitment of the Federal Government, through its policies, programs, and activities, to avoid placing disproportionately high and adverse effects on the human health and environment of minority or low-income populations. As described in the 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR), our Nation’s vision of homeland security is a homeland safe and secure, resilient against terrorism and other hazards, and where American interests and aspirations and the American way of life can thrive. In seeking to fulfill this vision, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) aspires to avoid burdening minority and low-income populations with a disproportionate share of any adverse human health or environmental risks associated with our efforts to secure the Nation. DHS joins with other departments and agencies to appropriately include environmental justice practices in our larger mission efforts involving federal law enforcement and emergency response activities.
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Filed under: Chuckles, Politics & economics
Chuckles demanded equal time with Dearieme. “Why should he have all the good tunes?’ grumbled the curmudgeonly engineer. I sighed and let him have his way:
… adding one of my own: Continue…
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Filed under: Chuckles, Humour
You know, the good AKH has something here:
In my view films have never quite worked. The medium doesn’t really deliver – which is why so many of us still read books and now blogs. At times a film seems to offer some kind of promise, but usually it fades into pap. Intense, loud, emotional, lavish, action-packed – but still pap.
With few exceptions, once you’ve seen a few films then you’ve seen all there is to be seen. There are only a limited number of plots and guess what? You’ve seen them all.
For example, I like James Bond films but if you actually put one on, even Casino Royal which was pretty good, you do tend to fast forward over the parts which don’t satisfy. There really is something about a book and I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. I suppose, with a book, there’s enough left to the imagination but in films, there’s only the director’s imagination.
On the other hand, a good Hitchcock is always a good Hitchcock and one watches it for other reasons.
10 Comments »
Filed under: Literature & performing arts
This issue is a good example of the golden rule of investigation:
‘The danger is in looking at only, say, 80% of the story, when the last 20% alters the picture significantly.’
So let’s look at the only part of the story most people are likely to look at:
“The international community is guilty of sins of omission,” Mr Annan said. The [Rwandan] genocide – in which some 800,000 people died – occurred when Mr Annan was head of UN peacekeeping forces. The UN Security Council failed to reinforce the small UN peacekeeping force in the country. “The international community failed Rwanda and that must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret,” Mr Annan said.
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Filed under: Politics & economics
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nomsa Dube called on the national department of science and technology to investigate the causes of lightning after seven people died in lightning strikes.
“We will do an investigation and talk to the department of science and technology on what is the cause of the lightning, and if it only happened to the previously disadvantaged as I have never seen any white people being struck by lightning.” said Dube.
She was visiting Mpumazi in Eshowe where seven people from two families died after being struck by lightning on Sunday. “Scientists from the department could perhaps help us and come up with instruments that could help community members protect themselves against lightning. “The department has dealt with floods and fires, but lightning was new to us,” said Dube.
13 Comments »
Filed under: haiku, History & Culture, Society & human issues
Seems to be a run on Hacking and Common Purpose today, don’t know why.
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Filed under: Politics & economics
Haven’t had one of these for weeks:
Must be slipping. Again, look at that body and that hair. Compare to these, all parachutees of the worst kind:
It’s uncanny, is it not? Coarse, blunt, full of their positions, throwing around all the weight they can muster, incompetent, totally unsuited to any role of responsibility, utterly cowlike and unfeminine but absolutely au fait with their entitlements and victimhood. Met one a few days ago.
Euthanasia would be the kindest way.
4 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues
Above – the old J Boats that once fought out the America’s Cup. Not the fastest boats, they were the sleekest and most beautiful and though this is a replica, the overall look and feel – they seem so right to purists.
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport, Technology & ideas
The Quiet Man has a nice post up at OoL on the cyclists who jump red lights issue. He quotes the survey: Continue…
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport, Society & human issues, Technology & ideas
From Iceland. And here it is explained:
Mjög sérstætt skýjafar sást víða af Reykjanesi um ellefu leytið í gærkvöldi, þegar skýjaslæða á annars heiðum himni tók á sig hinar ýmsu kynjamyndir. Um tíma var eins og risavaxinn fugl væri að hefja sig til flugs og náðust margar góðar myndir af fyrirbærinu.
Couldn’t agree more.
4 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics
Ringfences are meant to be jumped:
The most common way until now has been a browser plugin, like MAFIAAFire, but alternate DNS systems are starting to become more popular. One of those, OpenNIC, is looking to capitalise on that with its new .pirate TLD (top level domain).
Registration takes just minutes, and then your new .pirate domain will be accessible by anyone using one of OpenNIC’s many DNS servers.
Gotta have one. Check out the available TLDs: http://www.opennicproject.org/
1 Comment »
Filed under: Blogging, haiku, Technology & ideas
There are those singers who erupt on the scene, brim full of confidence, almost arrogance, complete with their own material and a superb bunch of musos backing them – Ian Dury springs to mind. Graham Parker is one such:
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Filed under: Music
It’s a measure of the capriciousness of humans that we can condone one thing but seek resolution for another. If Brooks hadn’t grinned about what she’d done, I’d have not been all that bothered. Now it’s sweet to see her charged but it will be even sweeter to see her behind bars, to see that no matter how high-flying, you still need to treat people right.
As for a different type of justice – the post before this – I was just asked if I expected people to read it. No I don’t – it’s a reference more than a blogpost. It’s something that when someone says something stupid about the case, I can just point to this url, rather than have to explain it over and over and over. It’s also a source of quotes.
7 Comments »
Filed under: Blogging, Society & human issues
It’s not hard to understand why someone gets obsessed by a cause and can’t let it go. It’s much harder to understand why thousands worldwide would take up such an individual cause and flatly refuse to let it go, no matter what. It’s harder until the inescapable conclusion hits you and then it’s easy to understand. Continue…
11 Comments »
Filed under: Society & human issues
So, there I was yesterday, looking in the cupboard/fridge – half a jar of chilli, the remnant of the ham from Sunday lunch, beans and cherry tomatoes plus some spaghetti [no grain today]. Bitta bread.
Cholesterol? Never heard of it. Meanwhile, Chuckles sends his lunch: Continue…
12 Comments »
Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport
Jim O points us to the story of the Harvard Bookstore, where the new owner set up an on-demand printer/binder to see if he could leverage the opposite trend. People don’t just shop physically then buy digitally—they also shop digitally and buy physically:
Maybe access to the vast universe of digital content could also save the bookstore. Maybe the bookstore, while limited in inventory, could evolve in the digital world and become a destination where people had access to every digitized book ever published.
To truly compete, he would also have to solve consumer’s expectations for instant gratification and delivery. Jeff needed a complete production, distribution, and fulfillment model. He has likely shocked a lot of people by building one in his own backyard.
Essentially, Jeff installed a printing press to close the inventory gap with Amazon. The Espresso Book Machine sits in the middle of Harvard Bookstore like a hi-tech visitor to an earlier era. A compact digital press, it can print nearly five million titles including Google Books that are in the public domain, as well as out of print titles.
We’re talking beautiful, perfect bound paperbacks indistinguishable from books produced by major publishing houses. The Espresso Book Machine can be also used for custom publishing, a growing source of revenue, and customers can order books in the store and on-line.
You can walk into the store, request an out-of-print, or hard-to-find title, and a bookseller can print that book for you in approximately four minutes. Ben Franklin would be impressed.
Discuss.
3 Comments »
Filed under: haiku, Leisure, travel & sport, Literature & performing arts, Society & human issues
There are a few things which can be said about these Leenks pics sent by Chuckles about culture in the old days – for example, how happy they seem, what appalling fashion sense, just look at that hair, how innocent they seem but one commenter observed something else:
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Filed under: History & Culture
The reason Anne continues to fascinate is that she has something for every level of scholarship.
For those locked into watching period pieces on tele, e.g. the Tudors, without much interest in going behind the scenes, she’s fascinating. For someone like Professor GW Bernard, Claire Ridgway or myself who are obsessed with Anne, she’s fascinating.
There are so many anomalies with her.
4 Comments »
Filed under: Society & human issues
1 Comment »
Filed under: JD, Leisure, travel & sport, Society & human issues, Technology & ideas
You might be totally au fait with economics but I’m not. However, even I can understand creation v consumption:
GDP takes all forms of economic activity and treats them as equal. It holds that the same value accrues to creating a new home with new windows as accrues to replacing broken windows. This is often talked about as the Broken Window Fallacy in economics.
It is well recognized that replacing broken windows does not create an increase in wealth. Yet GDP makes no distinction between a window manufactured to be placed in a new home, vs one placed in an old building due to destruction. This leads to all sorts of broken behaviour, especially by our Political Class, who seem incapable of remembering the difference.
They can spend $Billions (oh, sorry, now we’re spending $Trillions…) on schemes that do “economic stimulus” and “job creation” that really amount to breaking windows and replacing them.
3 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics
Still, as long as the young have a certain amount of gravitas, perception and responsibility about them on the road, then we’re all reasonably safe. Continue…
1 Comment »
Filed under: Chuckles, Humour, Politics & economics, Society & human issues
So … er … you know what I was suggesting earlier … well … howzabout it, Hilly … whattayasay?
2 Comments »
Filed under: Humour, Society & human issues
Back to Jazz: Henry “Red” Allen. First, two of his best 1930s tracks:
1 Comment »
Filed under: Dearieme, Music
Don’t forget these either:
SOS
Afghan Heroes
The comments say more than I ever could:
# Thank you very much – all of you …
But really, speaking as a recently retired soldier, we are fine. We did what we did because that was our calling. To protect the weak, to stand up for what is right and to do the bidding of our democratically elected government is our lot. We live by a code, our core values, in no particular order: Courage both physical and moral, selfless commitment, loyalty, repect for others, integrity and discipline.
4 Comments »
Filed under: History & Culture
Italy is the one wine growing country in the world to literally have vineyards in every region of the country from north to south, east to west the islands, everywhere.
Ally all that with the country that grows more grape varieties than anywhere else and you have a mix that should satisfy all tastes in all categories of wine drinking.
2 Comments »
Filed under: Earth and cosmos, History & Culture, Leisure, travel & sport, Wiggia
Click pic
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