Site Maintenance

If you've visited davidszondy.com over the weekend, you may have noticed that a lot of it is missing.  That's because we're moving it to a new hosting service and the uploads are taking forever.

We apologise for the inconvenience and normal service will resume shortly.

Moon Over Africa - Part 6: Captured by Cannibals

Click title link to listen.

Phantom Empire - Chapter 6: Disaster From the Sky

Fiend Without a Face

Messenger orbits Mercury

Amazing that we've reached the point where something like this doesn't merit the front page–much less banner headlines

Need to know

Popular Science asks, can a layman* land a passenger jet?

Meanwhile, James May actually supplies an answer.

*They say "layperson", whatever the blazes that is!

Rocket train

The sort of design produced by engineers who haven't grasped the concept of scalability.

Michael Gough (1917-2011)

The actor Michael Gough has passed on.

The BBC calls him the "Batman" actor (which must be as galling as being remembered for Obi Wan Kenobi), but to me, he'll always be the mad doctor from Konga.

Better late than never

Next for the chop.

German Chancellor Merkel caves into anti-progress forces and says that Germany is abandoning nuclear power in favour of "renewables".

Well, there were people after the last war who wanted to make sure it couldn't happen again by deindustrialising Germany and turning it into a agrarian state.  It looks like they've finally got their wish.

Beneath the Frozen World

Guinness is good for you

National Review Online takes the time to examine whats really important.

As to my answer, Guinness is because God loves us.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

From

Ephemeral Isle

Never mind, at least Blessed Gaia smiles

Pepsi announces its new "sustainable" bottle.  Of course, it's made out of food.

A pity.  That bit of nosh could have sustained a few human beings. 

Meanwhile, wholesale food prices make biggest spike in 36 years.  I wonder why?

Britain & the United States: Still separated by a common language. Thank God.

Project Tic Toc

Could the Large Hadron Collider be turned into a time machine?

Well, it looks about right.

Japan update: 17 March 2011

Another round up of developments in Japan with special focus on the Fukushima accident.

• Global warming activists won't find much to celebrate after discovering that even if the Japanese and Germans abandon nuclear power, they have no intention of just shivering in the dark,
• John Hutton tells Britain to grow a pair.
• Earthquake/tsunami death toll may reach 25,000.
• MIT is monitoring Japan's nuclear situation.
• The Daily Mail goes off the deep end and starts babbling about "suicide missions".
• http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/16/us-eu-nuclear-idUSTRE72F5ND20110316.
• Reuters reassures everyone by throwing out "desperation" for all to read.
• Radiation levels at the Fukushima complex are falling.
• No surprise:  Amazon runs out of Geiger counters.
• Spend fuel rods at reactor no.4 dry or not?  Depends on who you talk to.
• The disinformation campaign in the service of Blessed Gaia.
• Popular Mechanics looks at radiation worries.
• So does Popular Science.
• Dow drops after Japan jitters.
• So does the Footsie.
• I don't know if the Americans are panicking, but the BBC is doing what it can to make them.
• US Officials alarmed–at least, the anonymous ones are.
• Seattle isn't the only place in the US hoarding needless "anti-radiation" pills.
• US Surgeon General makes an ass of herself.
• Safer reactor designs.  Personally, I'm betting on pebble bed, thorium, and modular reactors.
• Bullet train was NOT lost in the tsunami, but as many as four commuter trains were.
• Japan is already rebuilding.  Plucky little blighters.
• Red China turns... Oops, almost did a Prince Phillip there.
•  House on fire IN A FLOOD.  That's what I call bad luck.
• BBC: Nuclear power is evil.
• More scaremongering from Seattle.
• Jerry Pournelle weighs in.
• And finally, lets look at the real disaster in Japan by the numbers.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

I get nauseous just looking at this.

Disney announces cancellation of its plans to produce a 3D remake of Yellow Submarine.

Now if we could just burn all the copies of the original.

Learn something new every day

From the BBC:

A celebrity dentist has admitted having an affair with a patient but denied they had sex in his clinic in London.

There are celebrity dentists?

Japanese update

A round up of developments in Japan with an emphasis on the Fukushima nuclear complex:

• A bullet train has gone missing and is suspected of having been swept out to sea by the tsunami.  No calls to halt use of trains.
• Also a dam break washes away 1800 homes.  Ban hydro power.
• Next Big Future has its own summary and analysis.
• The BBC calms things down by fighting fire with petrol.   Acts all surprised at the panic it's creating.
• Wall Street panics.
• Germany panics.
• Seattle panics.
• New York Times doesn't let a crisis go to waste.
• Another radiation hoax; this time in the Philippines.
• Radiation levels spike at complex due to either fire or cooling system crack.  Levels have gone back down, though never reached dangerous levels.
• Mr Barack Hussein Obama leaps into action and votes "present".  Will he call the disaster "unacceptable"?
• The Corner provides a reality check.
• So does the Register.
• Fukushima may not melt down, but the MSM certainly have.
• Reactor status as of yesterday.
• The Japanese earthquake shows why centrally controlled urban societies are a bad idea.
• Confronting anti-nuclear activists is like scolding a puppy.
• It looks like only the West is running away from nuclear power.
• Practical advice for west coast Americans.
• US energy secretary "paint the roof white" Chu says his country is still committed to nuclear power.  It's pity that The One is really only offering a bait and switch "commitment" to fool people into supporting his controlling their right to breathe.
• Press panic-mongering risks Japanese lives.
• Another reality check.
• Hysteria is a poor basis for decision making.
• The New York Times implies that the Fukushima reactors are inherently unsafe, though it only manages this by being wrong on almost every relevant point and relying on anti-nuclear activists for quotes.
• Increase in severe earthquakes hitting Japan.  Global warming not  involved.  I suggest contacting Jor El about this. 
• Bravenewclimate update. 
• Current reactor status. 
•  Will Japanese crisis curb the rise of nuclear power?  The BBC hopes.  Oh, they hope.

What galls me is how all this reactor hand-wringing is deflecting attention away from the real disaster, which is a major power trying to recover from being literally thrown 12 feet to the left.

Shock, horror

Stop the presses.  NASA announces that astronauts are going to open a box!

Train stats

I love trains.  Before British trains became airliner cabins on wheels, I enjoyed many a happy journey dozing over my book in a steam-heated compartment or watching the English countryside roll by while tucking into a nice meal and glass of beer in the dining car.  Granted, I am talking about what was then British Rail, so there's a lot of nostalgia at work here, but every now and then the stars did align–usually somewhere in Devon.

That being said,  I haven't much sympathy with passenger railways; except those owned by private companies in a properly competitive environment (i.e. they put up they money, they take the risk, reap the profits, and someone else can take business from them) rather than white elephants owned by the state or subsidised by the taxpayers. To me, rail is yesterday's technology perfectly suited for freight.  Passenger trains are great fun, but except for a few very built up areas they rarely pay their way these days and daft plans for building so-called "high speed" lines in Britain and America are nothing but frivolous and insanely expensive luxuries.  They attract ridiculously small numbers of passengers compared to motor cars, as the above graph from Futurepundit shows.  Worse, as events in Japan are proving, a centralised system like rail is next to useless in a major disaster while cars have at least a shot at getting through. 

So why do some people of a certain political persuasion lust after 1850s technology?  I firmly believe that it hasn't a jot to do with economics or the "environment" or energy or whatever.  In fact, when you run the numbers, passenger services harm all three and more. It's much simpler.  The decision of when or where or how often a car travels is between the driver and his pocketbook.   That's called freedom and it drives a certain type of would-be petty dictators crazy.

How bad is it in Japan?

When you may have lost an entire fighter squadron to a tsunami, it's pretty bad.

Hamburgers...of, well, now, actually.

What?  No fried egg?  Barbaric.

The Wall Street Journal looks at the 21st century hamburger.  I'll grant you that it looks better than the ones I used to buy from a bloke out of a box on Charing Cross Road after the pubs closed, but it also looks a bit expensive and might take longer to make than I have patience for.

On the plus side, I'd get to see the chef's head explode when I pour HP sauce on it.

Alpha's debut

Paleo Future looks at one of the inmates of Tales of Future Past, Alpha the robot.

Fukushima follies

Fukushima reactor building

I haven't  written about the Japanese earthquake because it's one of those stories that I haven't much first-hand information on the events there and with everyone and his grandmother voicing their opinion, I didn't feel like adding my mite.  However, the damage the quake inflicted on the Fukushima nuclear complex did catch my eye.  Nuclear accidents are one of those things that do tend to demand attention, but this particular case doubly so because of all the speculation, misinformation, and at least one vile hoax that's surrounded news coverage. 

If you've been following the story, you've probably noticed what a game of Chinese post office the whole thing has become.  We've had reports of radiation leaks, meltdowns, the containment unit breached, catastrophe, evacuations, and even an hysterical cry that the whole thing was due to global warming.   It's got so bad that United States senators are demanding a moratorium on building new reactors and I wouldn't be surprised to see a UN resolution tomorrow calling for the banning of fire and the wheel.  Given that no one, as far as we know, has been killed or even harmed by the reactor accident, this is beginning to shape up as another Three Mile Island; the original Disaster with a capital 'D' that harmed no one.

So, let's step back for a moment and look at what really happened and is happening.  Here it is in a nutshell from Barry Brook over at Bravenewclimate:

• The plant is safe now and will stay safe.
• Japan is looking at an INES Level 4 Accident: Nuclear accident with local consequences. That is bad for the company that owns the plant, but not for anyone else.
• Some radiation was released when the pressure vessel was vented. All radioactive isotopes from the activated steam have gone (decayed). A very small amount of Cesium was released, as well as Iodine. If you were sitting on top of the plants’ chimney when they were venting, you should probably give up smoking to return to your former life expectancy. The Cesium and Iodine isotopes were carried out to the sea and will never be seen again.
• There was some limited damage to the first containment. That means that some amounts of radioactive Cesium and Iodine will also be released into the cooling water, but no Uranium or other nasty stuff (the Uranium oxide does not “dissolve” in the water). There are facilities for treating the cooling water inside the third containment. The radioactive Cesium and Iodine will be removed there and eventually stored as radioactive waste in terminal storage.
• The seawater used as cooling water will be activated to some degree. Because the control rods are fully inserted, the Uranium chain reaction is not happening. That means the “main” nuclear reaction is not happening, thus not contributing to the activation. The intermediate radioactive materials (Cesium and Iodine) are also almost gone at this stage, because the Uranium decay was stopped a long time ago. This further reduces the activation. The bottom line is that there will be some low level of activation of the seawater, which will also be removed by the treatment facilities.
• The seawater will then be replaced over time with the “normal” cooling water
• The reactor core will then be dismantled and transported to a processing facility, just like during a regular fuel change.
• Fuel rods and the entire plant will be checked for potential damage. This will take about 4-5 years.
• The safety systems on all Japanese plants will be upgraded to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami (or worse)
• I believe the most significant problem will be a prolonged power shortage. About half of Japan’s nuclear reactors will probably have to be inspected, reducing the nation’s power generating capacity by 15%. This will probably be covered by running gas power plants that are usually only used for peak loads to cover some of the base load as well. That will increase your electricity bill, as well as lead to potential power shortages during peak demand, in Japan.

 Summary of the summary:  A 40-year old reactor was hit by the triple whammy of an earthquake far beyond what it's design parameters anticipated, followed by a tsunami that knocked out its backup diesels, and then a hydrogen explosion that blew the top off the building.  It is not, however, Hiroshima North nor is it the a radiation-blighted wasteland from which the terrified population is fleeing, bundles clutched in their arms as they leave their homes that they will never see again.  The reactor performed far beyond its specifications, the defences held despite repeated compromises, and the engineers are doing their job and doing it damn well.

The only real harm here is all the hay that Greenpeace and other anti-progress types will make out of it for their own fanatical ends.

Update:  One reactor worker killed and several more injured, though none of these are radiation related.  There have been some people exposed to radiation, but none seriously.

Update: "An explosion Monday at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station blew the roof off the containment building of reactor No. 3, ", "Widespread contamination", "May not be able to return home", "may require plant technicians working in areas that have become highly contaminated with radioactivity"; The New York Times carries on with the scaremongering.

Update: The real fallout of the accident: rolling blackouts.

Update: The New York Times is still at it with an article on the radioactive "plume" from the reactor that is all implied scares.  A pity that the didn't include anything like, for example, those things called "numbers" that help the reader to realise just how insignificant an amount of radiation we have here.

But that's no fun.

Update: Squaring the circle.

Update: The BBC gives Greenpeace et al free advertising.

Update: Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the earthquake/tsunami causes the Nikkei index to plunge.  Guess which story is getting more coverage?

 Update: Germany loses its bottle–because it shares with Japan a tendency for massive earthquakes and tsunamis.

Update: Perspective.

Update:  Anyone have any idea how much radiation is being released in units of bananas?

Update: Overreactors.

Update: Radiation was 30 bananas a day, now down to 2 bananas.

Update: "Potentially catastrophic release of radioactive material into the atmosphere — an accident that would be by far the worst to confront the nuclear power industry since the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 25 year ago",  "Full scale panic", "crisis"; is this reporting or a New York Times wish list?

Update: Another, smaller explosion at reactor no. 2.  Smaller, but that doesn't stop the BBC from wetting its knickers.

Update: Status of the reactors as of 20:45 local time. Not alarming, so not fun.

Update:  Things aren't as bad as Greenpeace and the Grauniad hoped feared?  It must be a conspiracy!

Update: The BBC grabs its pom poms and cheer-leads the anti-progress forces.

WARNING: HOAX

I came across this map allegedly from the Australian Radiation Services and my sceptic alarms immediately went off.  Purportedly showing radioactive "fallout' from the Fukushima reactor accident, it asserts that the Western United States will be enveloped by a fatal cloud of radiation within a week.  Needless to say, THIS IS A HOAX.  Fortunately for the public, the author is a scientific illiterate who doesn't understand wind currents, fallout, or radiation and has the a mild vapour release putting out more rads than an arsenal of cobalt bombs.  Of course, this is complete nonsense.

If you know anyone who is panicking over this, please set them straight.

Moon Over Africa - Part 5: Rhinoceros Hill

Click title link to listen.

Phantom Empire - Chapter 5: Beneath the Sky

Carry on Screaming

For some reason the opening credits are missing, so here's the theme song:

Bonus: The Invaders

Lüneburg Black Forge

I cannot produce enough sarcasm to do this bit of dreck justice.  For $89 you can buy this "hand forged" knife made of spring steel.  Cool Material coos over this... this thing as if it dripped of "authenticity", though authentic what I can't even begin to imagine.  I've handled countless proper knives and swords in my day–all of them hand forged and many where the smith had lovingly folded or twisted his own steel or case-hardened iron as if performing some timeless ritual of craftsmanship and dedication instead of yanking some spring steel off the shelf, bashing it about a bit, putting an edge on it as an afterthought, and calling it a day.  This is just an insult to real craftsmen and stuffing it in a box lined with straw doesn't alter the fact.

I think I'll pass, thank you.

Katana from the British Museum.  Not crude, so it must be rubbish!

ZX-81 memories

The BBC looks at Clive Sinclair's revolutionary brainchild: the ZX-81.  In 1981 it cost £50, I had to put it together myself, only had a kilobyte of memory, a membrane keyboard, a proprietary programming language that was a bitch to use, needed a cassette recorder to store programmes, and made the Tandy that replaced it look like Deep Thought, but God, I loved that little black wedge.  What was particularly mind-blowing was that the computer (singular) they had back at university was a monster that weighed tons and still took punch cards.  The standard computer histories may credit the Apple II with sparking the desktop revolution, but it was Sinclair's small-is-beautiful-and-who-cares-about-practicality approach that really put computers into people's hands for the first time.

It's like being able to tell your kids that you were there when they rolled out the Mark I fire.

Podtime

Bed or regeneration tube?

It's allegedly for having a kip in the office, but I wouldn't have one unless I tricked it out with strobing neon tubes on the inside, a control panel with a screen streaming a strange alien font, and a suitable sound effect so that if I'm disturbed I can point a small tube of milled aluminium like those LED torches at the offending underling and hiss "You saw nothing!"

Mind you, I'd probably have to wear strange looking contact lenses and occasionally talk on the phone in muttering gurgle to pull it off, but it would be worth it.

Civilisation

I'd hoped to split this into separate episodes, but this omnibus edition will have to serve.

Over their heads

Uhh...

Mr David Cameron meets with Mr Barack Hussein Obama to discuss the Libyan situation.

Picture two men sitting in a room, staring at each other, totally at a loss about what to say, and you have a pretty good idea of the result.

Their's is not to reason why

Tommy in saner days.

The British government, having concluded that the purpose of the armed forces is no longer to defend the realm, gives them a more important mission:  not smoking.

In related news, the Black Watch is deployed to combat transfats.

Raisins

This is a lot more interesting than watching it in real time.

That's a week I want back.

Shower scene

A Portland, Oregon man was taking a shower when he heard someone in the house.  Fearing that the other person has a gun, the man locked himself in the bathroom and called the police.

It turns out that the man taking the shower was a burglar and the other was the owner of the house.

It's good to see that the shipments of stupid pills are getting through.

Blackout UK

Mr Steve Holliday, the CEO of Britain's National Grid outlines on Radio Four his vision of the country's energy future and somewhere Lenin smiles.  He sings the praises of  a "low carbon" and wind power while the life of the average Britain will be that of a rat in a Skinner box:

We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available and available cheaply.

 The "we" here is merely rhetorical because it won't apply to Mr Holliday or other Inner Party members.  What is this "it"? Have a buthchers:

The government-regulated utility will be able to decide when and where power should be delivered, to ensure that it meets the highest social purpose. Governments may, for example, decide that the needs of key industries take precedence over others, or that the needs of industry trump that of residential consumers. Governments would also be able to price power prohibitively if it is used for non-essential purposes.

Translation: Inner Party members and their favoured groups get electricity.  The Outer Party, Proles, and Enemies of the State have to make do with rolling blackouts that they pay premium prices for the privilege of suffering.

Yes, it's the dream of the Eco Fascists come true: control of the people through artificial shortages and rationing.  The horrifying thing is that this is happening under an allegedly conservative Prime Minister.

Damned out of his own mouth

Ron Schiller, senior executive of America's taxpayer-funded public service broadcaster NPR caught on camera expressing how he really feels about the Neanderthals that he's forced to share the country with.

Update:  Jonah Goldberg's favourite bit.

Update: Raw footage now available.

Ecocan scam

Yet another ill thought out plan to Save the Planet^tm by introducing a substandard packaging system that misses the whole point of a can by being prone to rot and adds insult to injury by being made out of food.

It may have less than zero effect on helping the environment–in fact, it may actually harm it, but what matters that?  So long as it massages the conscience of a Blessed Gaia-worshiping hippy, who cares if it pushes food prices up and causes some African to starve?   Eggs and omlettes.

It's the Prius of packaging.

72-hour kit

The Art of Manliness looks at 72-hour survival kits.  It's filled with some good ideas (though having $1000 in cash has a first-catch-your-rabbit feel to it), but the sum comes off as a bit impractical because it means that everyone is essentially carrying around a full rucksack.  This is a bit of a problem because there's always a balance when it comes to emergency kits.  Make it too small and you'll be trying to survive on a bit of string and some chewing  gum.  Make it too large and your survival kit will be a second house.  The goal is to make your kit large enough to be useful, but small enough that you'll have no trouble carrying it around with you.

At Chez Szondy, we have three levels of kits.  The first is a sardine tin packed with gear that I slip into my pocket when I go hiking.  The second are commercial 72-hour packs (one for each in the family) that include water packs, lifeboat rations, space blankets, etc. that we've customised for each person (multitool kit, shortwave radio and brandy  in mine, puzzle books and toys in my daughters, etc) along with throw blankets and augmented roadside emergency kits that we divide between our two cars (the wife's in hers and mine and the daughters in the 4x4).  These are small enough to fit into a couple of school packs and tuck away neatly in the boots where there's no temptation to remove them to make space.  The third is a large Tupperware container and another pack containing a camp stove, cooking gear, etc. a supply of bottled water, and the dogs' emergency pack of food and toys.  We keep these in the larder on the grounds that if we have to evacuate, one of us grabs these along with the tinned and dried food while the other grabs clothes, boots, computer drives, etc.

A scenario involving kit number three is actually pretty remote because, as I keep reminding wife and daughter, we live where people flee to rather than from.  The only thing that we'd realistically have to  worry about is either invasion or the collapse of society, and that's a different scenario from keeping going until the emergency services arrive and I'd be stocking up on some heavy weaponry while forming a Home Guard regiment.

Still, a 72-hour emergency kit is something everyone should have.  It not only can change a survival situation into an annoyance, but it frees up the relief lads to deal with those in real need.  Frankly, my ideal situation is to be so well prepared that when the relief arrives and asks what we need, I can honestly tell them that we need mixers and olives.

James May tries out the new Lunar Rover

I do like the spacesuit system, though.

But will the Stig get to do a lap in it?

Decline is a decision, not fate

From the Daily Mail:

The West should not easily relinquish its control of the waves. Otherwise, how long will it be before we see a Chinese aircraft carrier in the Thames?

The question is a bit of a headline grabber, but the argument is sound*.  Britain and the West face a difficult choice:  Either we maintain our strength and shoulder our burden as the world's leaders and peacekeepers or we will see power shift Eastwards.  This won't be a neat transition where the only casualty will be our pride.  The price will be a world plunged into chaos and despotism.

We can't just ride out the bloody tide either.  Unlike the Imperial Chinese, we won't have the luxury of withdrawing within our borders to quietly rot for a few centuries.  We'll see the East pounding on our gates in a way not seen since the days of Atilla the Hun.

* For the most part, though I don't see the rise of the Celestials as inevitable or even likely.  My prediction is that we'll see Red China imploding in the next ten years in a way that will make Yugoslavia look like an orderly bankruptcy.

The Dune colouring book

If you thought that the David Lynch version of Dune was bizarre, then you haven't seen the merchandising campaign.

That's bizarre.

Mini Seven

Where was this when The Prisoner aired back in the '60s?  I could have spent my Saturdays blazing down the road as I glared ahead with steely resolve.  I did that anyway, but the effect isn't the same on a push bike.

Mind you, I can't even afford a Lotus 7 as a grown up, so what am I complaining about?

HMS Dreadnought

I remember old Dreadnought; British engineering forward welded to an American nuclear plant aft (the British reactors weren't ready for sea yet). Admiral Rickover went ballistic when the American government signed the deal. Still, she was a fascinating and beautiful piece of work. Over the years, I've had to ride in a lot of NATO and Japanese boats and it's fascinating to see this first step toward the super-advanced hunter killers of today with their digital periscopes and reactors so efficient that they aren't even designed to be refueled.

Now if only Her Majesty's government gave these boats a higher priority than pouring money down the welfare state black hole, paying housing support to imams who would gleefully slaughter us all and the government refuse to deport, sending tribute to the European Empire, and throwing bank notes at insulting social engineering programmes that shouldn't exist in the first place.

Via Theo Spark.

Moon Over Africa- Chapter 4: The Sacred Python

Click title link to listen.

Phantom Empire - Chapter 4: Phantom Broadcast

Frau im Mond

Apparently the version I linked to originally wasn't complete. Let's try this instead.

The Ascent of Man Part 13: The Long Childhood

The final straw

Higher education is officially dead.  Time to close the universities, burn them to the ground, find a copy of Aristotle, and start over.

The evidence

Proof that shoe designers hate women in general and Miss Kate Middleton in particular.

Meanwhile, Ed is screaming his hands off

Scientists at the Chernobyl area declare that radiation doesn't present as much of a hazard to plant life as once thought.

As the late Peter Graves could attest, it isn't the plants you should be worrying about.

Steaming idiocy

Actual artwork may vary.

"Artist" Anthony McCall will grace Wirral estuary with a column of steam for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad–whatever the blazes that is.  The steam column will only be there for a year, but it will be visible for up to 60 miles. That's "up to" as in it will probably be utterly invisible except in the sort of ideal conditions that never actually occur in real life.  And to top it all off, it will only cost the taxpayers £500,000.

I'm sure some soldier facing redundancy will take great comfort in this.

No surprise there

From the Washington Post:

Officials: Harmful bacteria at Playboy Mansion

A dose of penicillin usually does for that.

Science marches on (1932)

Because criminals are always leaving sinus prints about the place.

E by gum

T' BBC asks whetha um British accents are 'ard for Americans ta understan'.

Given t' numba o' times uz Missus 'as 'ed ta translate for uz i' restaurants, I'd seh aye.

US soldiers murdered in Germany

Two US soldiers were shot dead and two more critically wounded in Frankfurt, Germany yesterday by a Kosovar gunman shouting "Allah Ahkbar" and "Jihad! Jihad!"

Please don't anyone insult our intelligence by claiming that his motive is a mystery or that he's just some psychopath.

Update: Gordon Bennett! What a headline!

The Great Trek II

As an indicator of how things are going on the Dark Continent, white South African farmers faced with land confiscation and an escalating murder rate are seriously considering an invitation to move to Georgia. 

As the saying goes, what's the difference between South Africa and Zimbabwe?  Ten years.

Karzi kharma

Plan B

San Francisco, the distilled centre of the left-wing universe, prides itself for forcing low-flow toilets on its population in a valiant effort to Save the Planet^tm.  At least, it used to pride itself.  Now there's some rethinking after discovering that there wasn't enough water going through the drains to flush the poo away, so the city is now suffering from a stench not seen since a hot summer day in London circa 1835.  As a result, they're spending $14 million to flush eight and a half million gallons of bleach down the drains to clean them out.

That's what they call progress in California; a lockstep march into the past.

Update: Not to be outdone, Seattle, having solved all its other problems, makes its abeyance to Blessed Gaia by declaring that takeaway restaurant ware must be "compostable".  That's Greenspeak for "unusable" as in your soup spoon melts.

Oh, and they're made from guess what?  That's right; food.

Some reward

In a show of gratitude for their valiant sacrifice, the British contingent in Afghanistan will be literally decimated.

I need to open a window and let the stink out.

Update:  In related news, eight spanking-new maritime patrol craft are coming on line to do the job the Nimrods just scrapped at a cost of £4.2 billion were supposed to do for Britain.  Only these planes are for India.  The same India that receives £2 billion in foreign aid from Britain.

I could weep.

Update: Exhibit A for why we're in this mess.  If Her Majesty's government had put Britain's defence needs first instead of worrying about being good "Europeans", the RAF would be flying Raptors built under licence with Rolls Royce engines and we'd have four nuclear-powered strike carriers waiting to trade in their fourth-generation Sea Harriers and Super Hornets for Lightning IIs (STOVL and carrier versions).

Saint David's Day

Happy Saint David's Day 

From 

Ephemeral Isle

Abdication

His bicycle is probably all that's left after the defence cuts.

Once Leader of the Free World

An interesting point from Daniel Foster at the Corner on Mr David Cameron taking the lead in enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, starting with this quote from the Times:

British forces could soon be directly involved in the battle against Colonel Gaddafi after David Cameron announced that the UK would help enforce a no-fly zone designed to prevent the Libyan leader using jet fighters against his own people. The Prime Minister became the first Western leader to publicly commit to the no-fly zone in a statement to Parliament which marked a potentially significant escalation in the crisis after the imposition of sanctions and an arms embargo by the UN Security Council.

The signifigace of this, Foster points out,  is that Mr Cameron is doing the leading while Mr Barack Hussein Obama sits on the sidelines and dithers.

A couple of interesting points about this.  First, it's good to see Mr Cameron finally standing on his hind legs and acting like a prime minister.  I suspect that the shade of Lord Palmerston appeared at the foot of his bed last night screaming and clanking his chains.  Of course, now that Mr Cameron has effectively emasculated Britain's forces, I hardly think sending a pair of hang gliders and a duck punt is going to do much good.

The second point is more dismaying.  Mr Obama holding back and letting Mr Cameron take the lead is a frightening echo of how Mr Clinton let Mr Blair carry the can in the Balkans.  In that dismal little episode, Mr Clinton thought he was being very clever by making it look like he was making NATO tend to its own back yard while letting Mr Blair take all the heat.  Unfortunately, it just made the United States look weak, indecisive, and an easy target.  Soon American embassy's were being bombed in Africa, the USS Cole was attacked, and the Twin Towers fell.

Stand by for the other shoe to drop.

RESULT!

It's official; The Last Airbender named worst film of the year. Also won worst director,  worst screenplay, worst eye-gouging misuse of 3-D and Jackson Rathbone tied himself for worst supporting actor in both this and Twilight: Eclipse.

There is justice after all.

Burning food

From the Economist:

 Indeed, the world produces more than just enough to go round. Allowing for all the food that could be eaten but is turned into biofuels, and the staggering amounts wasted on the way, farmers are already producing much more than is required—more than twice the minimum nutritional needs by some measures. If there is a food problem, it does not look like a technical or biological one. 

Biofuel  and it's cousin "sustainable" materials strikes me as a glaring example of how 21st century man has gone stark, staring mad.  Last week, I was watching a documentary*.  On the telly was a young American gentleman talking to his audience of alleged adults as if they were five-years old about how the Ford Motor Company is building a car in which the plastic is made out of soy beans. 

It was at this point that I wanted to tear my hair out and throw the dog out the window.  These grinning ninnies were all incredibly proud of how they weren't using nasty petroleum to make plastic.  No, they were using soy beans.  Never mind the fact that Henry Ford Primus was fiddling about with that back in the '20s, I couldn't for the life of me understand why this was in any way progress.  In the 20th century, chemists spent decades working like Trojans to come up with ways to stop using food for industrial purposes.  Dyes, adhesives, plastics, fuel, and all manner of other things were once made out of foodstuffs.  You know, things people eat and if they don't get enough of, they wither and die.  This was seen as a bad thing, so science was tasked with alternatives.  The result?  Millions of tons of food freed up to feed people and fatten livestock.

Of course, this meant a better standard of living and that is anathema in Blessed Gaia's eyes, so now scientists are told that we must march back into the 19th century and leave the world a hungrier place. Serves the greedy little bourgeois bastards right for being alive.

*Heaven knows why.  I think it was out of pure astonishment. Documentaries, especially on PBS, seem to have more in common with Sesame Street than The Ascent of Man these days.