Swine flu

Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms By F. William Engdahl

All you will ever need to read on the subject.

Riding forever

I was riding home from work yesterday afternoon, on the highway just coasting along. The bike was purring in a harmonious way exactly as it should. My fazer is a very smooth and quiet ride, something i appreciate more than other things, like speed.

The traffic had cleared somewhat, and i had my on piece of road. They're doing construction on that stretch, so the road surface alternates between the old concrete, and newer tar, with a large amount of dust and rubble, as heavy concrete blocks running along the side off the highway. I'm assuming that they are only temporary, since they are too close into the road, and the traffic is much tighter than is comfortable.

Anyway i'm riding along, and the wind and speed and tyre noise and bike's vibration sort of fuse together into a hum. A background noise getting further and further away ... seemed to resonate somehow, and echoes floated back. It wasn't just spacial, although the heavy concrete surrounds helped with that, but forwards and backwards too. I was being pulled along as in a strong river, except not water, but sounds, vibration, a hum. Like a river of hum. <-- nice song title ;-)

It startled me, gave me an eery sense of precognition. Having considered, i'm tempted to compare the sensation with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's doppelganger ... except i met me going the same way.

Parajet Skycar

Ever since chitty-chitty-bang-bang took to the skies, people have been wanting a flying car. This is it.

The skycar. With an off road buggy, and a parachute, this really does seem like a viable possibility. It goes almost anywhere on land, and then can even take off and fly, literally. It's safer than a conventional plane, and easier to manoevre, with a back up emergency parachute if all else fails.

The only thing left is to fit a diesel engine, and this would be the ultimate long lasting go anywhere machine. I want. :D

Go see all about it at the Parajet Skycar Homepage

Supercooled water

Evo Morales

"We now must begin to realize that the Earth does not belong to us," he said. "It's the other way around. We belong to the Earth."
- Evo Morales

CNN

Eat me

I voted

Took just over an hour, we went on the bike so had gear for the chilly wionds,wasn't too bad though, infinitely prefereable to having a scorcher day.

Well enough managed, just way too slow, i believe they did THAT on purpose, WORKI for your democracy plebians!!!!

Ah well, we see what comes of it.

An ill wind blows ...

Something strange in the air today. A weather system moved in, bringing cooler air and cloudy skies, but i like that.

I don't like the energy. After having a seriously disturbing ride to work, i discovered that several bikers had listened ot their inner voices, and use the car today. Even i was thinking, bikers going DOWN today :(

Elections tomorrow, frenzy, chaos, madness. This election thing is EVIL, downright hellish in EVERY aspect.

Thought for the day

Fuck.

Oh sweet jane that's deep.

Consensus climate science

I have to give this credit entirely to Anthony Watts of Watt's Up With That, and his guest writer Paul McRae.

Go read it. Not only a brilliant resurrection of a past scientist and philosopher Thomas Huxley, but a refutation of the mis-science that is global warming.

See image 1, an overlay of both CO2 and temperatures over the last few million years, and compare with image 2, the origional global warming scenario, which gained notoriety in 2001, from James Hansen, a climatologist.

Perhaps i should remind you of the first impact of global warming, which would be taxes. Carbon taxes. Carbon footprint. Carbon output. You breathe out carbon dioxide. You will be taxed on breathing out. I find that spine chilling.

I DID believe the global warming thing, it's reasonable to assume that we would get some comeback from mother earth. But again politics has subverted, abused, misled, etc. There is much that could be said for Mr Gore and his ilk of jetsetting friends, and their personal culpibility for much of the world's misery. Their snake oil charms work so well, for a while.

That's what's nice about science, it levels the playing fields between generations quite nicely.

Full post here.

Funeral music

Caught this story. What music is played at funerals, in Britain that is. Over the rainbow? And many believe they're on the way to hell, and i'd guess they wouldn't be "christian" folk either, and seem happy about it. Odd.

Here are some of the top pieces of music chosen in Britain, according to the poll commissioned by Co-operative Funeralcare.

- Top 5 popular songs:

1. "My Way" - Frank Sinatra/Shirley Bassey.

2. "Wind Beneath My Wings" - Bette Midler/Celine Dion.

3. "Time To Say Goodbye" - Sarah Brightman/Andrea Bocelli.

4. "Angels" - Robbie Williams.

5. "Over The Rainbow" - Eva Cassidy.

- Top 5 hymns:

1. "The Lord Is My Shepherd".

2. "Abide With Me".

3. "All Things Bright And Beautiful".

4. "Old Rugged Cross".

5. "Amazing Grace".

- Top 5 classical pieces:

1. "Nimrod" from "Enigma Variations" - Elgar.

2. "Pie Jesu" from "Requiem" - Faure.

3. "Ave Maria" - Schubert.

4. "Nessun Dorma" - Puccini.

5. "Canon in D Major" - Pachelbel.

- Other chart movers (no rankings):

- "Hallelujah" covered by talent show winner Alexandra Burke.

- "Bat Out Of Hell" - Meatloaf.

- "Spirit In The Sky" - Doctor and the Medics.

- 'Highway To Hell" - AC/DC.

Hogan got beated

Cape Town - Health Minister Barbara Hogan will keep her job after apologising to Cabinet colleagues for criticising the decision to bar the Dalai Lama from the country last month, government said on Thursday.

______________________________________________________________________

As much as i'd love to hate her for this, take note ALL who wish to criticize the current status quo, they will make you regret it.

Oh bother.

"Big Darkness, soon come." Hunter S. Thompson

Thermite

From: http://informationclearinghouse.info

Thermite

By John S. Hatch

April 14, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -A recent article published in the respected peer-reviewed Open Chemical Physics Journal by nine noted scientists offers incontrovertible proof that the dust from the Twin Towers and Building Seven of the World Trade Center contains small intact samples of Thermite.

Thermite is a highly explosive agent consisting mostly of aluminum and iron oxide, and is used to cut steel in building controlled demolitions, and is also used in welding and in military applications.

Using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry, the scientists were able to determine that the Thermite present is of a specialized type called Nano-thermite or Superthermite. It burns hotter and has a lower ignition temperature than normal Thermite, and is produced at laboratories such as Lawrence Livermore, incidentally thought to be the same lab that produced the anthrax sent out shortly after 9/11.

Nano-thermite could not be accidentally present in dust samples collected at four different sites, nor could it be the result of clean-up operations at ground zero, as one of the samples was retrieved a mere ten minutes or so after the collapse of the second tower. All samples show the same consistency.

Germany bans Monsanto!!!

Well only the last used of the monsanto brand of death.

From the BBC:

"Monsanto's variety, called MON 810, is resistant to the corn borer, a moth larva which eats the stem.

MON 810 is controversial in the EU. Several countries have banned it, defying the European Commission."

"In March EU governments resisted European Commission pressure to get bans on MON 810 lifted. The commission wanted Austria and Hungary to allow cultivation of MON 810. The variety is also banned in France and Greece."

"Ms Aigner, a member of the conservative Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU), said she had concluded that "there is a justifiable reason to believe that... MON 810 presents a danger to the environment"."

What reason, i wonder?

Photos - russian bikers

http://www.tinyvices.com/ledare_bikers_14

Brilliant on the moment photograpy, my favourite style. Very evocative images of russian bikers.

I miss having a camera :(

ANC plans

Right, so we have zuma taking aim (and likely revenge) on the judiciary:

African National Congress President Jacob Zuma - likely to become the country's next president - has blasted the conduct of the judiciary and questioned the supremacy of the Constitutional Court as the highest court in the land, saying it "is not God".

IOL

And phosa doing the same for the treasury:

The government under ANC leader Jacob Zuma would set up a commission after the election to oversee all the ministries, including the National Treasury, a senior official of the ruling party said yesterday.

The commission would co-ordinate the implementation of government programmes, as well as spending, budgets and "how they are being handled from top to bottom", said Mathews Phosa, the ANC's treasurer general.

BUSREP

These are the 2 sections of government which have fared well for the last few years years. They have both been consistant and (mostly) effective.

Interference in either of these WOULD be the final curtain for stability in south africa. And they are already celebrating their victory, and revenge.

God help us all.

The ocean

Imagine ...

Peter Hitchins in the Daily mail

Very insightful article, and sadly not a happy view.

Selected quotes:

"Imagine how you would react if Gordon Brown opened and closed his election rallies by bursting into a song called Bring Me My Machine Gun, swaying and jigging to the hypnotic chorus of this menacing ditty.

And how would you feel if the Prime Minister were alleged to be taking campaign money from Colonel Gaddafi; faced 783 counts of fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and corruption which somehow never came to court; and had been acquitted of rape while his fearsome supporters mobbed the courthouse?"

"Mr Mandela himself, personally decent but politically ineffectual and naive, served as both figurehead and figleaf for the new order. The world ignored or forgave his continuing friendships with the world's worst despots, and the fraudulent bungling that surrounded him.

Now, looking frail, bemused and ancient, he recently had to be helped on to the stage by his suspect would-be successor, to endorse the grotesque rabble who seek to succeed him.

Once, South Africa dominated the nightly news for weeks on end. Now the liberal media barely mention it. Why not? Because post-apartheid South Africa is a failure."

"Zuma is wholly African. He has at least four wives and 18 children. He has for years avoided standing trial on fraud and corruption charges. Nobody seriously believes he ever will: his approaching election is already spreading fear in South Africa's legal establishment."

"The grisly Winnie Mandela, a convicted fraud with a creepy past, is number five on the ANC's parliamentary election list, despite the fact that as a criminal she is legally banned from being an MP. She is expected to be a minister in any Zuma government.

Zuma's old friend and business partner, Schabir Shaik, has just been released early - on medical grounds, although almost nobody believes this - from a 15-year sentence imposed in 2006 for fraud and corruption, including a payment to Zuma himself."

"Kate Mantsho, mother of five of his children, killed herself with an overdose in 2000, and left a devastating suicide note denouncing him. In one harrowing passage she said: 'I hope it is true we will meet again - but not as husband and wife. I dare not take that chance again due to the bitter and most painful 24 years of married life I have gone through.'

South African coverage of this event was muted, and many journalists denounced the small newspaper that broke the story."

ANC official bust with abalone

... News 24

Ok typical story, but how's this last line:

Garth Strachan, ANC spokesperson and Western Cape MEC for finance, economic development and tourism, reacted with shock to the incident.

"The law must run its course, regardless of who the individual is. Criminal behaviour must be punished. If necessary, a disciplinary process will follow."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Ok, don't say it ... don't freakin say it ....

SA Blogging Awards

Hey!! They happened. Yawn.

I just found about about them, didn't even know they were there. Ah well, so much for being enlightened and informed. Curiously, 1 blog won all 6 categories. I never like it when that happens.

Congrats to http://www.2oceansvibe.com/, the blog that won it all.

Moving swiftly along, it seems one of the judges wasn't entirely comfortable either, not with the blog, but, with blogging standards in South Africa. Very limited scope it seems.

Puhlease had this to say:
I’m not disagreeing with this blog winning the SA Blog of the Year; I actually think it’s well deserved: it’s popular, well-supported and hugely appreciated by its woolly-headed fans. Just like Jacob Zuma is.

But, I have to say that I agree that it’s an indictment on South African blogging when the best blog - the very best - we can present to the world is one that recycles all the usual Internet flotsam and jetsam, and presents it as if it’s something new and original.

Now THAT is very well said. Blogs are unique and individual, as such i can't really say this is right, or that is wrong, but it should be creative, and HOPEFULLY different. We have a huge problem in South Africa and that is POPULARITY. Everything is a popularity contest, from the presidency downwards and frankly that is retarded.

Like a bunch of monkeys agreeing on who smells best. *shrug*

Nothing wrong with Oceans2vibe, kinda cute, except for the UK lottery stickers all over, that alone would deter me from going there, ever. I found a nice link there: http://www.zigzag.co.za/ surfing stuff :D some nice wallpapers too.

Perhaps i'm suffering from a similar malady? I don't think so, but then maybe ... a lot of blogs i find are also depressingly self centred, each post regurgitating the trivial of each day, but i suspect that's a female thing ;-)

And while i'm putting this post together, i notice that HBLOG's Heather Ford is a writer for Global Voices, on my blogroll.

Lighthouse

From: Economist

The Fastnet Rock is about as rugged as they come. Its Irish name, An Charraig Aonair, means “The Rock that Stands Alone”. Its name in Old Norse, Hvastann-ey, stood for “Sharp-Toothed Island”. The rough waters round about claimed numerous lives and were sung about in 17th-century laments. But it was considered mysterious as well as dangerous. Legend had it that on the summer equinox, it would set sail and visit its neighbours; Bull, Cow, Calf and Heifer Rocks. For centuries it was part of the rich fishing grounds of West Cork’s O’Driscoll clan, and the locals would not have been averse to the odd shipwreck giving them an opportunity for plunder. “Please God, send us a ship,” was long a private prayer along the coast, according to one of Fastnet’s keepers brought up near Crookhaven, the nearest port.

Douglass’s method of building was one invented by his father, Nicholas, on another lighthouse in the 1860s (and used long afterwards in British lighthouses). Concrete blocks were dovetailed into those around it, and cemented into those above and below, like a Chinese puzzle, so that it was impossible to remove any one stone without removing those above it. “This system of dovetail joggles absolutely bonds the entire structure into a virtual monolith,” wrote Scott. The contract to supply the granite was won by Messrs John Freeman and Sons of Penrhyn, Cornwall. In 1897 its workers started chiselling away at 2,074 stones, each weighing from 1.7 to 3 tons to create the puzzle.

Fastnet was peculiar, he says, as he points to a picture of the lighthouse on his sitting-room wall. It may look like Alcatraz on the outside, but inside time never drags. Perhaps that is because of the weight of green and white water that surrounds one; it never stops churning. In stormy winter weather, the “big seas would come sailing up over the entire building like the field of horses in the Grand National,” as one former Fastnet keeper put it. Sometimes, there were almost disastrous consequences; Mr O’Driscoll remembers a storm in 1985 when a wave reached as high as the light and came crashing through the glass, overturning the vat of mercury and sending the poisonous liquid pouring down the stairs. He doubts the tower would have withstood another wallop as great as that, but it never came. Suddenly, there was a great calmness. There were moments of deep sadness, too. Missing children’s birthdays, for example, because the weather turned and the ship could not get close enough to the rock to take him ashore. What do you do at those times? “There’s nothing you can do,” he says. “You slowly climb back upstairs and bake more bread.”

Personal notes

Nothing to say, yet so many thoughts and ideas bouncing around, looking for minds to infect ;-)
I've been going through the Elena Filatova website (below) and am stunned. This is the most comnprehensive look at Chernobyl available, more informative that the official reports even, but as she points out, the official death toll remains at 31, and will do forever.
Local news etc seems to invite comment at least, but i couldn't be bothered. THEY are still fucking US over ...
My personal life has just exploded, nothing bad, just busy, and to some extent all good :) Lots of kids birthday parties, lots of biker events, and lots of everything else in between.
Keep checking my bogs too, i read most of them regularly, and always awesome stuff in there that sometimes i repost, but other times am too lazy to ...

peace and love

Mr President, you're lying.

http://www.cato.org/special/climatechange/cato_climate.pdf