I was also remarkably productive at work which I can only put down to all the fresh air, exercise and sunshine. What a lovely day it is in Cardiff.

They've been announcing something to do with football here too - the Croatian Prime Minister was in town and lots of press and police were hanging about outside City Hall. Anyone know anything about that?

Ad astra per aspera

Help !!!

It's cold and suddenly I see all my hopes and plans coming to naught. might have to have wine to give me succour.

keep to the Fen Causeway

http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/ipweb/ip1132/ip1132.html

Faire garder ses enfants pendant son temps de travail

Sandrine Micheaux et Olivier Monso, division Emploi, Insee

Lorsque les femmes n'ont pas d'emploi, elles s'occupent souvent des enfants pendant le temps de travail de leur conjoint. Les couples où la mère travaille ont en majorité recours à des personnes rémunérées pour garder les enfants, en particulier aux assistantes maternelles jusqu'à la scolarisation des enfants, tandis que les femmes élevant seules leurs enfants s'appuient davantage sur la famille, les amis ainsi que sur les modes de garde collectifs (crèches, garderies et centres d'accueil). Ces derniers sont également plus souvent utilisés par les salariées de la Fonction publique et les citadines.
[...]

People can talk about gun crime just being an extension of male violence and make it a gender issue as well. "Don't remove guns, remove men and all will be well" : Not far removed from the idiot Greenham Common bleat of "take the toys from the boys".

But wait. Gun ownership is compulsory in some parts of Switzerland. Gun ownership is easy in Italy. Hunting with guns is enormously popular in France, Germany and Spain. Yet, none of them are associated with US levels of gun crime.

So, if it's not guns per se, and it's not necessarily men, what is it ?

ths isn't a US bashing question even if it could look like it, I'm inviting people to speculate on what makes a difference ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

Today all three big newspapers frontpaged a news agency report stating.... that Spain has reduced CO2 emission 4% from 2005.....

The actual news is that it has been reduced 4% from 1990 level.

In 2005 Spain CO2 emission were 52% higher than those of 1990. In 2006 they are just 48% over that date

This is obviously not the same that a 4% drop!!!!! Nobody knows what is a simple rate anymore!!!???

But the best thing of everything and everything thing is that EL Pais (the paper of record) understood that there was a mistake here... so in his report they changed it to:

"Spain CO2 emissions raised 48% in 2006 compared with the 52% raise in 2005.".....which means all spaniards are going to die due to lack of oxygen int he next decade... doubling emission every year and a half is well.... incredible ...

Here I show that data is completely irrelevant... the point (true) is that Spain has reduced very significatively CO2.... so who cares about data????!!!!

Geee.... you'd better know who wrote DOn Quijote but if you are complete nerd who doe snot know tha maths of 14 year old boy ... welcome to the news business!!!

I have complained to EL Pais.. no result...Still

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Espana/redujo/puntos/emisiones/gases/efecto/invernadero/2006 /elpepusoc/20070417elpepusoc_6/Tes

In el periodico is the standard mistake

http://www.elperiodico.cat/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAT&idnoticia_PK=397556& ;idseccio_PK=1021

Now... someone please convince me that data has still some relevance anymore!!! (snark)

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2019

How Financial Times' Limited Sources Compromised its Venezuela Coverage

By: Justin Delacour - Venezuelanalysis.com

The Financial Times prides itself on its "authoritative, accurate and analytical" coverage of world events. Unfortunately, in the case of the paper's reporting on contemporary Venezuelan politics, it has fallen far short of the mark.  With the recent departure of Financial Times correspondent Andrew Webb-Vidal from his post in Caracas, now is as good a time as ever to review Webb-Vidal's partisan and sometimes erroneous coverage, in hopes that the Financial Times will turn over a new leaf in its future reporting of the country.

A review of more than one hundred stories by Webb-Vidal reveals how simplistically the Financial Times has portrayed Venezuelan civic and political life. As the country has embarked on one of the most profound social transformations in its history, Webb-Vidal offered little of the objective perspective that other foreign journalists have brought to their craft. In a country often polarized by class and ideology, Webb-Vidal appeared to have taken up journalistic residence in an upper-middle class Venezuela, rarely venturing outside his comfort zone to explore the working class experience.  At best, this resulted in a one-sided picture of the country. At worst, it meant that the Financial Times missed important stories altogether.

Webb-Vidal had a narrow range of sources from which he regularly quoted.  They generally represented one of three categories:

   1. Venezuelan opposition leaders, with whom Webb-Vidal presumably had regular and active contact;
   2. U.S. based think-tanks who, while not always pro-opposition, share the U.S State Department's view of Venezuela as a "strategic threat" to the region.
   3. Spokespersons for foreign governments.  These primarily include U.S. officials but also a number of anonymous "diplomats" who invariably share the same views.
[...]
The 2002 Coup--An Undetected Countermovement

In its coverage of the April 2002 coup d'état against Chavez, the Financial Times missed what became one of the most significant stories of contemporary Latin American history.  If Webb-Vidal was in communication with anyone representing Venezuelans who opposed the violent and undemocratic moves against their president, he neglected to mention them or their views.

On April 12, the day after dissident military leaders kidnapped Chavez, the Financial Times published a story that gave the impression that most Venezuelans supported the coup.  Titled "Chavez tests limits of nation's patience," the story made no mention of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who would soon gather in the streets to demand Chavez's return.  Instead, Webb-Vidal focused only on what he referred to as the "broad array of businesses, unions, civil groups and opposition parties" that supported the coup.[ii]

[...]
Conclusion

With Webb-Vidal's recent departure from his Caracas post, one hopes that the Financial Times' editors will take some time to reflect upon the paper's flawed Venezuela coverage.  In the interest of providing a more complete and balanced picture of Venezuelan civic and political life, the newspaper should rectify the problems described above by broadening the range of voices and viewpoints that it relies upon for information.  To continue to provide such a narrow range of voices and viewpoints would be incompatible with the newspaper's stated goal of "authoritative, accurate and analytical" reporting.
Justin Delacour is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Mexico. He edits a blog, Latin America News Review, which can be viewed at http://www.lanr.blogspot.com

The couple, a pair of doctors, went to a shoe shop, looking for something for their small child. They didn't really liked what's on offer. But when they wanted to leave, the shop owner stopped them:

"Don't you like my products?"

"No, they are nice..."

"So what's the problem with them?"

"It's only the price... [c. €50] for a small child's shoe..."

"GO LEARN TO WORK HARD, THEN IT WON'T BE EXPENSIVE!"

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

This project was started last summer, and in between real work I have:

1. Sliced up a large pack of chipboard for make-shift flooring so I don't put my feet through the floor

2. Installed temporary lighting

3. Bought 24 very large pieces of wood, 36 large bolts, 72 dog-tooth clamps, and assorted washers and bolts

4. Bored holes in the wood, making sure the holes align

5. Carried everything up to the loft, crawling in and out through a small hole between the main loft and the extension

6. Assembled the wood and bolts into clamped beams

7. Cut grooves for them in brickwork and breeze blocks (being very careful not to disturb the existing beams so they don't collapse and bring the roof crashing down on my head)

8. Manhandled the beams into the slots, jacked them into place and tightened all of the bolts one final time so the beams stay there.

1. Being a builder is boring, dusty, dirty and very hard work, and I don't plan to do any of this ever again.

Still - yay for me. I had no idea how I was going to do this when I started. And now I'm almost done.

(Er, that was probably far more detail than anyone really wanted. But never mind.)

The air was all orange, all day, and the wind was howling and whistling around my building like a banshee, and slam-banging the shutters around.

It amazes me to see people out walking around in that stuff, but they do.  On my way to work (with the windows tightly rolled up) I passed all these people leaning into the wind, their eyes squinting and blinking at the dust.  One man held a handkerchief over his mouth and nose.  I passed a heavyset woman in a black gallabiya and bright blue tennis shoes; when she turned her head, I saw she was wearing a white disposable dust mask, like a construction worker.

It gets in through all the cracks, no matter how tight you seal up the apartment, so now everything (including me, it seems) is covered in this thick layer of dust.  I can write my name on my dining room table, which was just cleaned to a sparkle yesterday.  My eyeballs feel gritty.  I don't even want to think about my sinuses.

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/uutinen.asp?id=1353189

You can't be me, I'm taken

The NRA gives lots of money to politicians and it takes lots of money to win in the US.

So, I'm not hopeful that things will change.

One theory of the US's rugged individualism is that we are a nation of immigrants who were cut off from our families.   Perhaps this has something to do with this myth of pull yourself up by the bootstraps.

I'm  not hopeful of seeing big changes here in the US.    I don't see lot of introspection into our culture.