Top Diaries

Nope, not been out demonstrating. I'm a bad commiesocialist... I have been humming the internationale all day long to myself, though. And I am wearing a red shirt. Does that count??

by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 12:54:48 PM EST

http://www.physorg.com/news4211.html

I trust you spent last night drinking and dancing around a bonfire until you fell over in a stupor?

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 08:50:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (4.00 / 6)

How about a demonstration of animals' ability to be in tune with what's going on in a way we're not?

A friend in the pub had told me about elephants knowing the 2004 tsunami was coming. I had a spare moment and googled...

O'Connell-Rodwell was the first to suggest that a large land animal is capable of sending and receiving vibrational messages. "A lot of research has been done showing that small animals use seismic signals to find mates, locate prey and establish territories," she notes. "But there have only been a few studies focusing on the ability of large mammals to communicate through the ground."

Her insights generated international media attention after the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami disaster in Asia, following reports that trained elephants in Thailand had become agitated and fled to higher ground before the devastating wave struck, thus saving their own lives and those of the tourists riding on their backs. Because earthquakes and tsunamis generate low-frequency waves, O'Connell-Rodwell and other elephant experts have begun to explore the possibility that the Thai elephants were responding to these powerful events.

"Elephants may be able to sense the environment better than we realize," she says, pointing to earlier studies showing that elephants will sometimes move toward distant thunderstorms. "When it rains in Angola, elephants 100 miles away in Etosha National Park start to move north in search of water. It could be that they are sensing underground vibrations generated by thunder."

...my friend had also told me about elephants stomping on the terra to communicate with other elephants miles away. Turns out their trunks are involved, too.

Anyways, that led me to another site--well, I saw a programme about homing pigeons last night and yet another friend dahn the pub had mentioned that they flew by detecting...you know magnetic whatevers as they resonate...you know...from the earth's crust...point being...how do they know where they're going? And that took me to this site, and the following quote.

team of scientists in New Zealand has just published a paper in Nature that proves homing pigeons navigate by means of magnetic particles in their beaks. Nature is THE journal for natural sciences. If it's not in Nature it doesn't count. Apparently, the scientists carried out a series of experiments that involved tying bar magnets to pigeons beaks, anaesthetising pigeons beaks, then hacking away at various nerves in pigeons beaks. W*nkers.

The only thing these guys proved is that modern science still gets a hard on from mutilating small animals in the course of pointless experiments.

"Yes, after I removed all of his legs, Benjy the Lovable Spaniel, refused to respond to calls from his 6 year old owner. The inescapable conclusion is that Benjy is now deaf. Can I have a Phd and nice research grant now please"

It would be awfully tempting to dump some of those Kiwi scientists in the middle of a featureless desert, strap bar magnets to their noses and tell them to walk straight towards Auckland. They might learn a thing or two; useful snippets of information, such as simply knowing the location of Magnetic North just doesn't cut it.

Anybody who has tried practical navigation knows that a compass, on its own, is a totally useless navigational tool. To get any real benefit out of it you have to already know where you are and where you are going. Even when the Royal Navy was fully equipped with maps, compasses, sextants and astronomical charts in the 18th century it still couldn't navigate properly because it had no accurate timepieces. Without clocks it couldn't use the sextants and charts to compute the locations of individual ships. Navigation continued to be a hit and miss art right up to the recent creation of the GPS network. Pigeons apparently manage to get by without clocks, maps, astronomical readings or handheld Garmin GPS units. They also manage in overcast skies when they can't see the sun or stars.

To all intents and purposes, and by any popular definition, what homing pigeons do is magic. The reason why science doesn't blow the whole subject off is that pigeon navigation is an undeniable fact. Somehow pigeons can sense where they are on a specific point on the globe and relate that to a sense of where they should be, at another specific point on the globe. This is no trivial feat and is a clue to something rather large. Something as yet unknown.

It's not just pigeons either; salmon, eels, migrating birds, wildebeest, the cute puppies in Disney's Fantastic Journey, all of them can apparently tap into accurate navigational data. Eels are particularly weird. Eel babies return to the same locations their parents left years before, without ever having been there themselves.

As well as knowing where they should be located, living things also apparently have an, as yet unaccounted for, sense of what shape they should be. Sponges can, famously, be liquidised in a blender and the surviving cells will reincorporate themselves back into their original sponge shape. Separate the blended mush into two tanks and you get two, half-sized sponges.

(My emphasis.)

http://stefzucconi.blogspot.com/search?q=pigeon

I only quote so much because I enjoyed the read. And because it has: the dangers of thinking scientists have some special sense of what is good (a theme on a diary here); info about navigation (one of the themes of diary a couple of days ago); the diary itself was about synchronicity ("I've said this before. And I'll say it again. Synchronicity is a marvellous thing.")

...and, ya know. Elephants stomping on the terra!

Oh yeah, all that connects backwards--chronologically--to...yes...another comment down the pub (ET with beer!)...no! It was in someone's flat (no, not someone, you know, someone...but yes, there was beer)...and the comment was this:

You know, the way I look at western science. They have looked at the world and have established that they can explain 18 percent of it. The rest they call dark matter, or dark energy. For me, any theory that cannot explain 82 percent of what there is--going on--is speculation.

So...yeah! What is dark matter and what is dark energy? And how do pigeons navigate; and...and...

...that website I quoted hugely from, I read some of his other posts and I think some of you (esp. the London contingent) might find him a humorous read.

And good evening to yez!

And...okay...we have synchronicity cubed. I googled "elephant stomping"--as you do--to bring you lovely people a picture of...an elephant stomping. And what do I find? The picture I click on comes from...well...have a click and see. (The elephant's very near the bottom of the page.)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 01:19:29 PM EST

Bluebells (4.00 / 4)

yesterday.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 01:27:38 PM EST

Re: Bluebells (none / 1)

very nice. i can almost smell the sweet air.

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

by marco (cowannar at gmail punkt com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 08:37:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (4.00 / 4)

Can someone tell me when the extreme right decided that May Day was their day? We had four demonstrations in Sofia today...and one was the extreme right. And I saw that Moscow had the same thing.

Very strange disconnect somewhere. I continue to be amazed at the extent of cognitive dissonance that the human mind is able to bear.

by gradinski chai on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 01:36:12 PM EST

Only a person not having a slightest idea about the political situation in modern Russia can find any traces of the extreme right in Moscow these days. Even the moderate right Chubais's party Soyuz Pravyh Syl (Union of Right Forces) tried to play on the leftie side (social justice for everybody etc) on 2007 regional elections and, accordingly, was spanked for that by commies, Zhirinovsky, pro-governmental parties, by everybody.

Festinger's theory may look convincing in that ancient boring example with smokers' behaviour but hardly looks so attractive when one tries to apply it to much more complicated multi-dimensional political situation.

by lana on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 03:57:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (4.00 / 4)

Only a person not having a slightest idea about the political situation in modern Russia can find any traces of the extreme right in Moscow these days.

You mean, someone with a clue about the political situation in modern Russia would not look around in Moscow but visit you in St. Petersburg? Strange city rivalry...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 03:16:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (4.00 / 7)

lana, I see you troll-rated afew's reply to gradinski chai above for no apparent reason.

It's one thing when you attack people (including those who just lost a friend) or address individuals only via crude national typologies; ratings and critical or mocking comments take care for that. (Though it would be nicer if instead you'd write diaries about the St. Petersburg metro, or the WWII siege of the city, or your bad experiences when you lived in the UK, or you just focused your ire on me.) It's another thing when you troll-rate neither inflammatory, nor content-less, nor too personal comments apparently just in spite, and without a preceding warning -- that calls for some frontpager intervention, e.g. undoing your ratings.

But since you have done this repeatedly, pursuant to our policy, in the name of the front-pager team (who will express approval of this comment via ratings), I must warn you to stop abusing the ratings system.

For emphasis, your ratings are undone and you won't be able to rate for one week. If you can give a good explanation, or say this last troll-rating was by mistake, the last could be undone.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 10:39:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (none / 1)

Well,

gradinski posted at 01.36.12 PM

my post appeared at 03.57.50 PM

afew's at 04.13.25 PM

And can't you guess what happened next? And what happens often or maybe every time when two or more responses appear at almost the same time? Afew's post appeared after mine, not gradinski's so I guessed it was directed at my post in a stupid trollish way. Otherwise i wouldn't waste my time on him. First fix that time bug on here and then blame people.

Moreover, being one of the ET goblins (or gnomes? can't remember) afew was definitely well aware of this bug and probably wouldn't have posted anything (why wait for 3 hrs to reply to gradinski's post especially if you're working as a goblin/gnome and have to be on here for many hours?) if it wasn't for my post - I've yet to see any brit who'd missed an opportunity to wind somebody up if they could've got away with it.

I so rarely use the right to rate anybody on here so can't feel myself offended, sorry for disappointing you and t'other goblins/gnomes.

by lana on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 03:44:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hi lana. You and I have never "met" on this site, so I'd like to say a couple things as a mere observer.

First, as to the comment "bug," I think what you're referring to is some comments moving above others. This is a software feature that moves higher rated comments closer to the top. If afew had wanted to reply to you, he would've attached his comment to yours.

Whether you commented first doesn't matter in any case -- troll-ratings are not to be used merely for disagreement or because you're irritated.

Also, just to clear up any false impressions -- the front-pagers on this site do not "have" to be here for hours. There are no set times. We're all just people who have outside lives and write here when we can.

I can only speak for myself, but the reason I'm here is to communicate with other people -- to hear their views and maybe be able to communicate some of mine. From what I can tell, you have a viewpoint that's different from anyone else's on this board. It's a view I'd very much like to hear and I think it would be interesting to discuss things with you and get your take on issues.

Unfortunately, your anger and hostility get in the way of anything you're saying. Statements like this: "I've yet to see any brit who'd missed an opportunity to wind somebody up if they could've got away with it." don't serve any purpose other than to hurt.

This is exactly the kind of thing the ratings were made to deal with and I was tempted to downrate you for this. Instead, I'm making this attempt to talk with you. Are you here to communicate, perhaps even inform? or simply to insult people and be disruptive?

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

by Izzy (izzy at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 05:47:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Statements like this: "I've yet to see any brit who'd missed an opportunity to wind somebody up if they could've got away with it." don't serve any purpose other than to hurt.

This appears to be a personal vendetta for some bad stuff experienced when she lived in the UK, projected against all British people. Some diaries about the actual violators might be interesting, but innuendo seems to get in the way.

Are you here to communicate, perhaps even inform? or simply to insult people and be disruptive?

She believes she wants to confront us with our hypocrisy, I think she said once.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 06:00:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

the reason I'm here is to communicate with other people -- to hear their views and maybe be able to communicate some of mine

There are the sites where Russian people go and communicate with others. The further the sites are from discussing politics (the professional sites dedicated to gardening, photography or even such interesting issues as long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetised rabbit following stimulation of the performant path), the more probable you will find the Russian communicating with others and expressing their views.

If a site is more opened for general public, even if discussing such innocent things as travelling abroad, any Russian will inevitably face lots of sarcastic at the best but usually totally ignorant and nasty remarks re Russian imperial past (which is surprise, surprise! doesn't look so awful for us) or drinking/eating habits or the way the poorest of our elderly look (endless stories about Russian teethless babushkas) or the poorest of our young behave (numerous stories with Russian prostitutes) and so on. The majority of this mockery is poured on the Internet sites by native English speakers, usually British. Ask them why, probably because they are got used to expressing their views on any matter, not thinking in the slightest about any knowledge, just for the sake of showing up and following long (at least since mid-19th century) hostility towards Russian Empire/USSR/Russian Federation etc.

Besides, almost all the articles/bits of news about Russia you read in your press show only one, very negative side. Same here, on this site. Russia is a huge country in the rather painful transformational period situated in many of the worst climatic regions in the world so, of course, statistically speaking, every day something bad just has to happen here. Every day this bad piece of news (gas explosion in mine, hospital caught fire etc) or this negative article from usually British newspaper/BBC service is thoroughly reported on here, by Fran or somebody else. If you think that a Russsian reading all this negative crap on here will feel inclined to communicate in a civilised manner with you lot, you'd better perish the thought.

Another point about the Brits. Russian people since Soviet times have had very favorable pro-British opinion, probably because Soviet propaganda was centred mostly on the USA. Even now many still quite like Thatcher or Blair (Bush is seen as idiot in our country too, but Blair is rather a good guy, not just Bush's poodle). Unfortunately, those numerous examples of mocking anecdotes of binge drinking Russian prostitutes, apalling Russian past, corrupted Russian present and much feared Russian future, told by mostly British media and repeated by British people have forced many of us to come to the same conclusion about British, to which many of the Europeans came ages ago, in pre-EU time. I mean the title of the book written by a French author G.J.Renier in 1931 The English; Are They Human? (mentioned in Kate Fox's popular book Watching the English).

As for you, rate me as you are tempted. This won't stop filling this site with offensive crappy ingnorant distortive information about my country, don't worry.

by lana on Sat May 5th, 2007 at 01:14:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The majority of this mockery is poured on the Internet sites by native English speakers, usually British.

What languages other than English and Russian do you speak? And do you assume that if the majority of the mockers are from one nation, then the majority, or even all (as evidenced by your attacks one some persons here) members of that nation are mockers? (And yes I don't deny that the mockers exist, even on this site, and that regular occurence of such mockery is nauseating and infuriating, even in small doses; you could write a diary on this.)

long (at least since mid-19th century) hostility towards Russian Empire/USSR/Russian Federation etc

Hm, indeed there was the Crimean War and the Royal Navy intervention in the last big Russo-Turkish War, but after the latter, there was an alliance until the Bolshevik Revolution, another alliance during WWII, and residual pro-Soviet sympathies in a not insignificant part of the population thereafter.

Besides, almost all the articles/bits of news about Russia you read in your press show only one, very negative side.

Almost all articles of news from non-neighbouring countries you read in the press (especially tabloid press, especially British tabloid press) show very negative sides. This is true for the Russian press, too. Not that this wouldn't be a bad practice, but you shouldn't only notice when it hits your country.

horoughly reported on here, by Fran or somebody else

Erm, I estimate most Russia-related stories in the Salon now come from blackhawk. Including disaster stories. (BTW, you attacked me when I responded to one by naming the possibility of arson attacks by far-righters -- I note that the article I responded to was (1) Russian (RIA Novosti) (2) the article itself made the implicit suggestion that there is a pattern.)

If you think that a Russsian reading all this negative crap on here will feel inclined to communicate in a civilised manner with you lot, you'd better perish the thought.

Well, there are four Russian regulars on ET, three of them manage to communicate in a civilised manner, though all four are sensitive to and complain of anti-Russian biases and mockery.

That alone could be a good diary subject.

conclusion about British, to which many of the Europeans came ages ago, in pre-EU time I mean the title of the book written by a French author G.J.Renier in 1931 The English; Are They Human?

So you think the British (whom you equate with the English...) are inmutable, like Matt Taibbi thinks the Russian peasant is? Or like many Americans think the French still stink like after WWII and wear moustaches, or many Brits and Americans think Germans speak & walk in Prussian militarist style?

filling this site with offensive crappy ingnorant distortive information about my country

If only you filled this site with information on your country! But usually you fill it with offensive crappy ingnorant distortive insults unrelated to any information OR your country. But when you occasionally do the first, the 4 ratings you then receive should have been an indication that it is welcomed.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat May 5th, 2007 at 01:54:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

All this cross-secting and over-analysing my every word won't bring you any good, dodo. Try to relax a little, drink some Bikaver.

by lana on Sun May 6th, 2007 at 07:05:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

won't bring you any good

Yet your replies to others show clearly that it is working inside you.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun May 6th, 2007 at 03:16:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I report what I can find on the internet - if you have some better sources for news about Russia, please let me know and give me the links - it would be appreciated.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Sat May 5th, 2007 at 02:21:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That's exactly what I meant. Neither you, nor anybody else not speaking Russian will hardly manage to find anything good about Russia. On the other hand, sources in Russian (TV, most newspapers, including our half-tabloids) are full of good news about the rest of the world. Anything more or less valuable has immediately being translated into Russian - books, pictures, I don't know, Kurt a white bear cub was shown on every our TV channel. The animals in Russian zoos do have offspring too and they are cute too but if ever any news from a Russian zoo will be shown in your so fucking non-censored democratic countries with free access to information, well, then it inevitably will be something like animals in Russian zoos die from starvation, the management drink all day long and steal meat off tigers and lions for a barbeque etc.

Then, translators worldwide translate from a foreign language ro their own and not the other way around. That means that wealthy democratic western world just can't afford as much professional translators from Russian as we here in authoritarian hopelessly undemocratic can from other languages? Or it would be hard to swallow some good news about Russia?

by lana on Sun May 6th, 2007 at 06:53:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

sources in Russian (TV, most newspapers, including our half-tabloids) are full of good news about the rest of the world

Could you quote a few of these good news about Baltic countries?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun May 6th, 2007 at 01:56:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Is your comment display set to "Nested" or not?

If not, change that and you can reduce your opportunities for paranoia (a British-born Frenchman's comment about the French far-right directed at your comment?... people waiting for you to comment, as if ET consisted only of those threads?... now do you feel like Akakii Akakievich or the VIP?), if yes, you had no reason to assume a comment is not a reply to its parent.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 05:50:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Wikipedia has this (and much more) to say on the origins of May Day:

Are they copying Le Pen? The Front National here took over May 1st years ago by calling it Joan of Arc's Day. (Which is officially the second Sunday in May, I think...) So the FN holds its biggest annual rally in Paris on May 1st, and did so today.

Le Pen, btw, called for abstention in the second round of the election.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 04:13:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (none / 1)

The socialist/labot movements took over a tradition with apparently pre-pagan roots in the first place so I am not surprised. Co-opting holidays is an ancient tradition.

May Day is May 1, and refers to any of several holidays celebrated on this day. May 1 was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures, and many elements of these holidays are still celebrated on May 1 today, such as the Maypole. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer: hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was "midsummer."

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 07:06:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Um, yeah... But there is also this:
May Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

May Day also refers to various socialist and labor movement celebrations conducted on May 1, unrelated to the traditional celebrations, to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs of 1886 and the international socialist movement generally. The latter event is an important holiday in Communist and Socialist countries.

by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 02:17:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift

Oups, did not see the "unrelated" part. Though I doubt there is not some relationship. Easier to arrange stuff when people are not working anyway.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 08:25:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

An amusing video (none / 1)

Well it's got pseudo-Irish music in it, to please Colman...

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 01:39:36 PM EST

Royal vs. Sarkozy - poll averages (4.00 / 5)

I'm always optimistic to the point of delusion, but this is not looking so hot. I was hoping it would be a much closer race at this point. On the bright side, still 15%+ undecideds in most of the polls and Royal seems to be picking up more and more of the Bayou votes. Still, my feeling is that she will have to kick an inordinate amount of ass in tomorrow's debate. Otherwise, this thing's over.

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde

by NordicStorm (michael<-at->sturmbaum.net) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 02:01:10 PM EST

May 1st in Prague (4.00 / 9)

Planned on staying home most of the day, but got called into work in the afternoon to fix some half expected problems.

Watching the news in Prague where May 1st is always interesting.

1000's of communists gathered at Vystaviste and sang the Internationale. TV images show mostly retirees. Some young people showed up with placards and tried to disrupt proceedings.

The socialists gathered nearby, and Paroubek, the head of the party called for early elections. Currently the Czech parliament is split with 100 mps from right and centre right parties and 100 mps from the socialists and communists. The right now governs in a near minority coalition government.

Lots of placards protesting the planned US radar station here.

League of political prisoners and the ODS party preempted communists on Letna field (Traditional Socialist/Communist May 1st gathering place), to hold an anti-communist festival. This is at least the 2nd year of this festival. One long held aim is to outlaw the Communist Party.

Annual confrontation between Neo-nazis and anarchists shutdown streets in central Prague. Police stopped the anarchists from marching on the US embassy.

Hundreds of neo-nazis marching in Brno rioted against the police.

Czech Businessman Radovan Krejcir was recently arrested in South Africa. He had been hiding from racketing and conspiracy charges in the Seychelles and today the Seychelles embassy in the SAR says his Seychelles passport was forged. He's likely to face extradition to the Czech Republic.

Now, switching channels between the USA v CR hockey match (5th minute of the 3rd period Czechs lead 2-1), and waiting for Liverpool v Chelsea. Go on you reds!

L'inteligence sans volonté n'aboutit à rien, n'est-ce pas?... Mais, la volonté sans intelligence?... Catastrophe!... Celine

by kagaka (kagaka [zav] yahoo [tecka] com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 02:12:00 PM EST

Re: May 1st in Prague (4.00 / 3)

6 min: 3-1 and crowd starts chanting (Czeshi, Czeshi, Czeshi) Czechs, Czechs, Czechs

L'inteligence sans volonté n'aboutit à rien, n'est-ce pas?... Mais, la volonté sans intelligence?... Catastrophe!... Celine

by kagaka (kagaka [zav] yahoo [tecka] com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 02:17:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (4.00 / 8)

there was a riot in Zürich but I wonder if anyone will talk about it in the news. The local news didn't mention anything about it several hours later.

The crowd broke store front windows and smashed bus shelters. There was tear gas fired (at least I think it was from the sound) and water cannon. The riot police were out in full force and the police helicopters were hovering over-head.

I think I will stay in tonight.

by zoe on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 02:28:14 PM EST

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (4.00 / 5)

I am sitting on the balcony with my laptop. It's a nice evening and the kids are out in force down below, playing some sort of game...
"Je suis Nicolas Sarkozy! Racaille, racaille!", one of them is yelling. Over and over again. There is a lot of giggling and shrieking... Now another kid is claiming to be Royal. They are quite young. I wonder how the game works.

by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 02:59:53 PM EST

Should we laugh or cry? (4.00 / 4)

News Corp. Offers $60 a Share In Unsolicited Bid for Dow Jones
The Bancroft family, the controlling shareholder of The Wall Street Journal's parent company Dow Jones & Co., is considering a $5 billion buyout offer from News Corp., the international media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch.
The offer of $60 a share in cash, or a combination of cash and stock, is pitched at a price roughly 67% above Dow Jones' recent market value. A buyout has the potential to permanently reshape business journalism in the U.S. and internationally. It could set off a bidding war for Dow Jones, owner of one of the most storied franchises in American newspapers likely to be attractive to companies ranging from the Washington Post Co., the New York Times Co. and possibly even Bloomberg LP in addition to News Corp.
(...)
And Mr. Murdoch has hankered after the Journal for many years. The conservative slant of the editorial page reflects closely his own political views, while its business purview is close to his heart.
(...)
Acquisition of the paper would be the latest in a string of triumphs for Mr. Murdoch, who turned 76 last month. Having inherited a single newspaper in Adelaide, Australia, on his father's death in the mid-1950s. Mr. Murdoch acquired or started a string of other papers in Australia and Britain before moving to the U.S. in 1973. He acquired the Post, the Village Voice and a couple of newspapers in San Antonio before later buying the Chicago Sun-Times.
He eventually discarded most of these U.S. titles, however, after expanding into television and film in the 1980s, later moving into satellite television. Along the way he never lost his taste for newspapers.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 03:12:26 PM EST

Re: Should we laugh or cry? (4.00 / 3)

congratulations on your nomination in the French Blogosphere government :)

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:29:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I'm going mountain biking in these here hills this evening. Haven't gone yet this year so my quads will be on fire tomorrow.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 03:18:39 PM EST

May day demonstration (4.00 / 3)

Yes, got up early to go to the demonstration in the centre of Lyon.

As usual in Lyon, unlike in Paris, it was a joint demonstration with all the unions, except FO. Nice meeting, around 3000 participants. As usual, I met a lot of old friends I see once a year. Had a few drinks sold by the CGT at the end of the demonstration...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

by Melanchthon on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 03:26:14 PM EST

Re: May day demonstration (4.00 / 3)

Followed the CGT demonstration in Paris, which was following the classical République-Nation path. The CGT was trying to extend the length of the demonstration by leaving gaps in its procession.

The end of the procession was interesting, with the various leftist parties (LCR with Besancenot leading, but no sign of the PS, which tend to be unliked in those demonstrations), the anarchist organisations (Fédération Anarchiste and Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs with their Red and Black flags, followed by the black-only flags of the unorganised anarchists with hard-core punk), and then the various "third world" revolutionary movements. The Tamils where numerous and tightly packed together, the various Kurdistan parties with huge pictures of their martyrised leaders... Those movements are definitely not "reconstructed" communist ; one of the trucks had giant portraits of Marx, Lenin and Mao side by side. The PKK has given up on Stalin portraits years ago, though.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:26:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Open Thread - Tuesday (none / 1)

1-0 Liverpool over Chelsea, at the 55th minute. Hmm...will they upset Chelsea and move into the final??

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

by whataboutbob on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 04:02:32 PM EST

okay football fans, I have a question for you: what happens if there is a 1-1 tie on total points after two games, when both goals were scored by the home teams? Shoot out?

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

by whataboutbob on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 04:08:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

30 minutes extra-time. If there is still 1-1, then penalty shootout.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

by Melanchthon on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 05:01:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Well I did say to my Londoner girlfriend, "no one in their right mind bets against Liverpool in a penalty shootout"

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:23:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Indeed, and Chelsea was out of its mind. In the last five-ten minutes, they seemed to play for the penalty shootout...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 03:18:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6610209.stm

Just seen a news report saying a helicopter left Liverpool airport last night, and hasn't arrived at its destination. The helicopter had at least one Senior official of Chelsea football club on board. RAF helicopters have been searching into the night and a mountain rescue team has been sent to the area. (Apparently it's somewhere near Peterborough, which makes the need for a mountain rescue team somewhat bizzare)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed May 2nd, 2007 at 04:17:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Oil and the army (4.00 / 3)

Pentagon study says oil reliance strains military
The Department of Defense is the largest single energy consumer in the country. The Air Force spends about $5 billion a year on fuel, mostly to support flight operations. The Navy and Army are close behind.
Of all the cargo the military transports, more than half consists of fuel. About 80 percent of all material transported on the battlefield is fuel.
The military's energy consumption has steadily grown as its arsenal has become more mechanized and as US forces have had to travel farther distances.
In World War II, the United States consumed about a gallon of fuel per soldier per day, according to the report. In the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, about 4 gallons of fuel per soldier was consumed per day. In 2006, the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan burned about 16 gallons of fuel per soldier on average per day , almost twice as much as the year before.

I have the study, btw, if anyone wants it.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 05:03:40 PM EST

MI5 lies on 7/7 ? (4.00 / 2)

Pressure grows for a 7/7 inquiry
Filmed in 2004: Suicide bombers and bomb plotter
Enlarge Image
Survivors and relatives of victims of the 7 July attacks are stepping up the pressure for a public inquiry into MI5's handling of intelligence.
On Monday it emerged at the end of a year-long terror trial that MI5 had two of the 7 July bombers under surveillance a year before the attacks.
[...]

Pretty big, was it discussed?

by Laurent GUERBY on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 05:16:43 PM EST

Corruption (4.00 / 4)

http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2007/05/bids-on-contracts.html

NEW ORLEANS - When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, it copied the specifications -- typos and all -- from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract, a review of documents by The Associated Press found.
The pumps, supplied by Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and installed at canals before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, proved to be defective, as the AP reported in March. The matter is under investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
In a letter dated April 13, Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., called on the Corps to look into how the politically connected company got the post-Hurricane Katrina contract. MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother, to market its pumps during the 1980s, and top MWI officials have been major contributors to the Republican Party.

by Laurent GUERBY on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 05:54:55 PM EST

The Turkish Constitutional Crisis continues apace...

The Guardian: Turkish court halts Gul presidency (May 1, 2007)

Turkey's constitutional court today annulled a parliamentary vote in support of the country's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul - accused by his opponents of hiding an Islamist agenda - as a presidential candidate.
The move paves the way for possible early elections. A government statement said it was considering holding general elections "as soon as possible".
The ruling came after an opposition boycott of the vote, and amid huge protests by pro-secular Turks against the moderately Islamist government of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Bush is a symptom, not the disease.

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:21:15 PM EST