[Publish Date updated to restore to front page]
Okay as an experiment here it is. Discuss your favourite generals here!
Well perhaps… Really this is simply the place to post news-items, fun-items or whatever takes your fancy. In short just post what you want here.
It’s just another wee experiment – comments welcome.
Squonk.
[Image: General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (Stephen Fry)]
Good news from California (Bee good) Mary.
“Three environmental and food safety nonprofits are suing the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) over its approval of insecticides linked to the massive die-off of honeybees in the state, saying the agency violated state laws by doing so.”
http://rt.com/usa/171912-environmentalists-sue-california-neonicotinoids/
Japan issues tsunami advisory after strong quake near …
Telegraph.co.uk - by Andrew Marszal - 1 hour ago
Earthquake measuring 6.8 on Richter scale shakes northern Japan, … Japan issues tsunami advisory after strong quake near Fukushima.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10963177/Japan-issues-tsunami-advisory-after-strong-quake-near-Fukushima.html
~~~That’s bad news but good news on the bees Ben. The farmers here are pushing for the ban on neonicotinoids to be lifted.
Japan is one seismic dude, like California. It’s very special that they built reactors astride major faults, Mary. So special that they built extra large sirens to warn us. 🙂
If she survives, Mother Nature will bite back.
This is the latest ‘news roundup’ from GM Watch.
http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=29cbc7e6c21e0a8fd2a82aeb8&id=ea4eba4b4f&e=2446ad111c
I see many people buying large spray bottles of Roundup* (clever choice of name – suggests images of Farmer Giles rounding up his flock of sheep or herd of cows) in garden centres and even in supermarkets who have no idea of the implications of its use on the environment.
*Roundup, brand-name of an herbicide made by Monsanto, see glyphosate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Environmental_fate
‘Welcome to the home of weedkilling’. YCNMIU
‘Roundup is the weedkiller the professionals use. Utilising the same advanced technology developed by its agricultural counterpart, Roundup has been specially formulated to kill weeds right down to the root.
So, with Roundup Weed Killer, gardeners know that, once the weed’s gone, it’s gone for good.’
http://www.roundup-garden.com/
What I’m seeing is only very tiny bumble bees, maybe about the size of a pinkie fingernail, definitely something not right, they’re not growing big, I can’t remember when I last seen a normal sized bee in the last two years. As ever the damage is only realised when the worst case outcome becomes an understatement, too late after irrevocable harm is done. In places where these little tiny bees are abundant, you could walk two yards and crush underfoot half a dozen or more, their defensive awareness is a foot or two at most as if they haven’t rudimentary sense of self-preservation.
Fuck this awaiting moderation lark, I’m having a strop. Goodbye.
Tony,
I’m not seeing any comments still stuck. The comments awaiting moderation you may have been told about are just duplicate comments – which I’ve now removed completely. If you think a message is actually missing could you give me a rough idea of when it was posted.
I’ve had honey bees in my roof for the last few years. I haven’t checked on them this year but I think they’re still there as a few tend to come into the kitchen when they’re trying to get home.
Tony M, I see you linked the Yablokov report on the Chernobyl disaster for me at Craig’s:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/07/camping-on-the-indus/#comment-465878
Have you actually read this book? It’s over three hundred pages. I have read of this report before, both its estimate of nearly a million deaths from the Chernobyl disaster, and scientific criticism and praise for it.
I have actually carefully read Busby’s Wings of Death, and I know that really I’d need more expertise to effectively evaluate it, but the argument to be evaluated is clear. Yablokov is twice the size and far more diverse and less focussed, and I have a great deal of other reading to do. But I’ve downloaded a copy and I’ll read a bit from time to time. Meanwhile, if there are any sections you wish to discuss, go ahead and post here; I’ll read that section and tell you what I think.
Of the various scientific estimates of deaths caused by the Chernobyl disaster, I think that the Yablokov report presents the highest figure by quite a large margin. But even figures such as these do not exceed the scale of mortality from causes such as poverty, war, poor sanitation, preventable disease or even road accidents. Humans and other species cope with disasters of this scale all the time. While respecting the devastation cast upon people’s lives and the environment, including ongoing effects, I still can’t as yet classify nuclear activity as an existential threat to the human species, let alone to life itself. If any of your reasons for believing so are in that report, please direct me to them.
I can’t imagine that you are superstitious Craig. I am not.
These old saws might amuse you. At one time we all lived hugger mugger with our animals and I suppose that according to events and circumstances and good or bad fortune for the household, the types of living creatures around at the time would cause these superstitions to be created.
http://www.doghause.com/superstitions.asp Bats, Bees and Birds.
The Albatross comes into another category. I would love to see one in reality.
Whatever next. A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 has crashed in Ukraine. Flying from Amsterdam to KL. One agency is saying it was shot down at an altitude of 10kms.
????
The Nats seem to think it was the BBC what did it.
Is there anything they won’t use for point scoring.
It was very scary here last night. Went on for over an hour. Dog petrified.
Then heavy rain not that you would know now. Temp 31C. Arid. Leaves on the trees are becoming crispy and some trees are turning brown. Yet the government wants to stick thousands and thousands more houses in the SE. It is a drought area and even after the winter floods, the aquifers are not very full.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28366535 dramatic photos.
More storms forecast for tomorrow night throughout the country.
PS Nothing compared to what the people in Gaza are experiencing at the moment. Power was cut last night and saline water comes out of the taps. Poor souls.
Been watching both Ukraine and Gaza situations. Haven’t felt like posting much last couple of days in case anyone has wondered. Maybe some thoughts later…
I was just about to ask AA. Look forward to your thoughts.
Hello folks; there were two big storms here, one in the early hours of Friday morning, and another when the Sun had been up an hour or so. Two thunderclaps within less than a second of their flashes; both tripped out my house’s current balance (RCD). I didn’t realise at first; I thought the power had failed. When I got up the water was off (local workers hunting a leak, I believe). Then I couldn’t get on the ‘net; my router showed no lights and smelt of overheating semiconductors. I fished out a spare router, but I couldn’t remember my login details and it took ages to get my ISP on the ‘phone and get it sorted.
I had friends coming over for a bonfire, but another spectacular storm sent us indoors. It’s still flashing and rumbling about; I’ll unplug the router from the ‘phone line after posting this!
What terrible grief in the world. I’d rather watch the storms.
Edit: I went to post this, but the connection had gone. It took a couple of router reboots to get it back. I think it must be the storms…
Looks as if you had a narrow escape Clark.
Lightning strikes leave Essex families without homes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-28383232
No wonder people are afraid of storms.
Don’t ya just Get sick of it all somtimes…
Mary, clark Glad the Electrict storms have passed…and Spared yas….. Was wondering why you were up at daft o clock… i was up cos i’m daft… 🙂
..
Photo escape –
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115454618@N06/14675629955/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115454618@N06/14675206962/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115454618@N06/14488916779/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115454618@N06/14488917159/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115454618@N06/14675206962/in/photostream/
I liked your photo set Brian. You remind us that the world is still a beautiful place.
Those shots of the bays and shores are so tranquil. Also the one with two standing tree trunks on the beach. You have an eye for sculptural shapes.
One of my previous jobs prior to the NHS was working in a local authority art gallery where we had monthly exhibitions incl sculpture. Gallery long gone (they tried to flog it off although it was a listed building , but now let) and the borough’s large and beautiful art collection is mouldering in some warehouse whereas before it was kept in special conditions when not on display.
The barbarians now rule.
Mary,… yes its beautiful out there…worth the boat trip of like 5 hours…pleasant people too…and they sure know how to Party. 🙂
your tale about the Art collection going to ruin is sad indeed…the human soul needs Art and Stories and Poetry
your story also reminded me of the Poor old Dodo –
from Bill Bryson’s book A Short History of Nearly Everything:
” We don’t know precisely the circumstances, or even year, attending the last moments of the last dodo, so we don’t know which arrived first, a world that contained a Principia or one that had no dodos, but we do know that they happened at more or less the same time. You would be hard pressed, I would submit, to find a better pairing of occurrences to illustrate the divine and felonious nature of the human being — a species of organism that is capable of unpicking the deepest secrets of the heavens while at the same time pounding into extinction, for no purposes at all, a creature that never did any of us any harm and wasn’t even remotely capable of understanding what we were doing to it as we did it. Indeed, dodos were so spectacularly short on insight, it is reported, that if you wished to find all the dodos in a vicinity you had only to catch one and set it to squawking, and all the others would waddle along to see what was up.
The indignities of the poor dodo didn’t end quite there. In 1755, some seventy years after the last dodo’s death, the director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford decided that the institution’s stuffed dodod was becoming unpleasantly musty and ordered it tossed on a bonfire. This was a surprising decision as it was by this time the only dodo in existence, stuffed or otherwise. A passing employee, aghast, tried to rescue the bird but could save only its head and part of one limb.
As a result of this and other departures from common sense, we are not now entirely sure what a living dodo was like. We possess much less information than most people suppose — a handful of crude descriptions by “unscientific voyagers, three or four oil paintings, and a few scattered osseous fragments,” in the somewhat aggrieved words of the nineteenth century naturalist H.E. Strickland. As Strickland wistfully observed, we have more physical evidence of some ancient sea monsters and lumbering saurapods than we do of a bird that lived into modern times and required nothing of us to survive except our absence.”
Aint that Last sentence just a Gem ?.. But on a more upbeat note Re the Dodo –
An Anglo-Dutch-Mauritian team excavated the marsh in 2005 and 2006, and the 2007 fieldwork is currently under way (go to the blog link below). The bones are well preserved and hopefully DNA will be successfully collected.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2007/august/news_12220.html
I’m not sure what the very latest is Mary…i should try look into it a wee bit..Anyhoo thanks for sharing that tale.
P.s…. i still love Sqounk’s edit button…cos i missed ONE Letter, An (o)…as in Too. 🙂
RIP James Garner. Humble beginnings. I always liked his laid back style in the Rockford Files. Formulaic but watchable. He stood up against the studio crooks in Hollywood I see.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Garner
Only one wife and married for 58 years. That’s unusual for Hollywood.
I hope Clark is OK and has unplugged everything. There is extremely bad weather where he lives. Storms, floods. Fire and Rescue out. Cables arcing. House on fire etc.
Hello Mary, BrianFujisan. Hello Squonk; I’m glad you’ve been getting some sun.
Mary, I’m fine, thanks, though I have been somewhat short of sleep having woken up for storms a few times, plus a fair bit of socialising over the weekend. I’ve been remembering to disconnect my replacement router from the ‘phone line, and it seems reliable when there isn’t lightning about.
But I had another computer hassle; I nearly dropped my keyboard, and in grabbing it I must have hit some hot-key that made the display go blank. I got my Desktop back in a default low resolution graphics mode, but every time I set the correct resolution the screen went blank but for a “Not Support” [sic.] message from the monitor’s on-screen display. After a load of looking things up I’ve fixed it.
Clark, Hullo
Sounds as if you have a wee spring in yir step Laddy…Lol
Thanks for send off to the Isles..was magic…with secret coves… Bit of Skinny dipping Lol ( Mary Close eyes ) … Sculptures on Big beach… but as Mary says… it’s good to see the world can be a beautiful place..and thanks for that Mary…
Brian You obviously failed to spot me peeping out from behind that large rock 🙂 ……….and missed hearing me giggling too. 🙂 🙂
http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/News/Harlow-news/Fighter-jets-over-Stortford-and-Harlow-amid-emergency-situation-at-Stansted-Airport-20140723200349.htm
More at link
Squonk, thanks for that; can’t say I noticed anything. I went to Luton and its airport a few days ago; horrible. The road back was closed and we were diverted into what proved to be an endless loop. On arriving back at the closed slip-road I asked a worker how to get to London. He told me to follow the diversion signs, but I said they’d brought me back here. He started to express his disbelief, but a car drew up behind mine, followed by another, and another… They’d all been going round in circles.
I felt vindicated; trouble was, I drove off but I didn’t know where I was going. I traversed several unsignposted roundabouts feeling frustrated, found myself lost in a dead-end car park so decided to stop and smoke a roll-up to chill out. But all those other cars presumably thought I knew where I was going and had followed me all the way. I got out and laughed and waved my arms and denied everything and they all turned around and filed out again… It was hilarious and a bit surreal.
That or they were all different secret services tailing each other.
We had some flying saucer reports near Stansted airport a couple of years back. One of them was a BBC local radio sport commentator or something, and he and the local radio newsreaders were on first-name terms when they interviewed him. There was also a video on YouTube showing some moving points of light, made on the M11 within a few miles and days, but it didn’t match the descriptions on the radio.
I don’t believe this.
Craig just published someone’s email address when the form specifically states he won’t then when questioned about it just says “so sue me” or words to that affect.
He really is jacked-in to the subject. I should think a temperate, diplomatic type would recognize the commenter was not a significant threat, and owing to reasonableness, he would delete rather than act like a block-head.
“He really is jacked-in to the subject. I should think a temperate, diplomatic type would recognize the commenter was not a significant threat, and owing to reasonableness, he would delete rather than act like a block-head.”
I don’t give a damn about his stupid sectarian hatred, I don’t play those games.
It says email addresses will not be published, he betrayed everyone’s trust then laughed in their faces for believing he ever had any integrity.
“It says email addresses will not be published, he betrayed everyone’s trust then laughed in their faces for believing he ever had any integrity.”
Uh. You’re preaching to the choir. I’m not the enemy.
Fred, you’re projecting. Remember, I’ve met both you and Craig, but it’s clear from your comments anyway..
The e-mail address is editor at rangers.co.uk, an official Rangers e-mail address. If that really is the commenter’s address, it was right to reveal the source of the racist comment. If it wasn’t, then the address wasn’t “private data” anyway. Craig will have figured similarly, I’d bet.
Clark; I’ve been reticent to comment on your loyalty to Craig. maybe it’s time you recognized the chinks in human armor.
Posted some Corries on Craig..
I hope the *&%$£&…. Don’t think that’s my main thing….
This is My thing –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNTaIz5cABY
Ben
There is Actually a situation in Scotland These things Matter….NO Celtic Tops… No Rangers Tops….. thats how i ran my house…we had Martial Arts instead…..
Yes Clark and I have met you.
If you say you will not publish email addresses then you should not publish email addresses, it is a betrayal of trust.
Ben, it isn’t loyalty as such. I’ve been visiting Craig’s for a long time. There have been times that I thought Craig was wrong, or bending the truth to suit his argument. Each time, Craig turned out to understand and foresee better than myself. So I learned my lesson and demoted my own opinions to a lower rank than Craig’s.
There’s a reason Craig was the UK’s youngest ever ambassador – he’s damn good in the field of understanding people. Just don’t ask him to wire a plug or put up a tent – but there are people like me who are happy to do such things for him because his specialist skills are so valuable.
Craig is probably right about the crashed airliner – it was probably shot down by the same group that was shooting down military aircraft. As usual, Craig immediately and correctly identified the first-order facts, and avoided wasting his time on interminable sifting of detailed evidence.
You want to argue with that? Look at the 9/11 argument. It’s been running for years. Was it hijackers? Aided by Israeli security at US airports? Arranged by Bush and his administration? Remote controlled aircraft like the X-Files spin-off programme? Controlled demolition? Far from converging upon a single coherent description, arguments over such specifics have multiplied and diversified – but Craig has not wasted his time and effort on it. Instead, he jumped right over it by criticising the reaction to it…
…and face it, that’s what matters. It seems a huge important issue when 300 or 3000 people are killed, especially if we don’t know who killed them or why, but these are minor incidents in the lives of nations. Those nations’ responses will have effects upon people’s lives orders of magnitude greater than the supposedly “major” incidents that preceded them. It doesn’t even matter what the original incident was; it can be spun as necessary like Lockerbie was and is.
Craig understands this, so he redirects our attention back onto the centres of power, where it can make a difference.
Fred, you can’t really believe that that commenter was placing trust in Craig. If the commenter was really entitled to use that e-mail address, then Rangers’ editor was placing Craig and the blog team in a conflict of interest; “We’ll use your blog to publish this opinion, but we want you to collude with us in concealing that the comment represents Rangers’ official position”. If the commenter wasn’t part of Rangers’ administration then he was deceiving Craig and the team – and deceiving someone is not an act of trust.
Fred, I know you are more logical than the arguments you are presenting. You’re logical on everything except Scottish independence. You project caricatures of rabid Nationalists motivated by hate, but when a Unionist posts offensive racial provocation you seem more concerned about protecting his “private data”! It’s glaringly obvious that you’ll discredit Craig any way you can because you’re terrified of Scotland becoming independent.
” it was probably shot down by the same group that was shooting down military aircraft. As usual, Craig immediately and correctly identified the first-order facts, and avoided wasting his time on interminable sifting of detailed evidence.”
Clark; Yes. It’s his process, and it is troubling.
“Craig understands this, so he redirects our attention back onto the centres of power, where it can make a difference.”
That makes some sense, but Scots Indy 24/7 is going to make a difference? Occam’s razor is a guideline, not a mathematic certainty. Although I have seen him accept the fact that there really are neo-nazis in Ukraine, it seems a grudging acceptance.
@Clark
If it says email addresses will not be published then you should not publish email addresses.
That’s all the logic I need, end of story, no ifs and buts, no speculation on what somebody might expect. Open and shut case.
“There is Actually a situation in Scotland These things Matter”
I agree Brian. It’s important. Tai-Chi?
@Clark
Now we have been enlightened to the fact the flags were not being handed out, they were being sold and they were being sold by the same people who sell fake club merchandising outside the football and rugby matches.
Now we know Craig’s post was nothing but bullshit Nationalist lies and propaganda.
Maybe you would like to reconsider your accusations against me.
Fred, observations of the flags being sold does not imply that they were not also given out, in fact my immediate suspicion from that comment was that the sellers of fake club merchandising had collected discarded two-faced flags for nothing and then sold them at a price. There is still the matter of who had them printed.
And if I post “[email protected]”, am I revealing private data? Pah.
Fred, I can make a far worse accusation against you than that, as you may remember. I think that matter has more bearing upon your anti-independence stance than you realise, and I think you need to rectify that. Sorry Fred, because I’m really fond of you.
There’s a plugin for WordPress that verifies an email address actually belongs to the comment author. First time a new email address is seen a verification email is sent to the address with a link to click. Until the link is clicked the comment will remain in moderation – a moderator can still manually okay the address even if no response (or a bounce) is received to the email so fake emails can still be allowed to post if desired.
Whether forcing posters to use a valid email address they own is a good idea depends on the blog I suppose…
My assumption is that the user of the Rangers email address on Craig’s blog is not the real owner of the email address in any case although I wouldn’t have published it myself without first contacting Rangers F.C. for a comment on its authenticity (or not). But that’s me.
@Clark
Now you have completely lost the plot, could you please stick to the real world.
If you have any evidence whatsoever that anyone took free flags and sold them then post it here otherwise I can only assume it’s another one of your fantasies.
You can’t just keep on inventing reality to suite what you want to believe.
@Squonk
I think it’s irrelevant if the email address is real or not. I don’t think it makes any difference what was in the post.
All that matters is that if it says that an email address will not be posted then it should not be posted.
It isn’t complicated, it has nothing to do with Scottish Nationalism or anything else. If someone says they will not do something then they should not do it. It’s as simple as that.
Fred,
I agree in general, but if I see an email address used that is a real address of an entity that would be contentious if valid then I may contact the real entity. If they disown the post then I’ll feel free to say “posted as address xxx@yyy” – disowned by (xxx@)yyy – poster now banned.” For the record, in the unlikely event I got a reply that said: “Yes I did say that” then I would still keep the email address private unless given permission to reveal it.
If it is totally obviously fake such as [email protected] obviously I’m not going to contact Microsoft or be especially bothered about it.
Ben, Craig’s concentration upon Scottish independence may make a difference to Scottish independence, and that could be a seed-crystal for major international change – Habbabkuk has already claimed that it would have no effect whatsoever; Obama, the US and various other usual suspects have spoken against independence, so there’s a good chance it’s true!
As to who, if anyone, shot down MH17, would it really make that much difference at the international, diplomatic level? That’s the level Craig thinks at, remember. I think it wouldn’t, because either (most likely) neither side actually wanted to shoot it down, or if one of them did, it was an operation by one or another secret service, and international politicians accept such incidents and make deals, like Lockerbie.
Craig, again, makes the important point – the powerful will each spin the incident to maximum propaganda advantage, but will not take any action that threatens the income of the mega-wealthy. Phil understands – it’s not really US versus Russia; that’s just distraction and divide-and-rule. It’s really the thieving 1% everywhere versus everyone else.