Comment moderation enabled temporarily

Friends and readers, I'm sorry, but I've had to enable comment moderation on this blog for at least the short term. The controversy over The High Road (discussed in this post) appears to have drawn the trolls out from under the bridge, and I've had to delete a couple of nasty comments. In order to prevent this blog from being spoiled by those who should know better, I'm going to moderate all comments before they appear on the site.

This may mean that your comment will not appear for several hours - I'm not able to check every hour or so - but I hope you'll understand the need for the precaution.

Comments by trolls will disappear into the cyberspace void, which has been summoned to handle the influx.

Peter

How many Google engineers does it take to tell the time?

A few days ago I blogged about Microsoft's advertising campaign for Windows Vista being embarrassed by the revelation that some of the images were produced on Apple computers. Now, according to Gizmodo, it looks like Google is joining Microsoft in the "embarrassment corner".

So here I was, all excited about Android. Not because the G1's physical design is especially attractive. In fact, it's a gray design with no soul. Not because of the user interface, which at first glance reminded me of a mash-up between the Nintendo DS and a '90s Windows desktop manager. No, I was excited because this is the first post-iPhone smartphone that could be a serious challenger to Apple's mounting dominance. Then I looked closely at this image and realized the G1 will not pose a threat to Apple at all.




The problem in this promotional mock-up image is obvious: The analog clock says it's 9:10 but the digital clock says it's 2:47.

I know. It seems like a dumb problem. But it is an obvious one. This is one of their main promotional images—which incidentally shows a T-Mobile G1 with a screen that seems to be broken, something which is bad enough on its own—and they failed to get it right. The problem with the clocks would have never escaped Apple's ferocious attention to detail, but it is not the image itself that's so troubling. It is what it symbolizes, what is missing at Android's most fundamental level: Attention to detail.

More at the link. I suspect Google has a long way to go with this project!



Peter

Another victim of the Skeleton Coast

I don't know whether many of my readers are familiar with the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. It's a wonderfully desolate place, which I've visited three times, and of which I have very fond (and awed) memories.




The Skeleton Coast is famous (or, rather, notorious) among seafarers for its shallow patches, which undulate back and forth along the coast; for its incredibly thick fogs, which spring up when the icy cold waters of the Benguela Current off the coast chill the sea air, and it meets the hot air from the Namib Desert along the shoreline; and for its utter desolation . . . hundreds and hundreds of miles without habitation or any sign of civilization. It's one of the world's last unspoiled places.




It has rolling sand dunes and towering mountains; desert elephants, uniquely genetically adapted to their environment; wildlife found nowhere else on Earth; and plants that have adapted themselves to the harsh environment.




Navigation has always been hazardous along the Skeleton Coast, and countless ships have run aground there over the centuries. Some have disappeared beneath the shifting desert sands, never to be seen again. Others have been sucked far inland as the desert has expanded to seaward, so that today one finds shipwrecks miles from the sea.




Their crews - at least until the last century or so - were doomed. Cast ashore in so desolate a place, they had only themselves and their own resources to rely on. Countless thousands must have perished there, never to be seen again. These shattered lifeboat wrecks tell their own silent story.




One of the more famous wrecks in recent times was that of the Dunedin Star.




She ran aground on the Skeleton Coast in 1942.




The mammoth rescue operation that unfolded included another wrecked ship, a crashed aircraft, and the need to rescue many of the rescuers! John Marsh wrote a famous book about it, now available via the Internet. Excellent reading.

The BBC reports that another shipwreck, lost for centuries beneath the sand of the Skeleton Coast, has been discovered. This one looks like an archaeologist's dream!

A team of international archaeologists is working round the clock to rescue the wreck of what is thought to be a 16th Century Portuguese trading ship that lay undisturbed for hundreds of years off Namibia's Atlantic coast.

The shipwreck, uncovered in an area drained for diamond mining, has revealed a cargo of metal cannonballs, chunks of wooden hull, imprints of swords, copper ingots and elephant tusks.

It was found in April when a crane driver from the diamond mining company Namdeb spotted some coins.

The project manager of the rescue excavation, Webber Ndoro, described the find as the "the most exciting archaeological discovery on the African continent in the past 100 years".

"This is perhaps the largest find in terms of artefacts from a shipwreck in this part of the world," he said.

The area is also known as the Skeleton Coast and is associated with the skeletons of wrecked ships and past stories of sailors wandering through the barren landscape in search of food and water.

Working out whose ship this was is no easy task.

Gold coins that the Portuguese crown began producing in October 1525 mean it could not have been the vessel of the famous seafarer Bartholomew Dias, who disappeared on one of his travels around the point of Africa in the year 1500.

But there are other pointers, including swivel-guns known to have been used by Portuguese and Spanish seafarers, and the boat's shape, indicating that it was a Portuguese "nau".

There are also copper ingots carrying a clearly visible trident seal that can be traced back to the German banker and merchant family of Jakob Fugger - the main suppliers of primary materials to the Portuguese crown.

Gold and silver coins have been deposited in a bank vault. Rare navigational instruments have been sent to Portugal for research, while pewter plates and jugs, pieces of ceramic, tin blocks and elephant tusks are temporarily housed in a warehouse on the premises of the mining company. Some are being freed of their layer of sand and salt to allow for more detailed scrutiny over their make and origin.

"It represents a very interesting cargo - we have goods from Asia, we have goods from Europe, we have goods from Africa," said Mr Ndoro.

"We always think that globalisation started yesterday but in actual fact here we are with something we can date to around 1500."

. . .

Bruno Werz, the archaeologist leading the excavations, said the shipwreck was particularly valuable because it had not been tampered with.

"This collection has not been disturbed by human interference," he said.

"We are very fortunate to have found an untouched wreck with all the material that was on site still here in one collection."

Archaeologists from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, the United States, the UK and Portugal are working on the excavation, which is due to be completed by mid-October.

Thereafter the detailed work of recording and preserving, which can take up to 30 years, can begin.

This should prove to be a fascinating "time capsule" of shipboard life and international commerce in the 16th century. I'll be watching with interest to see what else is revealed.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #71

The doofus in this case, in France, isn't the woman passenger - it's the dumbass dealer who sold her the "souvenir"!

A British woman sparked the evacuation of an entire airport in France when she tried to board a plane with a bomb in her hand luggage.

The 55-year-old was boarding a Ryanair jet at Bergerac, in the Dordogne, when security guards spotted the World War Two shell while scanning her suitcase.

The woman, who was flying home to Nottingham, said she had bought the 37mm military explosive in a second-hand shop as a present for her husband.

Bomb squad officers raced to the airport and took the shell, originally used in army field guns, to nearby wasteland.

More than 1,000 passengers and staff at the airport were also herded from the terminal building while the device was being removed.

After conducting a controlled explosion, officers said the shell had contained very little of its original explosive.

A French police spokesman said the woman, who has not been named, was questioned at the scene.

He added: "She told us she had no idea that taking a military shell through airport security would cause such a fuss.

"She said she bought the device in a second-hand shop because her husband collected military memorabilia.

"Checks were made with the tradesman she bought it from and her story proved to be genuine, so charges will not be brought and she was allowed to leave."

Must have been a real fox-in-the-henhouse scene at the airport!



Peter

Controversy at The High Road

Controversy surrounding The High Road (THR) firearms forum has recently erupted into the public eye, which is very unfortunate, in my opinion. I'm aware of postings about the matter on THR itself; Armed Polite Society; View From The Porch; Xavier Thoughts; Wandering Thoughts; The Armed School Teacher; FreeThinker; Walls Of The City; the AR15.com forum; and Oleg Volk's LiveJournal. I'm sure there are many others.

As one of the founding moderators of THR, I've had many questions directed at me as to what's going on: and in the interests of openness, transparency and honesty, I'd like to take the opportunity to answer those questions here.

First, THR was founded by Oleg Volk, who's a well-known photographer and activist on Second Amendment issues. Oleg is a personal friend, and a man whom I respect highly. I was one of the first people to be invited to serve as a moderator on THR, even before the board "went live" in December 2002. I was honored and privileged to serve as such for several years, before the pressure of other circumstances forced me to scale back my activities there early in 2007. I'm still a moderator there, but "without portfolio", as it were.

Second, the domain name for THR was initially registered (and owned) by Mr. Rich Lucibella, the founder and owner of The Firing Line (TFL), another firearms forum. It was Mr. Lucibella's decision to close down TFL that led to the founding of THR: and, some time later, TFL was resurrected and is again one of the foremost forums of its kind on the Internet. Mr. Lucibella supported Oleg and his moderators in every conceivable way during THR's establishment, and I have the highest regard for him.

Third, the technical support "guru" who helped establish THR's hardware and software facilities is Mr. Derek Zeanah. Startup and ongoing costs were to be met (and, as far as I am aware, were indeed met) by contributions from the moderators, and in one case by a fund-raiser held among the membership. It was not intended or desired that Mr. Zeanah use his own funds and resources to support THR, and to the best of my knowledge and belief this has never happened. Whenever he's spoken of the need for funds in the Staff Forum, arrangements have been made among the Staff to get the money to him.

A few months ago the possibility came up that THR might be acquired by a major outside interest, which would guarantee the board's independence, and by sponsoring it allow Oleg to devote more time to it and to Second Amendment/RKBA issues. Oleg, as the owner and boss of the forum, decided to investigate this option, and advised the staff of its existence. At this point Mr. Zeanah apparently decided that he held co-ownership of THR (something that had never been discussed at all in the Staff Forum, and that had never previously even been mentioned), and objected strenuously.

It also emerged that some time previously, Mr. Lucibella had transferred ownership of THR's domain name to Oleg, sending the details to Mr. Zeanah (as tech support guru) to make the arrangements. Instead of doing as Mr. Lucibella had requested, Mr. Zeanah appears to have transferred THR's domain name to himself, and now claims ownership of it. (Of course, as tech support guru and owner of THR's hosting service, he already physically controls the server, software and database.)

Mr. Zeanah denies that he "stole" or "misappropriated" THR's domain name, and insists that he offered to transfer it to a corporate entity: but the company he established to do so was a sole proprietorship under Georgia State law, with himself registered as the owner. The counter to his assertions is best delivered by Mr. Lucibella, who is on the record as follows:

At no time was I aware that Derek was acting as anything but Oleg's personal agent. Had I been aware that Derek was acting for his own benefit I would never have transferred the domain name to him. It is my position that Mr. Zeanah had fraudulently misrepresented himself to me. If he persists in publicly hiding behind my statements, taken out of context, I will have little choice but to join this legal fray, recover the domain name thru the courts and pursue Mr. Zeanah for my legal fees.

Mr. Zeanah has persistently blocked Oleg's attempts to resolve the situation, insisting that he shares ownership of THR and is owed money. Oleg has finally had to lay the matter before the courts, as the only way to obtain justice. He has posted on his LiveJournal:

In December 2002, I founded The High Road forum dedicated to the advancement of responsible gun ownership. Recently, it was discovered that in 2006, the volunteer forum systems administrator, Derek Zeanah of Statesboro, Georgia, changed domain registration to himself. After he was confronted, Derek locked out all other staff from accessing the Web server administration and would not share even backup copies of its content. After failed attempts to peacefully resolve the dispute, it has become necessary for me to initiate a lawsuit against Derek Zeanah for the return of thehighroad.org domain name and the forum database.

I am seeking and would greatly appreciate donations to help with the cost of litigation. You can use Paypal (olegvolk@gmail.com) or send a check to:

Oleg Volk
3112 Chambley Ct
Hermitage, TN 37076

All donations shall be returned if the lawsuit is ultimately avoided. You can also aid me by re-posting this appeal on your blog, forum or web site. My legal position is already endorsed by almost all of The High Road staff as well as Rich Lucibella, the founder of The Firing Line forum.

UPDATE: Derek's reaction was to disable The High Road forum all together. He also removed most of the staff who opposed him.

I should like to state, for the record, that as far as I am aware, and according to all the information at my disposal, Oleg is in the right on this matter. I confirm that from the beginning, nobody else was ever mentioned as having any ownership interest or rights at all in THR, and I confirm that from the beginning, Oleg has been universally acknowledged by the Staff as the "boss", the "head honcho", and the owner of the board. An examination of traffic in the Staff Forum from Day One of THR's existence will confirm this. If necessary I am willing to appear in court to attest to this under oath.

I should also like to state that Mr. Lucibella is known to me, not in person, but through long association on TFL and on another mailing list to which both of us belong. I accept his statement (given above) unreservedly, and I think it makes the position very clear.

I don't understand what Mr. Zeanah is trying to achieve by first, shutting down THR unilaterally (and, I might add, without any authority to do so) when the news broke (it's since come up again), and second, by banning those members of staff and others who publicly support Oleg's position. He's using his physical control of THR's servers to enforce some form of "thought control" on the forum - which won't last long, of course. I daresay my access to THR might well be revoked by him once he reads this: but I'm confident it will be restored when he loses the now-pending court case (as he inevitably will - the weight of evidence is overwhelmingly on Oleg's side in this matter). I simply don't know what Mr. Zeanah is trying to achieve: and I think that now that things have gone this far, he's on a hiding to nowhere. This might become a very expensive millstone around his neck.

I hope that this makes the position clearer to those of my readers and friends who've asked about it. I'm very sad that this nastiness has affected THR, one of the finest forums of its kind on the Internet: but I hope that it will speedily be resolved, and that THR will soon recover and return to normal.

I trust that any readers who contract out the hosting and/or supervision and/or support of their Internet services and/or operations to another person or company will learn from this very nasty situation, and draw the appropriate conclusions.

Peter

EDITED TO ADD: I've commented further on this matter in this post.

Post-hurricane squirrel invasion!

El Capitan has an hilarious story of his trials and tribulations with squirrels in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

Go read.

Peter

Wordsmiths rejoice!

Those of us who enjoy reading and vocabulary will rejoice at a new book: "Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages" by Ammon Shea.

The author has trudged his way through the massive Oxford English Dictionary, covering over half a million words and more than two and a half million quotations in no less than twenty printed volumes. He's brought out many words that are a delight to discover. Consider these examples:

Acnestis (n.) The point of the back that lies between the shoulders and the lower back, which cannot be reached to be scratched. (I never knew there was a word for this, but I sure know the spot!)

Empleomania (n.) A manic compulsion to hold public office. (I suspect many of our politicians suffer from this disease!)

Jentacular (adj.) Of or pertaining to breakfast. (So, when I'm feeling hungry in the morning, I'm obviously suffering from "jentacular deficiency". I love it! I wonder if an employer would accept this diagnosis as grounds for a day off work?)

Misandry (n.) Hatred of men. (I'd heard of "misogyny", the hatred of women, but I didn't know there was a masculine equivalent.)

Onomatomania (n.) Vexation at having difficulty in finding the right word. (Oh, yes, I know this one from experience!)

Petrichor (n.) The pleasant loamy smell of rain on the ground, especially after a long dry spell. (I've always loved the smell, but I never knew there was a word to specifically describe it!)

Tacturiency (n.) Desire of touching. (The lovers' disease?)

Umbriphilous (adj.) Fond of shade. (What a word!)

Yepsen (n.) The amount that can be held in two hands cupped together. (A measurement of which I'd never heard.)

Zugzwang (n.) A disagreeable position in which a chess player is obliged to move but cannot do so without disadvantage. (Sounds like some counseling situations I've known . . . )

Fascinating! This one goes on my "must buy" list right away!

Peter

When a table-tennis ball becomes a life-saving device

Kudos to Dr. Albert Shun of Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

A surgeon has used a ping pong ball to keep a little girl alive after a world first liver transplant operation.

The £1 plastic ball prevents Mackenzie Argaet's new liver from pressing against vital arteries, which could kill the two-year-old.

Dr Albert Shun wanted to create a barrier because the adult-sized organ would otherwise be too large for her infant body.

The piece of sports equipment will now remain in the Australian girl's body for what is expected to be the rest of her life.




Her parents, Letice Darswell and Guy Argaet, were surprised by the move but are thrilled by the recovery of their feisty daughter, who was born with rare disorder biliary artresia, which destroys the ducts that carry bile from the liver.

'We didn't get told about the ping pong ball until after the operation,' Miss Darswell told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

'I couldn't believe my ears when Dr Shun told us that he had used a ping pong ball to not only support the liver but to keep it from pressing down on vital blood vessels.

'The doctor has performed a miracle. The whole family is now referring to him as "Dr God".

‘She is so normal now. She is a happy kid.

‘She is playing with her brother Lachlan and learning to ride a bike, something she wasn't able to do before.’

But Mackenzie, who today grinned as she ran around the garden of her family home in Canberra, is yet to find out about the simple item keeping her alive.




Dr Shun, who works at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital, said her new liver will in time grow around the ping pong ball without causing any infections.

'There shouldn't be any complications,' he said today.

'We've had to use a portion of an adult sized liver because here in Australia we have a low donor rate, which means we have to be adaptable.

'The ping pong ball was the perfect answer. It won't deteriorate, it won't create an infection - and it was cheap!'

Dr Shun had been using a sponge to keep Mackenzie's liver separated from the blood vessels but said 'there was no way I could close her up the way it was.'

So he telephoned his wife from the hospital and asked her to hurry around to Woolworth's supermarket and buy him some table tennis balls.

Ingenious! How many doctors would think of something so ordinary, so commonplace, to save a child's life?

Peter

Depressing thoughts on the current election campaign

The writer and satirist H. L. Mencken famously wrote, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

This is becoming depressingly apparent in the current US election campaign.

On the Left (particularly its extreme fringe) we have those who allege that the Bush administration has used the "politics of fear" (in this case, fear of Muslim extremist terrorism) to hoodwink the American people, lie to them, and lead our nation into unwise and catastrophically costly foreign military adventures. They maintain that it has subverted the Constitution and imposed at least the beginnings of a police state upon us (and, to be frank, I think there's enough "smoke", in terms of new and onerously restrictive laws and regulations, to demonstrate the existence of a real "fire" on this point). They also assert that in its preoccupation with terrorism and associated matters, the present Administration has "dropped the ball" on domestic politics, particularly economic matters, with the result now visible in an imminent recession. They reiterate over and over again that we can't afford "another four years of Bush", and try to paint the Republican side as inextricably intertwined with the present, failed policies.

On the Right, we find that commentators and candidates try to paint those on the Left as ignorant, blind and willfully stupid when it comes to national security. They insist that only their candidate(s) understand the real threat, and opine darkly that if the Democrats take the White House next year, the security of the nation will be irreparably damaged. They try to insist that present economic problems are the fruit of previous Democratic administrations and their misguided policies (partly true, to be sure, but ignoring the fact that subsequent Republican administrations did nothing to address the problems until they were blindsided by them). They warn bleakly that we'll be transformed into a Socialist economy (and, by implication, a Marxist nation) if the Democrats win the White House and retain control of Congress and the Senate.

Both sides are guilty of several besetting sins, which irritate me greatly and cause me to have real questions as to the future viability of our political system.

First, both sides place no emphasis whatsoever on thinking through the real issues that confront us: instead, the focus is on how we do, or may, or should, feel about them. This ignores the fact that feelings may have no correlation whatsoever with reality. Reality is measured in facts - and facts seem to be in short supply in this election campaign. Only children live according to their feelings. Adults (should) live according to the facts of the situation.

Second, both sides pander to and emphasize the group, rather than the individual. This ignores the reality that a "group" is an amorphous, soul-less blob on the landscape. The politics of the crowd are well-known. As far back as the days of the Roman Empire, Juvenal observed the corrupting influence of catering to the group:

... Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

Whenever you see a political party (or politician) promising that if you vote for them (or him, or her), you'll get all sorts of "benefits" handed out "free", remember Juvenal's words. If you vote for them (or him, or her), you're voting for bread and circuses. As for such benefits being "free", remember the great Robert A. Heinlein's immortal acronym, T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L. (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). If something is provided, someone has to pay for it - and in terms of government, that means the taxpayer. You and I.

Third, neither side seems willing to acknowledge that both sides have elements of truth in many of their assertions. There's no willingness to compromise, to come together and seek the good of the whole - it's "my way or the highway". This fracturing of our political landscape has become perhaps the dominant feature of this campaign, having grown stronger over the past fifteen to twenty years. I don't know how to fix it: but we have to find a solution. "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand" (Matthew 12:25, RSV). Right now, the USA is "divided against itself". That bodes very ill indeed for our future, unless we can find a way to come together - and neither campaign seems to be placing any emphasis on that reality. It's no good insisting that we must come together on the terms of one side or the other. We have to find common ground, where all can agree on at least certain fundamentals. If that common ground doesn't exist, the USA as we know it is doomed. That's a certainty.

Fourth, the Democratic campaign in particular - but also the Republican campaign to a certain extent - are long on "save-the-Earth" or "save-the-nation" or "save-the-American-dream" type rhetoric, but short on practical solutions. They're trying to get us to vote for them on the basis of "pie-in-the-sky", hoping that vague promises and featureless rosy visions will hoodwink us into ignoring the fact that political rhetoric never yet solved a problem. H. L. Mencken again: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." Politicians offering to "save" us, or "save" our nation, fall under this definition.

Finally, I find a depressing lack of candor and courage among politicians of all parties and shades of opinion. There are far too few who will stand up to be counted. When was the last time you heard a politician say, "This is what I believe about [an issue]; I know it's not a popular opinion, but I nevertheless hold it, having examined all the facts at my disposal; and I'm going to act according to that opinion, whether or not the general public agrees with me. If you don't like my opinion, vote me out of office." It would be very refreshing to hear such honesty . . . but I suspect we'll wait an awful long time to hear most politicians say anything of the kind. There are a few (Ron Paul springs to mind), but not enough of them. Most are creatures of opinion polls, adapting their positions and policies to whatever the potential voters want. "If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner" (yes, Mencken again!).

Well, having grown thoroughly depressed at our political landscape, perhaps I should close with more of the political sayings of the sage, H. L. Mencken. He did have a way with words, that man . . .

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out . . . without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

Peter

A new hotel - for the super-rich

The new 1,539-room Atlantis Hotel is to open tomorrow on an artificial island in Dubai.

Much of the focus at Atlantis, modeled on a sister resort in the Bahamas, is on ocean-themed family entertainment.




The resort contains a giant open-air tank with 65,000 fish, stingrays and other sea creatures and a dolphinarium with more than two dozen bottlenose dolphins flown in, amid controversy, from the Solomon Islands.




But the hotel's top floor aims squarely at the ultra-wealthy. A three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite complete with gold-leaf 18-seat dining table is on offer for £13,000 a night.

That nightly rate translates to over US $24,000 at current exchange rates. Three nights in that suite would cost almost as much as I paid for my present home and almost two acres of land!

I suppose if one's wealthy enough, that sort of nightly rate doesn't matter . . . but even if I won the lottery, I simply couldn't justify spending that much for a single night's lodging. It's obscenely self-indulgent and "over the top".

Peter

Microsoft has egg Apple on its face

It is to laugh . . .

Microsoft recently launched a major advertising campaign to promote Windows Vista. However, the advertisements themselves weren't exactly on-theme . . . some of them were created using Apple computers!

Flickr user LuisDS found that metadata on the creative copy of the “stereotyped PC user” and other photos appearing on Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” website revealed that they were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. One might expect that Microsoft would use Windows PCs running its own Microsoft Expression Studio software, which as the company advertises, “takes your creative possibilities to a new level.”




When LuisDS checked on the photos again this morning after publishing the metadata details on Flickr last night, he found that Microsoft has scrubbed the revealing details from the work, an effort that also resulted in the 272 KB photo ballooning to 852 KB.

Microsoft then issued a statement acknowledging that "agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PC's".

If I were the marketing executive at Microsoft responsible for this project, I'd be updating my résumé - just in case . . .

Peter

What are the Iranians up to now?

For those who follow the murkier currents of international affairs, there's something very strange going on off Somalia at the moment. The Long War Journal has the details - and kudos to them for some very savvy investigating and reporting.

A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection. Its declared cargo consists of minerals and industrial products, however, Somali and regional officials directly involved in the negotiations over the ship and who spoke to The Long War Journal are convinced that it was heading to Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia's Islamist insurgents.

. . .

The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking. According to the U.S. Government, the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.




. . .

Suspicion has also been cast on the ship's crew, half of which is almost entirely staffed by Iranians - a large percentage of Iranian nationals for a standard merchant vessel. Somali officials say that the ship has a crew of 29 men, including a Pakistani captain, an Iranian engineer, 13 other Iranians, 3 Indians, 2 Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, possibly Croatian.

The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates - 50 onboard and 50 onshore. Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. "Yes, some of them have died. I do not know exactly how many but the information that I am getting is that some of them have died," Andrew Mwangura, Director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said Friday when reached by phone in Mombasa.

. . .

Once in direct contact, the pirates told Osman that they had attempted to inspect the ship's seven cargo containers after they developed health complications but the containers were locked. The crew claimed that they did not have the "access codes" and could not open them. The delegation secured contact with the captain and the engineer by cell phone and demanded to know the nature of the cargo, however, Osman says that "they were saying different things to different people." Initially they said that the cargo contained "crude oil" but then claimed it contained "minerals."

"The secrecy is not clear to us," Mwangura said about the cargo. "Our sources say it contains chemicals, dangerous chemicals." IRISL has flatly denied the ship is carrying a "dangerous consignment" and has threatened legal action against Mwangura.

. . .

In a strange twist, the Iranian press claims that the U.S. has offered to pay a $7 million bribe to the pirates to "receive entry permission and search the vessel." Officials in the Pentagon and the Department of State approached for this story refused to comment on the situation. Somali officials would also not comment on any direct U.S. involvement but one high-level official in the Puntland government told The Long War Journal "I can say the ship is of interest to a lot of people, including Puntland."

The exact nature of the cargo remains a mystery but officials in Puntland and Baidoa are convinced the ship was carrying weapons to Eritrea for Islamist insurgents. "We cannot inspect the cargo yet," Osman said, "but we are sure that it is weapons."

. . .

Iran's involvement in the conflict in Somalia on behalf of Islamist insurgents is well documented. In 2006, Iran flouted arms embargos and provided sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), intelligence sources told The Long War Journal, including SA-7 Strella and SA-18 Igla MANPADS - shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles - as well as AT-3 Sagger antitank missiles.

Very interesting! This situation will bear watching. If there are chemical weapons on board the ship, that will indicate a dramatic escalation of Iran's support of terrorist organizations - and retaliation by the USA becomes more and more likely.

Will we see a military strike against Iran in the not too distant future?

Head on over to the Long War Journal and read the full article. It's worth the effort.

Peter

The one that didn't get away!

A fisherman's tale comes to us from Sweden.

Swedish angler Joel Lagekvist’s morning at the lake resulted in the most improbable of catches and one whopper of a fish story.

When he was out casting his line with a friend on Sunday morning, Lagekvist thought his lure had snagged the bottom of Lillsjön lake in central Sweden.

But as he started to reel in his line, the 24-year-old realized he had hooked something else completely.

What emerged from the water’s murky depths wasn’t a giant fish or a tree root, but the outline of an enormous elk.

“My first thought was, ‘What the hell do I do if it starts to run at me?’” Lagekvist told the Expressen newspaper, explaining that he wasn’t sure whether the beast was dead or alive when its head appeared with his fishing lure securely fastened to the elk’s antlers.

In a panic, Lagekvist dropped his pole and headed for shore to call authorities, although it took some time before anyone believed his tale.

But eventually a crowd gathered to help drag the 500 to 600 kilogram elk up on shore.

“I improved my personal best by 490 kilos,” said Lagekvist.

Lagekvist and his fishing buddy each took home their own antler as a souvenir from the day’s fishing/hunting trip.

. . .

Police suspect the elk died from fatal injuries after being gored in the groin by another elk.

Lagekvist, however, is looking forward to what he might haul in on his next fishing expedition.

“We’ll see what I hook next, a Russian submarine, perhaps?” he said.

(Note that what Swedes call 'elk' are similar to the US moose, not the same as the smaller US elk.)

Er . . . let's not tell Alaska's Governor (and current Republican Vice-Presidential candidate) Sarah Palin about this. She might get ideas!



Peter

Doofus Of The Day #69 and #70

While on the subject of trains (see the post below), our (late) doofi come (or came) from South Africa.

A couple in South Africa who were having sex on a railway track in Mpumalanga Province have been killed by a goods train, police say.

Spokesman Abie Khoabane said it took place on Friday evening and the victims were yet to be identified.

He told local newspapers that the couple ignored the driver's shouts as he moved the train into the disused station in Kinross town.

"They continued with their business," he told the Sowetan paper.

According to South Africa's Beeld newspaper, the area was deserted with no cars or houses nearby.

The man died at the scene and the woman died later at hospital, the Sowetan reports.

The police have appealed for those with missing relatives to come forward to help with their investigation.

Uh . . . yes. I can see that getting clobbered by a railway engine's cow-catcher while in the missionary position wouldn't do much for the chances of identification of either couple! But - why sex on a railway line? Aren't there more comfortable venues available?

"Did the earth move for you, darling?"

Sheesh!

Peter

Taking train watching to its logical conclusion

I've had friends (particularly back in South Africa) who were and are ardent railfans (train watchers or enthusiasts). They'd travel many hundreds of miles to visit places where old trains might be seen. South Africa was still using hundreds of steam locomotives until the early 1980's, and railfans from all over the world came to view them in action.




Enthusiasts would arrange tours of the train workshops in Salt River, Cape Town, to view the behemoths as they were stripped and maintained.




I've traveled many thousands of miles behind these steam locomotives, and whilst it was a perfectly usable method of transportation, I'm afraid I never became enamored of it. The smoke used to get into the carriages and deposit soot and grit all over everything. I found that when I showered after such a journey, black greasy soot would flow out of my hair and mess up the shower!




Anyway, a group of railway enthusiasts in England have taken their passion for things steam-driven to the logical extreme: they've built the first new steam locomotive to be made in Britain since the 1960's. It's an amazing achievement, particularly since it was all done through private fund-raising and the dedicated work of hundreds of enthusiasts. One might call it the ultimate expression of a boys' club and their singular toy!

Enthusiasts painstakingly assembled the Tornado, based on a design that vanished from the network in the 1960s, over the course of 18 years.

And their dream was at last fully realised when the engine carried its first passengers on the historic Great Central Railway in Loughborough, Leicestershire.




The Tornado, the first steam loco to be made in this country since 1960, has been undergoing tests at the GCR for the past two months.

The government's railway inspectorate declared it fit to pull passenger trains after it reportedly performed "faultlessly" in a series of trials.

And today the first fare-paying members of the public to climb aboard were taken on a trouble-free 16-mile round-trip to Leicester and back.




The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, a group of rail enthusiasts based in Darlington, raised nearly three-million pounds to build the Tornado.

The engine is based on the Pacific locomotives designed by Arthur H Peppercorn for the London and North Eastern Railway in the late 1950s.

A1 Trust chairman Mark Allatt said: "This is a day we have been working towards for so long. It's a really big milestone for us and the engine.

"It's great that we can finally start pulling passengers. It's a real chance for people to be a part of history, and we're all extremely proud."

I'm glad they're happy. Certainly it's a monstrous effort, now crowned with success. Good luck to them - and next time I visit England, I might just jump aboard for a ride, to remember my South African steam journeys.

Peter

Cat versus printer

I laughed aloud at this video of a cat batting at a printer. The person who uploaded it has added some sound effects, which I'd rather not have had, but it's still funny. I had a cat looking quite like that one, who's now living with a friend in Ontario, CA. I'm sure Calico would have given the printer an even tougher workout!





Peter

An amazing escape!

Sometimes one's at a loss to explain how people can survive a tragedy. A helicopter crash in Kenosha, Wisconsin, this morning is one such incident.

A helicopter crashed into the roof of a house early Sunday, killing two people in the aircraft, but five people in the house were uninjured, police reported.

The helicopter crashed around 5:30 a.m., about one mile south of the Kenosha Airport, police Sgt. Eric Larsen said.

Fog was reported in the area at the time, but there was no immediate indication if that played a role in the crash. Visibility at 5:30 a.m. was three-quarters of a mile to a mile, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Franks said.

Gary Stielow, who lives about 100 yards from the crash site, said he woke up and heard the helicopter before it crashed.

"The engine just didn't sound right," Stielow told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It was sputtering. It was at full power, but it was sputtering real bad. Then you just heard a loud boom."

Stielow said he ran outside and saw that the family in the house had made it out safely. The bodies of the two people killed in the crash were on the ground next to the helicopter's engine, which was on fire, Stielow said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said the helicopter was a 2006 Robinson R-44 registered to Midwestern Air Services of Kenosha, which provides charter services and flight training.

The amazing thing about this accident is the way in which the helicopter hit the house. It struck the roof at the rear, carving a gap in the peak with its rotor blade and making a hole with its fuselage.




It then traveled diagonally down through the house, from back to front, and missed all five occupants as it did so, before it smashed its way out through the front of the house.




The helicopter then bounced across the front lawn, over the road, and landed in the garden of the house on the opposite side of the road. Sadly, the two occupants of the helicopter died in the wreck.




It's almost unbelievable that a helicopter, fully laden with fuel, can crash right through a house like that - and the five people in the building can walk away without a scratch! I guess their guardian angels were working overtime!

I suggest that family should immediately buy a few lottery tickets. With that much luck on their side, they're bound to win!

Peter

Lest we forget

We should never forget the suffering of so many during World War II. Of the millions who died (estimated at anywhere between fifty and one hundred million, depending on who's doing the counting), the vast majority were civilians. Among the military casualties were many taken prisoner by the Axis powers, who were usually merciless to all whom they considered "sub-human" or "inferior" races. The Germans treated Russian and Slav prisoners just as barbarically as the Japanese treated US, British and European prisoners of war. (Of course, the Soviet Union treated its Axis prisoners-of-war just as badly.)

A very sad tale has just emerged after years of obscurity.

HERE, as the dirt was scraped away, lay the last, sad unspoken message from the soldiers who died on the Sandakan death marches: the brass buckles from their long-perished uniforms, the adjusters from their haversacks, neatly stacked together in the soil of Borneo.

Then there was the globular shape resting on top of the buckles, in pride of place. Lynette Silver rubbed away the dirt, spat on it and rubbed again. Now she could see an outline map of Australia and, now, a crown on top, and then the words "Australian Military Forces". It was a brass tunic button from an Australian uniform.




"The button was most likely a treasured possession," Ms Silver, the historian, said last week, "with the map of Australia a reminder of home. Its placement, on top of the buckles, appears to be an attempt to identify the nationality of those imprisoned there."

By the time the button and other relics were buried 63 years ago, the burial party would have harboured no hopes of survival, or rescue, or of anyone in the outside world knowing where they were. They knew that people who came to this remote place were doomed to die. This place was the last camp.

So the dying soldiers buried these artefacts, the only non-perishable things they owned, in the hope that someone, one day, would know that Australians had been there, eight kilometres south of Ranau.




A few months earlier in 1945, the Japanese high command had ordered that no prisoners survive the war. With Allied forces nearing Sandakan, the Japanese ordered prisoners to march 265 kilometres to Ranau. Of 2434 Australian and British prisoners in Sandakan, only six survived - 1787 Australians and 641 British perished in the camp, along the track or at Ranau. The last were executed on August 27, 12 days after World War II ended.

Now the owner of the land on which the relics were discovered, with the help of Ms Silver, the foremost authority on the Sandakan tragedy, is planning to preserve the site. He will build a community facility with the artefacts in special pavilions.

Private Keith Botterill, one of the six survivors, had told Ms Silver before he died of conditions at the last camp. Botterill, who had been on the first of two death marches, saw a line of 183 shambling, emaciated figures from the second march enter the camp site on June 26, 1945. These men were the last of 536 who had left Sandakan a month before.

The men were dying by the dozen, from dysentery, malaria, beriberi, overwork and terrible beatings. At the end of July, only 32 were still alive; on August 1, 17 were carried or forced to crawl to the POW cemetery and murdered. The final 15 were all killed on August 27.

In 1995, Ms Silver located the POW sites along the route, and visited all but one in 1999.

Early this year, her trekking colleague, Tham Yau Kong, met the landowner where the last camp was situated, Dr Othman Minudin, who agreed with Ms Silver that the site was uncontaminated by modern-day living.

Ms Silver and her husband, Neil, spent two days there last month. They uncovered a large number of artefacts, from old nails used to build the POW hut, to the remains of the Japanese food store, kitchen knives, a wok support, an army mug, a heavy machine-gun bullet, and various knives that could be used as weapons.




They were preparing to leave when Mr Silver took their metal detector outside the general search area. He shouted for his wife and their helpers to come. They had unearthed the last desperately sad evidence in the Sandakan story.

Mr Silver cannot explain why he moved from the POW hut search area to where he found the artefacts.




Tham Yau Kong and Othman Minudin have no such problem: the spirits of the POW's were at work.

A sad and sobering story. May the 2,428 dead soldiers of Sandakan rest in peace: and may their families - those who have families who remember them - be comforted in at least some measure by this discovery.

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them.

Peter

Antidotes to Palin-phobia

Following my article yesterday about Palin-phobia, I'm very pleased to report that three articles have been brought to my attention today by e-mail correspondents, all of which present a much healthier picture. All three are highly recommended reading.

• Phyllis Schlafly, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle: Feminists Against Palin - Shame On You
• J. R. Dunn, writing in American Thinker: Sarah Palin And The Archetype Of The American Frontierswoman
• Bill Whittle, writing in National Review Online: The Undefended City

As I said, all three are very highly recommended. They make excellent reading.

Peter

Police entry goes awry

(This post is in purple in honor of World Alzheimer's Day - see below.)

This video shows police in the Los Guidos area of the Desamparados canton in Costa Rica. They're trying to enter a building protected by a steel gate - but some of their number (well, one at least) obviously didn't graduate from Forced Entry 101!





I imagine he'll know better next time . . .



Peter