Stormbringer:
“You may have seen the Truther websites that ask ‘If it’s true that a Boeing airliner hit the Pentagon, what happened to all the parts of it? Why did we not find more pieces of it? Where did all that mass GO?'”
The answer, in a fraction of a second:
The coalition is watering down a commitment to tough new environmental emissions standards, raising the possibility of dirty coal-fired power stations such as Kingsnorth going ahead.
Green groups are aghast that a flagship policy called for in opposition by both Lib Dems and Tories, and which they last year tried to force on the Labour government, will now not be implemented in the coalition’s first energy bill to be published this year.
h/t Maz2
Tonight’s amusement en route to the Tips is the next installment in the series of songs about cities. This one was released 37 years ago, and has since become a part of popular culture in Los Angeles, where it’s commonly played in sports arenas when the local team wins. From the 1983 album Trouble In Paradise, here’s Randy Newman driving around with the top down and singing the unusually (for him) up-tempo I Love LA. He loves it!
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
(language warning)
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Yann Martel, What is Stephen Harper Reading? – For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website.”
Michael Powell, Columbia Journalism Review: – “I got talking to [Obama] about what he reads and was telling me about these different policy tomes. And I said, ‘Well, yeah, but come on. I’m out here on the campaign trail with you, you’re up even earlier than I am, and I’ve been carrying around this Philip Roth book with me for two months and I’m yet to even crack it.’ He actually laughed at that point, and said, ‘Yeah, you have very little chance to really read. I basically floss my teeth and watch Sports Center.'”
Grandma’s going green:
Belgian undertakers have drawn up plans to dissolve the corpses of the dead in caustic solutions and flush them into the sewage system.
The controversial new method is said to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than running highly polluting crematoria or using up valuable land for graves.
It’s not as hard to swallow if you just think of it as a form of eco-reincarnation:
The departed would go into the sewage systems of towns and cities and then be recycled in water processing plants.
All bending over backward tells moderate Muslims is that the American political elite will abandon everything — even Ground Zero — to the radicals. It tells the Muslim world that the American elite, from cowardice or moral vanity will sell out anyone. And that doesn’t breed Muslim respect; it breeds universal contempt. Then they will turn to each other and say, “if you were thinking of fighting by America’s side, don’t”. With a guy like Obama as your shield, who needs a sword?
Or, to put it another way…
The most important question that flows from this discussion is whether China can rise peacefully. It is clear from the Defence White Paper—which is tasked with assessing Australia’s strategic situation out to the year 2030—that policymakers here are worried about the changing balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region. Consider these comments from that document: “As other powers rise, and the primacy of the United States is increasingly tested, power relations will inevitably change. When this happens there will be the possibility of miscalculation. There is a small but still concerning possibility of growing confrontation between some of these powers.” At another point in the White Paper, we read that, “Risks resulting from escalating strategic competition could emerge quite unpredictably, and is a factor to be considered in our defence planning.” In short, the Australian government seems to sense that the shifting balance of power between China and the United States may not be good for peace in the neighborhood.
Tonight’s amusement en route to the Tips is a song about changing perspectives, loss of innocence and friendships, and the fragile wisdom that hangs by a thread on the other side. Since the weather has been highly changeable this summer, and there’s been a lot of clouds getting in the way – at least where I’m living – I figure it’s a good time for this one: from 1970, here’s the beautiful and talented Joni Mitchell in a live solo performance of Both Sides Now.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
The Goon Show was a seminal British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, starring Spike Milligan (KBE), Harry Secombe (CBE), and Peter Sellers (OBE), originally including Michael Bentine (CBE), and commonly featuring Max Geldray on harmonica, and Ray Ellington and his quartet.
Now available are 126 episodes of The Goon Show via YouTube. These are audio tracks (since it was a radio show), but we do have the very good fortune of also having available a rare video transcription of “The Goons” performing The Whistling Spy Enigma, live.
I most highly recommend viewing that video first: for Goon beginners it will establish the situational understanding for the remaining shows, and for Goon old-timers [ my Tornado (KC-166) was named the “Seagoon” when I skippered ‘er! ] it is (I must say) a real treat in and of itself.
After that & without further ado, here are: The Goon Show episodes.
Dodge 1, PETA 0
… in one easy sentence:
That is, the very method used in Mann et al. (1998) guarantees the [hockey stick] shape of Figure 1
… details.
And more @ WUWT
This photographic evidence backs me up.
Via
Northern Lake Michigan Surface Temperatures on 7/4/2010, 9:59 (EDT)
…as created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in partnership with Michigan State University.
h/t John D.
“I wish to resign from the House of Representatives effective immediately, and to discontinue my re-election campaign for Strafford County District 7,” the letter says. “I apologize for thoughtless remarks I made which have brought this House into disrepute. I enjoyed my time in the House and I thank you personally for your support over the years.”
Horrigan also sent a statement to the New Hampshire Union Leader, which read, “I would like to offer a specific apology for making comments about Sarah Palin which could be— and were— misconstrued. She is, as far as I know, not a bad person at all— and certainly she deserves to live a long and happy life.”
Another coyote attack in Cape Breton Highlands National Park;
“It’s hard to understand why this may be happening,” [resource conservation manager Derek Quann] said. “We don’t think there’s been a significant increase in the population. There could be a larger problem in the ecosystem at play.”
Yeah. It’s called a “lead deficiency”.
h/t Kevin
David Frost’s groundbreaking TV show The Frost Report was on-air for only two seasons in the mid 1960s, but the writers and performers he brought in – Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Antony Jay (the co-writer of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister), the Two Ronnies (Barker and Corbett), Marty Feldman, and others – would go on to influence British comedy for decades to come.
Harvard-spawned American musical satirist Tom Lehrer was another Frost Report regular; his current events-oriented songs were perfectly suited to the topical nature of the show, and the light-hearted form of his black humour was always good for a laugh. Tonight’s amusement en route to the Tips sees Lehrer on a later British TV show performing a jaunty ditty about, erm, interconnectedness called I Got It From Agnes.
You are invited to deposit your Reader Tips in the comments.
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Sun News, Aug.14th, 2010 – Slater then grabbed two bottles of beer, pulled the lever to activate the inflatable escape chute and hurled himself down it.
CFRA, Aug.14th, 2010 – U.S. President Barack Obama is in favour of building mosque near Ground Zero. The place of worship is slated to be constructed a short distance from the site of the former World Trade Centre, destroyed nine years ago by terrorists in hijacked airplanes. Obama made the comments at a White House dinner Friday night, to mark the beginning of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month.
Related!
Update: Is there nothing that Obama can’t do? As has been noted elsewhere, all his statements come with an expiry date. All of them.
President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to defuse the controversy over his remarks on plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero, insisting that he wasn’t endorsing the specific project but making a general plea for religious tolerance toward all.
Related: Looks like we don’t need them!
h/t Ron from Kelowna