Truth In Advertising

The bodywork on the bike isn’t even attached. I don’t know how it ever could be. There must have been a fight at the child labour factory when this thing was made, obviously the stronger five year old stole the bits that allowed this bike’s bodywork to be attached to its silver bamboo frame. So it just sits there making this thing even more ridiculous. You would expect that motorcycle bodywork would be made of plastic, true. But given the fact that this stuff a) didn’t burn and b) is as flexible as a Viagra induced erection, tells me that it is something from another planet, possibly China. I suspect that it may be some super organic, self regenerating rice paper or something.

h/t Simeon

It’s Raining Men

Daily Mail – A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination.
Skynews – Four months ago another UN worker also believed to be British fell from a similar height in the same building, it has been reported.”

Reader Tips

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your Halloween delectation and pursuant to our ongoing exploration of their works (previously: Vicious Games, Desire, The Rhythm Divine ¤, & Of Course I’m Lying), here are Dieter Meier and Boris Blank, as the Swiss band Yello, performing Lost Again ¤, from their You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess album, in 1983 (4:00).

Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.

Distinguished Lecture, Documentary & Interview Symposia

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this week’s SDA distinguished lecture, documentary & interview symposium. This week, for your delectation, here is our old friend David Elieser Deutsch, FRS, Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Center for Quantum Computation, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, who we first visited here in our 2009-01-25 DLDI show, today presenting his recent TED talk, A New Way to Explain Explanation ¤ (17:15), in which he argues, and quite well I think:
 

 That the truth consists of hard to vary assertions about reality 
is the most important fact about the physical world.

We Interrupt This Program For A Subliminal Message From The Nanny State

We urge all citizens to remain calm during this period of severe vaccine shortage.
Please continue to exercise, avoid sugar, trans-fats, exposure to second hand smoke, caffeine, alcohol; wear your seatbelt, wear your helmet, wear your sunblock, wear your mittens; check your blood pressure, check your turkey roasting guidelines, check your playground equipment, check your winter emergency travel kit, check your perfume at the office door.
Expectant mothers, the elderly and very young are asked to be particularly diligent during the current outbreak.
Please continue to work hard, pay your taxes, and await further instructions re: clinics in your area until the vaccination period for the high risk priority crack whore and criminal communities is complete..
Thank you.
Related – “Detainees at JTF Guantanamo are considered to be at higher risk and therefore they will be offered the H1N1 vaccination.”

How Many Deaths Is Walt Disney Responsible For Worldwide?

The mother of Taylor Mitchell, the 19-year-old attacked and killed by coyotes while hiking in a national park in Cape Breton, has released a statement. It includes the following passage;

When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor’s voice say, “please don’t, this is their space”. She wouldn’t have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own. She was passionate about animals, was an environmentalist, and was also planning to volunteer at the Toronto Wildlife Centre in the coming months.

Nice of her to think of others during her time of grief.
Update – This comments thread has been nominated for the distinguished SDA Best Comments Thread Ever Award, as exemplified by the following;

I concede I have lost this exchange simply because of the obvious omission on my part regarding the resourcefulness of humans as illustrated by the appropriate Star Trek reference.

The Law Of Clintonian Consequences

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
August 2003 – [In] August 1993, when Congress passed Clinton’s Vaccines for Children program. The plan, promoted by the Children’s Defense Fund, was to use federal power to ensure universal immunization. So the government agreed to purchase a third of the national vaccine supply (the President and Mrs. Clinton had pushed for 100 percent) at a forced discount of half price, then distribute it to doctors to deliver to the poor and the un- and under-insured. As a result: Where 30 years ago, 25 companies produced vaccines for the U.S. market., today only five remain, and there is only one producer for a number of critical shots. Recent years have brought shortages of numerous vaccines, including those for whooping cough, diphtheria and chicken pox.
October 2009 – Where is the H1N1 vaccine manufactured? There were four manufacturers’ products approved for use by the US FDA and CDC:Melbourne-based CSL Ltd.; Novartis AG based in Basel, Switzerland; Sanofi Pasteur of Sanofi-Aventis SA, based in Paris; and MedImmune, LLC, the Maryland US based Subsidiary of London’s AstraZeneca.

Y2Kyoto: World Government, Climate Debt, And Enforcement

Beware the UN’s Copenhagen plot

[T]here are 181 pages that make up the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change dated September 15, 2009: a rough draft of what could be signed in Copenhagen. And yet, not one member of the media or political class has bothered to inform us about its contents as an important clue to what may happen in Copenhagen. The shame of that state of affairs started to trickle in last week.
Emails started arriving telling me about a speech given by Christopher Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, at Bethel University in St Paul, Minnesota, on October 14. Monckton talked about something that no one has talked about in the lead-up to Copenhagen: the text of the draft Copenhagen treaty.
[…]
So I read the draft treaty. The word government appears on page 18. Monckton says: “This is the first time I’ve ever seen any transnational treaty referring to a new body to be set up under that treaty as a government. But it’s the powers that are going to be given to this entirely unelected government that are so frightening.”
Monckton became aware of the extraordinary powers to be vested in this new world government only when a friend of his found an obscure UN website and hacked his way through several layers of complications before coming across a document that isn’t even called the draft treaty. It’s called a “note by the secretariat”. The moment he saw it, he went public and said: “Look, this is an outrage … they have kept the sheer scope of this treaty quiet.”
Monckton says the aim of this new government is to have power to directly intervene in the financial, economic, tax and environmental affairs of all the nations that sign the Copenhagen treaty.

You can hear Monckton speak to the ramifications of this treaty on Youtube.
Anthony Watts has highlighted other passages, among them;

17. [[Developed [and developing] countries] [Developed and developing country Parties] [All Parties] [shall] [should]:]
(a) Compensate for damage to the LDCs’ economy and also compensate for lost opportunities, resources, lives, land and dignity, as many will become environmental refugees;
(b) Africa, in the context of environmental justice, should be equitably compensated for environmental, social and economic losses arising from the implementation of response measures.

The full text of the Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty Draft (pdf) for your weekend reading pleasure.
You might call up your MP’s, and ask if they’ve read it.
Update – Youtube is up with Monckton on Glenn Beck today 6 part series

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough

There are 1,100 vaccination clinics open in Alberta today.
Manitoba opened to the general public yesterday. Pharmacists can give the vaccine.
And in Saskatchewan?
Nope. Allowing anyone even a sniff of vaccine outside of the Official Health Care System would be “two-tier” health care. So if you want a vaccination for H1N1, you have another two week wait before the vaccine is “released” to the general public. And in Saskatoon, they’re going to have everyone – which will include many who are incubating and infectious – congregate at a single site Prairieland Park) to receive it.
Beauty.
Also, every province is giving the seasonal flu shot at the same time – except Saskatchewan. (You see, our superiors in SaskHealth make these decisions for us.) I’ve also been told via the grapevine that flu shot recipients may have to watch a video first. If true, I would suggest this historic image for the opening frame.

Think of it as your union bonus.
Via John Gormley Live, where you can listen live if you click now.

Great Moments In Democratic Presidencies

Dec. 8, 1941 – “As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.”
Oct.22, 1962 – “But it is difficult to settle or even discuss these problems in an atmosphere of intimidation. That is why this latest Soviet threat-or any other threat which is made either independently or in response to our actions this week-must and will be met with determination. Any hostile move anywhere in the world against the safety and freedom of peoples to whom we are committed-including in particular the brave people of West Berlin-will be met by whatever action is needed.”
October 27, 2009 – I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we’re going to speak truth to power. When we saw all of the distortions in the course of the summer, when people were coming down to town hall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death, when we have seen commercials go up on television that are distorting the truth, we’re actually calling everybody out. So, this isn’t something that’s simply directed at FOX. ”

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