THE DAILY BILGER

cricket in the gutter…

gcwingman — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:35:01 +0000

been 18 months since the last post.

I woke up this morning wanting to write about the Pakistani cricket team and the alleged cheating. It appears Salman Butt the captain is guilty as well as three other players.

if proven, then I hope they are thrown out of all forms of cricket for life. And that goes for anyone in the management roles too.

The game deserves individuals who are honest and not those who ‘slightly bend the rules’.

The 10 most decadent dictators

gcwingman — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:52:42 +0000

A revolving gold statue, pink champagne and a “Pleasure Brigade” of nubile retainers all feature in Times Money’s list of history’s most decadent dictators. While their people suffered, these men – and sometimes their wives and children – agonised over how best to spend their ill-gotten gains…

1. Kim Jong-il, “Dear Leader” of North Korea since 1994. The son of the communist state’s “Great Leader”, Kim Jong-il has super-expensive tastes, with 17 palaces and collections of hundreds of cars and about 20,000 video tapes. On one state visit to Russia, he reportedly had live lobsters airlifted daily to his armoured private train. He is believed to spend around $650,000 a year on Hennessy VSOP cognac and maintains an entourage of young lovelies known as the “Pleasure Brigade”

Car-buying spree for Kim Jong Il

2. Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines, 1965 – 1986. The Second World War freedom-fighter turned kleptocrat secreted billions of dollars in overseas accounts. His wife Imelda, however, was the big spender, leaving 888 handbags and 1060 pairs of shoes in the Malacanang presidential palace when the family fled mob justice after Marcos was deposed. Her pricier purchases included the $51 million Crown Building and $61 million Herald Centre in New York and art by Michelangelo and Botticelli

Marcos: a headache that won’t go away

3. Nicolae Ceausescu, President of Romania, 1967 – 1989. The “Genius of the Carpathians” was congratulated (by telegram) by Salvador Dali on his excesses, which included his use of a kingly sceptre. Despite an official salary of just $3,000, he found the cash for 15 palaces, a superb car collection, yachts, fine art and bespoke suits. Tens of thousands of homes were demolished to make space for his 1,100-room, 480-chandelier Palace of the Parliament in the capital, Bucharest

And how is your family, Mr Ceausescu?

4. Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan, 1990 – 2006. The President for Life and “Turkmenbashi”, or Father of all Turkmen, was at the centre of an awesome cult of personality. His vanity projects included a £6 million revolving gold-plated statue of himself in the country’s capital, Ashgabat. He shifted around £3 billion to overseas accounts, renamed the month of January (after himself), banned beards and ordered that his musings be displayed alongside the Koran in mosques

5. Idi Amin, President of Uganda, 1971 – 1979. The “Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea”, “Emperor of Uganda” and “King of Scotland” awarded himself the VC, or Victorious Cross, and CBE, or Conqueror of the British Empire. He also spent millions on a super-lavish lifestyle – maintaining a reported 30 mistresses as well as five wives and fathering at least 43 children. A typically mad-capped project was the creation of a personal bodyguard of bagpipe-playing 6ft 4in Scotsmen

GERMAN PRESIDENT JOINS PAPAL HOLOCAUST ROW

gcwingman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:51:19 +0000

The Pope says the Holocaust “should be a warning for all”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the Vatican’s clarifications over the readmission of a bishop who queries the Holocaust do not go far enough.

“In my opinion these clarifications are not yet sufficient,” Mrs Merkel said.

A row erupted last month after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, who had said no Nazi gas chambers existed.

Pope Benedict has distanced himself from those beliefs and expressed “full and indisputable solidarity” with Jews.

“This should not be allowed to pass without consequences,” Mrs Merkel said at a news conference in Berlin.

“This is not just a matter, in my opinion, for the Christian, Catholic and Jewish communities in Germany but the Pope and the Vatican should clarify unambiguously that there can be no denial,” she said.

Vatican ‘unaware’

Last November, British-born Bishop Williamson angered Jewish leaders across the world when he told Swedish TV: “I believe there were no gas chambers [during World War II].”

He said he believed that up “300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers”.

He is one of four bishops, who are members of the Society of Pius X, whose excommunication was lifted last month by the Pope.

The Society of St Pius X was founded by a French Archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, in 1970 as a protest against the Second Vatican Council’s reforms on religious freedom and pluralism.

The Vatican says it was unaware of Bishop Williamson’s views on the Holocaust when the decision was made to readmit the group.

About six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

(BBC)

AROUND THE WORLD IN 83 DAYS…alone

gcwingman — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:16:44 +0000

Sailing more than 28,303 miles, averaging around

13.2 knots, French solo skipper Michel Desjoyeaux

has shattered the Vendée Globe race record today

by 3 days 7 hours and 39 seconds on his way to

becoming the first skipper ever to win the solo non

stop around the world race twice. The course is

effectively 1150 miles longer than in 2004 when

After winning the race in 2000-1 on PRB, eclipsing the young

emerging British skipper Ellen MacArthur by 1 day 28 minutes,

Desjoyeaux joined the 30 strong field for this race, the biggest

entry ever for a round the world race in sailing history, as one

of the clear favourites.

After a successful odyssey into big racing multihulls, Desjoyeaux

returned to monohulls in 2007 when he won the highly

competitive Solitaire du Figaro, going on to win the Transat Vabre

in late 2007 on his return to the IMOCA Open 60 class in which

Vendée Globe

Desjoyeaux crossed the finish on Sunday 1^st February at

15:11.08 GMT , after 84 days 03 hours 09 minutes of racing.

Foncia completed the race in twenty knots of breeze under

sunny skies, greeted by a massive armada of spectator boats

before beking warmly welcomed by huge crowds who gathered

along the waterfront and harbour area of Les Sables d’Olonne,

where the race departed at 1202 GMT November 9^th 2008.

A New Demographic Dawn?

gcwingman — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:41:32 +0000

“Whether you describe it as the dawning of a post-racial age or just the end of white America, we’re approaching a profound demographic tipping point.”

Hua Hsu

From “The End of White America?”

Serotonin Boost Turns Locusts Into Social Swarms

gcwingman — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:28:30 +0000

A common brain chemical that affects mood in people has been linked in new research to the devastating swarming behavior of locusts, the insect that has plagued farmers since biblical times.

Elevated levels of serotonin, the same chemical targeted by some anti-depressant medications, appear to have a transformative effect on the insects’ social behavior, according to a report published this week in Science.

After just a few hours of forced crowding, these locusts experienced a steep rise in the brain chemical serotonin, making the formerly solitary insects attracted to other insects. Tom Fayle/Science

Desert locusts are a kind of grasshopper; they migrate in great swarms that can contain billions of insects and stretch for miles. These swarms eat everything in sight — and have recently devoured crops in places like Africa, China and Australia.

But even though these massive swarms are the reason locusts are so notorious, “the swarming is something that locusts only do very occasionally,” says Steve Rogers, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in England.

“In fact, locusts can spend many generations in a form that not only doesn’t swarm but is actively repelled by other locusts,” he says.

These mild-mannered, solitary grasshoppers can change, however, if something like a drought forces them to crowd together at a dwindling food source, if they start to smell and see other locusts and touch them.

“This is exactly the point at which behavior changes dramatically,” Rogers says.

In Crowds, Locusts Transform

The locusts go through a kind of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” transformation. They become gregarious, start flying around and seek out others so they can migrate as a group.

This change in behavior occurs quickly, after just a few hours of forced crowding, says Rogers.

He and his colleagues wanted to know what actually happens inside the insect during this transformation. They learned that inside the insect’s nervous system, there is a steep rise in a brain chemical called serotonin. The more serotonin an insect has, the more gregarious it is.

Testing Serotonin In The Lab

To find out if serotonin was actually responsible for the insects’ change in behavior, the researchers decided to manipulate serotonin levels by giving the locusts certain drugs.

“It was absolutely startling to see the effect that these drugs had,” says Michael Anstey, a researcher at the University of Oxford.

Drugs that block serotonin made solitary locusts stay shy, even in conditions that would normally make them attracted to others. And drugs that boosted serotonin made solitary insects suddenly act more gregarious.

“This really was the ‘Eureka!’ moment,” says Anstey.

It’s not clear yet whether this research could someday be used to develop new methods of pest control. But Rogers says it is surprising to see just a single chemical having such a huge effect.

“Using models like bees and wasps, we know that as they change behavior, as they leave the nest and things, there’s a whole stew of different chemical changes going on,” he says. “So, I think what we’ve found is genuinely quite unusual.”

Still, serotonin is known to affect mood and behavior in other species, including people.

“Serotonin is implicated in a lot of aspects of mood and well-being in humans, as well as causing this change in locusts,” says Rogers. He notes that some antidepressant drugs, like Prozac, boost serotonin levels.

(Neil Greenfield Boyce)

Happy New Year from Beijing.

gcwingman — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:59:00 +0000

A performer swallows a live snake during a show at a temple fair celebrating Chinese New Year in Beijing.

Wonder whether she’ll try downing a monkey next year!….or a dog.

A crescent sun sets over Manila Bay during a partial solar eclipse

gcwingman — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:50:51 +0000

Picture: AFP/GETTY

CAN BROADBAND SAVE THE ECONOMY?

gcwingman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:57:04 +0000

After the depression of the 1920s, US president Roosevelt started a public works programme which saw billions of dollars pumped into a series of projects, including the building of roads, airports and dams in an effort to reignite the economy.

In the UK there are increasingly loud rumblings that a similar thing is needed in the UK, with a superfast broadband infrastructure a prime candidate for cash.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has recently acknowledged that such an infrastructure could play a part in pulling the country out of economic gloom – although he has stopped short of committing public money to it.

Nevertheless his comments have pleased those in the industry keen to get next-generation broadband out of the starting block.

“It would be easy to see broadband as an expensive luxury in difficult times but it is encouraging that Gordon Brown has recognised that investment in the broadband infrastructure could provide long-term benefits to productivity,” said Antony Walker, chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholders Group.

Green tech

Can fibre take people out of the office?

Broadband has become a political hot potato since Christmas with opposition leader David Cameron wading into the debate and pledging a “fibre to the home” (FTTH) programme within a decade if the Conservatives get into power.

Mr Cameron made his comments about broadband during a speech about green technology.

Fibre hasn’t traditionally been seen as green, largely because of the environmental impact of laying cables.

But Mr Cameron pointed out that the long term benefits of such a technology, which allows for upload and download speeds of up to 100Mbps (megabits per second), could facilitate a new era of teleworking which in turn could reduce the traffic on our roads.

It is a point that the Fibre to the Home Council of Europe, which represents fibre operators, has long been keen to push.

“There is evidence that subscribers to Fibre to the Home technology do a lot more teleworking,” said FTTH Council president Joeri Van Bogert.

A study done by US fibre operator Verizon found that 20% of FTTH subscribers teleworked compared to 5% of those on traditional copper wires.

“It is mainly due to the fact that fibre is bi-directional. Being able to upload things as quickly as they can be downloaded opens up more potential for home working,” said Mr Van Bogert.

There is also evidence that there are financial gains to having a fibre network.

“A study of fibre was done in Kentucky, and when the figures were extrapolated it showed a positive impact of $231bn to the US economy,” he said.

Roads are dug up every seven years

Even the lack of green credentials and the fact that it costs billions to lay fibre across a whole nation could be solved, thinks Mr Van Bogert.

“On average, a road is dug up every seven years for the laying of infrastructure such as gas or sewers. We are calling for governments to oblige firms to put in ducts for cable when the roads are dug up for other purposes,” he said.

No action

Broadband camps are divided between those that think the current pressing issue is to get everyone up to speed in the UK and those that see super-fast broadband as the way forward.

The European Commission seems to be in the first camp and is pushing for a Europe-wide minimum broadband speed of 2Mbps.

The debate is unlikely to go away anytime soon although many think it is time for the conversation to move on.

“So far there has been a lot of talking and not much action,” said Ian Fogg, an analyst with research firm Forrester.

One of the key problems with creating the next-generation network is how to balance the need for those that have created it to make money and still maintain a healthy broadband market.

“If you have one network you could get 40% of the street signing up and make your money back but the more networks there are the less people you will get. How to make fibre both competitive and profitable is a question that is still being grappled with,” said Mr Fogg.

BBC_tech

Drunken sailors left out of rhyme

gcwingman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:28:37 +0000

The pirates are being tickled, rather than sobering up in the brig

“Drunken sailors” have been removed from the lyrics of a nursery rhyme in a government-funded books project.

But the Bookstart charity says the re-writing of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? has “absolutely nothing to do with political correctness”.

The charity says that the shift from drunken sailor to “grumpy pirate” was to make the rhyme fit a pirate theme, rather than censorship.

“Put him in the brig until he’s sober,” has also been lost in the new version.

This latest ideological spat over nursery rhymes was sparked by the re-writing of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor.

‘Rusty razor’

Bookstart, a project that encourages parents to read with their young children, has produced a different version – with no references to alcohol-swigging sailors.

Instead the hard-drinking sea shanty has been turned into something gentler, with lyrics such as “Tickle him till he starts to giggle, Early in the morning.”

The charity has dismissed accusations that this is a politically-correct attempt to avoid the alcohol references, saying that it was a case of re-cycling a familiar tune for reading events that were based on a pirate theme.

“We wanted to find a rhyme which would fit in with this subject and this one has a tune which is instantly recognisable by all,” said a statement from Bookstart.

“The inclusion of action lyrics like ‘wiggle’ and ‘tickle’ offer parents and small children an opportunity to interact, have fun and enjoy acting out the rhyme together.”

Although the Drunken Sailor version familiar to children already leaves out some of the saltier verses.

The original includes such suggestions as: “Shave his belly with a rusty razor”, “Stick him in a bag and beat him senseless” and “Put him in the hold with the captain’s daughter.”

The captain’s daughter was a euphemism for a lashing from a cat o’ nine tails.

Baa-baa

This is the latest in a series of disputes over nursery rhymes.

There were complaints in 2006 about pre-school children attending two nurseries in Oxfordshire being taught “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep”.

Last year, a story based on the Three Little Pigs fairy tale was turned down by a government agency’s awards panel as the subject matter could offend Muslims.

A digital book, re-telling the classic story, was rejected by judges who warned that “the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.

However, a study in 2004 showed that nursery rhymes exposed children to far more violent incidents than an average evening watching television – including Humpty Dumpty’s serious head injury.

For god’s sake……!