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TALLRITE BLOG
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| September 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ISSUE #135 - 24th September 2006 [256+183=439]
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When I was a schoolboy, we had this dreadful putdown for a boy who joined a conversation late, and by some remark revealed he had missed the point of what was being discussed. Redolent of penniless tramps picking up discarded cigarette butts to suck out a last few puffs of spitty nicotine, we used to shout “fag-ends” derisively at him, and he would slink away in shame cursing his loose tongue. Likewise, I was travelling last week, out of easy reach of the media, so failed to grasp the essence of the Papal furore. Apparently he had said something inflammatory, about Islam being evil and spread by the sword. There's a brave fellow, I thought, prepared to pass comment on recent events at the expense of being rude about Islam. How unlike his predecessor, a wonderful (and successful) adversary of Communism, but someone who disgracefully opposed the war on IslamoNazi terror. Obviously Benedict XVI was making the connection between
In mentioning the sword, he was also obviously alluding to the two (now ex) Christian journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig. They were kidnapped last month in Gaza and then forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam, to the delight of many Muslims who viewed the video. The journalists have not yet dared to publicly renounce their sham conversion, as such apostasy warrants death. Naturally, I could understand why Muslims would be upset that the Pope in his speech should have drawn attention to these events, for they are deeply embarrassing for the the majority of a more moderate persuasion who are doing their best to get on with their lives whilst honouring Allah. Thus, to pour into the streets in wild demonstrations, setting fire to Papal effigies, vandalising churches, shooting elderly nuns, in effect to show the world once again the truth of Benedict's words, was bizarre indeed. These events only underlined how the Pope had hit the nail on the head. And yet he hadn't, because I was only picking up “fag-ends”; I hadn't been tuned in for the full story. For it seems these weren't his original words at all. He was just quoting some old Byzantine despot called Manuel II Palaeologus who said this back in 1391 to provoke a Persian Muslim with whom he was in dialogue. This was at the tail-end of the dozen or so Crusades, in which Christendom was trying (pretty unsuccessfully) to wrest back lands that Muslims had seized from Christians, culminating just sixty years later in the loss to the Ottomans of the Byzantine capital itself, Constantinople. So Islam was certainly a hot topic among Christians. In this context, what Manuel would have been referring to is, no doubt, the jihad that Mohammed and his followers had engaged in, almost continuously, since Islam's founding in the 7th century. Slaughter, looting, rape, enslavement and, yes, forced conversions, all as mandated in the Koran, were the means by which Islam had spread from a small corner of today's Saudi Arabia, southward and westward across northern Africa and into Spain, and in due course north and westward into today's Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Europe (as well as eastward into the Indian subcontinent). The victims of all this unwelcome attention - brilliant in strictly military terms - were largely Christians who had adopted their faith mainly through persuasion rather than weaponry. (Jews and pagans were, of course, also major casualties). So, naturally, Manuel, a Byzantine (Christian) emperor was bound to deride Islam as something evil and spread by the sword. Indeed, those early centuries of jihad were the reason that Pope Urban II had eventually decided that enough was enough, raised an army and in 1095 launched the first of the Crusades, which were aimed at regaining Jerusalem for Christendom and protecting the remaining Christians in North Africa as well as modern-day Turkey. Whatever the excesses committed by the Crusaders (a moot point in the contemporaneous milieu where massacring the men, women and children of your enemy was par for the course), without the unprovoked Islamic jihad against Christians over hundreds of years, there would have been no Crusades at all. So, getting back to Benedict, it seems (to this infidel) that his words about evil, inhumanity and spreading the faith by sword were doubly, even trebly truthful ...
But is it not extraordinary that no Muslim leaders seem prepared or able to debate and refute the central allegations? If the doctrine and practice of Islam are not evil and inhuman, these authorities should be explaining how the evil and inhuman acts that some Muslims have perpetrated are in utter conflict with the peaceful teachings of Islam and the writings in the Koran. They should be clarifying that forced conversions - and by extension death-sentences on apostates - are abuses of Islam not embraces of it. Silence, mere denial, or riots on our TV screens, only serve to authenticate the accusations of Manuel and Benedict. Would someone please demonstrate that these two men are wrong! Some verbal ripostes to the Pope's remark here
Serial Regime-Change for Sudan The three-year genocide continues unabated in Darfur: Amnesty tell us there are 85,000 killed so far, with a further 200,000 dead of war-related deprivation, plus two million displaced. Only the Americans have dared call this genocide, certainly not the UN because that expression would demand the firmest of preventive action to forestall another Rwanda. No-one else has used the G-word ,either for much the same reason. The mandate for the ineffectual peace-keeping force of the African Union was due to run out at the end of September, and so the UN planned to replace it with a more robust force of 17,000 troops to try and prevent/limit the killing in Darfur. Except that Omar al-Bashir and the other thugs that illegitimately run Sudan - and have fostered much if not most of the genocide - unsurprisingly said no, they didn't want a bunch of tough soldiers getting in their way. At the last minute, a temporary solution was found whereby the AU will stay another three months, but the problem has not gone away. The genocide continues. The West is the world's only source of “robust” soldiery able to achieve honourable outcomes, yet its reluctance to get involved in Sudan without an invitation is wholly understandable. For it would mean yet another unpopular war to remove an Islamic tyranny, to be followed by a lengthy, expensive and no doubt bloody period of nation-building, with Afghanistan and Iraq serving as the depressing blueprints. There seems to be only one way to make nation-building relative smooth, and that is to first inflict such utter death and destruction that the native peoples are left exhausted, demoralised and without hope, so that you start with, effectively, a clean sheet - and no insurgents. This is why the post-WW2 reconstructions of Germany and Japan were such successes, but you would not wish their level of devastation on anyone again. By contrast, Afghanistan and Iraq showed how quickly a modern Western army can effect regime-change, with casualties and loss of civilian life and of infrastructure kept to a level unprecedentedly low by historic standards. It's the aftermath that provides the pain. But does the West actually have to be involved in the aftermath? Is there another way a nation can be re-established while avoiding a descent into Iraq-style anarchy and killing? Actually, I believe there is, at least in the case of Sudan, and for two main reasons.
So, how about a rapid regime-change, capturing or killing the current incumbents, followed by pullout to let the Sudanese try to sort things out by themselves? Any captured leaders would be put on trial, following the fine example set by Saddam and Slobodan. All this should be done by a coalition of the willing, led by a Western nation, with or without the UN's imprimatur. Dancing in the streets would erupt as soon as al-Bashir were gone, no doubt followed by looting and chaos in the neighbourhoods of Khartoum, as we all saw in Baghdad in 2003. The Janjaweed, those camel-borne militias who are doing most of the actual killing in Darfur, would probably slack off a bit, waiting to see have they still got the backing of headquarters. So would the post-regime-change situation and killing be any worse? Hardly. Without doubt another strongman would before long emerge, whom the West may or may not like.
This is a rough and dirty scheme, intrinsically flawed - and no doubt “illegal”. And it will certainly not usher in the holy grail of democracy, at least not in the short term. But, at minimum political, human and financial cost, it will introduce the concept of accountability, international oversight and limits to bad behaviour - a vast improvement on the present. Indeed, in al-Bashir's Sudan, you can hardly do anything that will make the situation any less ghastly. In fact the only thing that will make it worse is more of the last three years of feeble gesture politics and doing nothing. Change the regime - and keep changing it - until the leaders themselves stop the genocide, as they surely will for the sake of their own survival. Call it serial regime-change. Late Note (October 2006):
Mark Humphrys proposes a dedicated
Genocide Prevention Corps,
Last week I attended an entertaining public interview of Dr Richard Smith, who for thirteen years was the editor of the British Medical Journal, before quitting to write a book about ... medical journals. The purpose of his book, “The Trouble with Medical Journals”, is to expose much of the rubbish that ends up getting published and the harm this can do. Dr Smith cited as a particularly egregious example the 1998 Lancet study by the now defrocked Dr Andrew Wakefield who falsely claimed he had evidence that the multiple MMR vaccination caused autism in some children: his evidence amounted to purposely seeking out only children who were both vaccinated and autistic. Subsequently, many kids contracted measles, mumps or rubella because their well-meaning parents were too frightened by Dr Wakefield's paper to have the MMR administered. Though I am a mere engineer, I felt from my own experience that much of what Dr Smith said about medical journals could be equally applied to engineering journals, or indeed journals that pander to any particular profession. For me, the most striking chord was struck when Dr Smith talked about the frequent corruption of the peer-review process. This is the practice whereby a paper is sent for examination to a number of experts in the field (“peers”), and if they approve of its contents it gets published - as happened with the MMR study. This seal of approval is intended to give readers an assurance of the quality of the material appearing in the journal, and thus of the actual journal as well. But Dr Smith reveals that when the peer review process itself was recently audited for the first time, the results were alarming. It was shown to be slow, expensive, ineffective, something of a lottery, prone to bias and abuse, and hopeless at spotting errors and fraud, yet with very hard-to-discern benefits. As one of the auditors commented, “if it was a drug it would never get onto the market”. For example, one of the tests conducted was to select a worthy yet concise 600-word study, deliberately insert eight serious errors, and send it for review to no fewer than 400 “peers”. Very few of them picked up any of the errors at all, and no-one detected all eight.
Of course peer-reviewers don't get paid, are anonymous and get no recognition, so they don't have a great incentive to do quality work, especially when under time pressure. To compound this, many doctors depend for their career advancement on producing (unpaid) papers that (regardless of quality) get published, even though this has little or no bearing on their clinical excellence. So they, too, don't have much incentive - or time - to ensure that their academic scribblings are of a high standard.
Engineers in industry are under less pressure than doctors and academics to publish material as a condition of promotion, yet there is no reason to suppose the quality of their own revered peer-review process is any better than that of the medics. It's more a case of not finding something if you don't look for it. Dr Smith's radical proposal is to junk peer reviewing altogether, and just publish the stuff, as is, on the web. As we see all the time here in the blogosphere, critical readers will soon spot bad work and if necessary tear it to shreds (remember all that Beirut fauxtography, not to mention 2004's “Rathergate”?). The doctors and bioscientists will do the same, which should be a far more effective check on quality than secretive peer-reviews. He cites as an example the incomparable Wikipedia, whose material is contributed by ordinary people, and whose quality is assured by the corrections of other ordinary people. And where agreement is not reached (eg on Middle East questions) this is flagged, so that browsers can make up their own minds. Some of the other provocative points about medical journals covered in Dr Smith's book are outlined here. They touch on other sensitive issues such as
It's a warning for all professional journals - as well as their readers.
Week 135's Letters to the Press Three letters to newspapers since my last issue, of which just the one was published (which excoriates one of Ireland's pre-eminent Leftists).
- - - - - - - - - - V A T I C A N - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” Pope Benedict XVI,
himself quoting This enraged many Muslims, who
The final word goes to Winston Churchill: “The religion of Islam above all others was founded upon the sword … Moreover it provides incentives to slaughter, and in three continents has produced fighting breeds of men – filled with a wild and merciless fanaticism.” My own comments here - - - - - - - - - - A T T H E U N - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “My country desires peace. Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false, and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror. We respect Islam, but we will protect our people from those who pervert Islam to sow death and destruction. Our goal is to help you build a more tolerant and hopeful society that honors people of all faiths and promote the peace.
In an address to the UN
General Assembly, Quote: “Yesterday the devil came here and this place still smells of sulphur.” President Hugo
Chavez of Venezuela, denounces President Bush Quote: “We love everyone around the world: Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-Muslims, non-Jews, non-Christians.” Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - - - - - - - - - - H U N G A R Y - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “We [obscenity] lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years ... we [obscenity] lied in the morning, we [obscenity] lied in the evening.” Hungarian prime
minister Ferenc Gyurcsány tells the truth [sic], - - - - - - - - - - B R I T A I N - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Waiting for Gordo” Latest witticism of
British Labour party, referring to the - - - - - - - - - - I R E L A N D - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “I'm not answering what I got for my holy communion money, my confirmation money, what I got for my birthday, what I got for anything else.” Ireland's
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern defends himself
Colin
Carroll (35 yrs and 70 kg), Quote (heard on BBC 2 TV): “If we could have won those games instead of losing them, there would have been a different result.” American golfer David Toms, who had just
lost to Colin Montgomerie,
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ISSUE #134 - 3rd September 2006 [250+267=517]
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Two Wars: Propaganda and Military In July and August, the Israelis fought two wars against Hezbollah, with two decisive outcomes: a propaganda war which they lost and a military war they won. Propaganda War That Hezbollah should have lied and dissembled in trying to portray themselves in as positive a light as possible should surprise no-one; indeed it made abundant sense. The same goes for Hamas. But what was a surprise for many of us was not only the way such a cutthroat Islamonazi organization, sworn to annihiliate Israel, funded and armed by Iran and Syria, was cheered on by much of the West's mainstream media, but also that the media were similarly eager to lie and dissemble. In a particularly bitter piece, Melanie Phillips, a British Jewess, despairs about the institutionalised anti-Semitism in today's mainstream Western media when it comes to Middle East conflicts, a bias that leads them to publish any fake or staged rubbish provided it denigrates Israelis. But she has noticed that it is
This has been evidenced in just the past few weeks of conflict in the
In all cases the fakery was unmasked by bloggers using basic analysis of published material, work that the publishers themselves should have routinely undertaken. And you have to wonder therefore how much other faked stuff remains unexposed.
Reuter's
correspondent
Fadel Shana was said to have been
“wounded”
in Gaza when an Israeli missile struck the clearly marked press
vehicle in which he was travelling. In the Reuters photo on
the left, he is seen apparently being taken away to hospital. But look
at the spotless undershirt which you can see above his waist where
his bloodied outer shirt has ridden up.
Not convinced? Then how about this shot from Yahoo. How amateurish is this faked scene? Yet the media, starting with Reuters, swallowed it whole and spread it round the world. So since you clearly can't believe the photographs, why should you believe that a bona fides press vehicle was even struck by Israeli fire?
Or you could choose to believe the IDF's version that
Unlike Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel is not noted for putting out lies, and it gains no military advantage and no kudos from targeting genuine press vehicles. I came across a further example of successful Hezbollah propaganda, or if you prefer, anti-Semitic bias in the West, and not only in the media. This time the culprit is the Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), whose website tells us it is
Independent, eh? Towards the end of the Israel/Hezbollah war, CRG published an array of particularly gruesome photographs of victims of Israeli attacks in Lebanon, from mainstream sources such as Reuters, AP and Agence France Press. Depicting people who have been burnt, dismembered and disembowelled, the images are almost pornographic in their immediacy. In so doing the “independent” CRG revealed, perhaps inadvertently, its pro-Hezbollah agenda. Actually, since the photographs appear on a webpage headed “Israeli crimes against humanity: Gruesome images of charred and mutilated bodies following Israeli air strikes”, it's not inadvertent at all. The page amounts to blatant propaganda in support of Hezbollah. We are asked to believe that charrings and mutilations are of themselves evidence of “Israeli sponsored atrocities”. This is nonsense. For if it were true, then the corollary would be that a humane killing method, such as a bullet to the head, would remove the criminal nature of the act; it would not longer be an “atrocity”. Some (though not I) may make a sincere argument that Israel over-reacted, that its retaliatory attacks should have been less ferocious, and thus the suffering of people in Lebanon reduced. Some may even think that no-one in Lebanon should have died, that in effect Israel should have turned the other cheek to Katyushas raining down on their northern cities. But if you are going to engage in warfare at all, horrible methods of dying are inevitable, whether it is by today's bomb from the sky or yesterday's slash with a sabre. For it is not the method that makes war terrible, it is the killing itself. By displaying dozens of images of bloodied bodies of Lebanese, whilst of course not showing any in Israel, the “independent” CRG is merely doing what it can to help Hezbollah to annihilate Jews. Yet considering it has all those “writers, scholars and activists” at its disposal, it is surprisingly sloppy. Here is my breakdown of the victims of Israeli strikes as depicted in its 42 photos.
A number of bodies are shown more than once, thirteen actually, which gives the - undoubtedly intended - impression that more people (ie 42) have been killed by the Israelis than actually have (29). Moreover, at least one set of images has clearly been manipulated for effect.
The later shot below left, which carries the same caption as the one above, shows the same body now accompanied at his feet by a second corpse, possibly removed from the green cover. The shot below right confirms that it is indeed a second body with its caption, “Lebanese firefighters try to extinguish the fire while the dismembered and burnt corpses of two Lebanese civilians killed in an Israeli air raid lie on the ground at the port in Beirut”
So apart from the nonchalant manner of the Red Cross towards fallen comrades, someone deliberately placed the second body at the feet of the first, presumably to increase the photographic effect. If the CRG blatantly cheated with these obviously staged images, how many more of its images can you trust? Note that CRG identifies most of the bodies as a “civilian”; not a single one as a fighter or member of Hezbollah. Yet of all the bodies shown, over 70% are grown men seemingly of fighting age; none appear to be old. The remainder are women and children whom it is reasonable to classify as civilians. Are those young males really “civilians”? CRG tells us in its opening paragraphs that “Laser guided missiles and ‘smart bombs’ are very precise. They rarely miss their target ... Israel's IDF [carry] out [their strikes] with meticulous accuracy.” Few, surely, can doubt that Israel's objective was to extinguish Hezbollah militants and bagmen, as many as possible, and that there is no military advantage - much less public opinion advantage - in wantonly killing civilians. That's why Israel went to such lengths to warn civilians of impending attacks, giving them time to escape. So if the IDF's weapons “rarely miss their target”, why would anyone suppose that those dead, fighting-age males are anything other than Hezbollah operators? There is absolutely no evidence that they are, as repeatedly claimed by CRG, “civilians”. The only convincing way to demonstrate that Israel's victims are civilians is to show women, children and old men, yet they are few in number. If more slaughtered women and children were available, you can be sure that CRG would have flaunted them for the cameras. Military War So Hezbullah, together with its supporters in the mainstream media and “independent” think-tanks such as CRG, ensconced in the safety of the West, have been superb in their propaganda, far superior to Israel, and not constrained by honest reporting. In propaganda terms they inflicted a humiliating and devastating defeat on Israel. Why, Hezbollah have even managed to convince world opinion that they won the recent conflict militarily as well. This is despite the fact that even Hassan Nasrallah, their now-revered leader and someone who surely knows he has been marked out by Israel for assassination, clearly believes the precise opposite by saying on Lebanese TV -
And the men of Israel's armed forces likewise believe they won the military contest decisively, and with good reason. For by the time the cease-fire arrived,
And all for the loss of just 117 Israeli soldiers, a tiny number compared to previous conflicts when they were measured in thousands. ========== If only Israel could propagandise as well as it fights, its victories would be much more convincing and a greater deterrent to re-matches. This should be one of the great lessons the country must ponder in the aftermath. It must in future win both wars - the propaganda war as well as the military war.
Prompted, perhaps, by columnist Mark Steyn's recent tour in Australia, an e-mail has been doing the rounds lauding various sayings by prime minister John Howard and fellow politicians who are publicly opposing Islamic extremism in Australia. Here are some samples.
Would that European, or indeed North American, politicians would screw up the courage to be similarly forthright in articulating what most of their indigenous people feel.
Virtual Vacation to Solve Your Problems This, from a recent issue of Private Eye, solves the problems of not only aerial terrorism, but also such hazards as crowded airports, tacky resorts, overpriced restaurants, cheap beer, sullen natives: “My boss is passionate about extreme vacations,” Irina Lapenkova recently told reporters in Moscow, “and goes on expensive holidays to exotic destinations in South America, Africa, even Iraq. I wanted to impress him, but didn’t have the money to visit Argentina, until I heard about Perseus-Tours and their ‘virtual vacations’. Now I can tell colleagues all about the stylish night clubs and restaurants I visited in Buenos Aires, and the subtleties of Argentinean life, and turn them green with envy, even though I never left Moscow. I can even dance the tango, and the boss now involves me in much more interesting projects. Believe me, it’s the best holiday I’ve never had.” The president of Perseus-Tours, Dmitry Popov, later explained the rationale behind his rapidly-expanding company, which specialises in fictitious vacations.
More thrilling details in South Africa's Mail and Guardian. But $400 is a bit steep.
Don't you agree that a certain gaiety left the White House at the turn of the century? (Thank you Dave from Fuengirola.) __________________ On a Canadian TV show, there was a black comedian who said he misses Bill Clinton. “Yep, that's right - I miss Bill Clinton! He was the closest thing we ever got to having a black man as President.
Even now? Look at him ... his wife works, and he don't! And, he gets a check from the government every month.” __________________ This week, manufacturers announced that they will be stocking America's shelves with “Clinton Soup”, in honour of one of the nations' most distinguished men. It consists primarily of a weenie in hot water. __________________ Chrysler Corporation is adding a new car to its line in honor of Bill Clinton. The “Dodge Drafter” will be built in Canada. __________________ When asked what he thought about foreign affairs, Clinton replied, “I don't know, I never had one”. __________________ The Clinton revised judicial oath: “I solemnly swear to tell the truth as I know it, the whole truth as I believe it to be, and nothing but what I think you need to know.” __________________ Clinton will be recorded in history as the only President to do “Hanky Panky between Bushes”.
Of course, there are some who would eventually
Week 134's Letters to the Press Just one letter to the newspapers this week, but at least it was published. Maybe that's because for the first time in a long time I've moved away from red-meat geopolitics into the cosier world of academia. In addition, Mark Steyn published a letter from me based on a post I wrote last year. The choice of Goebbels for the heading is his not mine. Some months back, I starred in his Letter of the Week spot with a letter on IRA killings for which Mr Steyn kindly sent me a signed copy of his “The Face of the Tiger”. This time I am relegated to third place, so no gift.
Dr Brady's remark which attracted the derision is here
- - - - - - - - - - L E B A N O N - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “We did not think, even one percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not.” Hasan Nasrallah, Hizbullah leader, Quote: “What's shocking and I would say, to me, completely immoral is that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution” Jan Egeland's
characterisation of Israel's cluster bombs, Quote: “We are stuck between the Israeli rock and the Syrian hard place ... Syrian President Bashar Assad [is] deceitful and manipulative ... all Syrian influence must be removed from Lebanon.” Lebanese opposition MP
Walid Jumblatt and leader of the
Druze, Little wonder that Damascus has issued a warrant for his arrest - - - - - - - - - - G A Z A - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “They forced us to convert to Islam at gunpoint.” Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni,
This reminds us that
Islam's mission in relation to infidels is I will not blame the
two journalists if they do not dare - - - - - - - - - - I R A N - - - - - - - - - - Quote: “They have to accept the reality of a powerful, peace-loving and developed Iran.” Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Quote: “There must be consequences for Iran's defiance and we must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.” US president George W. Bush - - - - - - - - - - C H R I S T I A N I T Y- - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of western civilisation.” German philosopher Jürgen Habermas,
- - - - - - - - - - B R I T A I N - - - - - - - - - Quote: “Now I know it's not fashionable to refer to colonialism in anything other than negative terms. And certainly, no part of the world is unscarred by the excesses of empires. But in the Canadian context, the actions of the British Empire were largely benign and occasionally brilliant.” Stephen Harper,
Canada's new prime minister, in a rare burst of ______ Quote: “The thinking woman's thug.” Labour MP
Ian Davidson describing
Interestingly, the
same term was used last May by a party colleague - - - - - - - - - - U N I V E R S I T I E S- - - - - - - - - - Quote: “The draft agreement would inappropriately limit career advancement opportunities for Irish academics and restrict the choice of educational opportunities available to Irish students. It could lead to the development of an anti-competitive cosy cartel and jeopardise Ireland's national strategic goal of establishing a world-class highly competitive Research & Development sector.” Hugh Brady, president of University College Dublin (my alma mater) defends his practice of poaching staff from rival Irish establishments. Minister for Education Mary Hanafin calls this “unfair” and wants the country's seven universities to sign a protocol forbidding it. UCD is trying to
join Europe's top 30
universities My comment here.
Quote:
“Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't
necessarily mean you're smart.”
Lakehead
University advertises itself Sadly, the university crumbled
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What I've recently
But it's not
entirely honest in its subtle pro-Palestinian bias, and therefore needs
to be read in conjunction with an antidote, such as See detailed review +++++
BP's ambitious CEO John Browne expanded it through adventurous acquisitions, aggressive offshore exploration, and relentless cost-reduction that trumped everything else, even safety and long-term technical sustainability. Thus mistakes accumulated, leading to terrifying and deadly accidents in refineries, pipelines and offshore operations, and business disaster in Russia. The Macondo blowout was but an inevitable outcome of a BP culture that had become poisonous and incompetent. However the book is gravely compromised by a litany of over 40 technical and stupid errors that display the author's ignorance and carelessness. It would be better to wait for the second (properly edited) edition before buying. As for BP, only a wholesale rebuilding of a new, professional, ethical culture will prevent further such tragedies and the eventual destruction of a once mighty corporation with a long and generally honourable history. Note: I wrote
my own reports on Macondo +++++
A horrific account of:
More details on my blog here. +++++
After recounting a childhood of convention and simple pleasures in working-class Aberdeen, Mr Urquhart is conscripted within days of Chamberlain declaring war on Germany in 1939. From then until the Japanese are deservedly nuked into surrendering six years later, Mr Urquhart’s tale is one of first discomfort but then following the fall of Singapore of ever-increasing, unmitigated horror. After a wretched journey Eastward, he finds himself part of Singapore’s big but useless garrison. Taken prisoner when Singapore falls in 1941, he is, successively,
Chronically ill, distraught and traumatised on return to Aberdeen yet disdained by the British Army, he slowly reconstructs a life. Only in his late 80s is he able finally to recount his dreadful experiences in this unputdownable book. There are very few first-person eye-witness accounts of the the horrors of Japanese brutality during WW2. As such this book is an invaluable historical document. +++++
This is a rattling good tale of the web of corruption within which the American president and his cronies operate. It's written by blogger Michele Malkin who, because she's both a woman and half-Asian, is curiously immune to the charges of racism and sexism this book would provoke if written by a typical Republican WASP. With 75 page of notes to back up - in best blogger tradition - every shocking and in most cases money-grubbing allegation, she excoriates one Obama crony after another, starting with the incumbent himself and his equally tricky wife. Joe Biden, Rahm Emmanuel, Valerie Jarett, Tim Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Steven Rattner, both Clintons, Chris Dodd: they all star as crooks in this venomous but credible book. ACORN, Mr Obama's favourite community organising outfit, is also exposed for the crooked vote-rigging machine it is. +++++
It is really just a collation of amusing little tales about surprising human (and occasionally animal) behaviour and situations. For example:
The book has no real message other than don't be surprised how humans sometimes behave and try to look for simple rather than complex solutions. And with a final anecdote (monkeys, cash and sex), the book suddenly just stops dead in its tracks. Weird. ++++++
It's chapters are organised around provocative questions such as
It's central thesis is that economic development continues to be impeded in different countries for different historical reasons, even when the original rationale for those impediments no longer obtains. For instance:
The author writes in a very chatty, light-hearted matter which makes the book easy to digest. However it would benefit from a few charts to illustrate some of the many quantitative points put forward, as well as sub-chaptering every few pages to provide natural break-points for the reader. +++++
The author was a member of Britain's V Force, a forerunner of the SAS. Its remit was to harass Japanese lines of command, patrol their occupied territory, carryout sabotage and provide intelligence, with the overall objective of keeping the enemy out of India. Irwin is admirably yet brutally frank, in his descriptions of deathly battles with the Japs, his execution of a prisoner, dodging falling bags of rice dropped by the RAF, or collapsing in floods of tears through accumulated stress, fear and loneliness. He also provides some fascinating insights into the mentality of Japanese soldiery and why it failed against the flexibility and devolved authority of the British. The book amounts to a very human and exhilarating tale. Oh, and Irwin describes the death in 1943 of his colleague my uncle, Major PF Brennan. +++++ Other books here |
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After
48
crackling, compelling, captivating games, the new World Champions are,
deservedly,
England get the Silver,
No-one can argue with
Over the competition, |
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