Perspectives . . .

HOW WE SEE TIME depends on how we live. Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.

Be creative . . .

BE CREATIVE, AND HELP Jaimie Mantzel: he needs a name for his spider-toy. 

CKNW was never on the ballot

BC Premier Christy Clark needs to be sat down by the Lieutenant-Governor and lectured on the propriety of leaving this bit floating about.

"In place of a formal Throne Speech, the Premier will be appearing on CKNW’s Bill Good Show to outline the government’s agenda for the spring session," said an email to press gallery members from Clark's deputy press secretary and communications officer Rebecca Scott.

So ... the Gordon Campbell model of selling off everything to corporate interests has now penetrated the offices of government, 100 percent of which are funded by provincial taxpayers.

The people who elect the members of the legislative assembly which will either support or demand the end of any given government regime have the right to know what the government's agenda is, in formal terms, and then have it debated in an open session of the legislature.

To do less, and this dangerous idea is much less than the people of the province deserve, is to violate the privilege of power granted by electors and hand it over to unelected corporate insiders. It is no less corruption and an abuse of power than to deny an elector access to a ballot box.

To answer The Vancouver Sun's Jonathan Fowlie, no, Bill Good will not be the next lieutenant-governor. He will remain a flack for the Clark/Campbell "thing". Some people would call it a government, but they're dropping that distinction faster than a BC Liberal smart phone can speed-dial Keith Baldry.

It's time the Honourable Steven L. Point, OBC, exercises the reserve powers of his office and forces Christy Clark to meet the obligations of her office.

Over to The Gazetteer.

Do you feel lucky?

Castle Romeo was a lithium-deuteride fueled H-bomb
exploded 1 March 1954 at Bikini Atoll.
It yielded 15 megatons and
had a fireball 4 miles in diameter.

PAKISTAN HAS DOUBLED THE SIZE OF ITS NUCLEAR ARSENAL. Now, over 100+ warheads. According to Karen DeYoung at the Washington Post, 

Pakistan's nuclear arsenal now totals more than 100 deployed weapons, a doubling of its stockpile over the past several years in one of the world's most unstable regions, according to estimates by nongovernment analysts.

The Pakistanis have significantly accelerated production of uranium and plutonium for bombs and developed new weapons to deliver them. After years of approximate weapons parity, experts said, Pakistan has now edged ahead of India, its nuclear-armed rival.

How Pakistan became nuclear is an intricate, somewhat sordid tale of corruption and murder and American involvement, and a lot of it is 'deep black' — we may never know who did what to whom. But the Pakistanis and the Indians continue to add to their stock-piles, and should be well on the way to doing 3-stage thermonuclear (H-bomb) designs by now. But even sub megaton warheads can sure lower the price of real estate, and India and Pakistan are acquiring enough "throw weight" to really louse-up their part of the world.

While continuing to produce weapons-grade uranium at two sites, Pakistan has sharply increased its production of plutonium, allowing it to make lighter warheads for more mobile delivery systems. Its newest missile, the Shaheen II, has a range of 1,500 miles and is about to go into operational deployment, Kristensen said. Pakistan also has developed nuclear-capable land- and air-launched cruise missiles.

So, there are 200+ nuclear warheads and a growing parade to a Plutonium Paradise. A giant, steaming bowl of Not Good. If global warming means that water dries up in the north of the Indian sub-continent, where India and Pakistan are contending over Kashmir, things could get crunchy in the next decade or so, as things dry up. But, seriously folks, here's Randy's take from 40 years ago, for a little mood music:

Cristina's not happy . . .

CRISTINA IS NOT HAPPY. According to the Scotsman,  "Argentina in UN protest at warship in Falklands".

ARGENTINA’S President Cristina Fernandez last night vowed to complain formally to the UN Security Council about Britain sending one of its most modern warships to the Falkland Islands.

Ms Fernandez accused Prime Minister David Cameron of “militarising” their long dispute over the islands in the South Atlantic. She asked him to “give peace a chance”.

Poor Crissy — she just doesn't get it. You see, that's precisely what the UK's PM, David Cameron has done. Give peace a chance, that is. Or maybe Crissy does get it, but it's just not quite what she wanted, which was, "give peace a chance AFTER we invade".

HMS Dauntless has state-of-the-art air-defence missile systems. As long as she stays in the Falklands, the Argies cannot make a move, they just don't have what it takes to attain and keep air superiority. So, in a very real sense, as long as HMS Dauntless is there, peace does have a chance. The UK is not going to attack Argentina, which is almost 300 miles away from the Falklands

Then again, if the Argies get starchy, HMS Dauntless could launch SLAM Harpoons from 100 miles offshore and give the Argie mainland a thrill and an opportunity to re-build infrastructure. So compared to that kind of devastating truculence, a passive presence that encourages a sense of self-control in the Argies is indeed giving peace a chance. It's just not giving the Argies an elective choice in the matter, which is hard on their macho.

Crissy, STFU. First rule of international politics: when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Remember what happened to the first government who tried what you wish you could get away with? Do yourself a favor: don't go there. David Cameron did you a gigantic favor — if you have the intelligence to see it. Like Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations" — women, too.

The F-35 Fugue (2) . . .

— Dassault Rafale —

450 MILLION DOLLARS EACH, somewhere around that, is the cost of acquisition and service of Canuck F-35's over their projected lifespan, for a total around 30 billion dollars. OUCH!

It could have been cheaper. At least, that's what WIRED thinks, according to Michael Moran's article, "How Do You Say "Top Gun" in French?". A couple of weeks back, I posted that the Indian government had decided to buy Dassault Rafale jet fighters. This is a major triumph for France, achieving its first foreign sale of the Rafale. Now, we know a little more.

There was a selection process, and the Indians winnowed out the F-18 Super Hornet and the MiG-35 early on, even though the F-18 is thought to be an equal for the Rafale in the mission-critical envelope, and the price was right.

Now, regardless of country, the mystery of military hardware procurement is a blend of budget, national ego and politics, both domestic and international. After the American F-18 rejection, the British were still hanging tough, offering the Eurofighter Typhoon, but the French government offered a sweeter deal.

Maybe, the Indians were miffed that they were not offered an export version of the F-35 by the Americans? It's like having someone say, "We don't trust you." Consider:

The F-35 Lightning has already been sold to Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the British (for the Royal Navy). Under what bizarre scenario did the U.S. military foresee its sale to India posing a threat to American national security? Pakistani sensibilities? If nothing else, the additional aircraft on the production lines might have helped bring down the ridiculous price of the F-35 program over time. 

Hey, it's only money, but the extra production sure would have been nice. Of course, we got Stevie and Airshow riding herd on it, what could possibly go wrong?

Pictures . . .

THE ARK IN SPACE proclaims itself to be "A Compendium of Creatures", which it is. Take a minute and check it out. The puddy-tat above? That's a Manul – the Cat that Time Forgot. Really. ROUND pupils.

This beautiful specimen is a Manul, otherwise known as Pallas’s Cat. About twelve million years ago it was one of the first two modern cats to evolve and it hasn’t changed since. The other species, Martelli’s Cat, is extinct so what you are looking at here is a unique window in to the past of modern cats.

Snow Leopards are also featured in an article, "Snow Leopards Discovered Flourishing in Afghanistan", covering efforts from the World Conservation Society in Asia, with some astounding pictures, that aren't (credit to them, they proclaim such) from the WCS, who sold them to the National Geographic. As well, check out the SNOW LEOPARD CONSERVANCY, which is a great site about the snow leopard that covers myths and legends about the critter. Check out "Snow Leopards, Mountain Spirits
and Sacred Space in Northern Pakistan".

H/T to Daniel

The F-35 Fugue . . .

— the F-35 Fugue —

THIS JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER: according to DEFENCETECH "Did Chinese Espionage Lead to F-35 Delays?", that's what happened.

Chinese spies apparently hacked into secure conference calls and listened to meetings discussing the classified technologies aboard the jets. In particular, China may have stolen info about the F-35’s secure communications and antenna systems; leading to costly software rewrites and other redesigns to compromised parts of the plane.

The worst part, this problem isn’t just limited to the F-35, though the program’s size and the fact that it’s information systems were apparently designed without any concern for cyber espionage made it an easy target.

All those cost over-runs hurt, but giving the other side an insight as to how you think about things, as well as design approaches and methods, oh boy. As far as the Chinese are concerned, not quite priceless, but large, as they can make a large jump in capability more quickly.

Dickens' perspective . . .

—  Mr. D. —

HARD TIMES AGAIN: that's the title to a fine article on The American Conservative (go figure) by Theodore Dalrymple, who contends that "Amid the wreck of capitalism and socialism, Dickens is timelier than ever."

We live in hard times, and all the indications are that they may get much, even very much, harder. No one, at any rate, would take a bet that they won’t.

The number of children in America claiming subsidized meals in school has shot up; the homeless are increasing by the hour; the formerly prosperous are laid off without so much as a thank you; the young struggle to find any work at all; beggars are making a comeback on the streets of cities as if they had been hiding all these years, waiting for the right moment to emerge from their subterranean lairs into the world above.

The February bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, then, could hardly come at a more appropriate moment in economic history, for Dickens was the revealer, the scourge, the prose poet, of urban destitution—a destitution that, in our waking nightmares, we fear may yet return.

Take a minute to read what Theo has to say, and ponder his observation on how a North Korean looks at the world portrayed by Dickens. I look at the acreage of "Escort" ads and the tawdry rub-and-tug parlors and I realize that the poor little match girls of London that Dickens encountered, would feel right at home.

It Ain't Over Till The Pink Plunger Sets Off The Detonator

Ah ... the speculation.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves — Karen Handel hasn't resigned (yet), but as pressure for her to quit grows, it seems like odd timing for the organization to post an ad that looks a lot like it's an ad to fill the embattled Senior Vice President of Public Policy's shoes. The ad is for a Director of Public Policy — are we just mincing labels here? Director, Senior Vice President — tomato, tomahto.

Or perhaps - Basset, Basset Hound.

Personally, I've always been one in favour of the captain assuming responsibility for sinking the ship and in this case that means Nancy G. Brinker should be watching the lifeboats pull away without her. She's the founder; she chairs the board; she allowed Karen Handel to turn Susan G. Komen for the Cure into a political organization with wingnut mission.

That makes this visit to George W. Bush's alma mater that much more interesting. (We'll give 'W' a few seconds to look it up).

The decision is in — Nancy G. Brinker, the founder and chief executive of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, will speak at the School of Public Health's Commencement, after all. 

What's a little political scandal to the Ivy League university who granted an honorary degree to one of their Revolutionary War enemies?

At least the dean and department chairs of the Yale School of Public Health can be confident that their guest speaker will arrive rested and refreshed.  They can all sip blue cocktails and discuss the horrible state of the canapés in the first-class lounge.

Perspectives . . .

YOU ARE HERE. Indeed. Earth From Mars.
This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. (March 8, 2004)

A debate based on fact?

Robert L. Brown, pretty much lays down the gauntlet over Harper's claims that the Old Age Pension is "unsustainable". In his article he refers to a report by the Chief Actuary of the OAS which actually challenges Harper's assessment with facts.

So do we need to worry about the sustainability of OAS?

Not according to the Chief Actuary.
Based on the assumption that the cost of living would rise 2.5 per cent a year and that earnings would rise at 3.8 per cent a year (i.e., real wage growth of 1.3 per cent per annum), the Chief Actuary projected that the cost of OAS as a percentage of GDP would be 2.2 per cent in 2007; it would then peak at 3.1 per cent in 2030, then fall (as baby boomers die off) to 2.7 per cent in 2050. He further points out that, if these assumptions prove to be true, each generation of retirees will receive an OAS benefit that will be a smaller ratio of their final pay (the replacement ratio) than the generations before.

The rub, of course, is that Harper is more than willing to ignore facts to introduce legislation based not so much on perception, but in order to create an illusion.

Raising the eligibility age for OAS is regressive legislation. It’s well known that wealthy Canadians live longer than poorer Canadians. Look at a blue-collar worker with less than a high-school education who retires at 65. That person’s life expectancy could easily be around 10 years. If you raise the age of eligibility for OAS to 67 from 65, you remove 20 per cent of that person’s expected benefits. A wealthy Canadian, on the other hand, could just as easily be looking at a life expectancy of 20 years. Thus, moving this person’s age of eligibility up by two years is a 10-per-cent reduction in their benefits.

So two key questions need to be addressed. First, is raising the age of eligibility for OAS really necessary, or is the system sustainable as is? Second, how does one justify a public policy shift that’s so clearly regressive in its impact?

 Those two questions should be germane. However, we're dealing with narcissistic sociopath in Harper and in order to get to those questions we would first have to get past the personality that first raised the issue.

The first question is easily dispatched by looking at the Harper omnibus crime bill. Is raising the age of eligibility for OAS really necessary? Well, were the measures in Harper's crime bill really necessary? In a field of statistics demonstrating a falling crime rate Harper ignored the facts and committed billions of dollars to increase Canada's incarceration rate. Further, he dumped a huge portion of the cost of his bill on the provinces.


Necessity is not the force behind Harper's initiatives. He is creating an illusion.


The second question is even easier using the same example. How does one justify a public policy shift that is so clearly regressive in its impact? Justify? If there is a mantra to the Harper regime which has become patently obvious it is that they justify nothing they do. What they are good at, however, is silencing anyone who opposes their grand plan.


Harper and his crowd are tribalists. Necessity and justification are contrary to the imperatives of the constructed culture centered around the illusion of greatness, however damaging that may be to others.

Added: I had not seen Owen's post when I published. Apparently we're using the same comparisons.

Water world . . .

CALIFORNIA, NEVADA, ARIZONA: three states where water is becoming top-of-mind, because it may become rather scarce. According to Austin Troy's Design Observer article, "Thirsty City", it's been a long time coming.

"Under no contingency does the natural face of Upper California appear susceptible of supporting a very large population"

So wrote Navy lieutenant Henry Augustus Wise, after spending considerable time in the Golden State in 1847. Although Lieutenant Wise would no doubt be surprised to know that California is now home to almost 40 million people, the fundamental water constraints that he described exist today. As Zev Yaroslavsky, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, put it: "Water is probably the single most vexing issue that we have in ... places like Southern California, because it's in such short supply. Water is a more valuable commodity in some respects than oil — or it will be over time."

• • •

Indeed, metropolitan Los Angeles could not support a fraction of its current population without imported water, which today accounts for nearly three-quarters of supply. Water distribution and treatment alone account for about 18 percent of all energy consumed in the region, making it the invisible energy hog, rarely seen, poorly understood and ever on the verge of crisis.

• • •

But what does it mean to be water-rich? It's often assumed that east of the Great Plains, water is plentiful. This was true once, when populations were lower; but today parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast verge on crisis. In 2007-08, the Southeast had such a prolonged and severe drought that boat launches in reservoirs wound up hundreds of feet from water lines, neighboring states battled over river allocations, and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue called for a statewide "day of prayer for rain." Even Florida, once rich in freshwater habitat, is experiencing a crisis; with an astounding 90 percent of supply coming from pumped groundwater, the state is depleting its aquifers so fast that entire houses are being swallowed up by sinkholes as the ground subsides. 

If things keep drying out in the south-west, American politics are going to get radical. Especially when the 99% find out that the 1% have bought up underground water rights in the south-west.

Who wrote this?

We don’t want to return to the bad old days of the back alley, when a poor vulnerable person who made the mistake of stepping out of line had to be forced into the shadows and have the realities explained to them with a tire iron.

If I told you, Mark Steyn, you probably wouldn't believe me.

But I would be the one who's right.

Steyn, however, is just fine if we return to the bad old days of the back alley, as long as it's occupied by a poor vulnerable pregnant woman forced into the shadows and facing the realities of a coat hanger.

Demotivation . . .

DEMOTIVATIONAL POSTERS are such a delight, especially if you have a sense of humor that is somewhat oblique. The Demotivator is part of the Tumblr world, and is a great collection from all sorts of places. Great place for a cynical re-charge.

Sure glad I wasn't there . . .

LEONARD COHEN has a fabulous new CD out. Love that guy, and so does Liel Leibovitz at The Tablet, whose review of Lenny's new oeuvre, "St. Leonard’s Passion" is a great read. Remember the festival at the Isle of Wight in 1970? Lenny was there. The account is hair-raising:

The audience wanted to see Jim Morrison, so they tried to burn down the stage.

By the time Jimi Hendrix came on, they succeeded.

Surprises appear . . .

TALI-TUBBIE. Now, that sure is something you don't see every day. 

Art and politics . . .

— Leo Fender's Stratocaster —

THE ECONOMIST has a fascinating tale of Jackie Shin. Jackie who? Considered to be Korea's Jimi Hendrix , Jackie had to struggle with the demands of the Korean government and when he wouldn't play nice, the fascists made sure Jackie couldn't play at all. Being imprisoned in a mental hospital sure puts a crimp in the recording career . . .

Shin Joong-hyun first learned to play guitar in the 1950s, and soon found a following among the American soldiers stationed here. Jackie Shin, as they knew him, was a master of jazz, rock ’n roll, rhythm-and-blues, and country.

• • •

But as it happens his best music is now seeing renewed interest, four decades after its heyday. A musical featuring his songs is in the works. A night at Gopchang Jeongol—an increasingly cool underground den of vinyl records and rice wine, in the student area of Hongdae—is not complete without the DJ spinning a few old Shin Joong-hyun records. And two years ago Fender, a renowned guitar-maker, gave him his own Custom Shop Tribute Guitar, putting him in an exclusive club of six (other members include Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton).

The recording could be better, but Jackie's got fabulous chops, go to YouTube to see other tracks of his, the dude can really wring out that neck. Nice Strat, too.

Midwinter's Freditorium . . .

— Fred —

MIDWINTER: AKA GROUNDHOG DAY. Actually, celebrating midwinter happened a long time before some American marketing weenie thought of promoting a rodent. According to thepaganperspective, 

Midwinter began as a celebration of the returning sun and sometimes a propitiation to assure that same return. Neolithic chambers, such as An Lianh Greine (Cave of the Sun) at New Grange were built to capture the sun’s power, while the Zuni and the Hopi Indians performed sacred dances to guide the returning sun. The temples of Egypt in Karnac, Thebes, and Abydos focused the midwinter sun’s rays into the heart of the pyramid’s chambers. It was also a celebration of the midwinter sun, the birth of the sacrificial god(s) (Mithras, Attis, Osiris, Jesus, etc.) that assured the promise of the ensuing year.

— The Freditorium —

Part of the promise is a return to using the barbecue with the advent of Spring. You see, we have a particularly energetic red squirrel, Fred, who has decided it makes a perfect Freditorium. If there were a Costco for red squirrels, he'd belong. Fred collects stuff, lots of pine cones, leaves, insulation, well, just ponder:

— Fredstuff —

Great little guy, a real gonzo spirit, loves walnuts.

The Komen cave

If it's got a pink ribbon on it, I'm not buying it. Simple.


As TBogg points out, the upper end of the Susan G Komen foundation had to know that THIS bombshell was being released in the same week at they issued a press release severing their breast cancer funding from Planned Parenthood. And, as he asks, is that hubris or stupidity?

Run for the cure? Apparently the mega-charity holding the trademark rights on that line (in the US) doesn't really give a damn about the cure part, especially since they've been hijacked by the religiously-driven woman-haters.

Cowards.