Archive for the ‘Behaviour’ Category

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The Egyptian Army as King Sean

July 4, 2013

The goings-on in Egypt and Gaza and North Africa where democratically “elected” leaders – albeit leaders who are undemocratic and Islamist – cannot get acceptance in the rest of the “democratic” world brings to mind the story of the Irish, socialist monarch.

Two Irishmen were sorting out the problems of the world in the pub – as one usually does in a pub.

After the sixth pint they had resolved the Irish Unification Issue, the Palestinian Issue, the Syrian Issue and the Chinese-Japanese Territorial conflict. But they were floundering when they came to the issue of Poverty and Starving Children. They could not agree even on what constituted Poverty. Could it be if or when you could not buy the fourth pint? 

This led to the seventh pint. And the eighth and the ninth and then suddenly Sean’s face lit up.

“Begorrah Mick”, he exclaimed. “I have it now! The solushun is simpul. All the wurld has to do is to moik me the King of the World”.

“And how will that help?” asked a skeptical Mick.

“It’s reely simpul,” explained Sean. “If Oi was the King of the Wurld, I would collect all the monny there was or ever would be and Oi would distribut it equally – but equally – to evry living pershun – Cathlick or not”.

Mick was still marshalling his many cogent arguments against this vision of King Sean when Sean continued. “And when I had spent all moine, why I would just do it all over again”!

The Egyptian military would recognise the solution.

Democracy by “free and fair” elections is by far the best alternative – provided of course that you can have another “free and fair” election if you don’t like the result of the first one.

And so on ad infinitum till you get the result you want.

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Posted in Behaviour, Politics, Trivia | Comments Off on The Egyptian Army as King Sean

The quality of “intelligence” is not strain’d

July 3, 2013

“Intelligence” in the political sense is knowledge. But when “knowledge” is created or moulded or invented to suit a political purpose it loses its intelligence. Constrained intelligence is bad intelligence.

Following the Bard,

The quality of intelligence is not strain’d,
It may not be shaped or created or invented
to suit a man’s convenience. It is twice cursed:
It curses him who invents and curses the fool who believes.

The shameful subservience of European countries and their political classes to US “intelligence” when going to war in Iraq is now history. Of course Tony Blair was not merely subservient, he also helped to constrain the “intelligence” even further.

Reading this story about France and Portugal and Austria kowtowing to demands made – no doubt – by US “intelligence” while forcing down the Bolivian President’s plane yesterday, suggests that this subservience of their European counterparts still continues. The quality of the US “intelligence” that Snowden was on the plane was clearly very “strain’d”. The “constraining” of intelligence” to suit a political purpose will be with us for a long time and the poodle-like behaviour of the European countries is sometimes embarrassing to observe.

BBC: Bolivian President Evo Morales’s plane had to be diverted to Austria amid suspicion that US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was on board, the Bolivian foreign minister has said.

Officials in both Austria and Bolivia said Mr Snowden was not on the plane.

France and Portugal reportedly refused to allow the Bolivia-bound flight to cross their airspace. Mr Snowden is reportedly seeking asylum in Bolivia and 20 other countries to avoid extradition to the US. Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca told reporters on Tuesday that France and Portugal had closed their airspace over the “huge lie” that Mr Snowden, 30, was on board.

“We don’t know who invented this lie, but we want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales,” he said.

Austrian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg said Mr Snowden was not on board the Bolivian leader’s aircraft. The Bolivian defence minister, also on the flight, pilloried the US after the unscheduled landing. “This is a hostile act by the United States state department which has used various European governments,” Ruben Saavedra said.

The Falcon aircraft was reportedly allowed to refuel in Spain before the jet went on to Vienna. President Morales was said to be at the airport in Vienna discussing his return route to Bolivia early on Wednesday.

 

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Posted in Behaviour, Europe, Politics, US | 1 Comment »

Croatia joins the EU: “Muslim nations need not apply”

July 1, 2013

Croatia joined the EU today as the 28th member state.

(But I can’t help concluding that both Croatia and the EU are consequently disadvantaged. At least Croatia is not joining the Euro which it can ill afford to do).

After Slovenia it is the second of the former Yugoslavia countries to enter. In the meantime the “negotiations” for Turkey’s membership are proceeding at a glacial pace. Any possible excuse is used to slow down progress whenever possible. The opposition to Turkey’s membership is not restricted to Germany, Austria and France where it is particularly obvious.

Considering the other states deriving from Yugoslavia, Bosnia applied for membership in 2003 but has not yet been officially accepted as a candidate nation. Macedonia applied in 2005 and is accepted as a candidate country. Serbia applied for EU membership in 2009 and is accepted as a candidate nation. Negotiations with Montenegro started in 2012. Kosovo has not yet been allowed to apply.

While EU membership is ostensibly judged on economic and civil rights criteria there is an unspoken undercurrent which is undoubtedly connected to religion and perceptions of religious groups. (more…)

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Posted in Behaviour, Europe, European Union, Politics, Religion | 1 Comment »

Tapes expose Irish Bankers warts and .. warts!

June 30, 2013

That Banks and Bankers all over Europe have made a killing over all the “bailouts” is no great secret. Just how they have done it – and very often in collusion with friends within Governments – is slowly coming to light.

This week it has been the turn of the bankers at the Anglo Irish Bank. The Bank was finally nationalised costing Irish taxpayers some €30 billion. That is over €6,000 per head of population! No doubt the bankers made sure of their severance packages before they bowed out.

ABC News: In the age of austerity, senior bankers laughing about public-funded bail-outs is not a good look, but that is exactly what has happened in Ireland. There is outrage after a national newspaper published details of a taped phone conversation between bank executives mocking regulators and boasting they fooled them. The bank ended up collapsing, costing tax payers around 30 billion euros.

David Drumm ” We need the moolah”: CEO Anglo Irish

Irish Independent29th June:

Anglo Tapes: Anatomy of the bank that broke Ireland

Irish Independent 30th June: Fresh revelations in the Anglo-tapes scandal about Brian Cowen’s administration shows his party was willing to save the failing bank at any cost, his political opponents claimed. ……. 

……….. Fine Gael Dail finance committee member Dara Murphy alleged it was further proof of the cosy relationship that existed between Fianna Fail, developers and Anglo Irish. “While there is no doubt that the entire country has been sickened to its very core at what the Anglo tapes have revealed this week, the reality is that tens of thousands of families are living with a daily reminder of the greed, avarice and utter contempt that was shown to the Irish people in respect of the dealings at Anglo,” he said. (more…)

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Posted in Behaviour, Ethics, Europe, Fraud, Ireland | Comments Off on Tapes expose Irish Bankers warts and .. warts!

Snowden and religious teachings

June 28, 2013

Security agencies must dread the fanatics and even those just religiously inclined.

I heard this quote from the Bible on radio today!

  1. Beware you of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 
  2. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. 
  3. Therefore whatever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which you have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

Luke 12: 1-3

For “Pharisees” read “the US Government and the UK Government”.

How very apt and it could be the anthem of the whistle-blowers. But it is probably of little comfort to them as they are universally and invariably denounced by the keepers of secrets.

Not that I think that Snowden is particularly religious.

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Herrings galore in l’affaire Snowden

June 27, 2013

Some level of state surveillance is no doubt necessary though it has probably gone too far in the US. To have blanket eavesdropping and entrapment and agents provocateur is not so unlike the Stasi or the KGB. I am not too concerned if the NSA has been reading my emails – much good it may do them! I have no strong opinions as to whether Snowden is a hero or a villain but I would be more than a little surprised if he has been sitting quietly in the transit lounge of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for the last 3 days.

I am pretty sure that all the reports coming out about his possible movements or non-movements are largely disinformation. I am very suspicious when Foreign Ministers and Heads of State make statements about his whereabouts or where he is not. I suspect that technically none of them have lied outright – but I am fairly certain that  they know much more than they are letting on. The lone individual bravely evading the far-flung resources of the most powerful nation in the world is the stuff of Baroness Orczy and of urban legends to come.

So my guesses as to where he might be are:

  1. He is being debriefed by Russia. It would be child’s play for the Russians to have whisked him into a private and  “safe part” of the transit area and to return him to the public area after a suitable period. I see no reason for the official Russian line to have been jeopardised since he would not technically have gone through immigration control. When Ecuador says they need time to consider his asylum request, I wonder if it is the Russians who need time to debrief him – willingly or unwillingly.
  2. He is in the transit area of another Russian airport and to get to St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport – for example – would have been easy for the Russians to arrange.
  3. The trip to Havana was just for disinformation and he actually flew to Hanoi and is now hidden within the entourage surrounding Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino.
  4. He has already reached and is holed up in Havana (and the Cubans therefore are not saying anything), or
  5. He is in the transit area of a country friendly to Russia (Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan….)

With the heavy US presence in Reykjavik, it is unlikely that Iceland was ever a serious destination.

Given the resources that the US and the world’s media must be bringing to bear to find him, it can only be a matter of time …

We seek him here, we seek him there,
Those Yankies seek him everywhere.

But the US establishment has some egg on its face. John Kerry’s blustering against China and Russia and now threats of a trade war against Ecuador come across as heavy-handed and hypocritical. It is only Snowden who gains and Obama and Kerry who lose in the PR stakes for every day that he continues to remain undiscovered.

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Posted in Behaviour, Politics, Russia, US | Comments Off on Herrings galore in l’affaire Snowden

Erdogan blows Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU

June 19, 2013

It is not the protests in Turkey but Erdogan’s hard-handed approach to quelling the protests which may have blown Turkeys chances of joining the EU.

It is his response which provides a “politically correct” cloak under which many of those opposed to Turkey’s membership of the EU can hide. Their opposition is primarily because Turkey is an Islamist nation, but the police actions in Turkey come in very handy to hide behind. They can now use Erdogan’s “undemocratic” behaviour as their visible justification for their opposition. Angela Merkel and Germany have long been opposed to Turkey’s membership but have had to walk the tightrope of opposing while not seeming to be giving in to the neo-Nazis and their anti-Turkish campaigns within Germany. I caught Angela Merkel on TV two days ago and she was “apalled, utterly apalled” at the hard response of Erdogan’s police.

Hurriyet: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have rejected Turkish membership in the European Union in their German election programme, saying the country would “overburden” the bloc because of its size and economy.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), have long opposed Turkey joining the 27-nation bloc, but haven’t stood in the way of EU accession talks that were launched shortly before Merkel took office.

The German line has hardened in recent weeks however because of Ankara’s tough response to three weeks of protests against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan.

On June 17, Merkel said she was “appalled” at Turkey’s handling of the protests, which have turned into fierce clashes between police firing teargas and water cannon, and masked demonstrators throwing bottles and other missiles.

Turkey’s application to accede to the EU was first made 26 years ago in 1987.

 Turkey has been an associate member of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors since 1963. After the ten founding members, Turkey was one of the first countries to become a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, and was also a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1961 and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 1973. The country has also been an associate member of the Western European Union since 1992, and is a part of the “Western Europe” branch of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) at the United Nations. Turkey signed a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki summit of the European Council.

All things going well with the negotiations, membership would be on track for 2015. But there is fundamental opposition to an Islamist country of over 70 million becoming a full member. Sarkozy and the right in France were ( and still are) implacably opposed. For many Austrians, Turkey becoming a member would be close to sacrilege. The Spanish remember El Cid (Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar). Brussels (Barroso) has stated that full membership could – at the earliest – come by 2021. Turkey has implied that 2023 – when modern Turkey is 100 years old – may be a deadline.

In December 2011, a poll showed that as much as 71% of the participants surveyed in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK were opposed to Turkey’s membership in the European Union.

Erdogan’s response to the protests could well provide the cover for the anti-Islamist forces in Europe to prevent Turkey’s accession to the EU for the foreseeable future.

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Posted in Behaviour, European Union, Politics, Turkey | 2 Comments »

UK Davey prefers “cutting off his nose to spite his face”

June 19, 2013

Ed Davey’s name calling of non-believers was widely reported :

Speaking on Tuesday in Brussels during a during a CBI/EU Corporate Leaders Group event, Davey warned the consequences of inaction in the face of record emission levels were severe, calling on the European Union to adopt a 50% carbon reduction target by 2030.

Davey's nose

Davey’s nose

“There will always be those with a vested interest in the status quo. Who seek to create doubt where there is certainty,” he said. “And you will always get crackpots and conspiracy theorists who will deny they have a nose on their face if it suits them.”

Considering the millions of jobs lost as a direct consequence of subsidising intermittent renewable energy and distorting the market through carbon credits and the like, Davey is clearly one who prefers

“cutting off his nose to spite his face”

“Cutting off the nose to spite the face” is an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive over-reaction to a problem and I can think of few things as needlessly self-destructive as the the demonisation of carbon dioxide. 

And even without a nose Davey will continue breathing out 3 – 4% carbon dioxide with every breath!!!

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Reviews confirm that Medtronic’s spinal treatment “Infuse” provided little benefit

June 18, 2013

In 2011 The Spine Journal took on the morass of hyped scientific papers, multi-million dollar payments to researchers and adverse effects surrounding Medtronic’s Infuse product. As I posted in August 2011

Medtronic is the world’s largest medical device company and Minnesota’s seventh-largest public company based on revenue, which totaled $15.93 billion for the fiscal year that ended April 29. Medtronic’s Infuse product is a bioengineered bone-growth protein that has been used in spinal fusion procedures for the past nine years and is used in about half of the 80,000 anterior lumbar fusion procedures performed every year in the United States.

Now the NY Times reports that 

The controversy reached a climax in 2011, when a medical publication, The Spine Journal, devoted an issue to reports that repudiated the Medtronic-sponsored research, calling it misleading and biased. The journal’s move was significant because it is published by the nation’s biggest group of spine surgeons, the North American Spine Society.

Experts involved in research, like Dr. Zdeblick and Dr. Burkus, defended their work and insisted that their ties to Medtronic had not influenced them. But facing a firestorm, Medtronic agreed in 2011 to provide $2.5 million to Yale University to oversee an independent review of study data.

The resulting examinations, published Monday, involved reviews by two separate teams.

One of the teams, headed by scientists at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, reported that Infuse appeared to have no advantages over a bone graft and might pose patient risks, including possibly a small added risk of cancer.

The other team, led by researchers at the University of York in England, found that Infuse fused spinal vertebrae more quickly than a bone graft but that the added speed appeared to lack clinical relevance.

Both the British and Oregon teams found no significant difference between Infuse and a bone graft in measures critical to patients, like reducing pain or improving physical function.

…… 

A professor at Yale who oversaw the review, Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz, said that while the two teams had slightly different findings, they pointed in the same direction.

“The general, overall picture is that they failed to find a big benefit,” for Infuse, Dr. Krumholz said. “And they found there might be some harms.”

Doctors and patients, he said, could use the review’s information to decide which treatment was best for them.

Some reviewers also concluded that the Medtronic-financed research had — unwittingly or not — presented a misleading picture.

“Selective reporting or underreporting of outcomes in journal publications may have misrepresented the benefits and harms,” of Infuse, the Oregon group wrote.

The selective reporting or under-reporting or non-reporting of scientific research to suit the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical and medical industries is not likely to disappear anytime soon. And Infuse is still in use and still generates significant revenues for Medtronic.

The review’s results, however, are likely to lead to further drops in Infuse sales. Annual sales of the product, which stood at about $900 million before The Spine Journal’s issue devoted to it, were $528 million in the company’s most recent fiscal year.”

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Another GIGO report: Climate change overseas will threaten UK food supplies

June 17, 2013

A good GIGO (Garbage in, garbage out) report is one which can generate a whole family of garbage reports with the results from one being used as the input for the next and so on ad infinitum. An excellent GIGO report is one which earns a small fortune for its author while keeping the stench concealed.

This time the GIGO report is by PWC. It is based on a string of  questionable assumptions:

  1. that global warming (euphemistically “climate change”) will happen,
  2. that extreme weather will happen in some vulnerable food producing countries
  3. that it will lead to increased food prices
  4. which will lead to export “protectionism” by those countries,

leading – surprise, surprise –  to food exports to the UK being threatened.

Given the assumptions it does not take much intelligence to reach the desired conclusion. No doubt PWC produced some very pretty images and graphs. This rubbish is considered “research” by Roger Harrabin of the BBC. I have never known PWC do anything for free and this particular report was apparently commissioned by Defra (UK, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). The usual profit margin on such a report would be at least 150% and with gullible civil servants as the clients could be closer to 1000%). I have no doubt that Defra had briefed PWC on the conclusions to be reached.  (PWC like their other “big 4” brothers are blind to fraud when committed by their clients and expert at producing – and justifying – whatever conclusion is desired by them).

Climate change abroad will have a more immediate effect on the UK than climate change at home, a report says.

Research by consultants PWC for Defra says the UK is likely to be hit by increasingly volatile prices of many commodities as the climate is disrupted.

It warns that global production of some foodstuffs is concentrated in a few countries.

These are likely to suffer increasing episodes of extreme weather.

The report says there will be opportunities for the UK from climate change but these are likely to be far outweighed by problems. The opportunities include the ability to export British know-how and reduced shipping costs if the Arctic becomes ice-free. The Arctic looks likely to be a big business opportunity; research estimates suggest that it is likely to attract more than £64bn of investments over the next decade.

What is particularly irritating is that conclusions from one GIGO report are then used as input again and again producing a chain reaction of further garbage reports.

The report warns that as the climate changes, there will be pressure for the UK to increase its aid budgets (already under threat from back-bench Conservatives).

The report is a follow-up to the recent UK Government Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) which assessed domestic threats and opportunities and the Foresight study into international climate change.

It is based on the UN’s “medium CO2 emissions scenario” which is broadly aligned with the 2C maximum temperature increase – a target that is unlikely to be met. That means the study is on the optimistic side, it says.

The paper draws on research from Chatham House describing climate change as a multiplier of other threats.

Oh Dear!

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Posted in Alarmism, Behaviour, Climate, UK | 3 Comments »

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