Catastrophe! The world is running out of chocolate

November 15, 2014

This is rather more serious than any other doomsday scenario. Forget peak oil and peak gas and melting ice caps and food crises and mass extinctions and all the other alarmist and fictitious memes (which are not happening anyway). This crisis is real. The rapture of humanity is threatened. The Security Council should meet. The Quality of Life must be protected.

A world without chocolate is too miserable to contemplate.

image: http://wedare.in/

 

Washington Post:

There’s no easy way to say this: You’re eating too much chocolate, all of you. And it’s getting so out of hand that the world could be headed towards a potentially disastrous (if you love chocolate) scenario if it doesn’t stop. 

Those are, roughly speaking, the words of two huge chocolate makers, Mars, Inc. and Barry Callebaut. And there’s some data to back them up. ……..

Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. By 2020, the two chocolate-makers warn that that number could swell to 1 million metric tons, a more than 14-fold increase; by 2030, they think the deficit could reach 2 million metric tons. …

…. China’s growing love for the stuff is of particular concern. The Chinese are buying more and more chocolate each year. Still, they only consume per capita about 5 percent of what the average Western European eats. There’s also the rising popularity of dark chocolate, which contains a good deal more cocoa by volume than traditional chocolate bars (the average chocolate bar contains about 10 percent, while dark chocolate often contains upwards of 70 percent).

Tags: ,
Posted in Trivia | Comments Off on Catastrophe! The world is running out of chocolate

“That demmed elusive submarine”

November 14, 2014

They sought it here, then they sought it there,

The Swedish Navy looked everywhere,

It moves by stealth, it can’t be seen,

That demmed elusive submarine

with apologies to Baroness Emma Orczy and her Scarlet Pimpernel

The Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, Sverker Göranson, held a press conference today. He asserted that it was now confirmed that a foreign mini-submarine of unknown (read Russian) nationality had violated Swedish territorial waters in the Stockholm archipelago on October 17th. It is not known how it got there and it is not known how it got away.

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was also at the press conference, “We don’t know who is behind this, but it is totally unacceptable,” he said.

Löfven warned the world at large that Sweden would not put up with this sort of thing and, please, not to do it again. If it happened again he was even prepared to use military force! Neither the Russians or any other foreign power has claimed responsibility. Of course, in order to use military force it would be necessary to detect any incursion somewhat faster than one month later. In this case the warning about under water activity by a foreign power was first raised not by the military’s warning systems but by a “credible informant”.

The military is, I suppose, reasonably satisfied since the defense budget has been increased. This should now also add some impetus to the campaign to join NATO.

Source: Swedish Radio

Foreign mini sub found in Swedish waters – confirmed

Tags: , ,
Posted in Behaviour, Defense, Sweden | Comments Off on “That demmed elusive submarine”

Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and now Bill Cosby — but their predatory behaviour had accomplices

November 14, 2014

Many apparently wholesome and high profile figures in the entertainment industry are now being revealed as ravenous, sexual predators.

But this post is not about the predators themselves. They were bad enough. I suppose their behaviour is a case of being caught up in the maelstrom in the “behavioural field of fame and riches ” which makes it impossible for any kind of “behavioural moral compass” to operate. The latest revelations about Bill Cosby’s behaviour for over 30 years follows that revealed about Jimmy Saville’s predatory behaviour and that of the archetypal “good guy” Rolf Harris (who is now serving a prison sentence). There are a number of other cases, of rich and famous individuals in the entertainment industry, who preyed upon the “pretty young things” aspiring to make a break-through or who were just overwhelmed by the glitter and glamour, which are now going through “due process”.

I suppose all the rich and famous are subject to false claims of exploitation. But the police and media and lawyers who received claims against high profile figures seem to have dismissed them all as being false. But these predators who were all rich and famous did not prey and feed in isolation. They were always surrounded by their fawning entourages who could not have been unaware. Some actively helped their principals to feed. How come they were all silent? And their silence makes them all complicit. Some just waited for the principal to feed and then stuffed themselves with their leavings.  Or – as in the case of Jimmy Saville – the police and press were intimidated by his “high-level” contacts within their own organisations. What happened to all their moral compasses? One law for the rich?

The morality of our behaviour – it seems – depends upon the field in which we operate. Could it be that when we enter their “behavioural field of fame and riches” our moral compasses also go haywire?

As one of Cosby’s victims writes in the Washington Post:

The entertainment world is rife with famous men who use their power to victimize and then silence young women who look up to them. Even when their victims speak out, the industry and the public turn blind eyes; these men’s celebrity, careers, and public adulation continue to thrive. Even now, Cosby has a new comedy special coming out on Netflix and NBC is set to give him a new sitcom.

Fixing this problem demands more than public shaming. For Cosby to commit these assaults against multiple victims over several years, there had to be a network of willfully blind wallflowers at best, or people willing to aid him in committing these sexual crimes at worst. As I told the Daily Mail, when I was a teenager, his assistants transported me to hotels and events to meet him. When I blacked out at Cosby’s home, there were several staffers with us. My agent, who introduced me to Cosby, had me take a pregnancy test when I returned from my last trip with him. Talent agents, hotel staff, personal assistants and others who knowingly made arrangements for Cosby’s criminal acts or overlooked them should be held equally accountable.

 

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Behaviour | Comments Off on Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and now Bill Cosby — but their predatory behaviour had accomplices

No surprise – FIFA whitewashes itself and Qatar but their investigator dissents

November 13, 2014

UPDATE!!

It seems FIFA’s conclusions are not even shared by their own investigaor:

BBC: The findings of Fifa’s inquiry into allegations of corruption during bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups have been questioned – by the man who conducted the two-year investigation into the claims.

In an unexpected twist, lawyer Michael Garcia says the report “contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions”.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,
Posted in Ethics, Football, Sport | Comments Off on No surprise – FIFA whitewashes itself and Qatar but their investigator dissents

Philae unanchored and bounced – but now stable – on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

November 13, 2014

Philae successfully separated from Rosetta and arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It did land but its anchoring harpoons apparently failed to fire.  Magnetic field data indicates that Philae has touched down at least 3 times. After the first, the lander bounced and took over 2 hours to touch down again. It bounced again and then touched down 7 minutes later. It is hoped that it has come to rest with the 3rd touchdown but this will not be confirmed till this morning. (Update! It has just been confirmed that the lander is on the surface, stable and sending pictures. Its attitude is not known but full data transmission seems to have been established. Data on the tomography of the comet’s nucleus is also being transmitted).

A remarkable achievement after a 10 year journey. Now the Rosetta orbiter will remain in close proximity to the comet and will accompany it as it approaches the Sun. The Rosetta mission is due to end in December 2015. “By then, both the spacecraft and the comet will have circled the Sun and be on their way out of the inner Solar System”.

Philae bouncing

The Rolis instrument on Philae took this picture on descent:

 

The image shows comet 67P/CG acquired by the ROLIS instrument on the Philae lander during descent on Nov 12, 2014 14:38:41 UT from a distance of approximately 3 km from the surface. The landing site is imaged with a resolution of about 3m per pixel.

The ROLIS instrument is a down-looking imager that acquires images during the descent and doubles as a multispectral close-up camera after the landing. The aim of the ROLIS experiment is to study the texture and microstructure of the comet’s surface. ROLIS (ROsetta Lander Imaging System) is a descent and close-up camera on the Philae Lander. It has been developed by the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin. The lander separated from the orbiter at 09:03 GMT (10:03 CET) and touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko seven hours later.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Science, Space | Comments Off on Philae unanchored and bounced – but now stable – on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Measuring success in Afghanistan

November 12, 2014

Land being used for opium cultivation has risen from less than 100,000 hectares before the war in 2001 to about 225,000 hectares this year!

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan

BBC:

Cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan has hit new records this year as Nato pulls out combat troops. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said opium production was up by 17% since last year. Its Afghan Opium Survey 2014 said the area under poppy cultivation had risen by 7% to cover 224,000 hectares.

UNODC head Yury Fedotov warned there was a serious risk Afghanistan could become a narco-state, following the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Most poppies are still grown in southern Helmand province, where British troops were stationed until October.

Tags:
Posted in Afghanistan | Comments Off on Measuring success in Afghanistan

Saudi attack on shale oil could backfire

November 12, 2014

If the recent drop in oil price has been engineered (even in part) by Saudi Arabia as an attempt to put some of the burgeoning shale oil production sites out of business they will need to go much further. A break-even for shale oil production is probably at less than $50 per barrel. In any event the drop so far (25%+ in 6 months) is just the fillip the world economy needs. Saudi Arabia is probably not as vulnerable as other oil producing countries but increasing production to drive down the oil price is a dangerous game which could be self-defeating. Whether the current glut is just due to reduced world (read Chinese) demand and increased shale oil (US) production or has also been exacerbated by increased Saudi production, the oil consumer wins. Consumption will increase – and that will automatically reduce the glut and further increase the production of oil from shale.

If the global economy is to come out of the doldrums it needs the Asian economies – the tigers, the dragon and the elephant – to start prowling in earnest. Increasing consumption in the developing world seems to be one of the most effective ways of stimulating the world economy. It inevitably leads to increased production of consumer goods in the developed countries. And this current step-reduction of oil price could be just the trigger that is needed.

Yesterday the price of crude (WTI) was at about $77 per barrel and that price is sufficient to keep even the small shale oil wells in operation.

crude oil price Nov 2014

crude oil price Nov 2014

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business, Energy, Oil, Oil price | Comments Off on Saudi attack on shale oil could backfire

MH 370 to be declared “lost” and search to end by year-end

November 12, 2014

It has been over 8 months now since MH370 vanished on March 8th with all its 239 crew and passengers.

That the mystery continues, in these times of almost universal surveillance, where even distant comets passing by Mars can be observed in real time, is unfathomable. To say that black magic was involved is almost as irrefutable as any other proposed explanation. But it was not black magic. It was almost certainly a “black operation”, an “engineered affair”. Somebody knows what happened. And what I find equally disturbing is that the world can so easily put the whole unexplained, chilling episode aside and move on.

The relatives of the victims and the unfortunate Malaysian Airlines cannot find any kind of closure. But by the end of the year the plane could be officially declared “lost” and that would allow the search to be ended. That would allow Malaysian Airlines to make “final” compensation and then calculate a liability cap and draw a financial line.

NZ Herald: Speaking to The New Zealand Herald today, the airline’s commercial director, Hugh Dunleavy said that it was waiting for the aircraft to be officially declared lost after going missing in March with 239 people on board. It is thought to have flown into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. 

The Australian and Malaysian governments were working together to set a date to formally announce the loss of MH370 and that was likely to be set by the end of the year.

“We don’t have a final date but once we’ve had an official loss recorded we can work with the next of kin on the full compensation payments for those families.” ….. 

Dunleavy said the Montreal Convention had set the ceiling on compensation at around US$175,000 although passengers could take legal action to pursue higher payments.

“We will ensure we do compensate them for the loss of their loved ones through our insurers,” he said. ….. 

“We are trying to hurry (compensation)it up as much as we can but some of these things are outside the scope of the airline itself. If they’re not happy with the compensation then they seek legal advice and move ahead, then once they come in our people will assess them and respond.”

Paying out relatives of those killed aboard MH17 over the Ukraine was more straightforward.

“We know exactly what happened with that aircraft and we can move ahead with the full compensation of family members aboard that aircraft,” Dunleavy said at the end of his visit which included meetings with travel agents and the tourism bodies.

I can understand the Commercial Director’s frustration at not knowing what happened and not being able to assess the final liability. Dr. Hugh Noel Dunleavy is the Head of Network, Alliance & Planning and Director of Commercial at Malaysian Airlines and was appointed in January 2012.

 

MH370: Theoretical Search Area

Even the calculations of the “theoretical search area” could just be a red herring. Nothing is believable and therefore everything is possible.

Tags: ,
Posted in Aviation, Behaviour | Comments Off on MH 370 to be declared “lost” and search to end by year-end

A hierarchy of parents

November 11, 2014

Adoption, abortion and IVF or surrogacy followed by adoption are all regulated mainly from the needs and desires of the prospective parents. Abortion is almost on demand. Gay couples exploit surrogacy possibilities to acquire children on demand. Adoption of orphans or abandoned children is supposed to be based on the best interests of the child but the child rarely gets the chance to choose.

But what if a child could choose its parents ………

Assume that wealth is just a qualifying criteria and does not dominate or corrupt the regulations. Assume further that unstable individuals, paedophiles, sexual predators and unstable relationships have magically been excluded. Let us take for granted that all individuals have qualified by passing a basic “parenting competence” test. (And why isn’t parenting competence a subject that is taught?)

How then would a child choose its parents?

My perception of a child’s preferences:

Category 1 – Preferred

  1. Biological mother and biological father

Category 2 – Acceptable

  1. Biological mother and step-father
  2. Biological father and step-mother
  3. Unrelated heterosexual couple

Category 3 – Conditionally Acceptable

  1. Single mother (biological)
  2. Single father (biological)
  3. Biological mother and lesbian partner (girl-child only)
  4. Biological father and gay partner (boy-child only)
  5. Unrelated lesbian couple (girl child only)
  6. Unrelated gay couple (boy-child only)

Category 4 – Disallowed

  1. Single unrelated mother
  2. Single unrelated father
  3. Biological mother and lesbian partner for a boy-child
  4. Biological father and gay partner for a girl-child
  5. Unrelated lesbian couple for a boy-child
  6. Unrelated gay couple for a girl-child

Given a choice and everything else being equal, no child – I think – would prefer anything other than having its biological father and mother as its parents.

Tags:
Posted in Behaviour | Comments Off on A hierarchy of parents

Anniversaries: Berlin Wall fall – 25 years, Kristallnacht -76 years

November 9, 2014

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was something I watched unfold, live, on TV 25 years ago. And it is surely something to be remembered and celebrated.

But tonight is also the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938 when the Nazis went on their rampage against Jews throughout Germany and Austria and East Prussia. That needs no celebration but it does need to be remembered.

And without Kristallnacht there would have been no Cold War and no Berlin Wall.

Kristallnacht: Over 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone) and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged. Martin Gilbert writes that no event in the history of German Jews between 1933 and 1945 was so widely reported as it was happening, and the accounts from the foreign journalists working in Germany sent shock waves around the world. The Times wrote at the time: “No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.”

The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew living in Paris. Kristallnacht was followed by additional economic and political persecution of Jews, and is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany’s broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.

Tags: ,
Posted in Behaviour, Germany, History | Comments Off on Anniversaries: Berlin Wall fall – 25 years, Kristallnacht -76 years

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »