This is rather cool and very short
Courtesy of Chris D
11 August 2011
Svalbard Tragedy
On the 6th August on the arctic island of Svlabard a 17 year old British school boy named Horatio Chappie was mauled to death by a polar bear. Two other boys sharing the tent were badly injured as was a trip leader who tried to shot the bear. This is clearly a tragedy for all concerned, not least the boy and his family. Polar bears are serious shit! They are the only mammal that routinely hunt humans. The world get a whole lot scarier when you are not at the top of the food chain and there is a hungry, skillful 300 kg predator out to get you.
Chappie was on a British Schools Exploring Society expedition. BSES is a charity that aims to get young adults out on adventures in remote parts of the World. That is something I am fully in favour of. Its clearly better that smashing up your community and looting a flat screen TV and a pair of trainers. I even have a couple of friends who went on BSES trips and have nothing but good things to say about the society and the trip they went on.
However, I was talking to a Norwegian friend today who has spent a lot of time in Svalbard and knows a thing or two about avoid and dealing with polar bears. He was rather scathing about the BSES organization and from what he said I have to agree that this tragedy would appear to have been avoidable. He made the following points
1. The group appears to have only had one rifle. This is not enough for any group, there is no redundancy in the system and if the rifle fails, as appears to have done four times here then the entire group is defenseless. Everyone in Svalbard carried a rifle. When Hilary Clinton visited the CIA demanded that the Governor of Svalbard disarm all the people wandering through town with guns. He laughed at them
2. When camping in a small group people set out trip wires attached to flairs to scare the bears and alert the campers. With a larger group such as this one it is normal to post a guard with people taking two hours shifts. This appears not to have been done, despite the group being large enough for everyone to take a turn and still get some sleep. Why?
3. The trip wire system appears not to have worked. Why?
4. They were also carrying a flair gun that didn’t work. Its not looking very good guys
Lots of questions and none of them bring back the dead boy or diminish the impact of the tragedy. There have been several incidents in the last few years and it appears that the shrinking ice coverage means that the bears are unable to catch seals and are getting more and more desperate as they become more hungry. What ever the cause I hope that the BSES tighten up their act but I also hope that they don’t stop taking kids on wild adventures in very remote places.
Chappie was on a British Schools Exploring Society expedition. BSES is a charity that aims to get young adults out on adventures in remote parts of the World. That is something I am fully in favour of. Its clearly better that smashing up your community and looting a flat screen TV and a pair of trainers. I even have a couple of friends who went on BSES trips and have nothing but good things to say about the society and the trip they went on.
However, I was talking to a Norwegian friend today who has spent a lot of time in Svalbard and knows a thing or two about avoid and dealing with polar bears. He was rather scathing about the BSES organization and from what he said I have to agree that this tragedy would appear to have been avoidable. He made the following points
1. The group appears to have only had one rifle. This is not enough for any group, there is no redundancy in the system and if the rifle fails, as appears to have done four times here then the entire group is defenseless. Everyone in Svalbard carried a rifle. When Hilary Clinton visited the CIA demanded that the Governor of Svalbard disarm all the people wandering through town with guns. He laughed at them
2. When camping in a small group people set out trip wires attached to flairs to scare the bears and alert the campers. With a larger group such as this one it is normal to post a guard with people taking two hours shifts. This appears not to have been done, despite the group being large enough for everyone to take a turn and still get some sleep. Why?
3. The trip wire system appears not to have worked. Why?
4. They were also carrying a flair gun that didn’t work. Its not looking very good guys
Lots of questions and none of them bring back the dead boy or diminish the impact of the tragedy. There have been several incidents in the last few years and it appears that the shrinking ice coverage means that the bears are unable to catch seals and are getting more and more desperate as they become more hungry. What ever the cause I hope that the BSES tighten up their act but I also hope that they don’t stop taking kids on wild adventures in very remote places.
04 August 2011
Obama gives in to the loony right - America is toast
So a minority group of gun totting, christian fundamentalists have hijacked America's democracy and held the country and indeed the World's economy to ransom. It's very depressing.
There is an interesting article in yesterday's Guardian highlighting that the vast majority of the Tea Party voters will not benefit in an any way from all the tax and spending cuts. Only the ultra-rich will. This is why they fund these campaigns. So the propoganda machine that is Fox news somehow manages to convince a bunch of very stupid people that "Christian values" mean not helping the sick and the poor but supporting the ultra-rich. If it wasn't so scary it would be funny.
Read the article and also take a look at these graphs below which come from an independant, bipartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (courtesy of Roy Fitz).
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There is an interesting article in yesterday's Guardian highlighting that the vast majority of the Tea Party voters will not benefit in an any way from all the tax and spending cuts. Only the ultra-rich will. This is why they fund these campaigns. So the propoganda machine that is Fox news somehow manages to convince a bunch of very stupid people that "Christian values" mean not helping the sick and the poor but supporting the ultra-rich. If it wasn't so scary it would be funny.
Read the article and also take a look at these graphs below which come from an independant, bipartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (courtesy of Roy Fitz).
02 August 2011
Roy and Viktorija's wedding in Vilnius
We spent a very pleasant long weekend in Vilnius for Roy and Viktorija's wedding. She is Lithuanian, he is half Welsh and half Finish and they both live in Norway. There was a lot of people who didn't really understand each other. And it didn't matter at all because everyone had a great time. There was much drinking and some very silly dancing that transcended language.
I have wanted to visit the Baltic States since they first appeared on a map in my 4th year history lesson (I was 14) and I thought "wow 3 European countries I have never heard of". That was 1981 and since then I heard a lot about them and there has been huge changes, but I have never quite made it out there. So this was the perfect oportunity.
And it was great, Vilnius is a small city with lots of amazing history and some really good bars and restuarants. The wedding was everything a wedding should be. Excellently planned with lots of nice details. Good to see Roy so happy and nice to catch up with some old friends.
All in all a top weeekend and Sophie has now visited more countries in her first six months than I managed by the age of 20.
I have wanted to visit the Baltic States since they first appeared on a map in my 4th year history lesson (I was 14) and I thought "wow 3 European countries I have never heard of". That was 1981 and since then I heard a lot about them and there has been huge changes, but I have never quite made it out there. So this was the perfect oportunity.
And it was great, Vilnius is a small city with lots of amazing history and some really good bars and restuarants. The wedding was everything a wedding should be. Excellently planned with lots of nice details. Good to see Roy so happy and nice to catch up with some old friends.
All in all a top weeekend and Sophie has now visited more countries in her first six months than I managed by the age of 20.
Interesting statues and churches in Vilnius
The Happy Couple
Newly wed couples lock an engraved padlock to a bridge and throw the key in the river
Lighting lanterns at midnight
The day after
All in all a rather nice city
24 July 2011
Anders Behring Breivik is above all a COWARD.
What kind of evil fuck detonates a huge bomb in a city centre and then heads to an island full of children and then sets about systematically murdering them? It is truely incomprehensible. Even the worst attrocites of the IRA or ETA don't come close. Nothing in the gun crazed US matches this and while the bombing of civillians in Iraq and Afganistein are equally tragic for the victims, they are not meticulously planned and callously executed by their own people. Maybe in the deepest darkest parts of war torn Congo, or in Rawanda such things have happened, but not in a quiet, peaceful and gentle country like Norway.
One thing that has not been said by anyone I have spoken to or read is that Anders Behring Breivik is above all a COWARD.
First he bombed a city centre, which in itself is a cowardly act. But even at the time this act didn't quite make sense. Anyone who knowns anything about Norway knows that the cities are empty and the mountain cabins are full in late July, especially on a Friday afternoon - it all seemed wrong?
And indeed it was wrong becuase the bomb was mearly a distraction, a clever decoy and while all eyes turned on the devestated town centre, Breivik drove two hours away, took a boat to a small island full of 700 kids on a youth camp. He then set about murdering them for the next hour. When the police arrived he immediately surendered.
All of this is so cowardly in every way! To kill unarmed people with a machine gun; to kill children, not even adults who might fight back. To give up as soon as the police arrived and not even kill himself. This man is utterly pathetic and as such a typical nazi bully.
Norway on the other hand has shown itself to be hugely dignified in the face of such loss. Many commentators were quick to predict the "end of the innocance" but I am not so sure. I think people here value the openess and trust of their society too much to let some evil Nazi coward take it all away. After 9/11 George "war-monger" Bush decleared that the United States would "hunt down and destroy the perpetrators", while after last Friday, Jens Stoltenberg said that "Norway would retaliate with more democracy".
And that is what is so great about Norway...
One thing that has not been said by anyone I have spoken to or read is that Anders Behring Breivik is above all a COWARD.
First he bombed a city centre, which in itself is a cowardly act. But even at the time this act didn't quite make sense. Anyone who knowns anything about Norway knows that the cities are empty and the mountain cabins are full in late July, especially on a Friday afternoon - it all seemed wrong?
And indeed it was wrong becuase the bomb was mearly a distraction, a clever decoy and while all eyes turned on the devestated town centre, Breivik drove two hours away, took a boat to a small island full of 700 kids on a youth camp. He then set about murdering them for the next hour. When the police arrived he immediately surendered.
All of this is so cowardly in every way! To kill unarmed people with a machine gun; to kill children, not even adults who might fight back. To give up as soon as the police arrived and not even kill himself. This man is utterly pathetic and as such a typical nazi bully.
Norway on the other hand has shown itself to be hugely dignified in the face of such loss. Many commentators were quick to predict the "end of the innocance" but I am not so sure. I think people here value the openess and trust of their society too much to let some evil Nazi coward take it all away. After 9/11 George "war-monger" Bush decleared that the United States would "hunt down and destroy the perpetrators", while after last Friday, Jens Stoltenberg said that "Norway would retaliate with more democracy".
And that is what is so great about Norway...
22 July 2011
Friday Joke - Condoms
Interesting piece of history.
The Arabs invented the condom in 700 BC, using a goat's lower intestine.
In 1873 the British somewhat refined the idea by taking the intestine out of the goat first.
Q. What does a rattlesnakes and a rubber have in common?
A. I know I don't wanna screw with either one of them.
Two old ladies were outside their nursing home, having a smoke when it started to rain. One of the ladies pulled out a condom, cut off the end, put it over her cigarette and continued smoking.
Lady 1: "What's that?"
Lady 2: "A condom. This way my cigarette doesn't get wet."
Lady 1: "Where did you get it?"
Lady 2: "You can get them at any drugstore."
The next day ... Lady 1 hobbles herself into the local drugstore and announces to the pharmacist that she wants a box of condoms. The guy looks at her kind of strangely (she is, after all, over 80 years of age), but politely asks what brand she prefers
Lady 1: "It doesn't matter as long as it fits a Camel."
The government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an eagle to a condom because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance. A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed.
The Arabs invented the condom in 700 BC, using a goat's lower intestine.
In 1873 the British somewhat refined the idea by taking the intestine out of the goat first.
Q. What does a rattlesnakes and a rubber have in common?
A. I know I don't wanna screw with either one of them.
Two old ladies were outside their nursing home, having a smoke when it started to rain. One of the ladies pulled out a condom, cut off the end, put it over her cigarette and continued smoking.
Lady 1: "What's that?"
Lady 2: "A condom. This way my cigarette doesn't get wet."
Lady 1: "Where did you get it?"
Lady 2: "You can get them at any drugstore."
The next day ... Lady 1 hobbles herself into the local drugstore and announces to the pharmacist that she wants a box of condoms. The guy looks at her kind of strangely (she is, after all, over 80 years of age), but politely asks what brand she prefers
Lady 1: "It doesn't matter as long as it fits a Camel."
The government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an eagle to a condom because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance. A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed.
20 July 2011
The Wednesday Whale
There were whales in Bergen harbour last weekend which was rather awesome.
A while ago I found this on the internet and forgot to post it. I think its pretty amazing and well worth watching.
It's a home movie by a group of fishermen who find a whale entagled in an old fishing net - its really rather moving, espeically the end. Enjoy.
A while ago I found this on the internet and forgot to post it. I think its pretty amazing and well worth watching.
It's a home movie by a group of fishermen who find a whale entagled in an old fishing net - its really rather moving, espeically the end. Enjoy.
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