We told ya so….

“We” being the blogsphere and right of centre types for the most part who were asking: "Who in their right mind would want Libya on the UN’s Human Rights Council?" It’s like giving the keys to the henhouse to a hungry fox. Speaking of Fox, they asked back in May 2010 “WTF” is the UN smoking appointing this nutbar to the UNHRC.

Now that he is machine gunning, bombing and executing his own people with wild abandon, the UNHRC ask that Libya be suspended from it’s ranks, a little late as even Libya’s diplomats have resigned and told Ghadhafi he was a nutbar. (I reserve judgement on their flip-flop, it’s quite possible that the nutbar had their relatives held as “guests” to ensure compliance overseas.)

But all is not lost for the supporters of hypocrisy and the UN (but I repeat myself) Iran who was not chosen for a seat at the esteemed UNHCR, still got a seat on the UN’s Woman’s Commission. Seriously what could possible go wrong with that?

U.S. vs Canada: Suicide Edition

Here is an interesting look at suicides in Canada and the US, the long and skinny of it is that method has little effect on the rates. Anti-firearm types always claim that restrictive gun laws reduce suicide by gun, well they are telling the truth, only it’s a tiny slice of the truth, what really happens is that the people who wish to commit suicide will do it anyways.
I did Search and Rescue for the Coast Guard, I got to watch far to many people jump off of bridges and what a sudden impact with water does to the human body is not worth thinking about, even worse when they live for a couple of days after that. It’s also hard when the body is not found and the family can not have closure. We once rescued the same guy out of the Fraser river two days in a row. They would send him to hospital and they would release him, on the third day he went missing, wouldn’t be surprised if he was the donor of one of those missing feet. If you really care about suicide rates, forget method and go after the causes. The only thing that stops a person from taking their life from what I have seen is a strong interaction with empathetic person.



So on the whole then, the U.S. and Canada would appear to be very similar to one another where deaths caused by self-inflicted injuries are concerned. If Canada's population were identical to the United States, it would likely see the same number of suicides each year, or actually a bit more than that, given its slightly higher suicide rate.

Things change dramatically however when we consider the methods by which people in the U.S. and Canada have committed suicide in the years from 2000 through 2007

Read the rest at Political Calculations

Look! Is it a bird? A plane? No it’s neither!

This is very cool tech, copying the hummingbird does offer a lot of advantages in regards to stealth, manoeuvrability and size. It would be interesting to see what are the power consumption rates for the wings compared to a more traditional rotor. I suspect flight endurance times are likely between 5-10 minutes. Article on it here.

I took part in UAV trials for the Canadian military back in the mid 80's in CFB Suffield, Alberta, back then they were called "RPV's" I don't think the program every got anywhere but it sure was interesting.

Walmart is selling camera equipped helicopters for around $69, quite amazing how cost efficent the tech is now. I'm sure by next year they will be twice as good! If you plan on buying a small helicopter, you can choose from IR (Infrared) or RC (Radio Controlled) RC gives you better control, but costs almost double. I bought this one and am having a lot of fun with it, mind Zeus does not think much of it!!


You can see more about it at Cobratoys

John Cleese selling computers

Can you imagine the advertising types going for this style of selling nowadays?

How is that gun amnesty working for you?

source: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-056.pdf

Now go listen to these newsreels
1961 newsreel
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=42638
1968 newsreel
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=45147

Sticker shock

The next time you think food prices are high in your area, just think of the poor souls up North. Shipping costs are going up, which means so does food prices. There are some subsidies that help reduce the price, but that is changing. More here at CBC. Pictures courtesy of markcoatsworth's photostream



Semi-related the price of chilies go up in Indonesia, no doubt the blame will fall on Harper and his Neo-Cons for that as well.

Speaking of eggs on face

I to have to get a napkin, earlier I posted a picture and text on one of the hulks in Powell river used to protect the mill as a breakwater. The history of the hulks is fascinating as many are made out of concrete and one dates back to WWI. In my haste I used copyrighted material which I should have asked permission prior. Upon request of the owner I took the post down and apologized. However his blog has excellent pictures of the vessel and the marine going on in the area around Powell River , I encourage readers to visit it. Powell River Blog

Egg on many faces

So Mubarak just resigned. The CIA chief said he would, but then he didn’t and now he has, in the meantime the blogosphere chewed into the CIA chief pretty good. I have avoided posting on the subject, because any predication can easily end up wrong in such a dynamic event without full access to the inner workings.
How will this play out? The army seems to be still in full control, but carefully allowing the people to vent. From my reading the army can control the supplies of vehicle gas, cooking gas and bread, which means they have significant control over the poor. Now can they offer just enough to take the steam out of the protests without a major clash or will the protesters try for whole works? So far the army has played their cards carefully allowing the Interior ministry and the police to be the focus of hate for the protests. However if the protesters threaten the “rice bowls” of the army, thing may get nasty in a hurry.
Whenever stuff happens over in the Middle East there are a few places I go to get perspective and as always Michael Totten delivers with his interview with Abbas Milani about the Iranian Revolt in 1979. I have to admit that based on my own encounters with radical Muslims and the history of the M.E. I fear the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). They may be small but they are organized, determined to rise in power and have the infrastructure to magnify their power well beyond their numbers. They will likely be able to tap into the sympathy of the poor more readily than the current drivers of the revolt. I think the goals of the MB is to grab a share of power and seat at the table. Once there they will work long term to take over the power centre’s within the country. I hope I am wrong, for the sake of the Egyptian people.

Michaels interview can be found here

Abbas Milani, like most educated Iranians, detested the Shah’s tyrannical regime that ruled over his homeland until it was overthrown in 1979 by a coalition of liberals, leftists, and Islamists. Unlike the vast majority of the liberals and leftists, however, Milani knew in advance what the Islamists were up to. The Shah had cast him into the dungeon at the notorious Evin Prison and for six months his cell mates were the ideological and physical brutes who later would found the Islamic Republic.

Today Milani is the director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. His new book The Shah was published a few weeks ago by Palgrave MacMillan. I sat down with him in his office at the Hoover Institution to talk about what’s happening right now in Egypt.

I hope the future of Eygpt has more of this


But I can't help to remember that persecution on Coptics was the norm just weeks ago.

Kittens for Christy

Voter turnout has been dropping for sometime. However the BC Liberal leadership hopeful’s have come up with some creative ways to deal with this including “Interspecies voting” and signing up hockey teams without their knowledge. Clearly the news percolated through the grapevine, because before the story broke someone setup a website mocking the signup of the cat. Now the party is trying damage control claiming it must respect the privacy of the cat (perhaps duress was used to get the cat to sign up and they fear a lawsuit?)

I spoke to Zeus to get an opinion on this and he responded by hacking up a hairball, which pretty well sums up my opinion of the BC Liberals and their way of doing business.

Doing Norrish Creek

Norrish Oct 11 2010 from FVWW on Vimeo.

This is helmet cam footage of a kayakers doing Norrish Creek posted on Fraservalleywhitewater.com in BC near Mission. This gives you an idea of what the more difficult white water (Class III-IV) looks like. You can also see how important having buddies around are, particular ones practiced in river rescue.

More on the creek at Liquidlore.com






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