Somewhere out in the great abyss of space, an alien may be jamming to Chuck Berry this very moment. Now, earthlings can buy the very same record.
The Washington Post reports that startup Ozma Records is poised to begin shipping copies of the famed Golden Record that NASA sent into space aboard the two Voyager spacecrafts in 1977.
The original records, made of copper and coated in gold to withstand the rigors of space, contain the music of Berry, Beethoven, and others, along with various greetings and animal sounds from Earth.
part is the need for land by the hungry, but I know in Africa, the problem was that usually the farm fields got lower yields with time, so they were left fallow for the cattle and goats, while the village moved to better land, burned it off, and then planted new fields.
With the increase in population, of course, the land got over used and ended up a desert. This was especially true when corn was grown.
The answer? Fertilizer.
this guy is pushing fonio: a Sahel crop....but no answer on what is the yield? I don't know much about the Sahel, but there are a lot of different ways to try to get things growing there... the problem is that many of the tribes are goat and cattle raising types, and they have a long history of destroying the crops of the local farmers so they can graze their cattle. StrategyPage report on this in Nigeria, about the casualties of this traditional range war, complicated by the fact that the herders are Muslim and the farmers are traditional or Christian...
Our people in Zimbabwe grew sorghum and other crops that grew better with drought, as a back up if there wasn't enough rain for corn. But the yield was lower... and there are other traditional African crops of course.
I should note that in smaller gardens the women grew peanuts and ground nuts as natural fertilizer, and also grew squash, between the corn plants. And could use the crops for their own use. But because plowing required an ox, the men usually plowed the larger fields which supplied most of the family's food.
Of course, nowadays, men in Africa have long been encouraged to migrate to cities or work in mines, disrupting the family, since they live in dormitories, and the wives are left behind to care for the family's land, which is owned by the tribe, not by the family: if no one is left home to tend the land, it is taken from them to give to someone else. Also since there is no social security, the men need the family to keep the land so they can retire back to their villages.
Am I the only one who notices how modern society destroys family life by separating families?
On the other hand, as the saying goes: How do you keep them down on the farm after they see Paree? Who wants to slave hoeing in the fields 12 hours a day when you can work 8 hours in a factory and go home and watch TV or drink and sing kareoke with your friends at the local bar?
Here in the Philippines, ten percent of our people work overseas, and often the kids are raised by extended family.
But even in China, the kids are left behind in rural areas when the parents work in the city, because government rules limit who can live in the cities...Wikipedia article
The earthquake in Alaska caused a tsunami scare in Vancouver Island, so Ruby's school evacuated in the middle of the night to go to higher ground.
A false alarm, thank God.
Joy will go to Manila tomorrow to renew my visa.
Chano is discussing bringing his mom here since she is old and needs a nursing home but refuses to go to one.
Sigh.
Me? I am fine.
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update: No, the Mayon volcano is far to the south of our area so we are not affected.
we have lots of volcanoes, and the one outside our window is inactive.... but we are not that far from Mt Pinatubo, but the mountains made the lava flows head toward Clark AFB, not our area.
Here is a wikipedia map of volcanoes, most of them not active, and a couple of them quite near to Manila...such as Taal, which smokes now and then and killed some folks back in 1966
Aid organizations estimate that 13 million people in Congo require some type of humanitarian assistance, primarily food and medical aid. A third of the 13 million are IDPs (internally displaced people)..
lots of depressing information about the wars and conflicts etc. in that area of the world.
and then goes on to point out corruption in Angola:
Meanwhile, in Angola, the new government's crackdown on corruption continues -- and at times it looks like an attack on the old regime. President Joao Lourenco has replaced Isabel Dos Santos as head of the national oil company, Sonangol. She is the daughter of former president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. She is very rich with an estimated worth of $2.5 billion. Dos Santos was president of 38 years.
Again, people are urged to give money to charities to help people, but who is condemning the corruption that steals the wealth from the people?
However, not all the news is bad: Volkswagon plans a factory to make cars in Rwanda.
Volkswagen confirmed that in the second quarter of 2018 it will begin manufacturing cars in Rwanda. The first Rwanda-made vehicles may be available by late May. The manufacturing deal has been in the works since December 2016. According to senior management, Volkswagen chose Rwanda as a manufacturing site because the country has political stability, does not tolerate corruption, has a growth rate of almost seven percent a year and "a young and tech savvy population."
Yes, Rwanda of the major genocides, but which since then has tried to make peace among factions by promoting... forgiveness.
part of the scandal was that both sides included nominal Christians, and unlike previous massacres, those hiding in churches were killed.
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and when the Abus/ISIS types took over a city in the southern Philippines last year, a lot of Muslims hid their Christian neighbors when the invaders started killing the Christians who weren't able to get out in time.
in Yemen, the Saudi bombings killed many people, but the many massacres by the Houthi militia get less publicity (because the left can't blame the west like they can for the Saudi bombings, and of course, because the press can't get in there to report what is actually going on).
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civilian deaths in Syria as a side effect of being bombed, from artillery fire, from disease, or being starved out by blockades are too many to list. But Wikipedia (duh) has a list of actual massacres.
I say "duh" because although some of those listed are actual massacres of the innocent, sometimes when an army goes in to liberate an area, they round up all the suspicious men and kill them, figuring they probably are soldiers hiding out among civilians, and they don't have the time or logistics to capture them as POWs.
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I wrote about the Karen and Rohingye in previous posts.
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and the genocide that no body wants to know about: the many dead from disease and hunger related problems among the refugees from the various wars in Central Africa: the Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, and of course Somalia.
Sigh. The dirty little secret is that nobody wants to get in the middle of that fight, or accept some of the five million uneducated refugees from that area of the world. ;-(
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in contrast, for the US, the problem behind the flow of Mexican and Central American refugees is the love of drugs by too many in the USA (where are the bishops and pastors on this? Anyone? Anyone?)
This results in narco terror.
Once locals get tired of it, they can elect a government that gets rid of the murderers (a couple million Colombians demonstrated against FARC, and this was the point the war against their terrorist narco gangs actually turned around).
and one could say that the deplorables voting for Trumpie boy was a similar populist outcry.
Too bad a lot of very nice hard working people are being caught in the crossfire of politicians who play memes and games against each other than discussing the real problem that worry ordinary folks.
I add Central America to all of this, because despite drug violence, Mexico's economy is getting better and a lot of folks are going home...So a lot of those crossing the US border in recent years illegally are from other countries.
the murders in Mexico and Central America are bad, but not quite the same thing as war level violence.
Of course, these countries could decide to get rid of their gangs, but given the bad press against Duterte who is actually trying to clean up the criminal elements "dirty Harry" style, you can see why maybe the politicians might chose the silver over the bullet, as the saying goes.
But you are just as dead if you are killed by a murderous drug gang or by a robber hopped up on meth as you are if you are killed in a war: and in his last months, President Obama made it easier for them to do so.
so why deport those fleeing violence? Because some of the violence comes with them.
Dirty little secret: one reason Trumpie boy might win the war to stop the flow of illegal immigrants is because middle America is being infiltrated with drugs and gang violence, and they are saying stop them.
The bad news: If things don't clear up, the next step is Dirty Harry or worse.
Sigh.
So shut down the government and shout memes? Well it worked for Clinton's propaganda machine in the 1990's, but this time we have an alternative media for different points of view, and of course most folks are saying a pox on both your houses.
much of the recycled stuff, mainly plastic, went to China in the past.
The Chinese government says it is concerned about hazardous materials mixed with the waste the country imports to recycle
interesting article.
Here, plastic bags are thown and and clog the sewers (getting better now that there are waste containers on the street and the drainage ditches are covered).
But poor people collect the pastic bottles (and glass ones) to sell to recylers.
You can drop lithium batteries off at the mall (don't know about regular ones).
it is dawning on scientists like her that rice, one of the most widely consumed foods in the world, is also one of nature’s great scavengers of metallic compounds....
it’s not just arsenic and cadmium...Recent studies have shown that rice is custom-built to pull a number of metals from the soil, among them mercury and even tungsten...
The highest levels often occur in brown rice, because elements like arsenic accumulate in bran and husk, which are polished off in the processing of white rice.
and we grow organic brown rice. UhOh.
It is hard to find the old fashioned type of light bulbs here, and although we are busy replacing our flourescent type light bulbs with LED types, they cost too much for the poor. And the poor tend to throw trash in the irrigation ditches or the vacant lots.
so where are the light bulbs being discarded?
Unlike plastic bags, I don't usually see them in our trash bins or in the vacant lots, but I do wonder if this might be a problem in the near future in poor rice eating countries.
he has several lecture series at the Modern scholar, and some of them can be found posted on line (until the copyright cops find it), as can individual lectures at Youtube.
his lectures on modern fantasy books is here:
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---and then there is his lecture series on the Anglo Saxon world.
A Boston native who was a cameraman who traveled all over the world "killed himself" in jail after being accused of child pornography in Cebu.
He was a "humanitarian" and a victim of "extra judicial killing" cries his family (!).
and because he is a Yank, and because some people knew his work, he will be assumed to be a victim of the Evil Duterte's extra judicial killings here.
I should also note that certain people are not above threatening foreigners for arrest for fake crimes (so that they can be given a gift to have the cops/officials let them go).
In this case, however, there was some evidence he was involved in filming cyberporn involving kids:
The NBI arrested Phinney following a report from the Provincial Women’s Commission (PWC).
Authorities rescued an eight-year-old girl at his apartment in Talisay City and found dolls and teddy bears clad in bikinis. They also confiscated mobile phones, a tablet, laptop, hard drive, a high-end camera, and lenses.
Among the pieces of evidence NBI holds is a photograph of a men’s room, which has a cabinet filled with clothes for little girls.
The Provincial Women's Commission is a local human rights group who helps abused women and children. So it's not like the local cops just targeted him as a possible source of being blackmailed because he was a Yank: they were following up on complaints.
Reality check please:
The dirty little secret is the Philippines sex industry. (one reason the leftists wanted to get rid of American military bases). There was a kerfuffle a few years back when the US Ambassador was quoted in a Wikileaks leak that 40% of male tourists came here for sex.
Deakin’s arrest on April 20 shows one of the darkest corners of the internet, where pedophiles in the United States, Europe and elsewhere pay facilitators in the Philippines to sexually abuse children, even babies, directing their moves through online livestreaming services.
This relatively new crime, webcam sex tourism, is spreading rapidly.
The United Nations describes “alarming growth of new forms of child sexual exploitation online.”
The FBI says it’s epidemic, and that at any given moment, 750,000 child predators are online.
Almost every case stems from the Philippines, where good English speakers, increased internet connections and widespread international cash transfer systems combine with widespread poverty and easy access to vulnerable kids.
There have been as many as three busts a week in the Philippines this spring. The youngest victim ever, rescued a few weeks ago, was an infant, 2 months old. Most are under 12.
one answer might be to figure out what was he doing in Cebu? Working for a legitimate film company? How long had he been in Cebu: visitor visa (3 weeks) or long term visa? Living there while his family resides in the USA?
What about his bank account? Follow the money.
And in a country where a little gift will lead to the cops/authorities to look the other way, and the legal system might take years to convict you (if you don't flee the country while out on bail), you can see why certain criminals are vulnerable to "EJK", if not by off duty cops, then by their fellow prisoners.
the bible notes certain crimes that cry to heaven for justice, and most folks figure abusing a child (especially sexually abuse of a child) is one of them.
It's a dirty little secret that similar killings of child molesters is common in US Jails. (often they are kept in solitary confinement for their own protection).
But here in the Philippines, there is another problem: The ability of the rich and powerful to subvert justice via repeated delays and then get the case thrown out of court.
and our family knows from experience about justice: The killers behind the political hit that killed our nephew in the crossfire were arrested fairly quickly, but the politician behind the hit died ten years later (under indictment) in his bed, and was buried in a Catholic funeral, complete with the KofC honor guard.
so when Duterte started the drug war, a lot of folks sought justice the old fashioned way. (we were offered this but like DelToro's family, we declined).
Sigh.
no, I am not approving of EJK's, but I understand why 70 percent of Filipinos still support Duterte despite all the murders going on.
It's the corruption stupid.
Gambia's expresident is fighting extradition for his crimes.
Follow the money. when he fled, he took the government's money with him, along with all of his Bentlys and Rolls Royces.
Aides of Mr Barrow (the new president who threw him out) said at least GBP 8.8 million was missing, a considerable sum for a country of just 1.9 million people.
nor was he the only dictator to do so:
Mr Jammeh is the latest in a series of dictators to flee abroad with suitcases of state treasure. Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife allegedly flew out of Tunisia in 2011 with 1.5 tonnes of gold bars purloined from the central bank, while Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos left the Philippines with 24 suitcases of gold bricks and 22 crates of cash.
the Philippines has been suing to get that money back, but of course, Marcos' family claims it was not stolen from the Philippine people, but Yamashita's gold (i.e. stolen by the Japanese from Malaysia etc. and hidden and found by a gentleman named Roxas and then stolen from him by Marcos).
Here is a list of ten similar dictators who looted their countries to get rich... hmm. they left out Hugo Chavez and a lot of other guys.
But you can see why I am sarcastic when the Pope condemns ordinary folks who try to live quietly and follow the rules while staying silent on corruption, be it sexual or money, especially if these bozos are PC.
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Speaking of the Philippines: StrategyPage has an article on our lovely country, including a lot of stuff about China's sea grab of the west Philippines sea.
The Chinese first tried to buy (bribe Gloria via the ZTE scandal) to get the Spratlys, then they simply moved into the area while Aquino was president, and President Obama told him not to oppose their aggression but take it to court. Now they are dug in (litereally: They destroyed the reef and ecology to build artificial islands which are now armed) and then Duterte is criticized for making nice with China.
n late 2017 China appeared to have succeeded in buying cooperation from the Philippines. The Filipino government is willing to accept all the legal gifts (aid, investment, loans) China offers in return for the Philippines not resisting Chinese claims in the South China Sea.
President Duterte pointed out earlier in 2017 that China threatened war if the Philippines went ahead with plans to drill for oil in offshore areas that international law recognizes as Filipino but that China claims actually belongs to them.
Duterte openly criticizes other nations for not confronting China and sees no point in the Philippines trying to take on China by itself or at least not without a massive amount of support.
Obama talked about stopping this, but actually did nothing. Has anyone followed the money here to explain why the US didn't help the Philippines? or was he just a naive pacifist?
and now, nothing short of a shooting war will get China out of the Spratlys. And in the long term, they are aiming at Luzon: something sometimes discussed in their media but ignored in the western media...
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SPage also has a discussion of Russia in the world. Bookmarked for later reading.
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The annual Fajr International Music Festival held in Tehran dedicated some of its musical selections to the November quake victims of Iranian Kurdistan as well as some 30 Iranian seafarers who went missing when their oil tanker collided with a cargo ship off of the coast of China earlier this month..
A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Iraq-Iran border in November killing 620 people and wounding another 12,000 in Iranian Kurdistan. It also left many homeless due to collapsed or damaged infrastructure. The November 11 earthquake was the world’s deadliest in 2017..
I knew about the tanker accident which caused a huge oil spill, but that earthquake didn't get a lot of publicity.
Right now I have been slogging through a book (on Scribd) about Russia's expansion into Central Asia, which was seen as needed due to the history of the Asian destruction of the Russia via the Mongols, Golden Hoarde etc. and their push back in the early modern period. In other words, while western Europe was pushing into the Americas, Russia was pushing past the Urals with exploration and settlement.
This expansion resulted in their takeover of Siberia, and ultimately to take over Alaska.
John Bachelor has a podcast series about the new book on Bering's exploration party.
Fine and dandy. And in fact, the article notes that they indeed have allowed in a lot of refugees: From (socialist) Venezuela and also from Haiti, but locals are starting to say "NO"...
Chile has accepted waves of immigrants in recent years, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing their troubled country and Haitians seeking better lives. The policy has created political controversy. A recent poll by CEP, a think tank in Santiago, indicated that 2 of every 5 Chileans believe the newcomers are the source of rising crime, a thesis that police say has no basis in fact.
Many Chileans favor opening their borders, especially to Venezuelans, an indication of the debt many feel to the country that accepted thousands of Chileans exiled in the 1970s by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
But President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office in March, ran a campaign promising to take a tougher line on immigration than current President Michelle Bachelet.
The UKGuardian has an article on Venezuelan refugees who have fled to Colombia. And again, the rolls are reversed as Colombia is now at peace and the economy is booming, whereas in Venezuela, the government's policies (and low oil prices) have collapsed their economy.
The current wave reverses a previous wave of movement between the two countries: millions of Colombians headed to Venezuela in the 1970s and 80s.
At the time, Venezuela was rich with oil dollars and Colombia wracked the civil war and cartel violence. Nowadays, a cratering economy and rampant crime have made daily life untenable for many ordinary Venezuelans.
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A lot of the refugees are the result of corruption: you know the stuff that the old testament prophets tended to be a bit critical about? So
if I am cynical about the Pope, it is because ethics is in the Pope's job description last time I looked, but he prefers to emphasize trendier than thou memes of the world.
"who am I to judge" was a green light to sexual sociopaths of all sexual orientation.. (his remark, contrary to the press meme, was about a repentant pedophile who he let go back to work, not about all gays)... and that is why all those folks in Chile who are demonstrating against his hypocrisy.
(guess he hasn't noticed the #metoo memes of women who were harmed by sexual predators either).
Zimbabwe's new president says they are now "open for business" and your money/investments will be safe there. (i.e. not in danger of being confiscated by the government for redistribution to the president's political cronies, as happened under Mugabe).
and he is going to Davos to make friends with the money people.
if he actually does this, the country could boom: like the Philippines, the educated often have left to work overseas, but could come back to help run things if they were recruited. And of course, the mines and agribusinesses could thrive again.
“For the most part, contemporary stereotypes of women in modern industrial countries perceive women as enjoying shopping more than men. Our research provides evidence that this popular stereotype exists because most shopping activities have a greater similarity to women’s traditional activities of foraging and gathering than they do to men’s traditional activity of hunting. The results of our study show that shopping has significantly more in common with gathering than it does with hunting.”
Microwaves usage across the EU alone emits as much carbon dioxide as nearly seven million cars according to a new study by The University of Manchester...
The study found:
Microwaves emit 7.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year in the EU. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of 6.8 million cars.
but then they will come for your meat and eggs: because cattle produce methane, a stronger greenhouse gas than CO2..
so what should you eat? Go Vegan: eat organically grown brown rice.
