Have they not done this before?

Here.

The 1908 Tunguska Event in Siberia

The 'Tunguska Event' as it is known occurred over a large area of Siberia. An area of over 800 square miles was flattened with trees (about 80 million of them) felled in specific directions. The long held (but unproven) belief/theory from the 1930's is that it was the result of a meteorite or comet particle consisting predominantly of ice and dust entering the earths atmosphere and exploding before impact in the atmosphere. There was no impact crater and little evidence to be found of any object responsible for the huge blast.

Now, thanks to the exhaust plume of the Space Shuttle being studied, a rational explanation for the cause has been established. The water vapour generated by the Space Shuttle is some 300 tons. This disperses throughout the atmosphere and forms noctilucent clouds; formed at high altitude (the mesosphere) and in extreme cold temperatures. This type of cloud was noticed and studied at the time of the event.

Several conspiracy theories exist regarding the event but the NASA research appears to have found a plauisble explanation for the event... here.

Related to it possibly is Lake Cheko which is a crater lake from the same time period and in the tragectory path of the comet.

GAZPROM - What's in a name?

Clearly someone at Gazprom marketing needs to do a re-think of their joint venture in Nigeria... here. Thanks to DF for this one.

Economic Downturn - Odd story

The economic downturn has brought some interesting stories to the news.

This one has to be my favourite. It is almost Keystone Kops in nature. Were it not so serious I would be laughing harder... here. I love the bit about being hit with a Zimmer frame.

Crop Circles - The answer at last!!!

Here.

World Drug Report 2009

The United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have released the most recent report on drugs; World Drug Report 2009. There is a PDF available here (PDF) of the full report. There are some interesting stats and information included in the report and the BBC has some further insight (heavily loaded with a lot of the mantras repeated regarding the increased strength of marijuana and so on) here.

The WDR has a lot of good and sound common sense regarding where nations should be focusing e.g., "Drug addiction is a health condition: people who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution.". & "The problem can only be solved by addressing the problem of slums and dereliction in our cities, through renewal of infrastructures and investment in people – especially by assisting the youth, who are vulnerable to drugs and crime, with education, jobs and sport."

It is unfortunate that there is some fairly heavy moral rhetoric within the document. The sentence immediately following the second above is "Ghettos do not create junkies and the jobless: it is often the other way around." WTF? Ghettos arise where people have little social choice. Yes, with the jobless having no money, taxes are not paid and investment in infrastructure declines. The end result is people with money leave and then you have a vicious cycle that is self-perpetuating. It does not necessarily arise as the result of junkies. The impact of drugs in social structures is clearly understood. It is bad. What is worse though is bundling all drugs together as being the cause and effect.

The Preface is somewhat difficult to take. Antonia Maria Costa, the Executive Director of UNODC makes some sweeping generalisations and bold statements. The content of the report itself is interesting although heavily loaded statistically when, laudible and accurate as it states by counting 'drug use' as 'at least once', the graphs used (and subsequently cherry-picked by the media) appear to paint an alarming picture. I have yet to fully absorb the content of this document so I may have to revise some of my statements here at a later date. However, there is a graph shown on the BBC web page that shows an apparent near doubling of drug related crime. It does not qualify with the graph how these are categorised or what impact specific drug enforcement actions have/may have had on those statistics. Similarly, I have not yet seen the inclusion of alcohol in the drug list. When compared with the 'drug use' statistics using the same all inclusive method I am sure the 'alcohol use' statistics would make them pale into relative insignificance.

The key point here is the need to distinguish and clarify the difference between 'use' and 'abuse'. Without this measure it is impossible to determine the true nature of drug use/abuse and its significance in relation to other social behaviours. Note that I have not said 'drug problem'. Without measures and comparison with other behaviours deemed 'anti-social', it is impossible to make sweeping usage statements. One of the BBC statements relates to the increased potency of cannabis:

"It is also a drug that is increasing in potency. In the last decade, the amount of THC (the harmful component) found in marijuana from North America - grown using the latest techniques - has almost doubled."

Compare this perhaps with a car manufacturer increasing the highest speed ('the harmful component') available in a car using the latest techniques. It is also important to note that there are clear statements relating to data issues making it difficult to state with certainty some of the statements made. There are many useful (pretty?) graphics and lots of data presented against some fairly sweeping statements both 'good' and 'bad'. e.g.,

"There is a high degree of uncertainty in estimating cul-
tivation and production of cannabis, and manufacture
of ATS. These two drugs can be produced virtually any-
where; this makes systematic and comprehensive moni-
toring difficult. Considering the data currently available,
global estimates of cannabis cultivation and ATS manu-
facture have been made on the basis of information on
the number of users (and their estimated annual con-
sumption), and seizures."

It is not clear if this also includes 'at least once' users.

In the report's defence (well sort of ) they are very open on this. What is disturbing is the almost throwaway statement:

"In order to produce reliable and comparable national, regional and global estimates, a number of assumptions and adjustments often need to be made. This year the Report explicitly addresses the question of uncertainty, and an attempt has been made to make the statistics more transparent."

I am not sure I would use the word 'reliable' along with 'estimates', 'assumptions', and 'adjustments'. Time will tell with further reading...

Once I have absorbed the information further, I will update this.

Coffee Stencils

I like to DRINK my coffee not make a statement. Similarly, when I drink Guinness I want to drink it and not have some artsy bar person decorating it.

Here.

Tattoo you

Kimberley



Mr. Toumaniantz

Eventually the truth comes out. It would appear that she DID ask for the 56 stars to be tattooed on her face. Here.

No comment re the story required.

George W. Bush - In retrospect

I found this incredibly detailed list of the Bush era transgressions here.

Dobermann

Dobermann is one of my all time favourite films. Many thanks to DJ for introducing this to me. It is one of those movies that you can revisit time and again. It's all in French and the copy I have has no subtitles. No problem. The movie is a fairly basic (though complex) bank robbery come shoot-out in the style of Heat. However, the movie has a darker 'arty' side and the director Jan Kounen takes you on a visual and mental roller-coaster ride of darkness and weirdness toward the end of the movie. He is often compared to Tarantino but it is much darker and rather more artistic.

Here are some reader comments on IMDB. One for the guys to sit around and have beers to. Certainly not a ladies 'Hugh grant' movie. Thoroughly enjoyable and witty.

That's not really what I wanted to write about though. The Directors Cut is a must have for any movie buff as it comes with an additional DVD which includes several works by the director or including several of the actors from the movie itself. Very, very, dark and very good. One of my favourites is a very bizarre Little Red Riding Hood Story "Le dernier Chaperon Rouge". From the IMDB site, here is a reader comment that just about sums it up. It cannot possibly do justice to the visual beauty of this short movie:

"Here is an extraordinary garden where the boletus mushrooms, the chanterelle mushrooms, the death-cup mushrooms, rabbits and brambles dance and sing to music coming from nowhere. But in this garden there is also a rocket underground in which a crooked-legged old dancer regains the grace she once had. The little red riding hoods are the unwitting providers of healthy legs. By the orders of a witch, they have all been made to disappear by a monster surgeon. All except one, the last little red riding hood, who is lusted after by the big bad wolf, who is definitely not going to have this desirable bit of loot stolen from him."

I've mentioned LRRH before here. The additional DVD has one of my favourite short movies from this set "Capitaine X" along with several notable shorts to make your mind race and wonder what exactly you have been taking.

News recently is that there is now an updated version of the movie available here with optional English subtitles and reworked to a correct aspect ratio and with a remastering of the original. It is also region free. the link includes a reasonably good plot summary. Not for the squeamish at all.

iPhone Tracker

Thanks to Dimi for this interesting story re the iPhone and the FindMyiPhone software. Here.

Why were you late for work?

Cracked.com held a PS competition for the best visual excuse... here.

Odder than an odd persons odd thing

Here.

Political Protest...

... is considered "low-level terrorism" here.

Phoenix - Lisztomania

I will say it again, this has to be one of the most 'up' pieces of music I have heard in a long time. I have already featured the 'Brat Pack' mix here.

This link is the video from their MySpace page. Here.

The i-Movix SpeedCam

Thanks to Dimi for this one.

Here is a super high speed frame rate film. The jelly is actually filmed with a Phantom HD camera at 2,500 frames per second. Here.



Here are a selection of the movies using the Phantom.