Thursday, March 31, 2011

LIFE in even the most impoverished parts of the world has improved a lot, British economist Charles Kenny says in a new book.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

ANTI-NUCLEAR POWER HYSTERIA and its significant contribution to global warming.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

WHY the New York Times is deluded regarding the paywall, in just one chart.

BARACK W. OBAMA. Some change, huh?

FREEDOM'S PARADISE, HUH? "Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years."

AP fisks Obama's remarks on Libya yesterday.

Monday, March 28, 2011

A LITTLE QUIZ GAME for a Monday morning: compare the media breathless reports that the radiation at Fukushima was 10 million times above normal with the correction, since it was all an error.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

THE REAL DANGER for the people living near Fukushima:
Residents living in the vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear plant face some considerable cancer risks during coming decades. They will come primarily from cigarettes, red meat, alcohol and salty foods. These should hardly be called risks, since each will definitely cause tens of thousands of new cancer cases every single year throughout Japan.
Read the rest.

UPDATE. Sorry, had "news" instead of "near" earlier. My bad.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

YOU'LL SEE how most of the people who said that al-Qaeda was in Iraq only after the invasion and because of it (as a reaction) will stay mum now: "Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime."

Friday, March 25, 2011

ON THE OTHER HAND...:
Spain's struggling saving's banks, or cajas, have held talks with major hedge funds and private equity groups to try to raise 15 billion euros ($21 billion) in fresh capital to avoid a bail-out, the Financial Times said on Friday.

U.S. hedge fund Paulson & Co and buy-out groups Cerberus CBS.UL and Apax Partners APAX.UL have held meetings with several cajas to discuss possible investments, the paper said.

The talks by Bankia, Banca Civica and smaller rivals stalled because of the low valuations offered by foreign investors, the FT said, citing unnamed bankers and investors.

WHY Portugal won't necessarily bring down Spain.

HOW TO TAMPER with the curve to hide the temperature decline. (via)

Monday, March 21, 2011

THE REAL COST of green energies here: a disaster in other places. But we sleep tight at night, with our conscience in peace... because we don't see it: "This toxic lake poisons Chinese farmers, their children and their land. It is what's left behind after making the magnets for Britain's latest wind turbines... and, as a special Live investigation reveals, is merely one of a multitude of environmental sins committed in the name of our new green Jerusalem."

Sunday, March 20, 2011

RULES for discussions.

I KNOW that everyone is now focused on Libya and the media have virtually forgotten Japan now that it looks like the Apocalypse will have to wait a bit more. But I can't pass pointing out this awesome chart about radiation doses and health effects.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER turns cowboy.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE (MUST CREDIT): an intelligence operative infiltrated in Ghadaffi's entourage has sent exclusively to Barcepundit the method that the Libyan dictator is planning to use to gather the sympathy of the world's public opinion. You can't deny the guy knows what he's doing; this will certainly work...

(note: image can be used provided attribution is given by mentioning and linking to Barcepundit)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Friday, March 18, 2011

Thursday, March 17, 2011

SPANIARD JAVI LAVANDEIRA from Tokyo:
[W]estern media is spreading fear and lots, lots of bullshit among our families and friends, because being alarmists brings them advertising money.
Because of this, family and friends are pressuring those of us who stay in Tokyo to leave the city. This is causing trouble for many of us.

To the media:

For f-ck’s sake, please stop publishing crap in order to bring more viewers (and therefore, more advertising money) to your publications/programs/whatever. What you’re doing is just taking advantage of this situation in order to try and make some money at the expense of everybody who knows someone in Japan. You’re causing more trouble to us than the earthquake did!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

THE WEB IS DEAD? Blogs and RSS are also dead, as so many 'visionaries' are preaching? Good, says Seth Godin:
Dead means that they are no longer interesting to the drive-by technorati. Dead means that the curiousity factor has been satisfied, that people have gotten the joke.

These people rarely do anything of much value, though.

Great music wasn't created by the first people to grab an electric guitar or a synthesizer. Great snowboarding moves didn't come from the guy who invented the snowboard... No one thinks Gutenberg was a great author, and some of the best books will be written long after books are truly dead.

Only when an innovation is dead can the real work begin.
I couldn't agree more.

Monday, March 14, 2011

WE HUMANS may fight over a slightly different skin color: but check this video of a friendship developed between an orangutan and a hound dog. And see if you can watch it through without smiling...

SOME PERSPECTIVE: how many deaths are caused by each energy source? I bet many people would say "nuclear", in the wake of what's happening in Japan, and remembering Chernobil. Not so. Not by far. Here's real data.

IS IT A BIRD? Is it a mouse? No, but it's not Superman either! It's a genetically-modified mouse that sings like a bird. Take a look:



THIS, on UK's Daily Mail, is supposed to be real, but it reads too much as a parody:
Al-Qaeda has launched a women's magazine that mixes beauty and fashion tips with advice on suicide bombings.

Dubbed 'Jihad Cosmo', the glossy magazine's front cover features the barrel of a sub-machine gun next to a picture a woman in a veil.

There are exclusive interviews with martyrs' wives, who praise their husbands' decisions to die in suicide attacks.

The slick, 31-page Al-Shamikha magazine - meaning The Majestic Woman - has advice for singletons on 'marrying a mujahideen'.

Readers are told it is their duty to raise children to be mujahideen ready for jihad.

And the 'beauty column' instructs women to stay indoors with their faces covered to keep a 'clear complexion'.

AAAAAND THEY JUST STARTED: "Hacker group Anonymous (aka OperationLeaks on Twitter) just released what they say is a trove of damning documents on Bank of America."

Sunday, March 13, 2011

SPAIN'S opposition party, right-of-center PP leads Socialists by 16.5%, according to a poll in Madrid's El Mundo: "The PP would win 47.9 percent of the vote if elections were held now, compared with 31.4 percent for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialists, the Sigma Dos poll showed."

Saturday, March 12, 2011

WHY Moody's downgraded Spain's debt rating.

BECAUSE IT'S SATURDAY: meet Jonathan. He's 3 years old, and 'conducts' the forth movement of Beethoven's 5th...


(via)

Friday, March 11, 2011



Eva Belén Abad Quijada, Spain, 30 years old
Óscar Abril Alegre, Spain, 19 years old
Liliana Guillermina Acero Ushiña, Ecuador, 26 years old
Florencio Aguado Rojano, Spain, 60 years old
Juan Alberto Alonso Rodríguez, Spain, 38 years old
María Joséfa Alvarez González, Spain, 48 years old
Juan Carlos Del Amo Aguado, Spain, 28 years old
Andriyan Asenov Andrianov, Bulgaria, 22 years old
María Nuria Aparicio Somolinos, Spain, 40 years old
Alberto Arenas Barroso, Spain, 24 years old
Neil Hebe Astocondor Masgo, Peru, 34 years old
Ana Isabel Avila Jiménez, Spain, 43 years old
Miguel Ángel Badajoz Cano, Spain, 34 years old
Susana Ballesteros Ibarra, Spain, 42 years old
Francisco Javier Barahona Imedio, Spain, 34 years old
Gonzalo Barajas Díaz, Spain, 32 years old
Gloria Inés Bedoya, Colombia, 40 years old
Sanaa Ben Salah Imadaquan, Spain, 13 years old
Esteban Martín De Benito Caboblanco, Spain, 39 years old
Rodolfo Benito Samaniego, Spain, 27 years old
Anka Valeria Bodea, Romania, 26 years old
Livia Bogdan, Romania, 27 years old
Florencio Brasero Murga, Spain, 50 years old
Trinidad Bravo Segovia, Spain, 40 years old
Alina Maria Bryk, Poland, 39 years old
Stefan Budai, Romania, 37 years old
Tibor Budi, Romania, 37 years old
María Pilar Cabrejas Burillo, Spain, 37 years old
Rodrigo Cabrero Pérez, Spain, 20 years old
Milagros Calvo García, Spain, 39 years old
Sonia Cano Campos, Spain, 24 years old
Alicia Cano Martínez, Spain, 63 years old
José María Carrilero Baeza, Spain, 39 years old
Álvaro Carrion Franco, Spain, 17 years old
Francisco Javier Casas Torresano, Spain, 28 years old
Cipriano Castillo Muñoz, Spain, 55 years old
María Inmaculada Castillo Sevillano, Spain, 39 years old
Sara Centenera Montalvo, Spain, 19 years old
Oswaldo Manuel Cisneros Villacís, Ecuador, 34 years old
Eugenia María Ciudad-Real Díaz, Spain, 26 years old
Jacqueline Contreras Ortiz, Peru, 22 years old
María Soledad Contreras Sánchez, Spain, 51 years old
María Paz Criado Pleiter, Spain, 52 years old
Nicoleta Diac, Romania, 27 years old
Beatriz Díaz Hernandez, Spain, 30 years old
Georgeta Gabriela Dima, Romania, 35 years old
Tinka Dimitrova Paunova, Bulgaria, 31 years old
Kalina Dimitrova Vasileva, Bulgaria, 31 years old
Sam Djoco, Senegal, 42 years old
María Dolores Durán Santiago, Spain, 34 years old
Osama El Amrati, Morocco, 23 years old
Sara Encinas Soriano, Spain, 26 years old
Carlos Marino Fernández Dávila, Peru, 39 years old
María Fernández del Amo, Spain, 25 years old
Rex Ferrer Reynado, Phillipines, 20 years old
Héctor Manuel Figueroa Bravo, Chile, 33 years old
Julia Frutos Rosique, Spain, 44 years old
María Dolores Fuentes Fernández, Spain, 29 years old
José Gallardo Olmo, Spain, 33 years old
José Raúl Gallego Triguero, Spain, 39 years old
María Pilar Gamiz Torres, Spain, 40 years old
Abel García Alfageme, Spain, 27 years old
Juan Luis García Arnaiz, Spain, 17 years old
Beatriz García Fernández, Spain, 27 years old
María de las Nieves García García-Moñino, Spain, 46 years old
Enrique García González, Dominican Republic, 28 years old
Cristina Aurelia García Martínez, Spain, 34 years old
Carlos Alberto García Presa, Spain, 24 years old
José García Sánchez, Spain, 45 years old
José María García Sánchez, Spain, 47 years old
Javier Garrote Plaza, Spain, 26 years old
Petrica Geneva, Romania, 34 years old
Ana Isabel Gil Pérez, Spain, 29 years old
Óscar Gómez Gudiña, Spain, 24 years old
Felix González Gago, Spain, 52 years old
Ángelica González García, Spain, 19 years old
Teresa González Grande, Spain, 38 years old
Elías González Roque, Spain, 30 years old
Juan Miguel Gracia García, Spain, 53 years old
Javier Guerrero Cabrera, Spain, 25 years old
Berta María Gutiérrez García, Spain, 39 years old
Sergio de las Heras Correa, Spain, 29 years old
Pedro Hermida Martín, Spain, 51 years old
Alejandra Iglesias López, Spain, 28 years old
Mohamed Itaiben, Morocco, 27 years old
Pablo Izquierdo Asanza, Spain, 42 years old
María Teresa Jaro Narrillos, Spain, 32 years old
Oleksandr Kladkovoy, Ukraine, 56 years old
Laura Isabel Laforga Bajón, Spain, 28 years old
María Victoria León Moyano, Spain, 30 years old
María Carmen Lominchar Alonso, Spain, 34 years old
Myriam López Díaz, Spain, 31 years old
María Carmen López Pardo, Spain, 50 years old
María Cristina López Ramos, Spain, 38 years old
José María López-Menchero Moraga, Spain, 44 years old
Miguel de Luna Ocaña, Spain, 36 years old
María Jesús Macías Rodríguez, Spain, 30 years old
Francisco Javier Mancebo Záforas, Spain, 38 years old
Ángel Manzano Pérez, Ecuador, 42 years old
Vicente Marín Chiva, Spain, 37 years old
Antonio Marín Mora, Spain, 43 years old
Begoña Martín Baeza, Spain, 25 years old
Ana Martín Fernández, Spain, 43 years old
Luis Andrés Martín Pacheco, Spain, 54 years old
María Pilar Martín Rejas, Spain, 50 years old
Alois Martinas, Romania, 27 years old
Carmen Mónica Martínez Rodríguez, Spain, 31 years old
Míriam Melguizo Martínez, Spain, 28 years old
Javier Mengíbar Jiménez, Spain, 43 years old
Álvaro de Miguel Jiménez, Spain, 26 years old
Michael Mitchell Rodríguez, Cuba, 28 years old
Stefan Modol, Romania, 45 years old
Segundo Víctor Mopocita Mopocita, Ecuador, 37 years old
Encarnación Mora Donoso, Spain, 64 years old
María Teresa Mora Valero, Spain, 37 years old
Julita Moral García, Spain, 53 years old
Francisco Moreno Aragonés, Spain, 56 years old
José Ramón Moreno Isarch, Spain, 37 years old
Eugenio Moreno Santiago, Spain, 56 years old
Juan Pablo Moris Crespo, Spain, 32 years old
Juan Muñoz Lara, Spain, 33 years old
Francisco José Narváez de la Rosa, Spain, 28 years old
Mariana Negru, Romania, 40 years old
Ismael Nogales Guerrero, Spain, 31 years old
Inés Novellón Martínez, Spain, 30 years old
Miguel Ángel Orgaz Orgaz, Spain, 34 years old
Ángel Pardillos Checa, Spain, 62 years old
Sonia Parrondo Antón, Spain, 28 years old
Juan Francisco Pastor Férez, Spain, 51 years old
Daniel Paz Manjón, Spain, 20 years old
Josefa Pedraza Pino, Spain, 41 years old
Miryam Pedraza Rivero, Spain, 25 years old
Roberto Pellicari Lopezosa, Spain, 31 years old
María del Pilar Pérez Mateo, Spain, 28 years old
Felipe Pinel Alonso, Spain, 51 years old
Martha Scarlett Plasencia Hernandez, Dominican Republic, 27 years old
Elena Ples, Romania, 33 years old
María Luisa Polo Remartinez, Spain, 50 years old
Ionut Popa, Romania, 23 years old
Emilian Popescu, Romania, 44 years old
Miguel Ángel Prieto Humanes, Spain, 37 years old
Francisco Antonio Quesada Bueno, Spain, 44 years old
John Jairo Ramírez Bedoya, Colombia, 37 years old
Laura Ramos Lozano, Honduras, 37 years old
Miguel Reyes Mateos, Spain, 37 years old
Marta del Río Menéndez, Spain, 40 years old
Nuria del Río Menéndez, Spain, 38 years old
Jorge Rodríguez Casanova, Spain, 22 years old
Luis Rodríguez Castell, Spain, 40 years old
María de la Soledad Rodríguez de la Torre, Spain, 42 years old
Ángel Luis Rodríguez Rodríguez, Spain, 34 years old
Francisco Javier Rodríguez Sánchez, Spain, 52 years old
Ambrosio Rogado Escribano, Spain, 56 years old
Cristina Romero Sánchez, Spain, 34 years old
Patricia Rzaca, Poland, 7 meses
Wieslaw Rzaca, Poland, 34 years old
Antonio Sabalete Sánchez, Spain, 36 years old
Sergio Sánchez López, Spain, 17 years old
María Isabel Sánchez Mamajón, Spain, 37 years old
Juan Antonio Sánchez Quispe, Peru, 45 years old
Balbina Sánchez-Dehesa France, Spain, 47 years old
David Santamaría García, Spain, 23 years old
Sergio dos Santos Silva, Brazil, 28 years old
Juan Carlos Sanz Morales, Spain, 33 years old
Eduardo Sanz Pérez, Spain, 31 years old
Guillermo Senent Pallarola, Spain, 23 years old
Miguel Antonio Serrano Lastra, Spain, 28 years old
Rafael Serrano López, Spain, 66 years old
Paula Mihaela Sfeatcu, Romania, 27 years old
Federico Miguel Sierra Serón, Spain, 37 years old
Domnino Simón González, Spain, 45 years old
María Susana Soler Iniesta, Spain, 46 years old
Carlos Soto Arranz, Spain, 34 years old
Mariya Ivanova Staykova, Bulgaria, 38 years old
Marion Cintia Subervielle, France, 30 years old
Alexandru Horatiu Suciu, Romania, 18 years old
Danuta Teresa Szpila, Poland, 28 years old
José Luis Tenesaca Betancourt, Ecuador, 17 years old
Iris Toribio Pascual, Spain, 20 years old
Neil Torres Mendoza, Ecuador, 38 years old
Carlos Tortosa García, Spain, 31 years old
María Teresa Tudanca Hernández, Spain, 49 years old
Jesús Utrilla Escribano, Spain, 44 years old
José Miguel Valderrama López, Spain, 25 years old
Saúl Valdez Ruiz, Honduras, 44 years old
Mercedes Vega Mingo, Spain, 45 years old
David Vilela Fernández, Spain, 23 years old
Juan Ramón Zamora Gutiérrez, Spain, 29 years old
Yaroslav Zojniuk, Ukraine, 48 years old
Csaba Olimpiu Zsigovski, Romania, 26 years old

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Monday, March 07, 2011

"PAGING Mr. Joe Wilson and Ms. Valerie Plame, Mr. Joe Wilson and Ms. Valerie Plame":
A leaked intelligence report suggests Iran will be awarded with exclusive access to Zimbabwe's uranium in return for providing the country with fuel.

The report – compiled by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog – said Iran's Foreign and Co-operative Ministers had visited Zimbabwe to strike a deal, and sent engineers to assess uranium deposits.

Experts say the move contradicts Iran's claim that it now has enough domestic uranium supplies to sustain its nuclear energy ambitions. They say Zimbabwe's defiance of sanctions and its support for the pariah state will scare those considering investing in its economy, which is only just starting to recover after years of hyperinflation.

Sunday, March 06, 2011

LIFE found in a meteorite? "Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, thinks he may have found bacteria in a meteorite."

UPDATE. Some skepticism.

Saturday, March 05, 2011

AND SO IT GOES:
Ratings agency Fitch put Spain's sovereign rating on watch for a possible downgrade on Friday, citing risks stemming from fiscal consolidation, bank restructuring and a weak economic recovery.

Fitch praised the Spanish government's structural reforms in the areas of state pensions and the labour market, but said the long-term impact of restructuring of the country's savings banks in particular posed risks to the sovereign's AA-plus credit rating.

Friday, March 04, 2011

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

CONDEMNED TO JOY: Pascal Brucker on the Western cult of happiness.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

SPANISH BANKS need to raise $68 billion, twice the government's forecast, to regain market confidence, says Moody's.

THE CONSEQUENCES of being too civilized:
We are rightly proud of the accomplishments of western civilization over the past 500 years. We have not been perfect - not by a long shot. But gradually, western values and attitudes have permeated the planet, softening the rough edges of civilization, and providing a framework of law where the strong do not always ride roughshod over the weak.

Imperfect, but viable. Flawed, but as a practical matter, better than any alternative.

There is one glaring weakness from which the west suffers in particular that has been exposed time and time again over the last 70 years; our inability to deal with individuals who are determined to act outside the boundaries of “civilized” norms and commit acts of barbarism so profoundly disturbing that they shake our faith in our institutions and belief systems.
Keep reading.