Surfing Past Saturn

Conditions: Warm.


International Medal of WHAT?

The last few years stands as a testament to a lot of things about George W Bush. His arrogance. His stupidity. His disregard for human life. But one thing I would not include, one thing surely no sane member of the human race would even offer up for debate, is that the last few years have demonstrated the man's capability for peace. So it makes you wonder then who exactly makes up the "Global PEACE Coalition", who are awarding Bush the International Medal of PEACE. Are they armed killers from another dimension? Blood-thirsty aliens? A coalition of industrialized serial-killers? Assuming they are human, and sane, what possible justification could there be for giving that man this medal with that word on it?

President George W. Bush was honored on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day today, with the "International Medal of PEACE" given by Dr. Rick Warren on behalf of the Global PEACE Coalition during the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health. The award, given in recognition of the President's tireless efforts and unprecedented contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases, came on the heels of the President's announcement that his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) had fulfilled its commitment to support treatment for 2 million people ahead of schedule.

- marketwatch.com/news/story/

Oh, so the medal of peace is for fighting the spread of Aids? Well, no, although it turns out there's more to PEACE than you might think. It's actually a religious acronym thought up by some giant religious organisation, standing for "Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation".

And seriously, read that list again and then hold an image of Bush in your mind. Notice the instant rebellion your brain puts up at the attempt to put the two together. So, does the organisation even see the irony?

Earlier this week, Pastor Rick Warren presented President Bush with the first International Medal of PEACE from the Global PEACE Coalition for his work on the global HIV/AIDS crisis. During the award ceremony, Warren ignored the obvious irony of presenting a man who started two wars with a peace award. Last night on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, however, co-host Alan Colmes asked Warren to comment on that irony. Warren explained simply that Bush’s “peace award as not about peace”:

COLMES: But to give a peace award to a guy who started two wars…neither of which are completed yet. […]

WARREN: Well, the Peace Award was not about peace in domestic — or foreign policy.

- thinkprogress.org/

Of course not, if it were the Earth would surely disappear in a collapsing field of disbelief, or a puff of God's wrath. You know, I may sound petty, but when you have a guy destroy every last piece of pottery in a pottery shop except for the piece he happens to be holding, you don't award him the 'Careful Shopper of the year' award.


Misdirection.

At the moment a jury is considering it's verdict into the London execution of Jean Charles de Menezes by the cops a few years ago. And to help them on their way, they have been instructed that they cannot return a verdict of unlawful killing.

The jury may now return either an open or lawful killing verdict.

Sir Michael's ruling came as he began his summing up of the case on Tuesday.

"In directing you that you cannot return a verdict of unlawful killing, I am not saying that nothing went wrong in a police operation which resulted in the killing of an innocent man," he told the hearing.

But in narrowing down the choice of verdict, he added: "All interested persons agree that a verdict of unlawful killing could only be left to you if you could be sure that a specific officer had committed a very serious crime - murder or manslaughter."

Sir Michael also warned jurors that they must not attach any criminal or civil fault to any individuals.

- news.bbc.co.uk/

I mean, for pete's sake. Is this justice? Really? The jury is made up of human beings, presumably, who've had all the evidence made available to them, and now they can't return the most obvious verdict there is? I hope they ignore this guy. I hope they come back and say "Well, we find a verdict of unlawful killing anyway, and you can all go screw yourselves." And then they all high-five each other and walk out. That would be cool.



Image Corner: Spouts on Enceladus

Enceladus, one of dozens of ice-ball moons orbiting Saturn, has recently caught the attention of Nasa due to Mysterious jets of gas coming from the surface.

Images of the south polar region showed intriguing "tiger stripe" fractures, including four prominent ones seen in the lower right. The greenish areas in this false color image are believed to be boulders and deposits of coarser-grained ice.





After studying the plumes for months, scientists working on the mission reported in March 2006 that they believed the plumes originated from geysers erupting from underground reservoirs of liquid water where temperatures warmed above the melting point of ice. Using images like this false-color one, scientists later triangulated eight specific origin sites of the plume jets, and all eight lay within the tiger stripes.

- www.nytimes.com/slideshow/

Film Review: Quantum Of Solace

The sequel to Casino Royale stands as a truly new type of Bond film. Without any scenes of genteel card-playing to slow the pace down, the new Bond flick is a relentless, tumultuous battering of action sequences, gunfights and explosions. A thin plot attempts to stitch things together, but this is really a film about Bond wanting vengeance on some guy, and relentlessly going after ...someone else, while telling everyone that he's not after revenge at all. And that's an interesting idea, what's disappointing is that when Bond finally does get his man they cut away from what happens next, as if the filmmakers simply do not know what Bond would do, or if they do they don't want to show us. I feel a little cheated by this, it's like you can have all the action and violence we can send your way, but a scene of fairly intense drama, no that's a bit too much for Bond. He is still British, after all.

I hate to say it, but as good and as intense as new Bond is, I find myself missing some of the more relaxed aspects of the old Bond. The charm, the style, and even the wit has all been stripped from the series, rendering it a bit too Bourne-like for my taste. Now Bond simply and relentlessly reels from fight to fight, pausing only to wash the blood from his face and change his shirt before launching himself at the next one. The audience is left to simply hang on as best they can, while trying to piece together the plot from what little fragments are flung into Bond's wake.

It's not too bad. It's very slick, it's certainly enjoyable. But the cursed shaky-cam has returned with a vengeance, and while you can just about figure out who does what to who with what, it's a lot of work. And it detracts from how good it probably would look and feel if we could get a clean shot of it. Spectre has been reincarnated, and there's a good impression of powerful people staying out of reach above us as we watch Bond scramble around in the dust. Daniel Craig plays his Bond as enormously capable, laser-intense and focused to a fault. And Judi Dench is pitch perfect, despite spending too much time being surprised by things, given who she is. It's tough to criticize the good job everyone's doing, I just can't help but feel that something of substance has been lost with all the fat-trimming. Three and a half discarded necklaces out of Five.



- Peace out.