AND PASSED WITH AN ABOVE AVERAGE SCORE. B+
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Month: October 2009
around the world – part 41.5 (warsaw)
“Few cities can claim worse luck than Warsaw. Over time the city has been burned by the Swedes, smashed by Russians and then flattened by Germans. Not surprisingly all that’s left Warsaw looking like it’s gone ten rounds in a boxing ring.”
Hardly inspiring then.
Palace of Culture - Warsaw, October 2009
Despite the ubiquitous grey brick buildings and the cold windy streets, there is something appealing about Warsaw though, and I think it is in the spirit of its residents. They would certainly need it given all they have been through in the last century.
I had no idea, other than a vague understanding, of just how smashed this city was by 1945. For instance the Jewish Ghetto was so thoroughly destroyed, levelled, that very few traces of its existence may be found today. The only remaining portion of the wall is found in the courtyard of an apartment building at ul Sienna 55. No longer than about twenty-five feet, it is one of the few items remaining of the Ghetto. The area around it was completely transformed after the war, a grid pattern of streets, boulevards, parks, office towers, and of course the mighty Palace of Culture were superimposed over the pre-war streets and alleys.
More photos here.
around the world – part 41.3 (beer)
Does a body good…..tyskie, tyskie…
around the world – part 41.1 (warsaw)
A 'gift' from Stalin
When I think of Poland, I think of tragedy. A country which has been intermittently independent, but more often under the thumb of one empire or another, Swedes, Germans and Russians to name just a few. Tragic because they sit smack in the middle of the east-west european invasion route and thus were ravaged in the Great War, again in the aftermath of the October Revolution (a little known war between USSR and Poland from 1919 – 1921), and soon after the dismemberment by both Nazi Germany AND The Soviet Union in 1939, the two Warsaw Uprisings (1943 and 1944) which left the city in ruins, and of course the soul-destroying years of the communist regimes. Poland lost the largest percentage of its citizens of any combatant nation during WWII.
And yet it survives. I somehow get the feeling that if this country could ever catch a break, they might wield considerable influence within europe – but then again the nature of tragedies is such that what can be imagined never comes to pass.
bolt to the head…..
The bedwetters of climatism would rather you didn’t have children, the voracious little CO2 hounds; or better yet that we in the western world should undergo some form of ‘cull’.
Interestingly they never seem to offer themselves up first for the bolt to the head…..hypocrites.
Culling for GaiaTime for another selection of Classic Sentences from the Guardian. Or rather the Guardian’s Sunday sister paper, the Observer. Until recently, I had thought the Observer’s commentary wasn’t quite as obnoxiously self-loathing as the material that swills all but daily through the piping of the Guardian. Sadly, it seems I was mistaken:
Fewer British babies would mean a fairer planet.
So barks the headline of AlexRenton’s latest exercise in ecological hair-tearing. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. It’s just another overexcited sub-editor and not representative of an otherwise measured and sober article. However, the first line reads,
The worst thing that you or I can do for the planet is to have children.
And besides,
One less British child would permit some 30 women in sub-Saharan Africa to have a baby and still leave the planet a cleaner place.
It continues,
Why not start cutting population everywhere? Are condoms not the greenest technology of all…..
bedwetters, your religion is false!
blog updates – photography
Canon S5 IS
Added new scenery pages. Junior does not claim to be anything other than a hack, but with time and better equipment…..
Most photographs taken with a Canon S5IS.
Feel free to snag as you see fit.
Wish list: Nikon D90, or Canon Rebel T1i.
friends of the twingo
In the latest bit of panty waisted whingeing to appear from our betters on the other side of the pond, Friends of the Earth is in a snit over the latest antics of Top Gear*. According to FoE, the show “appeared to have gone out of its way to be as crass and juvenile as possible“.** FoE campaigner Mr Declan Allison said that “The wanton destruction of tens of thousands of pounds worth of machinery impresses no-one. It’s a wasteful extravagance and, in the middle of a global recession, in very poor taste“.
Poor Taste? Mr Allison, the proles actually enjoy watching TG. Shocking, yes, and very unenlightened of us, but for a few brief moments it allows us to escape our wretched lives and seek enjoyment in mindless humour. I know, I know we simply don’t get it, but then that’s what you can expect from the grey mass of drudges – we’re not like you. Why we can barely get through a sitting of Waiting for Godot, or plough through a Margaret Atwood novel*** – we just want our Renaults destroyed in the most imaginative of fashions and if there is a tinge of humour about the whole thing, then so much the better. Oh and a beer or two to chase it down with wouldn’t be out of place.
Maybe FoE didn’t get it; TG fired a Renault Twingo into the ocean! What can possibly be wrong with that? Removing one C02 emitting, gasoline consuming Renault from the planet has got to rank quite high as one of the most unselfish and altruistic acts I’ve heard of in a long time. Of course if FoE and their ilk had their way the western world would live in perpetual recession, a sort of purgatory for having had the temerity to produce the most fantastic economic miracle known to mankind. Instead FoE won’t rest until twingo’s aren’t produced at all (let alone flung into the ocean).
Quit Whining!
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* Top Gear, for those of you most of unfortunate to have never heard of it, is quite possibly the best entertainment ever produced by the BBC. Please note that I said entertainment. It has no other redeeming qualities – but I love it.
** That’s sort of the point, really.
***Obscure and difficult Canadian author. But there I go revealing my elitest tendancies again.
canada’s economic action plan – kingston edition
This morning I went hiking with the two fierce creatures at Lemoine Point – a fantastic and little known hiking area just west of the airport – whilst motoring towards the point, I noticed in a few places signs proclaiming Canada’s Economic Action Plan. Notably, along Bayridge south of Princess, along Front Road between KGH and the Prison, and lately at either end of the Green Monster. Of course at road speed it was a little difficult to read what each project entailed, and so upon returning home I hit the interwebs for a quick investigation.
According to the Federal Government website there are a few items in town (zoom into Kingston to see) which have qualified for stimulus financing and thus presumably are being ‘fast tracked’ for completion. Very little information is available on the City of Kingston website – except a couple of reports to council wherein mention of stimulus funding is made. Specifically the minutes of Meeting 18-2009 (15 Sept) notes that $60mil was requested from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, whilst $21mil was granted for use on projects such as the John Counter Blvd expansion and others. Which got me thinking: assuming you agree that stimulus funds are indeed a necessary evil, which projects ‘should’ be funded? Are the projects which have been identified the best?
xposted at kingstonist
and in circus news, obama snags the big prize
Oct 12 2009:
-8. Oops – that didn’t work at all…..
…today is the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Obama. The award seems to have had little impact on public opinion among likely voters. His total approval was at 49% just before the award was announced and it is at 49% today.
There does seem to be a slight increase in intensity. Since the prize was awarded, the number who Strongly Approve of the President’s performance has increased by three percentage points and the number who Strongly Disapprove has increased by five. The number with strong opinions on both sides is at the highest level in a month.
While the award has had little impact on the President’s ratings, skepticism about the Nobel selection process has grown. Fifty-eight percent (58%) now see politics in the process, up from 40% a year ago.
And the previous awards to Yasser Arafat, Jimmeh and the Goracle were entirely free of ‘politics in the process’?
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Oct 11 2009:
Update: His One-ness has just been awarded the 2010 Stanley Cup – That was easy.
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Oct 10 2009:
Now that Obama has been awarded* the Nobel Peace Trinket, the mc-chimpy bushitlers must be gnashing their tooth into dust. Barely 10 days in office** and the committee had their man. Apparently, simply saying that you are going to heal the world and keep on saying it often and loudly until enough fools believe you was sufficient to be awarded the bauble. Mind you, it’s not as if he has actually closed down gitmo, or withdrawn troops from Iraq, prevented the dinner jacket from acheiving his nuclear desires, solved world hunger, secured the olympics for the mob, or delivered socialised health care to the peasants – but hey, IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE….
I suppose even those who do persist in resisting the one could be forgiven their skepticism. After all, even mr hope-n-change has adopted the distinctly warlike habit of dropping the odd PEACEFIRE missile or two on occasion.
In the meantime the ungrateful and unwashed hordes have not rewarded*** his one-ness with a deserved bounce in the polls. What does a man have to do to get some love?
Of course, junior, as a world renowned ‘hater’, ‘disbeliever’, AGW denier and all round obamaskeptic would be expected to sneer; (he has also been known to offer unguarded applause when well deserving targets are scattered into environmentally friendly and biodegradable bits), so in the interests of balance please let me offer my congratulations via Iowahawk:
Dear BARACK OBAMA :
Congratulations! On behalf of the selection committee, I am pleased to announce that you have been named a 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of your tireless efforts to STRENGTHEN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY AND COOPERATION .
I am also pleased to tell you that as a winner, you have been pre-approved for membership in the Nobel Peace Player’s Club, offering exclusive money-saving benefits available only to laureates like you. Please take a few minutes to look over the enclosed enrollment materials. At only $299.95 per year, I’m sure you’ll agree that membership is a bargain at twice the price! Here are just some of the benefits you’ll receive:
- A handsome 14-karat gold membership crest badge to display proudly on the grille of your limousine or official state aircraft
- A framed, hand-calligraphed certificate (add $19.95 for gold leaf)
- Special discount shopping bargains for for you and your family
- Great travel packages to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
- Listing in “Who’s Who of Global Salvation” ($49.95 per copy)
- Great coupons for Olive Garden, P.F. Chang’s, Six Flags Theme Parks, and more!
Plus, you’ll receive the exclusive Nobel Peace Player’s Club GoldCard entitling you to discount air travel and 5-star hotel accommodations from Kyoto to Darfur. But don’t take our word for it! Listen to these testimonials from some of our current members:
“My career as an international peace activist means lots of air travel — and dealing with pushy Zionists and rude natives. With my Nobel Peace Player’s Club GoldCard, I finally get the respect I deserve – and it makes getting through Gaza airport security a snap!”
— Jimmy Carter, 2002 Laureate
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*Advice to Norwegian Nobel Committee – Stop huffing the North Sea gasoline, you’ll find it makes appreciation of the situation a little clearer….like how about the succesful candidate actually having achieved something other than simply being elected.
**Nobel nominations deadline: 1 Feb 2009. Inauguration 21 Jan 2009.
*** To be fair, lets wait until next week to see if any of his aura has transferred to the proles.
seventy billion people on earth – where are they hiding?*
Internet game that awards points for people spotting real crimes on CCTV is branded ‘snooper’s paradise’. Who will watch the watchers?
One more reason to avoid merry olde england…..
the money quote:
‘There are more than four million cameras in the UK so everybody is on camera already, it is just that no one is watching the cameras.’
Players collect points by watching the cameras, which show CCTV images in real-time, and click a button every time they see something suspicious taking place.
*Bonus points for the name of the band and track with this post title as a sample…..
Juniorannex 