One of Tim Blair's readers explains how reporter Martin Chulov "stands by his story" about how Israeli forces were poisoning wells and killing Jesii blowing up Red Cross ambulances:

• The “first ambulance”, no. 782, was speeding in a convoy AND stationary;

• The six people on board the convoy were all severely injured except Shalin the driver AND only two were severely injured;

• Shalin was protected by the driver’s canopy AND by the vehicle’s rear ramp;

• The ambulance/convoy was struck by a rocket/s AND missile/s fired by an Apache helicopter that was also a drone;

• The missile pierced the centre of the red cross on ambulance 782 AND “an explosion thundered” into the ambulance;

• Shalin “remembers nothing” after the flash-bang-crunch of the crash AND he remembers that “then there was a battle for the next hour” and “we hid in a building convinced we were going to die”.

If you are curious a less credulous version of the ambulance story, check out Zombietime. (Since that story was written, the Red Cross also stands by its story but has withdrawn high resolution images of the ambulance from its website).

The current track for Ernesto puts it to the west of Toronto on Sunday, which means warm wet rain and big waves pounding the North Shore.

Joanne Jacobs writes, err, mostly quotes:

Today's children can't explore the World Beyond The Front Yard, says a Washington Post story

. . . . to drive around America's suburbs is to see tidy but empty blocks, devoid of the kickball, hide-and-seek and aimless wanderings of earlier generations. For many parents, the thought of allowing their children out unaccompanied invokes spasms of horror and even accusations of child neglect.

Despite parents' fears, the number of children abducted by strangers is very low and not on the increase. Roger Hart, director of the Children's Environments Research Group at the City University of New York says:

"In a more globalized world, people feel generally less secure about place, because the world becomes more and more anonymous as it becomes more mobile," he said. "It feeds on itself, and if you watch more and more television, you have more sense of these dangers. And there's less and less engagement with community. Outside has become more dangerous, because there's no longer multiple eyes on everything."

One couple quoted in the story planted a vegetable garden in their front yard and built a porch to encourage neighbors to stop by for a chat.

The great thing about being back in Newfoundland at my parent's house (on a cul-de-sac) was that we could let Trinity-Anne go out and play without much supervision. Of course, there were other kids to play with and no traffic. On the street we live on in Toronto, there's (a) no young kids out playing, (b) cars zooming by from 40-60 km/hr. So, no.

The Reuters track record in accurately reporting the news during the recent unpleasantness in Lebannon was, well to put it bluntly, beyond piss-poor. Here's an excellent summary of the biased, wrong or even completely faked news that we saw in the last eight weeks. And not to be a blog-triumphalist, but just about completely uncovered by the busy beavers in the blogosphere.

This post by Kathy on lib actors feeling to need to act in movies about becoming politicians reminds me of this Onion classic, especially the comment by Jannelle Peterson.

Popular Science has a photogallery of all your favorite killer Fembots.

Ars Technica reports:

In an ideal world, we'd simply convert cells from adult patients directly into stem cells without doing anything resembling cloning along the way. Working in mouse cells, a pair of researchers from Kyoto have apparently done just that. 

[...] the scientists then went through and eliminated one gene at a time from the pool, whittling it down to 10 genes. They repeated this Survivor-like process with the pool of 10, and eventually came up with four genes: Oct3/4, Klf4, Sox2, and c-Myc. Transfection of mouse cells with these four was sufficient to convert them to ESCs [embryonic stem cells].

Gene expression analysis using DNA chips showed that the resulting cells were most similar to ESCs, and no longer resembled the parental cell line. [...] There seems to be little that's different between regular ESCs and the engineered ESCs.

Note that this is done with mouse studies and the techniques used are high risk for cancer, so there's lots ground to cover yet before you're getting your heart-cell injections.

Takes on Pluto's demotion:

1. My! Very Educated Morons Just Screwed Up Numerous Planetariums.

2. 

Amazon.ca has a big sale on CDs right now — $7.99. Here are the links:

• Alternative Rock
• Blues
• Classic Rock
• Country
• Folk
• Hard Rock
• International
• Jazz
• Pop
• Rap & Hip-Hop
• R&B
• Rock A-L
• Rock M-Z
  
• Soundtracks & Miscellaneous
• Vocalists

I've taken the opportunity to fill in some spaces in my collection (The Who selections I all have on vinyl):

• Crime Of The Century, Supertramp
• Kids Are Alright, The Who
• Reckoning, REM
• Collection, The Jam
• Dead Letter Office, REM
• Face Dances, The Who
• Commitments
• Beautiful Freak, The Eels
• Quadrophenia, The Who
• Greatest Hits, Steely Dan />

Notch one up for free music on the Internet — I heard the song Novocaine for the Soul on You Tube, found it for free as an MP3 somewhere and a few days later I own the CD.

Via Cosh, we learn that parts of one of my favorite grade-school comics is available online. Boy, did I ever want to conserve energy when I grew up!

Update: they may have been right about poorly clothed.

The Australian reports (via Greenie Watch):

GREENLAND'S glaciers have been shrinking for the past century, according to a Danish study published today, suggesting that the ice melt is not a recent phenomenon caused by global warming.

Danish researchers from Aarhus University studied glaciers on Disko island, in western Greenland in the Atlantic, from the end of the 19th century until the present day.

"This study, which covers 247 of 350 glaciers on Disko, is the most comprehensive ever conducted on the movements of Greenland's glaciers," glaciologist Jacob Clement Yde, who carried out the study with Niels Tvis Knudsen, said.

Using maps from the 19th century and current satellite observations, the scientists were able to conclude that "70 per cent of the glaciers have been shrinking regularly since the end of the 1880s at a rate of around eight metres per year," Mr Yde said.

For you AGW-types, there's this bone tossed:

The shrinking of the glaciers since the 19th century is "the result of the atmosphere's natural warming, following volcanic eruptions for example and greenhouse gases, created by human activities, which have aggravated the situation further," he said.

I assume the phrase "they surmise" is missing there somewhere, as correlation is not causation and one would think they had their hands full already measuring and researching.

Al's got some great pictures of classic boats [1][2] spotted recently at an "Antique Boat Regatta". I especially love the one he's highlighting, and someday, money gods willing, I shall have one for myself

Theory #1:

Bush with his neo-con supporters failed in Iraq to so they could reduce the nation to rubble so they could flatten the shit out of the rest of Muslim world without worrying about any more nation building. Sad Little Andy says "[he's] not endorsing [the theory], just airing [it]".

Of course, the (brutally racist) view that Islamic world/Arabs/Muslims don't take with democracy is the lynchpin viewpoint of the anti-war crowd. But ignoring that, believing that's even worth mentioning some intricate plot involving hundreds of thousands of participants, millions of victims and several years of time to accomplish a goal by doing exactly the opposite is a sign of mental derangement or the viewpoint of someone who informs their worldview by splicing James Bond and Michael Moore movies together.

Theory #2:

No "imminent" plot to blow up planes in Britain. Arrests were made to detract from Lieberman's defeat, Lebannon and "Hezbollah-style government in Iraq".

Another intricate "Dr. Evil" plot by the deviously incompetent "President" Bush and his lap dogs!

I don't think we're too far from the day when Sullivan announces that at least parts of 9/11 was set up by the Bush Junta to stop gay marriage or whatever the flavor of the day theory it is.

Ex-Girlfriend can't believe ex-boyfriend terrorist suspect (tip: Kathy; Daily Gut):

Faith, from High Wycombe, Bucks, told how Stewart-Whyte was her first boyfriend. She said: "He loved me and I loved him too. He'd buy me roses and write me poems."

Ahem. Did they go like this?

Arterial blood is red
Veinal is blue
Something's popped inside my head
I'm going to kill a Jew

Baby Trudeau, writing in the Toronto Star about his bitterness that his family isn't perpetually in power dispensing "social justice"^* (tip: Cosh):

Fidel is not a politician. He is more in the vein of a great adventurer or a great scientific mind… His intellect is one of the most broad and complete that can be found. He is an expert on genetics, on automobile combustion engines, on stock markets. On everything. Combined with a Herculean physique and extraordinary personal courage, this monumental intellect makes Fidel the giant that he is. He is something of a superman… Cubans remain very proud of Castro, even those who don't share his vision. They know that, among the world's many peoples, they have the most audacious and brilliant of leaders.

Little Sacha has been touring the world in the last few years, visiting such socialist paradise-losts as China and Russia wondering where it all went wrong.

Next up we have Nobel Prize Winner (see a trend?)  Gabriel García Márquez blathering like a cock-starved teenage whore in heat (tip: Blair):

His devotion is to the word. His power is of seduction. He goes to seek out problems where they are. The impetus of inspiration is very much part of his style. Books reflect the breadth of his tastes very well. He stopped smoking to have the moral authority to combat tobacco addiction. He likes to prepare food recipes with a kind of scientific fervour. He keeps himself in excellent physical condition with various hours of gymnastics daily and frequent swimming. Invincible patience. Ironclad discipline. The force of his imagination stretches him to the unforeseen.

[...] He has never refused to answer any question, however provocative it might be, nor has he ever lost his patience.

I stayed in Havana for a week, several years back. Heavily armed police roamed the streets in pairs and guarded every major corner. The sky was tinged steel-blue with diesel exhaust. Not a bird was to be seen, whether eaten by enterprising young Cubans or killed by pollution remains a mystery. The nightlife was a boon for your choice of the finest flesh Cubans had to offer.

Alas, opportunities to speak to Fidel about the situation were minimial.

^* I'm reading the "text" in a post-modern sense to discover underlying truths, which I'm proceeding then to speak to power.

I find this New Sisypus posting amusing:

Of course, looking back, it's not so much what the great intellectual Grass said in June in front of his admiring audience that is so important, but what the great truth-teller and moral conscience of Germany forgot to add.

In the end, though, the truth about Grass came out. And, lo and behold, while we Americans are international war criminals, running around killing every Third World peasant we can find, while Grass was leading the charge against neo-Nazism and xenophobia, it turns out that in this little thing called "reality"….

…Grass was a fucking Nazi.

Not just a foot soldier, mind you. Not just some poor, young German schmuck who got drafted and believed in his government.

Nope. Grass was a member of the WAFFEN-SS . Something the great moral authority and judge of America just forgot to mention in his speeches denouncing the unique evil of the United States. And accusing it of genocide.

You know, the United States. The country that smashed Grass' Nazi project and ended the horrific genocide committed by the sophisticated, nuances, superior German people.

[...] Imagine my surprise.

I'm just shocked that Grass went from being a dumb-ass national socialist who thought the United States was an enemy to be fought to being a fashionable Stalinist socialist who thinks the United States is an enemy to be fought.

Sometimes my well-meaning liberal friends ask my why I think the United States is so hated around the world. They ask me if it means something that so many Europeans hate our guts.

Yes, it does mean something.

 

Doesn't CBC have anything to report on?

• Harper criticized for skipping AIDS conference
• AIDS conference delegates criticize PM's absence
  
• As AIDS activists, scientists gather in Toronto, organizer asks: Where's Harper?
• AIDS conference delegates criticize PM's absence
• PM won't attend world AIDS conference in Toronto: organizers

Obviously, nothing much useful is going on at this conference. And don't get me going on Stephen Lewis.

CBC has the amusing news that:

Nobel Prize-winning author admits to serving in Hitler's SS

German novelist Guenter Grass, best known for 1959's The Tin Drum, has admitted he served in the combat arm of Adolf Hitler's paramilitary forces during the Second World War, a German newspaper reported Friday.

Grass, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1999, revealed he served in the Waffen SS in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The paper published excerpts of the interview on its website ahead of a fuller version to be published Saturday.

[...] The author has long been active in left-wing politics and a consistent critic of xenophobia and the war in Germany.

If you're familiar with the history of Germany in the 1920s and 30s, you'll know that many "left wing" activists had the moral flexibility to join the Nazis when they proved to be the winning ticket to bossing around your inferiors. It should be no surprise then that many Nazis had the flexibility to make the switch the other way after the war.

Grass said he volunteered for military service to get out of his childhood home. He had been in the arbeitsdienst, a force of labourers helping the military.

"It happened as it did to many of my age," he said. "We were in the labour service, and all at once, a year later, the call-up notice lay on the table. And only when I got to Dresden did I learn it was the Waffen SS."

Sure you did, jerkwad.

• Brad DeLong noticed what Grass was all about before this admission
• Spiegel Online story

I think I've finally figured out the liquid-based chemical reaction those guys were looking for on the plane:

How news is made in war zones:

Via CBC, if you're planning to travel in the next couple of days in Canada:

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority issued new rules effective noon on Aug. 10 after British police announced a plot to bomb commercial aircraft from Britain to the United States.

The rules will affect you if you're flying from any Canadian airport, including on a domestic trip.

You can take carry-on luggage but it can't contain any liquids or gels, including:

• All beverages.
• Shampoo.
• Suntan lotion.
• Creams.
• Toothpaste.
• Hair gel.

The exceptions:

• Baby formula.
• Breast milk in bottles.
• Juice for a baby or small child.
• Prescription medicine with a name that matches the passenger's ticket.
• Insulin.
• Essential non-prescription medicine.

Put all liquids and gels in checked baggage.

If you're boarding a flight to the United States, you'll be asked to take off your shoes for screening.

If you can't take off your shoes because you have a disability or are elderly, security officials will check it with detection equipment.

 

Yahoo News reports (tip: Kathy):

The vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada says his organization wants police and the federal government to crack down on pro-Hezbollah demonstrations.

Frank Dimant says the streets of Canada should not be flooded by extremists supporting a known terrorist group. He said his group has asked police forces and government officials to target the rallies.

"The streets of Canada will not be taken over by radical Islamic forces supporting terrorist activities," he said Wednesday. "B'nai Brith Canada will do its utmost to ensure that Canadians will not be intimidated by these terrorist sympathizers."

What a moron. Doesn't he realize that he's just wants to give a tool to the government that is likely someday to be used against him and his beliefs? Given that more than one of current candidates for the Liberal leadership (you go figure it out) inform their morality by the size of the voting blocks that will show up for them, Dimant is asking for something pretty dangerous.

CBC reports:

British police have arrested 21 people in connection with a bombing plot that they say would have caused "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" on commercial aircraft flying out of Britain, a senior official said Thursday.

"This is not about any particular community. This is about mass murder," Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Paul Stephenson said in London.

Stephenson said the suspects intended to blow up flights with explosives smuggled in hand luggage.

London's Heathrow Airport was closed on Thursday to many European flights after security was increased. Security was also increased at other airports across the United Kingdom and the U.S.

[...] Officials said people should not fly out of Britain on Thursday if they can delay their plans. The news caused passenger congestion at Heathrow on Thursday.

No liquids were being allowed on aircraft in Heathrow and a ban on hand luggage has been imposed.

The 21 people were arrested in London, its suburbs and Birmingham. Police said searches were continuing Thursday in a number of areas.

Myself, Joanne and my friend John went and saw Miami Vice (the movie) last night. It's the first time I've seen a movie in the theatres in quite a while (most recently, children's fare: the excellent Cars and the less than so-so Ice Age II) and I mainly did so on the strength of the reviews (Toronto Star: Michael Mann's Vice grip; Globe and Mail). 

Well, ennnnn. It was OKish — I don't feel like I wasted my money but I'm waiting for the chance to buy it on DVD either! I note:

• the no opening credits was pretty cool, even though I new it was coming
• I was in a recently built theatre and the sound quality really sucked — it felt like a flat stereo track coming only from the front of the theatre
• when lightning flashes, thunder tends to arrive many seconds later; every child over 3 knows this, why doesn't Hollywood? Like, how stupid are we supposed to be?
• the grainy film stock got annoying real quick. Realllll quick.
• the sounds during the gunfights were pretty cool
• yes, it was really stylish. So is my iPod.

Ultimately, I just really didn't care about the good guys or the bad guys or which was which and I guess this didn't really make me feel engaged in the movie.

My Dad had rather major surgery this morning and is recovering quite nicely. Major major bullet dodged, to say the least.

My apologies to anyone in Newfoundland whom I haven't contacted — I've been preoccupied with family matters (I did manage to fit in a Middle Cove beach party; pictures later hopefully). We're flying home to Toronto tomorrow where I'm hoping (but not hopeful) that my fish survived the heat wave.