HOW DO YOU go about saving your entire nation from sinking into the sea?

Well, you don’t! At least that’s the view of recently elected Mohamed “Anni” Nasheed, President of the Maldives. Of course it’s a bit more complicated than that, but what a challenge to face into in a new presidency term.

The Maldives is an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands located south-southwest of India. Most of the islands lie just 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) above sea level. The problem is that the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has forecast a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches (18 cm) by the end of the century, and it’s only going to get worse from there.

The Maldives has had it’s fair share of disaster, suffering damages and a large death toll from the tsunami in 2004, but it’s global warming that is uppermost on the new president’s mind. While the rest of us worry about reducing our carbon emissions and trading in our cars for electric buggies and solar powered clothing, the people of the Maldives are facing into a more realistic and immediate side of effect of global warming; their homeland is literally going to sink into the Indian Ocean as water levels rise around the planet, and more importantly around them.

To compound the situation, the Maldives is dependent almost entirely on the tourist trade, due largely to its amazing beaches and crystal clear waters. Beaches which of course will vanish over time as the wonderfully clear water levels rise.  So – how do you deal with the threat of global warming which is destined to drown your entire nation?

Well – in this case you save up your tourist revenues while you still can and you buy some land. Somewhere else. Somewhere not likely be flooded and then you move your entire nation to the new home. In essence, you relocate your entire country to a new homeland. The alternative is to watch your people and your country end up as a floating set of refugees living in tents somewhere.

Likely candidates at the moment include Australia (which has lots of spare land to sell), India and Sri Lanka (which at least are closer). Discussions are underway and eventually a home, and a price will be settled upon and then a pretty large migration project will be born and some serious future planning will take place.

It’s an ambitious scheme to be sure, but what other choice do they have? Imagine someone telling you tomorrow that either you, your children or perhaps your grand children will have to abandon your homeland and migrate to a new location. It’s not a political thing, it’s not a religious thing, it’s just a by product of nature and global warming. How do you wrap your mind around something like that, especially when the chances of getting a similar environment are slim to none?

It remains to be seen how viable this plan is, but I’m guessing the new president of the Maldives will be receptive to any alternatives too, so answers on a postcard please…

Technorati Tags: Global Warming, Maldives, migration, Paradise, Paradise Lost, Tsunami

BE WARNED, this is a bit gruesome, but apparently true. A number of severed feet have been washing up on the shores of western Canada in the past year. The fifth such severed foot just washed up this week. What the hell is going on over there?

Walkers apparently spotted the latest body part floating in water off the suburb of Westham Island in British Columbia on Monday. So far five severed feet have been found, both left and right limbs, and no one seems to have a clue what’s going on.

Local law enforcement are quick to point out that DNA testing takes a hell of a long time, unlike the popular CSI shows which seem to get their results in minutes, so the mystery continues to deepen and the body parts continue to pile up.

They don’t even know yet if the feet are connected (pardon the pun) or whether this is just some really really weird coincidence. The severed limbs have been turning up on shores since last August and of course speculation is flying. Local newspapers are trying to see if the missing persons list matches the amount of feet. Others are wondering if they have a serial psycho on the loose. Other theories include gangland retributions, organised crime and even natural disasters.

I’ve been to BC a few times in my murky past and enjoyed my visits each time. I’ve always thought Vancouver would have made a better capital than Ottowa… but I’m not sure I’d be keen to go anywhere near the shore lines over there at the mo folks.

Five severed feet washing up in the same area within a one year timeframe is a bit more than coincidence methinks…

Technorati Tags: british columbia, canada, CSI, DNA, feet, mystery, severed feet, vancouver, westham island

WITH ALL the fuss over the presidential race and the democratic nominations occupying most of the print and media space these days I’m not a completely surprised that the release of a long-delayed Senate committee report endorsed by Democrats and some Republicans might be overlooked.

The report concluded that el Presidente and his aides built the public case for war against Iraq by exaggerating available intelligence and by ignoring disagreements among spy agencies about Iraq’s weapons programs and Saddam Hussein’s links to Al Qaeda. In other words they lied. They weren’t alone in that lie mind you, the Brits had a part to play too, but for the most part it was an agenda driven by America.

To quote directly from the report:

“In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.”

- Sen. John D. Rockefeller

Not exactly a shock story to most of us at this point as it’s been fairly well established that the reasons for going into Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with WMDs or impending destabilising threats etc. However what did surprise me today was the news that el Presidente has hit the lowest approval rating of his presidential term ever, currently tipping in at just 25%.

I think Sarah Churchill of The Guardian puts it perfectly when she says:

“Only 25% of the country still labours under the delusion that he is doing a good job. Nearly three-quarters of my compatriots have — finally — realised that Bush is a bad president, who has routinely lied to the American people. This puts Bush on a par with Nixon, whose approval rating was 24% when he was forced to resign, over similar mendacities.”

This may very well be the last great act that Bush can inflict upon the American nation; that of getting into the record books as possibly the worst rated president in history. Kind of makes you feel tingly all over doesn’t it?

Still the White House is not taking this lying (should that be Lieing?) down… In a display of incredible logic  White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says the administration regrets that the intelligence was wrong, but maintains that it was fully vetted. So that’s ok then right?

Phew! For a minute there I was worried somebody might actually, you know, do something about one of the greatest frauds committed against a nation (make that nations!) in recent history, but it’s ok. It’s all been explained and you can now go back to debating whether Obama or McCain gets to pick up the pieces and pretend it never happened, all at the same time.

Technorati Tags: America, Bush, el Presidente, iraq, Lie, Lieing, McCain, Nixon, Nomination, Obama, President Busn, report, Senate, USA

BEFORE you get all agitated, I’m not claiming that the USA is now tracking all mobile phones outside their borders – although I’m sure some genius is working on a program to do something similar in the seemingly endless war on terror. I’m actually referring to a recent study which is raising big questions about data protection, privacy and ethics.

The reason for the hoohaa is that this study, published by the Northeastern University in Boston, was carried out in secret by tracking 100,000 cell phones (and associated users’ movements) outside the USA, without any permissions being sought or granted by the cell phone users.

The logic behind this incredible move is the researchers felt that in order to get an objective study the best way to do so was to, well, tell no one that there was a study in motion. However they didn’t just keep the cell phone users in the dark, they also didn’t advise the ethics boards about their plans. To quote from a CNN article on the topic:

Barabasi said he did not check with any ethics panel. Had he done so, he might have gotten an earful, suggested bioethicist Arthur Caplan at the University of Pennsylvania.

There are some potentially valid reasons for conducting such research (if we ignore the nonconcensual nature and ethics of it for a moment). There are other researchers looking at ways of using mobile phone data as well, and research into human behaviour and movements could yield such diverse benefits as:-

• Helping to prevent or control disease outbreaks
• Aiding Traffic forecasting
• Improving public infrastructure planning

Researchers claim that the identities of the participants have been protected by masking actual phone numbers with 26 digit codes and then selecting samples at random. The problem of course is that the results were obtained in a nonconcensual fashion, and the reason the researchers selected the 100,000 phone numbers (from a starting number of six million) outside of the USA was because if they did this research inside American borders they would probably have been arrested on the spot for spying… unless of course they worked for Homeland Security, DSS or I suppose tany of he CIA/FBI/NSA trinity.

One of the key findings from this study was that people don’t actually move that far, and when they move at all they follow regular patterns. It seems most folks (over 50%) stay within a six mile radius while 83% stay within a 37 mile radius.

I suppose the slide towards a big brother state is inevitable (see “Sleepwalking Into A Surveillance Society“) and I know It’s happening with CCTV right now. just like it’s happening with cross-border biometric systems too. It’s certainly possible with mobile phones, but not currently enforced, but maybe that’s only a matter of time; time for the technology to store and process such huge volumes of data to catch up with the idea and also perhaps time for the politicians to amend privacy and data protection legislation to enable the enactment of such measures, all in the name of national safety no doubt.

Hell for all I know my mobile phone has already been included in the damn research. Maybe yours has too!

Suddenly George Orwell’s 1984 novel doesn’t seem that much of a stretch anymore does it?

Technorati Tags: big brother, boston, cell phone, data protection, ethics, mobile phone, northeastern university, privacy, secret, tracking

IT’S AMAZING WHAT AN OBSESSIVE person can accomplish sometimes, and certainly obsession is what has driven french parachutist Michel Fournier to the point where he intends to break a hell of a lot of records.

Picture this for a challenge…This guy intends to climb into a pressurized gondola of a 650-foot balloon, which resembles a giant jellyfish, and make a two-hour journey to 131,000 feet. Then, almost 25 miles up, Fournier will see both the blackness of space and the curvature of the earth.

Oh and another thing… he will also experience weightlessness. Not content with all of this he will then step out of the capsule / gondola and drop like a stone back down to earth for approximately 15 minutes equiped with only a spacesuit and a parachute.

In doing so, he will – if successful – fall longer, further and faster than anyone in history and may even break the sound barrier in the process. Fournier calls this project “Le Grand Saut” (The Great Leap) and has been working towards this for over 20 years.

The expectation is that Fournier would be in free fall for about eight minutes. He should exceed the speed of sound within the first 40 seconds and eventually approach 1,000 miles an hour. His fall should slow at lower altitudes amid increasing wind resistance and his parachute is designed to open at around 20,000 feet.

I know there are people out there who will question the whole point of such an expedition, perhaps pointing out that other than breaking a record or ten it doesn’t actually achieve anything monumental, but I would have to disagree with them. This will be a spectacular personal achievement for the french parachutist if he manages to pull it off and he deserves credit for never quitting and letting his dream just fade away with age.

Oh yeah – did I fail to mention that little piece of info? You see, Michel Fournier is now 64 years old, and he has been trying to achieve this for 20 years.

The attempt will take place next Sunday, so keep your eyes on the skies… you never know what might be falling towards you at the speed of sound

Update (26th May 2008): Strong winds have forced French skydiver Michel Fournier to postpone his historic 40-kilometer (25-mile) leap from the edge of the stratosphere back to Earth, which is now set for Tuesday 3rd June 2008 instead.

Technorati Tags: canada, Le Grand Saut, michel fournier, obsession, parachutist, regina, skydive, space, The Big Leap

THE PAPERS and online news sites are full of stories today relating to the mounting death toll in Iraq, specifically the US troops death toll, because the official figure has reached 4000 dead apparently; the latest to die were four soldiers whose patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in southern Baghdad on Sunday last weekend.

Most of the commentators and journalists are drawing comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam at this point, and reaching conclusions such as the US cannot successfully fight more than 2 “small wars” at once with any chance of emerging victorious.

I’ve written previously about the mounting civillian casualties and deaths in Iraq which just continues to spiral out of control and out of sight for most people. Back in October 2006 I posted an article citing the estimated civilian casualties at over 650,000, and things have only gone from bad to worse since then. Multiple sources seem to agree that this estimate is reasonably accurate and yet it still continues to be largely ignored.

What struck me as odd today however – because I suffer from the same infomation overload and statistic fatigue that everyone else does when talking about Iraq – is that of those 4000 US dead 97% of them happened after Bush declared victory in the “battle for Iraq” back on May 1st 2003 when he said that “major combat” was over.

Anyone else think this is just a teensy weensy bit of a PR problem for the outgoing el presidente and the republican party in general?

To quote from his speech directly:-

The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 — and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men — the shock troops of a hateful ideology — gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the “beginning of the end of America.” By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation’s resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed.

That was then and this is now. Fast forward to 2008 and el presidente is still making victory speeches about the “successes in Iraq” on the five year anniversary of the illegal invasion war conflict in Iraq.

I’m sure the families of the dead 4000 US soldiers, the families of the 650,000 dead Iraqi civiliians and probably the relatives of US troops still on the ground over there in Iraq are really looking forward to his next victory speech…. oh wait, that’s right, he’s out of office at the end of the year isn’t he?

I guess it will be someone else from the Whitehouse making the regular victory speech in a year or so and all we will have to do is update the death toll figures again in response.

Technorati Tags: Bush, Death Toll, iraq, President Bush, Presidente, Speech, USA, Victory, Whitehouse

Technorati Tags: Body Count, Coalition, Death Toll, Invasion, iraq, War

I NOTICED from various news sources today that there are quite a few goodbyes in the headlines, and apart from the sheer coincidence and randomness associated with this it made me stop and think. Of all the goodbyes I read about, which ones did I actually give a crap about?

So – who is saying goodbye then?

Well first up we have the old man of Internet browsers, the unlikely challenger to Microsoft in it’s day and ultimately the first real looser in the browser wars. Today is the last day for Netscape as AOL officially closes down support for this browser from March 1st 2008.

Today is also the beginning of the end for the notorious “Chemical Ali” in Iraq – one of the senior aides to Saddam Hussein – as the courts today removed the last obstacle to hanging him for his crimes and the plan is to carry out this execution in the next few days apparently.

Today is also the day the Spice Girls decided to say “Goodbye” to their fans via a message on their website; it seems they have finally come to the end of the road and are breaking up for good.

Not to be outdone, Brit rock legend Elton John announced today that he is saying “Goodbye” to all the fancy dressing and crazy garb as he’s getting a little old for it; so from here on he is going to just your average billionare I guess.

And last, but not least, I noticed that one time indepentant New Line Cinema announced today that they are folding up shop and merging into the parent company, Time Warner, with approximately 600 job losses in the frame.

So of all the “Goodbyes” today, which one will you miss?

For me I have to say that I always liked Netscape and hoped they would grow large enough to compete toe to toe with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (which is an abomination of a browser), but I guess hopes will just have to remain with Firefox instead.

With respect to New Line Cinema, they will be sadly missed as there really aren’t enough independant outfits left these days in the movie business. I know the name will carry on for some titles, but it won’t be the same.

As for the rest – I’d be reasonably well disposed towards a) forgetting the Spice Girls ever existed, b) hanging that nutjob high and dropping him fast and c) just listening to Elton John’s music without the visual sideshow… but what about you?

Technorati Tags: blowing, browser, chemical ali, elton john, firefox, goodbye, Internet, internet explorer, iraq, kiss, microsoft, miss, netscape, new line cinema, spire girls

THE NEWS TODAY that Fidel Castro intends to resign as presidente over in Cuba has been greeted with the usual – if not expected – responses. The US Whitehouse and even Barack Obama, presidential candidate, threw in their opinions citing that his “exit from power was not enough to bring democratic freedom to communist Cuba” and that the embargo on Cuba should continue until such time as a real democratic process is installed in the country.

News of Castro’s intention to keep his retirement permanent was met with equal cynicism and caution by Cuban exiles in Miami; residents of “Little Havana” are adopting a wait-and-see approach. Broadly speaking the reaction from across the entire world has been similar, but I think they are all missing the point. Completely.

This guy may have been one of the most successful dictators of his time. In his nearly half-century of power there have been approximately 638 failed assassination attempts (most from the CIA I guess!) upon his life, and he still managed to make it to 81 and retire from the position under his own steam.

Just think about that for a minute. Never mind the politics, forget the man and his despot ways for a second. Consider the maths… 638 attempts in nearly 50 years. That’s an average of nearly 13 attempted assassinations per year, at least one attempt per month. Can you imagine leading a life where someone is trying to kill you every single month?

Better yet, as if the sheer volume of attempts wasn’t enough, the actual types of assassination attempts are straight out of a James Bond story. In fact some of them are so outlandish that they belong in Hollywood. Maybe this says more about the incompetence and desperation of the CIA than it does about Castro’s ability to survive, but just take a gander at the following highlights from the hundreds of weird and whacky attempts that were made on his life:-

• Exploding Cigars – kind of obvious I guess.
• Poisoned Cigars – again obvious.
• Infected Scuba Diving Suit – CIA agents had a deadly fungus powder placed on the inside of his diving suit.
• Exploding Sea Shells  – These were packed with explosives and placed in one of his known favourite diving areas.
• Poisonous Women – One of his femme fatales, supported by the CIA, tried to smuggle in poison pills in a face cream jar into the bedroom.
• Mafia Hit Men – it’s all in the title really. A combination of either poisoning or straight-kill shots was employed but none of the hitmen could ever get close enough to him.
• Poison Pen – Yup, the CIA again reading too much Ian Fleming invented a poison pen which when used would shoot an infected needle into the user.
• Radio Studio – In one of the more weird attempts LSD was to be pumped into a radio studio during a live broadcast to humiliate Castro and hopefully incapacitate him, leaving him vulnerable.

The list goes on and on, but the reason Castro survived this long is because he took every possible threat seriously, even the whacky ones. Delphin Fernandez, his former personal assistant, says Castro regularly had all his underwear burned after wearing it, so it could not be laundered with deadly chemicals.

So it does prompt me to ask – is Fidel Castro the luckiest man alive? Has anyone else survived that many assassination attempts? Are there any other statistics out there that rival this one? Let me know….

Technorati Tags: Assassination, Assassination Attempts, CIA, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Havana, Luckiest Man

ACCORDING TO VARIOUS news sources today it looks like the most recent format war, between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is finally over. Or at least it’s about to enter the final stages where the main combatants have agreed who won and everyone else will either give up or just gradually fade away.

The winner this time around looks like Sony’s Blu-Ray technology, and the victory must be very sweet for Sony since they lost the last great format war over 30 years ago to JVC. Back then the competition was between video tape formats Betamax (from Sony) and VHS (from JVC). I remember trying to sell both varients to customers back in the day and I wasn’t exactly surprised that VHS tapes won out in the end.

I must admit though that this time around I did suspect that the HD-DVD format was going to take the spoils, but recent announcements from Netflix and Warner coming out in support of Blu-Ray seemed to set the scene for the demise of HD-DVD, and today the rumours are flying that Toshiba, until now the number one backer of the HD-DVD format, is about to announce it’s switch to Blu-Ray. Even worse, an insider blogger at Wal-Mart has let slip that they are also about to switch over to the same format and then it was confirmed on Friday to be true.

So basically the format war looks like it’s pretty much over. Blu-Ray is the winner and in a year or two most people won’t even remember HD-DVD. Let’s just hope the price of Blu-Ray players starts to drop as a result.

Technorati Tags: , Betamax, Blu-Ray, Format War, HD-DVD, JVC, Sony, Toshiba, VHS