A colorful commotion from the Toronto based band, The oOohh Baby Gimme Mores:
The oOohh Baby Gimme Mores – Beat Up Kidz from Ryan Enn Hughes on Vimeo.
Month: May 2013
Bomb-Sniffing Bees
Honeybees are helping to uncover some of the 250,000 mines still buried across the former Yugoslavia:
Tracking down the mines can be extremely costly and dangerous. However, by training bees — which are able to detect odours from 4.5 kilometres away — to associate the smell of TNT with sugar can create an affective way of identifying the locations of mines.
[Professor Nikola] Kezic leads a multimillion-pound programme sponsored by the EU, called Tiramisu, to detect landmines across the continent. His team has been working in a net tent filled with the insects and several feeding posts containing a sugar solution — some of which contain traces of TNT. The bees — which have already been trained to associate food with the smell of TNT — gather mainly at those feeding posts containing TNT. The movements of the bees are tracked from afar using thermal cameras. Bees have the advantage of being extremely small and so don’t run the risk of setting off the explosives in the same way that trained mammals such as dogs or rats do.
Recent Dish on the decline of honeybees in the US here.
The Case For Leaving Carbon In The Ground
The Mauna Loa observatory reported last week that CO2 levels are now at four hundred parts per million, which means that we’ve “got more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than at any point since the Pliocene, when there were jungles in northern Canada.” Elizabeth Kolbert uses the milestone to argue against the Keystone pipeline:
Alberta’s tar sands contain an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels of oil. Assuming that only a tenth of that is recoverable, it’s still enough to generate something like twenty-two billion metric tons of carbon. There are, it should be noted, plenty of other ways to produce twenty-two billion metric tons of carbon. Consuming about a seventh of the world’s remaining accessible reserves of conventional oil would do it, as would combusting even a small fraction of the world’s remaining coal deposits. Which is just the point.
Were we to burn through all known fossil-fuel reserves, the results would be unimaginably bleak: major cities would be flooded out, a large portion of the world’s arable land would be transformed into deserts, and the oceans would be turned into liquid dead zones. If we take the future at all seriously, which is to say as a time period that someone is going to have to live in, then we need to leave a big percentage of the planet’s coal and oil and natural gas in the ground. These basic facts have been established for decades, and every President since George Bush senior has vowed to do something to avert catastrophe. The numbers from Mauna Loa show that they have failed.
Obama’s “War On Journalism”?
Serious idea. Instead of calling it Obama’s war on whistleblowers, let’s just call it what it is: Obama’s war on journalism.
— Eli Lake (@EliLake) May 20, 2013
In 2010, while attempting to track another purported leak, this time relating to North Korea, the Justice Department claimed that Fox News reporter James Rosen could be designated “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator” for communicating with the government source:
They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails. … Court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist — and raise the question of how often journalists have been investigated as closely as Rosen was in 2010.
Yes, but … the leak was real, comically obvious – and deeply compromising for US intelligence in a totalitarian state. Shafer notes how badly Rosen failed to protect his source, how amateurish his techniques were, and how he was all but begging for an investigation:
The story described the CIA’s findings, “through sources inside North Korea,” of that country’s plans should an upcoming U.N. Security Council resolution pass. Although Rosen’s story asserts that it is “withholding some details about the sources and methods … to avoid compromising sensitive overseas operations,” the basic detail that the CIA has “sources inside North Korea” privy to its future plans is very compromising stuff all by itself. As Rosen continues, “U.S. spymasters regard [North Korea] as one of the world’s most difficult to penetrate.”
Once the North Koreans read the story, they must have asked if the source of the intel was human or if their communications had been breached.
And if the US government is to have any grip on how to handle that dangerous regime, it needs such sources to be protected. And what was the story in the first place? It was entirely that the US had a successful inside source in North Korea. And that seems to be it. I’m with Josh Marshall:
It’s difficult for me not to be more shocked by the self-interested preening of fellow journalists over a comically inept reporter and source than the arguable dangers this episode holds for press freedoms. Indeed, I’ve tried and failed. I can’t.
Surviving The Storm
In the wake of the tragedy in Moore, OK, Brad Plumer considers tornado early warning systems:
Just 16 minutes before a gigantic twister formed near Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the National Weather Service put out a tornado warning. That doesn’t sound like very much time to get out of the way or hunker down. And for many, it wasn’t: At least [24] people died when the tornado tore a wide swath through the city of Moore, Okla. But those 16 minutes are actually an enormous advance for weather science. Back in the 1980s, the average tornado lead time was a scant five minutes. Today, it’s about 13 minutes. And meteorologists are now able to issue storm watches even earlier, thanks to powerful computers that allow them to run detailed simulations.
Kevin Simmons, a natural hazard economist, compares the two schools hit by the tornado:
Briarwood Elementary and Plaza Tower Elementary are about a mile apart and both were in the path of the storm. As of this writing there are no fatalities at Briarwood and many from Plaza Tower. Why? This is an important area of inquiry and the reasons are likely complex. It could be engineering. Was one school built differently from the other? It could be storm intensity. Along a tornadoes path, the intensity will vary. A small change in intensity can have different effects on buildings and it could be that the change in intensity was sufficient to create very different outcomes on buildings so close to each other. It could be location. The path of the storm is estimated to be a mile wide. But wind intensities vary within the path with the strongest winds toward the center. Or it could be tragic luck. Where in the building were the children when struck by the storm?
(Photo: Dana Ulepich searches inside a room left standing at the back of her house destroyed after a powerful tornado ripped through the area on May 20, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma. By Brett Deering/Getty Images)
Iran’s Election Just Got Really Interesting
The Guardian Council has now barred the surprise candidacies of former president Rafsanjani and the Ahmadi-allied Mashaei. Rumors over the weekend said the rationale for disqualifying Rafsanjani would be his age (78), and security services had already been readying themselves for negative reaction to today’s announcement. Yesterday, Yasmin Alem noted the problems that Ayatollah Khamenei and his allies could face by shutting out Rafsanjani:
[Using his old age as] a pretext would expose the Guardian Council to potential ridicule, since its powerful secretary, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, is eight years Rafsanjani’s senior. Another pretext could be to accuse the former president — as the minister of intelligence did a few days before his registration — of complacency in the 2009 revolt. But that would undermine the Supreme Leader’s own credibility since he reappointed Rafsanjani in 2012 as the chairman of the Expediency Council, a body that advises him directly.
Alem added that there may be consequences for ruling out Mashaei as well:
[There is] a risk that Ahmadinejad could go ballistic if his dauphin is barred from the race — a spectacle that would be problematic for at least two reasons. First, the president is technically in charge of conducting the election, meaning that the ruling clique’s hopes of an incident-free ballot could be dashed. Second, Ahmadinejad has threatened to blackmail regime insiders with a supposedly thick dossier of damning documents that implicate officials close to Khamenei in corruption scandals. But the Supreme Leader might well call Ahmadinejad’s bluff; experience has shown that the president typically caves when faced with Khamenei’s immense institutional power. Even if he doesn’t, Khamenei loyalists have laid the groundwork to soften the blow, announcing in advance that anyone who interferes with the electoral process or questions its results is doing the bidding of Iran’s enemies.
Both candidates can still appeal directly to Khamenei for inclusion in the race. Abbas Milani recently summarized why he thinks Rafsanjani would be trouble for the Supreme Leader:
In a sense, the Rafsanjani candidacy has put Khamenei and his IRGC allies in a lose-lose situation. If they allow him to run, they have, in effect, accepted defeat in their eight-year project of eliminating him and his moderate allies in favor of Ahmadinejad’s harebrained economic ideas and foreign policy adventurism. If they block his candidacy, though, they won’t have the “epic” election they so desperately need. With no economic rebound in sight, a controversial election will only worsen Iran’s politically explosive climate. Some IRGC commanders are warning of post-election riots not just in Tehran but around the country; they predict a “Russian style” riot that, according to IRGC’s political commissar, might be significantly worse and more widespread than the 2009 demonstrations, which were concentrated in Tehran. These anxieties indicate that a long hot summer is ahead in Iran.
Meanwhile, Saeed Kamali Dehghan reports that, with the election nearing, opposition activists are being increasingly targeted:
Iran has launched a public crackdown on dissent before next month’s presidential election, executing two men charged with espionage and waging war against God, arresting a group of activists and summoning campaigners for questioning. Political prisoners in some of the country’s most notorious jails have had their parole or visiting rights withdrawn and some transferred to solitary confinement.
Internet access in the country has been throttled, another sign that the regime is trying to stifle dissent. Previous Dish coverage of the election here and here.
Crushes On Countries
Michelle Lhooq explores “what makes the global culture industry fall for some countries and not others,” charting the rise of Denmark and South Korea:
[B]oth of these cultures are especially seductive because they show us an alternative way of life that is somehow better than our own — but at the same time, familiar enough that we can envision a bridge between our world and this vision of utopia.
The forest-foraged mentality of Denmark’s culinary scene, the rugged pragmatism of their crime-solving TV shows (and their heroines’ home-spun sweaters), the large safety net of their politics: All of this looks extremely comforting from afar, a welcome respite from capitalism’s soulless gloss. In times of recession, the desire to return to our roots, to a simpler time when everything worked as it should, can be overwhelming.
On quite the opposite side of the spectrum, Korea’s air-brushed soap opera and pop music stars are ambassadors of the polished sophistication that its neighbors are striving to achieve. Confident, stylish and wired, these superstars reflect their home country’s successful modernization — but still retain their Confucian values. “You can wear Margiela and still be a good Korean daughter,” the dancing baby dolls of Girls Generation, Korea’s most successful pop group, seem to be saying. For countries like Vietnam and Thailand that are still trying to figure out how to reconcile the forces of westernization, modernity and tradition, this call is also impossible to resist.
(Video: Girls Generation’s “Gee”, which has over 100,000,000 views on YouTube)
Yglesias Award Nominees
“[Republicans] have no real health-care agenda. Voters don’t trust them to look out for middle-class economic interests. Republicans are confused and divided about how to solve the party’s problems. What they can do is unite in opposition to the Obama administration’s scandals and mistakes. So that’s what they’re doing. They’re trying to win news cycles when they need votes,” –Ramesh Ponnuru.
“[The GOP’s 1998] strategy was to assume that the [Lewinsky] scandal would redound to their benefit, and that they merely had to sit back and let victory rain o’er them. It didn’t. The current lot should not make the same mistake. Democratic scandal does not take the place of a Republican agenda,” – National Review’s editors.
Let’s not forget the role of Fox News in all this. Once again, what riles up their white elderly base may actually turn off the broad American middle whose votes the GOP desperately needs. And if the Issa brigade appear to be trying to gin up scandals rather than investigate them, they will seem more than ever irrelevant to the country’s actual needs. Charlie Cook echoes these thoughts rather convincingly here.
Dissents Of The Day
A reader fisks me:
With every word you wrote here, I questioned more and more whether this was the same person I read religiously day after day. Your defense of Jon Karl is complete and utter nonsense.
When he and I were at TNR together, I saw nothing in him but good sense, good humor, and ambition.
Well, then his journalistic integrity is beyond reproach!
And the alleged sins of Karl are extremely petty – and designed to pile on after his regurgitation of Republican summaries of emails that were, shall we say, slanted a little.
Far from petty. Karl represented that he had seen the actual emails and was quoting from them firsthand. Your dismissal of his actions as “regurgitation of Republican summaries of emails” ignores the fact that they weren’t represented to readers as “summaries”, nor was it revealed that the source was a Republican. And they weren’t “slanted”; they were fabrications. Fabrications presented as fact. And Karl printed these lies and presented them as true, throwing the entirety of his journalistic integrity behind their authenticity.
But Jon apologized for being a little suckered.
Umm, nope. He didn’t apologize. Have you actually read what you linked to as an apology? Even worse, he doubled down on the fact that his story “still entirely stands.”
Yes, he’s not a left-liberal which means he may choose stories or emphases that liberals wouldn’t. But isn’t that a good thing? And isn’t it even better that a single MSM news source can include reporters of varying opinions and hold them all to the same standard?
Sorry, I was unaware journalism involved ANY sort of bias. The word “reporters” and “opinions” should never be in the same sentence. Were Karl offering his opinion, he should have said so. But instead he presented as fact complete fabrications. I don’t care about “varying opinions”; I care about being told the truth. And Karl did not tell the truth. Simple as that.
My post was a response to the notion that Karl was a “right-wing mole”. I thought that way over the top. Jon’s report was clearly flawed, but it did include the following phrase: “summaries of White House and State Department e-mails”. I also notice in the televised report, that the images are not of actual emails but obviously summaries of emails. Jon should have made that much clearer, and not directly quoted from summaries as if they were direct quotes. My guess is that he was too excited about a scoop to make that clear and hyped the story excessively. He and his editors deserve some heat. But I don’t think he’s a right-wing mole. Josh Marsall fisks Karl’s statement. Another reader:
Karl still chooses to treat the Republican agent as a source and not a provocateur. Why does he protect and not expose the person who played him for a fool? That guy/gal is clearly not a true source, as per journalistic term, and doesn’t deserve anonymity. Maybe it’s because Karl is a co-conspirator. It’s either/or.
When you and he were together at TNR, that was >20 years ago. Is he frozen in amber? Are you saying it’s not possible for people to change? Sometimes people devolve under the pressure of ambition, money, fame, etc.
Indeed they do, although I have bumped into Jon many times since and regard him as a straight-up dude who made a serious error but should not be tarred as some sort of “right-wing mole” at ABCNews. Another:
I’m sure I’m not the first and definitely won’t be the last, but it does seem that you tend toward a double standard when it comes to people you personally know. Jon Karl did not retract his story, the foundation of which was pretty much wiped out when the emails he built his story on turned out to be selectively edited by someone in the GOP. But, according to you, this is ok, because he’s a good guy and all that and sins should be forgiven ASAP. The same argument has recently been made by you when it came to Niall Ferguson’s comments about Keynes’s personal life, and also, if my memory is correct, about Michael Kelly in your series of reflections 10 years after the start of the Iraq War. In the past you’ve been prone to giving Hitch a pass when he was wrong or just downright douchey.
I’m not saying that they are bad people. What I am suggesting is that you should be more willing to call out friends when they are objectively wrong than telling your readers just how nice they are. You can let us know about their inherent goodness after you tell them they were wrong, or as in Karl’s case, still wrong. Not trying to sound like a prick, just felt obliged to let you know what a long-time reader (at least 10 years now) has noticed lately.
I take the point. I’m human. I try hard not to let that get in the way of honest blogging – and I have lost many friends over the years. After my takedown of Niall’s Romney essay, for example, he temporarily ended our friendship. I did not subsequently excuse what he said about Keynes, calling it “stupid, offensive, and absurd.” I cannot count the number of neocon or Republican friends I have burned this past decade. But when it comes to someone I respect who is killed reporting in Iraq or dying of cancer, I plead guilty to some partiality. Another long-time reader:
I’m sure I’m not the only one reminding you of what you wrote about Dan Rather:
Rather and Heyward must resign. The original error was bad enough; the refusal to acknowledge it is inexplicable. And who is the source? There is no need for a reporter to keep confidential the identity of a source who provided false and fake information. That’s the next ten-ton shoe to drop on Dan’s head. It’s over, boyo. Leave now.
Why is it different for Jon Karl? Have you changed your mind on the situation? Why?
If I were to defend myself on that one, it would be that Karl did not get completely fabricated data, but skewed data that he should have followed up on more closely. It’s also true, as Kessler notes, that the State Department was implicitly among all the agencies Ben Rhodes tried to reconcile. But I don’t think this story by Karl was politically motivated. And my short post was defending him from an over-the-top attack on his integrity. I was a little too forgiving and glib in retrospect. Which is what you readers are there for. Thanks.
The View From Your Window Contest: Winner #154
A reader writes:
Satellite dishes and shadows say somewhere not far from the equator. Karst-ish mountains, slightly exotic architecture, a Pizzeria. I’m going to go with some moderately biggish upland city in Malaysia. Maybe Indonesia.
Another:
This reminded me of the view from an office I worked in many years ago. It was located just west of Main Street, north of Broadway in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The mountains in the background look similar to a mountain range that is affectionately referred to as Sleeping Beauty on Vancouver’s North Shore. I imagine we can all see what we want to see for when my partner looked at the photo he sais, no it could not be Vancouver as the mountains appear too close. He is right of course, but it sure brought me a sense of deja vu. It was fun to think I might of solved my first “view”.
Another:
I hate you. Or to be more precise, my wife hates you for taking me away from her this Saturday for nearly 90 minutes while I was going crazy trying find out where in the Vancouver area this photo was taken. (Juneau was briefly considered, but no dice.) So where is it? Vancouver proper? North Vancouver? Burnaby? I’m burned out and discouraged! Please let me know if I wasn’t thorough enough with my googling OR if I was on the wrong track altogether. Whichever it is, my wife won’t forgive you, but I will.
Another:
You can see a DirectTV logo on the satellite on the roof, but other than that I’m stumped. Apparently DirectTV can only be found in the Western Hemisphere, so at least it’s narrowed down a bit. The motorcycles and the lush green hills suggest central or South America to me. Just now I’m noticing the Venezuelan flag on the opposite building, so assuming that’s not an embassy, I’m guessing this is Caracas, Venezuela. No doubt someone will find the exact window, but I don’t have much time left, so I’ll have to leave it at that.
Another:
This is my first attempt to send in my ideas about a VFMY contest, although I am a regular if often befuddled contestant. At first I got very first world northern vibes from the photo – the deciduous
trees, the general buildup of strip malls, clean streets, good lighting, etc., but then decided the flag flying on the building in the left portion of the photo was the flag of Colombia, South America and was forced away from my preconceived notions. From there I poked around a few maps – veering north away from the equator, due to the lack of palm trees, etc., and looking at a topical map for hilly areas. I settled on the town of Valledupar, Colombia, a rather nice low rise city set against the foothills of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. From there I looked at many a Google picture, but never did get much farther. ( I have enclosed a small photo of downtown Valledupar for your perusal.) Of course, I am hopelessly wrong, but still, as always I enjoyed the ride. And I do think I may be close; close as in the right hemisphere, lol.
Another:
Cucuta, Colombia is a wild guess. I have no idea what city this is, but the Colombian flag in the photo makes the country pretty obvious. I did learn a few things while searching vainly for further clues to this week’s location:
1) Colombia has no Street View, which made this quite difficult. I’d hoped to be able to spot that radio/TV tower from street level.
2) Every city in Colombia is nestled at the foot of thickly forested mountainsides.
3) Colombia is an absolutely gorgeous country. It has now moved the top of my bucket list of travel destinations.
Another:
Judging by the tall buildings and the peninsula peak in the background, this is obviously Christchurch, New Zealand. The Colombian flag is the kicker, seeing as the two countries have a good relationship.
Another:
It’s definitely Colombia. Even I couldn’t miss the flag flying from the building in the foreground. If it turns out this is a Colombian embassy in another country, please let me kick the photographer in the shins. But I’m pretty sure it’s in Colombia because the the No Parking sign that’s visible matches what I found online. (Would you believe that Colombian road signs have their own Wikipedia page? Because of course they do.) I’m going to guess Cali, Colombia and hope that either that radio mast or those satellite dishes belong to Telepacifico.
Another pins down the correct city:
With the yellow, red and blue flag partially visible, I’m figuring this window is in either be in Venezuela or Colombia (unless you’re throwing us a huge curve ball). With the death of Chavez and the “election” of Maduro, Caracas would be logical, but I’m going to go against the grain and go with the downtown business district of Bogota, Colombia.
Another clarifies the flag distinction:
The flag was a giveaway (unless there are stars in the blue field, which would make it Venezuela):
The formations of the mountains in the background suggest Bogota. So, there we are.
Another gets the right address:
It’s Bogota, Colombia, probably a Sunday by looks of no traffic, near Parque 93; from the Google maps, Calle 93 w/Carrera 13A. the nice northern neighborhoods, Chico, looking east north east to the hills. You can see the trace of the road to La Calera going up the forested hill on the right. I’m a loyal, currently freeloading, reader. Dag, for karma I’ll [tinypass_offer text=”subscribe”], now that I’m on the proverbial map.
I would add that this northern privileged neighborhood, with fine restaurants and walkable parks, is a prospect well known to the privileged (diplomats such as my family) but it literally turns its back on the bulk of the teeming, 9 million people mega-city that is filling the high mountain valley, la sabana; the poor live in the south, about 10 miles away. The city is relatively flat and sprawling; you can drink the tap water because it comes from the pristine paramo ecosystem in Chingaza National Park, up in the mountains to the east. Air pollution from chronic congestion and dirty diesel busetas make the city gritty and smelly most places, particularly to the south and west; public transport is a big challenge for most Bogotanos. Sundays and holidays, however, the city closes many kilometers of road to cars for ciclovia from early in the morning until 2:00 p.m. and thousands of Bogotanos ride, walk, run, skate with whatever means of conveyance available, fresh fruit and juice stands pop up on corners, aerobic classes are held in parks, no matter the rain or sun, and the city seems democratic, even optimistic.
Another sends an image of the correct building, seen to the right. Another almost gets the right floor:
The word is out and Colombia is officially on the backpacker trail in South America – much to the chagrin of the burgeoning expat community here. Most international travelers will make a stop at
some point in the capital city pictured here, Bogotá. Sitting on a wide plateau at an elevation nearly two miles up, the city of about eight million hardly fits the stereotype of a tropical city. In fact, some nights here are downright chilly. The good news is that day trips close to the capital abound and you’re never too far from tierra caliente. Unlimited live music options, vibrant nightlife, great restaurants, markets, colonial neighborhoods, low cost of living, and beautiful people are all reasons to visit.
The mountains, architecture and street signs on buildings in the picture (not to mention the flag flying above a nearby building) pointed immediately to Bogotá. The photo is facing the mountains East-Northeast from a spot close to Parque 93, an upscale restaurant and bar district. If you have money and want to see and be seen, this is one of the more popular areas in the city. You will likely have dozens of correct guesses for Bogotá this week, but fewer who can decipher the location given the sprawl of the city. The key for me was the pizzeria in the bottom left-hand corner. It’s a new location of a local chain called ‘Da Quei Matti’ that has a decent, if overpriced pie. The picture was taken from an apartment building across the street, just west of Carrera 13A on Calle 93. The weird address system here might throw some people this week. Calles run East-West, and Carreras North-South. The first number of an address is the street you’re on, the second the closest cross street plus the building number. I’m going to guess this was taken from a 5th floor apartment at Calle 93, #13A-08.
So close: 6th floor. The winner this week was the only reader among the dozen to guess the right floor who has guessed a difficult window in the past without yet winning (but those dozen will now be added to the “Correct Guessers” list, giving them an edge in future tie-breakers):
Another fun/challenging one. The flag was either a gimme or the Colombian Embassy anywhere, and if the latter I was hosed, so I chose the former. Green mountains in the background suggested
Bogota, but not much success until I identified the large black building in the far background, which shows up in several of the photos taken from the ridge to the east of the city. From there it was a matter of wandering off in the right direction until the right collection of roofs showed up. Not the usual hotel/motel, at least Google doesn’t admit to it. I’m guessing just from sight lines that this was taken from the sixth floor, north-east corner of the building (see attached photo). BTW I tried googling pizzarias to see if I could narrow it down that way and had zero luck.
Thanks again for running these contests. I was on travel all weekend so started late Sunday night and finished Monday afternoon (some work intervened).
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