Month: December 2009

Anybody see the Sherlock Holmes flick?

Howard Tayler liked it, Aint It Cool News ditto, Rotten Tomatoes seems to be having a disagreement between fans and film critics.  I’m on the cusp between deciding to see it now and waiting until DVD, and this is one film where I’ll be unhappy about the latter if I like the film; it looks like it’ll be more fun to watch on the big screen.  Anybody go see it yet?

Fifth year anniversary of the Asian tsunami.

Prayers for the victims and their families, of course.

Countries across the Indian Ocean have been marking the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed almost 250,000 people.

In Indonesia’s Aceh province, where 170,000 died, thousands held prayers in public mosques and private homes.

On Thai beaches, Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners held pictures of loved ones lost five years ago.

Moe Lane

PS: And pay attention in geography class.

A 10-year-old girl saved her family and 100 other tourists from the Asian tsunami because she had learnt about the giant waves in a geography lesson, it has emerged.

[snip]

In an interview with the Sun, Tilly gave the credit to her geography teacher, Andrew Kearney, at Oxshott’s Danes Hill Prep School.

She said “Last term Mr Kearney taught us about earthquakes and how they can cause tsunamis.

I can’t think of a single thing to say that would add to that.

Greentech hurts poor people, pollutes land.

Business as usual, in other words. Remember, it doesn’t count if it’s not impacting the First World:

Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. The world’s dependence on these substances is rising fast.

Just one problem: These elements come almost entirely from China, from some of the most environmentally damaging mines in the country, in an industry dominated by criminal gangs.

That’s actually three problems, all of which are more or less independent of each other. Fixing any one of the three wouldn’t solve the other two, although fixing at least one probably certainly wouldn’t hurt; but, for example, the mines will still be ecological menaces even absent the criminal elements and single-source production.  All in all, chalk up another win for the Law of Unintended Consequences, although Law of Unconsidered Consequences may be more accurate here.  After all, a little bit of research beforehand would have easily warned would-be innovators that there would be road bumps on this particular road to Shangri-La.

Whether they would have cared is another question, of course…

Moe Lane

PS: This may be the best bit from the article:

“This industry wants to save the world,” said Nicholas Curtis, the executive chairman of the Lynas Corporation of Australia, in a speech to an industry gathering in Hong Kong in late November. “We can’t do it and leave a product that is glowing in the dark somewhere else, killing people.”

Actually, it’s much more accurate to say that’s what they’re doing now, only without the ‘saving the world’ part; they’re just being uncomfortable at being caught at it.

Crossposted to RedState.

Vacation all he ever wanted? (Or, educating POTUS.)

(Via JammieWearingFool, via Instapundit) Not to be unkind or anything – no, really, I’m trying not to be – but I have to ask:

Increasingly unloved and ridiculed from both sides, a new and embittered President Obama is emerging this Christmas season as he begins a badly needed vacation in Hawaii.

Why ‘badly needed?’ What, exactly, has the President done this year, besides calmly watch legislators from his party drain the treasury?

Moving along, while I recognize that the President’s in need of a serious attitude adjustment I don’t see any way of getting him to have one until the Democrats get smacked around a bit more.  Losing thirty House seats might do it: flipping the House may do it.  Flipping the House and getting more than five seats in the Senate back will almost certainly do it, particularly if there’s a discreet amount of payback afterward.  Admittedly, it would have been better for the country’s sake if the President’s party had cared enough about Obama’s personal development to teach him some limits as a state legislator, but the past is the past.  What’s important now is making sure that, going forward, he learns proper life lessons.

After all, we’re stuck with him for the time being.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Happy Boxing Day!

It’s a traditional holiday for our Anglosphere cousins: apparently it originated as being an opportunity for the upper class to both shower largess upon the lower class, and reinforce class distinctions via some Lord of Misrule activities*. This is, of course, why we don’t celebrate the holiday ourselves; if Americans wanted to reinforce class distinctions our ancestors wouldn’t have moved.

Ach, well, it’s also an opportunity to spend those Amazon.com gift certificates that you got for Christmas.  Have at it, and happy holiday!

Moe Lane

*Admittedly, I’m basing this latter observation on a M*A*S*H episode.

The good news about this attempted terrorist attack?

There’s only one bit of good news, but it’s reassuring: airline passengers haven’t forgotten the Flight 93 Lesson.

Jafry was sitting in the 16th row — three rows behind the passenger — when he heard “a pop and saw some smoke and fire.” Then, he said, “a young man behind me jumped on him.”

In short: you can’t always choose not to be a target, but you can always choose not to be a victim.