If You’re Reading This, Then the Viking Apocalypse Probably Didn’t Happen

Posted on February 22, 2014 by wellsdc

Emil Doepler [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons According to some aficionados of Norse mythology, today is predicted to be the day of Ragnarök, the epic final battle ‘twixt good and evil.

I’m scheduling this post for 6:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, Saturday, February 22, 2014. In Sweden right now, it’s already Sunday the 23rd. If Scandinavia is still a cold, dark place with mostly blonde people enjoying a high standard of living and eating lots of mackerel—as opposed to the scene of an Æsir vs. Jötnar battle royale—then we can probably all breathe easy. We have more to fear from coal slurry than the trickster god Loki.

Keep an eye out for giant serpents, though, just in case…

I mean, Harold Camping and all those people who misinterpreted the Mayans were wrong, but maybe third time’s a charm?

Photo credit: Emil Doepler [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

What Really Happened on Easter Island, Maybe

Posted on February 13, 2014 by wellsdc

An article by Robert Krulwich at NPR offers a relatively new theory on what happened to the Easter Islanders, who allegedly turned an isolated, tree-covered Pacific island into a comparatively desolate wasteland covered in statues. In my opinion, the competing theories of what happened all seem lacking in something. I’ve read that the Easter Islanders (or Rapa Nui) cut down all the trees in order to move the moai statues, or that they nearly drove themselves into extinction through warfare. Thanks to Google, I now know that there is also an alien “theory” (scare quotes intentional), although I don’t know why I’m surprised.

The new theory, from University of Hawaii anthropologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo, might make quite a bit more sense, although it is perhaps more discomfiting than the other theories. I won’t spoil it for you, because the article is worth a read and has interesting illustrations. In short, though, they believe that Easter Island was a success, not a failure—meaning that the bedraggled condition in which Europeans found them was the result of their survival. But it’s only one particular view of “success.” As Krulwich puts it:

Humans are a very adaptable species. We’ve seen people grow used to slums, adjust to concentration camps, learn to live with what fate hands them. If our future is to continuously degrade our planet, lose plant after plant, animal after animal, forgetting what we once enjoyed, adjusting to lesser circumstances, never shouting, “That’s It!” — always making do, I wouldn’t call that “success.”

Anyway, go read it.

Photo credit: Aurbina (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

What to Expect at the Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony Tonight

Posted on February 7, 2014 by wellsdc

You probably thought the Soviet Union broke up, right?

The Simpsons predicted it in 1998.

Via UTC_Hellgate and an unknown Reddit user.

Remembering That Other European Mass-Murdering Despot

Posted on December 19, 2013 by wellsdc

$Monument \'e0 L\'e9opold II$ King Leopold II of Belgium, to phrase it in an understated fashion, was not a good person. It is important to remember that (h/t Erik Loomis):

Today [December 17] is the 104th anniversary of the death of Belgium’s King Leopold II. The book [Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness] made me loathe this greedy man who was, like many Kings of his era, a spoiled, insecure and violent maniac. Belgium, unlike its neighbors, didn’t control many colonies. Of course, Leopold thought, how could a country be influential if it didn’t have darker peoples under its boot (It should be noted, however, that Leopold’s invasion of the Congo started off as a personal investment, which makes it even more heinous). The despot’s nefarious forces, dubbed the Force Publique, invaded the Congo Free State and unleashed a horror many of us can’t even fathom. The invaders raped Congolese women, destroyed homes and villages, sucked vital resources rubber and ivory) from the country and, more infamously as shown above [I used a different picture -CP], cut off the hands of native peoples to intimidate those who didn’t produce enough rubber to meet the quota or to show military superiors that bullets hadn’t been wasted on, gasp–wait for it, animals. Those beautiful black hands, by the way, are still a presence in Belgium. I was in Brussels several years ago and a candy shop, near the European Commission’s headquarters, was selling chocolate hands. No other customer seemed to recognize the odious irony of it all. But, then again, that’s Europe for you: a lovely and historically rich continent spectacularly ignorant of its role in multiple genocides. Continue reading →

The Most Dedicated Landowners in North America, Perhaps

Posted on December 19, 2013 by wellsdc

In downtown San Antonio, a small church sits surrounded on three sides by a large, looming, currently vacant department store building. Back in 1945, local department store Joske’s wanted to expand, but St. Joseph’s Catholic Church refused to sell. The store build all around it, gaining the church the nickname “St. Joske’s.” Dillards bought Joske’s back in the ’80s, and closed the store in 2008.

Clipper471 [Public domain], via Wikipedia

Growing up in San Antonio, I always sort of admired St. Joseph’s for sticking to their guns (it is Texas, after all) and not taking Joske’s crap. I recently learned of a far more epic example of refusing to move, even as the surrounding area changes, with even more noxious neighbors (pun intended). The story takes place in Sarnia, Ontario, not far across the border from Detroit, Michigan. Sarnia is reportedly home to forty percent of Canada’s chemical industry, and boasts the country’s most polluted air. In the midst of this, we find people who ain’t moving:

Nestled inside this giant ring of chemical production, surrounded on all sides by industrial plants, sits a First Nations reservation called Aamjiwnaang where about 850 Chippewa have lived for over 300 years. Aamjiwnaang was originally a Chippewa hunting ground, but the area was turned into a First Nations reserve in 1827, after the British government snatched up an enormous amount of Native land. Today, it’s one of the most singularly poisonous locations in North America, yet neither the local nor the national government has announced any plan to launch a health study to properly investigate the side effects that are hurting the local residents, who inhale the Chemical Valley’s emissions every time they step outside.

They really are surrounded on all sides by industry, and the San Antonio really doesn’t even compare to their plight. Unlike the parishioners of St. Joske’s, the people of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation face potentially life-threatening health problems. Hormone-blocking effects of the chemicals might be responsible for the community’s unusual two-to-one female-to-male birth ratio. Since 2002, the community has been fighting back. You can keep up with them on Facebook.

Photo credit: Clipper471 [Public domain], via Wikipedia.

Mandela and Marxism

Posted on December 11, 2013 by wellsdc

South Africa The Good News / www.sagoodnews.co.za [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Last week, we learned of the passing of Nelson Mandela, who may rank closest to a true hero that the human race has had in living memory. Alas, we also endured a litany of complaints from those for whom any association with the communism of the 1950 and 60’s is enough to taint a person forever.

This post at Booman Tribune captures the problem of applying our Western, especially our American, perspective to Mandela’s struggle. BooMan first offers Mandela’s own words, from his famous “I am prepared to die” speech delivered from the dock on April 20, 1964:

It is perhaps difficult for white South Africans, with an ingrained prejudice against communism, to understand why experienced African politicians so readily accept communists as their friends. But to us the reason is obvious. Theoretical differences, amongst those fighting against oppression, is a luxury which cannot be afforded. What is more, for many decades communists were the only political group in South Africa who were prepared to treat Africans as human beings and as their equals; who were prepared to eat with us; talk with us, live with us, and work with us. They were the only political group which was prepared to work with the Africans for the attainment of political rights and a stake in society. Because of this, there are many Africans who today tend to equate freedom with communism. They are supported in this belief by a legislature which brands all exponents of democratic government and African freedom as communists and bannned many of them, who are not communists, under the Suppression of Communism Act. Although My Lord I am not a communist and I have never been a member of the Communist Party, I myself have been banned, have been named under that pernicious Act because of the role I played in the Defiance Campaign. I have also been banned and convicted under that Act.

It is not only in internal politics that we count communists as amongst those who support our cause. In the international field, communist countries have always come to our aid. In the United Nations and other Councils of the world the communist bloc has supported the Afro-Asian struggle against colonialism and often seems to be more sympathetic to our plight than some of the Western powers. Although there is a universal condemnation of apartheid, the communist bloc speaks out against it with a louder voice than most of the western world. In these circumstances, it would take a brash young politician, such as I was in 1949, to proclaim that the Communists are our enemies.

*** Continue reading →

How to Help People in the Philippines (i.e. Don’t Send Old Shoes)

Posted on November 13, 2013 by wellsdc

The typhoon that hit the Philippines has caused damage measured by the shitload, and we Americans are admirably pitching in to help. The problem is that some of what we’re doing apparently isn’t helping at all.

Jessica Alexander, a humanitarian aid worker writing at Slate, says that the best thing we can do is send money, not hand-me-downs (h/t Anne Laurie, Avicenna):

After the tsunami, similarly well-intentioned people cleaned out their closets, sending boxes of “any old shoes” and other clothing to the countries. I was there after the tsunami and saw what happened to these clothes: Heaps of them were left lying on the side of the road. Cattle began picking at them and getting sick. Civil servants had to divert their limited time to eliminating the unwanted clothes. Sri Lankans and Indonesians found it degrading to be shipped people’s hand-me-downs. I remember a local colleague sighed as we passed the heaps of clothing on the sides of the road and said “I know people mean well, but we’re not beggars.” Boxes filled with Santa costumes, 4-inch high heels, and cocktail dresses landed in tsunami-affected areas. In some places, open tubes of Neosporin, Preparation H, and Viagra showed up. The aid community has coined a term for these items that get shipped from people’s closets and medicine cabinets as SWEDOW—Stuff We Don’t Want.

It’s a very noble instinct that leads us to donate, but I suspect the best place to donate our used stuff is somewhere local.

The Red Cross is generally a good place to go if you want to contribute. Hemant Mehta also has a good list of places you can donate. Let’s all do what we can to help, but let’s do it in the way that is most helpful.

Poaching the Poachers

Posted on November 8, 2013 by wellsdc

By Muhammad Mahdi Karim Facebook The making of this document was supported by Wikimedia CH.(Submit your project!) For all the files concerned, please see the category Supported by Wikimedia CH. česky | Deutsch | English | français | magyar | italiano | македонски | Bahasa Melayu | Nederlands | rumantsch | +/− (Own work) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Everything about this creature says “Don’t f*** with me.” Respect.

Tanzania is reportedly experiencing a major poaching problem, and some of its leaders are going positively Texan in dealing with it. Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Khamis Kagasheki noted recently that Tanzania may have lost half its elephant population within the past three years, and then essentially advocated a “shoot to kill” policy:

Soft measures, which we witness today, especially with sentencing for those caught poaching, will not deter poachers…Our own teams in Kenya can arrest a poacher one day and then the next week come up against the same poacher, who having paid a small fine was released by the courts – where’s the deterrent?…I am very aware that some alleged human rights activists will make an uproar, claiming that poachers have as much rights to be tried in courts as the next person, but let’s face it, poachers not only kill wildlife but also usually never hesitate to shoot dead any innocent person standing in their way.

That was Friday, October 4, 2013. After only two months, the Tanzanian parliament has reportedly suspended the program, ominously titled Operation Terminate. During that time, police arrested more than 950 poachers and seized around 230 pounds of ivory, also described as 706 elephant tusks. Allegations abound that police are engaging in widespread human rights abuses, including the torture and killing of suspected poachers. Also, they are allegedly conducting illegal seizures of property, which is bad but sort of pales next to the alleged torture & death part.

Continue reading →

One Way That Pollution Might Actually Increase Freedom

Posted on November 7, 2013 by wellsdc

I love the smell of freedom in the morning. Smells like…..my lungs are burning……

The Chinese government has recently begun to come to grips with the fact that rampant pollution is making the country very foggy, and therefore making it nearly impossible to spy on the populace with the 20 million-odd surveillance cameras they’ve placed here and there. Apparently part of the difficulty with addressing the pollution problem is that years of referring to it as “fog,” not “smog,” has led to measures that deal with the former but not the latter. (Pro tip for repressive governments: don’t internalize your own propaganda.)

It’s not just the surveillance cameras on the ground that are having trouble, though. China’s ~~air pollution~~ “fog” has gotten so thick at times that it obscures the view of entire cities from earth orbit. That has got to be frustrating to anyone with spy satellites in the area. China has such an interesting array of giant things that show up in satellite photos, even if the Great Wall of China is not actually visible from space. It would be a shame for all that stuff to be obscured, but I also understand the importance of not being spied upon. If lung-clogging smfog is the price of liberty, then—no, wait, I’m not going there.

Photo credit: click from morguefile.com.

Why You Should Probably Never Call the Police in Dubai

Posted on July 19, 2013 by wellsdc

Let no one ever say that Dubai is not well-endowed.

A Norwegian woman recently received a 16-month prison sentence in Dubai. Her crime?

Ms Dalelv says she had been on a night out with colleagues on 6 March when the rape took place.

She reported it to the police, who proceeded to confiscate her passport and seize her money. She was charged four days later on three counts, including having sex outside marriage.

Her alleged attacker, she said, received a 13-month sentence for extra-marital sex and alcohol consumption.

(Emphasis added.) I’ll just let that sink in.

It appears both the woman and the rapist were convicted of the same offense, and she got the longer sentence.

The sentence for having sex outside of marriage, a/k/a being a rape survivor, is worse than the one-month sentence given to the married Pakistani couple that had sex in their car in Dubai—and who successfully appealed the conviction and sentence.

It is also worse than the one-month sentence given to the British couple who violated Dubai’s “decency laws” by kissing each other on the mouth in public. They lost their appeal. Continue reading →

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