Hattix

Following the tragic deaths of Catherine and Ben Mullany on the island of Antigua, Antigua has had itself in quite a hard place. The island is reliant on tourism for it’s entire economy and it has to protect its reputation.

Instead, the idiots want to destroy it. While Antigua already has capital punishment for murder, new legislation is to permit it for any crime involving a weapon which lead to death or serious injury.

Great work, geniuses! Are you not aware that most of your trade comes from Europe which has very negative views on capital punishment, indeed outlawing it in the European Union? The very first time a European is burgled there and defends himself using whatever he can find, perhaps killing the burglar, the media will be all over it like a dog on a steak. “Burgled Briton in Antigua faces possible death sentence” - Is that the kind of headline that’ll help your tourism industry?

All they’ve done is confirm that they’re a backwards hell hole that isn’t safe.

I wonder if “Well there’s really nothing we can do, it’s already illegal” is even within a politician’s vocabulary?

The tension between Russia and Georgia has finally spilled out into open warfare. Ossetia has its roots as one of the many provinces which united into nations as the Renaissance swept Europe and the near-East. Ossetia, both North and South, were part of the USSR before its dissolution and North Ossetia is now part of Russia, however South Ossetia took a different view. When Georgia exercised its right to self-rule, South Ossetia wanted to do the same. However, South Ossetia was not recognised as a nation within the USSR so had no constitutional right of secession. Georgia rightfully claimed South Ossetia remained Georgian.

South Ossetia was governed largely as an autonomous entity within the Georgian federal state (much like how US states can make their own laws and largely self-govern), but it itself considers itself to be a republic (it is not recognised by any international body) and is friendly toward Moscow. Russia sent over peacekeepers to mediate between South Ossetia and Georgia but in actuality sponsored and supported their resistance to the Georgian government.

To make matters worse, the US Army has been supplying and training Georgian forces (under the cover of Georgian involvment in Iraq) and Georgia has had ambitions of joining NATO, an organisation the Russians aren’t too keen on.

Russia for its part has been supplying citizens of South Ossetia with Russian passports and granting them citizenship, in a pretty flagrant violation of Georgian sovereignty. Russia is now using “protecting our citizens” as an excuse to invade the region and attakc Georgia.

All the requirements for a proxy war are there.

At the moment, the West has remained quite sedate. Britain has urged for a ceasefire, France has stated that Russia’s relations with the EU will suffer and the US has condemned the invasion as unacceptable.

The international community is generally united against Russia in condemning Russia’s hostilities:

China called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
United Kingdom urged “an immediate ceasefire and resumption of direct dialogue”.
United States believe the Russians should “show greater restraint” and must “respect Goergia’s territorial integrity”.
A joint statement by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (all nearby to the conflict) “strongly condemns” the “unilateral military actions” of Russia.
In general, the international community stops short of condemning Russia directly but is far from condoning their actions.

In my opinion, Russia couldn’t care less about some nobodies in some tiny little state. It cares more about showing the West that it will not be intimidated and it still has a lot of bite with its bark. Russia has long been distrustful of the West and especially NATO; It isn’t likely to give a damn what we say.

However, Russia ought to be very careful about who it chooses to tangle with. The European Union is an extremely powerful military force and is increasingly well-coordinated and united. The EU has quite some interest in Turkey, which borders Georgia.

Out in front, leading the whole of Europe, is Britain! That’s right, in economic stagnation, we are first! The Eurozone (countries who adopted the single currency) is sitting pretty laughing at us Johnny Foreigners who’re busy coping with poor growth and growing unemployment.

So I’d like to congratulate the Conservative Party and all its followers on their successful promotion of high unemployment and low economic prosperity. Little Britain can stand on its own against the global market! Or, well, it can’t. We’re being fucking steamrolled into dirt because we don’t have the stability in size that the Eurozone has. When you lose your job or your mortgage rates rise again…you know who to blame.

For the nth time, the IMF has downgraded UK economic growth. We are now growing BELOW the level of inflation and have been for some time. Yet the Eurozone continues to enjoy economic prosperity and be our last line of defence against the US collapse. Did I say “our last line”? I meant to say “their last line”. We’re screwed, they’re not.

I was wondering two things at half past two (about twenty minutes ago as I write this, about one hour and ten minutes ago as I post it) this morning. What to eat and what to post. So I decided to combine the two.

My victim was a packet of Batchelors Beef flavour Savoury Rice. As I was making it, I was wondering about all the so-called “food scares” we have every so often when the media gets bored. My idea was to list out every ingredient listed on the packet and see what, exactly, they are.

As printed:
Rice, Dried Peas (4%), Flavourings (contain Celery, Milk, Soya), Dried Carrot (2.5%), Dried Onion, Salt, Sugar, Dried Red Pepper (1%), Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Flavour Enhancers (E621, E635, E627), Onion Powder, Colour (Ammonia Caramel (contains Wheat)), Garlic Powder, Black Pepper Extract and Herb Extract.

Rice, dried peas, celery and milk are obvious. The first one worth mentioning is soya. This is a derivative of soy which is a veritable cocktail of poison! Our Western obsession with soy is obvious: It’s cheap, available in huge quantities and very easy to produce. Soy and its products contain enzyme inhibitors which block protein digestion by blocking the enzymes responsible for breaking down proteins into amino acids (the ‘building material’ of most body tissue). We have haemagluttin which causes blood clots, hinders oxygen transport in the blood and stunts growth. Soy contains numerous phytates which make minerals unavailable to the body during digestion, remarkably insidious since the best way to avoid severe mineral deficiency with phytates and phytic acid around is to eat lots of meat. Last, but by far not least, phytoestrogens, chemicals which mimic the female sex hormone. Soy, in any of its forms, is bad news. It has been linked to Asians (especially Chinese) having far higher rates of cancer along the digestive tract than anyone else in the world and with the relatively recent rise in the same cancers among Westerners. Soy-based infant formula is banned in many countries and linked to numerous growth defects, especially in girls (probably due to the phytoestrogens). Dr. Fitzpatrick’s ‘Truth About Soy’ website has more information.

Next up we have dried carrot and dried onion. Carrot, when dried, is virtually tasteless and is used for colour and texture. Onion when dried becomes quite a potent spice, so is used for flavouring.

Salt needs no introduction, it’s an essential mineral with a distinctive taste. It also helps food cook better. Sugar is just for taste and is a dimer of fructose and glucose in its most common form, sucrose. Note that “salts” in a chemical context is not what we usually think of as salt. A salt is the product made when an acid is neutralised. Sodium salts are common in food because sodium is only harmful in huge excess (and is actually necessary for life) and the alternative is using the acid directly (e.g. monosodium glutamate instead of glutamic acid) which is typically not possible since the acid would be in liquid form, the salt in solid.

Dried red peppers are common in this sort of thing, being largely for colour, but also quite a potent spice in their own right.

Hydrogenated vegetable oil is the next big one. Oils are long chain carbon molecules (long chain organics) with various chemical groups. The ones we’re interested in are double bonds (the alkene group) between two carbon atoms. As the molecule cannot rotate around that bond, it’s fixed into shape. This prevents it from getting up close with other molecules, so lowers the melting point. What we do is then react them in a huge reaction vessel with hydrogen and a catalyst, typically nickel, to crack open the double bond into a single bond by adding hydrogen across it. This means the molecule is more free to rotate and can stack well with its fellow molecules, if it can get closer to another molecule, it can solidify more easily (London dispersion forces are stronger) and so the melting point rises: Perfect when you want something closer to the consistency of butter and less like, well, vegetable oil. Now, the big problem there is that we get an amount of some quite nasty stuff in there: Trans-fats. Trans-fats aren’t found in nature and the body’s digestive system doesn’t recognise them as something it can use to make your belly bigger. They’re being more and more linked to all kinds of chronic illnesses and some places have already banned their use while others are considering it.

The flavourings are next, E621, E635 and E627. If anything, european standards mean that manufacturers have to be consistent in their labelling. Starting with E621, we have monosodium glutamate, the sodium salt of glutamic acid, a natural amino acid. The sodium is, of course, removed and the amino acid restored. It has a distinctive taste but was with a health scare some years ago. Even now, some manufacturers advertise “MSG-Free!” as though it were a good thing. MSG is found in nature and quite plentiful (especially in Asian foodstuffs), it is present in high quantities in yeast, soy and many spices. The health scare? Investigation after investigation found utterly no evidence to support any harmful activity by glutamate or glutamic acid, noted its high natural presence and that the human body produces it itself and that amounts which could cause harm in laboratory tests (on rats) were massively high doses involving chemically pure MSG. The verdict? Enjoy the stuff, it tastes nice and indeed the taste itself, umami, is very difficult to obtain any other way because our tongues contain specific receptors for glutamate - It’s something that we’ve evolved to be able to detect and almost everyone finds the taste to be pleasant. Nature wants us to eat this stuff.

E635 refer to guanylic and inosinic acid or their sodium salts in mixed proportions. They’re used as flavour enhancers. They don’t have a flavour themselves but enhance many others, meaning less salt (salt being common salt, sodium chloride) and flavourings are needed. Finally, E627 is guanylic acid alone and used exactly as E635 is (it’s partly the same chemical!) as a flavour enhancer.

That brings us to onion powder, made by pulverising dried onions. It is a very potent flavour but otherwise unremarkable.

Under that is our colour, ammonia caramel, also known as E150c, baker’s caramel or beer caramel. Caramel has no known toxicity and, as an extensively used ingredient, has undergone exhaustive trials and study. It is used as a colour in this case, to stain the rice slightly brown (this is a “beef-flavour” after all).

Finally, we have garlic powder (another very powerful flavouring), black pepper extract (usually simply crushed in water, the dissolvable stuff dissolved, then dried out of the water and added to the food) and herb extract which isn’t specified; This means it legally doesn’t have to be so no known studies have found any cause for concern.

And there we have it. The extensive list of ingredients which make a common modern convenience food everything it is. Flavourings to emulate beef (which typically fail), flavour enhancers to make the taste stronger, vegetables and spices to add texture and colour, a colouring, a bunch of cheap soy and the ever-present hydrogenated vegetable oil, possibly to prevent the rice from clumping.

Note to self: Next time, check the live satellite images for errant thunderstorms before going for a walk in the 2am clear night air.

Via any British news outlet you care to name, this story (BBC News) is making the rounds. It’s like we get one of these every month or so, some nutcase refuses to take off jewelry which they somehow associate with their favourite ghost in the sky and goes all lawyer happy about it.

Schools, in this case, have dress codes for a reason. That reason is to keep people equal. Now, flying in the face of equality comes this arrogant whelp who thinks she’s more equal than everyone else.

Being asked to take a steel bracelet off is not a bloody violation of your human rights you useless waste of oxygen.

A religion is not an excuse to break the rules. A religion is not a reason to grant exceptions. Funnily enough, Islam is quite good about this; A believer can be excused symbolism or even prayer if it would be unsafe or rules would prevent it. I don’t know enough about the Sikhs to know if they absolutely must wear a steel bracelet, but I sure doubt it.

What really got me was this hilarious quote from Miss. Headuparse’s lawyer: “Our great British traditions of religious tolerance and race equality have been rightly upheld today.”

I’m sorry? Treating someone specially because they’re a Sikh is somehow “tolerant” or “equal”? This means that treating the Jews specially during the Holocaust was also “tolerant” and “equal”, right?

I don’t care what your faith is. I don’t care if your ghost in the sky is bigger than anyone else’s ghost in the sky (or wherever their ghosts may be), you do not use it as a crutch, as an excuse, to get special treatment. Equality is a great thing, throwing a temper tantrum because you’re not special is just foolish.

Do some people really understand what they’re actually saying? Relating to Max Mosley’s successful defamation trial where the tabloid rag News of The World was deemed to have unreasonably invaded Mr. Mosley’s privacy, we get the Christians jumping in.

Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, considers the ruling to be a dangerous precedent and uses the argument of “free speech” while giving an appeal to passion fallacy, claiming that without “public debate or democratic scrutiny” the courts have “created a wholly new privacy law”. You then realise where his agenda actually lies when his next line is “I am deeply sad that public morality is the second victim of this legal judgement”.

He bumbles on “Unspeakable and indecent behaviour, whether in public or in private, is no longer significant under this ruling”.

Is he even paying attention to what he’s saying? Well, the answer is no. The ruling was made because we have privacy laws created by “public debate or democratic scrutiny” and also we have laws against Lord Carey’s “unspeakable and indecent behaviour” in public, this ruling does nothing to those laws.

It’s important here to note that the press can legally invade an individual’s privacy if it can be shown such invasion was in the public interest. Breaching the privacy of a corporate executive to expose corruption is in the public interest. Doing so with the head of a sporting organisation’s private life, which has nothing to do with his public activities as head of that organisation, is not in the public interest. This is the line which the News of The World illegally crossed.

In his ruling, according to the laws of the land, Mr Justice Eady said Mr Mosley could expect privacy for consensual “sexual activities (albeit unconventional)”.

It leaves one wondering, however, exactly what constitutes “immoral”? According to Lord Carey, a spot of light bondage and roleplay is “immoral” and right away I can point out quite a few people in my circle of friends who’re into that kind of thing, would I ever consider them immoral? No, they’re the nicest folk you’re ever likely to meet. One of them, indeed, has spent hours of her time and incalculable amounts of effort raising funds for cancer charities.

By wanting to shackle what consenting adults can and cannot do behind closed doors, Lord Carey is the one guilty of immorality, the highest form of immorality is that of demanding obedience and forcing control where none is necessary.

From sciencepunk comes this amusing image.

I’ll just say that if I wanted to study engineering, I’d certainly not be applying for a place there.

(Hint: The gears won’t turn…)

So the Latest Big Thing that all the morning rags are picking up on is the schism within the Church of England, the ruling body for Anglicans worldwide. Seen by many other Christians as a dangerously progressive bunch of radicalists, we now have homosexual clergy and, horror, ordained women.

Consecrating the filthy, evil scum of Satan and homosexuals has made many Anglicans rather upset, so much so that 1,300 of them are considering splitting off to form their own little ‘traditionalist’ group. If I were Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and functional head of the Church of England, I would think that Christmas, Easter and whatever else had all come at once.

This is a chance for the Anglicans to cast off the kind of intolerant, unfriendly and downright nasty evil that creeps out of your toilet late at night and dissolves your dog.

No appeasment, no compromises, no weakness. “Jesus was never about intolerance” should be the motto of the Anglicans and let these ‘traditionalists’ slink back into their caves, beat their wives and ride their horses to work. Intolerance and hate will never be extinguished from people like that, once ostracised and isolated they’ll turn on themselves and each other and fragment into countless little splinters, each longing to be the mighty oak they were once part of, each thinking it’s their right, each undeserving of anything but our pity.

This one’s making the rounds on the ‘tubes. In summary, an emergency services call was made by a man in Wales about some bright thing in the sky…Which turned out to be the Moon.

It embodies the entire UFO thing, people who are unfamiliar with the sky seeing something unfamiliar to them and guessing what it might be. However, the sky can do a lot of unfamiliar things. Parhelia, iridium flares, satellite passes, planets[1], stars[1], birds[2] noctilucent clouds, tangent arcs, all things unfamiliar to the common man or woman, all things extremely common in “UFO” reports.

 There are two things at play here. First is a memory illusion, people tend to remember something bright as being big even if it isn’t big at all. My brother once said to me in the car “Did you see that big flying light that was following us?” and he described a glowing orb…Yet he’d been watching Venus which was certainly bright, but not at all big. He swore blind that he’d seen a sizeable orb, yet when I showed him Venus the next night, he agreed that was what he’d seen. The second is that memory is not a reliable testimony of events. Memory is half observation and half expectation; You see what you expect to see. If you expect that a bright unfamiliar thing in the sky is a flying saucer, you will see a flying saucer.

[1] Planets and stars may seem familiar to everyone, but few people realise how very bright the planets can become. Jupiter and Venus can be many times brighter than an aeroplane and, being stationary, they appear to follow a moving observer. Venus accounted for, according to the Ministry of Defence, almost 90% of all “UFO” reports when the MoD was collecting them; It isn’t anymore.

[2] Kenneth Arnold famously saw a V shaped formation of small (but bright) lights “like a saucer skipping on a lake”, describing how they jerkily moved. He was seeing geese in migration and, flying over mountains, he was in the shadow of a mountain and they were illuminated by the sun. Birds can look very bright in those conditions. Sunset looking towards a coast will also show you seabirds very brightly illuminated. The jerky motion was added by Kenneth’s light aircraft.