Several years back I spent some time in West Africa working on a project for market information and trading in the region. Of the countries I visited, Mali and Ghana were my favourites, and these excellent photos go quite a way to illustrate why the people of those two countries made such a positive impression. Happy, open, beautiful and proud.
Most entertaining! The FOX interviewee gets more than he bargained from in this interview he conducted with former president Bill Clinton:
In another interview with ABC News, Clinton again highlights the obvious incongruence that the current US administration has 7 times as many troops in Iraq as in Afghanistan (20,000). Just how important is Bin Laden to Bush, aside from the rethoric?
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been spending a reasonable amount travelling by air. I have flown from London to Switzerland and back, London to Germany and back, London to Denmark (where I am writing this). I am astounded by the contrast in security procedure in UK and elsewhere in Europe. Sure, there are security controls in place in the rest of Europe - but none as in UK at present. In spite of vociferous complaints from the CEO of Ryan Air, the UK airport infrastructure has remained saddled with far more severe constraints levelled upon travellers.
So, upon what basis are these constraints imposed on UK originating flights? What is the new evidence uncovered that caused this sudden increased level of fear to be broadcast via the media? Well, according to sources the mixture was TATP, also described here, created from hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), acetone and sulfuric oxide.
Trouble is, this mixture is not exactly easy to handle, and is fraught with danger (hence the nickname “Mother of Satan”). I recommend reading this tongue-in-cheek article in The Register, or this one from Royal Society of Chemistry, or this one from another organic chemistry student.
I have some difficulty in accepting that it has come as such a sudden surprise to the UK authorities that this compound is capable of being used in such ways, after hydrogen peroxide was used as the primary driver in UK’s 30-year long post-WWII attempts at rocketry (eloquently described in the book “Backroom Boffins” by Francis Spufford). This article mentions the UK’s use of H2O2 as rocket propellant. It should be well known to the authorities how utterly impossible it would be for anyone to mix these components onboard a plane, as this article also points out.
A higher level political analysis on the possible reasons for the scare-mongering can be found in this article. This film in a similar way questions the real story behind the 7/7 attack on London.
Following the 5-year anniversary of the terrible events in NY on 9/11/2001, a number of skeptical viewpoints have been put together in the following movies.
I find the overall picture compelling and disturbing, even if some of theories proferred obviously are too emotional and conspiratory. In particular, I find it extremely difficult to accept that:
Against a large-scale conspiracy is the simple fact that it would be very difficult to keep such a largescale plot secret, even if this was executed by the hawks of the US millitary. Such a plan would have required substantial coordination to place all the remote detonation devices throughout the towers. “Loose Change” suggest this took place during the unprecedented levels of building maintenance work in the period shortly prior to 9/11, including a total shutdown weekend to “install new Internet connectivity”.
There is the old saying of “follow the money…”. SEC case-material losses (Enron, WorldCom & more). Unprecedented levels of put-options on US airline stocks. Silversteins lease & $7bn insurance claim. Increased defense spending on defending USA against the “Axis of Evil” (all countries highly related to oil).
It is not strange that more than a third of Americans now apparently think there was more to 9/11 than 19 terrorists armed with box-cutters.
“We have the best government money can buy“, as an old saying in the US goes. Media manipulation has supplanted the fear of God and pure physical pain. Not that this is limited to US though…
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Cute!
A new travel site, Momondo, claims to show best cost options across all carriers.
Skyscanner provides a similar service.