text:
in all my born days
in all (one's) (born) days
Ever; in one's entire life. Often used with a negative modifier, especially never, to express something one has never before seen, experienced, felt, etc. Having grown up on the farm, I had never seen a city this size in all my born days. In all our days, this is the best specimen of a woolly mammoth we've ever come across.
in all my born days
Rur. in my entire life. I've never seen such fireworks in all my born days. That's the best party I was ever at in all my born days.
in all my born daysever, in my whole life (often used to express surprise or shock at something you have not encountered before).
2000 Voyle A. Glover Western Fiction Bruther, that was the best feed I ever had in all my born days.


text:
In a surprising move, the European Central Bank is considering buying Chinese yuan as a reserve currency.
According to a report by Bloomberg, anonymous sources in the ECB have said that the Governing Council of the bank will discuss the possibility during its meeting on October 15th. The decision will come amidst decelerating inflation in both Europe and Asia that has increased the risk of deflation in developed nations. A stronger dollar and falling commodity prices have placed the eurozone in a tricky situation in which their options for reserves are shrinking.
Dollar Strength, Yuan Liquidity
The euro has shown accelerating weakness in recent months, as its value against the dollar slides far beyond resistance at 1.325 and below 1.300 in September. The euro was down over 7% year-to-date against the U.S. dollar by the end of Friday trading.
The dollar has strengthened against most world currencies in recent weeks, as a flight to quality trend has picked momentum, driving investment away from equities and toward cash reserves in stable currencies. The Swiss franc has gained over 2.4% against the euro so far in 2014, and 5.6% against the Japanese yen.
At the same time, the yuan has gained 6% against the euro in 2014 as growth concerns in the eurozone exacerbate losses in currency markets. At the same time, more confidence in the reliability of Chinese economic controls, combined with less growth options in foreign markets, have caused a continual rush of investment in Asia's largest economy, bolstering the yuan while also providing more exchange-rate stability.
Despite its declining volatility, the yuan has failed to take off as a reserve currency, according to the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, the IMF sees the U.S. dollar ranked as the top reserve asset, at 61% of holdings.
Analysts believe the move will help offer greater liquidity between China and the ECB, while also bolstering trade partnerships between the two regions. The eurozone is currently the largest importer of Chinese goods. "Due to the size of China's economy and its importance in global trade and, potentially, finance, the renminbi might ultimately come to challenge the U.S. dollar," said Yves Mersch, ECB Executive Board member and Central Bank of Luxembourg Governor, at a meeting in February.
Gold, Oil Falls
Gold continued its slide on the news, as the metal showed weakening demand on improved capital reserves offset prior demand acceleration after Basel III reclassified gold as a lower-risk asset that banks could use to shore up balance sheets. Gold remains roughly flat for 2014, after erasing most of its gains in August and September amidst fears that disinflation was worsening in Europe and America.
Similarly, oil has slid over 16% from its peak earlier in 2014 as a perceived glut and decline in commodity demand indicate less room for price growth in raw materials and energy. Analysts believe that oil, which fell below $90 a barrel for the first time in two years last week, could fall even further amidst accelerating production in the U.S.
With the declining value of gold and oil, central banks are looking to store wealth in a more liquid and less volatile asset. While the U.S. dollar has been the primary target for central banks, its recent strength may be inspiring the ECB to consider the yuan as an alternative.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Early Clinical Trial Shows Feasibility of Reducing Immune Responses in People with MS Using Their Own Altered Blood Cells June 5, 2013 An international team has reported results of a small, early clinical trial involving 10 people with relapsing or secondary-progressive MS that tested the feasibility and preliminary safety of using a patient's own altered blood cells to reduce immune responses against specific components of myelin, the nerve covering that is a key target of immune attacks in MS. They report that the treatment appeared safe and showed signs of reducing immune responses to myelin. Larger, longer trials of this approach would be needed to evaluate its safety and potential to treat multiple sclerosis. The study, by Roland Martin, MD (Institute for Neuroimmunology and Clinical MS Research, Hamburg and University Hospital Zürick) and colleagues including Stephen D. Miller, PhD (Northwestern University, Chicago), was published in the June 5, 2013 issue of Science Translational Medicine (5, 188ra75 (2013). The trial was largely funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research. Background: MS involves misdirected immune attacks against the brain and spinal cord. For many years researchers, including many supported by the National MS Society, have been searching for ways to disarm only the immune cells responsible for this attack, leaving the rest of the immune system intact to fight infection. Read more about research to stop MS immune attacks (.pdf). The major stumbling blocks for this strategy have been that we don't know the primary targets of MS immune attacks, and that the specific myelin targets are different among people with MS, and can change over time. Study: Dr. Martin and colleagues launched a clinical trial based on preclinical work by Dr. Miller, a longtime grantee of the Society. The team selected seven components, or peptides, of myelin proteins that have shown high immune reactivity in people with MS. In the laboratory, these peptides are coupled by way of a chemical process to a patient's carrier cells taken from their blood. For this clinical trial, only people whose immune responses showed reactions to at least one of the myelin peptides were entered into the study. This phase I trial was designed to test the feasibility and safety of the treatment, and to detect whether any of the doses tested could alter immune cell reactions to the myelin peptides. All told, ten people with relapsing-remitting or secondary-progressive MS were enrolled. Each received a single infusion of their own carrier blood cells chemically coupled with the myelin peptides, and were monitored clinically and with MRI scans for six months. The team reports that the treatment was well tolerated, and at higher doses appeared to reduce immune reactions to the myelin peptides that were administered. Two participants who had shown high disease activity before the study experienced MS relapses 10 to 16 days after therapy. The investigators note that this is an important safety signal that will require monitoring in any future clinical trials of this approach, but that overall the treatment was well tolerated. A small study like this is not designed to detect the effectiveness of an experimental treatment. Conclusions: This is the first time this chemically coupled myelin peptide treatment has been tested in people. The team reports that it is a feasible approach to take to larger trials, and that it appeared to be well tolerated. Larger and longer trials will be required to determine the safety and effectiveness of this treatment in people with MS. Read more about research for MS (.pdf).


text:
Monday, November 30, 2009
Pulling the rug. Yeah right.
Well here's some news for John Boy.
The effing rug has already left town.
It left with the financial crisis and years of Clark wasting our productivity to build her socialist utopia.
If you want to continue borrowing money to give the unproductive a nice hand knotted persian to stand on, then fine, but don't expect me and other small businesses to bust our balls paying for it.
And that goes for the billions on the Climate Fraud as well.
Laugh of the day
Crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen next month will fail unless wealthy countries agree to a fund to compensate developing countries, Prime Minister John Key says.We're a wealthy country?
The problem is, indeed, politicians
I don't for a moment imagine Brash is a fool, I just expect on the basis of previous experience that, like Douglas, he'll seize whatever opportunity is currently in front of him to promote his ideology.
Maybe Brash will prove me wrong and actually do the job that's been assigned to him, but my expectation is that the "productivity taskforce" will have little to say about productivity and a lot to say about the tax system.
This morning, I see the taskforce's report has been leaked, and the contents are about cutting taxes and universal welfare entitlements (except presumably Superannuation, which is paid to a lot of the govt's supporters), ie the report promotes Brash's ideology and has little to say about productivity but a lot to say about the tax system.
The Dim Post puts it like this:
The task-force was negotiated by the ACT Party in their coalition deal with National. Finding out that Dr Brash likes tax cuts has cost taxpayers about half a million dollars.
Yes, it has. And if a dim bulb like me knew the outcome was a foregone conclusion and that it would consist of ideologically-based propaganda, so presumably did everyone involved with setting it up. Once upon a time (and doesn't it seem a long time ago now?), Rodney Hide and his party were very big on getting rid of perqs and not wasting taxpayers' money - how things change once you get your arses on the govt benches, eh?
It'll be interesting to see what the next Labour govt can come up with to top this. Perhaps a productivity taskforce led by Michael Cullen that comes back and tells us it's vital to increase taxes and welfare?
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Oram on monetary policy
Rod Oram has taken another swipe at National in today's Sunday Star Times.
Of course, he's talking about a committee that Labour probably had a majority on from 2005-2008 and therefore probably had the numbers to actually do something about monetary policy if it was so concerned about the asset bubbles Oram seems so concerned about himself.
The National Party members on the committee, led by Bill English, rejected this. They argued that the Reserve Bank should not use such powers to help it achieve price stability, the key goal of monetary policy. Doing so would set New Zealand apart and create cost and confusion in the financial system.How wrong National was.
And I just love his last sentence:
It is cutting itself off from the global debate about how to better run the world economy.Someone should tell Oram that his good friend Phil Goff has already denounced command economics. In any event, economies run themselves Rod. The more political intervention the less efficient they become - you control freak.
Why doesn't he just issue the following disclaimer with his writings: "Oram loves the Left and the Left loves Oram".
Which would be true.
The evidence is here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
It's little wonder National allegedly refuses to deal with him.
By the way, the picture is that of Oram along with John Drexhage and Adrian Macey. Who are Drexhage and Macey?
Drexhage is a Leading Author with Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Macey was a Climate Change Ambassador during the Clark government.
Ask baby before changing nappy
Is there any hope for the World with garbage like this.
Parents should be treating babies and toddlers with more respect, a visiting academic says, and that means talking to infants as if they are adults, never putting them in high chairs or leaving them in car seats, and steering clear of many popular toys.
From day one, early childhood expert Polly Elam says, parents should also consult their baby before picking them up, changing their nappy or taking them on outings. That means talking the baby through what you are about to do, before you do it – and waiting for their response.
If parents skip this consultation, they should later apologise to the baby and explain why they acted hastily.
These theories actually belongs in the bottom of a nappy mixed in with all the p*ss and sh*t because that is what these theories are - p*ss and sh*t.
Where things start
Three examples.
Emissions Trading.
Emissions Trading is a gigantic shambles - not caused by climate change because we have had climate change for millions of years - but caused, and then made worse, by politicians. Cause of problem = politicians.
Legal Aid Review
As someone who has some links to the law profession, the Bazley report into legal aid is unsurprising. The problems in Manukau have been well known for years and no one in the legal profession had the guts to do anything about it. But when you create a system that allows it to be milked like a cow; and when standards at law schools slide on the back of affirmative action policies (put in by politicians), bums on seats attitudes (put in by politicians) and examiners failure to fail students (tacitly allowed by politicians so that the bums on seats can prevail), what you get is poorly educated lawyers on a gravy train. Cause of problem = politicians.
Supreme Court judgment recall
What can one say on this story apart from this: we had a perfectly functional appellate court process that was not open to the closeness that New Zealand society inexorably provides. That was called the Privy Council. Some politicians (Clark et al) decided we should scrap that and leave ourselves open to the biases and allegations of tainting that only a very small country at the bottom of the World can. Cause of problem = politicians.
When you look behind these issues they are all ultimately caused by politicians. The legal aid problem isn't the result of bad lawyers, it's the result of bad politicians. Emissions Trading isn't the result of climate change, it's the result of poor politicians. And the Supreme Court story isn't caused by the failure to disclose bias, it was caused by the removal of the Privy Council - a political decision. The best reason for retaining the Privy Council was because we are such a small country that the six degrees of separation paradigm drops back to about two degrees in this country. Everyone knows everyone who knows everyone.
That Didn't Take Long
Today we see the falsehood exposed. The 'reporting' which in fact was sermonising in favour of global warminenists was based on a poll carried out in September which showed the majority of Australians in favour of the alarmists and their draconian New World Order taxes on everything productive.
Just two days later, we see the complete turnabout in public opinion as the enormity of the Climategate fraud and swindle begins to sink in. Turnbull is the first public victim of the fraud.
"......poll showing a whopping 60 per cent of Australians are against Kevin Rudd rushing the Emissions Trading Scheme through parliament.
Despite Mr Turnbull insisting the ETS must be passed now - ahead of the UN's Copenhagen summit - the poll overwhelmingly backs his opponents - with 81 per cent of Coalition supporters wanting the vote delayed."
If I were ackers, I wouldn't be getting too cocky about the so-called 'implosion' of the Liberal Party. The Libs were actually on to it before everybody else. If the remarkable turnaround shown in this poll turns into a solid trend, as it likely will, you may well see Mr Rudd thrown out in a landslide next year.
I told you the other day, Aussies don't like being conned and in this instance they surely have.
John Key is running the same foolish risk here.
The end of sovereignty as we know it?
So when short arsed Sarkozy turns up in Trinidad to muscle up the commitment to Copenhagen, then I get a little concerned.
Especially when his money line is calling for a new world environmental organisation to monitor each counties commitment to the cause.
So the weather is being used as the excuse to set up the new world order. But don't think for one minute that it will stop there. Weather comes and goes but a one world government will hang around forever, like a good old Otago hoar frost.
My pick is that our "commitment" to the cause will mostly involve more government, more tax, less freedom, less sovereignty and having to work harder to make ends meet.
Whilst paying through the nose for a new governing elite who, of course, will only have our best interests at heart. Plus the need to regularly fly to exotic locations to save us from ourselves.
Welcome to one world government.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Quote of the day
Government ministers were furious, with Assistant Climate Change Minister Greg Combet saying refusal to pass the ETS yesterday could prove only one conclusion. "That is that the extremists, the conspiracy theorists and the climate change sceptics in the Liberal Party have gained ground and are winning this argument."Brilliant!
Time to move to Australia and give them a hand.
Goff on Capitalism
If any further evidence is needed that Phil Goff is shoring up his right-wing credentials in an attempt to close the gap with National, then here it is.
Socialist John Moore asked a question about Labours' relationship with the market and Goff responded, "show me a command economy that ever worked", "the market is the best mechanism to distribute goods" and "Labour saved capitalism". It seems Goff never really shook the ideology of the fourth Labour Government of the late 1980s that turned New Zealand into one of the rich world's most unequal societies.Of course, Goff is from the Right of the Labour Party. He was right there with Clark, Prebble, Douglas and de Cleene during the great reforms of the 80's.
There is only one question that really arises from this speech of Goff's: if he knows this, why does he let his Party preach command economics methodology?
It'll be interesting to hear his reaction when Don Brash and the productivity workforce report to Cabinet this week. Dollars to donuts it'll be the absolutely correct prescription for what NZ needs to stop sliding down the OECD ladder.
But will "whack it on the bill Phil" concur? And I suppose most importantly, will "whack it on the bill Bill" go along with the recommendations?
Odds or Evens?
But have a look at our batting performance in the second innings.
All the odd number dicks made ducks.
|New Zealand 2nd innings
|MJ Guptill
|b Mohammad Aamer
| 0.4 and once again it's 0 for 1 with Aamer hitting the stumps! Guptill was completely beaten for pace and movement there, Aamer gets it to come back in off the air and Guptill gets a half stride forward and doesn't cover the line, the thick inside edge cannons onto the middle stump which is flattened 0/1
|TG McIntosh
|lbw b Mohammad Asif
| 45.3 and review time here! Doctrove thinks that the ball pitches outside the leg stump, which is the reason he does not give it. Replays suggest that it pitched in line and struck him in line with the middle stump. You call that 'plumb' and McIntosh has to measure the yards back to the pavilion. 112/5
|DR Flynn
|lbw b Mohammad Aamer
| 2.2 that was plumb! 138 kph, he bowls it fuller this time and gets it to move back in, Flynn is late to react and defend it and the ball thuds onto his pads in front of middle and leg, Taufel raises the finger 0/2
|LRPL Taylor
|run out (Khurram Manzoor)
| 29.3 from Umar Gul, New Zealand lose a wicket against the run of play and Taylor is furious, he nudges him to short square leg and there's a lot of hesitation in the calling, it looked like Taylor wanted the single, he turns around and Manzoor has just one stump to aim at and he hits the target 87/3
|PG Fulton
|lbw b Umar Gul
| 31.5 there was an inside edge and Fulton walks almost the full distance back to the pavilion and thinks of challenging it, too late I'm afraid, this is weird. Gul pitches it on middle and off and the ball skids through and hits him low on the pads, Doctrove raises the finger, Hot Spot showed a thin inside edge and Fulton always seemed in two minds as to what to do. Pakistan are lucky to get this wicket. Why didn't he go upstairs? Search me... 91/4
|GD Elliott
|c †Kamran Akmal b Umar Gul
| 66.6 down the leg side and taken, Gul bangs it in short and Elliott swivels and shapes to pull it down to fine leg but the ball brushes his gloves and Kamran jogs across and takes it, Taufel raised the finger immediately 153/10
|BB McCullum†
|c †Kamran Akmal b Mohammad Asif
| 49.5 and Pakistan claim the dangerman of the moment, Asif deserves credit for this, he squares him up outside off and cramps him for room, McCullum gets his bat out and has to play at it, the ball takes the edge and Kamran falls to his right and takes it 115/6
|DL Vettori*
|c Fawad Alam b Mohammad Asif
| 51.6 and it does not! As Asif bowls one more on the off stump and Vettori flicks it in the air to Fawad Alam at midwicket 123/7
|SE Bond
|b Mohammad Asif
| 61.3 played on, Asif varies his pace by bowling the off cutter, Bond misjudges the line and shoulders arms, the ball hits the edge and rolls onto the stumps 143/8
|IE O'Brien
|lbw b Umar Gul
| 64.6 appeal for an lbw and Taufel raises the finger, O'Brien asks for the review, good bowling, Gul adjusts to a full length on the stumps, the ball lands on middle and off and hits the base of the pad in line with the middle stump, Taufel was right after all 150/9
|CS Martin
|not out
|(b 4, lb 5, w 1, nb 3, pen 5)
|(all out; 67 overs; 310 mins)
|(2.28 runs per over
News Reporting or Computer Modelling?
Apparently swinging voters in many urban marginal seats are mostly in favour of 'doing their bit' about global warming. The figures quoted seem to back up the story until you see, way down towards the end, that the poll on which the analysis is predicated was taken in September and the election is not due for another year, unless there is a double disolution and that can't happen until at least June.
Adolf recalls something happened since then which might have some effect. Climategate.
So waddya reckon the polls will say when the Libs get off their butts and campaign on the shonky science exposed just this last week?
Hell hath no anger as an Aussie conned.
NZ punching above its weight again
I had a good laugh over this as I'm acquainted with Ray Comfort from a long time ago. Back in 1980 I gave up employment to become a full-time layabout in Christchurch, and one of the ways a group of us layabouts used to interrupt our longeurs was to go to the Square to heckle the assorted public speakers who held forth on nothing in particular every lunchtime. (Why, yes I was an utterly unlikeable useless sack of shit back then, how did you guess?) Ray was one of these speakers, waving his Bible and exhorting passersby to give up their sinful lifestyles in favour of becoming a Bible-waver.
His attempts at persuasion always had logical holes in them you could drive a bus through, but instead of feeling sorry for him we heckled him mercilessly. Presumably he was fortified by the thought that God would arrange some serious payback come Judgement Day, so Ray could afford to be magnanimous.
I got a closer insight into why he was such a peddler of obvious nonsense when someone gave me his book, "My Friends are Dying." It was about why you shouldn't take drugs. Being a callow yoof at the time, and more to the point permanently flat broke from not working, I had little experience with drugs, but I soon became suspicious of the factual content of the book. Although I didn't have any drugs to speak of, I did have a record player, so when Ray wrote about the terrible evil of rock music, I had some basis for assessing his evidence. Which was stuff like:
1. Lou Reed promotes the murder of politicians in his lyrics to "Heroin:"
When the politicians are all dead
And their bodies are piled in mounds
2. Mick Jagger was writing about "South-east Asian cocaine" (WTF?) in his lyrics to "Brown Sugar."
The Lou Reed quote is just plain wrong, and anyone who actually listens to Brown Sugar will notice that, while certainly extremely offensive, it's offensive on the basis of fantasising about whipping and fucking black slave girls, not anything to do with drugs.
Eventually I realised: Ray was gullibly writing down whatever junkies told him, without even the most cursory fact-checking like getting hold of the songs he was writing about and having a listen to them.
On the basis of that previous experience, it came as no surprise to find that Ray is currently famous as "Banana Man," for the hilarious YouTube clip in which he "proves" intelligent design theory using a banana. Watch and enjoy.
NB: yes, I am aware that by pointing people to Ray's banana sketch, I am being just as much of a prick as I was in 1980. Leopard, spots, etc.
Leaking all over
Dame Jenny Shipley's upmarket townhouse near Auckland Domain also leaked. It was built by Mainzeal, owned by Richina Pacific, which she chairs. Extensive repairs have been made to her home this year.
A 'controversial' Scottish Brewery has launched what it described as the worlds strongest beer at 32% alcohol.
Tactical Nuclear Penguin has been unveiled by BrewDog of Fraserburgh.
BrewDog was previously branded irresponsible when it launched an 18.2% beer called Tokyo. It then followed up with a low alcohol beer called Nanny State.
The beer is being sold for UK 30 pounds each. The Managing Director of the Brewery said it was all about pushing boundaries and taking innovation to a new level ............
What the f**k .... a couple of good swallows and you're history. What's good about that?
This could rival the Edsel.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Paper Clip Man
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Slazenger Gets a Serve
"As Madoff was to money, these cons are to climate. "
But did he get a backhander to go with it?
The late Professor Augie Auer will be laughing his arse off as he flits about stumming happily on his heavenly harp.
Meanwhile, sacked NIWA guru Dr Jim Slazenger appears to have been caught out by genuine climate scientists, double faulting and engaging in unseemly behaviour guaranteed to bring his sport into disrepute. It's called fiddling the figures. Cooking the books. Bullshitting. Telling lies.
Forget about peer reviews by your mates, Jim. Let's see ALL your research reviewed by your real peers, those who haven't already decided the result before the analysis began. Oh yes, make sure they have proper access to all your raw data and methodology before they start.
Apparently the good folk at NIWA are to deliver their preliminary obfuscation tomorrow. In language nobody will be able to understand.
Very Droll
"Labour doesn't like it…OK, theyBoom boom!
wouldn't because it's not theirs.
The Green Party, with their usual
mix of residual Kiwi Puritanism
and hand-me-down Marxism,
doesn't like it because it doesn't
punish anyone hard enough."
Lets be realistic
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
No right turn, comments on post: The first secret bill..
Anyway, his most recent post mentions the retrospective implementation of a law affecting the way new cops are sworn in. It looks to me like they are fixing a cock up and fair enough too I guess (allthough it has to be a guess because as NRT points out it is all being done urgently and without any info).
He then goes on to have a pop at those of us that screamed about Clark using retrospective legislation and wondering whether we will scream about the Nats doing it..
In reply to that I would have to say.
I for one will scream the house down if National introduce retrospective legislation to avoid having to face Bernard Darnton in court and to legislate their way out of a situation where they got caught blatantly stealing and defrauding the country to prop up their party finances.
Readers should in no way perceive this post as support in any way whatsoever for National.
The events of the last 12 months have demonstrated to me that they are no better than the last lot of wankers. The ETS is only the most recent example of rank stupidity that began when they did not hang Cullen and co by their toes for breaching PREFU.
The only upside is that Clark is gone.
Studies show you ought to be dead
"Science is not simple," he says, "and particularly the issues that tend to impact on the public; they're usually involving complex science. Things like human biology and nutrition, for example, are complex issues. Nutrition represents very complex biology, which is projected by people as very simplistic biology. It's complex because you have food, which is more than ingredients. Then you have the complexity of the biological organism that eats it, namely the individual, and every person has a different genetic, developmental and physiological make-up. Therefore the interaction between that individual and what they eat can be quite variable."
Which is why bollocks like the Listener's nutrition column, or Petra Bagust's finger-wagging at us on TV, in which we're told to eat this or not eat that because "studies show..." is exactly that - bollocks. Why? Well, here's the Listener on Gluckman again:
"The media and others are bad at communicating concepts of probability and risk," says Gluckman, who dislikes the use of phrases such as: "eating food X doubles your risk of disease Y".
"You've got to look at what that means. It might mean nothing if it's shifting it from one case in 200 million to one case in 100 million. And yet we regularly see that kind of reporting, particularly in relation to food."
Using a numerator and denominator, rather than percentages or doubling terms illustrates the true impact. "If something increases your risk from one in a 100 to one in 10, [that] is a very big increase in risk. But an increase in risk from one in a million to one in 100,000, which is equally a tenfold increase in risk, is still a very rare risk."
And yet, how often do you see supposed "scientists" telling you not to eat this, that or the other on the basis of exactly those kind of very rare risks? How often? Do you know? I do - the answer is "Fucking."
I read Gluckman's comments as pretty much an admonishment of the interviewer by Gluckman, but she doesn't seem to have shared that view, given that she published them. All I can say is, keep Gluckman's words firmly in mind during the next lot of squawking from Professor Rod Jackson (the man who gave us "there should be a health tax on butter" and "[vitamin supplements] should be prescription-only drugs.")
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
What Nick Smith really thinks of the ETS
The importance of getting this legislation right cannot be overstated. [The development of an ETS] represents the most significant economic reform since the deregulation of the economy in the late 1980s. Getting this bill right is also important for the environment. Poor policy can also have unintended adverse environmental consequences."
Moreover, "the legislative process has been rushed and inadequate given the bill's complexity and significance. The public has not had adequate time to examine and submit on the bill, and it is inevitable that serious mistakes will be made that will adversely affect New Zealanders".
Thus, "this process has not been conducive to getting such an important bill right nor in getting the cross-party support needed to ensure the stability and longevity of New Zealand's ETS".
This was Nick Smith last year after Labour had taken a year to pass its ETS, with a number of external fora and consultation periods before the Bill was introduced.
Grant Robertson calls is "breathtaking hypocricy". As I said in the introduction, sometimes even the Labour Party is right.
Comment of the day
The problem here is actually very simple and can be summed up in one word: politicians.
They decided we needed an intergovernmental panel. They paid the scientists on it. They then pork-barrelled their way to implementing ETS schemes. One in particular runs giant funds management companies that make billions on green investments.
The politicians here could not wait to implement an ETS. The other politicians at the time said theirs would be better – not that it's a dumb idea, but theirs would be better. Then the others got in power and made a very bad situation a lot worse. Then Maori politicians sold their people down the river for a trip to Copenhagen and a few trees. I could go on but I'm sure you all get the picture.
The problem with most of the issues in life is politicians. They butt into everything. They change health, tax, employment, education, superannuation etc every election. All this puts enormous cost on businesses and families. I've seen it first hand in my consulting business.
Folks, the problem is not the ETS. If it wasn't the ETS it would be the Foreshore and Seabed or bidding wars over who is toughest on crime or anything else. The problem is politicians.
ACT says we should have 99 of them. That would be a start. I figure about 50 is all we need. We don't need them. They are the problem, always have been, always will be.
That is why Reagan said government was the problem not the solution. Governments and politicians are not constructive, they're destructive.
The ETS is just an example of the problem, not the problem itself.
Why think conspiracy when you can have a clusterfuck
Charles of WUWT offers a new and interesting theory of the file: that the file was not "stolen", it was "found". See
here. Charles' epithet: "Never assume malice where stupidity will do".
Here's his scenario.
The collation of files was made by the university in connection with the FOI appeal – an appeal that they were going to thoroughly document because of all the publicity during the summer. They then used the intranet server to share the file among interested parties for the FOI review on Nov 13.
And then between Nov 13 and Nov 17, someone came along and found this astonishing file sitting on the server. Sound impossible?
Read last summer's posts on the "Mole" at CRU. Phil Jones had refused to provide station data claiming that it was covered by all sorts of confidentiality agreements (though he couldn't find the agreements and couldn't remember who they were with.
One day in late July, I discovered that they had left station data versions from 2003 and 1996 on their server – without webpage links but accessible all the same. They were stale versions of the requested data, but this data was supposedly hugely "confidential". They were just sitting in cyberspace waiting for someone to download.
Charles hypothesizes that that's what happened here. No hacker, no mole.
This theory could be disproved one way or another by the university's FOI department. I'm sure that someone will ask them about their role, if any, in compiling the zip file.
Two Great Melts Down
First it was the phenomenon of ninja loans and junk bonds wherein good clean capitalism gave way to socialist interference and millions of loans to people with no incomes, no jobs and no assets. These worthless pieces of paper were bundled up and sold as securities around the world, creating a commercial binge fueled by corporate greed.
Before those financial shock waves have receded we find ourselves being plunged into a further multi-billion dollar disaster in the form of Emission Trading Schemes based on a foundation of junk science and bogus predictions of impending doom with the creation of so called carbon credits. These worthless pieces of paper are being bundled up and sold as securities around the world, creating a commercial binge fueled by corporate greed.
Adolf will predict that his beloved National Party will take a king hit in the polls over this incredible piece of ill timed and poorly managed folly.
The only question worth asking is 'Where will the unhappy voters go?' They can't go to Labour or the Greens because their version of the folly would have been worse.
I'd say that the ACT Party should be rubbing its hands with glee as the punters forget about Rodney Hide's trip away with his bit of fluff and focus on ACT's vociferous and right minded opposition to all this fraudulent AGW and ETS nonsense.
Look for fifteen ACT MPs come 2011.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Pissing on a Twyford
We did the usual: Te Papa, Cable Car up to Botanical Gardens, shopping in Cuba Street and Lambton Quay, dinner at a fabulous Malaysian eatery in Ghuznee Street (KK Malay) and a visit to Parliament today.
But the highlight of the trip was a visit to the Wellington Airport restrooms this afternoon.
As I was ejecting the bottled water from my system, I peered down and saw it. The name. It was there.
Who would have thought that while in the capital, where the politicians hang out, I got to piss on one - well, by name at least. And an annoying one at that.
With a backdrop like that, is Phil pissing into the wind trying to win Waitakere on 2011?
Double whammy
Our future is now being set in concrete.
Race based politics and crooked science.
Talk about a double whammy.
John Key's leadership is a disgrace to our country.
Your cheque's in the mail
I saw the imbecilic press release from the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition last week, in which it's claimed that women are effectively working for free until the end of the year because women on average earn 12% less than men, but didn't plan to write anything about it (other than leaving a comment at the Hand Mirror suggesting the coalition get some members who understand statistics).
However, "not writing about it" was before I realised that a group of women at my workplace, some of whom will earn more than I do for a similar job (through longer service), featured in the local newspaper in a protest claiming they're being made to work for free until the end of the year because I, along with the other testicle-equipped, am supposedly ripping them off for 12% of their "deserved" salary.
I could forgive this. Many people fail to understand what the term "average" means and there is a general ignorance in society of how to interpret statistics, so it's not that surprising people should make the mistake. What's unforgivable: it's definitely unsurprising they should make that mistake when the women's group rep organising the protest is a fucking social sciences lecturer.
A qualified social scientist knows how to interpret statistics. A qualified social scientist ought to be someone whose views on how to interpret statistics can be trusted. And a qualified social scientist who says an average figure equals individual results is like a doctor who says antibiotics will cure a viral infection: either too stupid to live, or has some ulterior motive. In the case of this social scientist, I'm picking the ulterior motive "self-interest" rather than stupidity:
Dr Cat Pause said "...it's about wanting more for women."
In recognition of the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition's efforts, I've posted their propaganda photo (slightly edited) above.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
+44 (0) 1603 592090
The piece below is copied/ ihimaera'd directly from a comment left at the most excelent Bishop Hill blog. It describes the timeline for a FOI which is much the same as our feeble system for making govt departments release info. At the bottom is the email sent by Phil Jones who it turns out is one of the key climate liars in the UK. You will note he is asking Michael Mann (remember him, the hockey stick liar?) to delete emails directly related to the FOI.
Oh, the phone number? It is Phil Jones direct line. Be sure to call him and thank him when our government saddles us with a massive new government department and tax regime cooked up because some nerds in east anglia have conspired to con the world.
No word yet from Bomber over at Tumeke, our thoughts are with him. Bwahahahahaha.
David Holland has also made FOI inquiries to Keith Briffa, a lead author of AR4 chapter 6. Here's a progress report documenting:
May 5 - FOI request
May 6 - CRU Acknowledgement
June 3 - CRU Refusal Notice
June 4 - Holland Appeal
June 20 - CRU Rejection of Appeal
May 5 Holland FOI Request to CRU
Dear Mr Palmer,
Request for Information concerning the IPCC, 2007 WGI Chapter 6 Assessment Process
Drs Keith Briffa and Timothy Osborn of your Climatic Research Unit served as lead authors on the IPCC Fourth Assessment, which by international agreement was required to be undertaken on an comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis.1 On 31 March 2008, I asked Dr Briffa for important specific information, not so far released, on his work as a lead author to which I have had no reply or acknowledgement, but have, through other FoI enquiries, been given a copy of his email dated 1 April 2008, to several other IPCC participants including Dr Philip Jones, and to which my letter was attached. He told his colleagues his response to me would be brief when he got round to it. Also included in the documents released to me is an email dated 14 March 2008 to Dr Briffa, among others, from Susan Solomon, Co-Chair of WGI, advising the addressees not to disclose information beyond that (which I consider inadequate) already in the public domain.
Accordingly, I hereby request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004:
Phil Jones, three weeks after David Holland's FOI request:
From: Phil Jones
To: "Michael E. Mann"
Subject: IPCC & FOI
Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008
Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He's not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don't
have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
I see that CA claim they discovered the 1945 problem in the Nature paper!!
Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email firstname.lastname@example.com
Global Warmenising Conspiracy Unravells
Powerline has further information just to hand and it is startling. The conspirators have destroyed the evidence of their wrong doing.
"Mike, Can you delete any emails you may have with Keith re AR4? ["AR4" is common shorthand for the U.N. IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, which was released in 2007.] Keith will do likewise. He's not in at the moment - minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don't have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise."
These guys are buggered, now the internet is on to them. It's clearly not a case of hacking but rather of a massive leak by a disgusted whistle blower.
Yes, it looks like jail time coming up for the disciples of Al Gore.
Aaaaaah, Those Bonding Sessions
"The teenager and then 26-year-old teacher "bonded" when putting the school yearbook together and had sex only once after classes for the year had finished but while the student was still technically enrolled."
I wonder if they's save the news clips for the child's twenty-first?
What John Key Should Read
The whole scientific basis of global warming alarmism is flawed and indeed fraudulent.
The much vaunted IPCC report is baseless.
Here's the stand out line:-
"It, along with the rest of the email archive, makes an utter mockery of the alarmists' claim that the science of global warming is settled in their favor. On the contrary, the conclusion an observer is likely to draw from the CRU archive is that the climate alarmists are making up the science as they go along and are fitting facts to reach a predetermined conclusion rather than objectively seeking after truth. What they are doing is politics, not science."
New Zealand should demand a rigorous review of all the so-called 'accepted science' attached to global warming hysteria and as an interim measure we should IMMEDIATELY withdraw from Kyoto and the economic suicidal folly which is an Emissions Trading Scheme.
Adolf Agrees With The Union
Adolf heartily agrees with EPMU president Andrew Little.
What an earth gives the police the right to ask a person who his or her employer is in the first place, let alone trot off and dob in an employee for an offense?
What would they have done if a clever lawyer had successfully defended her case?
By what bizarre twist of bureaucratic chicanery can an employer demand under the OIA the hitherto confidential name of a person charged?
There are many more questions to be asked about this extraodinary orwellian and totalitarian episode.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Climate Change alarmists caught with hands in Co2 jar
In the meantime, Ian Wishart has a biggie. Read this, this & this.
Let's not forget this.
Nor this.
Earlier this week Lucy Lawless, and that failed NIWA
He should now go. I have written his speech (see below).
Ladies and Gentlemen
New Zealand has this week been shown to be the least corrupt country in the World.
We are justifiably very proud of that.
On that basis we do not wish to be involved with the cheats, liars and frauds running the climate change circus.
We are pulling out of Kyoto and scrapping the ETS.
Have a nice conference.
I'm now flying back to New Zealand in Al Gore's private jet.
Don't reward the plagiaristic University
Not for the students, who are expected to perform honestly, submit original work, and follow the rules. University staff will work hard to ensure students sit exams in a fair, honest and proper way.
But plagiarism is ok for the staff. In fact, the more senior you are, the better it is to copy other people's work.
Professor Witi Ihimaera is a man whose work I thought was good. But it turns out that he has been a plagiarist, and has incorporated other people's work in his literature, and had profited financially, professionally and socially from it.
It's simply not good enough. And the University of Auckland is complicit in this scandal because they aren't going to reprimand him.
But, I hear you say, maybe Professor Witi Ihimaera should be shown some forgiveness. Perhaps he should be shown a way in which he can make amends? Isn't that what universities strive to do?
Well, the University of Auckland certainly didn't do that when it came to Dr Paul Buchanan, who famously told a student they weren't good enough and they shouldn't expect any easy rides. Buchanan had to go to court to get his reputation back.
So on the one hand, they punish a lecturer for demanding high standards from original work, and on the other hand, they fail to punish a professor for one of the biggest sins in academia - plagiarism.
The University of Auckland has, like it or not, sent a strong and powerful message about itself - they are pathetic eunuchs, and intellectually bankrupt. They don't deserve financial contributions from alumni.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Farmers back ACT position
It's true that a tax on carbon won't necessarily affect the weather per se, but as a change-inducing component, it could change behaviour over the long term. A tax on carbon is also fiscally neutral.
Fed Farmers now agree. If they'd just voted ACT last year their 300,00+ votes might have stopped the ETS in its tracks. Now they'll have to wait and see.
If Fed Farmers read this take note: if you vote for who you always have you'll continue to get what you always got.
And of course there is better reason why a carbon tax is better than a rorting
Trading of emission permits around the world will become a financial rort that fails to reduce carbon emissions - and will ultimately be scrapped in favour of a simple carbon tax, a former senior official in the Clinton administration has forecast. Robert Shapiro, former US undersecretary of commerce and author of Futurecast, predicted that the US Senate would reject the emissions trading scheme proposed by President Obama, which is now before it.
Especially when it is accompanied by a refusal to spell out any alternatives.
Others may view it as an abject failure of leadership.
Channeling Mike Williams.
This story about some clown trying to bribe students to join a bus protest nearly made me cough up my weetbix. It is right up there with shouting KFC for retards on polling day.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Quote of the day
"I had to find out what bloody Twitter was, I thought he was the new five-eighth playing for England," he said.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Of course, only one party campaigned on scrapping the ETS in 2008.
ACT Leader Rodney Hide today launched a scathing attack on the Emissions Trading scheme, vowing to have it scrapped and to pull New Zealand out of Kyoto Agreement.
"The scheme involves strict penalties on New Zealand businesses and farmers who allow Co2 emissions - which includes farm animals belching," Mr Hide said.
"Today we held a piece of street theatre in Auckland's Cornwall Park involving an unfortunate farmer being whipped by a broom-wielding witch as he hauled a trailer bearing a cheque for $5 billion dollars made out to Russians and signed by Helen Clark on behalf of New Zealand taxpayers.
"That's the ETS money that will be sent to the UN - which will, in turn, pay it to the Russians because they have large forests. New Zealand farmers alone will pay $1,200 million into the scheme.
"This is sheer lunacy - New Zealand emits 0.02 percent of world Co2 emissions. Nothing we do will change the world's weather.
"The ETS scheme will cost the nation tens of millions of dollars, cost 22,000 Kiwis their jobs and not do anything to mitigate global warming.
"We need smart green policies, not this madness. The Germans and Canada have said they will not wreck their economies to meet Kyoto obligations, and nor should we.
"We need to grow our economy - not shrink it with this nonsense. Only a country with a strong economy can engage in smart green polices to protect our environment. ACT will scrap both ETS and Kyoto," Mr Hide said.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Quote of the day
"Look, who knows what the price of carbon will be tomorrow, next week or in twenty years time. We just don't know".John Key, on Newstalk ZB this morning, whose party is introducing a price cap on carbon.
Extreme Treemendus Stupidity
Yesterday saw TV3 run a story which was picked up by one or two lustily lame brained blogs.
Nick Smith has given away the DOC estate to the Maoris. Or so the story went.
In vain did Adolf seek some reporting in the egregious Herald on the subject. Perhaps Mr Murphy fears being sued by Ngai Tahu so has decided to set the story to one side. The Bros are rich fullas now, eh Tim?
Not so derelict however are the people at Stuff. Here we see a good report on the events leading up to the fuss made by TV3 about claims National is about to give away vast swathes of the conservation estate to Iwi in return for the Maori Party supporting National's version of the biggest pile of bullshit since tulips became common currency.
It turns out no deal has been done. Negotiations are underway though and it seems Iwi might be permitted to crop some small parts of the dock estate. That is to say, plant the land in pines and harvest the trees when mature.
That does not seem to Adolf to be particularly unreasonable or noxious. There is no evidence to suggest they will be given title to land. Minister Smith says other interests already enjoy similar arrangements but these cases are not identified.
Politics is all about the art of negotiation and if Adolf were in the National chair on this one he would be locking in Maori Party support for mining the DOC estate in return for the aforementioned largess.
Then you could watch Goff swallow his Adam's apple and the Greens spew blood.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Proving Wealth is no Substitute For Brains
Adolf's only enduring memory of Big Ears' tenure as Mayor was that glorious cartoon which showed Hubbard shaking hands with Hucker. Hubbard was thinking "Motherhucker" and Hucker was thinking something similar, in the vernacular of Hone Harawira. Can you see this fellow running the city? Where has he been?
Gilbert and Sullivan could not have produced a better show than the race for control of Auckland Super City. John Bank's ribs will need physio for a month.
Put your hand on the lower level
Commentators questioned why the poorest region in Spain was paying for a campaign to promote onanism.
I'm in two minds about it really. On the one hand (sorry), as a kid I was crap at wanking. By the time I started to become genuinely useful to myself, girls were available and the utility value of masturbation was in a nose-dive, except in the "mutual" sense in which it would have helped a hell of a lot to have known how girls wank. So I can see there would have been a real personal benefit in the education system teaching me best practice for digitally servicing either sex.
But on the other hand, one thinks back to one's teachers at the time, and shudders at the thought...
Scenario #1 ... No change. Hone stays with the Maori Party who, in the spirit of Aroha, forgive their errant MP after extracting from him a promise to 'behave' (whatever that means). One week ago I would have bet money on this. Now the comments of Sharples, Turia and Winiata have made this unlikely .... not impossible but unlikely. If they give way now their leadership will have been undermined to the point where Hone will walk over them.
Scenario #2 ... Hone resigns his seat and exits stage left never to be seen again except at Waitangi where he and/or his relations can, once again, turn what should be day of celebration into a day of confrontation. Possible but Hone has never walked away from anything.
Scenario #3 ... Hone walks and resigns his seat to stand again as an Independent. Maori Party also contests seat. Possible but unlikely. The Maori Party vote would split and, in all probability, Labour's Kelvin Davis would win the seat. Davis is already a List MP having stood against Hone in the last election. He is seen as one of Labour's rising stars.
Scenario #4 ... Hone walks and resigns his seat to stand again as a Independent with the Maori Party sitting out the election. My assessment is that Hone would bolt home. Would he achieve much as an Independent MP? Reality is the National/ACT/MP/UF coalition would still have the numbers. We might see him as sidelined and ineffectual but Hone would see himself as the voice for Maori grievances, real and imagined.
Scenario #5 .... Phil Goff puts Hone up against a wall and shoots him !!!!!!!!!!!!
Taking bets on #4
Pablo on terrorism
In that measure I would say that the jihadists are losing, which is what prompted me to open the post with the quote from a veteran SOLIC professional. However, when it comes to the likes of Pakistan, the Sudan or Afghanistan, then the issue remains very much open.
A fascinating post and discussion as usual. I wish I had more time to consider and post more appropriate and well thought responses.
I disagree with the last gasp of a dying man quote but understand why you included it. Gavrip Principio, Eire, Israel, the Boer and any number of other examples during the retreat of the British empire are sufficient to demonstrate the effectiveness of terrorism as a weapon. The point is well made by the Tamils & Al Qaeda in Iraq that when the terrorists turn on their own population rather than the ruling class they are losing.
Andrew W makes a good point that politically weak governments are prone to manipulate the spectre of terrorism for their own ends.
And weak politicians simply choose appeasement over hard decisions. That is what we are seeing with Obama.
I am interested in peoples views on the Clash of Civilisations. This post is an interesting contextual first chapter but it must be leading somewhere. Personally I see jihadist terrorism as being a multi generational conflict. Until those Islamic nations have developed and educated and prosperous middle class living reasonably democratically there will be no sustained peace. Iraq represented a country much further along that path than Afghanistan which is why it was chosen. Oil and Bush unfinished business with Saddam were not sufficient reasons in and of themselves to justify war. The possibility of WMD being provided to and used by terrorists and the opportunity to provide an example democracy to the rest of the Arab world were the reasons for going into Iraq.
Leaving Afghanistan as the sole front in the war against Jihadist terrorism would mean inevitable defeat due to the nature and backwardness of the country.
imho the jihadists are trying to overthrow our Western democracy and it is legitimate for us to take the fight into countries that are not ruled democratically or at least with popular support.
So I look forward to the next chapter where Pablo develops the clash of civilisations theme, either agreeing or disagreeing or in a different direction.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
We won!!!
Kiwis qualify for South Africa
What is New Zealand's national dish?
Busted blonde asks a very good question
What is New Zealandsquintessential National dish?
Is it a lamb roast?
Warehou and chips?
Paua fritters
Whitebait fritters?
Bluff oysters?
or in New Zealand a country of many unique plates?
For my money, and speaking as someone presently living in the UK the lamb roast and fish and chips in any form are simple english imports with better quality base ingredients. oysters, whilst delicious from bluff, again, are an international dish. The ozzies try to nick our pavlova for their own but it would definitely make the national pudding for the number of times it graced our christmas table (every time). I have never tasted mutton birds and I guess nor have many non mainlanders so think that, whilst certainly exclusive, does not make the cut for a national dish. Paua fritters have always mystified me. At the takeaway or beating the crap out of an abalone and mixing rubber strips into a fritter is not my idea of a delicacy. Mush or chewy they dont make the cut.
There is only one truly New Zealand dish that I remember from childhood that I have never tasted anywhere else in the world. In some places I have eaten what are called whitebait fritters but they are basically deepfried chinese sardines and not on the same planet.
There is nothing on this world like the taste of whitebait fritters in the morning, and only one country that delicacy is truly available in.
So whitebait fritters gets my vote.


text:
Lone Star Long Shot
The Alamo. A great place to make a stand. Or take a stand, which is exactly what Richard "Kinky" Friedman did earlier this year when he kicked off his campaign for the 2006 Texas governor's race. No doubt the overwhelming odds that faced the Alamo's defenders served as a fitting reminder to Friedman of his own chances in next year's election.
But political suicide was not a concern of the crowd gathered at the cradle of Texas liberty that February day as Friedman announced his candidacy. They weren't just family or friends or staffers or shills, but people interested in hearing the man that CBS News touts as having "a mouth like a sailor, a wardrobe like Johnny Cash and a cigar like Winston Churchill." Others were there, too, fans of Friedman's music and his writings who hope this political outsider will soon become the ultimate insider. What they got then and since is a series of position statements and campaign platforms whose insight and wit tell us as much about America as they do of the man dishing them out.
Of course Friedman rails against the status quo, labeling Democrats and Republicans "decaf or regular, paper or plastic." He's just as cynical about Gov. Rick Perry, a man whose principal decision on a daily basis, according to Friedman, is "whether or not he should wear French cuffs." Yet Friedman is also willing to take on tough topics, the ones political hacks prefer to eye from a distance. Let's start with school prayer:
"When I'm governor, it'll be legal for schoolkids to pray to the god of their choice. What's wrong with having a kid believe in something?" he asks. It's the sort of comment that draws appreciative nods and brings new believers into the fold.
He's also just as likely to dismiss issues he considers superfluous to the political realm. Would he have used his gubernatorial powers to intervene on behalf of Terri Schiavo? "I'm running for governor, not God," he responds.
One secret of Friedman's success and a key reason his campaign appearances draw large crowds is that at the precise moment you begin to take him too seriously, he lets go with a patented one-liner, such as this observation on one of the most contentious topics in politics today:
"I support gay marriage 'cause I believe they have a right to be just as miserable as the rest of us."
Another standby is his pat description of his skill set: "I'm a 60-year-old with the reading level of a 62-year-old." Most audiences are easy pickings after such self-deprecation.
However, you don't win statewide office in Texas using a laugh meter. It takes a checkbook -- a fat one. Politics is big business in the Lone Star State, a phenomenon that dates back to the early days of LBJ and his political foes, Pappy O'Daniel and Coke Stevenson. The last governor's race cost the candidates' backers more than $100 million, a sum far beyond the means of most political neophytes (Ross Perot and Michael Bloomberg excepted). One thing is for sure: neither political party will look kindly on anyone who costs its respective candidate votes, money or airtime.
"The powers that be are going to try to tear you to pieces," Bill O'Reilly warned Friedman during an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" in March.
"Absolutely," said Friedman.
But no matter how he fares or how much he's outspent, Friedman will leave a distinctive mark on Texas politics because of his already classic campaign slogan: "Kinky Friedman. Why the hell not?" It may not rank up there with "I like Ike" or "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage," but it's a quantum leap forward compared to Friedman's last electioneering attempt, an ill-fated run two decades ago for justice of the peace in his hometown of Kerrville, Texas. By comparison, that effort seems positively backwoods due in part to a slogan that went something like "Elect Kinky Friedman the first Jewish justice of the peace in Kerrville, and I'll reduce the speed limit to 54.95."
Yet the candidate insists his maiden political venture was not for naught. He's quick to point out that "George W. [Bush] lost his first election [for the House of Representatives, in 1978], and look where he is today."
Given his eclectic background -- singer, songwriter, novelist -- the political arena might well be a perfect fit for Friedman. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he joined the Peace Corps right out of college and was promptly shipped off to Borneo. His assignment? "To show people who'd been farming successfully for more than two thousand years how to improve their agricultural methods," he says.
That two-year stint may have been when he began developing his distaste for politics as usual. Four decades later, it's a full-blown vendetta and the hallmark of his campaign. "When somebody from Washington comes to your state and asks, 'How can I help,' there's only one response: run. As fast as you can. Forget politicians. What Texas needs is to elect a musician. Or a beautician," he says.
One of the positive offshoots of his Borneo years was ample free time. Friedman made good use of this by meticulously planning his next scheme: a country band he would christen Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. In due order, Friedman returned to Texas, and the Jewboys took shape. Audiences were soon tapping their toes to the likes of "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore" and that anthem of male chauvinistic pigs everywhere, "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed."
But this bandleader does more than pen lyrics; he's also a talented author. The musical iconoclast soon began churning out mystery novels with catchy names: Greenwich Killing Time, The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover, A Case of Lone Star, Roadkill, Meanwhile Back at the Ranch and Armadillos & Old Lace. In a candid outburst at a crowded book signing this year, he revealed the secret of his literary prowess:
"With regards to my most recent book, Ten Little New Yorkers, as always I have to give the disclaimer that I didn't really write this book. This was ghostwritten by Mary Higgins Clark. She ghostwrites all my work," he told several hundred book buyers in a well-honed deadpan. Many of those in line sported "Get Kinky 2006" gimme caps. All burst into laughter.
Ten Little New Yorkers was Friedman's last murder mystery, at least for a while; he'll be on the campaign trail from now till November 2006. The popularity of his novels led to countless appearances on talk shows and who knows how many other promotional appearances. In one respect he's achieved the sort of exalted status typically reserved for Pulitzer Prize winners and Nobel laureates. He's become a White House regular. In this regard, Friedman views himself as continuing the esteemed tradition of such Oval Office frequent flyers as Billy Graham and Jesse Jackson.
Although others might crow about having slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, the high point of Friedman's visits to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has always been lighting up in the same environs as his cigar-smoking predecessors, men such as Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and John F. Kennedy. On one of his more recent visits, an enthusiastic White House staffer saw fit to inform Friedman that Hillary Clinton's brother also belonged to this storied tradition of smokers.
"Somehow Hughie Rodham wasn't quite the historical predecessor I was hoping for," Friedman recalls.
Yet despite the best efforts of several of our country's chief executives, the Kinkster has failed to cash in on his White House kitchen pass and score a cushy job or choice appointment. This may well be his own doing. His self-destructive tendencies are revealed in one of his favorite presidential anecdotes concerning an evening soiree a few years ago:
"Back when Bill Clinton was president," he says, "I was invited to this wonderful dinner. Clearly my reputation had preceded me because I was seated at the president's table. Turns out the woman seated next to me was Sherry Lansing, who at the time was in charge of Paramount Pictures. Now, the president had been telling Sherry about my mystery novels, how they featured a transplanted Texan who lives in New York, someone remarkably similar to myself who in fact also happens to share my name. The next thing you know, I've got the head of Paramount Pictures talking to me about a movie project based on a character named Kinky Friedman. 'Who do you think should portray the Kinkster?' she asks. 'That's easy,' I said. 'Lionel Richie.' She never said another word to me the rest of the night."
Last fall, on his most recent visit to the White House, Friedman tried to finagle a deft political sleight of hand when he caucused with former Texas Gov. Bush and informed president No. 43 of his gubernatorial ambitions. A presidential endorsement was not forthcoming.
"The president's hands are tied," Friedman admits. "He's the leader of the Republican Party. He's got a Republican governor in office here in Texas. So he can't really come out and campaign for me or endorse me. He has to be careful. That's why I appreciate his offer to be a one-man focus group."
The Republican stranglehold on the Texas Legislature, however, combined with the GOP's occupation of every major statewide office, may actually benefit Friedman as well as other outsiders in the next elections. A storm is brewing across Texas, one fueled by voter discontent. At the conclusion of this year's legislative session, no progress had been made on voters' top priority: education spending. As this editorial in June from one Texas newspaper, the Lufkin Daily News, demonstrates, citizens and opinion makers are incensed:
"Gov. Rick Perry and members of the state House and Senate knew going in that their mandate was to find a fair and effective way to replace a public school finance system that absolutely everyone agrees is broken. They couldn't do it."
Friedman is already on the attack. Education reform is his campaign's top priority, and he's considering every option to the ineffective system in place today. At a campaign stop in Galveston, he suggested eliminating public funding of school sports. His novel solution? Have school athletic programs underwritten by corporate sponsors such as Nike or Wilson.
This sort of outside-the-box thinking is typical of his untraditional campaign. The candidate has already been in contact with like-minded Texans, individuals who could possibly serve in an upcoming Friedman administration, including fellow musician Billy Joe Shaver for Texas poet laureate, artist Bob "Daddy-O" Wade to head up the Texas Arts Commission, and Ray Benson, "the world's tallest living Jew" and the lead singer for Texas swing band Asleep at the Wheel, as culture minister.
"Willie Nelson has already agreed to come on as my energy adviser," Friedman announces. "Look at oil prices: over $50 a barrel. Ten years from now, it'll be a dollar a drop and the Saudis will be playing the jukebox. The answer is bio-diesel. Truckers love it. Environmentalists love it. And Texas, which led the country in oil production for decades, needs to take the lead in this as well. No one has supported America's farmers like Willie has. He kept thousands of family-owned farms in business with Farm Aid. And he's going to do it again with bio-diesel."
Ever the populist, Nelson sees his friend's candidacy as more than just a blow for energy independence. In a telephone interview from somewhere in California on board his bus, the Honeysuckle Rose III, Nelson sounds off on the state of American politics. "Some people say that for Kinky to run as an independent isn't a good idea. I disagree. Look at [Jesse] Ventura in Minnesota. Or [Arnold] Schwarzenegger in California. People are fed up with politics as usual. Put an honest, upright guy in the race, and there's a good chance that the millions of people who've been staying out of politics and not showing up at the polls might get interested again. What have they got to lose?"
The combination of Friedman's larger-than-life personality and his maverick approach has generated a flurry of press, far more than most third-party candidates could ever hope for. In addition to "The O'Reilly Factor," Friedman has been featured in numerous articles statewide and nationally. He's been profiled on CBS's "Sunday Morning" and sat in with Don Imus on MSNBC's "Imus in the Morning."
He'll need all the press he can get. Election laws in Texas are not kind to independents. To get his name listed on next year's ballot, the Friedman campaign will have to collect almost 50,000 signatures from registered voters who do not vote in either the Republican or the Democratic primaries. It's no small task.
"That's nothing," the candidate says. "Go to KinkyFriedman.com. We've already got almost 10,000 volunteers signed up. Getting 50,000 signatures will be a piece of cake. We'll start with the fine folks at your cigar smoker," he adds, mentioning a gathering I host in Austin at the Saveur Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival.
Some years we sample single malts. More often than not it's high-end Tequilas, which, given the Texas setting, prove the most popular, especially when the Kinkster shows up and takes the mike. He'll talk about anyone and anything. When listening to him, however, it takes a finely tuned ear to discern the truth from a good one-liner. Like the time a few years back when he told all of us that he was getting into politics. Not as a candidate, of course, but in support of one. He had put himself in charge of a new political action committee, Gay Texans for Phil Gramm. Who knows what sort of conniptions the former senior senator from Texas and his minions had to endure as they distanced themselves from Friedman's antics.
Put the 60-year-old on stage in a smoke-filled room, and he tends to wax lyrically about his heroes, those larger-than-life characters whose cigar consumption borders on prodigious. Among his favorites are Winston Churchill, a leader of men, Friedman is wont to point out, who almost never was seen without a cigar during the Second World War; Mark Twain, who smoked up to 40 cigars a day and uttered one of Friedman's favorite quotes, "If smoking is not allowed in heaven, I shall not go"; and Thomas Edison, who, according to Friedman, lived to be 84 by "blowing smoke at people who ridiculed his inventions."
Friedman claims he took up cigar smoking for health reasons. "Cigar smokers live longer," he says, singling out octogenarians such as Sigmund Freud and Edison and, of course, Churchill, who lived to be 90. Friedman generally smokes eight cigars a day, though he says 12 is more typical when he's writing. He admits to a particular fixation for Montecristo No. 2s. Lately he's been smoking Bolivars. In typical fashion, he explains his atypical rationale. "Simon Bolivar is the only person in history to be exiled from a country named after him," he says.
Not surprisingly, the candidate is adamant about rolling back any and all smoking bans if he's elected governor. It's the sort of approach he plans to use to distance himself from his only announced opponent, Govenor Perry, whom Friedman derides as "a career politician." Oddly enough, the sole experience that Friedman thinks served Perry well was his years at Texas A&M as a collegiate cheerleader.
"Hell, George Bush was a cheerleader," Friedman says. "And Kay Bailey Hutchison was one as well, and she can probably kick both of their asses. But the one thing you've got to remember is this: They're all going to be cheering for me. 'Cause after next year's election, I'm the one who's going to be carrying the ball."
Texas-based Eric O'Keefe has profiled a variety of entertainment and political figures, including Russell Crowe, Tommy Lee Jones, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.


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Anne Snowdon has a personal interest in One Kenton Alzheimer's Centre of Excellence, B'nai Brith Canada's new Alzheimer's home, built in partnership with the Ivey International Centre for Health Innovation.
Snowdon, who chairs the centre and is a nurse by training, said that her mother, 87, has Alzheimer's, and she understands first hand the impact the disease has on families. "The project is especially relevant to me because it [caters to] a population that is near and dear to my heart."
Alzheimer's and dementia are increasing around the globe, she said, and research is relatively limited. "That means there is no cure on the horizon. Wonderful strides are being made, but there is no magic pill to curb it."
The impetus for One Kenton, she said, is to create a meaningful environment for Alzheimer's and dementia patients, and their families.
"Up until now, the focus has always been on managing patients, but we want to create the best quality of life for them."
As a nurse, she said, she realizes that there have been no gains in caring for Alzheimer's patients in decades.
"I trained 30 years ago, and things are still the same. I don't mean patients are getting bad care. They are safe and cared for, but the institutions are not promoting meaningful and purposeful lives," Snowdon said..
"This is the impetus that drives this project. [We] got involved because it is an important one. Our goal is to promote quality of life."
When Ivey was approached by B'nai Brith, she said, "I thought, 'Wow, this is a match made in heaven.'"
Isaac Weinroth, 37, executive director of One Kenton, speaking on Dec. 9, the day the first residents were due to move in, said B'nai Brith first got involved in building One Kenton in response to unmet needs in the community.
"B'nai Brith realized that Alzheimer's was increasing in the general community, and the only option available to care for patients and their families was long-term institutions."
Weinroth, who has a master's in health administration and a degree in gerontology, said that at age 13 he volunteered at a geriatric health centre and went on to work with seniors. "I'm passionate about it."
He said that One Kenton, which can accommodate 45 people in 44 suites – one is for a dementia patient and a spouse – is a retirement home for people with Alzheimer's and dementia.
"The whole residence is designated for dementia care. It's built in a retirement home model, but with care for the residents."
The One Kenton brochure stresses that it's "not a home. It's home.
"Everything from the architectural layout to the colour selections, lighting, furnishings, patterns, and common areas has been designed to promote a calming, comfortable environment."
Weinroth said residents can bring in their own furniture and personal items if they choose. "They can also eat on their own schedule. They do what they do at home, and eat when they're hungry. There is no such thing as missing a meal. If someone is not ready to eat at lunch time, they can eat at 2 p.m. There is always food available, and all food is certified kosher under COR."
He said it's the only retirement home in Canada that caters exclusively to residents with dementia.
"The setting is adaptable, and every individual has their needs met."
He added that each resident has a core team made up of a nurse, personal support staff, dietary staff, program staff, housekeeper and a laundry person. "All staff, though, is hands-on. If someone asks me to take them to the dining room, I'm happy to do so, and so will any other staff. We're all personally involved in residents' care."
He said residents can have visitors at any time, and can have them stay for meals or holiday celebrations."
"One Kenton is a place to live, not a place to be. It will be full of life with musical performances, holiday celebrations, and High Holiday services."
For more information, call (647) 932-7913


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Rainin Pipettes & Pipette Tips for Superior Pipetting Performance
Through its Rainin brand, METTLER TOLEDO is a leading provider of advanced liquid handling solutions for life scientists worldwide. We offer a wide selection of ergonomic manual pipettes, electronic pipettes, multichannel pipettes, BioClean LTS and universal pipette tips and expert pipette services. It is a complete pipetting solution that we call Pipetting 360°. Our commitment to quality, innovative design and state-of-the-art production result in superior pipette products that deliver years of reliable operation. Rainin developed the LiteTouch System (LTS) to increase the accuracy and precision of pipettes while decreasing friction, making Rainin pipettes a leader in pipetting ergonomics. The risk of repetitive strain injuries (RSI) is greatly reduced when using ergonomic Rainin LTS pipettes and tips.
Mettler-Toledo Rainin's Good Pipetting Practice™ (GPP™) online and in-person seminars are a risk-based, comprehensive and systematic approach to maximizing pipetting accuracy and repeatability.
1. What is a pipette?
Pipettes are handheld instruments commonly used in academic, biotech, pharmaceutical and other labs to transfer precise amounts of liquid from one container to another. Pipettes range from very basic graduated glass tubes to sophisticated precision instruments capable of aspirating and dispensing liquid in increments as small as a fraction of a microliter. The most common pipette used in life science labs around the world is the single-channel air displacement pipette.
2. How does a pipette work?
There are two basic pipette types, positive displacement and air pipettes. Modern pipettes work with a piston-stroke principle – Liquid is measured using a piston-cylinder system in the handle of the pipette. When the piston is depressed and then slowly released, the movement of the piston creates a vacuum in the disposable pipette tip and thus draws liquid up inside the tip; this process is termed aspiration. Since the piston is a long way from the liquid sample, the air cushion between the piston and liquid can have a number of effects on the accuracy of this process, depending on the liquid type. Pressing down on the plunger that had a tip full of liquid expels the liquid out from the tip; this is termed dispensing. Positive displacement pipettes work on a similar principle, however the tip of the positive displacement system contains its own piston and hence there is a minimal air cushion between the piston (that is part of the tip) and the liquid surface. Positive displacement pipettes are commonly used for samples of high viscosity (e.g. glycerol) or high vapor pressure (e.g. volatiles like alcohol), while air-displacement pipettes can be used for a large portion of laboratory applications.
3. What is the LTS LiteTouch System?
The LiteTouch System (LTS) is a design feature in Rainin pipette tips. LTS was invented by Rainin and provides an effort-free way to load pipette tips and reduces tip-ejection force by up to 84%. Tip ejection is the leading pipette-associated cause of repetitive strain injury (RSI). LTS also provides a greater channel-to-channel consistency in multichannel pipettes. The cylindrical pipette-shaft end and matching tip cup produce a reliable, consistent seal without excessive force. LTS tips feature a ring-shaped seal and flat, round shelf that provides a positive "stop." This stop lets the user know when the seal is made and makes it impossible to jam or pound the shaft into the tip – a common problem with conical-shaped tips that are typical with universal (UNV) pipettes.
4. Why do pipette ergonomics matter?
Pipetting is usually a repetitive activity that, when loading and ejecting tips, can involve a high level of force. As with any repetitive activity, over time, the risk of developing musculoskeletal injury, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis and other repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) increases. While good posture and stretching can provide relief, the key to preventing injury is reducing pipetting forces. The Rainin LiteTouch System (LTS) reduces tip ejection force by up to 85%. Read more about pipetting ergonomics
5. What are pipetting accuracy and precision?
Accuracy is the ability of a pipette to deliver the volume specified on the volume setting. In other words, the trueness of a measurement to the true value. Precision is the ability of a pipette to consistently deliver same-sized volumes of liquid over multiple aliquots. For example: a pipette can be precise with regard to dispensing the same volume time after time, yet inaccurate because it fails to dispense the correct volume. An accurate and precise pipette dispenses volumes at the intended volume with each dispense.
6. How to pipette accurately and correctly?
The pipette, the disposable tip, and the operator form a 3-part system. Accuracy depends on the interplay of the elements in the system. More than with other lab instruments, the pipette operator has a high degree of influence on the accuracy of results. As such, it is important that operators are trained to use a pipette. There are some powerful, yet simple techniques that can greatly improve pipetting accuracy. The Rainin Pipetting Technique poster offers a good summary
7. What is pipette calibration?
Pipette calibration refers to testing a pipette's precision and accuracy and resetting it to the manufacturer's specifications if it is out of range. The most common method of pipette calibration is the gravimetric method, which involves pipetting distilled water onto an analytical balance and weighing it to assess the accuracy of the measurement.
Manual Single Channel Pipette
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Through its Rainin brand, METTLER TOLEDO is a leading provider of advanced liquid handling solutions for life scientists worldwide. We offer a wide selection of ergonomic manual pipettes, electronic pipettes, multichannel pipettes, BioClean-certified LTS and Universal-fit pipette tips and convenient, expert pipette service.
LTS LiteTouch System
Because Pipetting Shouldn't Hurt
The Rainin LTS LiteTouch System protects pipette users by making tips practically effortless to load and reduces the force required to eject the tips by up to 85%.
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Techniques to Boost Your Performance
Improve your data quality with Good Pipetting Practice™ (GPP™) – METTLER TOLEDO's comprehensive, systematic approach to maximizing pipetting accuracy and repeatability. GPP covers many topics relevant to life science researchers or anyone using pipettes regularly.
Specialized Liquid Handling
For special applications and difficult liquids, Rainin offers specialized high-quality tools to optimize liquid transfer.
From positive-displacement and repeater pipettes to serological pipet-controllers and large-volume liquid dispense, Rainin has the right tool for your liquid handling application.
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Rainin tips for all major pipette brands are certified BioClean.
Search by brand, model and volume range to find the perfect tip!
Good Pipetting Practice Poster
We are proud to present the Good Pipetting Practice Poster. It covers all relevant topics to enhance operators' technique, among others:
- The correct immersion depth and angle
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- Hand-warming effects and temperature
- And many more
'Stretch' – The Ergonomics Poster
You can order a complimentary copy of the ergonomics 'Stretch' poster: It's full of easy exercises that will take the pain out of your lab work.
Rainin Product Catalog
Superior Products for Peak Performance
The Rainin product catalog contains detailed information on all our pipettes, tips, specialty products, and service offering. Additionally, it features background information on pipetting mechanics, manufacturing and selection.
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Improve your data quality with Good Pipetting Practice™ (GPP™) – METTLER TOLEDO's comprehensive, systematic approach to maximizing pipetting accuracy and repeatability.
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The LTS cylindrical design produces a reliable, consistent seal without excessive force. LTS tips are thin-walled and incorporate a small, well-defined seal area and a positive stop. No need to "jam" or pound the shaft into the tip.
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Get Better Results!
Apply the principles of GPP in your lab and everyone on your team will:
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- Appreciate how ergonomics can influence data production and their own well being
- Recognize the risk associated with out-of-calibration pipettes and the role of routine checks vs. professional service.
Take the GPP Risk Check™
Boost the accuracy and reproducibility of your data by understanding workflow-related risks and how to mitigate them. Take five minutes to run through our GPP Risk Check and see where risks lie in your work and workflow.
Host a GPP Seminar
METTLER TOLEDO has a comprehensive seminar offering around GPP and risk management in pipetting. Our GPP experts will train you and your team right in your lab. Just fill in the request and we will get back to you to discuss the details.
GPP eLearning program
If you prefer to learn at your own pace, you can access our GPP seminars in online eLearning sessions. It's a great opportunity to get new users pipetting quickly, or it can be a refresher course for experienced pipette users.


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PIRSA:13030000 ( MP4 Medium Res , MP4 Low Res , MP3 , PDF ) Which Format?
Quoins versus Coins
Speaker(s): Terry Rudolph
Abstract: Human monkeys are used to thinking about the problem of choosing from a set of objects according to some desired, biased, probability distribution. Just think about how you chose your partner(s). Even when it is easy for you to do such a sampling, it can be difficult to do a quantum sampling (Q-Sampling) of the same distribution. By Q-Sampling I mean the creation of a coherent superposition of states of such objects whose amplitudes are the (square roots of) of the specified distribution. In this talk I will discuss what we do know about this problem, why it is interesting, and will discuss how it can let us achieve tasks with quantum information that are provably impossible classically.
Date: 27/03/2013 - 2:00 pm
Series: Colloquium
URL: http://pirsa.org/13030000/ Share:


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The Real Housewives of Cheshire Season 11 Episode 5 () - Watch Online
Reality series following a group of women residing in one of the UK's most affluent areas, the glamorous Golden Triangle of Cheshire.
The Real Housewives of Cheshire Season 11 Episode 5 () Links
Do not miss the latest episodes of all the hottest TV shows you enjoy watching. They are waiting for you here at Watchseriestv.tv. You can watch the episodes that have been updated the most recently, but you can also go back to some older episodes that you missed or want to see again. There is a grand collection of popular TV shows and all their seasons are included, with all the episodes they contain that are neatly arranged so you can find everything you want to see with a lot of ease.


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Sweater, Tank, Belt: F21, Shoes: Nine West, Pants: Brooke and Nicole, Watch: c/o Mimi's
I've been feeling strangely productive as of recent on the house cleaning front. Which is surprising, considering the out-of-character rainy weather we've been having. My typical self would curled up on the sofa with a hot beverage and a good magazine, clinging to my blanket for dear life and pretending I'm on some fabulous vacation in Seattle. Nope, I've departed from my dearest blankie to scrub, dust, and launder all mess of things. The only problem is that I can't seem to make a dent in my bedroom. I come home everyday and swear that a burgular has broken into the house and made a mess of my room searching for valuables. Then I realize that I don't have any valuables. And my room looked exactly the same way when I woke up that morning. It's a mental barrier, I'm tellin' ya. That and I'm pretty sure my clothes have tripled over the winter and no matter how I beg, push, and plead, they will not force their little selves back into drawers and closet space. Lets not even mention the dusting and vaccuuming that needs to go down in there. When you can't see the floor or the dresser top, there's little need for such things. Baagghh. I think I need a personal assistant to come and purge for me. Any takers?
Ok, I've got to go unload a dryer-full of laundry and hit the sack. Likely under a pile of said laundry.
Happy dreams!


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single channel receiver DC 12V gate opener 433.92mhz 1 channel 2 channel mini size
Runking Technology Co.,Ltd.is a professional supplier of universal remote controller with full experience. Our products includes garage door rf remote controls,remote control duplicator & receiver kits etc. Our company integrates development, design, production, sales, and after-sale service in one, supplying the customers with cordial and thorough service. Our principle is customers and quality come ever first. We welcome new and old customers from all walks of life to contact us for future business relationships and mutual success!
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My son recognizes me in photos when I am blonde
Actress January Jones is considering shaving her head because her hair is starting to fall out following too many dye jobs.
The natural blonde Mad Men star, who became a red head for her new movie Sweetwater, has put her luscious locks through the ringer in recent months by trying everything from pink tips to darker 'dos - and Jones admits the drastic changes have taken a toll on her tresses.
She tells British magazine Grazia Daily, "I have been every color and now my hair is falling out in clumps. I've been blonde, red with extensions for this film, then blonde, then black, and now blonde again. I'm going to have to shave it off and wear a wig (so it will grow back healthy)".
However the actress admits it's fun to see how people react to her whenever she tries a different look "I didn't get treated differently when I was red-headed, but when I went dark for a few months, I was suddenly invisible. Not just as a celebrity, but to my friends and family. I was like, 'Come on you guys, it's me!'" But one thing's for sure her baby son Xander has a favorite look for his mom "I like it all colors, it makes you feel different according to what color it is, but I prefer to be blonde. My son recognizes me in photos when I am blonde. He says, 'Mama.'"
tagged in Pink January Jones Black fun


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Cats in Newman found shot with crossbow darts
Reward being offered for arrest, conviction
Newman police said five cats were found last weekend with 6-inch crossbow darts lodged in their eyes, chests, shoulders or torso.
One of the five cats that was shot did not survive, and the other four are still recovering from their injuries.
Cpl. Jason Gosselin of the Newman Police Department told KCRA 3 it is the worst case of animal cruelty he has ever seen.
One of the injured cats was hit by an arrow that penetrated its body, barely missing major organs, including the heart.
Mary Aretas-Romo, who lives in the neighborhood where the wounded cats were found, said she was enjoying a nice Saturday morning when one of her children came in her home screaming about the family cat named Bella.
Aretas-Romo said someone shot Bella in the eye. The cat may suffer from blindness as a result of the injury.
Aretas-Romo said she is shocked at what happened, especially because it happened in her front yard in broad daylight.
"I won't even let my kids out to bike outside," Aretas-Romo said.
She's also keeping her pets indoors out of fear something bad could happen to them.
Aretas-Romo's sister is now offering a $500 reward to catch the person or people responsible.
A few other neighbors who were not victimized have also come forward, wanting to add to the reward money.
So far, police do not have any leads or people in mind who may be responsible, but said it's only a matter of time.


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Happy Birthday to you
Designer Tip: After stamping images with the VersaMark ink pad and heat setting them, I used a fine tipped paint brush to apply chalks for color. Heat setting the stamped images gets them ready to accept the chalk. Be sure the images are cooled completely before adding chalk. A little excess chalk around the words is pretty, but can also be carefully erased. Only use the eraser lightly around the images, and do not use heavy pressure with the eraser over the images. If you erase too much, simply add more chalk.
Supplies: (Find these supplies and more at www.paperwishes.com)