Moon Of The Month - July -The Buck Moon

So called because many of the names we accept for our moons
were given to us by Native American Tribes. They named this moon
after the time of year that the male deer grow new antlers.

Look out for the 12th of August, when depending on where you live,
you may experience a partial or total eclypse of the sun by the moon.   

 

Nature Special: Pygmy Three Toed Sloth

The Pygmy Three Toed Sloth is one of the rarest mammals on the Earth and it lives only on the Island Escudo de Veraguas, a tiny island off Panama. Its survival is closely tied to mangrove forests where it feeds, hides, and moves slowly through the trees to save energy. One rare fact is that algae can grow on its fur, giving it a greenish tint  that helps it blend into the leaves. This island sloth is Critically Endangered, mainly  because its tiny habitat isso limited and vulnerable. Credit: Wild Wonders.

 

The Ice Cream Sales Man Sees Everything This Way

When the BBC wanted rid
of it's most popular drama series
they first sabotged the in-house
writing and production team
that had held the show together
for most of two decades.

Then they scheduled the show
against the most popular programme
put on by the opposition.
Insiders dubbed this campaign
'selling ice cream in winter'.

The man presently in the Whitehouse 
who schedules all government policy
has some how learned about this
episode of BBC bad programming history,
even as he is using up more than enough
of his legal and political capital sueing the BBC. 

His misanthropy towards his government's expertise
has reached as far as choosing rank amateurs
to run powerful Gov't departments, helping them
to make rookie mistakes he is proud they are making.

This is not just selling ice cream in winter,
where, if he want to, then he could read how unpopular he is,
this is making ice cream in winter the contrarian policy
America is know for across the world, what is left of it.

Doom Loops For The Unwary

The internet is made of doom loops
that are ready to entertain the unwary,
and, before they recognise it, trap them.

The most powerful doom loops are the oldest,
the unscientific theories that pre-date the invention
of the internet by the longest time, such as
'the science of genetic superiority', in which
white males whose families were enriched,
generation on generation, through the sales
of instruments of torture that made the misery
of slavery seem normal, projectedv an image
of themselves for other people to take at face value
that should be examined critically, and taken apart,
before the famkily are treated like the old tempter that they were. 

Alas human vanity laps up this sort of material
and much more besides, I'd say the more was worse,
and perhaps it is, for how such ideas rely on far lower levels
of credulity for their advocates to present themselves as credible. 

Decide for yourself what to be most wary of. And decide again.....    

Some Humour From The Russian Popular Press

One of my more sobering daily habits
is to listen to the reports from the BBC
Russian correspondent of Steve Rosenberg.

in his short videos he reviews the Russian press,
many of which are broadsheet newspapers.
and neutrally notes how near or far the line
of argument in the newspapers might be
some new Kremlin line of argument, which varies.

He always says at the start of each short film
the date of the press that he is quoting from,
lest anyone be in any doubt about such matters.  

At the end of every episode he shares the best jokes
in the press about how the economy, and life,
are not working as they were projected to....

Examples as follows......

'Not many people know this
but that little pocket in your jeans
is for your salary.'

'On a long distance train the conductor asks
'Are there any foriegners on the train',
the chorus goes up 'No'....
The conductor calls to fellow staff Nina
'Turn the air conditioning off,
just our people are on board the train'.

''Have you been anywhere this?
'Yes, in shock''.

In the Polyclinic:
'Instead of your urine sample
you have brought apple juice.'
'Goodness. What have I given
my son to take to school.....  '

'The best way to buy a small business
is to buy a large business and have patience....  '   

   

Guantanamo Bay

Is not just still open, but fifteen men are captive there,
caught in the legal limbo that the US has set for them
one of them have been captive for nearly twenty five years.

The first category: Approved for release

Muieen Abd al-Sattar

Guled Hassan Dourad

Ishmael Ali Bakushmael

The second catgory: Not charged, not cleared

Abu Zubaydah (24 years in prison)

Abu Faraj al-Libi

Mohamed Rahim

The third catgory: Charged or Convicted in Military Commission

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Ramzi bin al-Shibh

Walid bin Attash

Mustapha al-Hawsawi

Amar al-Baluchi

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri

Riduan Isamuddin 

Ali Hamza al-Bahlul

Abd al-hadi al-Iraqi

To comprehend how Guantamo Bay started,
and why it is still open, please left click here
to hear the first part of a three part podcast.   

From Democratic To Imperial Measure

One of many books that helped me mature
in the 1980s was 'Money, Sex, and Power',
by Richard Foster, a book about their opposites:
the choices that come from managing (relative) poverty,
chastity, and obedience to the powers that be,
which together give society and the individual
the widest choice for greatest nunber of people. 

For a long while it made a lot of sense to me.

Forty years on from what taught me more
how to make my way through the world,
I have seen this sage advice turned inside out.

Politics has gone from democratic to imperial,
the men who have the most have to have more
-to the point where no-one is allowed to count it.
Power is held more absolutely, money is controlled
by fewer and fewer corporations, the lies that sell sex
make it not worth taking at anything like face value. 

For those with the most, whatever they have
whether money, sex or power, enough is never enough.
Least of all when they combine into one big addiction
fueled by denial, broadcast across th4e world
as if such a depth of vice was actually a virtue.