Neptune: "No Nippon's Here"

                                                                        (Photo: YouTube)

"The moment when a whale which had been freed from a net “thanked” its rescuers with a breathtaking display of leaps and dives" guffed on the Mirror, UK in it's boak-bagging way.
Just as well for young Humpy then, that it didn't have a close encounter of the terminal kind with a boat belonging to these blubber and big steak lovers hailing from that constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese archipelago.

Pots Callin' Kettles...

                                                          (Photos: Copyright Control)

Ryanair’s chief executive officer, Michael O’Leary, said “Ryanair believes that the BAA is an abusive airport monopoly, which engages in significant overcharging and monopoly profiteering at Stansted, to fund Ferrovial's [its owner] acquisition and operation of Heathrow Airport.”"(ShareCast)

Well, well, well...as a character in Dad's Army used to say: 'they don't like it up 'em, Mr Mannering'. Now, I might just be a mite prejudiced about the chief executive: Without a jot of information then or ever, the flight cancelled 5 mins before an expected lift-off while standing in the queue at that quaint little out-of-Paris, we close at midnight shed. Any  Ryanair staff around to ascertain the whys and wherefores? Now don't be silly. Or perhaps it was the surprise three day 'I'm a nobody, get me out of here' experience in that exclusive industrial estate hotel which I was assigned to by some unknown French partisans that made my hols complete. Or could it be, all receipts submitted to the above airline's head office, never an acknowledgement and certainly nae a penny o' compo that tipped the balance against the big chief.

When that Icelandic volcano was belching  forth and the jets all over Europe were grounded, was I the sole day dreamer about a certain airline going bust?


 

Neanderthals R Us!

                                           (Photo: iStockPhoto)

Got in-laws, friends, relatives or work colleague that look a smidgen like the chap above? Then here's why. "If your heritage is non-African, you are part Neanderthal, according to a new study in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution. Discovery News has been reporting on human/Neanderthal interbreeding for some time now, so this latest research confirms earlier findings." So you thought that it was only banjo duelers in the Deep South with interesting  molecular connections. And do gym fiends and body builders have a few more of the N-factor than a concert pianist with long white fingers? It must be a real pisser for White Power supermists to find out that Black brothers and sisters are tad more pure than we mix and match white folks.

 "Britain’s banks were hit hardest in a broader stock market rout of the European financial sector on Monday, as investor nervousness mounted over their euro zone exposure." (FT.com)

How about the USA, UK and euro zone financial basket cases all just declare bankruptcy? It's mostly the Chinese and Arabs that will get their financial bum felt, so who cares. Then we can all design a new shinny currency and start over. Oh, so that wouldn't be acting responsibly? Well, Wall Street et al and the would be banking masters of the universe are the current owners of the present model which by most accounts hasn't quite shone. Yep ... B for Bankruptcy!

                                          Seven of Nine. (Photo: Copyright Control)

David Beckham proudly announced the birth of his and Victoria’s baby girl Harper Seven on Sunday - and just two days later he was back at work, but he clearly had other things on his mind." (Metro, UK)
What's in a name, as the bard said...and it clearly didn't do erstwhile Borg, Jerry Ryan any harm during her stint aboard the star ship... but in real life? Over to you Moon Unit.

CO2 Behind Prehistoric Global Cooling!

 " In a paper in the journal Science, Huber and a team of climate researchers have reported finding evidence of widespread cooling, and additional computer modeling of the cooling suggests that it was caused by a reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." (Science a GoGo)
Can anyone lend these guys an accurate thermometer? Yeah, when you add CO2 it kinda warms it up...and when you take it away, it sort of cools it down. How much do we the tax payer pay for these climate folks to muse in coffee bars around the world before announcing to us without thermometers the bleedin' obvious? Perhaps they can save everyone a stack of the folding stuff by just asking their respective grannies what the weather's doin'.

Nope, no Sharia Law here please!

Nine months ago the Assembly of Muslin Jurists of America issued a fatwa declaring that, according to Islamic law, rape cannot exist in a marriage because a women is required to consent to her husband. (Herald Sun, Australia). This reasoning, which is on par with ducking-stool witch finding in medieval times, prompted some throw-back New Jersey judge to deny the issuing a restraining order against an Muslim man who was sexually abusing his wife.
Now... the West has more of it's fair share of  knuckle dragging or suited city gent domestic abuse candidates; but as far as I'm aware even they would not presume the protection of a law from the Dark Ages. If Muslims who advocate Sharia law want to live in such an environment, well there's plenty of airlines going daily to the various ports of paradise.