Archive for the 'Global Death Wish' category
Thus spake Evil Overload
July 7, 2008 at 6:47 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
April 23, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Not that meddling in the affairs of other nations is anything new, especially speaking as an American, but it is interesting how much more press Chinese maneuvers are getting now that, as the rising global superstar, they are in the spotlight. So: what are they doing in Zimbabwe?
Chinese troops have been seen on the streets of Zimbabwe’s third largest city, Mutare, according to local witnesses. They were seen patrolling with Zimbabwean soldiers before and during Tuesday’s ill-fated general strike called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).Earlier, 10 Chinese soldiers armed with pistols checked in at the city’s Holiday Inn along with 70 Zimbabwean troops.
One eyewitness, who asked not to be named, said: “We’ve never seen Chinese soldiers in full regalia on our streets before. The entire delegation took 80 rooms from the hotel, 10 for the Chinese and 70 for Zimbabwean soldiers.”
This should be a veeeery interesting century. Hell, the remainder of this decade should be plenty entertaining. Link
Categories: Chaos Purge, Global Death Wish, arses
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Thus spake Evil Overload
April 22, 2008 at 5:57 am
It’s been a while since I blogged a killer asteroid, but I think this one has the highest probability thus far:
“A German schoolboy, Nico Marquardt, has revised NASA’s figures for the chances that the Apophis asteroid will hit earth. Apparently if the asteroid hits a satellite in 2029, its path could be diverted enough to cause it to collide with Earth on the next orbit, in 2036. NASA had calculated the chances as 1 in 45,000 but the 13-year-old, in his science project, made it 1 in 450. NASA agreed.”
Nice going, Small German Kid. You couldn’t just build a baking soda volcano like everybody else, could you? Just had to go and destroy the Earth. Link
Update: NASA’s expert on near-earth-objects is now saying otherwise:
“We have not corresponded with this young man and this story is absurd, a hoax or both. During its 2029 Earth close approach, Apophis will approach the Earth to about 38,900 km, well inside the geosynchronous distance at 42,240 km. However, the asteroid will cross the equatorial belt at a distance of 51,000 km - well outside the geosynchronous distance. Since the uncertainty on Apophis’ position during the Earth close approach is about 1500 km, Apophis cannot approach an Earth satellite. Apophis will not cross the moon’s orbital plane at the Moon’s orbital distance so it cannot approach the moon either.”
I guess we’ll see, come 2036. Place yer bets, folks!
(via /.)
Categories: Chaos Purge, Global Death Wish
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Thus spake Evil Overload
April 15, 2008 at 6:20 am
ZOMG! Diverting food crop production in to fuel production turned out to be Bad! They had to subsidize the hell out of it to make it even remotely economically viable, and now it’s adding to a global food crisis. And, ladies and gentlemen, if you think oil scarcity causes wars, wait until you see what food scarcity does. Time to write your congressbeings on both sides of the aisle and tell them that, while it is good to work toward reducing foreign oil dependence, biofuels are Not The Way. Link
Categories: Chaos Purge, Global Death Wish, arses
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Thus spake Evil Overload
March 28, 2008 at 11:05 am
“An official from the service said “Everyone is wondering what they are for. But if they were ordered then that means they are needed.” The same official also refused to speculate what the mice were for, saying there were “more important things to think about.”
All of this is pretty strange. Of course, there are some plausible explanations: could an elite army of loyal rodents be the natural choice against the numerous threats issued by elephants against the Kremlin? Will the mice play a role in testing toxic and dangerous chemicals? Or are they there simply to feed the falcons, which are kept in the Kremlin to scare off crows?”
Link
Categories: Evil Space Monkeys, Global Death Wish
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Thus spake Evil Overload
February 21, 2008 at 7:14 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
August 22, 2007 at 5:30 am
 Norweigan mooses (meese?) are apparently responsible for the production of large amounts of methane:
Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway’s technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year.
Link
(Thanks, The Wife!)
Categories: Global Death Wish, Conservative Heresy
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Thus spake Evil Overload
August 21, 2007 at 5:39 am
First dog food, then toys, now pajamas:
The Warehouse, a New Zealand retailer, issued a recall at the weekend for children’s pyjamas made in China after two children were burned when their flannelette nightclothes caught fire.The New Zealand investigation is the first time that the safety of Chinese clothes has been called into question; concerns have been raised over a series of Chinese products in recent months, including toys, food and toothpaste. Last week, Mattel said it was recalling 18.2m toys globally because of hazards such as the use of lead paint.
If this keeps up, our trade deficit with China might be fixing itself shortly. Link
Categories: Global Death Wish, arses
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Thus spake Evil Overload
August 20, 2007 at 11:49 am
This article details some of the dangers to worldwide finance caused in recent years by overly clever financial wizardry. A fairly recent example of this is the rise of credit derivatives, which provided the financial incentive about five years ago for all the crazy mortgages, many of which are now in foreclosure, bringing about a growing global financial crisis:
The overall problems are structural, and include the greatly varying ratios between corporate debt loads and core earnings, which have grown substantially from four to six times over the past year because there are fewer legal clauses to protect investors from loss. They also keep companies from going bankrupt when they should. As long as interest rates have been low, leveraged loans. With these loans it is possible to buy a company with a very small have been the solution. Because of hedge funds and other financial instruments, there is now a market for incompetent and debt-ridden firms. When the Ford Motor Company announced last month that it was losing over $7bn annually, its bonds actually shot up 20%. The rules once associated with capitalism, such as probity and profit, no longer hold.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think this just goes to show what happens when you make money without adding value.
Link
(accolades and kudos to monochrom)
Categories: Wot's All This Then?, Global Death Wish, arses
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Thus spake Evil Overload
August 17, 2007 at 7:50 am
These graphs were created by NASA’s Reto Ruedy and James Hansen (who shot to fame when he accused the administration of trying to censor his views on climate change). Hansen refused to provide McKintyre with the algorithm used to generate graph data, so McKintyre reverse-engineered it. The result appeared to be a Y2K bug in the handling of the raw data.McKintyre notified the pair of the bug; Ruedy replied and acknowledged the problem as an “oversight” that would be fixed in the next data refresh.
NASA has now silently released corrected figures, and the changes are truly astounding. The warmest year on record is now 1934. 1998 (long trumpeted by the media as record-breaking) moves to second place. 1921 takes third. In fact, 5 of the 10 warmest years on record now all occur before World War II.
Huh. Link
Categories: Yay Science!, Global Death Wish, Conservative Heresy
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Thus spake Evil Overload
at 5:33 am
It’s looking like it might be the US vs. the comedy duo of China and Russia, and to the winner goes control of middle eastern oil:
“President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and other leaders of the SCO nations attended the exercise, which followed their summit Thursday in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
The summit concluded with a communique that sounded like a thinly veiled warning to the United States to stay away from the strategically placed, resource-rich region.
“Stability and security in Central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations,” the statement said.”
Link
Categories: Wot's All This Then?, Global Death Wish
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Thus spake Ennui
August 16, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Thus spake Evil Overload
June 19, 2007 at 8:08 am
“But Mr Haq told the National Assembly: “This is an occasion for the 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision. The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British government apologises and withdraws the ’sir’ title.”
If I was in charge, nobody would be allowed to encourage suicide bombing and get indignant about being called terrorists in the same f&%#ing paragraph. Link
Categories: Wot's All This Then?, Global Death Wish
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Thus spake Evil Overload
June 13, 2007 at 6:41 am
Fatwas, which can be generally thought of as Islamic edicts on day-to-day living, occasionally take a turn for the bizarre:
“The breast-feeding fatwa came in mid-May. A religious scholar, who headed a department that studies the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings at the Foundation of Religion College of Al Azhar University, wrote that there had been instances in the time of the prophet when adult women breast-fed adult men in order to avoid the need for women to wear a veil in front of them.“Breast-feeding an adult puts an end to the problem of the private meeting, and does not ban marriage,” wrote the scholar, Izat Atiyah. “A woman at work can take off the veil or reveal her hair in front of someone whom she breast-fed.”
Link
Categories: Global Death Wish
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