Random News Stories

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Every time I hear about people doing without a car the one thing that always comes to mind that I wonder about is how do they shop for groceries?
Devote an entire day just to go to the store and back? Seeing as you can't typically carry more than 4 bags of groceries at a time....

The store's only six blocks away, I usually just walk and get what I need for the day.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sometimes I want to do major grocery shopping, in which case a car is really handy. But living in the city, the thing is there's a zipcar or a car2go pretty much everywhere and they're only about 50 cents a minute, so if I didn't own a car I'd just use one of those for major shopping trips. Or get groceries delivered which would be cheaper and less of a hassle.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well, for one, I either have a bike trailer/sled get up. Or very large backpacks and the bus. Or walking with a sled/duffle bag. Or a cab.

We also mostly make our own food, so wheat/oats/other bulk items are only purchased so often.

I'd like to have more bulk food delivered. Tea and flour and such.

I get a lot of things delivered. It's just easier that way. But I also do a lot of shopping at the farms, which would be impossible without a car (although I have a good little farm shopping co-op going now, so as long as one of us has a car it's fine).

[Cain]

This is probably worth it's own thread depending on coming developments:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24863120

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium, according a Swiss forensic report.

Palestinian investigator Tawfik Terawi and Arafat's personal doctor hold a news conference to discuss the Swiss scientists' findings.

All sorts of potentially shady shit here. Polonium may ring some bells as spooks new fangled poison of choice. It's even been used in the UK, allegedly by Russians.

Which makes all of this very interesting to me. Arafat didn't have many friends, but I didn't think his enemies were this stupid.

Israel strongly denies any involvement of course. The Swiss are making no friends here either but they at least seem to be doing the right thing.

It makes me wonder if there was an Israeli angle in Litvinkeno's death.  I mean, unless we're positing that Hamas somehow has access to rare radioactive materials, Israel has to be the prime suspect here.

There's a large Russian emigre community in Israel.  Very large, it makes up 20% of the current Israeli population.  Many (50-60%) tend towards the rightwing end of the Israeli spectrum as well, supporting Likud and refusing to allow land concessions to Palestine.

Litvinkeno was involved with Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who reportedly held dual Israeli citizenship and there is strong circumstantial evidence linking him to Chechen rebels.  The Chechen rebels also reportedly had access to radioactive materials.

I don't have a theory here.  I'm just pointing out some potentially interesting linkages, which have all but been ignored by the British press, in their rush to sound the OMG RUSSIAN NUCLEAR ASSASSINATION alarm.

[LMNO]

I gotta say Cain, I'm really glad you're back. I was completely clueless about 70% of the above post. And it's fascinating. If you ever want to post a list of gong rates for knowledge, I've got a PayPal account.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Every time I hear about people doing without a car the one thing that always comes to mind that I wonder about is how do they shop for groceries?
Devote an entire day just to go to the store and back? Seeing as you can't typically carry more than 4 bags of groceries at a time....

The store's only six blocks away, I usually just walk and get what I need for the day.

This, with some variations.

In Seguin *shudders* the supermarket was across town, I'd bike over there and just buy as much as I could hang from the handlebars. That works out to one of those handbaskets crammed full. I only needed to go every 2-3 days. My side of town was a food desert, but we had a dollar store, so while the only food fit for human consumption was the dried beans, I at least had those in the summer when it was too hot to go across town. Once in awhile I could cadge a ride to the supermarket and get veggies. I never starved. I could get bottled water and food for the dogs there too. You can throw a big bag of dog food across the top bar of an old ten speed and not even have to carry it, just ride home bowlegged.  And it's a lot easier to carry bottled water four blocks than 20.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Every time I hear about people doing without a car the one thing that always comes to mind that I wonder about is how do they shop for groceries?
Devote an entire day just to go to the store and back? Seeing as you can't typically carry more than 4 bags of groceries at a time....

The store's only six blocks away, I usually just walk and get what I need for the day.

This, with some variations.

In Seguin *shudders* the supermarket was across town, I'd bike over there and just buy as much as I could hang from the handlebars. That works out to one of those handbaskets crammed full. I only needed to go every 2-3 days. My side of town was a food desert, but we had a dollar store, so while the only food fit for human consumption was the dried beans, I at least had those in the summer when it was too hot to go across town. Once in awhile I could cadge a ride to the supermarket and get veggies. I never starved. I could get bottled water and food for the dogs there too. You can throw a big bag of dog food across the top bar of an old ten speed and not even have to carry it, just ride home bowlegged.  And it's a lot easier to carry bottled water four blocks than 20.

I also don't buy much prepackaged processed "snack" type food. For one thing, I can't afford them, and for another, they're bulky. I tend to focus mostly on buying nutrient-dense raw food that I can bulk up with staples once I get it home.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Not to mention that processed snack food is unhealthy as fuck, makes people feel like crap and pork out like crazy. If I ate that stuff, I'd never make it to the supermarket.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Not to mention that processed snack food is unhealthy as fuck, makes people feel like crap and pork out like crazy. If I ate that stuff, I'd never make it to the supermarket.

God, I know, it isn't even real food. Once in a blue moon I'll buy the kids some tortilla chips or cheesy poofs or something but that's about it.

People ask what my kids snack on, and my answer is I don't give a fuck, they can eat what's in the house and like it. If they want cookies, they learn to bake. Mostly I think that in between meals they eat fruit, carrots, nuts, or random leftovers.

[Salty]

Wow. That American Dream gets brighter as time passes, it seems.

That's horrible.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/california-female-prisoner-sterilization

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Wow. That American Dream gets brighter as time passes, it seems.

That's horrible.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/california-female-prisoner-sterilization

I don't think that's the only place, and I think it's still going on elsewhere. At least, I've heard rumors.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

"Welcome to the reservation." 
- Russell Means

Another reason to pay attention to what's being done to people in remote areas, that isn't affecting you. Yet.

[Cain]

I gotta say Cain, I'm really glad you're back. I was completely clueless about 70% of the above post. And it's fascinating. If you ever want to post a list of gong rates for knowledge, I've got a PayPal account.

I may take you up on that, depending on how the search for work goes.  I'm hoping to go freelance researcher again, with occasional taxable income, but, well, we'll see.

[Junkenstein]

This is probably worth it's own thread depending on coming developments:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24863120

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium, according a Swiss forensic report.

Palestinian investigator Tawfik Terawi and Arafat's personal doctor hold a news conference to discuss the Swiss scientists' findings.

All sorts of potentially shady shit here. Polonium may ring some bells as spooks new fangled poison of choice. It's even been used in the UK, allegedly by Russians.

Which makes all of this very interesting to me. Arafat didn't have many friends, but I didn't think his enemies were this stupid.

Israel strongly denies any involvement of course. The Swiss are making no friends here either but they at least seem to be doing the right thing.

It makes me wonder if there was an Israeli angle in Litvinkeno's death.  I mean, unless we're positing that Hamas somehow has access to rare radioactive materials, Israel has to be the prime suspect here.

There's a large Russian emigre community in Israel.  Very large, it makes up 20% of the current Israeli population.  Many (50-60%) tend towards the rightwing end of the Israeli spectrum as well, supporting Likud and refusing to allow land concessions to Palestine.

Litvinkeno was involved with Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who reportedly held dual Israeli citizenship and there is strong circumstantial evidence linking him to Chechen rebels.  The Chechen rebels also reportedly had access to radioactive materials.

I don't have a theory here.  I'm just pointing out some potentially interesting linkages, which have all but been ignored by the British press, in their rush to sound the OMG RUSSIAN NUCLEAR ASSASSINATION alarm.

I wasn't aware there was such a strong Russian presence already in Israel. That's seriously making this all look very plausible and very fucked up. The hardline stance would be kind of typical. Potential access to Polonium through a network of contacts is certainly plausible. Sanctioned officially by the Israeli government? I could go either way. I doubt there's any real evidence of that either way.

Litvinkeno... This is a puzzler. Given the nature of the man and his career, he certainly made enemies of this calibre. If were running with the idea that there could be further links here, I'd suggest seeing what interests Litvinkeno and Arafat had. Did Litvinkeno stand to gain from potential Palestinian concessions? Seems unlikely, and Israel's never really been into the "give" part of negotiations.

Could be nothing, could be another great big "What the fuck is going on with Israel" thing.

Then there's Chechen rebels. Those guys are fucking everywhere since Boston. No idea what the fuck that could mean. 

[Junkenstein]

Some HA HA?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24896266

The influence that a privately educated, middle-class elite have on public life is "shocking", former prime minister Sir John Major has said.

Sir John said the "upper echelons of power" were dominated by those from a similar background.

In a speech to Tory activists reported in the Daily Telegraph he blamed "the collapse in social mobility" on the failures of the last Labour government.

It's a shocker is it John boy? Not to everyone who.... isn't a politician. Lets see how you did in this regard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_ministry#List_of_Ministers

Question: How many of these people were educated at "independent" (Read, private and expensive) Schools?

Answer: Will not fucking shock or surprise you. I knew a few for sure, and after checking half a dozen at random I began to see a pattern emerging.

Why Major is seeking to claim the stupidest man in UK politics title again is a mystery. Farage currently has that going.

Speaking of Farage and UKIP, I present the UK answer to Santorum:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=farage

To masturbate in an angry and confused way using unconventional stimuli.
"Mark's Wife was furious when she caught him having a farage over a picture of Ann Widdecombe".

How very fitting.