Eideard

This turned out to be Smiley’s last spring

I think he’d also rather be out of the spotlight more often
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner doesn’t like the fact that he’s so often associated with being a creature of Wall Street when nearly his whole career has been in public service.

In an interview on CNN’s “GPS” program on Sunday, Geithner responded sharply when asked how he felt about being portrayed as “somehow in bed with Wall Street firms” while he spearheads the Obama administration’s financial reform efforts.

“It is part of a narrative that hardened, which is that people came to view the judgments we were making through the prism of a myth,” Geithner said, adding it was untrue that he had a background that left him beholden to industry.

“So I think it’s actually very damaging,” he said. “It’s completely false, of course, and it, you know, should have been corrected a long time ago…”

Geithner was president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank before being nominated by President Barack Obama to head Treasury and that is about as close as he came to Wall Street.

He joked that he has never had “a real job” in the private sector.

“You know, basically, almost right out of graduate school, I came and worked as a very junior public servant at the Treasury, and spent my entire professional life since in some form of, you know, policy job,” Geithner said.

Most Americans have little or no understanding of the general role of the Federal Reserve. But, then, most Americans have little or no understanding of history and politics, either.

I’ve been as aware – all my life – of how unproductive a task it is to explain to the public at large the realities of history, nature, science, economics, etc..

Canadian combat troops are slated to leave Afghanistan next summer, but RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said Saturday he expects his personnel will have to stay behind to undertake the “huge challenge” of training police officers.

About 50 RCMP and other civilian Canadian police are posted to Afghanistan as part of a mission to train the Afghan National Police. The ANP, as it’s known, has had a reputation for roadside shakedowns and graft that Canadian officials hope mentoring, training and supervision will eradicate.

Elliott, who visited Kandahar this weekend to review the Mounties’ operations there, said he’s seen “indications from the government” that it wants the training to plow on once combat soldiers ship out starting in July 2011…

One question is whether the Tories will seek to send more police to Afghanistan to fill the void left by the withdrawal of the Canadian Forces. The federal government has been pressured by the United States to maintain a large presence in the central Asian country past 2011…

As foreign mentors try to cleanse the Afghan National Police of its venal tendencies — officers have been known to routinely hit up the subjects of their investigations for a payoff and are widely distrusted by the populace — they’ve had to adapt their teaching methods for the different calibre of the force’s cadets.

“Let’s not kid ourselves. We are working not with a modern police force, and not with recruits that would meet the standards of Canadian recruits,” Elliott said. “Many of them are illiterate, and that in and of itself is a huge challenge…”

The Canadian police contingent has also tackled the corruption conundrum systemically by helping implement a new payroll method. ANP officers are now remunerated on par with soldiers in the Afghan National Army, and they receive their wages by direct deposit to their bank account to avoid skimming by bureaucrats. It’s hoped that with more money in the officers’ hands, they will solicit less from the public.

Uh, OK. That’s a heck of an ethic determining education and a job description.

In a remote corner of rural India, a new experiment using mobile phones is bringing people news made by local villagers. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey travels to Rajnandgaon district in the central state of Chhattisgarh to see who is tuning in.

A group of villagers sit on a shaded platform on a hot afternoon in Mirche village…

Listening to their complaints and grievances are Bhan Sahu and Budhan Meshram, who are “reporters” or “citizen journalists” for CGnet Swara (Chhattisgarh Net Voice).

CGnet is an attempt to cater to people who are on the wrong side of the digital divide, says Shubhranshu Choudhary, a former BBC journalist-turned-activist and the brain behind CGnet Swara.

“We are providing a new platform which the villagers can use to talk to each other and the outside world about issues that are important to them,” he says…And the technology, developed by Microsoft Research India and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is simple.

“Reporters” call a Bangalore number to upload a news item and a text message goes out to all the phone numbers in the contact list and anyone who wants to hear the report calls in to the same number and the message is played out…

CGnet was launched in February and Mr Choudhary says the response has been overwhelming.

RTFA. Truly interesting anecdotal tales of participants and politics, people finding a voice they know is their own.

Geothermal power plant in Iceland

Indonesia is hosting what is being called the world’s biggest Geothermal energy conference.

The congress in Bali is an attempt to look at how to better develop geothermal power as an environmentally friendly fuel for the future…

It is often dubbed volcano power but the correct scientific explanation for geothermal energy is power extracted from the heat stored in the Earth’s core.

Indonesia has ambitious plans to tap geothermal power…The archipelago of more than 17,000 islands sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – one of the most active regions in the world for volcanic activity…

Scientists say that in theory the planet’s geothermal power is enough to supply mankind’s energy needs and could certainly help to solve Indonesia’s fuel problems.

But the issue is cost. While environmentally friendly, the harnessing of geothermal power is also a very expensive endeavour.

Reports from the conference just might provide some info, some hope, some idea of folks realizing that a little extra time and money means a great deal to the future of energy production.

Or we can continue with the same short-sighted analysis of commerce and production that gets the world – repeatedly – into disaster-laden corners.

Supporters rally in Tokyo

Demonstrators have gathered at a rally in Okinawa, Japan, to protest against a US military air base on the island.

Sunday’s rally, near Kadena air base, the largest US military facility in the Asia-Pacific region, is expected to include Hirokazu Nakaima, Okinawa’s governor, and more than 30 town mayors.

Many on the island are unhappy with the heavy American military presence – a legacy of Japan’s World War II defeat – complaining of noise, pollution and frictions with US soldiers.

The issue threatens the political future of Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister, who has staked his job on settling the issue.

The row centres on the unpopular Futenma US Marine Corps Air Station, which under a 2006 deal between Tokyo and Washington, was to be moved from the crowded city of Ginowan to the quieter coastal Henoko area of Okinawa.

After taking power in September in a landslide election, Hatoyama said the base may be moved off the island entirely instead…

Under the 2006 agreement – which requires legal approval from Nakaima, the Okinawa governor – Futenma facilities would be shifted to reclaimed land around Camp Schwab in Henoko and about 8,000 marines would move to the US territory of Guam.

Japan, which committed to pacifism in its post-WWII constitution, relies heavily on the US, its treaty partner, for its security.

And we all know how important that has been.

Get the bloody troops off Japanese territory, bring ‘em home, quit spending 6-figures apiece on sustaining each soldier-ambassador of American democracy.

Scientists have discovered for the first time that antibodies in common eggs laid by hens vaccinated against the H5N1 virus can potentially prevent a possible H5N1 pandemic, raising the possibility that the same principle could be applied to the current H1N1 influenza pandemic…

“Our tests show proof-of-concept that antibodies, or the antiviral proteins ‘immunoglobulins Y (IgY),’ found in consumable eggs laid by vaccinated hens may be an affordable, safe, and effective alternative for the control of influenza outbreaks, including the current H1N1 pandemic,” said Dr. Huan Huu Nguyen, an immunologist at the IVI and the lead author of the study.

The scientists isolated H5N1-specific antibodies from consumers’ eggs sold in Vietnam, where hens are vaccinated against the pathogen, and tested them against infections with H5N1 and related H5N2 strains in mice. When delivered into the nose before infection, the antibodies from the egg yolk prevented the infection. When administered after infection, the same antibodies reduced the severity of the infection, enabling mice to recover from the disease.

The chicken antibodies could be administered as a nasal spray. This form of ‘passive vaccination’ could also be applied to prevent disease caused by the current pandemic H1N1, using egg yolk antibodies from hens vaccinated against the H1N1 virus…

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is the world’s only international organization devoted exclusively to developing and introducing new and improved vaccines for the world’s poorest people, especially children in developing countries.

Obviously part of the worldwide socialist plot against American insurance companies and Congress.

Kudos to the researchers for the many children whose lives may be saved.

Since 2007, every new U.S. passport has been outfitted with a computer chip. Embedded in the back cover of the passport, the “e-passport” contains biometric data, electronic fingerprints and pictures of the holder, and a wireless radio frequency identification (RFID) transmitter.

Although the system was designed to operate at close range, hackers were able to access it from afar — until research by Prof. Avishai Wool of Tel Aviv University’s School of Electrical Engineering helped ensure that the computer chip in American e-passports could be read only when the passport is opened. The research has been cited by organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Now, a new study from Prof. Wool finds serious security drawbacks in similar chips that are being embedded in credit, debit and “smart” cards. The vulnerabilities of this electronic approach — and the vulnerability of the private information contained in the chips — are becoming more acute. Using simple devices constructed from $20 disposable cameras and copper cooking-gas pipes, Prof. Wool and his students Yossi Oren and Dvir Schirman have demonstrated how easily the cards’ radio frequency (RF) signals can be disrupted…

RTFA. How to win friends and influence elections, border crossings and other security-conscious installations – with just a little investment and ingenuity.

Novelist Alan Sillitoe died today at the age of 82, his family said.

The Nottingham-born writer, whose novels marked him out as one of the Angry Young Men of British fiction who emerged in the 1950s, died at Charing Cross hospital in London.

His son, David, said he hoped his father would be remembered for his contribution to literature…

There was a period when Sillitoe was the most widely read writer in the English language in the world. Not just for his first two novels; but, his heartfelt contempt for Western politics and the move from serious dialectical conflict to media management.

He rejected Cold War ideology out of hand.

Sillitoe left school at 14 and worked in a bicycle factory in his native Nottingham before serving in the RAF.

His breakthrough came with the publication of the novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning in 1958.

It was made into a film, starring Albert Finney, as was his next novel The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, which featured Tom Courtenay in the lead role.

The opening scene in the film version of “Saturday night and Sunday morning” rolls down from the polluted clouds over industrial Nottingham into the clatter of the Raleigh factory and Albert Finney describing the day-by-day lot of industrial workers like himself – “but, you don’t let the bastards grind you down!”

Both are seen as classic examples of kitchen sink dramas reflecting the reality of life in Britain at the mid-point of the 20th century.

Just as clear, just as sharp, his description fit the alienation of young industrial workers in America. The joyless days of a nation climbing onto the imperial throne recently departed by the Brits.

“Saturday night and Sunday morning” and his later works were about me and my mates here in the States just as much as the industrial heart of England.

Young Arab women wait in an upmarket medical clinic for an operation that will not only change their lives, but quite possibly save it. Yet the operation is a matter of choice and not necessity. It costs about 2,000 euros and carries very little risk.

The clinic is not in Dubai or Cairo, but in Paris. And the surgery they are waiting for is to restore their virginity.

Whether in Asia or the Arab world, an unknown number of women face an agonising problem having broken a deep taboo. They’ve had sex outside marriage and if found out, risk being ostracised by their communities, or even murdered.

Now more and more of them are undergoing surgery to re-connect their hymens and hide the any sign of past sexual activity. They want to ensure that blood is spilled on their wedding night sheets…

Although born in France, Arab culture and traditions are central to Sonia’s life. Life was strict growing up under the watchful eyes of a large traditional Arab family.

“I thought of suicide after my first sexual relationship,” she says, “because I couldn’t see any other solution.” But Sonia did find a solution.

She eventually went to the Paris clinic of Dr Marc Abecassis to have surgery to restore her hymen. She says she will never reveal her secret to anyone, especially her husband to be.

“I consider this is my sex life and I don’t have to tell anyone about it,” she says. It’s men that are obliging her to lie about it, she says.

RTFA. Just another insight into one more major religion stuck into tradition and foolishness, ignorance that is centuries old.

After time, you cease wondering why people maintain the ideology of superstition in their lives and chalk it up to cowardice, even laziness. Why run away from every iota of science and reason and wrap your existence in fear and useless beliefs?