Today's Links
Cuban leader Fidel Castro is touting government-issue pressure cookers and rice steamers as part of the answer to his country's economic woes. Oh, and telling his people they can't accept tips from, talk to or associate with foreigners is another way to secure the economy for the future too, right Fidel? My wife and I and our friends Frank and Natasha are going down to Cuba in early April. Maybe I'll take a rice cooker with me and give it to our hotel concierge as a tip.
Remember the GM EV-1? An electric car with a range of 140 miles on a charge, 0-60 in 8 seconds with no emissions. Awesome. But, it wasn't successful. GM only leased the vehicles and the last leases ran out recently - now GM wants to destroy all but a few of the cars, and there's a grassroots effort to keep them rolling.
For the tinfoil hat crowd, there's an Ex-Marine who participated in the capture of Saddam Hussein who says the official version of that event is fictional and that Hussein was found in a modest homestead, not a 'spider hole' as had been publicized.
Oh No! Americanski Scientists say they may have found the part of the brain that responds to 'catchy' tunes and how they get caught in your head. This isn't good news, as record label execs will no doubt double their efforts now to focus on that area with their awful repetitive crap teeny-bop moneymaking machine. My wife has a problem with the song 'Downtown' by Petula Clark. All she needs to hear are a couple of bars of that song and it's stuck in her head for the rest of the day. I think we need a cure for catchy music, frankly. It would turn the music industry on it's ass. Honestly, I'm not saying catchy music isn't GOOD - but there is a variety of pap that's put out by the major labels that is nothing more than catchy - all hooks, no meaning, no progression, no transcendence. It takes work to really appreciate good music - and if we let the music industry flood us with the audiocortegal equivalent of crack cocaine, a quick fix, there will be less and less interest in complex tunage that really says something.
Now Senators in the US are suggesting that economic sanctions might be necessary against Japan if they don't lift their ban on imports of American beef. Oh, PLEASE! I did however hear an intriguing note on CBC Radio last week that Canadian cattlemen are considering using their muscle toward developing new markets for Canadian beef and toward processing the beef in Canada, and sending it south of the border pre-processed - which would mean more jobs and industry here - and that prospect has a lot of beef processors in the states wringing their hands as their factories sit idle waiting for the border to reopen, dependent as they are on a constant stream of Canadian live cattle. What if the border reopens and merely a trickle comes down? Jobs will be lost, plants will close and the US Senators and cattlemen who were barking about not letting our infected beef cross their border will be singing a different tune. Protectionism! Unfair trade practices! Tear up the free trade agreement! Blah blah blah! Phooey. It would serve them right.