The Mid-Century Modernist: Leather Easy Chair by Wikkels for Willadsen

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• Russian spy in Nato could have passed on missile defence and cyber-war secrets - Times Online - The Russian have had a spy right at the heart of NATO cyber-warfare team via an Estonian traitor. For over a decade this guy has been passing every classified and top secret document that crossed his desk to his Russian handlers. He was also in charge of security clearance, meaning he may well have allowed in other spies. It is hard to beat Aldrich Ames for the scale of damage done by a single spy, but this is pretty serious.
• Decoding the Artful Sidestep — HBS Working Knowledge - "We heard question-dodging in the U.S. presidential debates not long ago. And everyone hears it in normal political discourse, in business meetings, and in typical daily life—but are people really listening? Sometimes, it seems, individuals who are asked a difficult question do not answer it, but instead provide distraction by answering something they would rather have been asked. And what is more, oftentimes their listeners either do not notice the verbal sleight of hand or do not mind it."

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Escherichia coli bacteria (E. coli)

Bacteria - in particular gut bacteria - keep blipping on my news radar and feeds recently.

Last week I heard a super interesting “All In The Mind” podcast about bacterial “The secret life of bacteria - small, smart and thoughtful!” [Download the MP3].

Yesterday I heard a fascinating program on NPR about the role of gut bacteria in obesity, “Gut Bacteria May Cause And Fight Disease, Obesity” (you can listen to nthe show via streaming at the link):

“Because the bacteria are independent organisms, they have their own genes and their own talents — and scientists are just now discovering what they can do.

Biologist Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis became quite well known a few years ago for a group of very skinny mice in his lab. The mice were skinny because they had no bacteria in their intestines. Gordon had kept them completely bacteria-free. If a bacteria-free mouse eats, food passes right through the intestine, significantly undigested.

So without bacteria, the mouse can eat and eat and eat and never gain weight. But when Gordon exposed the mice to “this big, bad, dirty world,” as Gibson calls it, the mice suddenly turned their food into more calories and gained weight. So bacteria matter. Apparently, they can digest food far more efficiently.

When Gordon and a bunch of other scientists began to look more closely, they discovered that bacteria are not all alike. There are as many of 500 different species in a normal human intestine and maybe another 500 in our mouths. David Relman of Stanford University discovered that each tooth has its own bacterial community. Dr. Julia Segre at the National Human Genome Research Institute found one set of bacteria on skin at the bend of a human elbow and a completely different set higher up on the arm.

Not surprisingly, a person who grows up in Argentina and another who grows up in northern Alaska tend to acquire different bacteria in their intestines and mouths — and, stunningly, these differences seem to matter.”

Today twitter led me to the term Fecal bacteriotherapy:

“Fecal bacteriotherapy, also known as fecal transfusion, fecal transplant, or human probiotic infusion (HPI), is a medical treatment…which involves restoration of colon homeostasis by reintroducing normal bacterial flora from stool obtained from a healthy donor.”

I think I will stick to those probiotic yoghurts!

The absolute best introduction to the incredible smartness and importance of bacteria comes in at thge begining of Howard Bloom’s must hear lecture “Osama, Michael Jackson, and Group IQ“.  The entire lecture is superb, but his introduction to the bacterial group  mind is literally staggering (I have to be careful when I listen to Bloom on my iPod, it is so engrossing it should have a do not drive, walk or operate machinery warning).

Osama, Michael Jackson, and Group IQ - Part 1

Osama, Michael Jackson, and Group IQ - Part 2

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• Live Piracy Map - This map shows all the piracy and armed robbery incidents reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre during 2008.

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For example this week there was a violent battle between right-wing extremists on the one hand and Romas on the other in the Czech town of Litvinov. Local people reportedly cheered on the extremists:

“Police in the Czech Republic battled 500 right-wing protesters on Monday who were trying to attack a Roma community with Molotov cocktails, machetes and pitch forks. The incident is part of a troubling pattern emerging in Europe.” - Anti-Minority Violence: Czech Police Stop Rioters from Attacking Roma Camp - SPIEGEL ONLINE

I boom times the problems of mass immigration and community relations are masked by prosperity and plenty. In leaner times, those problems are exposed.

Banning political parties is not the answer, but we do need to rethink how we manage multi-ethnic societies and this is more urgent than ever now that we face worldwide economic problems.

Ethnic riot erupts in Czech town - BBC
Pressure to ban Czech far-right group after rioting - Irish Times
Analysts warn of “ethnic war” as local people cheer neo-Nazis in Litvínov - Radio Prague

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From Gizmodo - Architecture: A City That’s Built at the Bottom of a Lake

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a town built in the middle of a lake. Not on an island, but actually below water level. It’s the ancient city of Seuthopolis, in Bulgaria, which was discovered in 1948. Six years later, a dam was destroyed and it was covered in water, ending up at the bottom of a huge lake. Now, the city is being unearthed via the most insane architectural project ever.

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Tim Ferriss’s latest post coincided perfectly with something I have been thinking about recently:  Making a back-up of myself.

In a post entitled “How to Store Sperm in 4 Steps - Just in Case”, he writes :

“I never thought I’d visit a sperm bank.

Perhaps it was flipping a motorcycle at 90 mph on Infineon Raceway.
Perhaps it was tearing my Achilles tendon in jiu-jitsu practice, then getting thrown on my head.
Maybe having my scuba mask fill with blood at 120 feet underwater in Belize?

That could have done it.

Or perhaps is was just crossing the 30-year age threshold and having friends who didn’t make it. 9/11, suicide, accidents — bad things happen to good people.

I’ve came to realize in 2007: it’s really not that hard to die. And that’s when I started thinking about storing my genetic material.

Yes, my little swimmies.”

I have already have a will and a Living Will , so this is the next step in an ultimate back-up.

Since I am absolutely certain that I would like to have children, there are two advantages:

1. I have a back-up in the event anything happens medically to prevent me from being able to have children. The massive rise in male infertility means that it may already be too late, but if it is not, best keep healthy sample of the “troops”.

2. In the event I die unexpectedly my partner would be able to have my children if she so chose (and I would hope she would).

Now my growing interest in the Quantified Self led me to consider getting my genes analysed, it seems logical to make a back-up too.

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• BBC NEWS | South Asia | India ’sinks Somali pirate ship’ - Nice work Indian Navy! - "The Indian navy has said that one of its warships in the Gulf of Aden has destroyed a ship belonging to pirates operating off the coast of Somalia."
• The BNP has rights too | Politics | guardian.co.uk - After the entire BNP membership list was published online, the Guardian says "Despite the urge to sneer at the BNP and all its works, we should be as offended on its members' behalf as we would be about any breach of personal privacy on this scale."

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A RyanAir poster raising money for charity has come under fire by feminists. This is my excuse for posting the picture above.

Spain decries Girls of Ryanair calendar - Globe-trotting - The Boston Globe

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I read to day that the UK government is clamping down of trafficking related prostitution. From the the BBC “Prostitute users face clampdown“:

“Paying for sex with prostitutes who are controlled by pimps is set to become a criminal offence in England and Wales, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said.

Anyone who knowingly pays illegally trafficked women for sex could face rape charges, while kerb crawlers could face prosecution for a first offence.

There will also be more “naming and shaming” of kerb crawlers and new police powers to close brothels.

Buying or selling sex is legal but soliciting and pimping are not.

Ms Smith said the government had considered banning paying for sex altogether but had ruled this out as there was no public support for such a move.

Instead, she said the government’s efforts would be focused on reducing demand for trafficked women, who were “effectively held as slaves”, and there would be a marketing campaign aimed at men who used prostitutes.”

I like the idea of doing something about the enormity that is people trafficking and the de facto rape of thousands of women and girls at the hands of traffickers, pimps and johns. I think this strikes a good balance - they are not outlawing sex between a consenting adults for money, only where one of them is coerced - and is therefore being raped.

The thing that surprises me is that in the same week that the government announces new legislation that will create thousands of new criminals (the sad bastards cruising for sex or using prostitutes who are trafficked) they disband the UK’s Human trafficking unit!

Again from the BBC “Human trafficking unit to disband“:

“A London police unit dedicated to tackling human trafficking will close after the Home Office withdrew £2.3m funding support.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed the Human Trafficking Team will disband in April 2009.

Critics say the unit is vital to protecting vulnerable men, women and children who are sold or lured into the sex trade, slavery or illegal working.”

For me the real villains are the pimps - not the Johns or the sex workers/trafficking victims. I think they should target pimps and traffickers with massive jail
terms, use name and shame on the Johns and establish legal brothels
where johns and sex workers can operate safely.

Where they can prove that a john knowingly has sex with a woman he knows to be coerced, it is rape just like any other rape and should be trated as such.

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