New Bond "Skyfall" trailer

Judging from the new trailer for the next Bond movie, to be released this Fall, James Bond (Daniel Craig) gets shot, M (Judy Dench) writes his obituary and Bond comes back to life. MI6 HQ blows up, the villain Silva (played by Javier Bardem looking scary in a blonde wig!) speaks for the first time, and Ralph Fiennes plays M's boss, Gareth Mallory. Directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty).

More on all those empty seats at the London 2012 Olympics

Soldiers drafted in to watch gymnastics: REUTERS

Yet more news on those empty seats at the London 2012 Olympics. Stories of armed forces and students being drafted in to fill swathes of empty seating. Almost 300 people saw handball matches by buying cheap tickets at the event — 5 British pounds ($7.87) for adults, 1 pound ($1.57) for children. I also read somewhere that the army were drafted into seats at a Badminton game to make the event look more popular - they must have been hardly able to contain their excitement! According to the Telegraph: "More than 120,000 seats remained empty at London 2012 venues such as the Aquatic centre. Other popular events such as gymnastics, tennis and swimming had swathes of empty seats despite members of the public being told that they were sold out. About 200,000 football tickets remain available.....The greater problem comes from the agencies who handle the sale of the tickets abroad. Up to 70,000 of those tickets could be simply thrown away because it is not cost-efficient for ticket agencies to return them. Another 50,000 premium tickets are being held back by foreign ticket agencies hoping to make a killing by selling them at grossly inflated prices at the last minute. Of the 8.8 million tickets for Games sessions, around 1.2 million go to the national Olympic committees of foreign countries. Most of the Olympics main sponsors denied they had failed to use their allocation."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9439247/London-2012-Olympics-empty-seats-row-QandA.html

The Guardian Olympics Blog blames all the VIP seating for sponsors and dignitaries who don't show up...and that it was exactly the same in Beijing and will be exactly the same in Rio (i.e. more of an International Olympic Committee problem than a problem specific to London):  http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/london-2012-olympics-blog/2012/jul/31/london-2012-empty-vip-seats?newsfeed=true

Egypt v New Zealand at Old Trafford, Manchester. (Photo: PA)

New flu virus in New England seals

Several news outlets are today reporting on a new strain of influenza that was responsible for seal deaths on the coast of New England last fall.  162 harbor seal pups mysteriously washed up dead on the shores of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Puzzled scientists conducted autopsies on five of the seals, which suggested that a respiratory infection had killed them. A common virus was discovered: a new strain of influenza that apparently evolved from H3N8, a bird flu virus first isolated in North American ducks in 2002. The virus’ potential leap from birds to mammals raises questions about whether it could jump to humans as well. Avian flu viruses have spread to humans before — notably H5N1, the scariest type. But while H5N1 spreads easily among birds, often killing them, it infects humans only rarely, although when it does it’s highly lethal. Since 2003, there have been 607 cases of human H5N1 worldwide, leading to 358 deaths. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19055961

Hundreds celebrate rare white bison

AP Photo/Mike Groll

Hundreds of Native Americans wore the traditional garb of their ancestors, sang songs and beat drums on a Connecticut farm on Saturday to celebrate the birth of one of the world's rarest animals -- a white bison.  The miracle calf was named "Yellow Medicine Dancing Boy" at the elaborate ceremony at the Mohawk Bison farm.  It was born June 16th at the farm of fourth-generation farmer Peter Fay.  Native Americans consider white bison to be a symbol of hope and unity. Their birth is a sacred event. They are as rare as 1 in 10 million bison.  Lakota tribe members from South Dakota were among the hundreds of people who gathered, along with other tribal elders from the Mohawk, Seneca and Cayuga tribes. http://journalstar.com/news/national/hundreds-celebrate-rare-white-bison-at-conn-farm/article_0772b86c-57b4-5034-8a94-549d4cde80c8.html

"The birth of a white bison is a sign from a prophet, the White Buffalo Calf Woman, who helped them endure times of strife and famine....I believe this is an awakening...a way of telling people to remember the sacredness of all of life."

Porter County Fair, Valparaiso, Indiana

Attended the Porter County Fair this weekend -- my first ever visit to a county fair. The Fair came to a close on Saturday night after attendees feasted on fried delights, once-in-a-while treats like fried butter, Oreos, cookie dough, cauliflower and pickles, and skewered meats. [Post Tribune]
http://www.portercofair.org/  Had my first ever corn dog with a lemon shake-up (photo below):

This is a photo of my neighbors' daughter and her friend with an elephant at the fair:

And we even saw a llama!

Rows and rows of empty seats at Olympic venues

Several high-profile venues, including Wimbledon (left), the gymnastics arena in North Greenwich (center) and the Aquatics Center in the Olympic Park (right) had rows of empty seats on the first day of the Games despite having been supposedly sold out months ago. London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) said they would be investigating why the seats were unfilled, while Lord Coe reportedly promised to name and shame sponsors who did not find takers for the venues.

The Games are taking place during the school holidays and there have been months of public complaints over the inability of thousands in Britain to buy tickets. Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, the minister responsible for the Olympics, said he was disappointed by the empty seats. "LOCOG are doing a full investigation into what happened," Hunt told publicly funded broadcaster BBC. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19028979 

Photo: AFP

NYT: Five-ring opening circus -- weirdly and unabashedly British

New York Times

Nicely written article about the London 2012 opening ceremony in today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/sports/olympics/in-olympic-opening-ceremony-britain-asserts-its-eccentric-identity.html?pagewanted=all

I personally found it to be quirky, odd, slightly uncomfortable, self-deprecating, political, whimsical, amusing....all VERY British traits in fact.  Loved the bit when Kenneth Branagh recited from Shakespeare's The Tempest:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Then performers dressed as farm peasants rolled away the sod in favor of the Industrial Revolution. Kenneth Branagh, his character symbolic of greed and progress, stood around chomping on a cigar. Performers dressed as World War I soldiers emerged, and red poppies made their way onto giant television screens. In the UK and Canada, the flower is a symbol of remembrance for fallen soldiers. The Director, Danny Boyle, hails from the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution...Lancashire, so I wasn't surprised by his nod to the Industrial Revolution and those "dark satanic mills".  He had sheep, dancing nurses, lots of Mary Poppins, the Queen of Hearts, James Bond and heart-thumping Brit music, from the Sex Pistols and Mike Oldfield to the London Symphony Orchestra.  My fave bits were Kenneth Branagh, then James Bond (Daniel Craig) helicoptering in with the Queen, and the scenery change from bucolic, agrarian England to the "dark, satanic mills" of the industrial revolution.   My least fave bit: Sir Paul McCartney singing Hey Jude... the Arctic Monkeys did a much better job with Come Together...but they will insist on wheeling Sir Paul out on these big State occasions.

Some of the songs featured at last night's event:
The Who, "Baba O'Riley"
Muse, "Map Of The Problematique"
Fuck Buttons, "Surf Solar"
Sex Pistols, "God Save The Queen"
The Clash, "London Calling"
Mike Oldfield, "Tubular Bells"
"Chariots of Fire"
OMD, "Enola Gay"
The Jam, "Going Underground"
The Rolling Stones, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
The Beatles, "She Loves You"
Millie Small, "My Boy Lollipop"
Led Zeppelin, "Trampled Under Foot"
The Specials, "A Message To You Rudy"
David Bowie, "Starman"
Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Eric Clapton, "Wonderful Tonight"
Sex Pistols, "Pretty Vacant"
New Order, "Blue Monday"
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, "Relax"
Soul II Soul, "Back To Life"
Happy Mondays, "Step On"
Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This"
The Prodigy, "Firestarter"
Blur, "Song 2"
Underworld, "Born Slippy"
Dizzee Rascal, "Bonkers"
Amy Winehouse, "Valerie"
Muse, "Uprising"
Tinie Tempah, "Pass Out"
David Holmes, "I Heard Wonders"
Arctic Monkeys, "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor"
The Beatles, "Come Together" (performed by Arctic Monkeys)
Underworld/Alex Trimble of Two Door Cinema Club, "Caliban"s Dream"
Pink Floyd, "Eclipse"
The Beatles, "The End"
The Beatles, "Hey Jude"

Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

The Olympic Opening Ceremony will be shown on TV here at 6.30 p.m. this evening I'm told...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-19020830   Danny Boyle, Oscar-winning filmmaker of “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Trainspotting” and “127 Hours” is said to have jammed the program at London’s third modern Olympiad with nods/references to James Bond (with Daniel Craig) as well as the Beatles (with Sir Paul McCartney leading a huge sing-along) and symbols of English literature like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, etc.   More info. on Danny Boyle @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Boyle

Google Olympic Doodle

The Guardian gives a synopsis of the ceremony -- including the NHS-themed scene below -- not yet seen here in the States. We have to wait another two hours!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/27/olympic-opening-ceremony?newsfeed=true

Photo: Rex Features

Olympic Flame 2012: Getty Images

London's Tower Bridge fireworks

Photos from my back yard this evening

Three shots of my back yard this evening at around 7 p.m.:  purple prairie grass; a hummingbird about to drink from feeder; a blue hydrangea :

Purple prairie grass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrangea

The heart of non-attachment

My yoga teacher forwarded this interesting video about non-attachment to fixed and rigid thinking:

"True non-attachment is an intimacy with life." Canadian Psychotherapist, Buddhist teacher and yogi Michael Stone shares his perspective on how to live an engaged life.

Greenland ice melting at an unprecedented rate

The Greenland ice sheet on July 8, below left, and four days later on the right. In the image, the areas classified as 'probable melt' (light pink) correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas classified as 'melt' (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface melting:

Photo: NASA

Is it global warming or just a cyclical heatwave event that happens every 150 years?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120725-greenland-ice-sheet-melt-satellites-nasa-space-science/  Scientists are somewhat baffled and can't yet determine if this is a natural, very rare event or one triggered by man-made global warming. They do know that the edges of Greenland's ice sheets have been thinning due to climate change but this summer in Greenland has been freakishly warm so far, due to high pressure systems that parked over the island bringing warm clear weather that melts ice and snow. This is similar to the high pressure systems over the American Midwest which have brought record-breaking heat and drought.    

IZ - Over the Rainbow

Time for some uplifting music from Hawaiian musician, Iz: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Kamakawiwoʻole

Silicon Valley worries about addiction to devices

Interesting article in today's New York Times confirming the negative side of our addiction to technology - "interactive gadgets could create a persistent sense of emergency by setting off stress systems in the brain -- a view that is becoming more widely accepted...It's this basic cultural recognition that people have a pathological relationship with their devices.....people feel not just addicted, but trapped."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/technology/silicon-valley-worries-about-addiction-to-devices.html?pagewanted=all  


Below is an earlier NYT article about the price we pay for this addiction to technology:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?pagewanted=all

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.

Aurora theater shooting and is the Batman trilogy cursed?

Today's photos of James Holmes looking dazed in courtroom (ABC)

Heath Ledger as The Joker

This article on Salon.com by Paul Campos, a professor of law at University of Colorado at Boulder, is worth reading. As he says: "a lot of Americans are broke, or angry, or paranoid, or all three, and a lot of these people are heavily armed. It’s not exactly a shock that this combination of factors helps produce 15,000 murders per year".  http://www.salon.com/2012/07/20/why_arent_there_more_auroras/


Talk about the Batman trilogy being cursed has resurfaced following the Colorado massacre when a gunman dressed as the film villain ‘The Joker’ opened fire at a packed US movie theatre, leaving 12 dead and 58 injured. This is the latest tragedy associated with the film after the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in The Dark Knight. The Australian actor died in January 2008 at the age of 28 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, six months before the film's release. The filming of ‘The Dark Knight’ was also marred by the death of New Zealander Conway Wickliffe, News.com.au reported. The special effects technician was on a camera truck filming a stunt when it crashed into a tree in October 2007. On the set of the latest sequence, The Dark Knight Rises, a stunt double for Anne Hathaway who plays Catwoman, crashed into expensive camera equipment during filming in Pittsburgh. The Batman “curse” also touched The Dark Knight’s leading stars Morgan Freeman and Christian Bale. Freeman, who played Lucius Fox in the film, was seriously injured in a car accident in Mississippi in August 2008. The crash left both Freeman and his passenger badly injured after the car flipped several times and landed in a ditch. Freeman and his wife of 24 years announced they were divorcing soon after the incident. The bad luck also followed Christian Bale, the star of the franchise, who plays Batman. He allegedly assaulted his mother and sister at the Dorchester Hotel before the London premiere. More @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176696/The-Dark-Knight-Heath-Ledgers-death-Morgan-Freemans-accident--How-Batman-franchise-plagued-tragedy.html?ICO=most_read_module

Dead penguins wash ashore in Brazil

Wildlife experts are concerned and investigating the fact that 512 Magellanic penguins washed up dead across 65 miles of the Brazilian coast this month. Also worrying to veterinarians is that the birds were all apparently in good health, well fed, and free from oil stains. Magellanic penguins are migratory, moving from southern Argentina to Sao Paolo at this time of year. It's not a great time for penguins in general, with the population of a major colony in Antarctica plummeting 36% since 1991. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-07-20/dead-penguins-dolphins-wash-ashore-in-brazil/912612

This follows the mystery of the many dead dolphins and seabirds that washed up in Peru in May of this year. More info. in the following New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/world/americas/peru-has-no-answers-on-dead-dolphins-and-seabirds.html?pagewanted=all

Danny Boyle's Opening Ceremony @ London Olympics

I'm looking forward to Danny Boyle's Opening Ceremony at the London Olympics this Friday -- goodness knows we could all do with a bit of cheering up these days!  This Telegraph article tells us what we can expect at the ceremony, and it sounds pretty spectacular:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9417163/London-2012-Olympics-What-can-we-expect-from-Danny-Boyles-Opening-Ceremony.html

The London 2012 artistic director, Danny Boyle, a gritty film-maker, has apparently turned the £27 million spectacular into a traditional view of the British countryside including live farmyard animals. The Olympic Stadium in Stratford will feature 12 horses, three cows, two goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese, 70 sheep and three sheep dogs. I hope they manage to include my favorite English anthem/hymn "Jerusalem" at some point in the proceedings!

Dark Knight massacre and "the ferocious uncertainty of life"...

In the midst of life we are in death. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. 

[Book of Common Prayer]

Photo of Memorial opposite movie theater: Barry Gutierrez/Associated Press

We saw "Dark Knight Rises" at the family-oriented 49-er drive-in movie theater in Valparaiso, Indiana, last night.... http://www.49erdrivein.com/  It was an eerie reminder of the terrible Colorado theater massacre a few minutes after midnight this past Thursday, that killed 12 people and wounded 58.  Today's New York Times has an article about the massacre which talks about the heroic actions of some people and "the ferocious uncertainty of life" in recounting the death of a six-year old girl at the movie theater:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/us/in-darkened-movie-theater-heroes-in-life-and-in-death.html

The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer. - D.H. Lawrence

The realist in murder writes of a world in which gangsters can rule nations … where a judge with a cellar full of bootleg liquor can send a man to jail for having a pint in his pocket … where no man can walk down a dark street in safety because law and order are things we talk about but refrain from practicing. - Raymond Chandler

Cooperative Banking - the exciting wave of the future

"Rather than feeding off the community, banking can nourish the community and local economy": 

http://www.alternet.org/story/155454/cooperative_banking,_the_exciting_wave_of_the_future?page=entire

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

According to both the Mayan and Hindu calendars, 2012 (or something very close) marks the transition from an age of darkness, violence and greed to one of enlightenment, justice and peace. It’s hard to see that change just yet in the events relayed in the major media, but a shift does seem to be happening behind the scenes; and this is particularly true in the once-boring world of banking.

In the dark age of Kali Yuga, money rules; and it is through banks that the moneyed interests have gotten their power. Banking in an age of greed is fraught with usury, fraud and gaming the system for private ends. But there is another way to do banking; the neighborly approach of George Bailey in the classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Rather than feeding off the community, banking can feed the community and the local economy.

The following Guardian article compares the Big Six high street banks in the UK to The Cooperative Bank: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jul/20/cooperative-bank-how-compare

Can the Coop be a new force for good? LET'S HOPE SO!

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/can-the-coop-be-a-new-force-for-good-7962494.html 

The US can't afford Romney (Al Jazeera)

The Romneys: photo from AP/Al Jazeera

According to Al Jazeera, Barack Obama has not been a particularly good president...but the United States could do worse.  http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/07/2012715121236211572.html
Pressure is also building for Mitt Romney to release additional tax returns. A new USA Today Gallup poll suggests that a majority of Americans (54%) think he should release more than the two years of returns he has agreed to make public. The fact that he won't do this makes me think there is something fishy or potentially explosive in them. Bill Clinton has stated that he thinks Romney should release a decade of tax returns.

Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal has written an analysis of a recent Mitt Romney campaign gaffe...in which Romney allowed himself to be photographed on a red jet ski with his wife during their July 4th vacation. Given that most of the Americans who Romney hopes will vote for him are struggling to just get by, Henninger points out, this photo is likely to rub some people the wrong way and was perhaps not the wisest thing to do in campaign year.

Baltimore vs Wall Street and the Libor Scandal

Mayor of Baltimore.  Photo : Leigh Vogel/Getty Images

This is going to be interesting:  Baltimore is lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit that alleges that banks including Barclays, Bank of America, HSBC, JP Morgan and UBS conspired to fix a set of key interest rates – the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor – costing the city millions in the process. Firefighters, services for the elderly, school programmes – all these and more are being cut as a direct result of the actions of colluding bankers, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake claims.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/19/baltimore-libor-financial-crisis

The alleged rate-rigging lowered the value of public and private pension funds and dealt a massive blow to the public's trust in the market and in the capacity of large financial institutions to police themselves. If the biggest banks were secretly rigging the market to enrich themselves at their clients' expense, how can anyone feel certain they're not being fleeced. I'm intrigued to see where all this leads -- and will other cities/entities follow suit if Baltimore is successful.

As Syria burns, Asma al-Assad goes on a £270,000 shopping spree

It appears that Assad's British-born wife Asma, 36, lavished £270,000 on furniture from an exclusive London store as her country descended into civil war...giving a new meaning to the phrase "shop till you drop"...  Read more @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2173705/Asma-al-Assad-As-nation-burns-Assad-wife-imports-sofas-London-270-000-spending-spree.html

Asma al-Assad : Daily Mail

A Syrian woman cries as she carries her injured son

The scientific musings of a sailor in a changing climate

This great blog (link below) is the result of a July 21/22, 2011 NSF workshop on building communication skills to bring scientific thought, reasoning, and results in non-technical form to a lay audience. http://icyseas.org/  The blogger - Andreas Muenchow - works at the University of Delaware as a sea-going physical oceanographer whose puzzles range from the physics of river discharges in Argentina, Siberia, and Delaware to ice-ocean interactions and glaciers off northern Greenland and Canada. He also dabbles in statistics, ocean color remote sensing, computer modeling, and writing.

Beasts of the Southern Wild & Trishna

I haven't seen either of these movies yet, but they're both playing in Chicago right now and both look pretty good. Links to Chicago Reader reviews below:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/beasts-of-the-southern-wild/Film?oid=6669106
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/MovieTimes?narrowByDate=2012-07-20&oid=6669098

Iceberg breaks off from Greenland glacier

Reuters photo

BBC: The Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland has calved an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan, scientists say.

"Images from a Nasa satellite show the island breaking off a tongue of ice that extends at the end of the glacier. In 2010 an ice island measuring 250 square km (100 square miles) broke off the same glacier. Glaciers do calve icebergs naturally, but the extent of the changes to the Petermann Glacier in recent years has taken many experts by surprise.

"It is not a collapse but it is certainly a significant event," Eric Rignot from Nasa said in a statement. Some other observers have gone further. "It's dramatic. It's disturbing," University of Delaware's Andreas Muenchow told the Associated Press. "We have data for 150 years and we see changes that we have not seen before," Mr Muenchow added."  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18896770

HSBC, Libor, JPMorgan, etc. etc.

The City of London and Wall Street are vying for the not-so-envious position of most disliked and least trusted financial centre. HSBC in London is charged with money laundering, the big banks in London of rigging Libor, and JP Morgan in New York of having traders behaving badly to the tune of a potential $9bn. Is it something in the air? The phrase "rotten to the core" springs to mind. London is getting the most attention, at least this month. The City at one time had the motto "my word is my bond" and proclaimed itself to live by that when it came to honoring commitments, mostly in share dealings and the money market. Obviously this no longer applies and just about anything goes...  More at: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-17/libor-jpmorgan-ryanair-visa-mastercard-schering-compliance

As if the recent Libor (interest rate fixing) scandal wasn't enough, we now hear that British high street bank, HSBC, provided a conduit for "drug kingpins and rogue nations", according to a US Senate committee investigating money laundering claims at the bank. Its report said suspicious funds from countries including Mexico, Iran and Syria had passed through the bank.  If this was a movie script, we'd all be thinking it was way too far-fetched..this sort of thing couldn't possibly happen in reality...but, guess what?  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18867054

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's banking regulator on Tuesday defended its role in a money laundering scandal engulfing HSBC Holdings Plc, saying it had repeatedly told the bank to improve lax controls over suspect funds passing through its accounts. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-hsbc-mexicobre86g1dz-20120717,0,1921266.story  And this latest money laundering scandal casts something of a cloud over UK trade minister Lord Green:  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100171357/hsbc-money-laundering-scandal-casts-a-cloud-over-lord-green-the-trade-minister/

So what about those of us who have lost our trust in the main banks and want to move our money elsewhere. Is there an alternative to the high street bank? The Telegraph and Independent provide some ideas in the links below: 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/9369435/Is-there-an-alternative-to-the-high-street-bank.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/best-bets-to-wave-goodbye-to-the-greedy-banks-7922236.html

After 800 years the barons are back in control

King John, surrounded by English barons,
ratifying the Magna Carta at Runnymede.
Photograph: Time Life Pictures/Getty Image

Excellent article by George Monbiot in yesterday's Guardian: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/16/barons-in-control-of-britain

The Magna Carta forced King John to give away powers. But big business now exerts a chilling grip on the workforce...

Staggering amount of UK banking scandals

Photo: Daily Telegraph

There are a staggering amount of high street banking scandals emerging from the UK this summer. Apparently one-fifth of people in the UK have lost their trust in banks.  [I would gladly move my money away from banks but the question is "where to"?] According to the Wall Street Journal, even the Bank of England failed to catch the massive manipulation of interest rates...or so we are told.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/9392460/Libor-scandal-and-NatWest-glitch-Fifth-have-lost-trust-in-their-bank.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/17/libor-banker-mervyn-king-governor
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303933704577532380669844866.html

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, the scandal over the manipulation of Libor has the potential to become one of the most costly and consequential in the history of banking. If the financial institutions involved want to prevent it from overwhelming their businesses and damaging the broader economy, they’ll have to act fast. Investigators in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia are piecing together a breathtaking portrait of avarice and deceit. To hide their institutions’ problems during the financial crisis, or often to boost their traders’ profits, bankers knowingly submitted false data for the calculation of the London Interbank Offered Rate, a benchmark interest rate that influences the value of hundreds of trillions of dollars in financial contracts around the world, including floating-rate mortgages, corporate loans and interest-rate swaps.

Save the Whales

My friend Jane saw lots of humpback whale activity at Cape Cod last week. Whales are amazing marine mammals...here is a link to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society: 
http://www.wdcs.org/
and they have a very good explanation on why whales and dolphins don't do well in captivity: http://dev.wdcs.org/en/issues/captivity

Photo: Jane Masterson

Lavender and Lace

Two photos I took at the weekend in Northwest Indiana: Lavender http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender and Queen Anne's Lace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daucus_carota

Photos : Marge Ishmael

Lavender:

The use of Lavender has been documented for thousands of years. Pliny the Elder says that its blossom, called Asarum, sold for a hundred Roman denarii. The Greeks called it Nardus, after a city in Syria on the banks of the Euphrates. It was used by the ancients in perfuming bathwater, and for strewing on the floors of temples and houses. It was cultivated in England for the first time around 1560, and is mentioned in the writings of William Shakespeare. Medicinally, lavender has many uses. Noted herbalist Nicolas Culpeper recommends "a decoction made with the flowers of Lavender, Horehound, Fennel and Asparagus root, and a little Cinnamon" to help with epilepsy and other disorders of the brain. Tincture of lavender has been officially recognized as a treatment in the British Pharmacopceia for two centuries. Judith Benn Hurley writes in The Good Herb that during the sixteenth century, English herbalists used lavender tucked into a cap as a cure for headaches, and advocated the use of its oils as a method of keeping wounds clean and avoiding infection.

Magically speaking, lavender is often associated with love spells, as well as for workings to bring calmness and peace. To bring love your way, carry lavender flowers in a sachet on your person, or hang stalks of it in your home. To get a good night's sleep, with calming dreams, stuff a pillow with sprigs of lavender. It can also be used in a purifying bath.

Queen Anne's Lace: 

Legend has it that Queen Anne, the wife of King James I, was challenged by her friends to create lace as beautiful as a flower. While making the lace, she pricked her finger, and it is said that the purple-red flower in the center of Queen Anne’s Lace represents a droplet of her blood. Also called Wild Carrot (since Queen Anne’s Lace is the wild progenitor of today’s carrot), Bishop’s Lace or Bird’s Nest (for the nest-like appearance of the bright white and rounded flower in full bloom), in the language of flowers Queen Anne’s Lace represents sanctuary. 

Traditionally, tea made from the root of Queen Anne’s Lace was used as diuretic to prevent and eliminate kidney stones, and to rid individuals of worms. Its seeds have been used for centuries as a contraceptive; they were prescribed by physicians as an abortifacient, a sort of “morning after” pill.  The seeds have also been used as a remedy for hangovers, and the leaves and seeds are both used to settle the gastrointestinal system. Grated wild carrot can be used for healing external wounds and internal ulcers.  The thick sap is used as a remedy for cough and congestion.  The root of Queen Anne’s Lace can be eaten as a vegetable or in soup.