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.