The unimportant news thread

[Spineur]

Nobody is surprised that fish and rice is a better diet than hamburger and fries.  But who would have guessed that pasta with chianti isnt bad at all !!

[North Star]

Nobody is surprised that fish and rice is a better diet than hamburger and fries.  But who would have guessed that pasta with chianti isnt bad at all !!

Note that the pasta & chianti consumers' statistics are based on self-reported data. Aside from Japan & Korea, clearly the recipe for low obesity rates is lying about your weight and height.

[Karl Henning]

After a little Chianti, we all feel good about life.

[Spineur]

A very cute story: Sophie a 12 year old British girl visited the Eiffel tower earlier this year.  She got so impressed with the monument she wrote a little poem about "La dame de fer" which she adressed to Francois Hollande at the Elysée palace 3 weeks before he left the office.  Six month later the newly elected president Emmanuel Macron took his pen and wrote a poem in english as a reply to little Sophie.  Here are Sophie letter and Emmanuel Macron reply

[Turner]

The Kremlin has announced a 'very important statement' next week.

Presidential elections are to take place in 5 months.

Well, there was no announcemnet of Putin´s candidacy that week, and any other, "very important statement" seemed to drown in the general news current.

[Turner]

"...............Like any boyband manager, he knows that snappy choreography and costume changes are key." 

https://twitter.com/ChuBailiang/status/926369231666475008

[bwv 1080]

Moving all the stones back an hour is a real struggle for workers at Stonehenge

[Todd]

The Germans are making contingency plans for the collapse of Europe. Let's hope we are, too.  (Or, the Return of Realpolitik?)


From the op-ed:

"Meanwhile, Russia and China are no longer nibbling at the edges. They have begun to gnaw. A new "great game" is being played in the eastern Mediterranean in particular and "the west" barely has a strategy."

Every so often an author in Foreign Affairs or Foreign Policy might use the phrase Great Game outside its traditional context, but it is rare to see it used in a less specialized outlet.  I'm not so sure the author's analogy is persuasive, but it's nice to see some serious people in Europe are planning for the possible dissolution of the existing international order.  Eine deutsche Atombombe, anyone?

[amw]

But meanwhile, where are the Democrats? Basically nowhere.

I posted this already, but basically they are travelling around the country to listen to what people have to say and then ignoring all the stuff those people said except the parts that support their neoliberal agenda.

Weird country, where only Republicans are capable of winning elections and only Democrats are capable of passing laws. Good luck with that

[NikF]

Scotland just misses out on coming top of the pile again...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/cocaine-consumption-by-country

[Todd]

We've turned the corner!  Hey, wait . . .

[Todd]

Not really new news: Richest 1% own half the world's wealth, study finds


One cannot dispute the facts, but it is this mangled sentence, and the sentiment behind it, that shows signs of shifting goal posts:

"The increase in wealth among the already very rich led to the creation of 2.3 million new dollar millionaires over the past year, taking the total to 36 million. "The number of millionaires, which fell in 2008, recovered fast after the financial crisis, and is now nearly three times the 2000 figure," Credit Suisse said."

The term "very rich" clearly does not refer to the 1% in the article title if one considers wealth on a national level.  I'm certain that a million dollars in financial assets in, say, Senegal is relatively more valuable than in the US, where a cool million in financial assets most certainly does not buy one access to the top 1%.  Might be a good time for financial millionaires (distinct from the housing wealthy) to buy some four hour fire rated safes to keep their fat stacks out of the grubby paws of statists intent on asset seizures in the name of addressing equality (and not just filling government coffers).

[Todd]

Money well spent?

[Spineur]

Money well spent?

What is amazing is this Da Vinci painting was bought in 1958 for 45 pounds.  At the time it was thought to be a copy not an original.

[Spineur]

Israel seems ready to be the Saudi's auxillary and take the Lebanon Hezbollah one more time

https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/israel-ready-cooperate-saudi-face-iran-defence-chief-172522643.htm

After the forced resignation of Hariri, the handwriting was on the wall.

The only question is when does this new middle-east war starts.

[Turner]

Israel seems ready to be the Saudi's auxillary and take the Lebanon Hezbollah one more time

https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/israel-ready-cooperate-saudi-face-iran-defence-chief-172522643.htm

After the forced resignation of Hariri, the handwriting was on the wall.

The only question is when does this new middle-east war starts.

The link above didn´t work on my computer, but this did:
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/israel-ready-to-cooperate-with-saudi-arabia-to-face-iran-defence-chief-1776398

"With President Donald Trump, there is a chance for a new international alliance in the region and a major strategic plan to stop the Iranian threat," Eisenkot (= Israeli military chief of staff) said.

There has indeed been many signs of an increasingly aggressive, militaristic Saudi Arabia in recent years too.

[Todd]

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

[Spineur]

The 25 billions $ bonanza for Alibaba single day = 160000 tons of packages&tapes garbage and no recycling.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-singles-day-waste/china-faces-waste-hangover-after-singles-day-buying-binge-idUKKBN1DH0WO

[Todd]

Merkeldämmerung?

[Spineur]

This man wants to prove the earth is flat.  This may cost him his life...


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/11/21/this-man-is-about-to-launch-himself-in-his-homemade-rocket-to-prove-the-earth-is-flat/?utm_term=.5a37b62bc835