BOY BECLOWNED, AGAIN

With Andrew Bolt still out of town the PP boyz are having difficulty finding topics to whine about. Dave Gaukroger today takes a shot at the Daily Telegraph for assembling photo galleries allegedly lacking both links and proper attribution, citing World's most glorious failures and Wierd shoppers at Walmart as "repackaged" images from failblog.org and peopleofwalmart.com respectively. Dave concluding:

By serving the photos up in this fashion News Limited gets to keep their readers from going to an external site, but is it an ethical way to use someone else’s content?

As with most PP posts, Dave's latest effort is much ado about not much. The failures gallery looks to be from multiple sources with the first photo credited to AFP. All of the photos are unlinked and most are uncaptioned but the fourth in the series notes: "You can find more hilarious pictures at Failblog.org".

The Telegraph can be faulted for misspelling "weird" but not for failing to link or attribute the Walmart shoppers gallery. The first photo in the gallery is stamped "People of Walmart" but is unlinked. Subsequent photos in the series all have a link to peopleofwalmart.com, however.

So, Dave has beclowned himself yet again. Dave doesn't do corrections so there's little chance he'll update his post to admit he got it wrong. By the way, whereas Dave is highly critical of News Limited for allegedly not linking to external sites his post links to neither the Telegraph nor its photo galleries. Hypocrite.

Update: Dave in comments at Pure Poison:

I have to come clean and admit that the lack of a link to the Daily Telegraph was an oversight, however I don’t think that it detracts from the point I’m making.

Too bad the point of his post isn't valid.

RACIST UNDERTONE

Paul Ehrlich in 2009:

Global population growth has slowed significantly, but it hasn't stopped. By 2050 there may be about 35 per cent more people on Earth than there are today. We are already seeing increasing shortages of food, water and other resources and growing numbers of hungry people.

Yet to embark on any discussion about limiting our numbers is to enter sensitive and controversial territory. Perhaps this is not surprising, as in the 1960s, when population growth became an issue of widespread concern, the discussions often had a racist undertone, in which the "well-off" focused on the exploding populations of "underdeveloped nations".

Paul Ehrlich in 1968 agreeing with an official's suggestion that Indian men should be compulsorily sterilized:

When he suggested sterilizing all Indian males with three or more children, we should have applied pressure on the Indian government to go ahead with the plan. We should have volunteered logistic support in the form of helicopters, vehicles, and surgical instruments. We should have sent doctors to aid in the program by setting up centers for training para-medical personnel to do vasectomies. Coercion? Perhaps, but coercion in a good cause.

Yep, he's right about those racist undetones. By the way, quote-doctorer Tim Lambert still refuses to correct a 2007 post claiming Ehrlich never advocated forced sterilization.

FINELY CRAFTED

A few examples of the deep thinking that makes Antony Loewenstein the guy to go to for anyone wanting to know what's really going on in the Middle East:

"When the penny drop about the occupation?"

"Israeli human rights group B’Tselem on driver Muhammad Id’is who claims he was beaten at an Israeli checkpoint this month."

"The global response to the Iranian uprisings proved that some dissent to authoritarian is more acceptable than others. "

"If the US fails to hold Israel to account, those with international law on their mind may."

"The fact that some people see Fayyad as a source of hope for the Middle East is itself a reflection of how jammed the situation really is."

"Although there is evidence to suggest that some Palestinians are supportive of the PA’s strategy — anything to make life under occupation more bearable — facts on the ground are moving in the opposite direction."

"All of that might suggest to observers that the current PA strategy is correct. But while nobody should begrudge the improvement of Palestinian lives, without justice and viability, the leadership’s acceptance of the scraps of Israeli “generosity” will only lead to further strife."

"Ahmadinejad is a man with a serious dislike of Jews"

"A democracy like any other Western state, such as America or Australia, that theoretically thrives on its multicultural mix, rather than Israel that wants ethnic and racial purity."

"Such thoughts, gathering pace across the world, are making defenders of the occupation status quo here in Australia rightly uncomfortable."

"So I opened the Age newspaper to find this embarrassingly parochial story on page one of the paper."

"On some days, such as today, I look at the Middle East “peace process” and wonder how any serious journalist can’t write about Israel and Palestine and not simply laugh (or cry)."

"Obama himself, speaking at the UN, issued more pretty sounding words with utterly no political clout behind them."

"Chaim Gans, author of A Just Zionism: On the Morality of the Jewish State, continues the grand Zionist tradition of endlessly debating the “rights” and wrongs of the occupation and the pain of the Right that believes God gave the land to the Jews."

"Here’s just one way that the internet is spreading the information to the world, away from government thugs."

And that's just from the front page of his blog.

OLDIES HOLDING KIDS BACK

Europe has an education problem:

"We are facing major problems in Europe when it comes to our school systems. Results have been falling for a long time and schools must improve," Swedish education minister Jan Bjorklund, the host of the event said in the opening session.

The root of the problem:

The biggest challenge in Europe, [EU education commissioner Jan Figel] explained, is that many of the teachers are in their 40-50s and more reluctant to acquire the new skills they need to prepare children for a fast-changing world.

Yep, all those years of teaching experience count for nothing. Get lots of youngsters into teaching so the educational bureaucracy can suck the vitality out of them as well.

Update: Instead of those useless old fools the EU should perhaps hire in some innovative young teachers like those employed here in Australia. The kids will be stimluated.

DEFAMATION ALLEGED

Everyone's favourite blogging barrister, PP boy Jeremy Sear, invites everyone on the planet to follow him on Twitter but for some reason subsequently restricts Twitter access. Intrigued, Iain Hall violates international law by signing up to Twitter under an assumed name asking Jeremy for access to his Twitter feed. Jeremy assumes this unknown person is one of his many fans and grants Hall access. Hall quotes some of Jeremy's tweets. This makes Jeremy very sad, prompting him to, true to form, threaten legal action.

TURKEY TO FLY AGAIN?

It looks like an edited Grods will rise, Phoenix-like, from apparent oblivion, with Scott Bridges rumoured to be going through the archive month by month omitting the most embarrassing posts. A blank page will likely result.

HOT BREASTS UNLEASHED

The Swedish military has an underwear problem:

The bras issued to Swedish female military conscripts easily catch fire and are prone to coming undone, making them inappropriate for the battlefield, claims a conscripts’ rights group.

The Taliban suggested they fight bra-less, in Jello.

RANTING AND RAVING

Damain Lataan can post his loony conspiracy theories and Zionazi crapola in this thread and anyone with nothing better to do with his time can argue with the idiot.

RECYCLED PLASTIC ORGASMS

The environmentally friendly hand-cranked Green dildo is well received in Sweden:

Anna Sundström at erotic store Afrodites Apotek in Stockholm believes that it will be a big hit. "Many of our customers are environmentally conscious and often say 'no' to a plastic bag. It saves the environment when you don't use batteries," she said to Expressen.

The dick also requires no batteries but really should be plastic bagged.

ANOTHER BOAT INTERCEPTED

The sixth boatload of asylum seekers in two weeks has been intercepted, this time by an Australian customs vessel. The government should perhaps consider offering a asylum seekers charter service to cut down on interception expenses.

MILLA EYE FILLA

Milla Jovovich sans clothes – these photos aren't all that new so you've probably seen them but just in case you haven't... Yikes!

COLLINGWOOD FAN SILENT

Not a word from Pies fan Tim Blair about tonight's elimination final with the Cats. He really should barrack for Geelong, the big pussy. Go Cats!

Update: Blair claims to be ambivalent but deep down will be shattered if Collingwood doesn't win. Me, I couldn't care less who wins as long as Collingwood loses.

CONFLICTING VIEWS ON PALESTINE

Geraldine Doogue speaks with Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who's optimistic about the future.

Immediately following is a conversation with Antony Lowenstein [sic], who pitches his usual Palestinians-are-innocent-victims-of evil-Jews crapola. Loewenstein starts off with a typically confused reference to Fayyad's efforts to establish a "civic" Palestinian society and it's all downhill from there. Toward the end Doogue asks Loewy about his failure to acknowledge that Israelis too are victims; he avoids the issue by going off on a tangent about his family having suffered in the Holocaust. As usual there's no substance whatever; it's all about selling books.

Update: the introduction to a Loewenstein interview on radio 2ser says he wrote My Israel Question to "document his experiences exploring Israel and the Palestinian territories in depth" adding that he has "continued to visit and report from Israel and the West Bank every year". He is described as "reporting the day-to-day happenings on the ground" thereby filling an "important void in the Western media landscape".

The interview is conducted by admiring "documentary" maker Daz Chandler who says Loewenstein has "spent so much of [his] life personally exploring and indeed reporting from that region". This is the cue for Loewenstein to attack the credibility of journalists actually reporting from the region for being based "in Israel proper" who "visit the West Bank or Gaza for a day or two and then they come back".

Loewenstein on the other hand has spent very little time in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with almost all of his "reporting" originating from within Australia –– it would completely destroy his credibility as a Middle East reporter, such as it is, if he were to disclose the dates of his visits to the region.

A recent interview on SBS Arabic radio is much the same. Loewenstein predicts that within a few years an Israeli Jewish minority will rule over a Palestinian majority, which is "an apartheid situation by definition". The guy has no idea what he's talking about.

Late in the interview it's said that during his July visit to Gaza Loewenstein interviewed "Hamas leaders". As far as I know Loewenstein has never made this claim; in the interview he refers to having spoken to "Hamas people" rather than to "Hamas leaders".

In calling him "Anthony" the interviewer proves she knows as much about Loewenstein as he knows about the Middle East.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: ISRAEL NAILED

There's no point in pulling punches, the 575 page report from the UN's fact find mission on the Gaza Conflict is a crock -- it's anti-Israel throughout. So let's take a quick look at a couple of examples.

Regarding so-called unconventional weapons:

49. While the Mission is not in a position to state with certainty that so-called dense inert metal explosive (DIME) munitions were used by the Israeli armed forces, it did receive reports from Palestinian and foreign doctors who operated in Gaza during the military operations of a high percentage of patients with injuries compatible with their impact. DIME weapons and weapons armed with heavy metal are not prohibited under international law as it currently stands, but do raise specific health concerns. Finally, the Mission received allegations that depleted and nondepleted uranium were used by Israeli forces in Gaza. These allegations were not further investigated by the Mission.

This is pure speculation from doctors who don't know that they've ever treated DIME injuries. And since the adverse health effects of depleted uranium are minimal throw in some speculation about "non-depleted" uranium, which must be highly toxic, except it isn't. Just for good measure make a vague meaningless reference to "heavy metals", which, as we all know, are really bad.

Despite a total lack of evidence of their use DIMEs come up again:

882. In the course of its inquiries, the Mission was made aware of the use of certain weapons by the Israeli armed forces. This chapter does not intend to present a comprehensive analysis of all the aspects raised on the kinds of weaponry used during the military operations. It is rather a summary of the Mission’s views on a number of issues that arise from the foregoing chapters in relation to the obligation to take all feasible precautions in the choice of the means and methods of warfare. Many of the issues brought to the Mission’s attention had already received scrutiny in the press or as a result of analysis carried out by a number of organizations.480 Among these issues was the use of white phosphorous, the use of flechette missiles, the use of so-called dense inert metal explosive (DIME) munitions, and the use of depleted uranium.

How can DIMEs be an issue if it's not known they were used? No matter, they keep coming up:

902. The Mission received reports from Palestinian and foreign doctors who operated in Gaza during the military operations of a strikingly high percentage of patients with severed legs as a result of the impact of projectiles launched by the Israeli armed forces. Dr. Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian anaesthetist, and Dr. Eric Fosse, a Norwegian surgeon, who carried out surgery in al- Shifa Hospital from 31 December 2008 to 10 January 2009,487 described to the Mission the characteristics of the wounds. The amputations mostly occurred at waist height in children, generally lower in adults, and were combined with skin-deep, third-degree burns, four to six fingers upward from the amputation. Where the amputation took place, the flesh was cauterized as a result of the heat. The patients with these amputations had no shrapnel wounds, but red flashes on the abdomen and chest. The excision of large pieces of flesh was not infrequent in these patients. Dr. Gilbert added that the patients also suffered internal burns. This description was confirmed to the Mission by Palestinian surgeons.

903. The Mission understands such injuries to be compatible with the impact of DIME weapons. DIME weapons consist of a carbon-fibre casing filled with a homogeneous mixture of an explosive material and small particles, basically a powder, of a heavy metal, for instance, a tungsten alloy. Upon detonation of the explosive, the casing disintegrates into extremely small, non-lethal fibres. The tungsten powder tears apart anything it hits. The impact of such weapons in general causes very severe wounds within a relatively limited diameter (compared to other projectiles) from the point of detonation. As the small heavy metal particles can slice through soft tissue and bone, survivors close to the lethal zone may have their limbs amputated and tungsten alloy particles embedded in their bodies. The probabilities of injuries to persons at a greater distance from the detonation point are reduced compared to more conventional projectiles. It is therefore also referred to as a “focused lethality munition”.488

904. The materials submitted to the Mission, including by the expert witness Lt. Col. Lane, point to specific medical concerns with regard to survivors of DIME weapon injuries.489 The tungsten alloy particles are suspected to be highly carcinogenic and so small that they cannot be extracted from the patient’s body. Dr. Gilbert noted that there had been no follow-up studies on the survivors of this type of amputation observed in Gaza and Lebanon since 2006 following Israeli military operations. There is some research suggesting that these patients might be at increased risk of cancer.

Mads Gilbert, now there's an unreliable source if ever there was one. And even though it's not known that DIMEs were used, the report is now speculating about an increased risk of cancer from their use. But there's more:

905. From the facts it gathered, the Mission finds that the allegations that DIME weapons were used by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza during the military operations require further clarification with regard to their use and, particularly, the health-care needs of survivors of the amputations attributed to DIME weapons.
488 The DIME munitions subject of discussion here are distinct from the missile described, for example, in the al-Maqadmah mosque case. In that case the missile had been fitted with a micro-shrapnel fragmentation sleeve. The micro-shrapnel consisted of tungsten or tungsten alloy cubes, which may have similar carcinogenic hazards as the powder or fibres in DIME.

906. The Mission notes that DIME weapons and weapons armed with heavy metal are not prohibited under international law as it currently stands. The “focused lethality” reportedly pursued in the development of DIME weapons could be seen as advancing compliance with the principle of distinction. The Mission also observes, however, that there remains a very high risk of harming civilians when using these weapons in built-up areas and that concerns have been expressed that DIME weapons could have a particularly adverse impact on the enjoyment of the right to health of survivors, which would go beyond the impact generally associated with being affected by anti-personnel weapons in an armed conflict.

So, Israeli's not only kill civilians, they aim to wreck the health of those they wound. The UN should be ashamed of this crap.

NOTE: Any commenting nonsense from Damian Lataan, or those responding to him, will be deleted.

HONEY, TIME TO GET UP

Paul Anka's Swedish wife knows how to look after her man:

Anka has courted some attention for comments in the programme in which she confirms that she dutifully performs oral sex for her husband when he wakes in the morning.

"Sexually it is the woman's responsibility to ensure that the man is satisfied, if she does not then she only has herself to blame if he is unfaithful," Anna Anka explains.

Sort of makes that morning cup of coffee seem inadequate now don't it?

AUSTRALIAN CULINARY DELIGHTS

Grub sushi and weed pie (click the link and then look for the audio files on the left).

NEW PANDEMIC THREAT

Time wasting:

Computer gaming addiction is reaching “pandemic” proportions around the world, according to a Swedish organization poised to take a leading role in helping young people cope with the problem.

“This is a huge hidden problem in a lot of countries and it doesn’t get the same kind of attention because it takes place largely behind closed doors rather than out in public,” Sven Rollenhagen of the Youth Care Foundation (Stiftelsen Ungdomsvård) told The Local.

There is an alternative: get a job.

JEW NOT SO SMART

According to Antony Loewenstein's bio he's an academically connected , best-selling author who's also a respected journalist who "appears regularly around the world on radio, TV (including Democracy Now!), in public, writer’s festivals (in Australia and overseas) and at universities (including Harvard) discussing current affairs, politics and media." With credentials like that it's no wonder Loewenstein was recently featured in the Canberra Times. A couple of excerpts:

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent visit to Israel (and a few meetings in Palestine) was systematic of the rot.

And:

Peace between Israel and the Palestinians is our goal, but it must not proscribe to preconceived ideas of nationhood.

When he's not mangling the crap out of the language Loewenstein links to anti-Israel nonsense:

Many Americans are aware that the subsidisation of the Israeli military at the expense of the US taxpayer puts all Americans at risk of retaliation. Yet the criminal acts begin right under our noses here in America by bankers and real estate agents. With the deep enmeshment of Israeli agents in the United States political spectrum, the Israel Lobby acts as a mafia facilitating the looting of billions of dollars via US military acquisitions from Jewish-owned defense corporations like General Dynamics and via capital transfers including ongoing complex beneficiary-obscuring transactions. In addition to ongoing US foreign aid for weapons purchase, the USA buys billions of dollars of weapons, declares the weaponry to be obsolete and then consigns it to Israel at practically no charge. Using full-scale militarised equipment supplied and paid for by the United States, the Israeli government uses US tax money to pay the IDF to force the non-Jewish Palestinian rightful owners to vacate their own property so that subsidised real-estate magnates can bulldoze the place to build suburban-style condos for foreigners outfitted with supplies from Home Depot and JCPenney.

Who says Jews are smarter than average?

Editing note: the missing "r" was added to "excerpts".

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Scott Bridges writes:

All bloggers would flinch a bit when reading this quote, but it’s right on the money.

… many bloggers, who rely strongly on their reputations for being irreverent and must compete for attention in an increasingly crowded, wildly free-market blogosphere, often veer off into gossip, innuendo, ridicule and vacuous sarcasm — like adolescents trying to get attention — as much as they cover “the news”. To the extent to which they do this, they may continue to function as entertainment vehicles … but they may not be taken seriously as purveyors of information and commentary on “issues of public concern.”

Hendrickson, L. (2007). Press Protection in the Blogosphere: Applying a Functional Definition of “Press” to New Web Logs. In Tremayne, M. (Ed.), Blogging, Citizenship and the Future of Media (pp. 187-203). Routledge: New York.

This explains why Bridges unceremoniously flushed GrodsCorp, the labour of love he'd spent "literally thousands of hours... building, maintaining, moderating and writing for", down the memory hole.

TWEETS PRIVATE

It's been a while since Jeremy Sear posted at Pure Poison so I checked to see if he had maybe been, you know, silently given the old Crikey heave ho a la Ant Rogenous. Nope, Jeremy is still shown as a PP contributor. But when I took his bio's advice to "follow Jeremy’s Twitter" I got this message: "This person has protected their tweets." Gee, it seems Jeremy must have written something stupid he doesn't want people to see. Imagine that.

REACTIONARY TEST

How quick are your reflexes? See if you can beat the old guy's best time of 0.18 seconds.

GEOGRAPHY PROBLEM

Antony Loewenstein describes Sri Lanka, an island almost 6,000 kilometers distant, as "the rogue nation near our shores". Cool, there's something he knows less about than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Update: Lowenstein -- that's how it's spelled in the video -- features in a "documentary" almost as unpopular as his books (85 views in 8 days). Sure it's disjointed (what were you expecting?) but worth watching all the way through just to see Loewenstein's eye action -- it's like he thinks he's Vivien Leigh screen-testing for Scarlett O'Hara.

REVERSE EYE GOUGE

Carlton will contest Chris Judd's three match suspension by alleging that Brisbane Lion Michael Rischitelli was the aggressor in that he intended to dislocate Judd's finger "through forward and lateral movement of the head forcing [Judd's] finger into the eye-socket and thereby exerting possibly injury causing torsional forces" on it. Whoa, strangest defence ever.

BOY BECLOWNED

Albury blogger Dave Gaukroger joins the PP Boyz. In accordance with PP Boy tradition, he beclowns himself in his very first official post:

One of the many wonders of the internet age is the speed with which information can be spread. Which begs the question why just after 1pm today Tim Blair was peddling a story about an apparently inflammatory ad produced by the WWF, when a cursory search would have revealed that the ad was neither requested nor approved by the WWF.

And more from Dave in comments:

The WWF had completely denied any connection to the ad hours before Tim’s post, it was no longer 'developing'.

So it’s game, set and match to Dave (who, incidentally, should look up the definition of "begs the question"; it doesn’t mean what he thinks it means). But wait! It turns out that the story IS developing, with Advertising Age subsequently reporting that the WWF did approve the ad after all:

An obscure ad that ran once in a small Sao Paulo newspaper months ago has come back to haunt DDB Brasil and its conservation client, the WWF in Brazil, in the latest example of the internet exposing a local ad to global condemnation.

Sergio Valente, president of DDB Brasil, said the ad was presented to the WWF in Brazil in December 2008 and approved …

After the WWF appeared to initially deny approving the ad, DDB Brasil and the WWF hammered out a statement posted in Portuguese on both groups’ Brazilian websites … The statement continued, “WWF-Brasil and DDB Brasil reaffirm that the ad never should have been created, approved or run."

AdWeek has more from WWF Brazil:

It was created and approved in late 2008, mistakenly, and was solely the result of lack of experience on the part of a few professionals from both parties involved.

Lack of experience? That might be Dave’s excuse, too. And now WWF in the US is backtracking:

Yesterday, WWF-US issued a statement strongly condemning a print ad that used images related to the events of September 11 and featured the WWF logo. At that time, it was our belief, based on information provided by the WWF organization in Brazil, that the ads were created by an outside agency and were not authorized by anyone at WWF Brazil.

While we are still investigating the circumstances of the ad, it appears that a staff member of WWF Brazil may have provided unauthorized approval to the agency, without the knowledge of the leadership of that organization …

We deeply regret that the information we provided, while given in good faith, was not completely accurate.

Meanwhile Dave is back at his personal site, celebrating his PP success and asking:

The challenge now, as always, is what to write next.

How about a correction?

Update: Buried in an open thread, Dave defends his no-corrections policy, even though the WWF statement in his post has now been corrected by the WWF itself:

Wherever the story of the WWF ad goes from this point forward it does not change the original point that I made in my post, which was that information contrary to what Tim posted was readily available hours before he published, but not initially included.

It doesn't matter to Dave that the information turned out to be wrong.