Cardboard Spaceship

Ice Cuba Tries a Different Approach

Having watched the incumbents firmly stuff the country down the plug-hole, the Icelanders have decided on a fresh approach.  Quoting from the Times of London:

"The world's first openly gay leader, Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66, is poised to take power in Iceland with the appointment of a lesbian former flight attendant as Prime Minister following the mass-resignation of the country's government.

Not quite sure what a former flight attendant knows about re-floating a completely busted national economy, but given the complete clusterfuck that things are at the moment, it's hard to see that she could do much additional damage.

Maybe they just wanted someone who could say:  "Brace!  Brace!  Crash Landing!" with aplomb.

A Trillion Here, a Trillion There...

According to those cheery funsters at the International Monetary Fund, purveyors of Freidmannite belt-tightening to faltering countries, (except one notes, the USA,) the losses of the rancid crap heaps lurking inside the world's banks balance sheets will not be the one trillion or so foreseen already, but 2.2. trillion dollars.   Roubini, noted for not being the most optimistic of chaps is calling it rather higher at 3.6 trillion, and he has had a rather unfortunate track record, e.g. of being right.

Oh, and by the way, Jim Rogers might have been right after all, as the UK is going to have the worst global recession. 

You're welcome. 

Get High and Save a Banker...

Blinding piece of information here about the the biggest current source of liquid cash to prop up the banks in the current crisis.  The head of the UN crime and drugs unit claims that it is the drug trade, that uniquely cash only business with the high profit margins. 

Not that much of a surprise at one level, with all the tin foil hat theories about cocaine being imported to America in CIA planes, and why exactly the USA invaded Afghanistan, the world's leading heroin producer.   

Europe on Ten Thousand Dollars a Day.

No bloggy goodness this weekend, as the Spaceship and it's crew once again were off enjoying the world.  Wim the Most Intelligent Member of the Crew, went off to have a dirty weekend with a chocolate Labrador with gorgeous amber eyes that lives in the village.    (No travel for our dog.)

Mrs Spaceship, the SSCOTA and I got into the shuttle, and went to Verbier, where we had been very kindly invited by some good friends, who I cannot help but think must be richer than we are.  (SSCOTA asked why we don't we have a chalet, eh what Dad, you lazy loser.)  Our host manages funds for the Arabs, so I reckon he must be trembling like a shitting dog at the moment, so a weekend of relaxation was in order.

Verbier was in the middle of a huge dump of snow when we drove up, and I had the first chance to test the Audi Quattro in the real snow.  Bloody amazing, how traction control, four wheel drive, and a set of winter tyres can get you up any reasonable road.  What is also amazing is the number of people in front wheel drive cars, with summer tyres, and no chains then try and do the same thing, and then sledge around all over the bloody road being a menace to all concerned.  Few minutes after we hit the bottom of the rather dizzying ascent to the resort, the police started to stop people at the bottom to check 4x4ness, tyres, and chains, to prevent something bad happening.  Then we parked the Audi rather forcefully in a large snowdrift, and went into meet with our friends, and start getting dinner ready, and drinking vast amounts of Rose wine.  Bit of a theme this one... 

Next day was rather flat light, and very high avalanche danger, so rather than go and ski on what little was open, we walked to lunch, and had a very good nosh-up in the Vieux Verbier. 

I had a Roesti, which must have been about four thousand calories, and enjoyed every second of it. 

We then walked back up through the snow to the chalet, with the SSCOTA and pals complaining bitterly about being cold, hungry, etc. 

Then we made a chicken and risotto supper, and drank a truly breath taking quantity of Rose wine, and we to bed too late, but it was great fun. 

Next morning dawned bright and perfect, powder snow, best conditions for the longest time, but I had overdone it, and didn't really feel like boarding, and the SSCOTA had salopettes that were too small, and for no real reason, we decided just to have a lazy morning, and then go down the hill. 

However, there was just one slight problemette.  The shuttle had pushed its way into the snow drift without any difficulty, but getting the bloody thing out was going to be a nightmare.  This is the motor before we got started.

Mrs Spaceship and I dug the car out of the deep hard packed snow, for about two hours, and got precisely nowhere.  Bugger.  (Although she did make a comment about me never tiring of watching her work which sounded like a rather pointed assessment of my contribution.

Then two very nice chaps stopped to help us, which was really decent of them, and they brought salt and a pickaxe from their nearby chalet.  They then mentioned that they could come down with their car and tow us out, but only if we had a tow-rope. 

"Aha," said Mrs Spaceship, "I'll the key, and we can get the one out of our host's Range Rover. "

Feck!  Thought I.  I have been digging for two hours next to a five litre engined four by four with a tow rope that I have keys available for. 

So some very loud swearing later, the Audi was duly dragged out of the parking spot like a cork out of a bottle, and that was that solved. 

So then we went to lunch with our hosts, who had done some skiing in the morning, and had a great time.  Sitting on a terrace with a view right over the valley, and just sitting shooting the breeze.  (And drinking Rose wine.)

This is Mrs Spaceship explaining how the best sex scene in Cinema, is Donald Sutherland, and Julie Christie in the movie "Don't Look Now."  Except that for some reason the dwarf got into the discussion, and we could not figure out what the conversation was about in the end.   Rose wine might just have been implicated in that. 

All in all a great weekend, with some very nice people, and all I need to do now is book my liver transplant, and it will have been the perfect weekend. 

LHC Black Holes Might Last Minutes

CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider, and ultimate nerd fest hangout has been looking at the assumptions that have allowed them to say.

"Nope, the LHC will not create black holes that will eat the planet.  Promise."

Only, depending on the theory you apply, and after all the LHC is being built to find out which theory is correct, then the black holes could last for several minutes.  That might be enough for their evaporation (Hawking Radiation) to be outbalanced by their absorption of matter. 

Now, I agree that the possibility is remote, but then even a one in ten million chance, given the stakes involved, i.e. everthing I know and care about, and a lot that I don't, seems like I woulds like to have more research done into this tricky issue, and not in a one way fashion.  ("Oh shucks, I guess you do get a black hol...")

"The Banks are Fucked, we're Fucked, the country's Fucked."

Apparently that is a quote attributed to an unnamed Labour cabinet minister in the Guardian.  Not the most reassuring of stances. 

Absolutely Surreal Playmobil Item - TSA and Lovin' It.

I saw this linked on Boing Boing - The Playmobil TSA Inspection Security Set.    Presumably once that has identified the terrorists, the offenders can be whisked away to some happy explaining in the Playmobil prison. 

The best bit is the comments section - never laughed at an Amazon review page before. 

The product is surreal enough, but then the Germans are nothing if not thorough even in their playfulness. 

Meh, I Guess No-one is Immune

Post here from the usually well-informed and realistic Denis Howlett, about the state of Enterprise Software. 

To sum it up, IBM seems to be about to can 16,000 employees, Microsoft, the margin machine of the business, 5,000 people, and it would seem that SAP has announced that Sapphire, the public conference event for SAP will be scaled back to a series of smaller local events.   Denis also has some interesting demand statistics on SAP resources, which indicates a shakeout in some areas. 

I know how tough the world is out there, I read and write about it, perhaps more than I should. 

We'll see how this scans out.  No need to add that this is worrying news, coming as it does closer to home. 

Can't Believe I Missed This Until Now.

I was reading a serious news organ when I read that Citigroup had blocked access to a British satirical site called the Daily Mash.  I had never heard of it weirdly enough, despite the fact that it turns out to be arse-achingly funny. 

To take an example, this is their take on the landing of the jet in the Hudson the other day. 

"Hudson Crash Landing Still Better than Heathrow."

Containing the gem:  "Tom Logan, a New York businessman, said: "As someone who has flown into Heathrow twice in my life, today's experience was like having a long, soapy shower with Heidi Klum."

Another joyful fact this that I am smack bang in the demographic according to this piece in the UK Independent. 

"Its policy of "helping people in offices to waste time" has attracted an audience with niche appeal to advertisers."

Rogers Not Mellowing his View of the UK

Jim Rogers, former partner of George Soros and one of the world's most successful investors, is forthright about the UK's prospects.    He has been quoted extensively in the last couple of days for comments made on Bloomberg Television about the UK and Sterling being "finished."

He expands on his comments in an interview with the UK Independent.

"His message is blunt: we used to have North Sea oil and the City of London, but now "you don't have anything to sell... it's a terrible shame".

Right, so he is sticking to his knitting about the UK.  For what it is worth he also think that the Federal Reserve is going to go bust as well.  Interestingly he does not seem that bothered about it, pointing out that there have already been three other central banks in USA history. 

Hope to hell he is wrong, but sadly for the UK he has made rather a lot of money out of being right.