Ambrose Evans-Pritchard posed the following question – “Who really thinks that China’s half-reformed Communist regime is ready for global leadership?”
Link http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100001459/dollar-hegemony-for-another-century/?utm_source=Telegraph.co.uk&utm_medium=TD_dollarrules&utm_campaign=Finance2210
USA
China
Has supported or currently supporting Islamic terror groups/freedom fighters?
Chechen
Uighar
Iranian Sunni
Not known, paradoxically China has been known to support Islamic governments.
Invaded Afghanistan
Yes
No
Spending $400 for a US gallon (3.8l) of petrol in Afghanistan
Yes
No
Shares border with Afghanistan
No
Yes
Invaded countries in the last Century to expand political influence.
No – Tibet is a special case in that there is legal argument that Tibet was once part of China.
Has over 100 thousand troops occupying Oil-rich nation.
Yes
No
Bombed countries that it has never been at war with in the last century.
Yes (At least Laos and Cambodia)
No
Used to managing Billion plus population.
No
Yes
Expanded political influence by diplomacy alone
Some
Yes
Has fought border skirmishes in last 100 years.
Yes – Mexico
Yes – India, USSR and Vietnam
Has Capital punishment for financial malfeasance
No
Yes
Has had double digit or near double digit growth in their economy over the last ten years?
No
Yes
Banks owned by the people
No
Yes
Banks subsidised by the people
Yes, Government (taxpayers) lends money to banks at 0% interest and borrows it back at 2%.
No
Winners of Nobel prizes in Economics living in the country
All the winners of the prize except one in the last ten years are resident in the USA.
Zero
Had terror incident at last Olympic games?
Yes – guilty party caught years later by rookie cop
No
When I reflected on the above question, I came to the startling conclusion that the Chinese leadership may actually be better qualified for global leadership than the USA.
This is the answer I received to the question on who was the first to use St John’s Wort (SJW) for depression.
Introduction
It may seem strange but in a discussion on St John’s Wort, I asked the dumb questions “Who was the first use SJW for depression and why? Did they notice their goats were falling off cliffs or jumping around madly?”
The standard answer always with herbs, is somebody went with their intuition. The trouble is there is a big gap between the yellow flowers will make you happy to working out a dose of 300mg of the plant extract taken three times daily will relieve depression.
The Received Answer
The answer I received is that SJW came out of research and development in the noble medieval institution, the abbey. The Abbeys of the time were large economic institutions many of whom did train many monks in various specialities including herbal studies. While the abbeys were self-contained institutions some things had be bought from outside mostly for writing and the luxuries that could not be made locally. One of the more seemly goods an Abbey could produce was always pharmaceuticals.
One of the tasks that a young monk would be required to do is to develop a better understanding of a chosen herb. This would end up being the master work of the monk that he would be required to complete before he could leave the abbey and go to work at another place or start a new abbey. The monk would literally try out the herb. There were the occasional lethal failure and in the black book that was kept by the head herbalist monk, a notation was made that herb X was (bad pun) a dead end.
The young monk would normally pick something that was local and not too rare and not known to be lethal. Then he would check the background to this plant and see if there was any known value. Various parts of the plant would be ingested or extracted and the extracts taken. He would normally ask a couple of fellow monks to also take some to see how it affected them. It was explained that the SJW was a useful plant and that it was associated with the green/water or phlegmatic humour. It was used to treat or balance the yellow/fire or choleric humour. Lo and behold one of symptoms of the excess of choleric humour is irritability which happens to be sometimes a symptom of depression.
Since the above is an intuited answer to a question, I cannot defend the above answer.
Please note Marc Faber predicts the collapse of the US dollar leading to currency reform. Amero anyone?
Note to the Australian Prime Minister. Marc says that Afghanistan is a bottomless barrel, please get us out.
But wait there is more.
and
and
and
The economist Marc praises is John Taylor of Stanford University
It always is sad when good blog reaches the end of its life. Peteykins the author of Princess Sparkle Pony has decided not to continue Princess Sparkle Pony.
This blog is a good read and I would encourage anyone to read it while it is still up for the art and the gentle humour. (PSP has more talent in her little hoof tip than I have in my whole body)
Thank you Princess Sparkle Pony and I wish you all the best for the future.
One of the wonders of the internet is the recipes available. So when you encounter a vegetable that you have seen but never cooked, a simple search will find an enormous number of recipes. The original prompt was an SBS program on Croatian cuisine Stuffed_artichoke_(punjeni_articoke) . I saw the artichokes at the PCYC markets in Toowoomba and the price was right for a test. The artichokes were sold with stems, which is normally a good hint that some people like the stems. So my initial search was just for recipes. I then refined my search by adding stems and the simple roasting recipe by John Mitzewich Roast Artichokes Recipe. came up. The first reason for choosing John’s recipe is because steaming for 45 minutes for me is normally equivalent to boiling dry and you have start somewhere and the second reason was that I had all the necessary ingredients.
From John.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Ingredients:
4 whole large artichokes
2 lemons, halved
4 cloves garlic, peeled, left whole
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
Preparation:
Using a serrated knife, cut off the stem of the artichoke where it meets the base. Turn the artichoke around and cut off 1-inch of the top. Quickly rub each artichoke with a cut lemon so they don’t discolour.
Tear off 4 large square pieces of heavy-duty foil. Rub a few drops of olive oil on the foil and place an artichoke stem side down. Stick a clove of garlic into the center and push down an inch or so. Sprinkle over 1/4 tsp of salt. Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over the top. Finish by squeezing the half lemon over the top. The lemon juice will “wash” the salt and olive down in between the leaves. Gather up the corners of the foil and press together on top to tightly seal the artichoke (like a chocolate kiss). You can wrap in a second piece of foil if you don’t think you have a tight enough seal.
Repeat with the other artichokes. Pan in a roasting pan and bake at 425 degrees F. for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Let rest for 20 minutes before unwrapping and serving. Can be eaten hot, warm, or chilled.
My results
My artichokes were a bit on the small side. This meant I only used half a clove of garlic in each globe and I fear they were a little over cooked. Since the only palate I have to please is mineand I thoroughly enjoyed the slightly aniseed after-taste, this is a definite red hot go for a repeat except four artichokes aren’t enough.
Bill Clinton spoke at an event at the CNE or “Ex” the equivalent of Brisbanes “Ekka.” It would have gold if they had arranged to get Bubbles to sing “Liquor and Whores” with him.
Tinky Weisblat at her blog http://www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/ had a post titled “Pestapalooza” http://www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/?p=4203 . In this post she had a recipe for Panzanella. I would never have thought to combine lemons and tomatoes. I have been giving this recipe a bit of a try out. Obviously it was high summer in the northern hemisphere when Tinky wrote her post, so normally I would be a bit out of luck in the southern hemisphere however the only shortage was the fresh basil.
Basic Panzanella (after Tinky)
Tomatoes cut into cubes (a couple of tomatoes)
Basil (fresh is best)
Capers (1 teaspoonful)
Thin lemon slices.
Red wine vinegar to taste (will need enough to help soak bread).
Olive oil to taste (will need enough to help soak bread).
Bread toasted and cut into cubes.
Tinky recommends preparation 10 minutes before serving and ideally I would also stick to that.
I have found that everything but the bread can be combined before leaving for work. My variations on a theme include using Wendland lime infused olive oil, some olives and a couple of slices of apple. I found a nice stone-ground wheat loaf that seems to provide the kind of bread that goes well with this.
It does appear that the standard recipe for panzanella calls for onions not lemons. After my trials, I recommend the citrus themes and I am keen to give kumquats a go in this salad. As a personal note I find the lemon rind and all easier to digest and refreshing to the palate.
According to Stuart you will be able to buy this car out of the money in the petty cash tin in October 2011. For the pedants, Stuart threw a EUR20 note on the car and used the approximation of US$40 and Australia I would accept that this prophecy would be fulfilled if the car could be bought for the equivalent of AUD$50 in 2009 dollars and the event took place anywhere in the world.
On reflection on this video, a Lamborghini while possessing great design and engineering really has has one major single use and that is status symbol or for the vulgar, chick magnet. It is amazing how limited the places that you could actually drive this car. Would you even dare to take a child to school in fear that some soccer mum in a Toorak/Chelsea tractor or worse some senior with poor eyesight and on mind-altering meds might dent your car. You are even hard pressed to fit a weeks groceries in the car. (Yes, I know, if you own one of these then somebody else does the shopping.)
There is the minor use as a an alternate store of wealth. A surprising number of these cars are simply shrink-wrapped and destined to be sold by future heirs and heiresses to fund their lifestyles.
In healthy adults, tamiflu reduced the average length of time that symptoms lasted by 0.55 days, while relenza, cut it by an average of 0.57 days.
People at risk of complications, such as those with heart or lung problems, saw slightly more benefit – tamiflu cut the length of time they felt ill by 0.74 days and relenza by 0.98 days.
Please note people still have had flu.
I was intrigued because the above result seems very similar to the kind of results achieved by Vitamin C (ascorbic acid).
Curiously Vitamin C seems to have a marked effect of reducing colds under certain circumstances (events of high physical stress). I cannot recommend exceeding the standard dose guidelines, however the price of vitamin C versus lost productivity makes Vitamin C a worthy item of study. When you see the amount of VitaminC that is sold in the average pharmacy in Australia, if it was not working it would not be on the shelves.
I feel it useful to post the following reminder from Charles’ book
The known sources of happiness require little to no consumption:
1. health
2. friends
3. free time to pursue interests
4. spiritual communion/worship
5. exercise/sports/play
6. gardening
7. meaningful work (unpaid qualifies)
The experience of well-being has been so derealized that the sense of deprivation experienced at the loss of fine dining, Caribbean cruises, season tickets to the games, etc. is itself suspect.
