UN takes vigorous action on Zimbabwe

Well, they might have put down some sanctions, except that Russia and China cast their vetos Their reason, in which South Africa joined, was that the situation there was not a threat to international peace.

Moral: if you’re a dictator, destroy only your own people, and you can count on full co-operation from Russia and China, who after all know a few things about the dictator business.

[Full story at the link is from a news organization which shares the same initials as Animal Planet.]

Iran gives a dam

…To Nicaragua, that is

Iran’s plan to build a $200 million hydroelectric dam in this energy-starved country is raising concerns here and in Washington about its mounting influence in Latin America.
The plant proposal is part of a push to wean this oil-addicted country — 80 percent of electricity is supplied by fuel-burning plants — off increasingly expensive crude and help stem an energy crisis that has created electricityrationing blackouts.
The dam is the latest among a handful of projects that Iran plans to build in Central America’s most impoverished nation. Others include the construction of 10,000 homes for the poor, providing 4,000 farming tractors, and a joint effort with Venezuela to link deep-water container ports on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. In turn, Nicaragua is to export coffee and other products to Iran.

Israel tells Hezbollah it’s okay to murder Israelis

The Israeli cabinet has approved exchanging an unspecified number of Palestinians, several bodies, four Lebanese prisoners, and a brutal murderer for the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping by Hezbollah provoked the ultimately failed Israeli invasion of Lebanon two years ago.

Details via Yahoo News at this link. Story is from the news organization whose initials are the same as Animal Planet, which is why I’m not quoting it here.

If you want to get out of a burning plane

For the best chance of getting out alive from a burning aircraft, people should choose an aisle seat near the front within five rows of an emergency exit.

The further you are from a usable exit (meaning one that you can actually get out of, which is not always the case with so called emergency exits), the more likely you will be, you should excuse the expression, toast.

Commissioned by the Civil Aviation Authority and carried out by Greenwich University, the study found that the seats with the best survival rate were in the emergency exit row and the row in front or behind it. Between two and five rows from the exit, passengers still have a better than even chance of escaping in a fire but “the difference between surviving and perishing is greatly reduced”.

The most dangerous seats are those six or more rows from an exit. The study says: “Here, the chances of perishing far outweigh those of surviving.”

Passengers sitting towards the front of the aircraft had a 65 per cent chance of escaping a fire, while the survival rate for those at the rear was 53 per cent. The survival rate in aisle seats was 64 per cent, compared with 58 per cent for other passengers.

The group that is responsible for the study then of course used the results as an excuse to whine how horrible it was that people could book those better seats online or by paying extra for them.

Myself, I always try to sit on an aisle seat, and try to get as far up as I can, not because I’m thinking of the plane crashing, but because that way I can get off the plane as quickly as possible, with as few people as possible impeding my way.

Full article is at the Times of London.
H/T Hot Air.

Let’s move to Forvik

The weather of course might be a bit bracing–it’s in the Shetlands.

LONDON (Reuters) - The owner of a tiny island in off Scotland declared its independence from the United Kingdom on Saturday, saying he wanted the territory, population one, to be a crown dependency like the Channel Islands.
In a declaration on his Web site, Stuart Hill, who owns the 2.5 acre island of Forvik in the Shetland Islands in the North Sea, said he no longer recognised the authority of the government or the European Union, and cited a centuries-old royal marriage dowry deal as the basis for his claim.
“Forvik owes no allegiance to any United Kingdom government, central or local, and is not bound by any of its statutes,” Hill wrote.

If you want to have a wedding that’s out of this world…

Pink Tentacle reports

Space transportation provider Rocketplane Kistler Japan has teamed up with wedding planner First Advantage to begin hosting weddings aboard the Rocketplane XP suborbital spaceplane. A cool 240 million yen ($2.2 million) buys you a wedding ceremony aboard a 1-hour space flight that reaches an altitude of more than 100 kilometers (62.1 miles), as well as a photo and video album, original dress, wedding certificate and other ceremonial items. The otherworldly price tag also includes the cost of transportation to and from the launch site, accommodations, a live broadcast of the ceremony to friends and family at a reception hall on the ground, and 4 days of rehearsal. The space wedding services are scheduled to begin in 2011, but the group will start accepting applications early next month.

The website is in Japanese only, so I guess they’re not offering this to Americans…yet.

UN Human Rights Council finds a new country to criticize

Those evil British.  No written constitution and a monarchy that’s never been approved by a public vote!

The UN Human Rights Council, where are found such stalwart champions of freedom as Cuba and Saudi Arabia has called for the United Kingdom to hold referenda on the monarchy and the possibility of a written constitution with a Bill of Rights.

I’ll see your 4 and raise you 17

A Japanese man researching clovers had come up with a 21 leaf clover. The previous record, 18 leaves, also came from his garden. And now he’s thinking he might find clovers with higher counts.

Picture and details at Pink Tentacle.