THE UK HAS A HUNG PARLIAMENT

Very few Americans are interested, but, for the record, the United Kingdom voted today, and, according to exit polls, the Conservatives (305--David Cameron) will have more members in Parliament than the Labor Party (255--Gordon Brown, who replaced Tony Blair), but will fall short of the 324 majority, meaning there will be a hung lower House of Commons. The upper House of Lords is ceremonial. This means that whichever party can garner the support of minor parties to reach a majority will choose the Prime Minister. While the Liberal Democrats will only receive around 60 votes, their leader, Nick Clegg, was the star of the national debate. This could lead to a

three party nation. Cameron and Clegg are both 43 years old. Cameron is a direct descendent of King William IV. Clegg studied a year at the University of Minnesota and was an intern under Christopher Hitchens at The Nation. Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett are well-read atheist authors known as the "Four Hoursemen." They are all well covered in my Chapter 5 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity, now being serialized as THE GOLDEN EVOLUTION. Anyway, things will be a poitical mess in London for couple of months. Queen Elizabeth II will open the new Parliament on May 25.

-

It was a wild day on Wall Street as the Dow Jones Industrials, almost an hour from the final bell, suddenly crashed 700 points, dropping the Dow south of 10,000, nearly 1,000 points below the starting point today. (See performance on the right.) This was the largest drop in one day in the history of the stock market. If you think you dropped a few bucks, it was reported that Larry Ellison of Oracle lost $1.35 billion today.

However, the DJIA then in half an hour skyrocketed 600 points to only end minus 348 at 10,520. There, apparently, was a technical programming glitch, but the Volatility Index (VIX) reached a one year high, indicating increasing investor anxiety. While this 3.2% decline is significant, the stock markets in Japan and Mexico fell nearly 4% and Brazil 5%. The Dow remains about 1% higher for the year and 25% above a year ago. Gold rose $22/toz to $1197 and oil sunk below $78/barrel, a $10/barrel drop just this week. While a sinking market, upsurge in gold and fall in the price of petroleum seem like the standard reaction to a coming double dip recession, all fingers seem to be pointing instead to the metastability of Greece, with future fears for Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal. Call them the European PIIGS.

-

Welcome, my 151st nation to Planet Earth and Humanity:

GUERNSEY POPULATION: 65,484

« Previous Country | Next Country » Back to Top Countries

Background

Guernsey and the other Channel Islands represent the last remnants of the medieval Dukedom of Normandy, which held sway in both France and England. The islands were the only British soil occupied by German troops in World War II. Guernsey is a British crown dependency, but is not part of the UK or of the European Union. However, the UK Government is constitutionally responsible for its defense and international representation.

Geography People Government Economy Communications Transportation Military

Map data ©2010 Europa Technologies - Terms of Use

-

Well, Kenji's Green Safari stopped by Trader Joe's in Solano, proceeded to drop me off at the Westin south of Market Street and drove on to the San Francisco Airport for their return flight to Honolulu. This is the view from my room:

If you look to the left, you can barely see the Golden Gate Bridge. At sunset, the view is clear.

I had my traditional lunch at the Tadich Grill. Below my filet sole with salad and a chardonnay:

Service by Anton was efficient:

-

CINCO DE MAYO 2010

Two years ago I reported on Cinco de Mayo (fifth of May) as:

Most of you don't know that Cinco de Mayo is only celebrated in the U.S. as a kind of Mexican Heritage Day, akin to St. Patrick's Day and Ohktoberfest (which begins in Germany in September) mostly for the liquor consumed. In Mexico, May 5 represents a minor 1862 battle victory over the French, but it took another five years before Independence was attained. These excuses for drinking to excess make life all that more tolerable, I guess.

In 2010, most Americans celebrated over the weekend, again, so the volume of alcohol consumption could be maximized, but today, May 5, is the official day. Even President Barack Obama held his reception yesterday, remarking "Welcome to Cinco de Cuatro," not quite the "Cuatro de Mayo," he wanted, and went on to mentioning that the Phoenix Suns would be wearing "Los Suns" uniforms in their game with the San Antonio Spurs. The politics of immigration have provided a new meaning to this Latino celebration, and normal celebrations might have been subdued because of this Nazi Germany-like action in Arizona.

For those not into tequila and margarita, click on The Star Ledger for a few Mexican recipes. If you instead insist on maximizing your volumetric input of ethanol, watch out for DUI patrols. Vote on who makes the best margarita in Arizona by going to About.com.Phoenix. Texas is also known for this drink. Then, there are those who go to extreme lengths and incorporate creative ingredients.

-

The Dow Jones Industrials fell 59 to10,868, with the Japan Nikkei down 3% to 10,714. All markets were lower today, probably in fear of Greece and what is happening in Europe. Gold went up $5/toz to $1177 and crude oil dropped below $80/barrel.

-

The Green Safari has been invited to a Manager's BBQ Cinco de Mayo reception where some of us are staying. Earlier today we completed our marathon play at Paradise Valley in Fairfield, possibly the best

course of the seven we experienced. David Block almost won today, and Kenji Sumida was awarded a grand sum of $12 for the worst total performance for the entire tour. Lefty Yamamoto, of course, came in #1.

Immodesty prevents me from reporting other details. There was unanimous consent that Hisui 2 was the best restaurant of the tour.

-

THE GOLDEN EVOLUTION (Part 32): Then There is Richard Dawkins

The following continues the serialization of Chapter 5 on Religion from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Huanity:

Then, There is Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist from Oxford and popular science writer, who because of his advocacy of natural selection and Darwin, has necessarily become a critic of organized religion and the reality of God, as earlier indicated. We must be around the same age, for he obtained his first college degree in zoology in 1962 when I gained mine for chemical engineering. He went on to a PhD and a DSci. He was referred to by Charles Simonyi (who endowed the chair Dawkins holds at Oxford) as Darwin’s rottweiler, and is more popularly now known as the nearest thing to a professional atheist since Bertrand Russell. Dawkins is vitriolic in his comments on creationism and intelligent design, and hates religious dogma. Well, we have very similar views.

In the midst of writing this chapter I chanced to ask him how he could be so brave as to risk an Islamic fatwa or bullet from a crazed assassin, for he has an in your face style and tells it like he sees it, in a nice sort of way. His immediate response was that these potential threats just were not that important, and he doesn’t let it bother him. Unfortunately, as I kept gently pressing him on this point, and wondered if he knew if Sam Harris (The End of Faith, a truly scathing treatment of Islam) had any problems, he seemed to begin to become concerned, and somewhat muttered so. If he did, I should feel sorry for this. He did indicate that he knew of no fatwa on Harris, and that he has never had a life-threatening incident, or anything even remotely close. He had no bodyguard on our campus.

What this discussion did, however, was strengthen my resolve to not be so wishy washy and Pollyannaish about the future of religion. I strongly considered changing the Golden Evolution to the Golden Termination, but did not, for while the ultimate conclusion of the Golden Evolution could well be a termination, one simple solution could well blend the positives into an almost utopian answer for humanity.

Dawkins began to doubt at about the age of nine, same as me. He, though, was reconverted, but, at sixteen, learned of evolution, which began to lead him astray of religion, again. I have a sense that Darwin being British had at least a small amount of influence on his beliefs, for, in his lecture at the University of Hawaii in 2007, Dawkins showed a PowerPoint slide of the English 10 pound note with the face of guess who, when he commented that the American bills featured “In God We Trust.”

My Bible of Atheism is, no doubt, The God Delusion. In sequence, I provide a sampling of his thoughts:

o While 95% of Americans would vote for a woman as President, and 92% for a black person, only 49% would consider an atheist (pg. 4).

o Albert Einstein is quoted to have said, “I do not believe in God” (pg. 15).

o The Templeton prize usually goes to a scientist who is prepared to say something nice about religion (pg. 19). Winners have included Charles Townes, John Polkinghorne (2002), Freeman Dyson (2000), Paul Davies (1995), Charles Colson (1993, who served for President Nixon, and also served time in a federal prison for Watergate-related crimes), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1983), Billy Graham (1982) and Mother Theresa (1973, the year the award was first bestowed).

o “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynist, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully” (pg. 31).

o Why is the U.S., a secular government, the most religious Christian country, while the U.K., with an established church, among the least (pg. 40)?

o Thomas Jefferson said, “Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man,” and Benjamin Franklin remarked, “lighthouses are more useful than churches” (pg. 43). Abraham Lincoln also said, “The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession…

o The four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) made the current Bible more or less arbitrarily, from at least a dozen, including James, Thomas, Peter, Nicodemus, Philip, Bartholomew and Mary Magdalene (pg. 95).

o Regarding the 72 virgins to Muslim martyrs, the term “virgins” is a mistranslation of a type of white raisin (pg. 96). This simple mistake has probably been the cause of countless tragedies, including 9/11.

o Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is a theist, but a rarity among top scientists (pg. 98).

o Only 3.3% of Royal Society members agree with the statement that a personal god exists (pg. 102, relative to the 5% of biological National Academy of Sciences members).

o The higher one’s intelligence or education level, the less one is likely to be religious (pg. 103, and that intelligence parameter might well explain the low belief rate of National Academy members).

o We do not need God in order to be good – or evil (pg. 226).

I had written most of this chapter before reading his books or meeting him, and had already included some of the above examples, so I deleted my statements and gave him the honor of citation. If there is any book I can recommend on religion, that would be The God Delusion.

-

The Dow Jones Industrials sunk 225 to 10,927, while world markets mostly dropped, with the Japan Nikkei now at 11,057. Gold decreased $12/toz to $1172 and crude oil lost more than 4.5% to $82/barrel.

-

The Green Safari cruised through Napa Valley, and enjoyed the cuisine at Ristorante Allegria, very highly rated by Zagat's. Their lunch box special was particularly outstanding, where I had their Napa Cabbage Salad, Teriyaki Skirt Steak and a Cabernet Sauvignon sorbet, all exceptional. No wine here because we were already saturated from all the Merlot at the Green Street GC.

Notwithstanding our earlier infusion, we then went on to Mario's tasting room, Andretti Winery:

We ended at Black Stallion Winery. In general, it would be recommended to stop by the Napa Tourist Bureau to pick up half price coupons, otherwise you could be paying as much as $30 to do any tasting. The standard pouring for this price is normally 5 different one ounce portions.

-

UPDATE ON EYJAFJALLAJOKULL AND DEEPWATER HORIZON

Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which erupted in March, then again in April, continues to be active. In fact, over the past weekend, the lava flow was the largest ever, and, whoops, Ireland has just banned flights, again.

One can't help but wonder if there was an overreaction by government to curtail air travel. Airlines are indicating that losses amounted to $2 billion, so, surely, you can add at least another billion for other damages. It is reported, in comparison, that the Chilean 8.8 earthquake (486 deaths) in February might have resulted in up to $7 billion in damages.

The world went bonkers to control swine flu and regularly enhances airport security with every new hiccup. We are treating the Gulf oil spill as a calamity of record proportions, which it is not. I wonder if the media are the reason or perhaps the Chicken Little mentality of the world populace. Or the nature of government, which is first to protect your own job, so cover your rear, for you will not be fired for adding to the "crying wolf" syndrome.

Another thing about wells. I served as one of the reservoir engineers for the Hawaii Geothermal Project, when we successfully in 1975 completed a 3.5 MW system at Puna (Big Island of Hawaii). Of course, we used a blow-out protection valve, a guillotine-like device that automatically seals the well. Well, all these systems have a similar device, but something went wrong with the BP rig explosion.

Built by Hyundai Heavy industries, the drilling platform, Deepwater Horizon, had last year successfully drilled an oil well at a depth of 35,000 feet, the deepest ever. Thus a mere 5,000 foot depth (from the surface) well was routine. The lease price was half a million dollars/day. Thus, BP saying it was not their fault (but will nevertheless pay the clean-up costs...which could run into billions), can be understood, for they were paying a contractor responsible for the drilling. Anyway, a giant metal box is being built to capture and collect (siphon) the oil. Also being considered is a diagonal well, robotics and so on.

-

The Dow Jones Industrials experienced a happy day, up 143 to 11,152, while world markets were mixed. Gold went up $4/toz to $1184 and crude oil is just about at $86/barrel.

-

The Green Safari continued today at the Cypress Lakes GC. The bottom three (of eight) is being monopolized by David Block, Kenji Sumida and yours truly. Here, they are seen with Lefty and friend at Travis Air Force Base.

-

*ALBANIA, ROSEWOOD, MAYWEATHER AND CHARLIE PALMER'S

There are 195 countries, although only 192 have membership in the United Nations, plus Vatican City (chosen not to), Kosovo (just established in 2008 and hasn't quite become internationally recognized) and Taiwan (because China has a lot of influence). I have reached a major milestone: my 150th country just visited this blog site:

ALBANIA POPULATION: 3,639,453

« Previous Country | Next Country » Back to Top Countries

Background

Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, but was conquered by Italy in 1939. Communist partisans took over the country in 1944. Albania allied itself first with the USSR (until 1960), and then with China (to 1978). In the early 1990s, Albania ended 46 years of xenophobic Communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The transition has proven challenging as successive governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, a dilapidated physical infrastructure, powerful organized crime networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made progress in its democratic development since first holding multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. International observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid schemes in 1997; however, there have been claims of electoral fraud in every one of Albania's post-communist elections. In the 2005 general elections, the Democratic Party and its allies won a decisive victory on pledges to reduce crime and corruption, promote economic growth, and decrease the size of government. The election, and particularly the orderly transition of power, was considered an important step forward. Albania joined NATO in April 2009 and is a potential candidate for EU accession. Although Albania's economy continues to grow, the country is still one of the poorest in Europe, hampered by a large informal economy and an inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure.

Geography People Government Economy Communications Transportation Military

Map data ©2010 Europa Technologies - Terms of Use

-

The Green Safari continued today at the Rosewood Lakes Golf Course:

While I came in last, there are strategic advantages to this clever move, as I had two strokes added to my handicap and won $3. We are now just outside Napa Valley and the weather shifted from freezing into the 80's. Anyone interested in tire chains? Cheap!

Dinner was at the Quality Inn in Vacaville, where the restaurant is owned by someone from Hawaii. The saimin was, well, not quite the same as previously remembered.

I should have mentioned that my dinner last night was at Charlie Palmer's in Reno, where I had a Caesar salad accompanying a New York strip steak topped with a frizzled foie gras. The romaine was purposefully wilted (I hope) and had just too much dressing, while the steak was overpoweringly coated with too much wine sauce. Okay, but expensive. Service was also trying. The dress requirement was casual elegant, which means, in Reno, you can wear shorts and slippers. No wine because David Block and I had just finished a bottle of cabernet while viewing the free Mayweather-Mosley fight on twenty screens in the sports book room before the meal. Pacquiao next? Anyway, I was the only one in the group to experience Palmer's trifecta at the Grand Sierra: steakhouse, Fin Fish and Biscola (Italian).

Yes, this is a casino. The first night, Kenji and I played the poker machine, and I donated $20 into the device. An hour later, I still had around $10+, so saved the ticket. Leaving dinner last night, and totally exhausted, I thought I would quickly lose this sum, and looked for the $2 million slots (why not win a lot of money), but they were occupied (a big night because the most elaborate Cinco de Mayo celebration in the region was ongoing here, there was also that boxing match and this being Saturday), so settled for an Elvis creation. Penny, with 50 or so options. Down to 46 cents when I pressed my last attempt, the machine went crazy, with noise and lights and Elvis singing Jail House Rock: I won $129.86. I cashed this in, so I will be ahead $109.86 on this trip, unless we go to an Indian casino in California. Actually, make that $112.66 because I bet $10 for Mayweather to win, and made $2.80. Maybe some wine tasting tomorrow.

-

Total visitors to blog site: 37,841

Visitors this week: 793

Number of countries:150

-

-

HOW SERIOUS IS THE GULF OIL SPILL?

The British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now up to 11 million barrels as I write this posting just exceeded the 1989 Alaska Exxon Valdez (EV) disaster. The EV financial fallout cost about $8.5 billion (including lawsuits*). The BP cataclysm is expected to exceed this figure.

However, the much publicized $5+ billion punitive damage adjudication remains bouncing back and forth in court. Exxon did cough up about $3 billion for cleanup and assorted smaller suits. The Exxon Valdez is now owned by Hong Kong company and is now called the Dong Fang Ocean.

For the record, these two spills are picayune by world standards:

#1 Persian Gulf, sabotage by Iraq prior to leaving Kuwait 1991, up to 420 million gallons.

#2 Another Gulf of Mexico blowout, 1979, 138 million gallons.

#3 Collision of Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain, off Trinidad/Tobago, 1979, 90 milion gallons.

Yes, impacted industries in the Gulf could be crippled, but that #1 spill above apparently did very little real environmental damage. You've got to wonder if the media, lawyers and nation of sheep are behind most of this cost in the U.S.

There are more than 4,000 oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. While only numbering 27, the coastal platform locations of any similar spill are such that the damages will be cataclysmic to the economy of California.

On March 31, President Barack Obama opened up drilling the Gulf, Atlantic and parts of Alaska. Something tells me there will now be a loud retraction. Also look for a call for removal of those platforms near those populated cities of California.

How will this spill affect global warming / energy policy? More nuclear, I suspect.

-

The Shanghai Expo began today with the usual fireworks. More money is being spent by China for this extravaganza than for their recent Olympics. I'll be there at the end of October. I go to all world expos.

-