My missus was on TV yesterday, as part of her job with the RSPCA. Blink and you’ll miss it though, as they had a real live TV vet to do the talking.
Oh, the link might not work for you if you’re not in the UK, don’t use RealPlayer, or have gods currently frowning upon you. But it will have to do until I figure out how to convert it into a proper format.
China is being criticized pretty extensively of late for exporting all manner of products that don’t match consumer safety standards in their target markets. A stunning example of this is a bracelet sold at Hamleys (the UK equivalent of FAO Schwarz), which contained 93% lead. Did I say contained? Basically it was lead, with a bit of paint. You don’t need to know that the legal limit is 0.1% in the UK to realize that this might be a bad thing.
In that context, enjoy this quote from CNBC anchor Erin Burnett. I understand what she was trying to say, but boy did she mess it up. At least I hope it was a mistake.
“A lot of people like to say, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China — you know, if China were to revalue its currency, or China is to start making, say, toys that don’t have lead in them, or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up. And that means prices at Walmart, here in the United States, are going to go up too. So, I would say China is our greatest friend right now.They’re keeping prices low, and they’re keeping prices for mortgages low too.”
Eat lead, sucker.
I already really like this song, despite not being a traditional Weird Al fan, but this is just the sprinkles and the cherry on the icing on the cake:
This is truly a thing of beauty:
The US is preparing to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards force as a foreign terrorist unit, US media reports say.
If confirmed, this will be the first time official armed units of a sovereign state are included in the list of banned terrorist groups.
Now I’ve no idea if the Revolutionary Guard should be considered a terrorist unit; certainly they’re not ‘the good guys’, but I’m not sure if they qualify simply because I’m not sure what the definition of terrorist is (clue: there isn’t a definitive one). But let’s put that aside, and concentrate on the fact that they are ‘officially’ terrorists.
Iran gets a huge proportion of its income from oil (40-50% of the government budget). The Revolutionary Guard is funded by the Iranian government. That means that every time you buy gasoline you are directly funding terrorists*. When you choose a V8 instead of a V6, or an SUV instead of a regular car, you are explicitly saying that your need for more power than you could possibly need is more important than the life of an innocent civilian you’ve never met.
*I’m aware that in general you can’t specifically buy Iranian or non-Iranian oil, but the market price is set by total demand, so it doesn’t matter if you get your oil direct from a Texan well, you’re still helping terrorists.
