Not especially on-topic, admittedly, but: extreme shepherding!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw[/youtube]
FLU TIPS: raise your pork-barrel spending
From Indrani Sen at the NYT:
Swine flu, or H1N1 flu, cannot be transmitted through pork or pork products, experts and public health officials have repeatedly reassured us. Yet several countries have banned American pork, and Egypt last week culled thousands of pigs. Here in America, some consumers are steering clear of pork chops, pork commodity prices have fallen, and hog farmers’ worry that the flu will make a large dent in sales.
It’s a perfect excuse to declare my personal “Support Pork Week.” How often can one feel righteous about eating pork?
Jennifer Small, co-owner of Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY, applauded my selfless decision. “That’s what I like to hear!” she told me, before laying out a slightly daunting schedule: “You can start with bacon for breakfast on day one,” she said. “Then on day two you can have a ham sandwich at lunch. Sausage and peppers and onions for dinner on day three. Then you can take the leftovers and eat them for breakfast on day four. On day five for lunch you can eat one of those awesome Vietnamese sandwiches, or even better, a Cuban sandwich from Harlem… I think a pork liver pâté as an hors d’oeuvre on day six. On day seven, if I had my way, I’d do something like proscuitto and eggs for breakfast.”
Hear, hear. Dedicated readers may recall that, back in those halcyon pre-swine-flu days, I was already preaching the joys of the Bacon Explosion, a novel BBQ recipe that could keep Jennifer Small in funds for some time. Next up, why not try a Bacon Crust Pizza?*
* Of course I know why, but it won’t give you swine flu!
EU more popular in America than UK
An intriguing graphic from E!Sharp, the European policy magazine:
Labour takes battle with far right to new level
There is growing concern that Labour party in-fighting may benefit the far right British National Party in forthcoming elections. So a media wrangler should surely have checked out the posters on display at a school the PM visited today…
The Mafia goes green
The FT has an interesting story today about an investigation into Mafia involvement in multi-million-euro wind farm deals in Sicily.
Italian and EU subsidies for the building of wind farms and the world’s highest guaranteed rates, €180 ($240, £160) per kwh, for the electricity they produce have turned southern Italy into a highly attractive market exploited by organised crime.
‘Turned’? Shurely it always was…
A criminal investigation called “Operation Wind” revealed Mafia promises to local officials in Mazara del Vallo of money and votes in exchange for help in approving wind farm projects.
The Mafia suspects were alleged to be linked to Matteo Messina “Diabolik” Denaro, a fugitive clan boss on ltaly’s most wanted list.
Prosecutors suspect the hand of the Mafia in fixing permits and building wind farms that are then sold on to Italian and eventually foreign companies.
Several wind farms built by companies suspected of being linked to the Mafia have not functioned for one or two years, in some cases because of shoddy construction. “This is the amazing thing, that developers got public money to build wind farms which did not produce electricity,” the prosecutor said.
This is not the first massive scam in the renewable sector, nor will it be the last. Governments are about to throw hundreds of billions of dollars at this sector, oversight will be low, and the opportunities for rip-offs will be huge.