Wednesday, 22 September 2010

The man Sherwood in action...


For the man Stan - and may yr team win on Saturday...

'Pop Sinner' - From an interview with Paul Kelly on ABC's 7:30 Report 21/09/10

...KERRY O'BRIEN: You're very candid in the book about your period with heroin. You say, "Heroin was the one for me." You single out all the other drugs that were available, but you say, "Heroin was the one for me." It sounds like for a long time you told yourself you could use it, enjoy it, without succumbing to it. Is that right?
PAUL KELLY: Yeah. Well, it was - I had a relationship on and off with heroin for 20 years. Again, as I was saying before, when you - I didn't realise for a while that I was writing a memoir and once I realised I was, I realised certain things had to be spoken about.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Because it was so much a part of your life for that long.
PAUL KELLY: Well a part of my life.
KERRY O'BRIEN: A part of my life.
PAUL KELLY: But my sort of other rough rule of thumb for what stayed in the book and what wasn't was whether it was interesting, whether this particular chapter is an interesting piece of writing. And I thought I had something to say about heroin that was different to the usual narrative. I mean, you hear people - the usual sort of story of heroin is either a tragedy or redemption, you know. You go down with it, you don't get up; or you go down and you come up and you got the redemption story. And I thought there was - I just thought there was another story there.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And what is it?
PAUL KELLY: That, you know, people do use hard drugs recreationally and not all the time, that people can use drugs like heroin without having a habit. I never did. And that, at some point, you weigh up the costs against the benefits and at some point you think, "The costs are getting too much; I'll stop."
KERRY O'BRIEN: And what were the costs in the end for you?
PAUL KELLY: Um ... oh, there's a lot of costs. There's ...
KERRY O'BRIEN: You talk about the fact that towards the end, the coming down, that the coming down was taking much longer, that it was harder to come off it each time. That's the way I read it.
PAUL KELLY: I think it's like most drugs, including alcohol. You know, when you're young you can drink 20 beers in a night and get up the next day and play football. But, you know, I can't drink that much anymore without feeling the effects of it. So it's the same with any kind of drug. I think as you get older, you get - the toll gets - you can't go at it so hard.
KERRY O'BRIEN: But you - whether it was just that heroin was illicit or whether you felt something else about it, felt uncomfortable about it anyway I'm not sure, but for a long time there you were hiding it from others. You hid it from friends and family and colleagues, but you say that after a certain time you knew that they knew, that the - it was becoming obvious to people when you were using heroin.
PAUL KELLY: Yeah, I think - I mean, it's - I don't know whether it's a particular trait of heroin or just other drugs, but I think it is a kind of brainwasher so you sort of think you're getting away with it. And if you have any sorta clarity about it, you start to realise, well, you're not.
KERRY O'BRIEN: I've talked with James Taylor about his experience with heroin. He said that for him it was self-medication for depression, but that in the end it was too narrow, too stultifying. "I felt as though I lived on a postage stamp," he said. Does that ring any bells for you?
PAUL KELLY: Like I said, I think I had a different experience. I didn't ...
KERRY O'BRIEN: So you didn't come to it as a prop, you didn't come to it as an escape. For you it was - you were introduced to it as a recreational drug and that's how you saw yourself using it.
PAUL KELLY: Yeah. For a long time it worked like that.
KERRY O'BRIEN: So have you ever talked to your own kids about that experience? What would you - have you ever said to them, "I'd be relaxed if you tried it," or, "My advice to you is stay away?"
PAUL KELLY: Ohh, yeah, well, my conversations with my children is probably not something I wanna talk about. I'm sorry, Kerry.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well then let me put to it you this way: what would you now say to others who might consider using heroin?
PAUL KELLY: Ah, I wouldn't say anything at all. I think the last thing the world needs is pop sinners (sic) giving advice.
KERRY O'BRIEN: You're more than a pop singer.
PAUL KELLY: Well I'm certainly not someone who wants to give advice to people I don't know.
KERRY O'BRIEN: How hard was it to walk away from when you did?
PAUL KELLY: Not that hard.
KERRY O'BRIEN: You don't occasionally still miss it?
PAUL KELLY: Not anymore...

Despite Kerry O'Brien's intentions it was so refreshing to have a well respected Australian talk some sense about drugs (that we are NOT all the same) and as we are in the middle of Grand Final week here in Melbourne, chances are that 'the tabloid' won't pick up on this!

HA!


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Transparency Report: Government Requests

Nuclear power at heart of Russia's Arctic ambition


Could the Arctic become a battleground over control of large reserves of oil and gas thought to lie under the Arctic Sea, or will there be co-operation in the polar region? This will be a question for politicians and experts from around the world as they meet in Moscow.
In a grimy shipyard in St Petersburg, an ugly hulk of red-painted metal sits floating in the dock.
On deck, workmen scurry back and forth, hammering, drilling and welding.
In 2007, Artur Chilingarov planted a Russian flag on the Arctic seabed
This strange construction, part ship, part platform, is unique and lies at the heart of Russia's grand ambitions for the Arctic.
When it is completed in 2012, it will be the first of eight floating nuclear power stations which the government wants to place along Russia's north coast, well within the Arctic Circle.
The idea is the nuclear reactors will provide the power for Russia's planned push to the North Pole.
Moscow is claiming more than a million square kilometres of extra territory in the Arctic, stretching from its current border in the Arctic Sea, all the way to the Pole.
'Complicated and dangerous'
The area includes an underwater mountain range called the Lomonosov ridge, which some Russian scientists claim could hold 75 billion barrels of oil.
This is more than the country's current proven reserves.
"These [floating nuclear power stations] have very good potential, creating the conditions for exploring the Arctic shelf and setting up drilling platforms to extract oil and gas," says Sergey Zavyalov, deputy director of the operating company, Rosenergoatom.
"Work in the Arctic is very complicated and dangerous and we should ensure there's a reliable energy supply."
He says each power station, costing $400m, can supply electricity and heating for communities of up to 45,000 people and can stay on location for 12 years before needing to be serviced back in St Petersburg.
And while initially they will be positioned next to Arctic bases along the North coast, there are plans for floating nuclear power stations to be taken out to sea near large gas rigs.
"We can guarantee the safety of our units one hundred per cent, all risks are absolutely ruled out," says Mr Zavyalov...
Continue reading
Richard Galpin @'BBC'

Vatican Bank 'investigated over money-laundering'

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, file image  
The inquiry into Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has surprised the Vatican
The head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry, police sources say.
Prosecutors also seized 23m euros ($30m; £19m) from the bank's accounts with another smaller institution.
The inquiry was launched after two suspicious transactions were reported to tax police in Rome.
The Vatican said it was "perplexed and astonished", and expressed full confidence in Mr Tedeschi.
The Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), was created during World War II to administer accounts held by religious orders, cardinals, bishops and priests.
Police intervention
Rome magistrates are looking into claims that Mr Gotti Tedeschi and the bank's chief executive Paolo Cipriani violated laws that require banks to disclose information on financial operations.
The BBC's David Willey in Rome says the Bank of Italy's financial intelligence unit tipped off Italy's tax police last week, after two suspicious transactions were reported between the Vatican Bank and two different Italian banks.
The tax police seized 23m euros that the Vatican Bank had tried to transfer from a small Italian bank called Credito Artigianato.
Some 20m euros was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to another Italian bank, Banca del Fucino.
Reports say the Vatican Bank had failed to inform the financial authorities where the money had come from.
Past scandal
In a statement, the Vatican strongly defended its record.
"The Holy See is perplexed and astonished by the initiatives of the Rome prosecutors, considering the data necessary is already available at the Bank of Italy," the statement said.
And the Vatican also gave its backing to the two officials under investigation.
"The Holy See wants to express the maximum confidence in the president and in the chief executive of the IOR," it said.
Mr Gotti Tedeschi, who is an expert on financial ethics, has been in charge of the bank for a year. He was formerly head of Spanish bank Santander's Italian operations.
The Vatican Bank was last mired in scandal in 1982 when its governor Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was indicted over his involvement with the collapse of what was then Italy's largest private bank, Banco Ambrosiano.
Although he was never arrested, the fallout from that scandal took a darker turn when two of its top executives, one of them its chairman, Roberto Calvi, were murdered.
Calvi, known as God's Banker because of his close ties to the Vatican, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London.

US Supreme Court allows execution of Virginia woman

The US Supreme Court has refused to halt the Virginia execution of Teresa Lewis, scheduled for Thursday.
She is the first woman to face the death penalty in the US for five years.
Teresa Lewis, who has learning difficulties, conspired with two men to kill her husband and stepson in 2002, leaving a door unlocked so the gunmen could enter the family home.
Two of three women in the nine-judge court voted to halt the execution.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor voted against. but there was no other comment from the court.
Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell has said he will not commute the death penalty, despite claims Lewis, who pleaded guilty, has learning disabilities.
The two gunmen who carried out the killings received life sentences.
Lewis - due to die by lethal injection on Thursday - will be the first woman executed in Virginia since 1912.
Her lawyers filed a petition for executive clemency on 25 August 2010.
Declining to commute the sentence, Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell said: "Lewis does not deny that she committed these heinous crimes.
"Numerous psychiatrists and psychologists have analysed Lewis, both before and after her sentencing.
"After numerous evaluations, no medical professional has concluded that Teresa Lewis meets the medical or statutory definition of mentally retarded."
Lewis's husband, Julian Lewis, and stepson, Charles Lewis, were killed with shotgun blasts by Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller at their home in Danville, Virginia.
Fuller reportedly arranged a deal with prosecutors and received a life sentence.
Shallenberger - who was Lewis's lover - was also sentenced to life. Lewis's lawyers argue that he manipulated her.
Lewis was motivated by inheriting her husband's assets and her stepson's life insurance. She paid for the weapons and ammunition used in the murders.
Prosecutors said Lewis's husband was still alive after the shootings and that she waited 45 minutes before ringing police.
"I'm a little nervous... I'm also scared. But I am peaceful because I've got Jesus with me," Lewis said in an interview with CNN hours before her appeal for clemency was denied. 

Urban legends about illegal drugs

Vaughan vaughanbell Drug testing circulated euro banknotes. Heroin traces found on 90%; Cocaine on every single one. http://is.gd/flOuI

William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin - The Third Mind (PDF)

Corruption arrests over California city pay scandal

♪♫ Hidden Orchestra - Wandering (Live)

♪♫ MC Soom T - They All Lie

Naomi Klein NaomiAKlein < Isn't Bono's RED all about buying lots of corporate crap to show how much we care about poverty? What's the difference? http://is.gd/flly7

Twitter scrambles to block worms