November 19, 2009 BBC World
Soldiers. Charioteers. Archers. Musicians. Generals. Acrobats. Nearly 2,000 years ago, thousands of life-size clay figures were buried in massive underground pits to accompany China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, into the afterlife. Their discovery outside the city of Xi'an in 1974 is one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century.

Now, you can stand face-to-face with these terra cotta warriors. In November 2009, National Geographic Museum will host Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor, an exhibition featuring treasures from the tomb complex including 15 life-size figures, weapons, armor, coins, and more. Don't miss this chance to see the largest collection of significant artifacts from China ever to travel to the United States. Learn more...

Boy, that's a pretty big jump. The new numbers include deaths indirectly caused by flu complications like pneumonia:

Swine flu has killed nearly 4,000 people in the US, including 540 children, officials said after devising a new counting method.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the new system is based on more precise figures provided by 10 states.

The previous estimated death toll from the H1N1 virus in the US was 672.

Latest figures show about 22 million Americans contracted the virus in six months with some 98,000 hospitalised.

"This is just the first six months and I am expecting all of these numbers, unfortunately, to continue to rise," said Dr Anne Schuchat of the CDC.

She said that, although still imprecise, the new statistics provide "a bigger picture of what has been going on in the first six months of the pandemic".

The CDC now estimates that 3,900 people in the US have died from the virus in the past six months.

Dr Schuchat said that in children under 18, an estimated eight million have had swine flu, with 36,000 hospitalised and 540 deaths.

The new estimated death toll for children is four times higher than the previous estimate.

"We will be updating the toll that the pandemic has taken... about every three to four weeks," she said.

November 12, 2009 BBC World
FOURTEEN months after Sabi went missing, in the same firefight that led to SAS Trooper Mark Donaldson being awarded a Victoria Cross, the much-loved veteran explosive sniffer dog has returned to barracks.

(The Jags in 1979 - Catchy and hook-laden, but not sustainable)

A bit of late 70s UK Power-Pop this time. The Jags were one of the mainstays of KROQ here in L.A. around 1979. Not really considered Punk or New Wave, but not really mainstream either - sort of falling into that miscellaneous category that just sounded good, played catchy memorable songs but didn't last more than a couple albums. They broke up in 1982.

There were a lot of those kinds of bands from the late 70s to early 80s, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. They were not destined to change your life, but rather go along with it and provide the soundtrack to places, times and people.

Here is a live concert, recorded by the BBC at their Paris Theatre in London in 1979. A lot of familiar material.

And for some reason, I remembered exactly where I was when I first heard each of those songs.

The opening to the movie version of Hitchhiker's Guide, not as good as the BBC version, imo, but then this movie version had a bigger budget. It turns out** that's not always a good thing in entertainment.

**Douglas Adams in The Salmon of Doubt: “Incidentally, am I alone in finding the expression ‘it turns out’ to be incredibly useful? It allows you to make swift, succinct, and authoritative connections between otherwise randomly unconnected statements without the trouble of explaining what your source or authority actually is. It’s great. It’s hugely better than its predecessors ‘I read somewhere that...’ or the craven ‘they say that...’ because it suggests not only that whatever flimsy bit of urban mythology you are passing on is actually based on brand new, ground breaking research, but that it’s research in which you yourself were intimately involved. But again, with no actual authority anywhere in sight.”

Open thread below.

(The Kinks in 1977 - changes in the air)

Back to the 70s this week with The Kinks. A 1977 concert from The Rainbow in London, recorded by the BBC.

Vintage Kinks and vintage Ray Davies.

(And some still think otherwise)

It's incredible that at this late date there are people still convinced the idea of Global Warming is the thing of hoaxes and myths. Even more incredible to think we had an administration so wrapped around the fingers of the Petroleum Industry that the EPA, an agency brought about for the protection of just plain folks, was gutted to the point of extinction because arrogance had the upper hand and propaganda still pollutes the discussion.

In 2004 BBC Radio 4 ran a series of documentaries on Global Warming where much of the fault was laid at the odoriferous feet of the Bush Administration and the arrogant denial anything could possibly be wrong. And anyone with the audacity to question was sent packing.

Jeremy Simons (former EPA chief under Clinton): “Often in the climate change debate new scientific studies emerge, and there was a new scientific study at the time that was funded in part by the American Petroleum Institute. It’s been very controversial. They wanted that study referenced and they wanted to take out language that had been approved by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences that said climate change was a real and established threat. They wanted to basically sow confusion into the debate on the science . . . there has definitely been a growing rift between the White House and EPA. EPA really is an agency in crisis right now. Because the White House has an agenda, they know what their environmental agenda is – it’s closely aligned with what Industry wants it to pursue, and that doesn’t often match up with what the sciences . . .EPA staff objectives are actually fairly straightforward; it’s to get good information out, and that’s been a conflict with the spin that the White House has wanted to put on environmental measures.”

And five years later . . .

(As always, China looks at things a teensy bit differently than we do)

I've been working on getting a world overview of the Healthcare situation. Earlier this week I ran a debate over Health Care in Australia, hearing about issues we only hear rumors about. I kept wondering if in fact, the U.S. was the only country in the civilized (or even semi-civilized) world that didn't have some form of National Health, even as an option to private insurance. Hard to believe, but it's true - we are completely backwards in our relationships to health and healthcare.

Thanks to the BBC, I was able to locate a documentary done in 2008 which asked that very question - and did some exploring in Britain, the U.S. and China and came back with some interesting and very informative answers.

John McDonough (Director: Health Care For All): “All of the incentives, right now in our system reward Health Care providers for the volume of services they provide. So you get more money by doing more and more and more at a higher technological level. And we know the real secret comes from doing the lower complexity level of care much better than what’s being now. So all the rewards come from more procedures. And the more talking you do, the more time you waste and the less money you make. The incentives are completely upside down”.

The one thing I have noticed that's most disturbing about the current Health Care debate is the total lack of knowledge of what the issues and what the alternatives are. Clearly, ignorance is far from bliss and finding out how the vast majority of people on this planet handle things like doctor visits and emergencies is absolutely imperative if we're going to make crucial choices. Having ignorant people dangle the fear card in front of you doesn't do you or anyone else any good. Useful, factual information and knowledge of something your life and peace of mind depends on may save your ass in the long run.

(The 1970s - beneath the tinsel, more tinsel)

Hard to imagine the 1970s as a decade of turmoil and self-doubt. Compared to the last nine years of this decade, the 70s seem almost sane and dull by comparison. But I guess it proves the point that every decade, no matter which one is loaded with fear, anxiety, loathing and self-doubt. Just seems natural, in a strange way.

A few years ago, BBC Radio 4 aired a documentary in three parts called "The 1970's: The Decade of Self-Doubt".

It primarily covers the financial, social and political upheavals that took place in Britain from 1970-1979. Some of the issues don't apply that much to America in the 1970s, but there are enough to feel an eerie sense of deja-vu coming on, particularly with the Women's Movement and the rise to power of Margaret Thatcher.

But a lot of it deals with the financial and labor problems that beset England right at the end of 1969 and continuing on throughout the 1970s, such as the continuing labor troubles at the National Theatre as recalled by Sir Peter Hall:

Sir Peter Hall: “The country was having a prolonged nervous breakdown, and there was obviously a very serious situation about the power of the unions and how much a democratic society the unions could actually do to the rest of the society. The National Theatre, I found to my horror was a kind of metaphor for the whole country. We had unofficial strikes, we had pickets declared official by unofficial strikers so that the actors wouldn’t cross the picket We had Workers Revolutionary Party Shop Stewards unfurling red flags on the top of the National Theatre. We had an unholy alliance among the stage staff, between the kind of extreme right-wing South London heavy mob, and the extreme Trotskyites.”

Much of what happened in England in the 1970s wound up visiting us in the 1980s via the Reagan Years and the Bush years.

This is part one and two of a three part series. I will post the third and final installment later on this week.

October 09, 2009 BBC World

(Lambchop - eclectic and thankfully so)

In case you haven't been to any live gigs of late, and are convinced music died when Winterland closed, I'm here to tell you it's not true. Lambchop are one of those bands that defy description and would fit nicely into any decade - they are just good music and they are wonderful to listen to, and that's something that transcends any year.

Here is a short set from them, recorded by BBC Leicester during the Leicester Summer Sundae festival on August 14, 2004.

I would wholeheartedly recommend checking out their website, checking out their albums, checking them out live and doing whatever you can do to support them.

Bands like this don't grow on trees.

(Skip Bifferty - same old story. One album, bunch of singles - on to other things)

It's almost beyond funny how many bands there were who got together, did one album, a bunch of singles and called it a day, or went off to other things. Skip Bifferty were no different.

They did release one great album in 1968 which went completely unnoticed in the States (I can't figure out why other than it was on RCA, which speaks volumes). They did a number of sessions for the BBC and had a decent modicum of popularity. But the vagaries of pop music being timeless, they lasted less than two years before packing it in and going their separate ways.

But they did leave this nice single - Man In Black.

Always nice to leave a place better than when you found it, right?

Thanks to the BBC, the missile defense debate can be greatly simplified.

Here's what Bush proposed and what the neocons are hyperventilating over the ending of plans for:

And here's the coverage of the AEGIS ship-based system proposed by Obama:

As you can see, coverage against actual, rather than imaginary, threats is marginal at best, and under the Bush plan was almost non-existent - unless you're worried about Russian missiles. "A better missile defense for a safer Europe," my ass. Contrary to both Bush and Obama's statements, the Russians were right to be "paranoid" about missile defense all along.

Recall, too, that Iran has no current nuclear weapons program according to both the IAEA and US intelligence. It would take at least three to five years for it to develop a nuclear-tipped missile from the day it kicks IAEA inspectors out, if it ever does.

We should be asking whether we need such a multi-billion boondoggle at all.

Crossposted at Newshoggers

(Ace - 1974's up-and-coming band and purveyors of Pub-Rock)

Back over to the BBC Transcription Service this week. A performance by Ace from 1974. Probably best known for their hit and uber-shag tune "How Long Has This Been Going On", Ace also featured the multi-talented Paul Carrack, who not only wrote that hit, but also went on to score highly with Squeeze in the early 80s and then go on to Mike & The Mechanics in the early 90's, not to mention a pretty good and thriving solo career.

Anyway, this concert was recorded just at the time "Five-A-Side" came out and pretty much captures the essence of the band. Pub-Rock was a legitimate genre in the early 1970's and many bands established solid careers from it.

Ace were at the right place at the right time.

(h/t CSPANjunkie)
The Afghan war is going very badly and support is shrinking. I heard Michael Ware say on CNN (above clip) that the big multimillion dollar Highway #1 which runs from Kabul to Kandahar that we repaved has been almost destroyed and the Taliban can attack at will. Drivers are left completely exposed to attacks, but what choice do Afghan truckers have?
More troop losses are mounting....

Eight soldiers have died on a bloody day for US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Three died in a roadside bombing in northern Iraq - the US military's deadliest single incident in five months - and one died in Baghdad.

Four soldiers died in what was described as a "complex attack" in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan.

Violence in Afghanistan is at a record high, while attacks have increased in Iraq since a US-led pull-back in July.
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In Afghanistan, violence has surged to a record high eight years after the US-led invasion which toppled the Taliban.

Some 820 US soldiers are thought to have died in Afghanistan in those eight years.

The Bush administration mishandled their other war so badly that violence has spiked almost eight years laterand accusations of voter fraud are flying around.

Afghanistan’s UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission ordered a recount and examination of some ballots in the Aug. 20 presidential election, saying it had found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud” in the vote.

The order came as results released by the country’s election authority showed President Hamid Karzai nearing the majority of votes required -- 50 percent plus one vote -- to be elected. It was the first official confirmation of fraud that independent election monitors say risks undermining the credibility of the vote and the next Afghan government.

The media would like us to forget that this is another Bush/Cheney disaster, but it is and the troops have to pay the ultimate price for getting us into another quagmire. This is the next political battle after health care in DC, but we're hitting it on the net now. After eight years the war is in even worse condition no matter what Joe Lieberman has to say.