Squatch’s Open Thread 15/04/2016

It has been another busy week and I have not posted as often as I would like.  I had the annual meeting with my mother's care team and everything is going as well as can be expected.  I had an ESL and French teaching session and was rewarded with a dinner to take home.  Neda is too good to me.  Saturday my 2 boys will be 8 years old so there will be plenty of belly rubs dished out and a freshly roasted chicken breast for dinner, their favourite!  Only one stipulation, they have to share with their sister.  This coming week will be very busy as well.  To boot, the gas company wants to replace my gas metre but I managed to put them off until 02/05/2016.

Short Takes

Reuters — As ports struggle to cope with a global oil glut, huge queues of supertankers have formed in some of the world's busiest sea lanes, where some 200 million barrels of crude lies waiting to be loaded or delivered.

The vessels, filled with oil worth around $7.5 billion at current market prices, would stretch for almost 40 km (25 miles) if formed up in one straight line.  …

Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at shipbroker Banchero Costa, in Singapore, said the snarl-up was "one of the worst tanker traffic jams in recent years".

The cause was "a perfect storm of red-hot demand from new entrant refineries in China and port infrastructure in the Middle East and Latin America that is unable to cope", he said.

From a Globe and Mail article from 18/02/2016: 

Oil prices rose more than 14 percent over the last three days after a plan by Saudi Arabia and Russia, endorsed without commitment by Iran on Wednesday, to freeze oil output at January’s highs.

The Saudi-Russian production freeze plan, also joined by Qatar and Venezuela, is the first such deal in 15 years between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC members.

This will due little to quell the numbers of oil tankers at sea, the costs involved, and do absolutely nothing for the inadequate infrastructure in the ports. 

Huffington Post — The biggest number of complaints, by far, was levelled at a political flyer by the Canadian Centre for Bio-ethical Reform that featured images of aborted fetuses and the slogan "No2Trudeau." 

There were 105 complaints against the flyer, and Advertising Standards Canada agreed it was excessively shocking and upsetting.

The ASC also received and upheld 96 complaints against two billboards in the Montreal area posted by Friends of Science Society.

One of the billboards said "The Sun is The Main Driver of Climate Change. Not You. Not CO2" and the other said "Global Warming Stopped Naturally 16-Plus Years Ago." The ad council found they omitted relevant information.

There have been flyers delivered in some areas with very graphic pictures of aborted fetuses.  The idea is to promote pro-life, but IMO, shock and awe is not the way to do it.  Likewise, inaccurate or deceptive claims about climate change are not acceptable.  I am very glad that there agencies that address these issues.

The Guardian — Vermont senator hopes to align campaign with issues Pope Francis has raised in what seems to be a gamble for a candidate who rarely speaks about religion.

Bernie Sanders plans to warn against “the idolatry of money” in a speech at the Vatican next week which the Democratic candidate hopes will align his insurgent presidential campaign with the moral preaching of Pope Francis.

“What the pope has been clear about is linking the issue of morality with the global economy and making the point that you can’t have a moral economy when so many people are living in poverty,” Sanders told the Guardian.

“He has raised the issue more than any other person on the planet and I am very proud to be with him in the Vatican,” he added in an interview shortly after the campaign announced his surprise attendance at the conference on 15 April.

It seems to me that the author has missed a basic point — inequality, poverty, and economic morality are NOT religious issues!  One needs only be a halfway intelligent and compassionate human being to see and understand the global effects of inequality and poverty.  Likewise, those criticising Bernie for leaving the campaign trail for a day or so with the New York primary only days away are likely the same ones who criticise Obama for being away when something significant happens.

Go Bernie!!!

My Universe — BROTHERS OF THE WIND: Golden eagle hunts chamois

Wikipedia: The chamois (Rupicapra spp.) is a goat-antelope genus native to mountains in Europe, including the European Alps, thePyrenees, the Carpathians, the Tatra Mountains, the Balkans, parts of Turkey, the Caucasus, and the Apennines.

Did that eagle get it's feathers ruffled, or what?