WhirledView

Tuesday Fly Away Blogging

by CKR

This swallowtail butterfly came to enjoy the lantana flowers in a pot on my deck. He would sip from the flowers for a while, then fly out to do some loops, then go back to the flowers. It's enough to make you wonder what's in those flowers...

The first time I saw a lantana plant, I think in California, I was intrigued by the flowers that change color, as, I'm guessing, they are pollinated, making it easy for butterflies and others to find the goodies. But then I learned that lantana is an invasive in warm climates, and over the years I've seen its gangly shrubs growing wild in California and Hawaii.

The butterfly isn't the only one tripping the light fantastic in my airspace lately. There's a hummingbird (or more than one; impossible to tell them apart) who's come up to my office window and hovered a few feet from me, staring me in the eye, when I've been on the deck. It's a female or an immature, I'm guessing one of the latter that is unusually curious, probably a broadtail. I haven't put out hummingbird feeders because I don't have a place where I'm willing to let the sugarwater drip. But I saw some drip catchers in the store the other day, so maybe next year. Seems a little late for this year, but they do have to tank up for their migration...

When you read this, I should be flying away too. I'll bring my laptop, but you know how that can go. I've got lots of things I'd like to write, like more in the discussion with Mark and Cernig. I've charged up my laptop with electrons and data so I can even work on the plane.

I'm just going to Oregon, not as far as PLS in south Asia, but that leaves PHK as the only one at her home computer. I know she'll do a great job, and the other two of us will do what we can.

Things Are Tough All Over

by CKR

War's unpopularity finally does for Bush's architect

Ahmadinejad dismisses two key ministers

On Karl Rove's resignation, I'll note that last fall, along with Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times, I declared Rove's majority over. A year earlier, I had pointed out the fragile mathematics of building a majority from "the base." As I was reading the story about Rove in The Atlantic (subscription only) the other day, I recalled that post. I still think I had it pretty much right.

Athens in November - or August?

By PHK

Neither. Best bets? September or May.

What is it about foreign classical archeologists that compel them to write travel articles or even an occasional book about modern Greece? If they’d stick to their expertise on the ruins, excavations and the history they know so well and describe them in laymen’s terms, terrific. Otherwise, short trips to Athens to attend conferences – while making a little money by writing travel pieces on the side - just do not compute.

That’s - at any rate - how Justin Marozzi’s “Democracy in Action” which dominates page 17 of the “Life and Arts” section of the August 4-5, 2007 Financial Times struck me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the Financial Times including and especially its weekly “Life and Arts Section.” But to publish such a strange article on this world famous city written by a neophyte – who tells us that he never set eyes on the city until after the 2004 Olympics and who bases his FT feature story on a single week’s visit last November just . . . well doesn’t compute.

The FT could do a lot better. It normally does.

You’d think the paper would have tapped any number of seasoned British writers who know Greece like the back of their hands and could have come up with a more insightful story for travelers destined for Greece. There’s been a large ex-pat community in Athens for decades after all.

Avoid November

Meanwhile, for anyone contemplating a trip to Greece, avoid November. Its only redeeming feature is the smell of roasting chestnuts from the sidewalk vendors that permeates the early evening air.

November prices may be right: but there’s a reason. Athens in November is often cold, damp, and overcast as opposed to the crisper, but still warm September days or the country’s velvet spring.

In November, the sea can be choppy and even Crete can be clammy and unpleasant. The good news is that there are fewer tourists in November – except for the intrepid ones who come on bargain basement tours that often also include Egypt and Israel where the weather is far better that time of year. These are the some of the same tourists who are herded to the Acropolis whether or not they want to clamber on its rocks. Too often, they then display their ignorance for everyone in earshot even when excellent Greek guides lay it out in plain English for them.

The ‘highlight’ of “Democracy in Athens”

Marozzi’s description of such an American tourist group being addressed by an ever more exasperated Greek tour guide is priceless. It’s the highlight of his article. His reported exchange between two tourists and their guide would be hilarious – if it weren’t so sad. It demonstrates once again the sub-basement quality of the US educational system and the lack of worldly and historical inquisitiveness of too many of our citizens.

Or maybe the Acropolis just brings out the worst in some people. During a visit there over Easter 1966, I overheard a similar American tour group being lectured by their American preacher. The lecturer – I won’t call him a guide - expounded loudly and in great detail about the importance of a pile of non-descript rocks in the foreground. His flock was reverently informed that that was where Paul had preached to the Athenians. Meanwhile, the preacher blissfully, or ignorantly, ignored the incredible setting, the spectacular sunset and the Acropolis’ primary significance to the classical and modern worlds.

Summer in Athens is also far from ideal.

Hot sandy winds blow north from the expanding Sahara. They fan fires in the surrounding hills and make life generally uncomfortable - sometimes even gritty. This year, the fires came early. But that’s why Greeks often head for the islands or the shore – and stay there until August is over. The Assumption Day August 15 holiday translates into a deserted city devoid of the usual jostling, boisterous crowds. The heart and soul of the city have, for good reason, temporarily moved elsewhere.

In Athens, November means prices are at rock bottom – although that bottom is a lot higher than before Greece joined the EURO club. Autumn’s softer prices probably still include those at the Monastiraki Flea Market – a favorite tourist haunt just below the Acropolis and across from the Ancient Agora. Bargaining there helps – and speaking even a little Modern Greek can open doors.

Getting to know Athens from the spectacular roof top terrace of the King George II Hotel on Syntagma Square or via short breaks snuck from an apparently incredibly dull conference at the British School of Archeology as Marozzi did hardly provides adequate acquaintanceship with or knowledge of the real flavor of the place. The Getty photograph of the Acropolis that accompanies the FT article, by the way, was not taken from either and the BSA website indicates that accommodations are limited to 20 members at a time. They’re certainly not available to everyone.

It Pays To Have Friends In the Right Places

by CKR

From Seymour Hersh's latest:

Pakistani military officials have approached Pentagon officials several times in the past decade in an unsuccessful attempt to get support for an upgrading of Pakistan's nuclear command-and-control mechanisms. Senior military and proliferation officials in the Clinton Administration told me, however, that they had determined that such assistance was barred by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, ratified in 1968, which prohibits declared nuclear states from providing any support or guidance to any emerging nuclear power.

From the US - India Trade Agreement:

The purpose of the Agreement being to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation between the Parties, the Parties may pursue cooperation in all relevant areas
to include, but not limited to, the following:
a. Advanced nuclear energy research and development in such areas as may be agreed between the Parties;
b. Nuclear safety matters of mutual interest and competence, as set out in Article 3;
c. Facilitation of exchange of scientists for visits, meetings, symposia and collaborative research;
d. Full civil nuclear cooperation activities covering nuclear reactors and aspects of the associated nuclear fuel cycle including technology transfer on an industrial or commercial scale between the Parties or authorized persons;
e. Development of a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of India’s reactors;
f. Advanced research and development in nuclear sciences including but not limited to biological research, medicine, agriculture and industry, environment and climate change;
g. Supply between the Parties, whether for use by or for the benefit of the Parties or third countries, of nuclear material;
h. Alteration in form or content of nuclear material as provided for in Article 6;
i. Supply between the Parties of equipment, whether for use by or for the benefit of the Parties or third countries;
j. Controlled thermonuclear fusion including in multilateral projects; and
k. Other areas of mutual interest as may be agreed by the Parties.

I'm wondering what the Bush administration has said to Pakistan on the subject of command-and-control mechanisms. Pakistan has certainly asked for an agreement equivalent to India's.

The Necessity of the U.S. Nuclear Deterrent: A White Paper

by CKR

The United States has no real post-Cold-War policy on nuclear weapons, as I've observed before. The House of Representatives noticed that, too, and they said they’d like to see a nuclear policy before they funded the development of the reliable replacement warhead. That got the attention of the Secretaries of Energy, Defense, and State, who quickly pounded out a promise that they would give Congress a report.

But the problem is that the United States doesn’t have a post-Cold-War policy on nuclear weapons. We can hope that there will be long and serious thought, with many discussions involving the executive agencies, Congress and the people as such a policy is developed. So I’ve been wondering just exactly what will show up in that promised report: the bits and scraps of nuclear policy left over from the Cold War, or something entirely new, which is what we really need. But before the end of the budget cycle?

Other folks seem to be wondering about that too. The Armchair Generalist sent me some of their maunderings the other day. They're on the Web too, at the National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) website.

“White Paper on the Necessity of the U. S. Nuclear Deterrent” is dated July 30, 2007. No sponsoring organization is named. I read down the list of co-authors and contributors on the last page, though, and found a commonality: all of them are listed as members of the U.S. Department of State International Security Advisory Board (ISAB). That link says that the board has twenty members, but only eighteen are listed by name, of which twelve are authors of this white paper. No such study is listed as current or previous for the ISAB.

The “Co-Authors and Contributors” of the white paper are Kathleen C. Bailey, Robert G. Joseph, Gordon C. Oehler, Keith B. Payne, Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Charles S. Robb, C. Paul Robinson, James R. Schlesinger, William Schneider Jr., William Van Cleave and R. James Woolsey.

Why the US – India Trade Agreement Threatens the NPT - Part 2

Part 1 here.

At the Carnegie Nonproliferation Conference, one of the sessions was titled “Forging Nonproliferation Consensus after US – India Civil Nuclear Cooperation.” Unfortunately, the Carnegie website doesn’t have a transcript of that session posted, so I’ll have to work from my notes.

At that session, Peter Potman, a counselor in the Political Department of the Netherlands Embassy to the United States, gave an official view of the agreement. The Netherlands is an NPT non-nuclear-weapon state.

The issues, he said, are not just academic or political. They are very important to the Netherlands and its participation in the NPT. He said that the agreement should have three characteristics to satisfy the non-nuclear-weapon states:
1. It should address strategic restraint on the part of India.
2. It should require an additional protocol for India.
3. It should not provide a “back door” to allow a non-nuclear-weapon state to leave the NPT and then be recognized with nuclear weapons.

Let’s see how the 123 agreement, as actually negotiated after Potman’s talk, measures up.

Tuesday They're Back (Eey-Yick, Eey-Yick, Eey-Yick!) Blogging

by CKR

I thought that the piñon jays might have moved along, but they just decided it wasn't worth the time if there wasn't a seed block out. But they do not totally dominate the feeding area. I just looked out, and a curve-billed thrasher was beating them off, with many doves on the ground. No photos; I've been closing the blinds in that area to keep the house cool, and if I open the blinds, they'll scatter.

The flickers also compete successfully on the block. They and the thrasher both have bigger beaks than the jays. And they're not afraid to use them. This is a typical standoff. Mr. Flicker has also come around.

On the smaller side, a flock of bushtits comes through about once a day. The birds break through the block, and it falls off the holder. So I have this wire box to put the pieces in. The first time I saw them, they were on the still-holder-bound block, totally covering it. There must have been about thirty of them. But no camera. They came through while I was refilling the birdbath, and a couple of them hopped right inside the box: the spaces are probably an inch or more wide. I was afraid to breathe and scare them, lest they try to fly while inside the box and trap themselves.

No problem! When I finally had to give up my frozen position, they instantly scattered. Nobody got caught inside the box at all.

And plenty of doves. This is an immature white-winged dove.

New Links

by CKR

I've added a new category of links (right hand-side, just above BookLooks).

WhirledView has signed up with BlogBurst, a blog syndication service. They've recently joined up with Reuters, so a few of our articles have shown up with the Reuters masthead here.

The Issue bills itself as "The Blog Newspaper." They've picked up some WhirledView articles too. I like the look of it, but I'm wondering who's behind it.

So check them out. And, RS, I'm hoping that these links will work for you!