Wal-Mart to bring back guns to hundreds of US stores

With an annual turnover greater than the total GDP of Sweden, Wal-Mart has said it will soon bring back the sale of firearms, including rifles and shotguns, at more than 500 of its US stores. And we wonder why the USA is one of the most dangerous countries in the civilised world!

Anyone can see that the regular school shootings, the myriad bank robberies and gang warfare in most inner cities, are out of control and leave thousands of innocent people dead every year. So why this decision?

As usual it is based on the dollar, the greenback, as it always is in this country that is and has been in decline for more than 20 years. How long can it retain it unquestioned pre-eminence in the world to claim that it is the world's policeman both morally and economically?



Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff comments on an IMF forecast that China's economy will surpass the U.S. in 5 years

Not long if the decision to downgrade it's debt taken this week by Standard & Poor, a ratings agency, and the news that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) all want to change the dollar as the main currency for purchases like oil and other wholesale commodities. For me, the writing is on the wall as G. John Ikenberry argues...

"...as China gets more powerful and the United States' position erodes, two things are likely to happen: China will try to use its growing influence to reshape the rules and institutions of the international system to better serve its interests, and other states in the system -- especially the declining hegemon -- will start to see China as a growing security threat. The result of these developments, they predict, will be tension, distrust, and conflict, the typical features of a power transition. In this view, the drama of China's rise will feature an increasingly powerful China and a declining United States locked in an epic battle over the rules and leadership of the international system. And as the world's largest country emerges not from within but outside the established post-World War II international order, it is a drama that will end with the grand ascendance of China and the onset of an Asian-centered world order."



As Alex de coqville says, “A great civilization can not be conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

Enough said - let the party begin!

Dutch football club signs one-year-old to 10-year deal

Just when you thought the world couldn't get any wackier, along comes another strange story. Apparently a Dutch club has signed a one-year-old to a 10-year deal based on a video of the 18-month old kicking some footballs into his toy box!!

The Dutch club, VVV-Venlo snapped up young Baerke van der Meij after seeing him kick footballs with amazing accuracy into his toy box. The club even held a press conference where the toddler signed a contract (with a little help from his dad) and dressed up in the shirt of the top flight Dutch club.



The Van der Meij family has close links with the club, with Baerke's grandfather having played for the club in the past.

"The toddler's favourite position has not yet been determined. However, we can speak of a right-footed player with a very good kicking technique, perseverance and, importantly, football genes via his grandfather," read a VVV-Venlo press release.

Is this another budding Ronaldo or Messi? Or even Van Persie? Rumour has it that Arsene Venger, the Arsenal manager, put in a late bid as he needs another youngster for his team for next season!! (Just kidding!)

When not to dye but grow old gracefully

What is it about many people including celebrities who feel they have to bring out the dye when their locks are getting a touch of the grey? The latest is Pierce Brosnan who has decided to do the decent thing and let his natural locks shine through. Is it vanity or simply a career choice in the belief that most casting directors or employers in general are after people with perfect heads of hair?




Other famous people who have dyed their hair include Tom Jones who has been dying his hair for about 40 years, but who recently also decided to go au naturel!It's not unusual to have grey hair at 68 but Tom Jones stopped dyeing his hair when he announced a new tour this week. You have to applaud those who eventually see the light and decide to grow old gracefully. I have to say that I personally like this new look and think it adds a touch of gravitas to his 68 years!



In the recent political turmoil that has seen Middle Eastern cities ablaze with protests and riots, we may have lost the chance to see if Mubarak was ever going to let his famously black locks go the same way as Pierce Brosnan and Tom Jones. Somehow we can only guess what he would look like without those famously pitch black and well-oiled hair follicles! Recent reports however say that Mubarak in his sick bed, shows symptoms of depression remaining bed-bound most of the day, and leaving his hair to grey. Oh! What a pity we can't see it!

Johnson gets 'Fast and Furious' role through Facebook

If you've ever wondered about how Facebook can change not only your world, but other people's world, read on. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has revealed that a fan on Facebook was responsible for him landing a role in the new 'Fast and Furious' film.

The former wrestling star plays a federal marshal in ‘Fast and Furious 5’, and is tasked with capturing Paul Walker and Vin Diesel's characters. However, Diesel, who is also a producer on the film, originally wanted an actor like Tommy Lee Jones - who had memorably played a US Marshal in 'The Fugitive' – for the part.

But after talking to a fan on Facebook, Diesel was convinced of hiring Johnson instead.

Johnson said, "There's a lot of people taking credit for me being in the movie... but I know, to Vin, that was, like, a defining moment for him, because he had read it (script) and, at that time, a director was flying in to meet with him... So give a lot of credit to that fan."

‘Fast and Furious 5’ sees Walker's rogue agent and Vin Diesel's street racer character, Dominic Toretto, attempt one last job. However, federal agent Luke Hobbs, played by Johnson, is hot on their tails.

Since his attempts to launch a big screen career, Johnson has been mostly played action heroes, including roles in films like 'Welcome to the Jungle' and 'Scorpion King'. He's also showed off his comedy talents in 'Get Smart' and 'The Other Guys'.

Arguments for constrained capitalism in Asia

At last someone is finally talking some sense. The idea that the two economic powerhouses of China and India can enjoy the benefits of consumerism so long enjoyed by the west in the USA and Europe amongst others is something of a fallacy or perhaps a paradox. If these two countries were to actually achieve the same status as the average consumer in the aforementioned countries, the world would be on the verge of bankruptcy in terms of what natural resources would have to be sacrificed.

As writer and thinktank founder Chandran Nair says in his book "Consumptionomics", billions of Chinese and Indians may aspire to an American standard of living, but it will be a catastrophe if these aspirations are met

"It's a matter of numbers," Nair said on a visit to London to speak at the Royal Society of Arts. "What Europe and America does about restricting its impact on the environment is pretty irrelevant. The future will be determined by what happens in Asia. Three billion Asians want what you and I have, but there is not enough to go round. By 2050, there will be 5 billion Asians," says Nair, who grew up in Malaysia and now lives in Hong Kong.

You have to wonder what has happened to the world when just about anyone who is anyone wants the latest TV, car, house, and modern consumer lifestyle that goes with it? We have lost something when we are prepared to give up our humanity in search of material wealth. As he points out, there are more people in Africa and Asia who have a phone but very few taps with clean drinking water.

"If Asia continues like the west, the game is over; as people in Asia get richer, they eat further up the food chain. If 500 million Chinese want to eat just one seafood meal a week, it will empty all the seas of Asia. If Asians ate as much chicken as Americans, by 2050 that would amount to 120 billion birds a year instead of today's 16 billion. To aspire to the western model in Asia is a deadly lie.

But who will tell these people that they have come late to the capitalist party? And even if Chandran Nair is that person, will they listen?

"It's harsh for Asians to be told that as latecomers to the capitalist party they will never be able to attain that way of life taken for granted in developing countries," he admits, but they need to be told and they need to be educated to understand that their vision, their goal as developing nations is wholly unsustainable.

Cat and Dolphins playing together

In an age when it seems that everyone is fighting, from Arabs in the Middle East, to politicians in Ivory Coast, it's refreshing to see that some creatures can ignore their differences and show curiosity rather than enmity!

In fact, why is it that humans are so aggressive and so destructive? Aren't we supposed to be the clever ones? The ones that can find cures for major diseases? The ones that can build skyscrapers and put men on the moon?

Perhaps it's us that can learn from simple animals about the value of play and trusting in another creature irrespective of that fact that it's different from us.

What happened when author Jacqueline Howett fired back at the critics

We've all had that sinking feeling when we've received stinging feedback. It could have been a poem you wrote at school or an essay that your lecturer didn't like at college. It could even have been a heartfelt letter you wrote to a boyfriend or girlfriend that somehow missed its mark. It feels like someone has stood on your efforts with both feet.

I was just reading the Abu Dhabi newspaper, The National, and I came across an article that mentioned an author who struck back when she read bad reviews on Amazon's Customer Reviews.

What follows is a hilarious reciprocal rant between the reviewer "Big Al" and the female author, "Jacqueline Howett". Big Al's blog of book reviews went from 20 hits a day to 200,000 a day which is amazing!! You should read some of them for they are as vitriolic and as acid in tone as anything you'll read!!

http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html#comments

Here's the original article - http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/what-happened-when-author-jacqueline-howettan-fired-back-at-the-critics

"This time last week, Jacqueline Howett was just another hopeful writer, eagerly awaiting positive feedback for her recently self-published debut novel, The Greek Seaman. And, happily, she was getting some, from the admittedly amorphous mass of critical opinion that is Amazon's customer reviews.

Little did she know, however, that it would be a less than supportive review that would secure her the kind of literary stardom of which she could previously only have dreamed. Unfortunately for Howett, she was, for a brief while, an internet phenomenon for all the wrong reasons."

As writers, we can all learn from this. What we should do when we receive a bad review is take it for what it is and throw it away into the dustbins of our minds. This kind of "ordinary-man-on-the-Clapham-omnibus" form of book appraisal is only going to get more prevalent as more and more people turn to become self reviewers and bypass the traditional form of literary criticism. is that a good thing or just a sign of the times?

Here's a brief riposte from the author:

"Who are you any way? Really who are you?
What do we know about you?

You never downloaded another copy you liar!
You never ever returned to me an e-mail

Besides if you want to throw crap at authors you should first ask their permission if they want it stuck up on the internet via e-mail. That debate is high among authors.

Your the target not me!
Now get this review off here!"

Ouch! No holds barred there!