A Potential Republican Presidential Candidate

Too bad this guy isn't an American citizen.  He would certainly qualify for a run at the Republican candidacy for president.  True story from an Irish friend.

A GALWAY councillor has refused to apologise for swearing at a County Council committee meeting after he told a fellow councillor to "go **** himself"

Local area councillor Seamus Tiernan made the amazing outburst after he was told he was a "feckin eejit" for thinking that cloud computing was only suitable in areas with lots of rain.

He had told the Infrastructure Committee meeting this week that his native Connemara would be ideal for cloud computing because it has heavy cloud cover for nine months of the year."

The Independent councillor said that the Government should be doing more to harness clean industries for the Connemara area and he named wind energy and cloud computing as two obvious examples.

"Connemara in particular could become a centre of excellence for wind energy harnessing, as it is open to the Atlantic. Also in terms of cloud computing, we have dense thick fog for nine months of the year, because of the mountain heights and the ability to harness this cloud power, there is tremendous scope for cloud computing to become a major employer in this region."

However his mistake was pointed out by an incredulous Cllr Martin Shiels who said that "this is taking the biscuit. I've heard it all now. You must be a fecking eejit to think that the cloud computing had anything to do with climate."

Cllr Tiernan took umbrage at the remarks of his colleague and called for them to be withdrawn. When Cllr Shields refused to do so, Tiernan said "go **** yourself, Cllr Shields."

Chairman Sile Ni Baoill asked for both councillors to withdraw their comments, but Cllr Tiernan was unrepentant that Cllr Shields was wrong and that cloud comouting is linked to cloud cover.

"Tell me why large companies are opening server farms in cold wet countries then, he asked Cllr Shields.

You have to live here to appreciate this one fully.

Three men, an Englishman, a German and a Russian are in a contest on some kind of reality show.  They are each given three steel balls about the size of a baseball and each sent to an empty room. Whoever can come up with the most unique use for the balls in one hour is the winner.

At the end of an hour, the Englishman is juggling; the German has worked out an elaborate gymnastics routine and the Russian has lost one ball and broken another.

On the Road Again

Off to Canada to visit my kids for three weeks.  Haven't seen my son and his wife other than on Skype for over two years when we were last home for MayB's wedding.  LynnieC was here from London last Christmas and MayB and Ky were here in July 2010.  It is a long time between visits.

Tanya says she will go with me next summer and we will rent an RV and camp in the mountains for a month.  Sounds like a plan.

72 hours home is not long enough between 3 week long trips.  I love my kids but I also love my wife.

Train to Kyiv, Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Lufthansa/Air Canada to Toronto and Air Canada to Regina.  Makes for a long day.

Professor Isabekov's Traveling Dog and Pony Show

My trip to Kazakhstan, along with that of an American counterpart, was to add profile and entertainment to a series of 10 seminars held between November 9 and 23 across northern Kazakhstan promoting the expansion of their beef industry.  An organization called KazAgroMarketing has been charged with promoting beef cattle production and with providing technical information to assist producers to expand and improve their cow herds. This was the third series and one more will be held in the new year.  They had hoped for attendance of about 80 at our seminars but averaged half that.

Kazakhstan used to have a big beef industry but after the collapse of the Soviet System, cows were sold off to generate cash and the numbers plummeted, similar to stories in all the other SSRs.  Kazakhstan has 150 million hectares of pasture land (including mountain and desert grazing areas, I think) and grows a lot of grain each year which is a long way from tidewater.  They are surrounded by countries that need to import beef including Russia (for now at least), China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq... so it is a no-brainer to support beef industry expansion.  And every beef genetics salesman in the world is in Kazakhstan.

On the map below, the black stars are where we stayed - Astana, Kokshetau, Kustanay, Petropavlovsk and Karaganda.  The red stars are the locations of the seminars that I could find on Google Maps.  Several of the villages were too small to even get honourable mention. We would hit the road at 6 or 7 am and drive to the village, grab breakfast and set up the meeting room.  Seminar ran from 10 to 1, then we would have lunch and drive another 30 minutes to a farm. There we would view their Kazakh white head cattle, and the American would demonstrate AI technique and ultrasound pregnancy testing.  The American did it because he could else they would have had their own vet do it.  We would get back to our hotel anywhere from 6 to 8 pm most days.

Professor Isabekov, fearless leader and excellent speaker

Dr Dan Larson, Minnesota, Nutrition and Reproductive Physiology

Front - Baurzhan, veterinarian and Balzhan, translator. Back - Kadyrzhan, nutritionist and Bayan, administration

ABC

MayB refers to all my pictures froom working trips as ABC.  Another Bloody Cow.  I like cows.  I take pictures of cows.  Many many pictures of cows.  I have pictures of cows from all over the world.  Now that I am back on line (railway station in Kyiv) I feel duty bound to share some of them with you. 

These are Kazakh White Head cows.  Many Many Many years ago the Soviet Union imported a bunch of Herefords from Canada.  It would never do in the FSU (hey, that rhymed) just to have Canadian Herefords.  They had to be "improved" by crossing with local Kazakh cattle and given a suitable new name so the university professor/institute scientist who invented the new breed could be famous. The "new breed" was recognized officially in 1953.

They are commercial Herefords in my opinion.  They look like Hereford range cows maybe with body type from 30 to 40 years ago, with horns from the Kazakh Steppe cattle they were crossed with.  They are good hardy productive cattle, too.  Enjoy.

Kazakhstan

I am in Kazakhstan until Nov 25.  Ability to access Blogger is nil.  Tried again this morning and was able to open it.  No idea why it will or won't open at any given time.  Posts will be nil until I get home, for sure.  Nor can I read anyone's posts either.

Study of the Interconnectedness of Transnationals

Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world - physics-math - 19 October 2011 - New Scientist

"From Orbis 2007, a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, the Zurich team pulled out all 43,060 TNCs and the share ownerships linking them. Then they constructed a model of which companies controlled others through shareholding networks, coupled with each company's operating revenues, to map the structure of economic power."