Titanic 2 is on the stocks
HOW'S this for retro? An Aussie billionaire is building an exact replica of the Titanic, to start sailing between England and America in 2016. However, some say it was not wonderful timing for mining magnate Clive Palmer to announce at the same press conference that he is about to go into politics.
Palmer has engaged a Chinese shipyard to build his Titanic 2. The ship will be identical, apart from propulsion, which means all four of the funnels will be decorative. They will house such things as a restaurant, a theatre and an internet room. It will have exactly the same number and size cabins and decks.
The political launch? Palmer says he intends challenging Wayne Swan, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary for the Treasury, at the next election.
But it seems to have taken everyone by surprise, including Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition. "But if there's anyone in Australia who can successfully run for parliament and at the same time build a replica of the Titanic, it's Clive," says Abbott.
The unsinkable ship? The unsinkable politician? The year 1912 proved the first wrong. Can Palmer navigate the political pack ice and keep his speed down?
A retro era of transatlantic travel beckons. We'll have to see about the politics.
Spies and spooks
IT'S A SAD and most puzzling case, this MI6 operative whose body was found zipped and padlocked into a red hold-all bag in the bathtub of his London flat. Was it murder? Was it some kind of bizarre suicide involving a Houdini-in-reverse operation? The coroner at the inquest was as baffled as anyone.
The newspapers and television routinely describe Gareth Williams as a "spy". Is that the right word? A spy, surely, is the person at the very farthest reach of the intelligence operation. He sends in information from hostile territory, by covert radio, dead letter drops and that kind of thing.
The people who receive and analyse and interpret all this information are not themselves spies. I would guess that's the kind of work Williams was doing.
But "spy" fits nicely into a headline. We ourselves readily call the currently controversial cop in charge of crime intelligence a "spy boss". It's snappy, it fits. But he and others in the intelligence services should properly be called "spooks". Let's get the terminology right.
Confusion
A DAREDEVIL "slackline" walker crossed China's Enshi Grand Canyon on a rope 1 800m above ground, barefoot and without any safety equipment, according to this news report.
So that's how blind dissident Chen Guangcheng gave the police the slip and made his way to the US Embassy?
But no, it seems the daredevil was an American named Dean Potter. Maybe he was from the US Embassy and looking for Chen Guangcheng.
Been hiding
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-40s: "I finally found my wife's G-spot. It's been hiding on her sister all these years."
Wildcats
THEY won't leave these Scottish wildcats alone. They keep catching them in camera traps in the Cairngorms National Park, and other parts of Bonnie Scotland, discovering pockets of wildcat habitation previously unsuspected.
But it's in a good cause. The conservationists are trying to protect the wildcat – also known as the Highland Tiger – from interbreeding with domestic cats. They're encouraged by the numbers of pure wildcats they are discovering.
Oddly enough, this wildcat/domestic cat interbreeding is a problem we also have in KwaZulu-Natal. The Natal black-footed cat – which also has brownish spots on a tawny coat – breeds readily with domestic cats, and keeping them apart has been a concern of the conservation authorities for many years.
They don't always succeed. Be sure: if your tabby has tufted ears and likes parking herself on high points, her daddy or grand-daddy is a black-footed wildcat.
How the wild and domestic cats are to be stopped from inter-breeding, whether in KZN or Scotland, is beyond me. Maybe the only thing to do is throw boots from the bedroom window as soon as the yowling begins.
·
·
TWO MOTHERS are talking about a friend who gave birth to triplets."You know, that happens only one in 12 000 times." "Amazing! How did she ever find time for any housework?" |
Last word
I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment