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David

On the move

Dear reader,

Tinyplanet has packed its bags and its moving to a new domain. Come and visit at www.tinyplanetblog.com.

Plants adapt to climate change

Writes Andrew C Revkin of the International Herald Tribune:

Many Arctic plant species have readily adjusted to big climate changes, repeatedly re-colonizing the rugged islands of Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago through 20,000 years of warm and cool spells since the frigid peak of the last ice age, researchers say.

Is this nature taking a step in the right direction, or just a curious anomaly? Read the full article here.

Kidneys

Turns out the Dutch TV show featuring three people competing for a dying woman’s kidney was a hoax. The trio, who knew it was all an illusion, really do need a transplant but the programme was made to highlight the lack of organ donors (the “dying woman” was an actress).

Have I ever told you I hate reality television?

EU and Russia

The IHT has an interesting article on how the EU is out of ideas when it comes to dealing with Russia, largely because of Putin’s dislike of the organisation.

Anthology of a slain journalist

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has helped launch a collection of articles by Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead outside her home last year.

A fierce critic of corruption and abuses within Russia, she died in an apparent contract killing last October. Politkovskaya was special correspondent for independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has produced the 980-page book.

At the launch, Gorbachev, who is co-owner of the newspaper, joined her colleagues and family in urging the crime be solved. The IHT quotes him as saying the case was especially important because much of Russian society thinks that law enforcement officials were involved in her killing.

Gorbachev held a copy of the book and suggested that while her writing was painful for some to read – it often accused government officials, soldiers and police officers of crimes – it was ultimately helpful to the Russian state. “It is bitter,” he said. “But it is a medicine.”

Kremlin officials boycotted the event, although they were invited to speak. The launch was not covered by any official news services.

It was inevitable

The English Premier League is suing YouTube for alleged copyright infringement. According to the BBC, the league has filed a lawsuit in New York and is seeking unspecified damages.

The case claims the ridiculously popular website “knowingly misappropriated and exploited” league property. The soccer power group wrote to YouTube in October, asking it to take down material it said infringed the rights of its clubs. YouTube is already being sued by Viacom for $1 billion. I wonder if Google have any regrets about their purchase?

It’s been a bad week for many people’s favourite search engine, as there’s speculation Microsoft and Yahoo! are working on an alliance to tackle Google’s dominance when it comes to online advertising. Ah well, it’s about time Microsoft had to work for their market share.

French, gorgeous and reads the news

I’m not lying! Mélissa Theuriau has been an internet sensation since a YouTube video was posted of her doing her thing on French television. It’s had more than 1.2 million views since June 2006, and she’s made such an impact she was voted 88th sexiest woman in the world in a recent FHM poll.

Of course, it is unfair to judge a lady on her looks alone. My French is merde so I can’t assess her delivery or the quality of her newscasts. Nor do I have any idea how much input she has into writing news reports or choosing content for broadcast.

But this is the society we live in; looks garner more attention than talent. Although I hold ability in far higher esteem than physical appearance, I do fall into the pretty culture trap on occasion. Would that the world was a meritocracy! Or perhaps it is and I just haven’t realised it yet. For now, though, let us all watch Mlle Theuriau.

Does this post make me a bad person?

Bye-bye Boris

One of the late 20th century’s most prominent leaders has gone out not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Boris Yeltsin, who came to national and international prominence when he clamber onto a tank outside the Moscow White House during an attempted coup by communist hardliners, has given up the ghost. He had lived the last few years of his life largely in seclusion, although he was still thought of by various well-known people; Bill Clinton flew to Russia to celebrate Yeltsin’s 75th birthday.

But the word is that his passing has gone largely unmarked by ordinary Russians, many of whom blame their former president for the country’s woes.

Yeltsin’s reign was marked by contradictions. He oversaw the peaceful break-up of the Soviet union, then promptly crushed Chechyn separatists in a bloody war which obliterated Russia’s international standing. He ushered in an era of democracy and a free press, then gave the president as much power as possible. Overall, he was a man of occasionally penetrating vision but suffering from overwhelming personal troubles.

Although Yeltsin introduced free-market reforms, his nation’s income per capita plummeted 75%. Many people saw their savings dissipate while unemployment soared. What Vladimir Putin has described as a “new epoch” quickly turned from one of great promise to one of great misery.

One could argue that his tenure was marked by economic myopia.

He put the communist system to death while having nothing concrete to replace it with. His administration’s sale of state industry, to a small group who would go on to be billionaires (60 of whom now live just outside Moscow), provided the new democracy with a certain amount of hard cash, but deprived the state of valuable, marketable resources. The state-controlled Gazprom is now addressing that issue.

Yeltsin the man was as inconsistent as Yeltsin the president. While possessed of great charisma, his eccentric nature led him to commit gaffe after gaffe, such as playing spoons on the head of the ex-president of Kyrgyztan. He suffered terrible depressive periods, although he was nothing if not resilient. During his re-election campaign in 1996, he was filmed shaking his rather ample booty onstage with various lovely ladies; he had suffered a heart attack just days earlier.

However, his chronic drinking (something he always denied) caused huge embarrassment. The most celebrated incident was in 1994, when Yeltsin, on the way back to Russia from a trip to the US, was due to meet Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds at Shannon Airport.

After 30 minutes waiting on the tarmac, Albert and his boys twigged that the Russian president wasn’t coming out any time soon. In fact, he never left the plane, and one of his officials came out for a quick chat instead. Yeltsin’s official explanation was fatigue and the fact one of his aides had forgotten to wake him… however, the prevailing wisdom is that he was simply too drunk.

When Yeltsin finally ended his turbulent presidency — having presided over four governments in four years — he placed the nation in the hands of a man who would go on to erode post-Soviet reforms. He largely disappeared from public life, only emerging now and again at some function or another (once even travelling to Ireland to go deep-sea fishing off the coast of Co Clare).

His passing will be marked by a state funeral and a day of mourning, but in all likelihood he will be remembered more by people outside Russia than inside it.