United Nations 鈥減lans to destroy US鈥�
DID you know that the United Nations has a 鈥渄estructive and insidious鈥� plan to 鈥渦ltimately destroy the sovereignty of the United States of America鈥�? So says the Board of Chosen Freeholders, legislators of Ocean County, New Jersey, in a resolution passed last February. This resolution, like others being promoted by right-wing US groups like the Tea Party and the John Birch Society, forbids engagement with the UN鈥檚 20-year-old voluntary initiative, Agenda 21.
This is the same policy that many environmentalists regard as wishy-washy 鈥� encouraging local authorities to think they can fob off the threat of ecosystem destruction merely by tackling the twin menaces of plastic shopping bags and kids dropping chewing-gum wrappers.
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Those environmentalists, who see Agenda 21 as more damp squib than plan for world domination, are probably crypto-communists in the eyes of Alex Newman, who in The New American, magazine of the John Birch Society.
Why is Agenda 21 so bad? Newman鈥檚 objection centres on the words of Maurice Strong at the 1992 launch of the initiative in Rio de Janeiro. The then secretary-general of the UN Conference on Environment and Development said: 鈥淐onsumption patterns of the affluent middle class 鈥� involving high meat intake, the use of fossil fuels, electrical appliances, home and workplace air conditioning and suburban housing 鈥� are not sustainable.鈥�
Newman was still at it in that he quotes approvingly, this time passed by the city council of College Station, Texas. It complains that the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives, which promotes Agenda-21, is 鈥渁n insidious, extreme institution that does not represent our citizens鈥�.
Feedback agrees. At least, we agree that views such as Strong鈥檚 may not be precisely democratic, as they do not represent the views of those citizens who believe that air-conditioned, drive-in burger joints ought and indeed must be sustained.
Meanwhile, Feedback is feeling a bit heavy today. Would the Chosen Freeholders of Ocean County be the appropriate body to reconsider gravity, we wonder?
When Gerben Wierda in the Netherlands clicked 鈥渉elp鈥� on the PayPal website it apologised: 鈥淗elp information isn鈥檛 available in English yet.鈥� This was mildly helpful, and in English鈥�
TALKING of official oddity, who in Bermuda鈥檚 Department of Airport Operations commissioned the sign in the picture sent us by Andrew Doble? It instructs: 鈥淣o signs allowed.鈥� Congratulations, whoever you are, you鈥檝e made it into Feedback.
SEVERAL readers point out that the UK鈥檚 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency was not so daft in asking people to state any changes in the country they were born in (22 September). International boundaries are continually shifting, they point out. What if you were born in Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia?
Ian Harragan notes that a changed date of birth is also possible, for centenarians born in countries that hung on to the Julian calendar and only adopted the Gregorian one in the 20th century. The website at shows that this could apply to people born in China, Greece and Russia, among others.
Your mail has been sent tomorrow
NORMALLY, the Microsoft Outlook 2003 program on David Young鈥檚 computer groups emails by when they were sent, as in 鈥淭oday鈥�, 鈥淵esterday鈥� and so on. But an email sent around midnight was shown, just after, as having been sent 鈥淭omorrow鈥�.
David is still trying to work out the temporal implications.
LOCAL UK paper The Canterbury Times, Julio Hernandez-Castro informs us, recently reported that 鈥淪tudents can win their university fees paid for a year if they buy three Pyrex products from Dunelm Mill鈥� The competition closes on October 12 and the winner will be announced by October 10.鈥� Could they be using David Young鈥檚 email system? Or is this an example of the problems you get when you try to group students and cookware in the same sentence?
FLYING to Rome, Stephen Scott was supplied by British Airways with a 鈥淐oronation chicken sub roll鈥�. The long list of ingredients seemed at first to be mostly natural vegetable thingies. Stephen was confused, though, by this: 鈥淐hicken (25 per cent) (Chicken (99 per cent), salt).
The nested parentheses are a clue, Stephen. Colleagues who have written computer programs smell a special style of thinking, which defines 鈥渃hicken鈥� as a filling function with its own ingredients, including another local 鈥渃hicken鈥� function. Or do we have here a recursive ingredient list, like Harry Gibson鈥檚 鈥淏eef Stock鈥� made with beef stock (6 November 2010)?
FINALLY, 鈥淭his is an enviro septic which recycles water into the garden,鈥� says a notice that Matthew Wilcox saw in a guest house in Catherine Bay, New South Wales, Australia. 鈥淭he system clogs very easily,鈥� it went on. 鈥淧lease do not place any matter other than toilet paper into the toilet.鈥� Doesn鈥檛 that rather take away the point?
