Unexpected survey finding o' the day

From Gallup:

"Thinking back to Dr Martin Luther King and his dream of racial equality, do you think that dream has now been realised in the United States, or not?" 

And the results: 

Yup, Black / African-Americans are more positive than whites.  Asians and Hispanics were not separated out, or maybe they were not asked. 

Quote o' the day

I advise that this should not be read unless sitting down, or if the reader has a heart condition:

Viviane Reding, EU Commissar for Justice:

"The European Union is a beacon of inspiration and a source of encouragement to all nations struggling to come to terms with the sufferings of their past. It is an example for any reconciliation process founded on the respect for fundamental rights".

The talk on street corners in Juba and elsewhere in South Sudan is of little else.

She has a track record of saying and doing rather silly things, so this comes as no great surprise.  The rather broad statement was occasioned by today being 'Europe-wide Day of Remembrance of the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes', but then you all already knew that.

Number crunching crime on the District Line

The London Evening Standard has figures on crime by tube station, care of the Transport Police, here.  Tube stations which share an entrance with overground stations appear to have been excluded, so there is no data for, inter alia, Richmond, Wimbledon, Kensington Olympia and Upminster. 

The most crime ridden stations appear to be the tube interchanges with the mainline stations.  Well knock me down with an integumentary appendage....

Because I am a bit of stats nerd, I have been contextualising those crime figures to annual entries and exits at stations (2010) on the District Line (Well, I'm not going to do the whole network, the D-Line is the one I use most and it goes through a number of mainline stations).  And that makes things look rather different, with West Ham emerging as the most crime ridden station relative to use, with 43 crimes reported for its 3.39 m entries and exits, or a figure of 12.7 per million.  Note that this is not the home station for West Ham United, that being - as any fule kno - Upton Park.  Upton Park has a figure of 3.4.    At the other end of the scale is Barking at 2/13.72m, giving a figure of 0.145.  This makes West Ham some 87 times more dangerous.  

The top six most dangerous stations are all in East London - West Ham, Dagenham East (11.4 per million), Becontree (8.4), Upney (5.3), Plaistow (4.7) and Upminster Bridge (4.49).  The seventh is Notting Hill Gate (4.4).

There are two very serious mainline interchanges on the D-Line - Victoria and Paddington.  Those two have figures of 2.3 and 0.86 respectively.  This makes Victoria safer than Ravenscourt Park (2.38) but more dangerous than Mile End (2.19).  Paddington is only marginally less safe than Turnham Green (0.84), here in leafy and riot-free Chiswick.

Despite the tendency of some of the locals to loot and pillage, Ealing Broadway was a pretty safe place to enter or exit in 2010, with a figure of 0.48 per million, a figure bettered only by Barking and Aldgate East (0.22).  Cannon Street also fares creditably at 0.51, making it safer than Gunnersbury (0.76) and Stamford Brook (0.80).  The nation's Parliamentarians are safer at Westminster (1.5) than users of Barons Court (1.7) and Embankment (1.8), if in greater peril than travellers making use of South Ken (1.57) and Chiswick Park (1.55).

I had intended to map this information, but a full tube map would be too crowded, and a diagrammatic map of the D-Line has proven google resistant.  However, I have a plan which may yet see the light of day.

I will answer requests for figures for individual stations, should this have piqued anyone's interest.

Just what is it with the youth of Romania?

A pertinent question, I think, given that according to a Eurobarometer poll of Euro Yoof (15-24 year olds) on the subject of drugs and the like, some 15% would like to ban alcohol.  Yes, really.  (There's a whole lot of other interesting stuff in the survey, but time is tight.  I might return to this next week).  I can't say I've ever had any Romanian booze, so perhaps a reader with experience of it could point out whether this is a sane reaction to Wallachian riesling on the part of the Dacian Generation Y.

While the Romanians do the most to appal, the EU average for banning is 7%, with this topped in Belgium, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Sweden (surprise x2), France (yes, really), Lithuania, Spain and Italy (Good grief, Carlo Bruno).  Some 4% of British youth agree, while the Danes and Dutch are bottom at 3%.

Tehran has some fun at our expense

From the Tehran Times, in full - because it is worth it:

"TEHRAN - Two hundred and thirty-nine Iranian lawmakers issued a statement on Wednesday, condemning the violation of human rights in Britain. 

The lawmakers wrote that the unrest sweeping the United Kingdom is rooted in unemployment and economic crisis and the suppression of the protests indicates that the British government has no respect for the rights of minorities and its claims of human rights abuses in other countries are nothing more than lies. 

“Concerned international organizations and the United Nations human rights committee and the Security Council are expected to responsibly deal with the issue of the crackdown on the people in Britain and to fulfill their humanitarian and legal duties and condemn the repressive actions of the British police,” the statement said. 

The lawmakers also called on the British government to stop the mistreatment of protestors and release those arrested. 

In addition, they urged the United States and other Western countries to break their silence over the violence in Britain.

Note that there are 290 members of the Iranian Majlis, so maybe the other 51 could not stiffle their sniggering long enough to sign the motion.  Anyway, perhaps the bluff should be called and those convicted in the less than bloody assizes should be offered a choice of chokey or a one way ticket to Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Meanwhile, Iran would appear to have an  unemployment rate (best guess ) of 14.6% to our 7.7%, andt here's a round up of Iranian human rights issues here.    Totally off topic, but Persian food is divine.

That man Delors makes a comeback.

Despite a truckload of garlic being tipped in his general vicinity, he's back - after some 16 years.  That it was part of his being a loyal father is perhaps to his credit, as it is at the behest of Martine Aubry that he is sounding off:

"Open your eyes:  the Euro and Europe (1) are on the edge of a precipice"

(Be still my beating heart...)  

"And in order not to fall off , the choice appears simple to me - either Member States accept the closer economic cooperation that I have always demanded, or they transfer more powers to the Union".

More at Le Parisien here.  The original is behind a pay wall at two other websites.

Doubtless he is holed up in his equivalent of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises awaiting the call from a stricken EU for him to come to its aid.



(1) I think he means the European Union.  The Russian Federation, Norway, Serbia etc all seem happy to sit this one out.  

Coining it.

I do not suppose many normal people have heard of Niue, but it is a South Pacific island with a degree of sovereignty sheltering under the shield, as it were, of New Zealand.

I am sure that Niueans are generally good sorts, but they do seem to have a bit of a problem with taste.

Exhibit A, the flag of Niue:

I am quite a fan of the saffron hue in other contexts, but not on a flag with red, white and blue, thank you.

That ensign has been fluttering above Niue for more than 35 years, so it is hardly a new offence.

Exhibit B, the currency of Niue:

The coins above are legal tender in Niue.  Yes, really: "Each coin in the Star Wars set is struck from Silver Plated base metal. No more than 50,000 of each coin will be issued by the New Zealand Mint. The coins are legal tender of Niue".  I nearly entitled this 'Star Wars - a Niue Hope', but decided against it as it might have attracted the wrong type.


In common with novelty stamps, the authorities are not expecting anyone to actually use the things but rather are counting on Star Wars / numismatics 'enthusiasts' (1) to put them in a drawer or - if bolder in the face of mockery - to display them.

Where it gets even more amusing is the obverse:  "The obverse of the coin features The Raphael Maklouf effigy of Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II sovereign of the commonwealth of Niue".

Readers are in with a sporting chance of having a Raphael Maklouf lurking in a pocket / handbag.  It is the portrait of Mrs Battenberg Saxe Coburg Gotha where she only looks 30 years younger than her then current age, rather than the prior 50 or the current 20. 

A bit of digging reveals that Niueans find God in the following ways:

"Ekalesia Niue (Niuean Church - a Protestant church closely related to the London Missionary Society) 61.1%, Latter-Day Saints 8.8%, Roman Catholic 7.2%, Jehovah's Witnesses 2.4%, Seventh-Day Adventist 1.4%, other 8.4%, unspecified 8.7%, none 1.9% (2001 census)".

So, there could be some Jedi Knights lurking beneath the palm trees.


(1) I would use a stronger word, but I believe sci-fi fanboys react to criticism of their doings almost as strongy as dog lovers do, and I could do without the grief.