Another ill-advised Cleopatra movie

After the controversy stoked up by the casting of Gal Gadot as Queen Cleopatra, now we have another controversy as a new movie casts Adele James as Cleopatra. Netflix's Queen Cleopatra bills itself as a documentary rather than a fictionalized movie, and producer Jada Pinkett-Smith could probably have predicted some blow-back.

You see, Ms. James is Afro-American Black and, as mentioned previously, Cleopatra was most definitely Greek/Macedonian, i.e. on the Mediterranean side of Caucasian.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Supreme Council of Archaeology have both weighed on about historical revisionism and cultural insensitivity. 

It will be interesting to see, though, whether Netflix's interest in increasing its profile among Black viewers outweighs the flak it will surely receive about historical inaccuracy.

Toronto Maple Leafs could break their first round curse tonight

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in danger of finally overcoming their first round playoff curse. Tonight they play the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 3-1 cushion. Tonight they could (and I emphasize the "could") win their first playoff round since 2004, 19 years ago. 

We are not taking about winning the Stanley Cup, or even semis or quarters; just getting through the first round has proved hard enough. They have qualified for the playoffs often enough in recent years, but have a nasty habit of whiffing at the first hurdle, usually at the hands of the Lightning or the Boston Bruins.

Even a 3-1 series lead, which would make most teams quite confident of their chances, is not enough to ensure victory. In 2022, they were 2-1 up against Tampa, and 3-2 up in the fourth game, before the slide came, and they lost in 7. In 2021, they were 3-1 up against the Montreal Canadiens, and still managed to lose the next three games and the series. You can see why fans are nervous.

Many people are saying that this year feels different. This team is even better than those previous good teams, and they have the bit between their teeth. Down 4-1 in the fourth game, they were able to rally and eke out a 5-4 overtime win (which is impressive, but arguably, what were they doing 4-1 down in the first place?)

Anyway, tonight's game is a big one for Toronto, bigger than for most other teams in the playoffs. It's almost their own personal Stanley Cup final, and the press is reporting it in terms of a "massive moment", even of "changing history", even though this is just the first round. Sad, but true. 

If they can get through this jinx, the rest of the journey to the Stanley Cup should be a piece of cake (except, oh yes ... 56 years and counting, the longest drought if any team that has previously won the trophy).

UPDATE

Here we go. Strike 1. Toronto lost to the Lightning 4-2 in Game 5. All is  not lost, of course - they have two more chances to come though - but many fans are already starting to lose faith. After all, that was the 11th time in a row that the Leafs were in a position to advance to the next round ("series-clinching matches") and failed to eliminate an opponent. 11th.

UPDATE UPDATE

Unbelievable! It's done! Toronto beat Tampa Bay, away from home, in overtime again, 2-1, to go through to the second round of the Stanley Cup. They didn't even need a game 7 (thank God!). The jinx is overcome, the curse is broken, the demons are exorcised, the dragon is slain.

There is no reason now why they shouldn't go on to win it all. Well, there's Boston, I suppose, Colorado, Edmonton, maybe. But details, details! Allow us to bask for a while in the glow of our first playoff series win since 2004.

South Africa has no interest in improving its carbon footprint

It's enough to make you despair. South Africa is calling for a reversal of Western-financed plans to replace a large coal-fired power plant with a huge renewable energy program.

The US$8.5 billion project, partly financed by a US$47.5 million loan from Canada, was to establish a major solar and wind facility at Komati, a long-established coal plant. It has been described as one of the world's biggest energy repurposing projects, and would go a long way towards improving South Africa's execrable carbon footprint.

Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, however, is having none of it, calling it "totally illogical" and "unjust". His justification? "Extending the lives of coal power stations is necessary. Recommissioning Komati is quite urgent, because it is a good power station and it was giving us a good level of energy availability."

Did he not get the memo? Well, I'm sure he did, but Mantashe is a former coal miner and mineworker union leader, and has been described as a "coal fundamentalist". He is at the forefront of resistance to renewable energy, and likes to maintain that smaller countries like his are being bullied by more developed countries into a green revolution they have no interest in. Oh and, purely incidentally, he and his ANC party has extensive coal interests, and the country's powerful coal lobby has the government in its pocket.

Komati coal station is now 62 years old, and had been shut down and revived several times throughout its long life. It is increasingly expensive to own and operate. Mantashe has vastly exaggerated both its potential power output and its jobs potential, while under-reporting the proposed renewable energy site's potential.

South Africa does have an ongoing energy crisis, with regular rotating blackouts most days, which has severely damaged the economy and made everyday life for regular folks increasingly hard. Analysts, though, say that this is a result of corruption and dysfunction at the state electricity supplier, Eskom, which has repeatedly deferred necessary maintenance on its power stations.

It's hard when Western countries are not even able to help developing countries to clean up their act, due to ignorance, corruption and personal interests.

Renewable natural gas? That's a thing?

Well, kind of.

Natural gas is 90% methane, a potent greenhouse gas, many times, more potential than carbon dioxide. That's why claims by the oil and gas industry that natural gas should used as a "transition fuel" should be take with a very large pinch of salt.

What, then, are we to make of the concept of "renewable natural gas" (RNG)? Also known as "biomethane" in Europe, RNG means methane produced from biological, as opposed to fossil, sources, e.g. landfills, sewage, food waste, agricultural waste, or forest waste. Because once refined, it is chemically practically identical to regular natural gas, it can be transported, processed, stored, mixed and used in exactly the same way.

The industry claims that it can it can displace natural gas and other fossil fuels. RNG made from plants that captured carbon during their lifetimes is arguably carbon neutral when it is burned. Methane captured from landfills and agricultural and food waste reduces the amount of methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, and when burned it is converted into water and carbon dioxide, a less dangerous greenhouse gas. So, companies like FortisBV and REN Energy International are pushing their RNG products as a solution to Canada's climate change woes.

However, in practice, RNG's carbon intensity depends on how it was produced, and much of it is not as carbon neutral as claimed. Also, biogas and RNG production leaks an estimated 15% of its methane into the atmosphere, a substantial amount of a very potential greenhouse gas. Critics, then, see the whole concept of RNG as just another example of greenwashing. Particularly galling is the promotion of RNG for household stoves, a process that emits a whole host of unpleasant gases including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide. Methane is methane, they say.

RNG could, though, still make a contribution to decarbonizing some sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as industrial high-temperature heating, heavy duty transport, aviation and maritime shipping, although estimates suggest that it will probably only displace at best 5-10% of current natural gas usage. Also, it is expected to be between 2 and 10 times as expensive as regular natural gas, depending on the comparison being considered.

Is RNG, then, simply a distraction from other better solutions like heat pumps, solar power, etc, as its detractors claim?

Diana Abbott suspended for proffering her opinion on race

Long-time British MP and Labour Party Chief Whip Diane Abbott (a black woman, for what it's worth) has been suspended from her party over a letter she published claiming that prejudice,  such as that experienced by Jewish, Irish or Traveller people, is not the same as racism.

In her letter (which was a response to an article by Tomiwa Owolade, entitled "Racism in Britain is not a black and white issue. It's far more complicated", which is well worth a read), Ms Abbott claimed that, while Irish, Jewish and Traveller people "undoubtedly experience prejudice", that is only "similar to racism", and other white people (e.g. blondes, redheads) can also experience this kind of prejudice, "but they are not all their lives subject to racism".

The Labour Party, which has faced allegations of antisemitism in the past and is hyper-sensitive to any similar charges, reacted quickly, calling Ms. Abbott's comments "deeply offensive and wrong". Jewish MPs called the letter "deeply offensive and deeply distressing". Abbott herself promptly apologized "for any anguish caused", and completely withdrew her comments. In an exercise in toeing the party line, she publicly revised her views: "Racism takes many forms and it us completely undeniable that Jewish people gave suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers and many others".

But, hold on, she is a successful black woman (Britain's first black woman MP, in fact) commenting on the nature of racism. Shouldn't her views be taken seriously? Does the (mainly white) Labour Party really know better than she what racism is or isn't?

In fact, many commentators on race would agree that prejudice is not the same as racism. More specifically, racism is a type of prejudice, where unequal power on the basis of race results in detrimental outcomes. Put more succinctly by Calgary Anti-Racism Education: Racism = Racial Prejudice + Power. In another formulation: "Prejudice can apply to lots of things, not only race. But racism is based on the assumption that race is an indicator of basic traits of character".

I must confess I always have a bit of a problem with the assertion that Irish people, for example, suffer from racism in Britain. I don't think I am being too literal when I counter-claim that, given that Irish people are the same race as the majority of Brits, what they are experiencing might be prejudice or discrimination, but it is, by definition, not racism.

Despite her retraction, Ms. Abbott is now no longer a member of the Labour caucus, and is representing her London riding as an independent MP. What a perilous area of debate is race. In fact, you might say, there is no debate allowed any more. See what happens when someone goes against the prevailing dogma.

Fox News probably won't pay all of the $787.5 Dominion settlement

Dominion Voting Systems' $787.5 million court victory over Fox News was huge. And other cases against Fox News over their claims of rigged voting machines in the 2020 election may still follow.

But Fox are unlikely to actually pay the whole amount in practice. That's because, incredible as it may seem, they can legally set the payment against their tax bill for the year. In this way, they could save up to a quarter of the defamation charges through tax savings, leaving the net charge at an estimated $590 million, still a large sum, but not quite as eye-popping as the initial award.

However unfair it may seem, Fox can deduct the Dominion settlement from its income taxes as a "necessary expense", essentially just a cost of doing business. Big companies, including major banks and oil companies, do this all the time.

Furthermore, it's also more than likely that Fox will have media liability insurance - yes, that's a thing! - which could defray at least $100 million of the legal cost. Suddenly, the huge settlement is not looking quite so impressive.

Fox had an estimated $4 billion in cash reserves on hand at the end of 2022, so the net effect is probably not going to hurt them too much. In a public statement, Fox has said that it doesn't expect the settlement to affect its operations. And don't expect it to change its politics or its modus operandi either.

Forest Green Rovers, a new model for English soccer

Here's a fascinating vision of a possible future. English football, that bastion of tradition and dogged reaction, has a new role model.

Forrest Green Rovers is a team you might not have heard of. It is based in the tiny, pretty town of Nailsworth, in rural Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds, kind of between Oxford and Bristol. But it is doing remarkably well, having recently been promoted from League 2 to League 1 (which, confusingly, is actually the third division of English soccer, after the Premier League and Championship League).

But Forest Green Rovers has turned the traditional approach to running a football club on its head. It has been recognized by the United Nations and FIFA as the greenest and most sustainable club on the planet. The club is carbon neutral, and pretty much every aspect of it is geared towards sustainability and the environment.

No hot dogs and Coca Cola here: its concessions menu is all vegan, featuring plant-based nuggets, Quorn and leek pies made with soy milk. There is oat milk for coffee and tea, and even vegan beer. The pitch is organic, fertilized with seaweed, and mowed with a solar powered robotic lawnmower. The team's jerseys are made from coffee grounds, recycled plastic and bamboo. The players use an electric bus to get to away games. There is organic hand soap in the bathrooms. Electricity is supplied by renewable energy company Ecotricity.

The club is the brainchild of 60-year old owner Dale Vince, one time peace campaigner and vagabond who made it big with his green energy company Ecotricity, which he started in the early 90s, long before carbon neutrality was even a thing. He took over Forest Green Rovers in 2010, at a time when the club was mired in debt, and struggling in the lower ranks of the English soccer system. 

Vince's vision was slow to be accepted but, as global warming and other environmental issues became more mainstream, attitudes gradually changed. Now, the new concession menu is very popular, selling 8 to 10 times as much as ten-year ago, and other club owners regularly seek him out to discuss issues of sustainability.

One or two policies have been somewhat contentious, like flying the Palestinian flag and his open support of the controversial Just Stop Oil campaign. But most locals are very supportive of Mr. Vince's innovations, giving him credit for transforming the club, both on and off the pitch. 

Forest Green Rovers' time in League 1 did not go so well this year, and they are relegated back to League 2 for next year. But the experiment continues, and, for the most part, players and supporters are right behind it.

Spacex redefines the meaning of "success"

Spacex is redefining the meaning of "success".

The latest launch of Elon Musk's Spacex company's Super Heavy rocket launcher, billed as the biggest rocket ever, and Spacex's big hope for a rocket to send a manned mission to the Moon and Mars, took place in Boca Chica, Texas, earlier today. Unfortunately, the (unmanned) rocket exploded a few short minutes after liftoff, due to an issue with the separation mechanism.

A Spacex commentator deadpanned that "this does not appear to be a nominal situation", something of an understatement. They are, however, still calling it a success, because it would provide new information and help them get future flights right (hopefully before it contains human passengers). Well, no, you learn from failures, not successes. And this was, quite clearly, a failure.

Spacex called what everybody else calls a catastrophic explosion a "rapid unscheduled disassembly". Before the launch, Musk had lowered expectations, claiming that he would consider it a success if it didn't actually blow up on the launchpad. So, how would be define a "failure". That's one way of succeeding, I guess.

UPDATE

It turns out that the rocket was deliberately scuttled, but only because it was faulty and at risk of a much more dangerous crash landing. Still not what you would call a "success".

UPDATE UPDATE

The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has grounded the Starship program until it has completed its "mishap investigation", after its launch tore through the concrete launchpad, creating a huge crater, and debris and particulate matter went flying several miles beyond the expected debris field. It seems that Spacex will have a lot of work to do before they are allowed to send up another rocket.

"Success"?