Help wanted -- unemployed need not apply

Seriously:

Job hunters are facing a new trend: businesses asking recruitment companies to keep unemployed people out of their job pools.

Peter May, of Atlanta, said he was hoping Orlando-based recruiter "The People Place" would help him find a job with Sony Ericsson. The company is moving its headquarters to Buckhead, which is located outside Atlanta. May said he was mortified when he read the message on the website. In all caps, and bold type, it said, "No unemployed candidates will be considered at all."

Source (h/t Rajiv in this iTulip thread). Nice, eh?

Israel caught recycling old photos as "evidence"

No doubt you've heard the Israelis whine about how the people on board those ships were armed, so the IDF stormtroopers had to kill a few of them to show them who's boss, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a wicked Nazi antisemite. There's just a tiny problem, though -- the photos that the Israelis claim prove their case are several years old (h/t pogge):

Date and Time (Modified): 2010:06:02 10:37:58
YCbCr Positioning: Co-sited
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Date and Time (Original): 2006:02:07 04:49:57
Date and Time (Digitized): 2006:02:07 04:49:57

There's a bunch more like that one as well. Don't tell the Canadian government, though; they won't believe you anyway.

Israel's image in shambles after attack on aid flotilla

While most Western countries have been muted in their criticism of Israel until recently, the recent raid on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip has had a real impact. A ship that was supposed to have participated in the mission, but was delayed due to sabotage by person or persons unknown, is now on its way, with the full support of the Irish government:

Earlier today, Taoiseach Brian Cowen warned there would be “most serious consequences” should any harm come to Irish citizens involved with an aid flotilla destined for Gaza.

Both Mr Cowen and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin called on Israel to allow Irish humanitarian ship, the MV Rachel Corrie , pass through its military blockade of Gaza.

The cargo vessel is ploughing ahead with its attempt to deliver aid to Gaza despite yesterday’s deadly attack by the Israeli navy on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Mr Cowen called today called for the immediate establishment of "a full, independent international inquiry into yesterday’s events, preferably under UN auspices”.

He called on Israel to release "unconditionally" Irish citizens who he said had been taken to Gaza by the Israeli authorities and asked to sign papers allowing for their deportation.

Speaking in the Dáil during Leaders' Questions, the Taoiseach said said the presence of Irish diplomatic personnel in Israel provided "better prospects" that the citizens would be released "sooner rather than later"

"But I will make this point. If any harm comes to any of our citizens, it will have the most serious consequences.”

From the Irish Times, via davincicomplex at ontd_political. It seems Israel is finally starting to lose ground in their PR war (funny how committing an act of piracy on the high seas can do that).

Edited to add: It's been brought to my attention that I'm slightly out of line in calling this piracy. From Craig Murray (h/t skdadl at Bread 'n' Roses):

A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is rather an act of illegal warfare.

My apologies for this error.

Some good environmental news for once

The Large Blue has been reintroduced to the UK:

Conservationists are hoping a wildlife success story - the large blue butterfly's return to the UK - will continue this year with a new record for numbers flying at a site where it was reintroduced.

The large blue had vanished from the British countryside by 1979, but a successful reintroduction project over the past 25 years has seen it return to 25 sites, including the National Trust's Collard Hill near Glastonbury, Somerset where it was brought back in 2000.

Last year a record 827 large blue butterflies emerged and flew on the National Trust site - a 22% increase on 2008, which in turn had been a record year.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the exception to the rule; this species and many others are declining on the European mainland.

A supremely bad idea

I generally like Joe Pantalone. However, one of the policies he's proposing for his mayoral campaign deserves to be rejected out of hand:

Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone says that, if elected to the top job, he’ll let people vote from their BlackBerry or home computer in 2014, and push the province to allow some non-citizens to help choose the mayor.

From the Star. I understand that he wants to increase voter turnout, but doesn't he remember all the controversy over electronic voting in American elections? And don't forget, part of the reason many people don't vote is that they don't think their vote matters. Such people aren't likely to feel any better about the usefulness of their vote if they figure that the election could be easily rigged, are they?

Additionally (though this is secondary to the main concern) these sorts of things always have teething problems. Centre Wellington experimented with voting by phone in the 2000 election, and the result was a huge fiasco; the lines were overloaded and many people were disenfranchised as a result. It's telling that the township's website no longer seems to have any reference to telephone voting; I guess they've learned their lesson, and Toronto should as well.

Coalition would do well with right leadership - poll

The latest Angus Reid poll suggests that an NDP-Liberal coalition could gain substantial support from the public, depending on who led it:

In one respect, the results of an Angus Reid poll to be released on Monday are not surprising — the Conservatives are at 35 per cent, the Liberals at 27 and the NDP are at 19 per cent; in Quebec, the Bloc leads with 37 per cent.

However, the poll also asked Canadians how they would vote if the Liberals and NDP went to the polls offering Canadians a coalition government, and here things get interesting.

According to the results published in Monday’s edition of La Presse, the Conservatives led by Stephen Harper would defeat a coalition led by Michael Ignatieff 40-34 per cent.

With Bob Rae as Liberal leader, the coalition and Conservatives would be tied.

However, if the coalition were to propose Jack Layton as prime minister, according to the Reid poll, it could defeat the Conservatives by 43-37 per cent.

From the Globe. I don't expect this to happen, but it's an interesting result. If nothing else, it sends a message to the Liberals about their leadership...

"Top kill" fails to stop gusher

The situation isn't getting any better:

With BP declaring failure in its latest attempt to stop the uncontrolled gusher feeding the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the company is turning to yet another mix of risky undersea robot maneuvers and longshot odds to plug the blown-out well.

Six weeks after the catastrophe began, oil giant BP PLC is still casting about for at least a temporary fix to the spewing well underneath the Gulf of Mexico that's fouling beaches, wildlife and marshland.

A relief well that's currently being drilled — which is supposed to be a better long-term solution — won't be done for at least two months. That would be in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins Tuesday.

President Barack Obama said it is “as enraging as it is heartbreaking” that the most ambitious bid yet for a temporary solution failed.

BP said Saturday that the procedure known as the “top kill” failed after engineers tried for three days to overwhelm the crippled well with heavy drilling mud and junk 5,000 feet underwater.

From the Globe. Of course, it will stop eventually, but what will be left of the Gulf's rich biota by that time?