ECONOMIST cover - Those Brits, their sense of humor, of the absurd.

No, not the cover, just setting the table for it.

The meeting of east and west, despite Kipling.

But, back to the cover.

For those not knowing or previously not caring, ECONOMIST covers are online, here.

The latest cover on east meeting west, here; with Atlantic's editorial/news commentary about it, here.

Brokeback Summit? Again, those Brits, they are ...

The opening image suggests this meeting was with compact staffing and not something with a host of bureau personnel from each side cutting details of dealings into the future. Photo credit, the opening image is from Strib's carrying an AP story, here.

With China trade having more impact on the West Coast, see, e.g., here and here, for further AP reporting with each item terse but helpful.

A google.

Ars Technica, earlier this year, here.

Our government snoops spy on China, China spies on our high-tech firms, spies and lies and that as basis for a meeting of minds and an understanding among gentlemen? Go figure.

____________UPDATE___________
More stuff. Monitor editorials from earlier this year, here and here, and summit coverage, here. FEDCyber, here, here, here and here. There is ncix.gov, here and about. I never knew there was any such bureau, until it showed up in web search returns done for this post. TIME with a coverage slant. And full circle back to the Economist cover, and coverage.

_______FURTHER UPDATE_________
Another google; and Wikipedia.

Chinese-Nicaraguan canal efforts, and more.

Recent reporting, here and here.

Three Google searches, here, here, and here.

Wikipedia here.

This link. Library of Commerce link to papers of one player, overlapping the time the Panama Canal was built (see, Wikipedia, here). VOA, here. A brief historical note here.

Canal matters show up as part of an interesting Murray Rothbard item, here.

You can research online and find much else on your own about the Central American canal question in the early 20th cehtury - where the present Panama route and the Nicaraguan alternative were contested by battling US business and political factions; with the name of William Cromwell of the Sullivan and Cromwell firm being a player in the Panama option winning the day.

Last, two links re Panama and Nicaragua facing a third proposed freight route. Here, and here, (along with a link to an item about a present Chinese-Columbian preliminary proposal, here).

With government secret spying on Americans in the news, the NSA's building out much more capacity in remote parts of Utah - a matter reported at length about three months ago - is again timely.

This link. And, this fairytale:

"Big mouth," hell child, not as big as the leakers to Guardian, WaPo ...

____________UPDATE___________
Guardian reports:

The leaked National Security Agency (NSA) document obtained by the Guardian claims Prism operates with the "assistance of communications providers in the US".

The document names AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PalTalk and Yahoo and gives dates when they "joined" the scheme, aimed at intercepting data from people outside the US.'' The presentation talks of "legally compelled collection" of data.

All the companies involved have now denied knowledge of the scheme to the Guardian.

In one slide, the presentation identifies two types of data collection: Upstream and Prism. Upstream involves the collection of communications on "fibre cables and infrastructure as data flows past." Prism involves: "Collection directly from the servers of these US service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple."

Obama confirmed the existence of the scheme Friday and said Congress was "fully apprised" of the situation and that it was being conducted legally with a "whole range of safeguards involved".

But despite Obama's acknowledgment, senior figures said they remained puzzled and surprised by the news. Speaking off the record one said their company regularly complied with subpoenas for information but had never allowed "collection directly" from their servers.

Some speculated that the wording of the document was incorrect or that the author had over-hyped the scheme.

Security experts and civil liberty figures were less convinced. "I was assuming that these tech companies were just lying," said security guru Bruce Schneier. "That's the most obvious explanation."

"Could it possibly be that there's a department within these companies that hides this from the executives? Maybe," he said. "I don't know, we don't know. This points to the problem here. There's so much freaking secrecy that we don't know enough to even know what is going on."

He said he was not surprised by the news. "There are no surprises here. We all knew what was going on and now they have finally admitted it."

"The NSA would not have done this surreptitiously, they want the tech companies on their side," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). "I can't make sense of their statements at all."

He said it was clear that tech companies in general were more than happy to co-operate with the US authorities and said he was puzzled why there seemed to be such a gap between the two sides' story.

Ali Reza Manouchehri, CEO and co-founder of MetroStar Systems, an IT consultant that works closely with government agencies, said: "There are situations that come up where they have to communicate with the security agencies. At the end of the day they are working in the interest of national security."

"I can't comment on what's going on inside the company. It's hard for me to believe that Google doesn't know," he said. "It is either transparent or it is surreptitious. It is hard for me to believe that at this level, at this volume it is surreptitious." He said if the companies really did not know then "we have some serious issues."

The news has sparked widespread concern in the US. Nearly 20,000 people have signed a petition at Progressive Change Campaign Committee calling on Congress to hold investigations.

Closing petition link is within the original Guardian report.

A Strib item on insects as food, states, "Western societies require tailored media communication strategies and educational programs that address the disgust factor. Locusts in Australia, for instance, sound a little more appetizing when they’re called 'sky prawns.' "

Headline quote from here.

Euphemism triumphant. As with hack political propagandists calling themselves Watchdogs.

Is it time to call the proliferation of these "Watchdog" politician-activist entities, wherever found, a plague of "sky prawns?"

Tasty, tasty, Sky Prawns.

Old soldiers never die, they just cost a lot.

The Strib item headline:

Pentagon brass calls sexual assault 'like a cancer,' but insists commanders keep authority
Article by: RICHARD LARDNER and DONNA CASSATA , Associated Press
Updated: June 4, 2013 - 7:20 PM

You can read the carried AP feed, but the point here, congressional hearings, bring in the latest incarnation of senior brass to chat, it being a host of otherwise non-special names, but a group promoted to highest pay grades prior to retiring on specially favorable pension terms. This photo from the item has to depict well over a million dollars in annual salary.

Time to clean house, slim down, push less paper, cut down on golden
parachutes and pensions. And give less testimony.

Remember, we are still paying dearly, every year, for Colin Powell whose career high point was blatently lying to the world about Iraq and WMD. It seems there are as many generals as ever, but with the volunteer military the general-to-grunt ratio has soared and soured.

All pictured look top rank. Some look more like pompous jackasses, meaner, than others. But as a group would you want a thing to do with any of them?

Then why are you paying so dearly to allow their comfort level, personal and family, to be so much greater than yours?

And while on the subject, this link. Animal Farm has its hierarchies. Read this. And this, stating mid-item:

At a news conference last month, Gov. Dayton said many highly paid state employees could make more in the private sector.

“It’s a competitive market, as it is in the private sector, and we need to be accommodating to that,” Dayton said. “Very talented and sought-after people, like our commissioners and agency heads, can get salaries 50 to 100 percent larger than that.”

What is the contrapositive of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."?

_____________UPDATE______________
I wonder how long it wll be for the leagues of tax-hating "Sky Prawns," to pick up on the goldbrick wastes at the top of the military pyramid; instead of yammering, Scott Walkeringly, about the Teachers and other non-military public payroll occupants.

My God, not Tom Emmer. Except, maybe, only in a two-person match with the other being Big Lake turkey,Mary Kiffmeyer.

Both mentioned, Elk River Star Times,

"Emmer looked like a campaigner in Elk River on Monday
By Jim Boyle on June 4, 2013 at 11:16 am."

Here.

Bloomberg reports - Michael Douglas, HPV, the threats, and the vacine being underutilized,

This link.