Madeleine: DNA Evidence is no Smoking Gun

The hysteria surrounding the Madeleine Mcann case is growing all the time. The latest twist is that the couple are to have there own independent DNA test done to compare with the results in the possession of the Portuguese police (Svd, Dn). Sir Alec Jeffreys, the man who invented DNA fingerprinting has even offered his help.

We don't know the evidence that the police in Portugal have collected, but the 'smoking gun' appears to be the DNA found in the hire car. But as Sir Alec says, the same DNA match could be found in at least one family member. Since the car was used by Madeleine's parents and siblings, it will be almost impossible to prove that the blood belongs to Madeleine and not to another family member.

Also, let’s say for one second that they are guilty and found Madeleine dead in the flat and decided that rather than risk splitting up the family if they came clean, they decided to hide the body and invent the abduction story. Is it really likely that they could have put on such a convincing show to the world and never once broken down under the weight of all that guilt? They met the Pope for God's sake and being Catholics, lying to the Pope is a pretty big no-no. Also should we then believe that in the shadow of all this media attention, they then moved the body, using the hired car some 30 days later?

Occam's Razor states that 'All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one'. Unfortunately in this case, the simplest solution is that Madeleine was taken by persons unknown as is now quite probably dead. Going after the parents on the basic of very unsafe evidence will not help uncover the truth.

Nepal Airlines sacrifices goat to fix airplane

When a Nepal airlines plane sufferred repeated technical problems one solution was to sacrifice a pair of goats to the Hindu god of the sky protection, Akash Bhairab, in front of the plane, a Boeing 757.

I once flew Nepal airlines between Kathmandu and Pokhara and although the plane landed ok, whilst taxing back to the terminal building the hydraulic brakes failed and the plane just bounced along the side of the runway until it finally stopped by hitting another stationary plane.

I can therfore understand why some prayer might be in order to keep the planes airworthy!!

Still my worry is that Ryanair might considered that sacrificing goats to the gods is much cheaper than paying ground crews to service the planes. Maybe we'll see a 'goat charge' being introduced sometime soon....

Delicate Tightrope for Reinfeldt

When Fredrik Reinfeldt meets Muslim Ambassadors on Friday to discuss the controversy over the publication of the Mohammed cartoons, he is going to have to walk a delicate tightrope between the Swedish people who support freedom of speech as an absolute right and the sensitivities of the Muslim world.

One problem is that now it has been shown how easy it is to provoke the anger of the Muslim world it will be easy for anybody to publish their own pictures purely to get a reaction. What would happen if far right groups started doing this as a way of provoking Muslims? And every time this happens, the whole Swedish nation and Swedish government are held accountable.

I'm all for freedom of speech, but also I don't want every idiot who wants to piss of the Muslims to be able to do it in my name.

The Muslims on the other hand need to understand that people will always say and do things to provoke a reaction and the right thing to do is to register your distaste and ignore it. If they react so strongly to everyone who insults them, they risk opening up the floodgates to anyone who wants to upset them for their own personal ends.

God's Own Airline?

The Vatican is to begin offering a low cost airline to Catholic pilgrims to transport them to various holy sites, beginning with Lourdes. I hope their pricing policy is more transparent than other low cost airlines. The airline will be called Mistral Air (easypray.com was dropped at the last minute)

Lourdes is a strange holy site. Every Catholic has heard of the miraculous healing that can be found there, but the statistics are not that good. There have been around 200million visitors to Lourdes since 1860 and 68 recognised miracles. That's about a 1 in 3million chance of having your prayers heard and a miracle performed. It's not great odds when you consider that medical science produces similar numbers of cures which cannot be explained. What do the millions who go there seeking healing and don't find it feel?

A great day for Texas?

The US state of Texas has just executed its 400th. prisoner, since the death penalty was re-introduced in 1976, according to SvD. How can a country which prides itself on being free just and democratic still cling to the barbaric practice of executing criminals?

Its not a deterrent, it does nothing to protect society and although the families of those hurt by crime might feel some sense of justice, it is a cruel way to treat the families of those being killed who are themselves innocent of the crimes. It's very hypocritical to condemn others for violating human rights and at the same time continuing to violate the right to live. Sure these people are convicted killers themselves, but that is not the point. I don't hold with this 'eye for an eye' mentality.

I wonder why the Christian Right does not stand up and demand an end to the killings? They seam to have such influence in so many other areas of American life, they must have an opinion. I guess the problem is that the bible has as many passages which can be interpreted as being in favour of capital punishment as it has ones which appear to appose it.