How to tell when your boss [or anyone else] is lying

Original story here.

“ASSHOLE!” That was what Jeff Skilling, the boss of Enron, called an investor who challenged his rosy account of his firm’s financial health. Other bosses usually give less obvious clues that they are lying. Happily, a new study reveals what those clues are.

David Larcker and Anastasia Zakolyukina of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business analysed the transcripts of nearly 30,000 conference calls by American chief executives and chief financial officers between 2003 and 2007. They noted each boss’s choice of words, and how he delivered them. They drew on psychological studies that show how people speak differently when they are fibbing, testing whether these “tells” were more common during calls to discuss profits that were later “materially restated”, as the euphemism goes.

They published their findings in a paper called “Detecting Deceptive Discussions in Conference Calls”.
Deceptive bosses, it transpires, tend to make more references to general knowledge (“as you know…”), and refer less to shareholder value (perhaps to minimise the risk of a lawsuit, the authors hypothesise). They also use fewer “non-extreme positive emotion words”. That is, instead of describing something as “good”, they call it “fantastic”. The aim is to “sound more persuasive” while talking horsefeathers.

When they are lying, bosses avoid the word “I”, opting instead for the third person. They use fewer “hesitation words”, such as “um” and “er”, suggesting that they may have been coached in their deception. As with Mr Skilling’s “asshole”, more frequent use of swear words indicates deception. These results were significant, and arguably would have been even stronger had the authors been able to distinguish between executives who knowingly misled and those who did so unwittingly. They had to assume that every restatement was the result of deliberate deception; but the psychological traits they tested for would only appear in a person who knew he was lying.

This study should help investors glean valuable new insights from conference calls. Alas, this benefit may diminish over time. The real winners will be public-relations firms, which now know to coach the boss to hesitate more, swear less and avoid excessive expressions of positive emotion. Expect “fantastic” results to become a thing of the past.

Signs that you might be living in a Nanny State

For this high pedestrian activity sign, you even get a few illustrations of multiple pedestrians to help you understand what 'high pedestrian activity' means.

Arabanoo was kidnapped by the British colonisers with the idea of forcing him to be an interpreter. Arabanoo, if this description is to be believed, adapted well to captivity and enjoyed walking around in European clothes [and leg irons]. He adapted so well to captivity that after 4 and half months later he was dead, infected with smallpox by his captors. But I'm sure wearing the latest ball and chain fashions made up for the inconvenience of involuntary captivity by invading aliens and premature death.

The View from my Bicycle [COLUMN]

How many lives do we live?  How many times do we die? – Sean Penn in 21 Grams

Right now on the evening news there’s a report about a woman, Nadia Chetty who, a year after her husband’s death while holidaying in Port Elizabeth, refuses to bury him.+  The husband’s embalmed body has been in stasis at a West Rand morgue for months because the woman believes her husband will rise from the dead.  There is short statement by a pastor who claims not to be behind this lunacy, but follows this up quoting a verse which encourages believers to cast out devils and raise the dead.   

Logos Bible Church pastor Shandrey Thumbran said Nadia and Gonasilan had been good friends with him and his wife Reyahana. Thumbran denied influencing Nadia not to bury her husband, saying her actions had come directly from her faith in God's Word that "He will bring her husband back to life".

Thumbran [his name brings to mind 'thumbsuck'] endorses this woman’s behaviour as having a biblical basis, which clearly has had a profound influence on her deep desire for wish fulfillment.

Precedent

Let's face it, people have been brought back to life who have died.  After 5 minutes, a still warm body can literally be shocked back into operation, a lot like a car with a dead battery.  As long as all the parts are there, and the engine is still well oiled and warm.  Or not.  If they've fallen down a crevasse and frozen for a few hours, or gone into hibernation.  Hmmm...Chetty may have a case after all.  Perhaps there are cavemen walking around at the rate glacier tombs are melting.  But before we reach for our bibles Mrs Chetty might want to try a new line of thought.  Just for fun. 

Funeral Director

If we fire up our imaginations and lift the sheet over that more-than-a-year-old-corpse we’re likely to find her husband with his entire digestive system removed, along with the heart, and other organs. I'm not sure if the brain is removed during the embalming process - but the point is jump starting a body as long dead as this one is is like trying to jump start a car without a battery or engine.  Good luck.  In addition, there is no longer any blood in the body.  Perhaps the idea is that the miracle will be all the greater after the sands of time have withered the shell that was once a man’s body into…well, not much.  How long will this woman continue to hope that her husband will miraculously spring to life?  And when she relents to have him buried, how will she explain her lack of faith to her fellow believers, or her stupidity to the rest?

True Story

Once upon a time, when I was a Christian, our church Pastor died.  The circumstances were not mysterious.  In fact the congregation and family members and friends slowly saw the man – his name was Brian Winkler – deteriorate and finally breathe his last breath.  He suffered, to be sure.  What had happened was he [a South African] went to neighboring Mozambique on a mission to evangelize and scoffed at warnings to take anti-malarials saying, “I’ve lived my whole life without taking a pill, I’m not going to start now.”  He returned,  with malaria and stubbornly remained anti-treatment.  I remember cycling home one afternoon a few weeks after his return from Moz [a name that sounds like a place filled with malaria infested mosquitoes] and saw a number of ambulances and a small crowd milling around the Winkler home. Hours later I heard that yes, he had died. 

A casual reader may scoff at the stupidity of this, but consider the resolve of someone in the situation, health deteriorating, life trickling away…and not giving in at any moment.  That's pretty rock solid faith. Imagine the support and prayers from family, and the pastor allowing himself to weaken and die nevertheless.  I later heard that the entire congregation would be gathering around his body, praying for a Chetty-style miracle over the following 3 days.

When I was asked to join in this circus – in those days I was a sincere, born again Christian – common sense somehow intervened.  Some said that once the pastor was resurrected, my lack of faith would be noted, and I could be kicked out of the church.  I said I was prepared to take that risk.  I believe there was much hysterical praying and three days later, the pastor remained dead, and everyone went home.  The church was never quite the same after that.

I am writing this account as a cautionary tale for well-meaning youngsters and widows and other people with their lives still ahead of them, that may  be attracted to Christianity as I once was.  Hopelessly caught up in a good, but ultimately, counterfeit cause.  Your most potent weapon against being a schmuck is just this: critical thinking.  

+ Extract from a piece of non-fiction I'm presently busy with, working title THE CHRISTIANITY CON.

Jordy on bikinis, going big and Teahupoo

Jordy was tearing in the US Open.

Jordy is on a serious roll, leading both the World Tour and the ASP World rankings (formerly the WQS). The Zag caught up with Jords right after he took out second place at the US Open of Surfing and before he heads off to compete in the Billabong Pro Tahiti.

Interview by Craig Jarvis:

---

Craig: Well done bru. Incredible performance. You were basically one air short of victory. Let’s get into this.
Jordy: Cool lets go...


Craig: The US Open looked like a crazy event - loads of girls in bikinis. Was it as crazy as it looked and what were all those people up to?
Jordy: I would have to say that the US Open of surfing is by far the biggest action sports arena that I have ever participated in. It offers so many different related action sports disciplines, such as surfing, skating, BMX and freestyle motorcross, let along all the other commercial and non-endemic booths and stores selling and exhibiting their products. Some stores were introducing new product and launching their stuff to the masses at the event. Modern rock bands and bongo beats where going on all day long which gave a great vibe. And you mention girls. My eyes are still bulging - haha.

Read the rest.

Win Big with these Crash Courses in Photography

Right now there are a bunch of juicy competitions for budding photographers - by Nick van der Leek

Getaway has a Big 5 themed competition closing soon
National Geographic have a competition for kids aged 7-13 in four categories: South Africa, Animals, People and That's Funny. 
And Addo and Katz are offering R30 000 in prize money.

Getaway are offering:

  

Getaway, in conjunction with Nikon and National Geographic, is giving away a Nikon D5000 digital camera and Lexar Pro 8G memory card, worth R7999!

 Enter here.

I'm offering crash courses over 3 days [2 hours per day] covering:
- background and theory.  I'll share the basics that I have learned including macrophotography, landscapes, glamour and portraits and wildlife.  I'll also explain the concert of Photography as Art and show you how to make subtle changes that make a world of difference.
- practical photography.  We will spend some time in the field shooting a variety of subjects in a variety of conditions and settings.  This will allow new photographer's an opportunity to understand their equipment and how to use it.
- post processing and editing.  Possibly the most important aspect is which software to use and how to use it.  The good news is some of the best software is free and easy to use.  I'll show you how.

Using these tricks and tips you can be a major contender against the professionals out there vying for a host of fabulous prizes.
The course starts on August 20, Friday evening at 7pm.  I'm also offering an online version of the course as well, email me to find out more: nickvanderleek [at] [gmail] [dot] [com].

To vew my portfolio add me on Facebook or go here.

Friday the 13th in the Animal Kingdom

Picture courtesy Casey van der Leek

Picture courtesy Belinda Jane Whittaker

State of the Internet [VIDEO]

Run Like You Mean It

What you resist persists - by Nick van der Leek

These days I'm running to lose weight.  And for my sanity.  But weight is far and away the main priority.  All the sitting around behind a desk or steering wheel, behind a monitor or a TV, and let's face it, behind an endless conveyor of breakfast, lunch, dinner and junk food portions adds up.  It adds up to a monstrous entity known by an innocuous term: the boep. 

When I go out for that run I feel bullied and ridiculed into doing it.  Sometimes I'm inspired.  That feels better. Racing does that.  You run, you exceed your own expectations [I am not as fat, heavy, slow, dead as I imagined I was] and then you begin to believe [hope/imagine] that you're capable of being better.  Lots better.  That thought provides a new lease on a morning, and potentially, a new lease on life.

But what happens when I go out there, and I'm still heavy and slow.  This is hard to endure when you compare it to times when you were lighter, faster and had all your hair flashing wildly - like a demigod -  in the wind.
It's easy to run with an inner monologue in your mind, a monologue that longs for something long gone. And that's depressing.  Am I trying to run away from myself?  So here's an alternative.  You are still that person you once were.  Yes, with a few spiderwebs in the corners.  But potentially, at your best now, with the training you had then, it would be a close contest.  Wouldn't it?

The trick is, when you're running, to relax.  To embrace the strain.  To say: I want to be here, I want to put a strain on my boep, I want my legs to feel tired so they get stronger.  Don't resist the feeling, revel in it.  Allow yourself to feel the fatigue, and consent to it.  Say to yourself: "I choose to be here, and I choose to allow myself to feel this discomfort, so that I can work through this load of fatty adipose that I no longer want."  In short, run like you mean it.

The Economist looks at the cost of Climate Change

The bottom line is uncertainty, as weather patterns become disrupted.  This means food security evaporates, and a general state of flux takes place.  Given high human populations, quite a lot of unanticipated attrition is likely due to disease, storms, droughts, floods and impacts these have on settlements built into previous climate systems that no long hold.  Hence, this view from the Economist is sobering...

AS TORRENTIAL storms visit unprecedented flooding on Pakistan, thousands of kilometres to the northwest Russia burns. The two events are linked by a large-scale pattern of atmospheric circulation which is producing a particularly persistent area of high pressure over Russia. They are also linked in both being the sort of events climate scientists predict more of in a warming world.

The immediate cause of the problems is the behaviour of the jet stream, a band of high-level wind that travels east around the world and influences much of the weather below it. Part of the jet stream’s meandering is tied to regular shifts of air towards and away from the pole, called Rossby waves. The Rossby waves set up wiggles in the jet stream, wiggles which, left to themselves, would move westward. Since the jet stream is flowing eastward, though, the net effect of the Rossby waves varies. When the waves are short, they go with the jet's flow and the resultant wiggling heads downstream to the east. When they are long they go against the flow, and the jet’s wiggling is transmitted upstream to the west. In between, there is a regime in which the waves move neither west nor east, and the weather stays put.

According to Brian Hoskins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, the wave-generating activity of anticyclones in the Atlantic this year has been particularly well attuned to setting up these sorts of stationary waves, resulting in persistent troughs of low pressure over western and central Europe, a ridge of high pressure over Russia, and lows again to the east. The air itself does not necessarily sit still during all this, but the pressure patterns which dominate the weather persist. The high pressure over Russia is particularly pronounced and persistent, amounting to a block in the circulation of the atmosphere.

In Russia, this block provokes feedbacks that make things worse. High pressure makes it hard for clouds to form, and thus for rain to fall. Under cloudless skies the surface heats and gives up its moisture, making things at ground level hotter and drier while not increasing the chances of rain. As things get drier fires start and spread. The still air keeps the smoke close to the surface, exacerbating its malign effects on health. The sooty particles in the atmosphere heat it further.

The intensity of this heatwave has been remarkable. It is hotter than at any time in the instrumental record. According to an analysis by Geert Jan van Oldenborgh of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute a straightforward comparison of the temperatures seen this summer with those of the past 60 years suggests that a large patch of Russia is experiencing temperatures which might be expected only once every 400 years or so. Some places within that patch are hotter than might be expected over several millennia.

Part of the straightforwardness of that analysis is that it treats all the previous years equally. When instead Dr van Oldenborgh takes into account that there has been a general warming trend over those past 60 years the heatwave starts to look less improbable—more like the sort of thing you might expect every century. As the warming trend continues in the future, the chances of such events being repeated more frequently will get higher. A single heatwave cannot be said to have been caused by global climate change; but what is known about climate change says such heatwaves are now more probable than they were.

According to Dr van Oldenborgh there is no obvious relationship in historical data between Russian heatwaves and particularly powerful monsoons. But that does not mean that in this particular case the same large-scale siezing-up of the weather playing a role in Russia is not also making the monsoon storms of Pakistan particularly damaging. Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at Britain’s Met Office, points out that the amplified high over Russia has weakened the jet stream to the south, and a lot of moist monsoonal air is getting into the persistent trough over Pakistan. At the same time, says Dr Hoskins, cold air has been entering the region in the upper parts of the atmosphere, flowing south from the parts of Siberia that lie beyond the heatwave. The influx of cold air on top of warm, moist air favours the sort of deep convection that creates powerful storms, turning moisture in the air into water on the ground very efficiently.

One of the problems with the sort of blocking that is behind this weather (and was also, in another form, behind the abnormally cold winter in Western Europe) is that it is very hard to predict on a seasonal basis, or even just a few days out. Weather-forecasting models like it when big patterns move steadily round the planet. When they start to seize up a lot of non-linear effects—processes in which small causes have disproportionate effects—come into play, making it much harder to see what is going to happen next. So weather forecasts are not very good at capturing the imminent arrival of a blocking event or a stationary ridge. And climate models—which look at the average behaviour of possible future weather, rather than trying to predict a specific course of events—find it hard to give definitive answers about whether such events can be expected to be on the increase, or decrease.

In a world where greenhouse warming gets stronger, the tropics expand—an effect the beginning of which has already been observed. The paths of the jet streams to the north and south of the tropics will change in response to this. What that means for the interactions between jet streams and Rossby waves that lead to blocking, though, is unclear. Tony Lupo, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Missouri, has been looking at the question with some Russian colleagues. He says their climate modelling provides some reason to believe blocking effects might become more common in a warmer world, but also less forceful.

Most climatologists think that as yet it’s too early to say what might be expected. But some progress might be made quite soon. According to Tim Woollings, also of the University of Reading, new climate-modelling data being generated for the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may make it easier to pick out patterns in blocking behaviour which have so far been hard to get to grips with.

Professor Hoskins does not expect a drastic change in the way blocking events happen, though their locations may alter a bit. The climate-change message from what is going on this summer, he says, is not to do with the blocking itself, but its consequences. In a cooler world, this sort of high pressure over Russia would be less likely to result in such a dramatic heatwave; nor, probably, would the floods in Pakistan have been so bad.
Episodes of heavy rain and snowfall are now more common around the world than they were 50 years ago, according to the IPCC’s 2007 review of the literature, which is to be expected in a warming world; warmer air can carry more water, and so more can be released when the conditions are right. Reflecting this trend, the Indian monsoon — which in terms of absolute levels of rainfall changed little over the 20th century—has been seeing more of its rainfall in extreme events than it used to. No one of those extreme events can be laid at the door of worldwide climate change; nor can the Russian heatwave. The pattern of increases, though, fits expectations—and those expectations see things getting worse.

Original article.

South Africa's independent power starts generating...

 

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Hopefully we'll see this gain momentum...

 

Cape Town - MPs heard on Wednesday that at least 215 megawatts (MW) of privately-generated electricity has already been commissioned and is being fed into the power grid. Another 400 MW is expected to be operational by March 2011.

According to Steve Lennon, a divisional executive with Eskom, six projects have been agreed with five independent power producers. Four contracts are already finalised and have been approved by the electricity regulator (Nersa).

The other two have been sent to the producers for their final approval after completion of negotiations. A price of R1.25 per kilowatt/hour has been agreed, with contracts extending from 15 to 20 years.

"Business and Eskom's assessment is that the potential for more co-generation projects is there," Lennon told parliament's trade and industry committee, "possibly 1 000 to 3 000 MW based on various studies. Some of this appears to be self-generation, rather than co-generation."

He told the committee that the current price trajectory and possible energy conservation measures are already providing an incentive for businesses to do this, removing the need for subsidy.

The renewable energy feed-in tariff also provides for about 1 025 MW and just over 1 000 MW from the open-cycle gas turbine programme by 2013.

Lennon said that Nersa still need to finalise the final power purchase agreements and criteria to be used by the "single buyer" office in Eskom's system operations division. However, the regulator has indicated this could happen within the next two weeks.

"Eskom will commence the procurement process once the power purchase agreements and selection criteria are issued," he said.

Beach Life

All Blacks Dream Ride is embarrassing says Kiwi

DEREK FLYNN/Marlborough Express

OPINION By MARC HINTON - Stuff:

Hell, even I'm embarrassed now by the dream ride being afforded the All Blacks. Maybe the wildly eccentric Peter de Villiers actually has a point.Call off the judicial Rottweilers!

Goodness knows Graham Henry's men don't need any help beating their rivals, the form they're in this year, and the confidence and efficiency they're playing with.But they certainly got some on Saturday night from otherwise exemplary South African referee Jonathan Kaplan in Bledisloe II in Christchurch.

It was a special match for All Black loosehead Tony Woodcock as he became the most capped prop of all time with his 67th test appearance. But it was nearly a night of notoriety for the part-time farmer from Kaukapakapa as he committed a second-half indiscretion that should have seen him sinbinned.Quite why Kaplan refused to reach for the yellow card isn't certain, as Woodcock brutally thumped Wallaby hooker Saia Fainfgaa from behind at the back of a ruck. But the experienced official's lack of a response to what was a borderline piece of play – at best - by Woodcock does nothing to refute the popular notion that the All Blacks are some sort of protected species in the eyes of the game's referees.

What's gone on – or in last Saturday's case hasn't gone on – with regards to referees and the judicial process through this year's tests should not detract from the All Blacks' impressive start to the test year.They have been magnificent as they've peeled off seven consecutive victories to take their test winning streak to 13 and now head to Johannesburg with a 10th Tri-Nations title all but theirs.

But so far this international season the All Blacks have had quite a legup courtesy of some hardline rulings by match officials in tests. Ireland were reduced to 14 men early in New Plymouth when Jamie Heaslip was red-carded, and played 10 minutes with 13 when Ronan O'Gara also copped a yellow.

In Hamilton, the Welsh lost fullback Lee Byrne for 10 minutes, and late in the piece Sam Whitelock and Gavin Thomas were both sent to the bin for nothing more than handbags at dawn.In Auckland, the Springboks lost Bakkies Botha for a crucial 10 minutes and then for another nine weeks when a separate offence was picked up by the citing commissioner. In Wellington, Bok lock Danie Rossouw was despatched to the bin for an innocuous tap on Richie McCaw – and again the All Blacks made their undermanned foes pay.

And in the judicial room the Boks also saw Jean de Villiers banned two weeks for a dangerous tackle – the same offence for which Jaque Fourie (four weeks) and Quade Cooper (two) were also pinged following the South Africa-Australia match in Brisbane.Then, finally, in Bledisloe I in Melbourne, Wallaby wing Drew Mitchell received two quite pathetic yellow cards that earned him an automatic ejection, though All Blacks prop Owen Franks also saw yellow in that clash.

In total thus far the All Blacks' opponents have received six yellow and two red cards, against just two yellows for the New Zealanders.No All Black has even yet had to make a trip to the judiciary.So, what does that tell us?Certainly that the All Blacks are disciplined. That they play hard but fair. That their technique is pretty sound. And that teams under pressure tend to commit more dubious acts than teams creating the pressure.I would have backed that school of thought until Saturday. Then when Woodcock came thundering in, a ball nowhere in sight, and struck Faingaa like a missile in the small of the back, well it seemed like the choir boys had finally erred.

That was when Kaplan did himself, and the game, a disservice.He swallowed his yellow. And merely issued another lecture to an All Blacks side that had already been warned.What must the Boks have made of that watching from back in the republic? You can only imagine their disgust.

That Kaplan – ironically a South African – felt disinclined to punish the All Blacks for an act of ill-discipline was a major mistake, to my way of thinking.I understand where he was coming from. Yellow cards were becoming a blight on the test game. They were heavily influencing matches. He'd made a clear call to only brandish if necessary.But surely this was one time when it was. A referee needed to be seen to hold the All Blacks to the same account as their opponents had been in the six tests hitherto.What was possibly even more astounding was that Woodcock also survived the citing commissioner's eagle eye.

OK, Faingaa wasn't badly injured, and you could make a case that it was just a clearout of a guy on the wrong side of a ruck.But, given the standard that had been established in every other test this year, Woodcock's indiscretion appeared much more than that. It would seem Paddy O'Brien has some more explaining to do.

The Lion King in Real Life

Pakistan floods [PICTURES]

Severe flooding in Pakistan

It is only the start of the monsoon season, but already Pakistan is experiencing some of the worst flooding it has seen in over 80 years. Entire villages have been washed away, an early estimate of over 1,600 deaths so far and over 2 million displaced or otherwise affected. Not only is the immediate water damage causing havoc, the floods have inundated crop-producing areas, dealing a crippling blow to the agricultural-based economy and threatening a food crisis. The Pakistani government now struggles to rescue and provide aid to millions - while still fighting with militant Islamist forces in many of the hardest-hit regions. With even more heavy rains predicted in the coming days, here are a handful of recent photographs of Pakistanis as they cope with this latest disaster. (41 photos total)

A boy hangs on to the front of a cargo truck while passing through a flooded road in Risalpur, located in Nowshera District in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province July 30, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

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Men take refuge on a boat during heavy rain in Pakistan's Nowshera District on July 29, 2010. (REUTERS/K. Parvez) #

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Residents watch water pour through a street on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan on July 28, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Pakistani villagers move to high ground escaping a flood-hit village near Nowshera, Pakistan on Thursday, July 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) #

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Nimra, a three-year-old girl, who was rescued along with her family from Kaalam in the northern area, kisses the window glass of an army helicopter after their arrival at Khuazakhela in Swat district located in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province on August 1, 2010. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood) #

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Residents watch from a nearby hill as army helicopters rescued trapped residents from Nowshera, Pakistan on July 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif) #

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Residents stand by flood water that entered a residential area of Muzaffarabad, Pakistan on July 30, 2010. (SAJJAD QAYYUM/AFP/Getty Images) #

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An aerial view of a man and his animals surrounded by floodwater in Taunsa near Multan, Pakistan, flooded on Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer) #

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A Pakistani villager struggles to reach his village through a fast-moving flood water caused by heavy monsoon rain in Bakhtiarabad, 250 km (155 mi) north of Quetta, Pakistan on Friday, July 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Fida Hussain) #

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An aerial view shows Nowshera city submerged in flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan on Friday, July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) #

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A Pakistani volunteer uses a small boat to evacuate locals in a flood-hit area of Nowshera on July 30, 2010. (A. MAJEED/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Pakistani flood survivors cross a bridge near a damaged home in Medain, a town of Swat valley on August 2, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Pakistan army soldiers pass a baby across a channel in the floodwater as they help people flee from their flooded village following heavy monsoon rains in Taunsa, Pakistan on Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer) #

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Villagers try to catch trees floating in the flooded Nelum river in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir on Friday, July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Aftab Ahmed) #

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Residents help a man untie a chicken from his neck after he evacuated his flooded home with the fowl by swimming to higher grounds in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 1, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif) #

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A family being rescued by army soldiers passes a cargo truck with men on top taking shelter from heavy floods in Nowshera, Pakistan on July 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif) #

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A soldier evacuating residents carries a flood victim to a helicopter in Sanawa, Pakistan's on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer) #

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A Pakistani boy named Jeeshan stands outside his tent in a camp set up by the Pakistani army inside a college on the outskirts of Nowshera on August 2, 2010. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Pakistani flood survivors line up beside a damaged bridge in Medain, a town of Swat Valley on August 2, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A boy is flung back by the force of a Pakistan Air Force helicopter rotors as it drops water supplies to residents on August 2, 2010 in Nowshera, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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Evacuees wade through a flooded area following heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar on Saturday, July 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Saeed Ahmad) #

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People wait to cross a flooded road in Bannu, northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Ijaz Mohammad) #

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A boy walks through flood destroyed homes on August 4, 2010 in Pabbi, near Nowshera, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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A family portrait is seen, attached to a bookcase buried in mud on August 4, 2010 in Pabbi, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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An aerial view of floodwater covering the land as far as the eye can see, around Taunsa near Multan, Pakistan, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer) #

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A flood survivor carries a soaked mat in a flooded area of Nowshera on August 3, 2010. (A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A man gathers up some of his belongings outside his flooded house in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 2, 2010. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Pakistani women pray at sunset by the Ravi river in Lahore on August 2, 2010. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A boy sits on a bed as his family members salvage belongings from their destroyed house in Pabbi, Pakistan on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood) #

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Flood victims line up to collect relief supplies from the Army in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 2, 2010. Islamist charities, some with suspected ties to militants, stepped in on Monday to provide aid for Pakistanis hit by the worst flooding in memory, piling pressure on a government criticized for its response to the disaster that has so far killed more than 1,000 people. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif) #

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Flood-affected people jostle for food relief in Nowshera in northwest Pakistan on Friday, Aug. 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) #

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A Pakistani worker pushes back flood-stricken women who are trying to enter a relief center to get food supplies on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) #

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Families set in for the evening in their makeshift tent homes located on a median strip after having abandoned their flood-destroyed homes, on August 3, 2010 in Pabi, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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Children, whose families have declined to be rescued, wade in rising flood waters on August 6, 2010 in the village of Panu Akil, near Sukkur, Pakistan. Rescue workers and armed forces continued rescue operations evacuating thousands in Pakistan's heartland province of Sindh. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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Residents evacuate to safety in a flood-hit area of Nowshera, Pakistan on July 30, 2010. (A. MAJEED/AFP/Getty Images) #

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Onlookers perched on a damaged bridge watch a flood survivor use a rope to cross the river in Chakdara in Pakistan's Swat Valley on August 3, 2010. (STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A young flood survivor cools herself with water at a makeshift camp in Nowshera, Pakistan on August 5, 2010. (FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/Getty Images) #

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A man tries to cross a makeshift bridge to escape his flooded home in Nowshera, Pakistan on July 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif) #

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A Pakistan army helicopter evacuates stranded villagers in Nowshera, Pakistan on Friday, July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) #

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A family takes refuge on top of a mosque while awaiting rescue from flood waters in Sanawa, a town located in the Muzaffar Ghar district of Pakistan's Punjab province on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer) #

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A woman yells as her child is evacuated from the roof of a mosque where residents were taking refuge from flood waters in Sanawa, Pakistan on August 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer) #