Listening to: The Andy Warhol Effect - Strawpeople

Welcome to 2006 people. Thanks so much to the people who have signed up as readers
in 2005 and thanks to people who have helped me out over the last year.

Listening to: not too sure… this was computer generated.

Palais
Royal 015 copie

Originally uploaded by jef3.>

Listening to: BBC Radio 1-derland

The two links below are to documents released by Craig Murray the former British ambassador
to Uzbekistan (he was removed
from the post). They highlight British and US support of a regime that tortures
people:

• http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/craig/telegrams.pdf

• http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/craig/npaper.jpg

From the Blair Watch Project:

What are these documents?

The first document is a series of Telegrams that Craig sent to the Foreign Office,
outlining his growing concern and disgust at our use of intelligence passed to the
UK by the Uzbek security services.

The second document is a copy of legal advice the Foreign Office sought, to see
if they were operating within the Law in accepting torture intelligence, and according
to Michael Wood the FCO legal adviser; it is fine, as long as it is not used as evidence.

Faced with this heavy handed censorship by the FCO, in an attempt to cover up
our use of and complicity in torture, Craig has decided to fight back, and has asked
us all to publish this information, so it cannot be suppressed.

In the last episode of Mythbusters they
tested the Chinese water torture. Even in a highly controlled environment where the
experiment could be stopped within seconds it still did Kari’s head
in… it was very disturbing to watch. I can only imagine how awful it would be in
real life.

src: Crooks and Liars

Listening to: BBC Radio 1-derland

From The Billboard
Liberation Front:

Listening to: BBC Radio 1-derland

Hugh MacLeod has an interesting
article on the results of using blogging to increase the sales of wine:

A journalist phoned me yesterday about an article she is writing about business
blogs for one of the large UK trade mags. I gave her this little nugget, which I’ve
only just been allowed to go public with:

Blogging doubled
Stormhoek sales in less than twelve months.

We’re talking tens of thousands of cases, here.

Excellent! A nice little strategy.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1-derland

From the NY
Times:

The Kyoto treaty, negotiated in 1997 and adopted by 36 industrial nations, established
a mechanism aimed at finding the cheapest way to curb emissions of gases that contribute
to global warming. The idea was that countries that produced more than their treaty-imposed
limits could reach their goals by buying rights from producers in other countries
where controlling output is easier and less expensive.

It is not clear how successful that approach will turn out to be. But because
Russia’s companies operate such outdated and inefficient equipment, they can easily
and cheaply upgrade. As a result, the Kyoto process has already emerged as a potential
source of earnings for the country’s big energy and manufacturing companies, according
to company executives and analysts. They have hired consultants, inventoried pollution
sources to earn credits, and opened carbon-trading divisions.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1-derland

One of my other favourite IDEs (the obvious
candidate holding the number 1 place in my heart) is the Komodo
IDE from ActiveState. It’s great to see that it is now available for Mac OSX.

Listening to: Alpha Male - Röyksopp

From the Miami
Herald:

If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden’s
attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and
ignored the Constitution — and then expect the American people to congratulate him
for it — I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.

Had
anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming
a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he
had known there was no threat — and expect America to be pleased by this — I would
have thought our nation’s sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.

If
I had been informed that our nation’s leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate
tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons
overseas — and call such procedures necessary for the nation’s security — I would
have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.

If
someone had predicted the president’s staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against
a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent
journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning
U.S. military policy…

Listening to: Eyes As Big As Saucers - Strawpeople

RFID Address Book Desk. You wave the phone of
the appropriate PostIt and it executes the corresponding action:

>

src: MAKE:BLOG

Listening to: Spirits In The Material World - The Police

A teensy weensy more information on Blue
Origin.