Sunday, December 31, 2006

[bliadhna mhath ùr] с наступающим новым годом

A guid New Year to ane an` a` and mony may ye see!

Why do we go all Scots when we come close to Hogma – er- New Year? Never mind. I have my little tipple ready. My single malt went long ago and all I have is a drop of Chivas [it is the fSU, after all].

So, to ane an` a`:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, We'll take a cup o kindness yet, for auld lang syne."

Frohes Fest und guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr
Ευτυχισμένο το Νέο Ετος
bonne année
聖誕節同新年快樂
クリスマスと新年おめでとうございます
חג מולד שמח ושנה טובה
اجمل التهاني بمناسبة الميلاد و حلول السنة الجديدة

Anyone I’ve forgotten? Oh yes. Happy New Year!

[thought for the day] new year's eve

We know exactly where there've been terrorist attacks around the world. Why haven't there been any in China, do you think?

[underwear] more than meets the eye

After my last piece on undies, it was about time to follow it up.

Loincloths were originally outerwear, first worn by cave dwellers, then Egyptians and Romans. In 1352 BC Egypt, the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun was buried with 145 loincloths. Surely that was an ample supply for the afterlife.

They were each a long piece of linen shaped like an isosceles triangle with strings meant to be tied around the hips. The length of cloth hanging down in back was brought forward between the legs and tucked over the tied strings in the front, from the outside in.

Around the 13th Century, pull on underpants were invented and underwear became an important garment. Not only did underwear help shape the wearer’s figure, it also kept their clean clothes from touching skin. In Europe the underwear evolution went into full swing – men started wearing corsets, cod pieces, stockings, long johns, undershirts and drawers.

Women’s underwear included garters, lace corsets, knickers, petticoats and stocking suspenders. The brassiere didn’t appear until the early 1900s, then flattener bras of the 1920s, layered petticoats of the 1950s, cleavage enhancing bras of the 1990s

As the 20th century began, most Americans wore union suits or “all-in-ones”—undergarments that combined pants and a top. In the 1930s, they traded their union suits for separates and easy elastic waists replaced button, snap, and tie closures. Boxers and briefs swept a nation, and the word "underpants" entered dictionaries.

"Day of the Week" underpants were a craze in the 1950s. Each pair of underpants in the set of seven was labeled with a different day of the week.

Now there are reversible undies. According to Man Lore, reversible underpants are good for at least four wears: front ways, the right way; back-to-front, the right way; front ways inside-out; and back-to-front inside-out. Just in case women turn up their noses at this, Bonds have come out with reversible undies - just for women.

As the boys move away from boxers but don’t wish to cut off their prime with “le slip”, the solution is the traditional white Y fronts, as worn by their fathers.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

[china] the scope of the threat [part 2]

Part 1 ended with the words of General Gao Rui, former Vice President of the Academy of Military Science (AMS), writing that the Warring States era is "extremely distant from modern times, but still shines with the glory of truth" and "the splendid military legacy created through the bloody struggles of our ancient ancestors and today has a radiance even more resplendent."

Such talk would be quite worrying to western ears because we’ve heard similar rhetoric before, usually prior to world expansion of some kind.

That the Chinese take such things seriously is reflected in the comments of the director of research at the General Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army, which published six volumes of studies on ancient statecraft in 1996 that contained specific advice on how to comprehend the current and future security environment.

An essential aspect in this assessment is to determine the rank order of the power held by the various warring states. Although today's Chinese concept of Comprehensive National Power (CNP) was invented in the early 1980s, it originally stemmed from traditional military philosophy.

According to ancient strategists such as Wu Chunqiu, calculating CNP can aid a nation not just for war but also to "coordinate a political and diplomatic offensive, to psychologically disintegrate enemy forces and subdue them." Assessing one's own CNP can also aid a country in promoting development and growth.

Sun Zi long ago warned that victory depended on calculations and estimates of enemy strength and weaknesses made in advance. Two of ancient China's greatest advisers on statecraft, Lord Shang and Li Si, also warned of the need to calculate the future. States which rise too fast suffer attack, dismemberment, and even complete extinction.

As every literate Chinese knows, a brilliant strategist always forms a coalition that stands for several decades against the predatory hegemony of the time.

The solution, therefore, is in alliances.

[china] the scope of the threat

According to Deng Xiaoping, in order to eventually overcome, China should adopt the ancient maxim of "hiding brightness and nourishing obscurity," and Beijing adds, "to bide our time and build up our capabilities" and again - "to yield on small issues with the long term in mind."

The Warring States era in Chinese history was the age in which the classics of Chinese statecraft were produced and Colonel Liu Chungzi of the National Defense University Strategy Department states that "in the 1990s, the world entered a multipolar era very similar to the time of Sun Zi."

To dismiss China’s fixation with its destiny in terms of its ancient warlike past would be an incalculable mistake for the west but one which it’s quite likely to make in its arrogance. And arrogance with the Chinese never washes. They have their own in good measure.

I once “under-headed” a college half full of Chinese boys and the most poignant memory was that they had their own hierarchy, their own summary justice system, their own quiet insolence and arrogance which never confronted the British pattern and order but neither did it embrace it.

An older member of staff advised me one evening, over a game of snooker, to run with the Chinese and let them feel you were onside, however much it galled. “Don’t ever pull rank,” he warned or strange things would start to go wrong.

I mentioned this to another colleague who was apoplectic at their insolence – this was the Britain of the late 80s after all and he was a member of the greatest empire the world had ever seen and supporter of the greatest team – Man U.

Continued here

Saturday, December 30, 2006

[blogfocus saturday] simple, homespun prose for the festive season

As the title suggests, in this more mellow 'tween Christmas and New Year period, these are some of the softer contributions from our bloggers, sometimes understandably so but sometimes quite a surprise indeed.

1 To get the ball rolling, let’s fly to Canada to have some tea with our margaritas:

I just love this tea pot from hubby. He said he trolled the antiques mall and there it was! It`s my favorite of all my teapots. Says Chelsea Gibson England on the bottom. Not sure if that`s a company or a person. It`s definitely been well loved and will be again. I like it so much that I keep it right on the table along with my traditional Christmas rose. Isobel especially admires that! This makes a nice pot of tea too :). He also gave me a new flat screen monitor. Wow....what a difference it makes. Now everything is in true colour rather than sometimes too dark to see. I think I did good this year!

2 Jack Kemp reflects on the religious or PC compulsion to wear this bit of clothing or to not wear this other one:

It seems there are two major schools of thought about unusual people with odd hats. One is that we should all learn about other cultures and be tolerant of them. The other is that we now in America have the Guaranteed Right not to be made uncomfortable by anything that doesn't suit our fancy, be it a person with an unusual hat or a with only one leg or who is obese or doesn't wear designer jeans - or is obese AND wears designer jeans.

3 Talking lifestyle [the making more leisurely of], this man is disillusioned and bored by it all:

A recent stunt [reported here at the BBC] was an effort to drum up publicity. The big idea: make Mondays part of the weekend. What a crazy, mad cap idea. I would love to meet the comic genius that came up with that one. Surely there were a million better ideas. In fact, why did they choose an idea that has already been adopted by most socialist governments in the EU?

Eleven more homespun pieces here plus the famous mystery blogger

[fireworks] pretty displays or kaboom kaboom

Around the world, fireworks displays will be set off to mark the New Year but in Britain, of course, Guy Fawkes is the biggie. This, in my opinion, is a better festival because until recently, one could buy personal kaboom thingies and I used to love setting them off – great strings of the things.

To be honest, I never set them off in letter boxes:

Employees of postal service Íslandspóstur are busy locking all outdoor mailboxes in Reykjavík and nearby towns to prevent people stuffing live fireworks into them on New Year’s Eve to get an extra explosion, damaging the mailboxes in the process. Morgunbladid reports. This New Year’s Eve the mailboxes in the capital area will be locked so that only one letter at a time can be put into them. Bigger letters have to be taken to the postal office. The mailboxes will not be unlocked until mid-January.

... and never stuck them up ... well ... read this. And yet we had mammoth fun. However, not everyone is so rapt in the tradition:

I would personally favour a system them allows the sale of fireworks only to people with a certificate issued by the local authority stating they are running a legitimate professionally organised display. This would cut out 95% of illegal sales almost immediately.

But there are some supporters of the old ways.
John Wilkes said...

I'm not sure about this. There are plenty of people who are miles from a licensed, professional display and would probably prefer to have a family display at home. One of my best childhood memories is my dad doing a fireworks display for us in the back garden - it was great fun.

Another recent worry is that the British fireworks industry has been steadily losing out to Chinese incursion and to some, that’s a pity. Personally, it seems to me like market economics.

[saddam] may the viciousness stop

Romans

17: Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18: If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19: Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20: Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21: Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

I don't know what to think. I need to sit down for a moment or two.

[george bush] misunderstood and maligned [2]

If you missed Part 1 of the tribute to George W. Bush, it’s here. Now, here is the second batch of ten, with 30 still to come. The idea is to vote for the three best from these ten, with a view to eventually finding an overall winning excerpt:

11] "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." - Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

12] "First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill." - Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003

13] "As you know, these are open forums, you're able to come and listen to what I have to say." - Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2003

14] "The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." - Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003

15] "Whether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu, people have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like they'd like to be called themselves." - Washington, Oct. 8, 2003

16] "We've had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I've spoken out consistently against them, and I want to know who the leakers are." - Chicago, Sept. 30, 2003

17] "We had a good Cabinet meeting, talked about a lot of issues. Secretary of State and Defense brought us up to date about our desires to spread freedom and peace around the world." - Washington, D.C., Aug. 1, 2003 [Perhaps not so much funny as worrying in that last line]

18] "Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." - Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003

19] "My answer is bring them on." - On Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003

20] "I'm the master of low expectations." - Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003

[metaphor] raiders of the lost reason

Marion: What’s happening, Indi? All these flames and ghosts and things?
Indi: Er … I think G-d is just zapping the Nazis for stealing the Ark.
Marion: Couldn’t He do it, you know, a bit more quietly?
Indi: And let the denialists ascribe it to hallucination?
Marion: I’m happy in my humanistic denial. It’s up to each and every one of us stubbornly not to look at the evidence. That way we stay happy, you see.
Indi: Sort of like the ostrich, eh?
Marion: You know, Indi, I’ve been thinking and I’ve come up with a doozy of an idea. What if G-d is just a metaphor?
Indi: What if He just happens to exist?
Marion: Oh no, I wouldn’t like that.
Indi: Well let’s see the Great Metaphor get us out of this one.
Marion: Indi, man can do anything. He needs Nobody and Nuffink else. Can’t you get us out of this?
Indi: Er … not at this exact moment, Marion.

Friday, December 29, 2006

[george bush] misunderstood and maligned

This blog thinks you’ve all been terrible to poor Mr. Bush so in an effort to restore the balance, below are presented 10 of his most famous lines and I’d ask you to rate your top three from this batch. But don’t think it ends there – oh no.

There are another 148 of them and over the next few weeks I’ll present 90 more, in 9 relatively painless doses. Then we’ll draw the threads together and find GWB’s top utterance ever. Here are the first 10:

1] "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country." - Sept. 6, 2004, Poplar Bluff, Mo.

2] "Secondly, the tactics of our - as you know, we don't have relationships with Iran. I mean, that's - ever since the late '70s, we have no contacts with them, and we've totally sanctioned them. In other words, there's no sanctions - you can't - we're out of sanctions." - Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004

3] "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

4] "I believe if you want to be negative you always can, no matter how hard you try." - June 15, 2004

5] "Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me." - May 27, 2004

6] "I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein." - May 25, 2004

7] "More Muslims have died at the hands of killers than - I say more Muslims - a lot of Muslims have died - I don't know the exact count - at Istanbul. Look at these different places around the world where there's been tremendous death and destruction because killers kill." - Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2004

8] "I love to bring people into the oval office...and say, this is where I office." - Jan. 29, 2004

9] "There may be some tough times here in America. But this country has gone through tough times before, and we're going to do it again." - Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002

10] "The illiteracy level of our children are appalling." - Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

[glacier adrift] do you understand what's happening

I’m adrift on this issue – I just don’t know what to think.

The news: The 41 square miles Ayles Ice Shelf, one of six remaining in Canada's Arctic, broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, with ice that is more than 3,000 years old. Within days of breaking free, the Ayles Ice Shelf had drifted about 30 miles offshore before freezing into the sea ice.

Issue 1: The obvious question is about global warming and there are opinions for and against.

Issue 2
: So, having read the above document, - if scientists can’t agree, then why do laymen use the expression: “It’s been scientifically proven?” It seems less and less has been proven as we go along. Stephen Hawking might also agree with this.

Issue 3
: I’m confused. How does an economic and political fisking of the Stern Report translate into the statement by certain bloggers that there is no global warming when it is as plain as the noses on our faces?

In an effort to understand, I came up with this:

After dropping for about 15 years, the amount of sunlight Earth reflects back into space, called albedo, has increased since 2000, a new study concludes. That means less energy is reaching the surface. Yet global temperatures have not cooled during the period. Increasing cloud cover seems to be the reason, but there must also be some other change in the clouds that's not yet understood.

The explanation continues here ...

[friday afternoon] new year weekend is upon us

Cartoon by Pritchett

From the 10th floor you can get a magnificent view of the four laned road below with the dividing strip. From my flat, a short time ago, I took a look from the balcony and a number of things were interesting.

Firstly, there’s been more or less constant light snow today and the roads, houses, trees and everything else is covered in white. Secondly, there is total gridlock at 6.30 p.m. as far as the eye can see, in both directions, both service roads, the main artery in the distance and all connecting roads.

Total.

To give you an idea, I just saw my own car, which should have been safely in the carpark a kilometre away, down below instead, attempting to go past. Winter jacket donned but still shivering on the balcony, I wished I had binoculars. Everything appeared to be the same, even down to the spoiler on the back.

Then I realized the one down below didn’t have the rear window spoiler and I breathed a sigh of relief and got to the toast in the kitchen just in time to stop it burning [for once]. Some time later I went back to look at the traffic and guess what – that car was still there. That’s gridlock.

Time to do the blog rounds in order to gather for the Blogfocus tomorrow.

[film] the 100 greatest films of all time

Let’s make a start on this thing.

The problem is, essentially, that the Brits and Yankies look at these things from different sides of the pond. While critics try to be unbiased, national interest still creeps in.

I took four lists – two American and two British and even then, we are leaving out the French and other Europeans; plus Asia and local areas such as Australia.

Then we have the problem of ‘what’s a film?’ There were some fabulous Czech anti-war animations on celluloid many years ago. Do they count? What about Bond, James Bond?

Full text here.

[may-december] for and against

Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones faced the question in Entrapment.

Much has been written against and some for the chances of May-December:

1] I speak with authority. I spent 41 years of torture with a man 20 years older than I did, because I did not believe in divorce. Older men have their mind-set established and the wife can either follow or be miserable. I have yet to see a happy May - December marriage.
2] Almost half the couples in the United States divorce, and most of them are close in age. It is love that is the center of everything, not the number of years since your birth. It is love which creates alignment and balance between two people.
3] More reasons against and a fairly dispassionate view here.

Given, for argument’s sake, a 20 year old difference, that neither was a cheat, an egoist nor had personal problems, it seems to me it might work if:

1] It was 55-35, not 40-20 and her children were late teen;
2] They were both drawn together, [as in Connery-Zeta Jones in Entrapment], by some common thread or through some joint work or passion;
3] The love came more strongly from her, he wasn’t a sap for her and was a bit of a catch anyway;
4] She already knew his limitations and he was as honest with himself ;
5] They agreed to let go and review it every, say, five years.

I think it would have no chance if:

1] Her motive was for money, a father figure or a ticket to ride;
2] He lusted after her or loved her far more;
3] Their interests were quite different;
4] Their body language vastly differed e.g. her bouncy, he ponderous;
5] She was too young.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

[wal-mart] opens communist party branch

Wal-Mart has set up a new branch of the Communist Party at its China headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen after allowing unions to operate in its stores earlier this year. Chinese law makes it compulsory for any company or institution with 25 or more staff to set up its own trade union if staff request one.

Its first Chinese store was opened in 1996 and now employs more than 35,000 people in more than 60 stores in 34 cities across China and plans to open dozens more.

Difficult to see them destroying local retailing in China or creating poverty as they seem to have done back home.

[russian hijack] silly season demands sensation

So, it was a beat up. The headline proclaimed: Aeroflot Flight Hijack Attempt Foiled by Passengers. But the text said differently:

A Russian Aeroflot A-320 airliner with more than 100 passengers onboard was en route from Moscow to Geneva but had to land in Prague shortly before 11 a.m., after a hijacker tried to attack the crew. Reportedly the plane's passengers subdued the would-be hijacker. The Itar-Tass news agency said an unidentified man who was drunk picked a fight with two other passengers, threatened the crew and demanded the aircraft alter its course.

In other words, a drunken Russian acted in character. Subdued? Fell over more like.

[presidential debates] discussing real issues or cardboard cutouts

Dalek Duet

Tiberius Gracchus has been reflecting on Presidential Debates in American elections and says they “have assumed an importance over the years that makes them a key part of any campaign.

Famous moments like Lloyd Bentsen's I knew Jack Kennedy, you're no Jack Kennedy quip in the Vice Presidential Debate of 1988 or Ronald Reagan's "There you go again" in the Presidential Debate of 1980 have become part of American history. Not to mention of course the most famous debate of the lot - between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960 which supposedly won a tight election for JFK by showing him at his youthful best as opposed to what seemed to be a tired Vice President.”

Interestingly, listeners on the radio thought Nixon had won the debate but the television audience say it the other way. Some other debates:

In 1980 Reagan closed his debate with incumbent Jimmy Carter with a simple question: Are you [the American people] better off now than you were four years ago? Faced with inflation, high interest rates, a continuing energy crisis, and low American prestige abroad, many Americans felt that they were not better off, and Reagan won election.

In 1988 Dukakis had referred to himself as a "card-carrying member of the ACLU", which Bush picked up on and painted his opponent as a liberal who would sell America short. Gene Weingarten, of the Washington Post, spoke of a time when a group of journalists met Dukakis and felt he was "terrific, impressive, commanding, Presidential. We were falling all over each other to find adequate superlatives." Nieman curator Howard Simons heard us all out, then shook his head and said: "Won't win. No sense of humor."

[In an earlier post, Vox’s two principles for winning debates are argued.]

[gift giving] the imbalance of expectation

We were having a little discussion about presents and I came over as a bit curmudgeonly about it all. I felt that the Japanese had the right idea in writing everything in a book – the date, who gave it, to whom, what category it was, how much it cost [roughly], what the occasion was. That way the gift was always appropriate and never created an imbalance of expectation.

Not so, said one lady. A present is a spontaneous gift, an impulse of affection. Yes, said my friend but if one friend is richer and one poorer, then an imbalance is created and the poorer feels awful that he can’t respond in kind. Oh what’s it matter, was the lady’s response. Reply - it matters a lot to the person who is the ‘lesser’, shall we say.

My friend and I had a gift exchange this morning and with one or two exceptions, the gifts were roughly of the same nature. Why to do it at all then, is the obvious question. Answer - because it took effort to get the gifts, to think out what the other wanted and in the exchange, each went home with something more than before and it was to his taste.

Of course you have your own opinion on this, no doubt.

[blogfocus saturday] 21:00 london time

This computer was hit by a Trojan virus about midnight Monday which took it over and reconfigured everything in the name of a Spanish or Portugese host.

Update

Though it is now supposedly back in working order, I had the Blogfocus half ready when the computer suddenly crashed then rebooted itself and the auto-saved text and urls had been wiped.

Update on the update

It will have to be Blogfocus Saturday now, I'm afraid. Tuesday seems to have been a washout. So - 21:00, London time, Saturday, December 30th, New Year Edition.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

[sydney to hobart] maxis playing out of their league

The Sydney to Hobart race has always been dangerous because it travels through some of the roughest waters in the world, it is held at an unpredictable time of the year with weather which can become extremely violent very quickly and concentration on the boats is usually on ‘win at all costs’ rather than ‘batten down and play safe’, especially with race leaders.

In recent years, the rise of the ‘maxi’ has been very worrying. In the interests of pure boat speed, the old deep draft traditional lines have been revamped into flat, sleek torpedoes with highly complex systems and immensely strong synthetic fibres and other materials which can suddenly fail. It's not the first time Skandia, for example, has had centreboard trouble.

The result is a fleet of danger machines doing what they shouldn’t. Monohulls are great for safety, seaworthiness and 'slow but sure' when in traditional form but the new plastic fantastics are simply trying to play out of their league and be 'something they ain’t'. Thus Maximus’ crew had to be rescued today by helicopter and the two leaders lost their masts. If you truly want speed and safety, then the only really seaworthy boats are these.

For the record, Wild Oats XI, Skandia and Ichi Ban were leading the fleet across Bass Strait on Wednesday evening after the retirements of early leaders Maximus and ABN Amro One, who both lost their masts in the early hours of the morning. Ichi Ban was also the handicap leader.

[acronyms] pedantry or right on the money

I don’t mention Oliver Kamm’s posts nearly enough because 1] they’re usually so tightly written, it’s difficult to do anything other than post the whole thing and 2] he doesn’t like being quoted [his debate* with Norm over this issue seems to indicate that]. However, this one demands posting - here he is annoyed by an article in the BBC News magazine and he’s right. P-G – you might also be interested in this one:

You can make a plausible case that JPEG is an acronym. DVD-RAM is half an acronym. None of the rest is an acronym; they are abbreviations. MP3 is an abbreviation of an abbreviation. An acronym is a word formed from the initial letter or letters of a group of words. Unicef is an acronym; UNHCR is not an acronym, but an abbreviation. Acronym is a useful word, with no convenient synonym. I fear that its indiscriminate use by journalists who think it sounds modish may be irreversible.

*I reason that as he doesn’t like to quote others, the same would apply in reverse.

[vatican bank again] new profile of one of ‘them’

Martin Kelly’s blog is one of the best going and here he has come up with a piece about one of ‘them’ that I’m always on about, except that I don’t name them from the lists, given my position. Lists, for example, like the 1972 meeting of the Bilberbergers and its eyecatching cast. Like the lady who moved from Tesco to Fitch. Like Marc Ladreit de la Charriere. It doesn’t even start to address the interconnectedness of it all. Instead I rabbit on about the agenda, to almost complete blog-silence.

So here are some excerpts about Mr. Vatican Finance from Martin:

The man whose picture appears above is one of the most well-connected people on the planet; yet although few outside his homeland might know what he looks like, his career path has resulted in him probably wielding more influence over the lives of more people than many elected heads of state. His name is Peter Sutherland, and he's an Irish national.

Born in 1946, the last director of
GATT and the first of the World Trade Organisation, chairs both BP and Goldman Sachs International, on the board of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Mr. Globalisation, the cosmopolitan elitist incarnate, adept at moving from place to place and job to job with consummate ease, his name and face largely unknown to the world public but his work still leaving a huge footprint on their lives.

He is reported to be an avid member of the
Bilderberg Group and is European Chair of the Trilateral Commission. Globalisation is a policy, not a process, which depends both on mass migration in one direction and the sending of remittances in the other for its success. In a November 2006 interview with the Inter Press Service News Agency … Sutherland was quoted as saying that ''remittances are private funds whose use should be determined solely by those who have earned them.''

The punch line though is that he has now been appointed: 'Consultor of the Extraordinary Section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See'. Who said that the Vatican Bank died with Robert Calvi in the Blackfriars Bridge execution?

[mick jagger] driver tells all

If you scan the posts you’ll see that only rarely does this blog post the MSM’s article lock, stock and barrel and only when it’s a goody and would suffer by being abridged. Thus I post this piece by Helena de Bertodano:

Most taxi drivers have at least one story about having a celebrity in the back of their cab. Keith Badgery can trump them all. He had Mick Jagger in the back of his car for 14 years. And Michael Jackson for four-and-a-half months. Not to mention Madonna, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Naomi Campbell, Julia Roberts, Jack Lemmon, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan and many, many more.

For years, people have told him, "You should write a book." Now he has. In Baby, You Can Drive My Car, he reveals the antics of his clients, in particular Mick Jagger, whose famous womanising Badgery often witnessed. In fact, the book opens with Badgery tactfully getting out of the car while Jagger says his farewells to Sophie Dahl. "This took some time. By the end of it, the car was actually rocking slightly," he writes.

I meet Badgery at his home in Carshalton, Surrey. His wife Jane, also a chauffeur, collects me from the station in the black Mercedes limousine Badgery used for ferrying around his clients. It is very comfortable, with a beige leather and suede interior and tinted windows. As we cruise along the streets of Carshalton, I almost convince myself that I am famous.

Badgery, 53, used to work for a company that supplied cars to celebrities and became so popular that they would vie for his services. For the past five years he has worked independently, and only stopped driving Jagger two months ago. Jagger used him so often that Badgery had to drop his other commitments. "I basically lost all my clients through Mick because he used me every day of the week," he says.

But Jagger has recently hired a new minder, who also acts as a driver, and Badgery had found himself increasingly sidelined.

Therein lies the juiciness of this article, continued here …

[love profile] some of this was too close for comfort



The Keys to Your Heart


You are attracted to good manners and elegance.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.

Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something that will confine you. You are afraid of marriage.

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

[death clock] let’s get morbid for a change

According to the death clock, I had 596, 789, 786 seconds left to live a few days back on Christmas Eve. Now what was the most disturbing thing about this was that when it was converted into years and days, it came to almost exactly the number of years and days my father was on this earth.

Another neat little statistic was that my BMI [body mass index] was almost exactly the same as Cityunslicker. Isn’t that neat, to employ an Americanism?

See how you go with yours.

Monday, December 25, 2006

[kissing] how good are you

I didn't say it - they did:

Your Kissing Technique Is: Perfect

Your kissing technique is amazing - and you know it. You have the confidence to make the first move. And you always seem to know what kissing style is going to work best. Sometimes you're passionate, sometimes you're a tease. And you're always amazing!


Now, where's Ellee, WCL, Bel, Liz, Heather, Margaritas, Beachgirl and my other blogfriends?

[peace oil] small start, great hope

Jeremy Jacobs refers us to Peace Oil, which I posted on earlier in December but I’m glad that he reminds us of it again and a more appropriate Christmas post would be hard to find:

Peace Oil is produced in Israel by Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together. Grown in the foothills of the Carmel Mountains, the olives are pressed within hours of picking, to produce this prize winning extra virgin olive oil.

An initiative of registered UK charity The Charities Advisory Trust, Peace Oil encourages co-operation between communities. By helping to market their produce it hopes to bring economic prosperity to such enterprises, encouraging others to follow their example.

Profits from Peace Oil are used to support peace and reconciliation work in the Middle East.

www.peaceoil.org

Peace Oil
Radius Works
Back Lane
London
NW3 1HL
0207 435 6500

[Interesting to me that this is set in the Carmel Mountains because my fourth book is set there, the hero and wife living in among the Druze for the most part. It is fair to say that the Carmel Mountain area and the north, as distinct from Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, seem to be better able to get on than their neighbours. Still, it’s a great start and any start is a hope.]

[recipe] for disaster, that is

Ingredients

1] An ambitious, aspiring, upwardly mobile couple on bog standard salaries;
2] A shopaholic who knows the price of everything;
3] A society which has been weaned off cash-in-hand and onto credit;
4] Cynical setting [by the financial sector] of the unit cost of goods higher than the unit hourly value of labour;
5] Households in hock with the house, car, refrigerator, television and everything on finance.

Method

Stir the mixture, serve up a la divorce court and voila – this is what you have:

One in four workers in the UK has a second job to help pay off debts or keep up with the everyday cost of living, according to a survey. More than half of those questioned worked for an extra 10 hours a week on top of their regular jobs, friendly society Liverpool Victoria reported.

Paying off debts, saving for a holiday and paying household bills were the main reasons for holding down two jobs. The study investigated the work patterns of 1,000 adults across the UK.

Workers in the south-west of England were the most likely to have a second job, followed by those in Scotland and the English East Midlands, Liverpool Victoria said. By contrast, workers in the east of England were the least likely to have two jobs. In total, more than one in six of those questioned said they worked at least 21 hours a week on top of their regular occupation.

"With an estimated savings gap in the UK of at least £27bn, it is concerning that so many Britons work extra hours in a second job, yet still don't save anything for the future," said Nigel Snell, Liverpool Victoria's head of external affairs.

[Once again, sorry but this came out before my blogging days and therefore I have no link. It’s entitled Workers Turning to Second Jobs and is from BBC News from Monday, February 20th, 2006]

Update and hat tip to Martin. Article URL:

[downwardly mobile] clever move for professionals

A prestige job gets the girl

When the Thunderdragon came out with his post on shelf-stacking, it caused much mirth:

Thus, over Christmas, the busiest time of the year in supermarkets, I shall be spending most of my time stacking shelves for not enough money.

Shelf stacking really is a horrible job. It is boring, uninteresting and monotonous. You could probably train an ape to do it... though I doubt most people would be willing to buy their fruit and veg from them... Something I have never understood is how some people can be willing to spend their entire working lives stacking shelves in a supermarket.

I say:

Not so fast. I am in a job where brain fatigue is the greatest danger. My consultancy work has me preparing 10 to 30 minutes for each hour face to face and as the preparation needs to be done during ‘non-working hours’ and as it is intensive and as it clashes with Blogging, which is also intensive, the result is burnout. So the idea of doing a shift, driving a train, say, clocking on and clocking off and not having to think the whole time, well – it looks to have its merits.

To do shift work stacking shelves doesn’t seem too bad then, saving one’s brain for the other working hours. We’re talking sanity and lifestyle here and it seems I’m not alone:

Bankers, teachers and chemists are leaving their professions to become train drivers, research has found. Flexible hours and a salary which can top £35,000 a year were among the main attractions, drivers union Aslef said. A life in the cab traditionally drew applications only from those already working on the railway.

More here …

Sunday, December 24, 2006

[japan] twins are 30th panda birth

Time to acknowledge the source of some of my best material – The Age. Does that make me one of the ‘ragtag bloggers hanging on to the MSM’s coat-tails’? Perhaps but still, the news is good.

A panda has given birth to twins at a zoo in Japan, raising the number of artificially-bred pandas born this year to a record 30 in a mini-baby boom, a Chinese news agency reported. The panda Meimei gave birth yesterday at Adventure World in Wakayama, Japan, the Xinhua News Agency said.

The number of surviving panda cubs born this year is the highest to date, Xinhua said, citing Zhang Zhihe, an expert at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China's south-west. "The record number of cubs in this year shows the captive breeding of giant pandas has entered a golden age," Zhang said.

Seventeen of the surviving cubs were born at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre and nine at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, both in the south-western province of Sichuan, according to Xinhua. One panda was born in the south-western Chinese city of Chongqing and another at the Atlanta Zoo in the United States, it said.

The panda is one of the world's rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.

So there. I have two questions: 1] Wonder why we love Pandas, Dolphins and Whales so much? 2]
Do they include both twins as one birth, as in the heading?

[bethlehem] first hamas christmas in ruins

This is the first Christmas that Hamas has hosted in Bethlehem and things are not looking good in the town where Jesus was born 2,000 years ago. "This is the saddest Christmas. As you see, Manger Square is empty," said Mayor Victor Batarseh, a Roman Catholic mayor who was elected last year with support from Hamas.

In the days leading up to Christmas, only a trickle of tourists visited the holy sites, half the shops were closed, and decorations were sparse. The foreign aid that once poured into Bethlehem has dried up, a victim of the international aid boycott imposed on the Palestinian Authority in March when the Hamas-led government took control of Gaza and the West Bank.

"I am pleased that Hamas is helping to make Christmas," [a Hamas official] said. "It is our duty to help with the decorations and congratulate our Christian brothers on their holiday. Muslims consider Jesus as one of the prophets, and we also celebrate his birth, but not as a major holiday."

Yet by Saturday, the promised money from the government had still not arrived. A municipal official said that even if it came, it would likely not be spent on Christmas lights. "We will pay the salaries -- that's more important," he said, on condition of anonymity.

After six years of the intifada and Israeli military incursions, the tourists have disappeared, and Bethlehem's economy is in ruins. The town of 30,000 is now almost encircled by Israel's separation barrier, which has strangled Bethlehem's livelihood, cutting off the town from Jerusalem and deterring all but the most determined visitors. Israel says it built the barrier to deter cross-border attacks, but Batarseh said it has transformed Bethlehem into "a big prison whose keys are in the hands of the occupier."

Only about 100,000 tourists have visited Bethlehem in 2006, compared to nearly 2 million annually before the intifada. Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of a local Christian TV station, has documented more than 90 incidents of anti-Christian violence carried out in the Bethlehem area in recent years and 140 cases in which Christian land has been taken over by what he describes as "Islamic mafia gangs."

Among the few pilgrims in town just before Christmas was Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who led a delegation of British church leaders to Bethlehem as a sign of solidarity. The clerics prayed in the Church of the Nativity along with Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Syrian bishops.

[christmas eve] best to forget the world news

[blogpower] christmas day special radio 5 live

This is not strictly a nourishing obscurity matter and yet I felt this Blogpower issue should be brought to your attention.

I’ve just listened to the Tin Drummer with the BBC’s Chris Vallance and I thought, quite frankly, he was fantastic.

We blog to each other and never know how the other one would sound but surely you’d have to agree the Tin Drummer has one of the best radio voices imaginable.

I myself am deeply honoured to have been mentioned [a little too much I feel] and now I’m going back and am going to listen to it all over again. Well done, sir and you’ve done Blogpower a world of good!!

Don’t forget to download Tin Drummer’s Christmas Day special below. I’m currently exploring how to get the graphic onsite. Thanks Thunderdragon for the hosting and the work.

or Chris Vallance's own BBC copy:
2006/12/the_best_unsung_blogs

On another matter, fellow Blogpowerers, when the Christmas rush is over, after you’re back at your computer, could you possibly respond, as Cityunslicker has responded and compose a short summation of 10 other bloggers of your choice? It’s a bit like a Christmas present for them.

Meanwhile, to all of you, from whatever persuasion, this Christmas holiday, may only good things come to pass for you, as you would wish it on others. I hope December 25th will be a day of peace for you and for your family.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

[blogfocus saturday] lean, mean christmas edition

The theme for the early part this post is, of course, Christmas but one or two other themes have also forced their way into the Blogfocus in the latter stages. Let’s kick off the Christmas theme with a real Mystery Blogger, if ever there was one, whom I’ll call Tony Sharp and his authoritative blog has a cautionary message for all:

1 If people refuse to get the message that drinking and driving increases the likelihood of having an accident then the punishment for those caught needs to be significantly tougher. There is no excuse for anyone driving after drinking. But safety cameras are of little help in catching drink-drivers because they only record speeding motorists. They are ineffective in identifying drunk drivers, those who are driving dangerously and those who are driving unroadworthy or untaxed vehicles.

2 The peerless Man from Croydon ponders the different culture of gift giving in the commercial HQ of the world:

Apparently 80% of our friends on the other side of the Pond would rather have the equivalent of a book token - a gift card - than a normal present for Christmas. Details here. I cannot find any details as to research method, so I'm taking this with a pinch of salt. Pretty miserable nevertheless.

3 From over that side of the pond, Matt has somehow stumbled upon a strange thing concerning the end of the year:

It's amazing the similarities between this time right now and last year. For instance, last year I was at home. I am at home this year. I hadn't done anything of note by this time last year. The same is true of this year. Last year, being my first year at college, was supposed to be that "great" beginning of time. It wasn't, as you all know. This year is better but I still find some things lacking.

Eleven more bloggers here plus the Mystery Blogger …

[stress] take the test

James Higham - Your Stress Level is: 51%
You are somewhat prone to stress, especially when life gets hard.
When things are good, you resist stressing over little problems.
But when things are difficult, you tend to freak out and find it hard to calm down.
How Stressed Are You?
Thanks Colin Campbell at Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe.

[scotland and england] the new feudalism

This blog is diametrically opposed to the Wilhelmsbad Declaration [1782]: the abolition of all ordered governments, private property, inheritance, patriotism, the family, religion; and the creation of a one world government. The most fundamental reason to oppose it is because of who will control it and yet that is precisely where we are now headed.

Focusing on the first plank – abolition of ordered governments, it’s not too fanciful to suggest that this refers to nationality and the latter plank of abolition of patriotism would seem to support that contention. Three very clear trends:

1] steady erosion of freedoms;
2] move towards continental control of every aspect of citizen’s lives;
3] individual nation states fragmenting, e.g. Britain, Canada.

The first two have been blogged about by almost everyone. On the third, this comes from euro-know:

What on earth is happening to the nation state? Before our eyes it is dismembering itself into the smaller pieces from which it was once composed - not yet quite the 'city-states' of ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy, but firmly in that direction … The triggers for break-up come in many forms.

The trend is simply away from the nation state which, despite its myriad faults, has always been a bulwark against and a major obstacle to globalization and the facilitation of the Wilhelmsbad agenda. Doesn’t matter whether it’s fragmentation into smaller units or incorporation into a larger, the nation state as we know it is on the way out and a new feudalism is replacing it.

The Scottish and English situation follows …

[taliban] almost ready for spring offensive

The Taliban's efforts are focused on next spring, after the harsh winter weather eases, while NATO forces aim to "nip this evil in the bud", using the province of Kandahar as their strategic base. From there, they want to contain and encircle the Taliban in their bases all over southwestern Afghanistan.

Central to this plan is the use of air power, even though the Taliban have come down from the mountains and entrenched themselves in civilian populations in carefully chosen pockets. They also have a headquarters in the rugged mountains of Baghran Valley in Helmand province.

To date, the Taliban have mostly engaged their pawns against NATO, with key leaders based safely in the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Once the final push starts, though, they will move to the fringes of the southwestern Pashtun heartland, Baghran, in preparation for the removal of President Hamid Karzai's administration in Kabul.

However, NATO spokesman Mark Laity does not agree with this assessment. "Their [Taliban] intent was to hold the Panjwayee [district of Kandahar province] as a necessary part of their plan to encircle or take Kandahar city. In Helmand [province] they certainly intended to take Sangin, Musa Qala and Nowzad in the north and Garmsir in the south, with the desire to disrupt and isolate Lashkhar Gah [the capital of Helmand province]. In all of these respects, they failed," Laity told Asia Times Online.

Article continues here …

Friday, December 22, 2006

[le brouillard] heathrow dans le chaos

Le Figaro dit: Le "fog" qui recouvre Londres conduit à l'annulation de centaines de vols. Des dizaines de milliers de voyageurs sur le départ à l'approche des fêtes de Noël se retrouvent donc cloués au sol. Une fois de plus, le "fog", véritable "purée de pois" dont la Grande-Bretagne est coutumière, vient gâcher les projets des habitants de l'île.

La compagnie British Airways a supprimé tous ses vols intérieurs et certains vols européens. La totalité de ceux vers Paris et Bruxelles ont été annulés. Et de nouvelles annulations de vols, à destination de Stockholm, Düsseldorf, Hambourg, Sofia, Madrid et Tripoli notamment, sont prévues. Les aéroports de Gatwick, Norwich, Southampton et Coventry sont également touchés. Comble de malchance, le brouillard devrait recouvrir l'Angleterre au moins jusqu'à lundi, le jour de Noël, selon les prévisions météos.

Il semble que le chaos n’est pas seulement Parisien de nature.

[tagging] progress report

I wondered what would happen when I started this meme and some of the lists are quite revealing, some quite moving and some plain funny. One blogger said he couldn't see what was of interest in what he'd posted but I think it was nice to have that little glimpse into another blogger's world.

[us airlines] have they improved … or not

I was about to post an update on the Northwest article when one on Delta airlines popped up about dissatisfaction with their treatment of the passenger. At about that time, Cityunslicker posted his excellent comment on US airlines and now comes this news:

Delta has this week spurned US Airways’ merger offer, saying that its own plan for emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in spring 2007 will stand it in better stead. Jerry Grinstein, Delta’s chief executive officer, said: “Our progress over the past year attests to the strength of the Delta brand and the resolve of our 45,000 people who are transforming this company through their hard work.

Delta is well along in the process of a top to bottom transformation – implementing changes that have made a vast improvement in our performance. Our plan for a fundamentally new and different airline is working and is creating real value. We will emerge as a thoroughly new Delta that will be a strong global carrier with a solid foundation for profitable growth in a highly competitive environment.”

All of which begs the question: “Why are they in this situation in the first place?” and no, the economy and spiralling fuel costs cannot solely be blamed. The US commuter is quite happy to spend when the airline is good. All of which brings us back to Cityunslicker’s comment on the last post. Do read it.

[conscription] on the cards yet again - whatever for

Don't get me wrong. I am a [small 'l'] conservative, believe our troops should have nothing but the best gear, they should be supported by one and all and if we were directly under threat, I'd be one of the first to attempt to sign up [age might preclude me]. However:

The Selective Service System, which has remained in existence despite the abandonment of conscription three decades ago, is planning a comprehensive test around 2009. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson prompted speculation about the draft Thursday when he told reporters in New York that "society would benefit" if the U.S. were to bring back the draft. Later he issued a statement saying he does not support reinstituting a draft.

Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said such a proposal would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list. The military drafted people during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. Reincorporated in 1980, the Selective Service System maintains a registry of 18-year-old men, but call-ups have not occurred since the Vietnam War.

It would be retrograde on a number of fronts: 1] the regs don’t like draftees who can’t be fully relied upon in battle and this, in turn, saps morale 2] it is only used in times of dire threat and that ain’t now. There is no credible threat at this time which would require militarization of this nature. The Iraq War does not come under that category in the least.

It’s another case of the mobilization, in high places, for a war which does not exist and at a period of relatively full employment and sound economic prospects for the world in general. Trade has globalized and dialogue takes place. In other words, there is no current, viable reason for there not to be peace. So why the first overtures concerning the draft?

[japan] population to plunge

Japan's population is forecast to drop by almost a third by the middle of the century, bringing with it an impending labour shortage and ballooning pension costs to maintain an increasingly ageing population, a government report has said. To address this, the government said it will spend more to ease the burden of raising families.

A 30 per cent drop in population will see ballooning medical and pension costs, the elderly to increase by 10 million in 2055, making up 40 per cent of total population and the working population will stand at 46 million or slightly above 50 per cent.

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, said: "It's not as if the pension system will collapse. We need to do whatever we can to implement measures to resolve the falling birth rate to prevent the rate from going any lower."

The implications are clear in far-eastern terms and come as the Chinese hegemony slowly approaches. Japan has more than a few worries coming up.

[northwest airlines] have they improved … or not

Just been re-reading Bill Bryson’s Big Country [Black Swan, 1997], where he writes of the shoddy service on Northwest Airlines, symptomatic of the airline industry as a whole.

This was in 1997 when his family were given seats in different parts of the aircraft, on a 6 hour flight, including a 2 and a 4 year old. When they asked for the problem to be solved, they were told: “Not our responsibility. Check your boarding passes next time.”

If Bryson can be believed on this, it’s a staggering indictment of the attitudes of airlines to the paying customer. Everyone knows the term “cattle class” already. So I thought I’d see if Northwest has improved and here are some customer reports from 2006:

Plane was old, seats were very old. Flight attendant was, for a change, nice and smiling. Return was pathetic, plane was very late, but there was no information about the delay. Many frustrated passengers (with connections) were told to call the 1-800 number instead of talking to the attendant at the gate.

Crew must have been having a competition as to who could show the least amount of facial expression. The plane was late departing due to late arriving crew. The FA was clearly disconnected from her job and just going through the motions. She was so out of it she was still collecting garbage as the plane touched down. Will fly NW only if convenient.

Passengers on these same flights should eat their meals in the airport, as choices are limited to junk food once airborne; and their bag drop method, where agents shout out passengers names to come forward to have their bags tagged, is inelegant to say the least.

Seats were the old World Business Class types. No amenity kits or socks, for a flight that was more than 6 hours long! Food service was ok - but crew were inattentive and disappeared most of the time into the galleys.

Domestic service on 757 and 320 aircraft was fine and seating comfortable. Non alcoholic drinks were free. The only food option was a $5 snack box. Revolting. I don't know why they don't sell sandwiches on the longer domestic flights.

Returning to Bryson, when he questioned why an overhead baggage locker on an overland domestic service was filled with an inflatable life-raft, he was told, after the initial snappy “This plane meets FAA safety regulations” to sit down.

Northwest Airlines – clearly profit is no motive to them. Only passenger comfort and satisfaction. Read this for a further testimonial to this great company.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

[icelandic pervert] window peeper busted in akureyri

[Photo by Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson. Courtesy of Snow Magic]

I’m still not sure if this one is for real or not. Is it a regular festive thing or what? Is it some kind of tradition?

Window Peeper, the tenth yule lad, was arrested when peeping through windows in Akureyri, northeast Iceland, last night and accused of being a pervert. The yule lad had climbed up a gutter to get a better look through the windows on the upper floor of a fancy-looking house.

Suddenly a man peered out through the window and Window Peeper was so startled that he fell to the ground. Júlli.is reports. The man called out through the window that Window Peeper was a peeping tom and that he had called the police. The poor lad had twisted his ankle in the fall and couldn’t run.

When police arrived, they took Window Peeper to the hospital where his injury was attended to and then the police locked him up in a prison cell. “But I didn’t mind,” Window Peeper tells icelandreview.com. “Prisons are always talked of as ‘rocks’ but my cell is pretty comfy. They gave me lots of food and a small window with changing pictures, so I can observe people all the time,” he adds.

The ballad Jólasveinarnir describes Window Peeper as the nosiest of the 13 yule lads. He sneaks into town all year round to peep through windows. But Christmas is his favorite time of year, because he loves decorations and everything that glitters. He grabs any shiny thing that catches his eye.

The poor lad had twisted his ankle? I wrote once before about the journos up in Iceland and wrote to the paper to ask if they were for real. What do you think in this case? I'm puzzled.

[tagged] the seven best things you did this past year

Sorry to have to do it, coming up to Christmas - but they might go away before I tag them.

What are the seven [7] best things you did this past year?

Victims tagged:

Paul Linford [who tagged me last time]
Tom Paine [fellow citizen]
Notsaussure [the new breed of blogger]
Iain Dale [some of his own medicine back]
Mr. Eugenides [have to get Scotland in somehow]
Bel is thinking [one of the top ladies]
Gracchi [representing my mates]

Apologies to the Tin Drummer and Imagined Community, my comrades-in-arms. And my seven best things I did?

1] Started blogging and met those I did;
2] Kept the wolf from the door and kept in reasonable health;
3] Got involved in Blogpower with many of you;
4] Made the Swearbloggers Roundup;
5] Kept none of my new year’s resolutions from last year;
6] Remained incognito;
7] Didn’t run the other guy’s Mercedes off the road as I was tempted to do.

Someone please tag Praguetory and Tim Worstall.