[science fiction] botnets and zombies attack root machines

A handful of the 13 machines that work as the internet's traffic cops were struck last night as Asian hackers overwhelmed them in a co-ordinated strike. According to our report, the attacks lasted 12 hours but failed to completely immobilise the servers in question.

Using botnets and zombie machines, the hackers tried to overwhelm the root servers in what was effectively a massive denial-of-service strike. But security experts say ordinary internet users wouldn't have noticed any real difference, despite the fact that Graham Cluley of Sophos likened the attack to '"twenty hippos trying to get through a revolving door at the same time".

Any idea why the Asians wished to do this? Who were the goodies in this and who the baddies? Any significance in the number 13? Who are these root servers?

[house of lords] someone finally recognizes its vital role

On the absolute stupidity of an elected Lords, Martine Martin, G-d bless her cotton socks, has said:

I will argue that point to the death. I've never read an argument yet for this that stands up in any way. To say that an unelected second chamber is somehow "inappropriate for the 21st century" reeks of an incredibly superficial understanding of democracy and our parliamentary system in general. As we know, any banana republic can have elections. They're meaningless compared to all the other nuances of a political system created in order to remove the potential for corruption or abuse of power.

Of course – it’s only logical. I differ from her only in the workability of inducting new Lords and in her view of hereditary peers: “Transform the remaining hereditaries into Life Peers.” No, the hereditary peers have every right to a place in the Lords, on the basis of her own argument:

As we know, any banana republic can have elections. They're meaningless compared to all the other nuances of a political system created in order to remove the potential for corruption or abuse of power.

What I think Martine is getting at is that they should be above politics. In this I heartily concur and deplore the attempts to cripple this absolutely vital chamber for the survival of our freedoms. My proposals are here and here is my fervent hope that this current madness shall pass.

UPDATE: Please check out Benedict White's take on this.

[men and women] close partnership or constant war

National hero had been sleeping with his best friend’s wife

Relations between men and women is a field I’ve done a certain amount of research on over ten years although I’ve surveyed far more women than men, maybe 1800 females to about 200 males.

I’ve asked the straight question: “What are the characteristics you’d most like to see in your partner?” and have done scenarios where certain characters are placed side by side with multiple characteristics and have then seen which they’ve chosen.

Certain things have come out of this. Both felt that being loved, liked and respected was way up near the top but it came out differently. The males, who admittedly were a poor cross section, comprising only students and businessmen, assumed this but the females stated ‘respect’ over and over, ahead of ‘confidence’, ‘intelligence’, ‘sense of purpose’, ‘sense of humour’, ‘money’ and a host of other features.

Both assumed the opposite number would be good looking to a point. The males were less articulate about it but it’s perhaps fair to say they wanted the girl to be ‘feminine’, ‘soft and loving’ and the characteristics they most detested in a woman were ‘nagging’, ‘infidelity’, ‘troublemaking’ and ‘feminism’. These came out, over and over again as driving them away from their partners and even overseas to fresh fields, with nagging the worst, the older the man was.

The females hated ‘disrespect’ and then ‘weakness’ and ‘lack of intelligence, money and cleanliness’, in no particular order. In recent years, ‘money’ has gone further and further towards the top. Interesting then that Samantha Brett has just posed the question of a man crying – how it affects a woman and her results can be seen here.

Activity wise, most of the females liked dancing, conversation, shopping and sex; almost all of the males saw sex at the end of anything they did, though of course they’d be ‘just friends’ with a woman who didn’t physically attract them. Nightclubs were for the ‘scene’ and for ‘picking up’, not so much for the dancing for the guys, whilst it all fitted together for the girls.

[illegal aliens] of snakeheads, dashboards & cash

How a story grows and grows:

US Customs and Border Protection said inspectors found a 40-year-old man crammed into the dash of a Mercury Sable mid-size car during a routine inspection at the Calexico port of entry in southern California on Saturday.

This led to the tale of snakeheads and Sister Ping, who arranged for illegal Chinese immigrants to go to the West but then kidnapped them on arrival and demand huge ransom, often using torture. The most notorious incident was when the ship Golden Venture ran aground off New York and the scam was exposed.

I’d like to know from where the $30 000 ‘fee’ would come from. If illegals could find that sort of cash, surely they could do what was necessary to enter the US the normal way. If that was impossible because of criminal connections, then surely it would be dangerous for the snakeheads to take them on in the first place.

The Zorlu Turkish affair is Britain's contribution and the Dorset coast, near Bournemouth, is a notorious entry point.

[blogroll] my right sidebar has been updated

The first of two changes has now been made. The roll titles will be adjusted later, to take into account the sheer numbers. The Blogpower roll, over on Defending the Blog, is unfortunately static for the moment because the two admins can't get to it to change it.

[2012] are you planning to be at the olympics

There seems to be complete myopia as to what is going down. Can’t we join the dots on the picture? Why is it so difficult? Outside Story refers to it:

The government is considering allowing armed US and Israeli police at the Olympics to protect their athletes from Islamic terrorists. They are also considering using the army to assist.

Using the army. The British Army. 2012. Meanwhile - destruction of the criminal justice system. Prisons crisis. NHS breakdown. ID cards. Four years ago I wrote to my friend in America:

It’s the old dialectic. Foment a crisis, sit back and allow it to fester until the public cries out: “Enough!” Relax vigilance via a series of bureaucratic errors, thus enabling an atrocity. Announce sweeping Draconian measures to take on the “hidden enemy” and re-order society as you wish it. The hidden enemy disappears, the public are grateful. You have what you were always after in the first place. The oldest trick in the book in democracies.

And while we're at it, an interesting post on the triumvirate.

[blogfocus tuesday] allow me to introduce …

Poshorexia gets her hair in a tangle

This evening’s blogfocus concentrates mainly on new blogs [new for me but possibly old favourites of yours], with a sprinkling of old stagers to add that touch of spice.

1 Out of the blocks bolts The Spine with the tale of Vic Beck’s scary moment:

Visiting Disneyland as part of a promotion for the company’s ‘Year of a Million Dreams’, David and Victoria Beckham were caught in a terrifying incident involving two of the park’s residents who took the opportunity to start building a nest in Victoria’s head. The events were described in horrific detail by park-keeper Donald Duck whose bravery has been praised for his quick action, leaping between the combatants.

2 A real accident this time and a tragic one. Bonny Wren explains:

I’ve often heard that traffic lights don’t get installed at intersections until somebody gets killed. I’ve often wondered how come there wasn’t a traffic light installed at that intersection, especially with all the school traffic so close, but I guessed it was because of the traffic light that does exist a short distance west of the intersection.

Perhaps the city planners felt that two traffic lights so close together might cause gridlock, and indeed, Encinitas lights are famous for their poor timing. Carlsbad seems to have traffic light timing down pat, but Encinitas gridlock is a given.

3 Freethinker, who hails from the San Francisco area, sees the Winter Solstice as the root of all holidays:

On this Winter Solstice, which is also the shortest day and longest night of the year and the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, join me in imagining how our ancestors observed this time. Imagine the awe and respect they had for the earth and the sun and their awareness of the interconnectedness and interdependencies of all living things and the cosmos.

Eleven more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

[qm2] everything will be just fine

QE2 on the left, QM2 on the right

People, I don’t think I have the capacity to put a jinx on anything but the instant I saw the photo of the Queen Mary 2, it worried me. The boat is plain top-heavy.

As a sailor, even with stabilizers below, it worries me and the hype which is surrounding it reminds me a little of a particular 1912 boat beginning with the letter T and carrying Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet:

Wherever it goes, the ship is often greeted not just by crowds of onlookers, but sometimes even with parades and fireworks. ''When we go into Hamburg, 500,000 people line the shore to see the ship, and we've been there five or six times. I've never seen anything like it,'' said Ben Lyons, the QM2's first officer.

She’s been at it now for three years and the only glitch so far seems to have been the service on the maiden voyage. Fine, I’m absolutely certain nothing will go wrong. Truly. I’ve just been reading too much of this sort of thing.

Forget I mentioned it. QM2, every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you; that is how I know you’ll go on …

UPDATE: Now it's gone just a little too far. Wikipedia includes a side by side size comparison with, of all craft, the Titanic and the Airbus.

UPDATE UPDATE: Free thinker has some great shots of her coming into San Francisco Bay. He raced down and took them himself.

[be prepared] shakespearean taunt on stand-by

One should always have a fine insult at the ready for unleashing on your bewildered foe, e.g:

Thou bawdy unchin-snouted hugger-mugger!

The chap says that they are not genuine Shakespearean taunts but many of them are attributed and this Elizabethan Curse Generator seems better than most of the others on offer.

The aim of the series is so that you need never walk naked into the conference chamber – that you’ll always have a great historical insult at the ready to hurl.

Here are more.

[nudge nudge] on for young and old

Well, maybe we had to cover this topic. You saw the stats today – four in ten kids have accessed unsolicited porn, including pre-teens.

Now, what’s our reaction to be? I remember when I was in 2nd Form [Class 8], some kid brought some black and whites along and they did the rounds of the rest of us before the teachers stepped in and confiscated the lot.

I remember we all thought the staff were spoilsports and were only taking them to look at themselves. I actually asked one of the staff where the shots had got to and was told the Headmaster now had them. My goodness, I thought at the time – and he has a wife and family.

Was I traumatized? No. Was I turned into a raging sex maniac? I think I already was one. I had a girlfriend two years younger than I who was at the girls school across the way. Did I try out some new ideas on her? No – I was terrified enough holding her hand and asking her on a date.

So is it all right then for kids to see this stuff? In my humble opinion, I don’t think so. I really believe it has a cumulative effect over time and helps the already-existent poor attitude of boys towards girls. And if you know where to put it, you will. Just one opinion.

[nato] move over brits, here comes yankee know-how

Beautiful illustration of the essential differences between the British and US attitude to war.

The highest-ranking U.S. general to lead troops in Afghanistan took command of 35,500 NATO soldiers Sunday after nine months of British command. Gen. Dan K. McNeill replaced British Gen. David Richards to lead NATO's International Security Assistance Force after a year of sharply increased violence following the alliance's push into the Taliban's southern heartland.

The clearly pro-American article went on:

Military officials said they expect McNeill to take a harder line with insurgents than Richards. Richards backed a peace deal in the southern town of Musa Qala that crumbled in his last days in command when an estimated 200 Taliban fighters overran the town on Thursday. NATO said a targeted airstrike Sunday killed a key Taliban leader behind the upheaval.

I wonder if McNeill is aware of this and this about the Taliban and its plans for the spring offensive or does he think this is how they operate? If so, then we are headed for a conflagration of epic proportions. If not, then the new gung-ho NATO won’t know what hit them.

[japan] home of brave men and ‘birth machines’

Was there ever a better indication of the attitude of Eastern men to their women than the Japanese Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa’s reference to Japanese women as ‘birth machines’?

As the media said: The fuss over Yanagisawa's remark is the latest in a string of missteps to plague Abe, whose leadership has come in question ahead of the July election. A weekend opinion poll by Kyodo showed that public support for the 52-year-old leader had slid to about 40 percent, almost 25 points below the level when he took office in September.

This is the problem with most gung-ho politicians – all bravado and super-patriotic talk but not a lot else, certainly not a lot of common sense. Abe will go on from blunder to blunder.

I once posted a geisha girl's own story and that also says it all.

[alien attack] trying to identify a serial

Can anyone help me out here? I’m trying to identify a serial from the 50s, it would seem, made for television, possibly in six or so parts and in B&W. I was a child when I saw it years after it was made and was annoyed when my parents at first wouldn’t let me watch the exciting finale but then I prevailed on them to let me.

I’m very, very hazy about it. The hero was, I think, like all the short-haired heroes of the time, in a suit, an ordinary man who’d ‘discovered the truth’. The tone was dark and menacing and it was unlike any other I’d seen, with the exception of the classic ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’. There wasn’t the least amount of corniness about it.

It turned on the fact that if something hadn’t been agreed to by a certain time, the flying saucers would obliterate the earth. Somehow it came down to one particular saucer planning to hover over maybe the Empire State building at maybe 12 noon and if that couldn’t be prevented, then zap!

Once the final pieces fell into place and the hero realized what was really going down, he had to somehow race to the city to warn someone. Like all of those more innocent days, I naturally assumed he’d clinch victory at the last second. He didn’t. He never made it on time and the saucer came to the building, hovered and zap! The screen went blank. I can remember being shocked to the core because in every other film and TV show I’d ever seen, good had always triumphed.

Any thoughts?

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [7]

The way it should be

When I was in my early twenties, I loved rambling and there was a sober-minded, intellectual girl I hiked with and that was all. We were friends.

One Saturday morning I collected her from her home [where she lived with her mother] and we went into the forest, left the car and climbed a tor, as we’d planned. Once there, we got out the makings of lunch and casually, between mouthfuls, she told me she’d been raped at 2 o’clock that morning.

You can imagine the swirl of emotions running through the mind. But why was she here hiking now? Answer - rape doesn’t stop the body working. But aren’t you … er … in shock? Not really. You want to tell me? She told me. It had been on the way home from her evening class, he’d followed her and well …

But shouldn’t you be with the police, you know, giving statements and so on? How do you feel [stupid question]? Not good. As we fell silent, all sorts of questions suggested themselves but I didn’t ask them: how had her mother let her come with me today, how could she stand to be with me, how could she have finished with the police at 4 a.m. and then come with me at 9a.m.?

I did ask her if she’d have to go to court. No. But whyever not? The animal! She didn’t want to go through any of that. She just wanted to forget it. She’d been lucky physically. She told me about her rule that you never fight them. I got on to other topics. I somehow felt guilty to be part of the gender which had done this thing.

Actually, I didn’t have a clue how to deal with it or what to say. So I didn’t. I still don’t.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [6]

The way it should be

Seems to me the answer is to immediately differentiate, as Germaine Greer indicated, between types of rape:

1] the unprovoked attack on a modestly clad female in a place which in no way could be construed as conducive to this crime;
2] underage statutory rape;
3] incest where, though she might be of age, she’s still in a subordinate position;
4] where the wife or consensual partner, of age, brings the charge, with a history of conjugal relations and alcohol and/or a prior history of violence is involved;
5] the unprovoked attack on a female in a place which could be construed as conducive to the crime, where she demonstrably was dressed enticingly or can be shown to have repetitively placed herself in a position which could well bring her into contact with such types;
6] attacks, particularly group, where the female was for some time in their company, where she left the point of meeting with them and where her attire and overheard conversation was of a sexual nature;
7] where the wife or consensual partner, of age, brings the charge, despite a history of conjugal relations and no alcohol or prior history of violence is involved;
8] where her trade is sex.

The criterion is still that she claims she said “no” but it’s filtered through the above hierarchy of situations. This would take care of the professional rape-caller who’s out to make a dollar.

Which leaves the girl who’s really been raped but is too traumatized to press charges. This, it seems to me, is the situation we should be directing our energies towards. I knew such a girl once.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [5]

The way it should be

Doesn’t the definition of rape come down, in the end, to not wanting him [and it is always him] to do it?

Do what? Where’s the line? Is the line the first touch? Is it the kiss? Is it the first time the hand touches a sensitive part? The woman wants the right to say “no” at any moment in the process and wants the weight of the law available to bring down on any transgressor.

Women rely on legislation but no amount of legislation alters the fact that man’s physiognomy is such that once he’s aroused, it needs release. She may not like that but it’s how men are biologically structured. What she has no clue about is how strong that desire is, even in reasonable, quiet men. And they’re not the ones she’s dirty-talking with in a bar or club. That desire is overpowering and a man need never apologize for that.

Alison says: "Yes women need to take care of themselves, of each other when they are drinking, [or not], only a fool would think differently. But a change in attitude needs to take place on both sides ..."

I agree with the point but add that they should never have been in that position in the first place. This smacks too much of wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

There was a time where a thing called “chaperoning” went on and there was a lot of sense in it. The girl always had protection because she is naïve and doesn’t understand the male dynamic, no matter how worldly she might think she is.

But we threw all that out, didn’t we? Along with the Christian moral code which really did rein in man’s excesses in most cases and treated women as ladies. Anyone over a certain age knows that to be true, knows how society was. Even the statistics on rape support it. But people don’t want to concede that. They see this as an argument to put women back in the kitchen.

I say it’s just common sense – the more that unchaperoned girls freely drug around all night with absolutely no parental control, the more this sort of thing is going to happen. But parents refuse to admit any responsibility in this. They say it’s the type of animal now roaming around, raping girls. Nothing to do with them, the parents.

As for the aggressive male predator, the epidemic of porn and gaming on the web does affect their already jaundiced view of the female – have you seen some of those games? The porn of course you’ve already seen. We’re force fed it.

All of which does not take into account the unprovoked attack on an innocent woman.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [4]

The way it should be

Vox Day who, like me, detests feminism and the PC mafia, says this about rape:

I think that the penalty for knowingly bringing a false charge against someone should be the same as the false charge brings. Although of course in Cool Britannia these days, it's entirely possible that two years in jail is the maximum penalty for rape.

One of his commenters says:

Rape is rape, no matter who the victim is. The degree of damage done though probably depends on the victim. Consider three cases:

1. Virgin

2. Faithful wife

3. 6-john a day prostitute

Another commenter says that we run the risk of a society of Prenuptial Contracts, where love and romance are the last things on anyone’s mind.

Germaine Greer thinks that date rape and one-on-one rape should be legally separate.

Ian Grey points to a Times article debunking the female case.

I still think it all comes down to neither side understanding the other’s biology.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [3]

The way it should be

Mike Tyson saw Desiree Washington in a line. That’s as he would have liked it, all the girls lined up for his inspection. He chose her and from the field, I would have too. He was a known lecher, a brute, everything he’d done and said indicated that:

"A lot of young women don't know what they're getting themselves into. A lot of them think it's fun, a game. . . . But they truly don't know what they're into when they lock themselves into a room and engage in sex with a man who knows how to handle a woman."

She went up to his room later, flattered and curious. He says that, by crossing that threshold, it was permission. She said it was not – that she was a naïve girl, summoned by her hero to talk about things. Did she honestly believe, in that society and at her age, that it was to play tiddlywinks and chat about philosophy?

She might have. I’ve known many seemingly worldly women who were still easy to con, who were the product of their relatively sheltered upbringing, despite later developments.

The perpetual hunger to be beautiful and that thirst to be loved which is the real curse of Eve. [Jean Rhys, the Left Bank, 1927]

There’s the rub. Naïvety and the desire to be wanted but how many times, once it’s clear he wants her, does she see the matter as closed, that in his mind the ultimate denouement of the libidinous dance is a simple inevitability but in hers, she’s already thinking thoughts of other things. She’d be shocked if he kept pressing his attentions.

The way the woman thinks. The way the man reacts. It’s patently obvious that a woman cannot understand the way a man’s biology works. And a man never really understands that for a woman, desire is a tool.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [2]

The way it should be

I’ve tried to feel, to empathize with women countless times. Surrounded by girls most days, it’s a fertile field for finding out how a woman thinks and feels. I’ve painstakingly asked my partner what it’s like to have a baby inside her, what it’s like to give birth. All the joy, pain, strange emotions, the lot. I want to know.

Desperately keeping a tight hold on my sharp tongue, I listen to what it is to be a woman – hopes, dreams, ideas, what she respects, what she disparages. I want to know. From all this, it’s more than clear that rape is an incredibly destructive violation, not only of the body but of what the person is, of everything she or he has achieved. Gone in a moment.

I have to get some clue as to what this means. So I think of prison. There I am, in a cell and three beefy types come in, hold me down and do it. I can now feel the shame, the anguish, the burning anger, the desire for revenge. Perhaps the revenge is more masculine, I don’t know. Plus the sweaty smell of them. It’s bad.

We were once burgled – the back window had been forced open and the bedroom had been trashed. All our personal items were scattered and the valuables taken. My rarest vinyl records had been taken.

Perhaps that too was a little like rape. A sense of powerlessness as they do as they wish.

[rape] seven short posts on the matter [1]

The way it should be

I’m a rapist.

I know this because a piece of graffiti in 1985 on a brick wall, in two foot high letters, told me: “All men are rapists.” Marilyn French, in 1977, also told me this in a book and she added: “They rape us with their eyes, their laws and their codes.” Of course, that was before the PC mafia took over.

There’s a third reason I know I’m a rapist. My own partner told me so. The night before, we’d both been as hard at it as each other - plus romance. This night, we’d also both been as hard at it as each other, with one difference. She had said at the start she wasn’t in the mood but of course, all that changed later. There was still the romance.

Next morning, she calmly informed me I’d raped her, didn’t I know? I could go to jail for that, didn’t I know? I think my look of shock, rather than disbelief, might have saved me on that occasion. Interestingly, one afternoon, with me laid up with flu and at death’s door, [must lay it on with a trowel here], she raped me.

She entered our bedroom and there was no doubt what was on the agenda. I protested: “In a few days. Let me get better.” But it was not to be. For the first ten minutes, I was raped but it’s amazing how one’s physiognomy can find energy from nowhere, don’t you think? During the coffee break, I told her she’d raped me. She thought I was recovering, as my sense of humour had returned.

By the way, her work was at the Family Law Court.

[blogfocus saturday] early posting before falling asleep

As threatened, this is a cut down version of Blogfocus this evening, due to a bit of weariness and I’m really sorry, fellow bloggers but the e-mailing might have to be tomorrow now. Will you forgive me this second time?


1 The theme this evening is rather poor actually. It simply comprises posts which either made me chuckle when I read them or stopped me in my tracks or both. So pour yourself a whisky and let’s start with freedom loving David Farrer, on the non-history he’s just read:

I recently finished reading the Roy Jenkins biography of Gladstone and what an excellent book it was. But perhaps I've been conned. How do I know that this "Gladstone" character actually existed? For that matter, was there really a Palmerston, a Disraeli or even a Queen Victoria? And this "London" place - is it real? I think I've been there, but what does that prove?

The reason I'm asking these seemingly bizarre questions is that my current reading matter is the Killing of History by Australian academic Keith Windschuttle. The author is angry that history departments down under have been taken over by practitioners of "cultural relativism", "semiotics", "structuralism", "post-structuralism", "discourse theory", "postmodernism", "hermeneutics" and much more of the same.


2 I never realized the Englishman was such a naughty boy but the proof is in the post:

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's trolleys when they weren't looking. 2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals. 3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to feminine products aisle. 4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official tone, "Code 3" in housewares..... and watched what happened. 5. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

There are a whole lot more where they came from.

3 James Cleverly has been categorizing cyclists who overtake him on the road. Here is the first category but you’ll have to go there to read the others:

1. Those who I am fairly happy to be overtaken by, these include: # Anyone who has a bicycle that has carbon-fibre bits. # Anyone who has those clip on shoe/peddle things. # Anyone that has cycling legs # Anyone who can do that balancing thing at traffic lights ...

Eight more bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.

[orange snow] the question is - why orange

We’ve something you haven’t, nyah, nyah, nyah! Our snow is orange and yours is just boring old white:

"A chemical test unit will be sent to Omsk ... it's main task will be to investigate pollution in the region and establish the degree of danger represented by the anomalous snow fall," the ITAR-TASS quoted an unnamed official from the ministry as saying. "Residents are advised not to use snow for their household or technical needs and to limit walking, either by people or their pets, in this area."

Snow ranging in colour from light yellow to orange and carrying a distinctive "musty" odour was observed yesterday in five districts of Omsk province, which lies in western Siberia and borders Kazakhstan.

[perfect day] the sun shines down on a winter wonderland

This is one of those times where, if I don’t post now, the moment will be lost, when Russia is at its very, very best. The before dawn, blizzard paths have cleared, to reveal a pure white picture book landscape, the sun’s shining and it’s a clear, fresh minus 20 degrees out there. Maybe 5 degrees warmer would have allowed a longer walk outside on the scrunchy, hard-packed snow paths.

I’ve just been paid and have bought some ketya [scrummy red fish], which I’ve just eaten on toast, with smyetana [sour cream] on top; there’s a thick meaty soup waiting, followed by some little delicacies the Russians and indigenous people here are famous for. Simple pleasures.

Now, just add one beautiful girl with rosy cheeks and a winning smile, her face encircled by a furry hood and the picture is complete. It’s not for everyone but for me, the simple pleasures are the best. It took me decades to finally wake up to this. Stephen Pollard please note.

[middle-east] intelligence report makes one think

The picture is bleak, in that the sectarian violence appears to be self-sustaining. I shan’t add: “They’ve had long enough to get it this way.”

Reading between the lines, does that mean the US can’t ever go home? Bush’s warning seems to indicate this.

One Christian scenario places a power, possibly the US, right where they are and things go from bad to worse. This would also seem to agree with Bush’s motive in allowing the release of this report. Let’s hope this particular Christian scenario isn’t right.

[leunacy] france and turkey may swap prison populations

If the European Union threat to Britain weren’t so dire, one could smile at this:

The happy result of this could be that the entire population of France could be lifted and placed, Midnight Express like in Turkish prisons. Of course the entire population of Turkey could then find itself extradited to France and imprisoned there.

From Stephen Pollard, commenting on Tim Worstall’s post.

[nu labour trolls] first photos just through

Seen escaping Westminster after the Dale death ray was utilized for the first time. Stay tuned.

[lack of time] why schedules fail

This article is dedicated to Sempiternal Horizons.

# Work expands to fill the available time plus half an hour. [C. Northcote Parkinson, 1958]

# Which of us is to do the hard and dirty work for the rest – and for what pay? Who is to do the pleasant and clean work and far what pay? [John Ruskin, 1870]

# One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. [Bertrand Russell, 1932]

Our work, yours and mine, might be different – salaried, entrepreneurial, creative or criminal – but there are certain truisms common to the majority. Here are some:

1] We are, all of us, up to our eyeballs in work and though we might moan, we all like to feel terribly busy and if our time wasn’t called upon half so much, we’d try to make it so. We all like playing the martyr to the cause a bit and the mantle ‘run off our feet’ sits comfortably with us. [Parkinson quote above]

2] The unit cost of goods is such that the average salary does not cover it. Market forces are responsible for this but it’s also those who drive those market forces in the first place who have created this situation. The result is that we’re always playing ‘catch-up-football’ – trying to cover the next increase in prices and never quite managing it, in fact going backwards. The further result, as you well know, is working two jobs, credit card debt and mortgaged up to the hilt. [Ruskin quote above]

3] We feel we don’t have time to sit down and make a schedule and even if we do, it sooner or later falls by the wayside due to a variety of factors, not least mental stress. [Russell quote above] And yet good scheduling will lift half that stress.

4] Anyone, no matter how close to us, places demands on our time. He or she always feels that his needs, his high prioritization of himself takes precedence over anyone else. If time is tight, he expects you to drop or reschedule someone else, not him. Lip service is paid to our drawn and haggard features: “You really must take a break, you know.” If we do, it must not include his time. He meant the others.

Continued here.

[frigedæg] have a great freitag

The Sumerian Inanna, the Babylonian Ishtar, the Greek Aphroditê and the Roman Venus all wish you the happiest of days on this second last day of the working week. Remember – no meat, only fish, watch your back, be fruitful and multiply and may Freya’s tears turn to gold for you.

Here are some other aspects of frigedæg which may have temporarily slipped your mind, just in case you're into friday perhaps.

[the berlusconis] lovers’ tiff goes public

As I’ll be somewhat immersed in women today, this is appropriate:

Silvio Berlusconi told some women at a TV awards dinner last week that "if I wasn't already married I would marry you right away", and "with you I'd go anywhere." Veronica, Mr Berlusconi's second wife and mother of three of his children, said the comments belittled her and she decided to make her marital spat public after failing to win an apology in private.

And he apologized. Publicly. Ladies, you now know what to do. Wash your dirty laundry in public and he’ll come crawling back to you on his knees. Works a treat. Sweet man, Berli, don’t you think?

[vladimir putin] what’s ms merkel bitching about

Vladimir’s Labrador bitch Connie nuzzles up to a shocked German whilst the honey in the background takes notes. That’s détente. Ms Merkel was lucky Volodya didn’t read her Omar Khaiyam, his last resort in times of stress.

His first resort is conversing with Connie. So nice that the protocol for meetings of heads of state has been rewritten to include canines.

I want to know who the girl in the background is, taking notes.

[phallacy] a growing problem

Google Maps and Virtual Earth have spotted a six metre-long phallus in the grass near Southampton created by Bellemoor School students, using weed killer. In December, a giant phallus appeared on the roof of Yarm School in Stockton-on-Tees. In 20 metre-high letters in a field just north of Edinburgh is the word POO and in a field near Rotherham is written ARSE.

Of course, this blog totally condemns these acts of desecration and the senseless waste of both public resources and the students’ time. The rumour that this blogger was spotted loading a canister of creosote and a groundsman’s wheeled marker into the boot [trunk] of his car is entirely unsubstantiated. Anyway, all I wanted to write was BLIAR.

UPDATE: Check this out.

[transatlantic divide] further and further apart

The news:

The CIA's clandestine program of abducting terror suspects and taking them to secret sites for interrogation unraveled further Wednesday as German prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 13 agency operatives in the kidnapping of a German citizen in the Balkans in December 2003.

This is one situation where lack of détente is a wondrous thing. Doesn’t matter that they’ll never extradite them. The simple fact of the prosecution is that the global push has met some obstacles. Goody. They’re not having it all they’re own way.

[seminar] the bad news and the good news

The bad news is that this seminar I’m at swallows up Thursday, Friday, Monday and Wednesday. The good news is that Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday appear to be freer so I hope there’ll be more posts on those days.

[thursday evening] now who said that

It would be nice if this could become a regular Thursday evening feature – a mix of quotes, old and new, not too difficult, not too easy, political and non-political and your task – to match the quote to the quoter. And easy one to start off with this evening:

The quoters

1] Thomas Jefferson
2] Charles Dickens
3] Arnold Schwarzenneger
4] Tony Blair, 1997
5] Oscar Wilde
6] Henry Kissinger [oh how I’m missin’ ya]
7] Jacques Chirac, 2005
8] Groucho Marx

And the things they said:

a] There can’t be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.

b] Enough of talking, time now to do.

c] From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.

d] If you could see my legs when I take my boots off, you’d form some idea of what unrequited affection is.

e] I am not young enough to know everything.

f] "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

g] Give me your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle!

Would you try it? In all cases, the answers are at the end of the link:

Answers here.

[prisons crisis] this time not in britain

Seems the trouble’s not only in Britain but has spread across the North Sea, with a difference:

Half of all prison guards in Iceland handed in their resignation yesterday over wages and conditions and more are expected to follow. According to Icelandic law, prison guards are neither allowed to go on strike nor to resign en masse. If everyone resigns as indicated, this will leave 12 guards in Iceland. The State Prison Authority said prisons in Iceland would need to be shut down if a solution cannot be found.

I imagine the prisoners will be rehoused in British prisons.

[who] could it possibly be

1] What was her screen name?
2] What was her real name?
3] What was his screen or real name?
4] What was the story that this was taken from?
5] Who was the Doctor and how could he resist her?

[music] boy bites back at record industry

The news:

A New York teen, dubbed a pirate by the Record Industry, is counter suing them for defamation, violating anti-trust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats. They have demanded a jury trial and are filing a counterclaim against the companies for allegedly damaging the boy's reputation, distracting him from school and costing him legal fees.

Ordinarily, suing at a drop of a hat on spurious grounds leaves this blogger cold but he’d be happy to make an exception in the case of the recording industry and especially Sony, the spoilsports. Forgive me if I’m out of order but I can’t for the life of me see what’s wrong with buying a CD and sharing it online.

When it comes to thousands and thousands of songs, well maybe but firstly, go after the big boys and secondly, they’re sure as hell not clamping down for the good of the struggling artist, who gets a pittance in the first place.