[eggs] saved in the nick of time

The Pedant-General has raised a vital point which must be immediately addressed before tomorrow's breakfast. One must not, repeat not, use a metal device to convey the soft innards to the mouth. It must be of carved bone. Now when you come to think it through, he's correct - do you enjoy poking something metallic into your mouth? Then there is the historical issue of big-endian or small-endian, whether to soft-boil or to coddle [9 minutes], whether to use an egg-cosy and whether to smash or slice. After these have been satisfactorily resolved, there is still the question of eggy-soldiers. In mitigation, may I add that I myself use a carved wooden spoon for mine, these implements proliferating in this part of the world. So, consider yourself now saved from ignominy. Thank you, P-G, for the timely advice.

[islam] ramadan is upon us

Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan too. Good thing they got the war out of the way. The new moon was finally sighted in Egypt indicating the beginning of Ramadan. Starting Sunday, practising Muslims around the world are asked under Islam to refrain from eating and drinking during daylight along with other restrictions and prayers in a long list of rituals. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is believed to be the month when the Koran was first revealed in fragments to Prophet Mohammed, through the Angel Gabriel. You have to hand it to the Muslims – they’ve got this fasting business down pat. Religious restraint during the day, then whooping it up into the small hours, just when you're at your most peckish.

[forbes] world top ten and source

The US Top 400 has just been published. I find the world Top 10 equally as interesting:

1]William Gates [US, 50, technology]
2]Warren Buffett [US, 75, investments]
3]Carlos Slim Helú [Mexico, 66, communications]
4]Ingvar Kamprad [Sweden, 79, retailing]
5]Lakshmi Mittal [India, 55, steel]
6]Paul Allen [US, 53, technology]
7]Bernard Arnault [France, 57, fashion]
8]Prince Alwaleed [Saudi Arabia, 49, investments]
9]Kenneth Thomson [Canada, 82, media]
10]Li Ka-shing [Hong Kong, 77, diversified]

[canada] top italian mountie and al qaeda

The overseas image of the Canadian Mountie has always been squeaky clean. A judicial commission reported this week that RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli’s poorly trained and inexperienced anti-terrorist investigators passed along raw and inaccurate intelligence to the United States that very likely led to Canadian Maher Arar's deportation and torture in Syria as an al-Qaeda suspect. Even worse for Mr. Zaccardelli, the inquiry found the RCMP tried to cover its tracks by misleading senior government officials about the force's early involvement in the Arar case. More at Globe and Mail.

[ben laden] une note de la dgse évoquant la mort possible

Après Paris, c'est Washington qui adresse un "no comment" prudent à propos des renseignements publiées samedi 23 septembre sur la possible mort d'Oussama Ben Laden. "Nous n'avons pas de confirmation de cette information", a déclaré un porte-parole de la Maison Blanche, Blair Jones.Le quotidien régional L'Est Républicain a publié samedi une note confidentielle attribuée à la Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE), datée de jeudi 21 septembre, qui indiquerait que les services de renseignement saoudiens ont "acquis la conviction qu'Oussama Ben Laden est mort" des suites d'une crise de typhoïde, mais attendraient d'avoir des détails pour l'annoncer. Le Monde.

[charles] storm in an egg cup

According to Jeremy Paxman, Charles enjoys a boiled egg after a day's hunting but he is fussy about how long it is cooked. "If the Prince felt that number five was too runny, he could knock the top off number six or seven," Paxman told today's Guardian newspaper. "The story is not true," said a spokesman for Prince Charles. This is riveting stuff. Are you a FEE [fussy egg eater] or just a pleb? And just who’s lying to the public here? Stay tuned.