[middle-east] condi off to see what she can do

Off to the woods - have to relax once in a while

Sergey Strokan, at Russian Kommersant, mentions Condi’s current visit to the Middle-East, to check that the torture’s going along nicely … er … to broker peace in the region. He says that whoever controls the Middle East controls the world and Rice is going to find out about it from the Arabs, after trying to find the key to Iran in Russia, China and Europe, without success. The secret in the region is that hidden competition has defined relations between the Persians and the Arabs for many centuries and that the spirit of competition still wafts through their relations. The U.S. can play on that, if it has sufficient diplomatic skills. The Middle-East was chosen by the Bush administration’s backers as the main testing ground for advancing its model of the new world order, which could subsequently be used in other areas of the world. Putin wrily commented that we don't need “democracy like they have in Iraq”.

[jeffrey archer] why are you all so down on him

Ellee quotes Bryan Appleyard on the vitriol Jeffrey Archer is receiving: “I fear this is getting out of hand and becoming a full-blooded guerilla campaign. One recent comment by Jack turned out to be a savage and rather brilliant acrostic. Now look, The Guys, Jeffrey is fair game, but do we really want to turn his magnificent blog into an occasion for our childish humour? Ellee continues: Jeffrey seems to take it all in good heart, according to the comments he posted on Bryan’s site. He is doing lots of good work too; so far this year he has raised almost £1 million for various charities - and there are still another 14 charity auctions to be held before the end of the year. He certainly deserves our sympathy for taking part in a charity swim with Rolf Harris and George Galloway. I wrote to Ellee: Ellee, tell me about Archer. He was the darling of the Tories when I left for overseas and then I heard all about his fall from grace. Didn’t appear to me to be anything more than what anyone else has always turned a blind eye to. Seemed like a vendetta to me. What’s the story? What is it that drives people into abuse? I”ve just posted on Malkin too. Is it the same situation? Could some of you who read this piece also enlighten me?

[gruzia] are they idiots or are they idiots

The accepted wisdom over here, even in former republics of the same religiosity, whom you’d think would support Gruzia in it’s dispute with Russia, is that Georgia is cutting off its nose to spite its face. You’d have to be idiots, running the risk of a winter without gas and subject to countless other sanctions. Vladimir Zhirinovsky says Russia should occupy Georgia before it ever joins NATO. “We should follow the example set by the U.S. and clamp down on Georgia, just as the Americans did with Iraq, throw all the allies of Saakashvili into FSB prison cells, and then call a free democratic election in Georgia.” The thing is, Zhirinovsky, the le Penn or BNP of Russia, has a lot of support amongst the people and has a way of tapping into popular opinion but he cuts no ice at Gosduma level. And despite certain grumblings, people do feel Putin has his act together.

[ban ki-moon] next secretary-general [probably]

Only just finished writing of ‘human pieces’ and here’s one already. The race to succeed Kofi Annan as U.N. secretary-general may be as good as over, diplomats said Monday, with South Korea's foreign minister so far ahead of five other candidates that time was running out for anyone new to emerge as a serious challenger. Ban Ki-moon first dreamed of becoming a diplomat when he met President Kennedy at the White House in 1962. As an 18-year-old student, he visited Washington on a program organized by the American Red Cross. His rural hometown of Chungju in central South Korea was so proud of their native son that he was honored on his departure by students at a girls' high school. One of those students - who presented him with bamboo strainers, a traditional symbol of good luck - became his wife. More on Ban here.

[writing] the human face of the blogmonster

I like human pieces best, meaning posts bloggers write which allow a window into their soul. Hope I can’t be labelled a blog-voyeur and yet these pieces endear the writer to me more – at the other end is not just a political automaton. Examples are Vox’s ballgames and football, Tim’s songs, Iain’s sisters, L’Ombre’s olives, DK’s difficulties with trains and so on. Call me a lightweight, call me anything you like but I’d surf a gigobyte to find these pieces. It seems not everyone agrees or perhaps the pieces need to be well written in the first place because my Letter from Novosibirsk attracted not a comment and yet I was pretty chuffed with the piece at the time. Ellee’s piece about suffragettes was a case in point. Which brings me to girl-bloggers. Nothing against the guys but a good girl-blog affords a window into an alien soul [female] and I eagerly seek the girl-blogs. Except for Sexy Michelle M, of course.

[stats] we all have them, we all lie about them

Those with the ratings sometimes flaunt them like cyberwhores; those without speak of the integrity of the blogger and how we only do it to express ourselves. What’s your attitude to them? I usually post my first three pieces, then the blog-round, then anxiously tiptoe to the unique visitor numbers [largely ignoring hits], then straight to the flags and names like Herzogenbuchsee [Aargau], College Park [Maryland], London [Lambeth], Pilot Butte [Saskatchewan], Torino [Piemonte], Kohlbruck [Bayern], Vidauban [Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur], Paris [Ile-de-France], Kohlstdt [Nordrhein-Westfalen], Nieuwkoop [ Zuid-Holland] - well, are these exotic or are these exotic? The pie chart of country share is pretty vital and I enjoy being beaten into 4th place - the UK, US and Russia usually doing this but lately Australia, Canada, France and Germany are nibbling and the Swiss are so cool with their square flag. Call me a child but it’s knowing I wrote a good piece which was taken seriously after the work which went into it plus the blog-interaction plus this country fun which fuels me up. What about you?

[michelle malkin] an englishman decides if she’s a lady

I do not like thee, sweet Michelle; the reason why I cannot tell but this I know, I know full well – I do not like thee, sweet Michelle.

Now that annoys me – not to like someone and not to know why. I didn’t know her from Eve but I followed a link to her site and the header was nice. She seemed mainstream, weighty, important. Someone wrote of her mind-boggling stats. Still nothing negative. Then I looked at the photo she included of herself and immediately I thought ‘hard-nosed little opportunist and ungracious in the extreme’. Now that’s an outrageous thing to think about someone sight unseen, so I knew I had to delve into this some way, if only to be intellectually honest. So I delved.

[drake passage] roughest water in the world

I adore these conditions. The Drake Passage occurs where the fast flowing southern ocean waters are squeezed between the continental land masses of South America and Antarctica and has earned a place in history as having some of the roughest sea weather on the planet. Storms frequently whip the ocean into a dark grey, turbulent, heaving mass, reknowned for sinking many a ship. Even with today's advances in ocean faring, storms in the Drake Passage can strand ships on either side and a yacht enters the strait never really knowing if it will float through on the menacing swell or if it will be enveloped by sheer cliffs of water 30 metres high. It’s roulette. Take your next vacation there.

[olives] just the facts, ma’am

Olives: # harvested September, available year round # cannot be eaten off tree # require special processing to reduce intrinsic bitterness # processing methods vary with variety, region, desired taste, texture and color # picked green and unripe, others ripen on tree to black color # some methods expose unripe green olives to the air, subsequent oxidation turns them dark color # color affected by fermentation and/or curing in oil, water, brine or salt # very good source monounsaturated fats # good source vitamin E # fruits of tree Olea europaea # "Olea" is Latin word for "oil" # very high fat content [15-35%] oleic acid lowers blood cholesterol levels # extra-virgin is initial unrefined oil # pure olive oil usually lower-quality from subsequent pressings # thought to have originated Crete 5 to 7 thousand years ago # will keep freshest if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

[pushing the limits] 18 doughty street internet talk tv

National Review's Corner said it best: A new "internet TV channel," called 18 Doughty Street [after the location of the studio] is to start broadbandcasting on October 10. Iain Dale, who will be one of the main presenters, talks about it here, while the station has a blog here. It promises to be a refreshing alternative and production values are already quite high [thanks also to Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome]. Whichever way you look at it, this is a departure both for the blogosphere and for the MSM and there’ll be more than a few eyes trained on this little house from Oct 10. Before going any further, check the trailer: Click here for lo res... ; ...and here for medium resolution... or here for YouTube. Click on the photo above to read more about 18 Doughty Street.