[mr eugenides] for the love of david

Mr.Eugenides recently wrote:

David Miliband is the sort of guy that we used, in our un-PC schooldays, to describe as a spastic. He was the kid on the chess team that you bullied incessantly (or at least, you did if you were a bully when you were at school; I myself was, er, on the chess team). His is an eminently punchable face; the sort of face you want to grab and hold down in the toilet for flush after gleeful flush, roaring with joy that there are such geeks in the world for you to torment.

Then Mr. E, never one to let go once he has a chunk of the leg, later wrote:

Via Picking Losers, this rather amusing letter to David "Spaz" Miliband is worth reading in full.

I went to comment on this post and the word verification came up as you see below:

Just thought you'd like to know.

[country quiz] another ten to tickle your talent

This country:

11] … had a little problem with Antigua over gambling, has had scandals over teapots, chief crop is wheat, has a problem with Russia over its border, makes no claim in Antarctica and and John Deere lived there.

12] … includes about 75% of the Eastern Alps, in 1867 it went under dual sovereignty, had a little problem in Sarajevo some time later, finally threw off the shackles in 1955, 74% Roman Catholic and doesn't like the the Temelin nuclear power plant.

13] … is drained by the Plata system in the south, is named after a red dye, cooperated with the Allies in both world wars, Jo Sarney was president, thrives on political corruption and has the highest number of vertebrates and invertebrates in the world.

14] … has three capitals, has a country stuck in the middle of it, the San people were the first to settle there, had the Leander Starr Jameson fiasco, its president denies the link between HIV and AIDS and has a dispute over the Orange River.

15] … likes to renew its military appointments in October, strong economy collapsed in 1997, the PM promised to eliminate the drug trade in three months and ended up killing thousands and the people adore their king.

16] … began in 496AD, has the Vosges in the north-east, has a non-capitalist tradition amongst the populace, doesn't like Muslims but does love a woman named Marianne and has territorial disputes with Madagascar and Europa Island

17] … lies between two rivers, was for the Axis in the early part of WW2, has 13% arable land, has an eagle in the coat of arms, had much to do with the Sassanids and musicians play the oud and rebab and has five cultural areas.

18] … has a coastline ragged with fjords and channels, has various provinces and territories, took over the Sverdrup Islands in 1931, main natural resource is iron ore, named for Stadacona and is currently in Afghanistan.

19] … is the scene of largely unreported genocide on a grand scale, 85% is uninhabited, the most destructive earthquake in two decades struck near the capital on May 21, 2003, the Tell area is fertile and the major trading partner is the US.

20] … has a white, black and blue flag, is a lowland country with numerous lakes, forests and rivers, European Union and NATO member, Mr. Ilves is the new president, is 14% Evangelical Lutheran and does not speak an Indo-European native language.

Answers here.

[russia] foreigners banned from trading

A ban on foreign nationals selling goods in Russia's popular retail markets has come into force, leaving many markets struggling to remain open. The ban has been presented by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, as a way of improving employment prospects for Russian citizens.

Critics have warned that the government order could push up prices, hurting the poorest among the population. Sergei Simakov, a district councillor from Ussuriysk, said: "We had hoped good sense would prevail ... This could disrupt the economy and bring many problems".

A spokesman for the federal migration service, Konstantin Poltoranin, promised that enforcement would be carried out in an orderly fashion.

Seems a little like the foreign wines all disappearing off the shelves last year. Russia never does things by halves. Someone up there gets a brilliant idea over a few vodkas and they just enforce it on a Monday morning.

When it becomes clear it hasn't been thought through, the long, slow process of getting around the regulations then comes into play. We'll wait and see.

[continental airlines] removed for coughing

So what about this 16-year-old girl, Rachel Collier, who was removed from a Continental Airlines plane as it was about to leave Newark, New Jersey, for Honolulu. She'd caught a cold during a spring break trip, had fallen asleep on the plane and then had woken up coughing and gasping for breath as it was about to take off.

The flight attendants gave her water and a doctor on the flight said she would be OK to make the 10-hour flight. But the captain returned the aircraft to the gate to drop off Collier and one of her teachers, Maile Kawamura. Continental said in a statement that Collier was coughing "uncontrollably" and that "the captain felt he was acting in the best interest of the passenger and other passengers on the flight."

Doesn't seem to have affected her too badly - she's planning to fly again soon with Continental. Did the captain do right? Girls that age can be so total in their reactions - it would have been well nigh impossible to deal with. Besides, he was no doctor and he was near the terminal. What do you think?

[dodgy agents] named and shamed

Here's a good one:

Beijing will name and shame dodgy tour operators in the city's major papers in a bid to clean up the industry ahead of the 2008 Olympics, state media reported on Friday. Monthly reports from May would list "the most complained about" tour agencies and their offences, the China Daily said.

Most complaints were directed at travel agencies breaking contracts and providing poorer accommodation and transport than advertised, but also included tricking tourists into buying counterfeit goods, the paper said.

Mindful of an extra 2.5 million people expected to swamp the city during the Olympics, China has also pressed tour guides to act as defacto etiquette police, and to quell uncouth behaviour, such as spitting and littering, in their tour groups.

I'd love to tour round Lewisham, say, quelling uncouth behaviour and advising citizens neither to spit nor litter. I'd be on a mission from Tony so those of unsound thinking could be detained and incarcerated. Important job, tour guide.

[hallelujah] the blog is back

I take back what I said about Blogger on this occasion and apologize to them. It was Internet Explorer which was guilty this time. I've just converted to Firefox and away we go. There'll no doubt be glitches, as I learn it - it's all in Russian - but it looks positive.

I'd like to thank Neocon for this - he put me onto the help page and I did the rest. would you all do me a big favour please and bomb his site forthwith. It's the only way I can say thanks.