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(my PGP key, and you can get PGP from here)
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Katie Bevan, one of the exhibition's curators, believes that the roots of the [knitting] trend are deeper. "There's a sort of zeitgeist: a make-do-and-mend spirit during this war on terror or whatever it is. Everyone just wants to go home and knit socks."Are these people real?
For many of the artists in the show, the act of knitting is itself political. Shane Waltener, who is making a site-specific, web-like piece embedded with a text from the French semiotician Roland Barthes ...
The portrayal of Bush as a chimp in army uniform is especially innovative, no? And I think they should have used the word "stooge" a bit more often just in case anybody missed their point. Someone go round to their office and poke them all in the eye with an inky finger.
Diary, Terry Eagleton, Monday 31st January 2005What a muppet.
Fellow conspiracy theorists will have noted that the United States has arranged for Michael Jackson's trial to coincide with the aftermath of the Iraqi elections. This surely can't be accidental. Distracting the public from Iraq with a sex-and-celebrity spectacle beats any of Alastair Campbell's crafty synchronies. Actually, the two farces are not all that dissimilar. Both are about American narcissism and egomania, not to speak of the damage to the innocent (alleged, in Jackson's case), which stems from being cocooned in your fantasies of omnipotence. ...
Iraqi parties, just like those over here, plan to ferry their voters to the polls, only in Humvees rather than family Fords. Voters clad in body armour with blankets over their heads will be whisked into polling booths like serial killers into courthouses. ... Once in the booth, they will confront a list of candidates identified, for security purposes, only by a few tantalising details: "Slim, easygoing 32-year-old pro-invasion Shia ready to fulfil your most shameful political fantasies". As voters emerge from the polling station, the Sunni masquerading as a party rep will draw a silent finger across his throat. Meanwhile, some of the 200,000 or so refugees from Fallujah now rotting in camps outside their devastated city could be drafted in to make tea in the committee rooms. The whole ghastly charade is almost as depressing as trying to drum up support for George Galloway in Gerrards Cross. ...
As the Campaign to Protect Rural England points out repeatedly, this is no simple supply and demand situation, where prices go up because there isn't the space to accommodate the people. Overcrowding in houses has gone down and, commensurately, the space per person has gone up, nationwide....thereby causing an increase in the total amount of "space" which is required to house the same number of people, no? Apparently not, as she goes on:
The only important problem is that property has become an investment, and as a result prices have shot up way beyond what simple market forces would dictate.Surely the behaviour of investors making investments is part of "simple market forces"?
It's forehead-slappingly obvious - we have enough housing in this country, we simply don't have enough for everyone to buy two of it.
There are two reasons that buy-to-rent has taken off. Firstly, interest rates have been so low for so long that borrowing large sums is nothing like the white-knuckle ride it was in the late 80s; second, other areas of investment, that is, the stock market, perform so badly in comparison to property. Sorry, I said two reasons: I meant three - people are sodding greedy. There is absolutely no moral justification for buying somewhere to rent out.Property available to rent is useful. For example, I've been renting a flat for the last year or so because it suited me not to have the long term commitment of ownership and the responsibility of upkeep. In order for there to be properties for people to rent, other people have to have bought those properties to rent them out. It's forehead-slappingly obvious. I don't really care about my landlord's moral justification for buying this flat to rent out, but I'm sort of glad he did.
Commentators talk about the first-time buyer quandary as one that will eventually filter up, when second-time buyers have no one to flog their first flats to. This is not so - the second-timers will have no trouble flogging their first flat, and if they do, they'll simply rent it out, freed from the grind of having to scrabble for a deposit for their next home by the equity contained within their first, the mortgage for the first fully covered by the rent they charge.Errr, wrong. I can vouch for this personally, as I have fairly recently had to sell my first house to fund the imminent purchase of my second. Being "sodding greedy" the thought had occurred to me of keeping the original house to rent out, but it doesn't quite work that way. This is because people are only "freed from the grind of having to scrabble for a deposit for their next home by the equity contained within their first" when they sell the first one and actually turn the equity from a speculative figure into hard cash. It was really quite forehead-slappingly obvious once I'd worked it out.
The solution can only come from above, and it can only come from taxation. A good place to start might be capital gains tax. One hundred per cent capital gains tax on second properties might be a brilliant place to finish.Oh yes, that would be brilliant. Of course stopping people buying properties to rent out would restrict the amount of rental accomodation and force rents up. And as the level of tax on the sale of rental properties increases, then the owners of those properties are less likely to sell them; preferring to keep a stream of rental income than suffer a big tax bill on a sale. Discouraging landlords from selling seems an odd way of making homes available for people to buy.
One can easily make deoxidized water as fresh as natural mineral water with the stone in any place.Remember, folks; it does all that and it's portable.
Drinking the water every day improves health, prevents aging and controls cancer cell.
When the prosecutor asked if anyone had been convicted of a crime, a prospective juror said that he had been arrested and taken to a mental hospital after he almost shot his nephew. He said he was provoked because his nephew just would not come out from under the bed.But which of us can honestly say we've never done something similar?
James Madison, inaugurated in 1809, only had one ball. Mr Bush has nine balls, ... George Washington had no balls at all.Huh-huh hur hur hur.
They've officially unveiled the Airbus A380, and although I knew it was big I'd not really appreciated quite how big. I'd never seen any views of it from the front before, with that giant "Tefal scientist" forehead above the cockpit windows. The thing's enormous. Jorn Madslien at the BBC sums it up quite well, I think:
It is large. Very large, in fact.No kidding. Richard Branson says his A380s will feature gyms, beds, casinos and every luxury, while others mention cafes and libraries. Hmmm, however tempting those ideas are now I suspect the temptation to cram an extra 200 passengers into the space originally allocated for the badminton courts and pleasure gardens may prove overwhelming as the planes come closer to commercial service.
The monarchy, an idiosyncratic institution in the rational, modern world, is treated as a sacred living icon of secular British culture.[Rolls about the floor laughing] And:
Fifty years after the end of colonialism, most British people are comfortable living with people of different colours. But many are still uncomfortable with different cultures. The legacy of colonialism lingers, now disguised as a defence of "free speech"Amazing. Keep it up, Guardian!
Mr Hugh Tunbridge of Dorking complained that an article published in the Dorking Advertiser on 22nd February headlined ‘Skullduggery over a butterscotch tart’ included a photograph of him without his consent in breach of Clause 4 (Harassment) of the Code of Practice. ...
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Sweden proves neoliberals wrong about how to slash poverty. But Brown isn't listeningShocking stuff. On the subject of being wrong but not listening, George has yet to publish a correction.
A man feared dead in the Asian tsunami disaster has been discovered safe and well in a British prison. ... A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "He told his boss he was going to Thailand but he is actually in prison."And in true Scooby-Doo fashion he'd have gotten away with it wasn't for that pesky killer wave.
More seriously [than local wars], the USA is sending troops and warships to these areas. While this may appear helpful, in providing water and medical supplies, it enables the USA to establish a presence in Sri Lanka's Trincomalee and to progress the idea of a convenient base there, for more military operations in the Middle East. Waging 'war on tsunamis' is not an excuse for further extension of Bush's 'war on terrorism'.What a numptie: "they appear helpful but beware their ulterior motive of establishing a base in Sri Lanka!"
Interest rates will go down a couple of times in the early part of 2005. By the end of the year, they will still be lower than they are now. Inflation won't give any of us anything to worry about.Well, yes, inflation has been entirely unworrying for ages.
Nor will deflation.Have we ever suffered from deflation?
The much-predicted crash in the housing market simply will not occur ["much-predicted crash"? Surely that should be "the crash mentioned as a possibility by a few people"? - Rob]. Prices may continue to drop a little in some parts of London and the South East but in most parts of the country prices will be steady and may even rise a little towards the end of the season. Weaknesses in other areas of investment will make property seem a more attractive proposition.This guy's amazing: house prices won't crash dramatically downwards. They may go up slightly... or they may go down a bit, or may go up and down a tad, or may stay the same. You could almost imagine he's just condensed what he's read in the newspapers.
The dollar will take a few more months to recover from its current weakness.No, really? Who'd have imagined that?
A nasty late-March dip in the value of the US stock market won't help it... though it won't prove catastrophic either.Stock market in "could go up and down a bit" shocker.
Oil will come down in price.A safe bet, as its price is currently somewhat high.
Gold will edge up and down like a yo-yo, proving attractive to investors with nerves made of a somewhat tougher metal.Wow, I'm in awe of his predictive talents! Who else could have imagined that gold - a classic refuge for people's money in uncertain times - will fluctuate in price during a year which anyone with even half a brain can tell is going be full of uncertainty and mood swings?
Employment prospects will continue to improve, especially in the run-up to the UK election, just before Tony Blair's birthday in May. If he leaves it later than that - or goes much earlier, the celebrations will be most appropriatley held by Sagittarian Charles Kennedy. Tenacious Taurean Tony will still win. But not by as much as he wants to.Unlike every commentator in the land, Cainer predicts a springtime general election which Labour wins with a reduced majority. Bold stuff indeed. Employment "will continue to improve", ie: will follow the current trend.
For more about the ambitions that can be fulfilled and the powers that can be gained and attained, join me later in Part Four for the next in our series of predictions.Hmmm... I've read the whole of Part Four several times but cannot find a single prediction in it. There's some stuff about Inuit fairy tales, and there's this:
Get ready, very soon, to start wrapping your mind around the mechanics of time travel and the practicalities of Star Trek-style teleportation. Scientists are about to confirm to us all that both are possible. Sooner than we think.Time travel and teleportation are hugely exotic but neither of them are actually new. There's already been quite a bit of work in quantum physics which has experimentally demonstrated teleportation, and some theory behind time travel isn't entirely unrespectable. That they only apply at a very small scale to subatomic particles doesn't stop the newspapers from talking about a future filled with Star-Trek style machines.
The last [discovery a of planet] was Pluto, in 1930. That planet, named after a mythical 'Lord of The Underworld' certainly lived up to its name. Dark dreams enveloped the planet from the very moment of its arrival. From the great depression to the holocaust, from the atomic bomb to the advent of global warming, humanity finally got to see just what a terrifying place it was capable of turning the world intoI bet they were kicking themselves: "Bugger, bugger, bugger; if only we'd called that new planet 'Happy Jolly Nice Shiny Place' instead of 'Pluto', all this horror would have been avoided". It then gets even sillier:
It is absolutely no coincidence that the most powerful and potentially dangerous substance on the earth should have been given the name Plutonium. The element wasn't isolated (and thus the atom wasn't split) for a few years after Pluto's discovery but the planet's first 'shadow of doom' fell across the earth almost immediately. Pluto became a symbol of 'global fear' - a previously unheard of concept. ...It is true that Plutonium was named after the newly-discovered planet Pluto; Jonathan says that the evil name of the planet somehow rubbed off on the metal to give it uniquely doom-laden properties. But the residents of Hiroshoma may have noticed their city was incinerated in 1945 by an atom bomb which used uranium - named after the planet Uranus, which Jonathan describes as having been responsible for a bountiful cornucopia of delicious juicy goodness:
In March 1781, while William Herschel was peering through a home-made telescope and becoming the first person ever to see the eighth planet, French engineers were starting to experiment with the world's first hot air balloon. Very shortly after the name Uranus was officially given to the new discovery, human beings really COULD fly and the world was never going to be the same again. Suddenly, the minds of the great were all thinking alike, 'If we can do THAT, what else might be possible?'Also according to Jonathan Cainer; the planet Pluto, rather than technical style and artistic content, was responsible for the worldwide success of Walt Disney's cartoons. Who knew? This is because they have a character called 'Pluto', so mystical waves of cosmic power made people pay money to see them, or something. This innovative theory perfectly explains the catastrophic failure of all other cartoons, such as those made by Hanna-Barbera, which don't feature characters named after planets.
A thousand further discoveries followed. Revolutions in politics, science, art, fashion and agriculture soon swept the globe. ... Uranus, the magician, though, was needed not just to provide an astrological symbol for 'flight' but for steam engines, electrical impulses and innovative technologies of all kinds. It also became a metaphor for 'spontaneous discovery with life-changing consequences'.
"Who knew that metal could grow nano-whiskers? I certainly didn't"Me neither.
Lehman denies two counts of "having a dangerous article at an aerodrome.""Aerodrome" is a great word; much underused. I'm surprised he got through Tel-Aviv in the first place, what with El-Al security being famously tight.
I will be circumspect as to exactly how a large American thermonuclear weapon managed to arrive at the bottom of the Sumatran TrenchYes, Joe, it's probably wiser to be circumspect.
bulls eye! brit scum fragged in iraq...And the murder of a provisional government member is mentioned:
BBC News has just announced the assassination of a Quisling Governor.Such nice people. As it says in the mission statement:
Indymedia UK does not attempt to take an objective and impartial standpoint: Indymedia UK clearly states its subjectivity.
The victims of the tsunami pay the price of war on IraqBecause Saddam-toppling money would otherwise have been spent on building a gigantic wall around the coastline of the entire Indian Ocean, or something.
Ah, we laughed... we cried...
January February March April May June July August September October November December
From: [Me]I've written to George before and had only the standard automated "I get lots of mail - too much to reply to individually" reply. But this time the autoresponder was followed up by an actual e-mail from the man himself. At the risk of committing the crime of publishing personal e-mail without permission, here it is in its entirety:
To: [generic "mail at monbiot dot com" address]
Subject: leaked report from Pentagon wasn't leaked, wasn't from Pentagon
Date: December 21, 2004 8:29 PM
Dear George,
In "America's war on itself" (Guardian, 21 Dec) you wrote: "In February, a leaked report from the Pentagon revealed that it sees global warming as far more dangerous to US interests than terrorism." That single sentence is wrong in three ways.
Presumably you mean this report:
http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231
[1] The report was not "leaked from the Pentagon": it was a public study which the authors (who aren't in the Pentagon) published on their website in February.
[2] The report does not mention terrorism.
[3] The report does not say anything about how dangerous the Pentagon sees climate change to be: it presented a scenario which the report's authors acknowledge is extreme and unlikely. That scenario could then be used for extreme-case contingency planning.
As the authors say: "Contrary to some recent media coverage, the report was not secret, suppressed, or predictive."
--
Regards,
Rob Hinkley
http://semiskimmed.net - some goodness, not too much fat.
From: [A different "g dot monbiot at ..." address]I take this to mean that he is aware of the inaccuracy of the sources he used for his original article and will rush to issue an update in the Guardian and/or on his own site correcting the gaffe. I cannot conceive how it could be otherwise.
To: [Me]
Subject: RE: leaked report from Pentagon wasn't leaked, wasn't from Pentagon
Date: December 22, 2004 13:23
thanks Rob, G
[text of original mail, as above]
...The risk of accidents, especially in the kitchen, is greater after alcohol is consumed.Thank heavens for government advice. I had been planning on drinking an entire bottle of whisky and then trying to deep-fry the christmas tree, but now I'll reconsider.
What a great article. The world needs articles like this, urgently.[Rolls on floor laughing]
In February, a leaked report from the Pentagon revealed that it sees global warming as far more dangerous to US interests than terrorism. As a result of abrupt climate change, it claimed [various terrible things will happen] ...There are just a couple of tiny problems with that. The "leaked report from the Pentagon" which he mentions wasn't leaked: it was published on the authors' website. And the authors aren't in the Pentagon - they run a business consultancy. And the report doesn't even mention terrorism, let alone compare its danger to that of global warming. For that matter it does not say anything about how dangerous the Pentagon sees climate change to be: it presented a scenario which the report's authors acknowledge is both extreme and unlikely. That scenario could then be used as a starting point for extreme-case contingency planning by the Pentagon. As the authors go out of their way to make clear:
Contrary to some recent media coverage, the report was not secret, suppressed, or predictive.But hey, what do they know about it? They're only its authors. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to contemplate the factual solidity of other claims in Monbiot's column:
[The UN's] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, characterised by Republicans as a dangerous restraint upon American freedoms, was drafted by Franklin D Roosevelt's widow. ...I can't help noticing that no actual example of Republicans thus characterising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is provided.
The "precautionary principle" is applied so enthusiastically to matters of national security that it now threatens American civil liberties. ...Oddly, no actual example of national security damaging American civil liberties is provided.
I have never heard such ill-informed rot as is currently being expressed in the press regarding the introduction of ID cards. ... No reading the small print about acceptable forms of ID; no blank stares wondering if your ID is acceptable; never having to tell somebody how to spell your name again ... ID cards are wonderfully practical and make life so much easier. ...It goes without saying that the fact Bill is writing from a district of the famously liberal, rights-friendly and dissent-tolerant People's Republic of China only goes to show quite how wonderfully practical and useful they are, and we really ought to follow China's example.
15 June, 2004: Child tooth decay 'rampant' - Flee from the rampant rotten teeth!After all that I'm amazed there are any teeth left at all, let alone the best teeth for years.
1 July, 2004: Child dental health target missed - A chance to save the teeth... missed.
26 October, 2004: Children face dental decay - The decay! The hideous decay!
29 October, 2004: Children's teeth 'best for years' - Huh?
In the first Commons vote on the scheme, MPs voted by 385 votes to 93 in favour of the [ID cards] scheme.Oooooh, I could stamp my foot.
Brawling Santas arrestedSome remarkable headlines in the murder section, including...
A large group of people, dressed in Santa suits, began fighting in the Victoria Street car park in the central city. About 30 of them, both men and women, were involved, and police say they were heavily intoxicated. ...
The Mangamahu Murder, 1921Hey - that's what friends are for!
Geoge Gordon binged on Sandy McDonald whiskey for several days, then asked his bushmate to chop off his head. And he did.
Jimmy Walter has spent more than $US3 million promoting a theory that the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were "an inside job" and he is offering more cash to anyone who proves him wrong.Well obviously there won't be any winners of his silly little contest. I'd be surprised if anyone even bothers to try and claim it. For one thing, Walter's position is totally impervious to rational argument. He has decided that a Vast Sinister Conspiracy is to blame, who have covered themselves with an elaborate web of lies and falsified evidence. Therefore any evidence, no matter how compelling, that anyone presents to him about fire weakening the WTC structures after airliners were flown into them can be dismissed as "lies concocted by this all-pervading official cover-up". For another thing, the contest is only open to engineering students, so experienced technical experts are not even allowed to present their case.
The millionaire activist is so convinced of a government cover-up he is offering a $US100,000 reward to any engineering student who can prove the World Trade Centre buildings crashed the way the government says.
"Of course, we expect no winners,"
He dismissed the official September 11 commission report, saying, "I don't trust any of these 'facts.'"Okayyyy. So not only are experienced experts prevented from applying for his prize, but he's also chosen to dismiss all the evidence about the collapse of the WTC buildings which doesn't fit with his idea that they were actually demolished by undercover CIA ninja teams disguised as firemen (or something).
"I am a patriot fighting the real traitors who are destroying our democracy. I resent it when they call me delusional," he said.Resent away, delusional crazy guy.
President Harry S. Truman [was] a petty Mafioso and 33rd degree Mason, ... Roosevelt knew in advance of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—he covered up his crime by setting up a Pearl Harbor investigative commission led by Masonic cronies ... Pope Paul VI surrenders papal authority to United Nations—gives up his triple crown, his papal ring and his cross to U. Thant, UN Secretary-General. ... President Richard Nixon is forced to resign by a secret Jewish cabal after he threatened to expose what really happened in the JFK assassination ...Wow. What a cesspit.
A Mexican man killed his lover in a drunken, drugged fight then cooked the man's body in tomato and onion sauce and ate it over three days.And it gets grimmer from there on in.
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Wee Jimmy Krankie fell out of the beanstalk on to the stage and was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary."Crikey.
Recently the U.S. let reptile media and riff-raffs spread the sheer lie that portraits of leader Kim Jong Il are no longer displayed in the DPRK. As this smear campaign proved futile, they floated sheer misinformation that "there is confusion within its leadership" and "at least 130 army general officers and high-ranking officials deserted their units in the wake of the defection of ordinary people." All this was intended to give impression that a sort of dramatic crisis has occurred in the DPRK. ...Reptile media and riff-raffs, heh? Cool.
Finding it impossible to topple the DPRK by force as it has a powerful nuclear deterrent force [they spread lies, lies, endless filthy filthy lies]...Well, I'll take that as "yes, we do have nukes". Just in case people in future refer to North Korea's "alleged nuclear-arms program". It's not alleged: it's self-proclaimed.
[Kim Jong Il] went round the room for the education in trees bearing slogans built by the unit. ... He met lecturers Kim Yong Ok, Kim Kwan Bin and Kim Jung Gol who displayed the matchless self-sacrificing spirit in the act of protecting trees bearing slogans from the fire in 1998 and highly praised them for their feats. Seeing one by one the photographs of the 17 heroic soldiers who dedicated their lives to protecting those trees, he noted that they could throw themselves without hesitation into the raging flames to protect them at the cost of their lives because they were intensely loyal to the Party and leader.When people in other countries would say "don't risk it - ain't nothin' worth dyin' for in there" seventeen men burned to death to save some kind of sloganeering artworks? [*shudder*]. The theme of self-immolation for the greater glory of Kim Jong Il is maintained:
He set forth tasks to be fulfilled to further increase the combat capability of the unit, greatly satisfied to learn that all the servicepersons of the unit have been prepared as the fighters who enshrined the spirit of devotedly defending the leader, the spirit of becoming human bullets and bombs and the spirit of blowing oneself up as their unshakable faith.Charming.
Attention, British thugs: make sure you carry a pistol instead of a knife, because a pistol's more dangerous but will get you the same jail term as the knife.Quite how this benefits the victims I don't know.
I see you have chosen to open the after-spigot-dog-valves (or other implausible nautical jargon). This will flood the engine room and sink the boat. Are you sure you want to do that? [Yes / No].At least, that's my guess. They could enable and disable the coffee machine, for all I know.
Are you really sure? [Yes / No].
This operation is recommended for advanced users only. [Continue / Cancel].
The Periodic Table of Comic Books:
Click on an element to see a list of comic book pages involving that element. Click on a thumbnail on the list to see a full comic book page.
Iron!
Helium!
Einsteinium ("this story has nothing to do with the radioactive actinide element Einsteinium [but] Albert Einstein appears off and on")!
Gadolinium! And many, many more.
The Ryuwon Footwear Factory in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is mass-producing quality injection-molded shoes. The shoes with two-color sole are smart, soft and flexible.Footwear which is smart, soft and flexible? I never knew such a thing was possible. Truly a workers' paradise.
Garner added: "We had to be careful what we said. What are you supposed to do? Tell him to clear off. It was very, very embarrassing."Ah, bless.
"The DJ sounded white on the phone".Yeah... because obviously he was supposed to use Yardie-speak or something.
Medical experts have confirmed that Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's opposition leader, was poisoned in an attempt on his life during election campaigning, the doctor who supervised his treatment at an Austrian clinic said yesterday. Doctors at Vienna's exclusive Rudolfinerhaus clinic are within days of identifying the substance that left Mr Yushchenko's face disfigured with cysts and lesions, Nikolai Korpan told The Times in a telephone interview. ...I half expect they'll find a bald guy with a white cat is to blame.
A few days ago, I called in person at the London offices of the European Commission, 8 Storey's Gate. The conversation went as follows.I think that's what they call "promoting informed democracy". Today an MEP replied with "errr, it's on the website". The problem is that although it is on the website it's not glaringly obvious whereabouts on the website to find it. But for you, dear readers, I have done the required rummaging. In a locked filing cabinet in a toilet cubicle with a sign on the door saying "beware of the leopard" which was in a darkened cellar I found the 349 page treaty and its 382 pages of annexes plus the 121 pages of declarations to be annexed to the annexes. Happy reading!
"Have you got a copy of the proposed European Constitution?"
"It's on the website."
"But it's 300 pages long and takes ages to download."
"We're planning to print and distribute it."
"How will you be distributing it, so that I can buy a copy?"
"I don't know."
I have also telephoned the Stationary Office to ask them to send me a copy. They have no record of it.
A presentation of writings on the subject "People Blessed with Generals" done by foreign students studying at Kim Il Sung University took place at the Taedonggang Club for the Diplomatic Corps on Thursday on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il's assumption of the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army ...People Blessed with Generals?
Chinese students highly praised the feats of President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who has successfully carried forward his cause ... A Mongolian student in a speech entitled "The Language I Have Learned" spoke highly of the greatness of Kim Jong Il. ... It closed with chorus "Comrade Kim Jong Il Is Our Supreme Commander."Hmmm. I detect a certain "Kim Jong Il is gracious, beautiful, and can leap tall buildings in a single bound" theme.
The Universal Way web site contains the best information in the worldThe best information in the world includes "progressive science", UFOs, The Answer to The Question of how to resist alien invaders, and a fearless exposé of the terrible conspiracies which surround us:
Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy, they say, there never was a CIA operative named Eduardo, E. Howard Hunt was not involved, Ted Shackley and George Bush were never in Florida at the same time as CIA assassination teams, and the driver of the Kennedy limousine (Will Greer) never slowed down the car and never turned around and took any shots at all at Kennedy that prompted Jackie Kennedy to jump on the trunk of the car in a desperate attempt to escape from her husband's real assassin.Errr, riiiiiiight. So JFK was shot by his driver? Not only that, but the The Universal Way can now reveal the September 11th attacks were carried out by Mossad ("master-minding the 9/11 tragedy through remote control of the airplanes by a previously secret radio control system") as an Israeli propaganda operation so that that, errrr, the Rothschild family and Israeli double-agents in the Bush administration (not forgetting the "deep-cover Israeli moles" who control the U.S. Militia movements and the "Israeli/Jewish/Zionist controlled media") could press on with their master plan for world domination. Or something. This bit's funny, though:
questions still remain as to whether the captured Saddam is actually Saddam Hussein or just another one of his "doubles," doubts have already been expressed over whether Hussein's sons were really killed (the U.S. government has recently admitted that the photographs taken of Hussein's dead sons were actually wax mockups of them), and it is becoming well-known among the international intelligence community that Osama bin Laden died a few years ago of a kidney/liver disease, and his body was captured and frozen by the Bush administration for presentation to the U.S. public at an appropriate time before the 2004 presidential election.Okay. Note when the article was last updated: November 12, 2004. That's a surprisingly lively frozen corpse.
Couple years ago, some people I worked with finally completed a long-delayed project to build a very large vacuum chamber for testing plasma thrusters and other advanced spacecraft propulsion systems. Not the biggest in the business, but maybe top ten nationwide. Big enough to walk around inside, at any rate, which is the important point.Heh. Thanks, Carl!
Important, because in order to go operational it needed the approval of the local Safety Officers. You know the type. They have a checklist, nay, a whole handbook of checklists, one of which involves Confined Spaces. Big enough to walk around in? Check. Airtight? Check. Can be filled with asphyxiant gas? Well, the MSDS(material safety data sheet) for "Vacuum" apparently lists it as an "asphyxiant", so check. It's a Confined Space, and so the Confined Space checklist must be implemented.
Issue the first: How do they make certain nobody can accidentally walk in while the chamber is full of that deadly asphyxiant, "vacuum"? No, the fifty *tons* of force holding the door closed, is not an acceptable answer.
Issue the second: When the chamber is vented back to full atmospheric pressure, where does the vacuum go? If the chamber were accidentally vented by opening the door (see above, and note exact Safety Officer quote, "OK, say if you were Superman and you opened the door"), where would the vacuum go?
Issue the third: What assurance is there, that when the chamber is vented back to full atmosphere, there is an adequate percentage of oxygen in the chamber? Hint: It is a big, big, big mistake here to acknowledge here that the laws of statistical gas dynamics allow for one chance in 10^10^17 (no typo) that the chamber will spontaneously refill with a sufficiently oxygen-poor atmosphere to preclude respiration.
Issue the forth: and so help me God I am not making this up, again an exact Safety Officer quote, "How can you be sure there won't be vacuum pockets left in the chamber, that someone could accidentally stick their head into?"
And, coupled with issue #2, there could be deadly vacuum pockets floating around the lab! Aieeee!!!! Run for your lives!
It only took three weeks to find someone with the common sense and the real authority to overrule the Safety Officer on this one, and the SOs still take offense if anyone brings it up in their presence.
Two of the [spammers'] sites being bombarded by data have been completely knocked offline. One other [spammer's] site has been responding to requests only intermittently as it struggles to cope with the traffic the screensaver is pointing its way.Mwuah-hahahaha! Excellent.
The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web. Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism.Can't go round having vigilantes taking action now can we? Best to cower under your desk hoping the bad man will leave you alone. Can't go taking the law into your own hands, you know. Best leave this sort of thing to the police. Oh hang on: there is no police in this case. Pitchfork-wielding mobs it is, then.
Mock them if you must, but a spiffily uniformed mountie on horseback could easily travel into areas far too tight for armored vehicles and rescue any helpless Iraqi damsels tied to railroad tracks by mustachioed villains.Class.
Galloway wins Saddam libel caseI think I need to go and have a lie down in a darkened room.
It would burn a third less fuel than existing designs because the entire fuselage would be turned into a wing, resulting in much lower drag than is experienced by a conventional cigar-shaped fuselage. ... In the passenger versions, which could carry up to 800 people ...More efficient and with giant payloads: it certainly sounds like the way of the future.
