• The British lawnmower museum, where you can see "Lawnmowers of the Rich and Famous"(!)
• The Vintage Vacuum Cleaner Museum has a variety of vintage vacuum cleaners.
• Photographs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Features include a chap in a hot air balloon.
• The online drafting pencil museum.
• The Early Office Museum, including the all-important history of the paper clip.
• The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum claims to be the world's only museum devoted to barbed wire. Which seems odd, because the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, Texas claims to be the world's largest barbed wire museum. They even have a barbed wire monument.
• The Virtual Typewriter Museum.
• The World Typewriter and Keyboard Museum.
• If you're ever near Ellsworth, Maine, don't forget to visit the New England Museum of Telephony.
• If you're ever near Milton Keynes, don't forget to visit the telephone museum.
• The Dutch Online Telephone Museum.
• Another online telephone museum.
• And last but by no means least, the famous Museum of Questionable Medical Devices.

... We are seeking all the facts - already the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related programme activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programmes would continue to this day. ...

[...] George Galloway, ex Labour MP, figures prominently in the list. His name is mentioned in 6 contracts and the newspaper publishes a letter from [the old Iraqi State Oil Company] dated 31 December 1999, signed by Saddam Zbin, cousin of Saddam Hussein in which he asks the oil company to give him contracts. Apparently, this British MP was particularly well treated. [...]

[...] Abdel Saheb Salmane Qotob, under-secretary with the ministry for oil, [allegedly] assures us this information specifies that among the [allegedly] named persons are two Prime Ministers, two Foreign Ministers as well as a string of ministers and Heads of State. [...] George Galloway, ex Labour MP, [allegedly] figures prominently in the [alleged] list. His name is [allegedly] mentioned in 6 contracts and the newspaper publishes a letter from [the old Iraqi State Oil Company] dated 31 December 1999, [allegedly] signed by Saddam Zbin, cousin of Saddam Hussein in which he [allegedly] asks the oil company to give him contracts. Apparently, this [alleged] British MP was particularly well treated. But he wasn't the only one [...]

Feel his anger. Anger at George Bush Jr. Anger at JFK, and all presidents. Anger at the UN. So much anger at Denis Thatcher(!) that he laughs when he dies. Anger at Charles Kennedy. Anger at rugby. Even anger at the 'Darkness'. Grrr, he's a very angry man and he's voting for 'Respect'.
[Update: Now he's even angrier than ever]
[Update part deux: now he's angry at me.]

London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, has threatened to sue a fellow maverick of the Labour movement, George Galloway, if the rebel MP refuses to change the name of a new political alliance he has founded. Mr Livingstone says the current name - Respect: the Unity Coalition - will clash with the Respect anti-racist festival in London. [...]

Idle thought: if there were 1,000 people at the meeting and they were charging £10 to join the party on top of the £10 entrance fee (according to a promotional poster I saw) they took over £10,000 yesterday. Might this be a new moneyspinner for George Galloway to keep himself in the style to which he is accustomed following the abrupt halt of any alleged inflow of alleged funds from any alleged paymaster?

• Synthstuff.
• Strike One lightning photos.
• Anil's daily links.
• Gizmodo - it's all about gizmos (and gizmos are good).
• A ridiculous yet strangely impressive 48-cylinder motorbike.

No, that was wrong - I do have more to say. From the Guardian:

Dr Tonge, the spokeswoman on children, told a meeting of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign on Wednesday: "This particular brand of terrorism, the suicide bomber, is truly born out of desperation" [and] "killings and the bulldozings and all the other horrible things" ...

More wisdom of Jenny Tonge on terrorism, from BBC 'Any Questions', 9th January 2004:

"Well I sometimes worry that we're taking it all too seriously and making too much of it but I think we have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and say that we are in a very serious situation ..."

Why therefore were the extermination camps not destroyed after the reconnaissance planes of the Britons and Americans photographed them in such detail? At the very least, the railway tracks on which the Jews were transported into the extermination camp?

"why the infrastructure - for example the railway lines - were not destroyed is still unclear today."

"Maybe it's because the allies' main focus point was the industrial centre of western Germany."

So the mission would have been physically impossible, and the air forces were busy elsewhere:

"The number of men lost in air action [in Europe] was 79,265 Americans and 79,281 British. More than 18,000 American and 22,000 British planes were lost or damaged beyond repair."

He also says beards worn for religious reasons would be prohibited.
Ferry said Sikh turbans would be allowed if they are "discreet," but didn't elaborate further.

"[The probe] will now attempt to determine the rock's composition and history by prodding it with its sophisticated mechanical arm".

The findings are based on a web-based survey completed by people throughout the world [...]

EU officials are banning air passengers from taking potential weapons such as fishing rods, snooker cues, ice skates, ski poles and skateboards onto planes. [...]

"Conduct by the governor was reprehensible, totally unjustified [...] He seemed determined to justify a course of action which seemed wholly disproportionate [...] we wondered whether the governor lived in the real world." [...]

A spokesman said: "We are very disappointed by the decision of the tribunal. The decision had already been found to be fair by an internal Prison Service appeal and the Civil Service Appeals Board, which is completely independent. The decision to dismiss Mr Rose was fully consistent with Prison Service policy . . . to eradicate racism in prisons." [...]

"I always wanted to be the first woman to carry out a martyr attack, where parts of my body can fly all over," she said, smiling. "That is the only wish I can ask God for."

Do any of us imagine for a moment that if Kilroy-Silk had turned around and said "What's the matter, can't you people take a joke?" the whole fuss would have blown over? No. Me neither.

For the record, the e-mail they've published has been edited. Here's what I originally sent:

Faisal Bodi claimed (Islamophobia should be as unacceptable as racism, Monday) the Salman Rushdie affair "was wrongly characterised as free speech versus censorship". If it wasn't about free speech versus censorship I'd like to know what it was about.

Compare and contrast the treatment of Kilroy-Silk with that of Michael Moore. Michael Moore wrote a book titled "Stupid White Men" which contains a chapter titled "Kill Whitey" blaming white people (quite generally) for every earthly ill from the plague to slavery, from pollution to the holocaust and even the theft of Michael's stereo. The book sold millions of copies, there was no outcry about offensive racial stereotyping, the Guardian ran special features interviewing him so he could plug his next book. Both Moore and Kilroy-Silk are dunderheads. Neither ought to be prosecuted.

Also under the proposal, the drinks industry could be asked to contribute towards the cost of compensation because of the large number of alcohol-related violent incidents.

GOVERNMENT: Would you put some money into our new fund, please?
BREWERIES: No.
GOVERNMENT: Oh. Not to worry. Thanks anyway.

Doesn't the drinks industry already contribute through the assorted taxes on its products? Next up, cutlery industry "asked" to contribute due to the high number of knife-related violent incidents.

Also: portrait drawings under the influence of LSD. "Upon completing the drawing the patient starts laughing, then becomes startled by something on the floor."

Thanks to Michael, for the links.

During the Salman Rushdie affair in 1989, he wrote that if Britain's "resident ayatollahs" could not "accept British values and laws then there is no reason at all why the British should feel any need, still less compulsion, to accommodate theirs". Buoyed by the support of liberals in a debate that was wrongly characterised as free speech versus censorship he went much further.

Compare and contrast the treatment of Kilroy-Silk with, say... Michael Moore. Michael Moore writes a book titled "Stupid White Men" including a chapter wittily titled "Kill Whitey" blaming white people (quite generally) for every earthly ill since the black death to slavery to pollution to the holocaust and even the theft of Michael's stereo. The book sells millions of copies, he becomes a darling of the Guardian-reading demographic, and the Guardian runs special features interviewing him. Both Moore and Kilroy-Silk are dunderheads. Neither ought to be prosecuted.

*Faisal Bodi is a commentator on Muslim affairs who commentates that Muslims who support Tony Blair are "stooges", and whose imam extended Friday prayers after September 11 to implore God to annihilate Islam's enemies, to "rock the ground underneath their feet". Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?

• Amelie (2001) - Just delightful, a few days in the lives of great characters.
• Casablanca (1942) - In which three little people find their troubles don't add up to a hill of beans.
• Das Boot (1981) - A bit of a rarity: a WW2 film in which not only do the Germans do more than shout "achtung!", get shot and somersault off balconies but is filmed entirely from their point of view and the U-boat crew are a group of mostly decent men doing a bad job and who we come to care about. Sort of like 'Band of Brothers' but at sea and on the wrong side.
• Full Metal Jacket (1987) - A Vietnam war film that's less about the Vietnam war than about the transformation of raw civilians into hardened soldiers.
• Ice Cold in Alice (1958) - Determination, inner demons, mixed loyalties and cold beer. That makes it 3 in a row that fall into the "war films with a bit of a twist" genre.
• O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) - Great story, characters, visuals and a soundtrack to die for (or at least pay money for in the shops).
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Tombs raided, Nazis vanquished and a really good hat. I'm easily pleased.
• The Italian Job (1969) - Yes, I know it's silly, I know it's childish, I know the car chase is farcical. But I like it.
• The Man in the White Suit (1951) - Mad scientist caper with a dash of social pathos for good measure.
• The Mask of Zorro (1998) - How life should be, with swordfights, stunts, no wrong left unrighted and no swash left unbuckled.

Both the firms awarded the $1.8bn deal - Bechtel and Parsons - are already on the ground in Iraq. Bechtel's existing deal is worth about $1bn.
Both are also major donors to the ruling Republican party and President George W Bush's 2000 election campaign.

It's good to see some new blood being introduced into the Guardian Comment page. While Bin Laden's writing style is perhaps a little flowery, his opinions provide much-needed balance to those of the equally illiberal David Aaronovitch.

Firstly, the Israelis are not going to give back the Golan Heights. They'd have to be on drugs to give a hostile country the mountain range which sits on their border.

Secondly, the Israelis are not going to disarm until they feel a lot safer about their neighbours. Now Iraq's out of the picture the only countries in the region committed to Israel's annihilation are Libya, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. That means disarmament needs the cooperation of Israel and 7 Arab/Persian countries. In any agreement between 8 countries every country is going to assume that at least one of the others is going to cheat at some point - it would be naive of anybody making a bargain with 7 people they don't trust to imagine that nobody's going to cheat. While the Arab/Persian countries have little to fear from at least some of the others cheating Israel would be totally screwed if they disarmed and any of the 7 other countries cheated. As Israel will expect at least one of the Arab/Persian countries to cheat on any disarmament deal Israel won't disarm. Not, at any rate, until Israel trusts the other countries in the region not to wipe it off the map.

And now I shall let my personal venom flow and commit the following act of defiance in condemnation of the illegal invasion and ongoing occupation and mass murder of the Iraqi people by my birth nation of the United States. The burning of my passport is an exercise in the inherent human right of self determination in accordance with international law after having my U.S. passport returned to me twice by the U.S. Department of State.

My personal act affirms once and for all the lawful and undeniable completion of my renunciation of U.S. citizenship that began on March 1, 2001. I AM NOT A UNITED STATES CITIZEN! I am a lawfully registered World citizen in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) with ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth.

In what is a monumental irony Ken Nichols O’Keefe, the initiator or the Human Shield Action to Iraq that attracted the attention of world leaders and more importantly people around the globe, was forced under duress, to request a U.S. passport at the American Consulate in Rome on February 12, 2003. This request became necessary after the Turkish Government unlawfully deported of Mr. O’Keefe and thus prevented his peaceful transport through Turkey, on his way to Iraq to act as a Human Shield. Had Mr. O’Keefe not made his reluctant request he could have been denied the inherent right to travel to Iraq

Clerk:	Can I help you, sir?
O'Keefe:	[mumbling] I'd like a passport, please.
Clerk:	I'm sorry, you'll have to speak up.
O'Keefe:	I'd like a passport, please.
Clerk:	Oh. Did you lose your last one?
O'Keefe:	No! I destroyed it in an act of solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world!
Clerk:	Because you deliberately destroyed it I'm afraid there will be a replacement fee of $80.
O'Keefe:	Ha, I despise the very notion of money: an oppressive construct of the capitalist hegemony to crush the struggling masses!
Clerk:	No money, no passport, sir.
O'Keefe:	Oh. Well... here's your 80 filthy dollars then.
Clerk:	And you are a US citizen?
O'Keefe:	No! I AM NOT A UNITED STATES CITIZEN! I am a lawfully registered World citizen...
Clerk:	Sir, are you a US citizen?
O'Keefe:	... in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with ultimate allegiance to planet Earth!
Clerk:	Are you are a US citizen, sir? You see I can't issue you with this passport if you aren't a US citizen.
O'Keefe:	[mumbling] Well, urm... yes, yes I am a US citizen. But I don't like it, you know.

• A mushroom gallery.
• Another mushroom gallery.
• The Snohomish County Mycological Society's fungi photo gallery.
• The Mushroom Council, where you can find mushroom production data.
• Heidi Kellner's drawings of the mushrooms from Ohio to Washington State.

Assorted trivia: Internet pioneer seen wearing very silly hat (see photo, left). 50 reasons why the 'Lord of the Rings' films suck. 50 reasons why the 'Matrix' films suck (contains final episode plot spoilers). Overclocking to 5GHz with liquid nitrogen cooling.

Surrounded by upturned chairs and an abandoned turban, Sabah Al-Kaisey surveyed his ransacked office yesterday.
The American troops who burst into his mosque on Thursday morning had smashed down the front gate, broken the air conditioners and ripped up the carpets. They had also thrown several Korans on the floor and allegedly punched the man giving the call to prayer in the face.

"They even took our nuts," said Mr Kaisey yesterday...

... opening the door of the mosque's empty fridge.

The troops who raided the Ibn Taymiyah mosque, used by Baghdad's Sunnis, appear to have been looking for weapons used by Iraq's resistance.

They recovered a couple of AK-47s, hand grenades and an anti-aircraft missile, US military officials said.

Abdul Sattar, the mosque's imam, said the weapons were used by its guards. "They were there to protect ourselves," he told the Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera...

...which showed images of the damaged Korans.

Isn't "US soldiers ransack Sunni mosque" a slightly odd choice of headline? Surely "US soldiers sieze arms cache" or "Mosque used as arms dump" would have been more honest.

And according to this, the raid wasn't just carried out by US soldiers, but by Iraqi police as well. Following months of tip-offs that the mosque was being used as an arms dump. So not quite as brutal a ransacking and desecration as first reported.

On Friday, 500 people held a vigil inside the mosque after prayers and shouted: "Bush, Bush, you are the devil" and "We are the soldiers of Allah."

Tom insisting that evidence of the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein is fabricated, because he thinks their funeral looks a bit odd.
Tom insisting that evidence of mass graves near Salam Pak is fabricated, because holes have been dug with mechanical diggers and some men are pictured trying to lift something heavy.
Tom insisting that evidence of mass graves near Najaf is fabricated, because a corpse's blindfold looks too fresh to him.
Tom insisting that other evidence of mass graves near Najaf is fabricated, because sand dunes all look the same to him. Or, as he puts it: "This is one concerns the 'I was shot and left to die in a mass grave, but crawled out under cover of darkness to tell all' variation, an old favourite in the mass grave atrocity genre."
Tom insisting that evidence of mass graves of children in Iraq is fabricated, because he can't seem to imagine anybody murdering children.
Tom insisting that evidence of Saddam Hussein being captured is fabricated, because he thinks his facial hair doesn't look right.
Tom expressing yet more doubts about that whole "capture of Saddam Hussein" thing. And again.
Tom responding to critics.
Tom insisting that evidence of mass graves in Kosovo is fabricated, because some earth has been removed by a mechanical digger.

I have yet to find him claiming that evidence of the Apollo moon landings was fabricated, but I'll keep looking.

Resolutions:

1. I will back up my files better and more often.
2. That's all. There is no "second resolution".

Predictions for the year ahead:

1. There will be no end of fevered press reports about George Bush's "immediate" and "urgent" plans for a "massive" withdrawal of American forces from Iraq before November's election.
2. There will be no significant withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. Maybe a few thousand here and there, but nothing massive.
3. There will be no end of fevered press reports about George Bush's attempts to shore up his "dwindling domestic public support" prior to November's election. Words like "frenzied", "frantic", "hopeless" and even "increasingly desparate" or "pathetically futile" will be used aplenty to describe these efforts.
4. In November, George Bush will wipe the floor with his opponent.
5. The Israelis will bomb the Iranian nuclear plants. Yes, I know I said that before and it didn't happen, but...
6. When Israel bombs the Iranian nuclear plants CND will be outraged.
7. My computer will die, and I will be totally screwed because it will be at least 6 months since I backed up any of my files.

I had a look around Gateshead's new art gallery in the old Baltic flour mill building today. It's a very fine building in danger of falling victim to Millenium Dome Syndrome, in which a great building languishes because of the absence of anything decent to put in it. Currently on display are 3 floors of works by Nancy Spero and Kiki Smith, which (according to the pamphlet) "addresses issues of the feminine across cultures and mythologies" and "draws attention to thematic, cultural and physical affinities existing in the work of these two artists". Perhaps so, but to my untrained eye they looked like junk and scrawlings untainted by any obvious trace of skill. Photography was prohibited so I am unable to illustrate this, but... just trust me. The remaining floor contained an exhibition of artists' books "selected by a group of invited artists, critics, historians, curators and collectors". People, whatever you do, don't allow an artist, critic, historian, curator or collector to recommend reading matter. The most interesting thing on display was a table with a pile of books next to a fish tank, and this was only because the fish tank contained some real live fish, which was nice. Incredibly, this is on display for eight months. And please don't bother to write telling me "But it's art, darling" because it's not: it's just crap. Harrumph.

And so the family Hinkley gathers in the ancestral home for Christmas. In keeping with family tradition the day started with a short walk in the morning, this year along the river near Hartburn. Highlight: an artificial cave (below) complete with fireplace someone supposedly cut into the riverbank in years gone by so that he and his friends would have somewhere dry to change their clothes when they went swimming in the river.

Saddam Hussein spat at American soldiers moments after his capture and was promptly punched by one of them, according to US government sources. ...

[The scence: Mordor. Frodo looks wistful]
"Oh Sam, I don't know what I'd have done without you"
"Oh shut up and get on with destroying The One Ring, Mister Frodo"
"But really, this quest is as much an exploration of the meaning of friendship and loyalty as it is of good and evil don't you think?"
"Yes yes, Mister Frodo, whatever. "
"Ariwiwiii, fgiiieooooo... awiiiiiii..."
"Oh no, Mister Frodo, not Elvish poetry! Just shut up and walk, Mister Frodo please before the audience gets restless."
[Frodo starts blubbing]
etc.

Germany's self-confessed cannibal killer Armin Meiwes has been sent a vegetarian cookbook and a Christmas hamper full of veggie burgers and tofu. [...] Peta spokesman Juergen Faulmann said: "What this man did to a German computer expert is done to other creatures every day." [...]

No doubt this assertion will be repeated endlessly until it becomes commonly accepted, but it is nonsense. Allow me to respond with simple words:

Huntley gave both his names to Cambridgeshire police via the school. They say they gave both his names to Humberside police. Humberside police knew perfectly well who he was, but they just screwed up. Stop saying "If only we had had Magic Gizmo X this would not have happened", because Magic Gizmo X would have had no effect in this case and no number of magic gizmos will stop people from screwing up in future.

Saddam Hussein is responsible for Nazi-style barbarities, setting out to be the regional superpower, gathering the technology to threaten Israel, being the prime protector of Palestinian terrorism, putting on show trials and arbitrary executions. The price of a policy of appeasement which perpetuates Saddam's regime can be measured in dead and broken bodies. Is it not patronising, if not shameful, to dismiss the desires of the people of Iraq, many of whom have died and been tortured in protest at Saddam Hussein?

[...]
The truth is that we are humouring a dictator, which is rather like negotiating over hostages, which, as Mrs Thatcher keeps reminding us, never pays. Nor does it make sense to talk, as Ministers do, of the overriding imperatives of trade and exports. It is these very exports, many of them concerned with arms and military technology, which have helped to create the monster who ordered yesterday's anti-British demonstrations in Baghdad.

We should know our enemy. Since his war with Iran, in which he engaged in Nazi-style barbarities, Saddam Hussein has set out to be the regional superpower of the Middle East, gathering the technology to enable him to threaten Israel, making himself the prime protector of the PLO, sending arms to the Christians in Lebanon to upset the Syrians and forming a network of alliances with Jordan and the Gulf states in which he is the senior partner. Britain's policy of appeasement towards him has been based on the belief that he is the most useful force against Communism on the one side and Islamic fundamentalism on the other.

The execution of Farzad Bazoft provides one more illustration of the failure of this appeasement policy. Hussein cannot be controlled by words and messages, no matter how eminent and how well-meaning the senders. A man who unleashes chemical weapons against his own people is not likely to restrain his use of the same weapons against any other enemy - or nuclear warheads once he gets hold of them. The second anniversary of the massacre by gas of the Kurds of Halabja is a good time to remember this.

If Farzad Bazoft's death has achieved anything, it has been to focus world-wide attention on the barbarities of Saddam Hussein, of which Farzad himself was just the latest victim. Britain may be right to seek to retain it historic and cultural relations with the people of Iraq, but anything it does to perpetuate Saddam's regime can be measured in dead and broken bodies. Hussein is a ruler who will continue to perpetuate the most horrendous acts of cruelty against his own people as well as his guests. Morality as well as national self-interest requires us to underline the values of fair trial, fair treatment and free expression, which are not ethereal ideals but principles by which we judge ourselves and by which we have every right to judge others. Nor are they confined to this island. All over the world freedom is breaking out, even in South Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Does it really serve our long-term purposes in the Nineties to side with Saddam Hussein and lend him our money when so much of the world is crying out for help in achieving nobler aims? And is it not patronising, if not shameful, to dismiss the desires of not the people of Iraq, many of whom have died and been tortured in protest at Saddam Hussein?
[...]

A top Roman Catholic official has attacked the way Saddam Hussein was treated by his US captors, saying he had been dealt with like an animal.

Cardinal Renato Martino said he had felt pity watching video of "this man destroyed, [the military] looking at his teeth as if he were a beast".

Cardinal Martino said on Tuesday that the US "could have spared us these pictures".
"Seeing him like this, a man in his tragedy, despite all the heavy blame he bears, I had a sense of compassion for him," he told reporters.

Expect the whining to start almost immediately. Expected whines will include, but not be limited to:

1. "Oh, we're meant to believe that's really Saddam Hussein - like the real Saddam Hussein wouldn't put up a fight? Yeah, right..."
2. "Oh, how convenient for Bush. Just as he's looking bad in the opinion polls they suddenly 'find' Saddam Hussein..."
3. "Now they've proved Saddam's alive this will only encourage those loyal to him to fight."
4. "He's being mistreated by the imperialist aggressors, who are violating his human rights."
5. "He won't get a fair trial."

Saddams face shown in violation of the grniva convention.
At approixmatly 18:00 yesterday american and Kurdish forces began an opperation to catch Saddam. They did.
This morning the americans relesed fotage of saddam was this in breach of the geniva convention?

So the defence secretary wants a streamlined, efficient, lightweight fighting force (Pre-budget report, December 11)? I wonder if he's aware of his enormous nuclear arsenal...

... and US and UK plans to develop new nukes?

The complete Clangers on DVD! I want, I want, I want...

The letter claimed to come from her and was on headed notepaper bearing her home address. Except that it was a forgery and the paper now accepts it was hoaxed. Owusu, who is in Ghana designing a public transport system for the capital, Accra, is not amused. Expect a grovelling Guardian apology this week.

Create your very own Picasso picture with Mr Picasso Head. Cool.

Perhaps Professor Chomsky's memory fails him. Let's see what he said on the subject here:

Prominent linguist and writer Noam Chomsky defined the situation [planned invasion of Afghanistan] as a form of genocide. "Plans are being made on the assumption that they may lead to the death of several million people. Very casually, with no comment and with no particular thought about it. It looks like what is happening is some sort of silent genocide," said Chomsky.

Chomsky's talk last night focused on the September 11 disaster and its implications within and outside the U.S., [...] He expressed his astonishment at the reaction of people in U.S. and Europe over the situation in Afghanistan. "Seven to eight million people are on the urge of starvation in Afghanistan now," he said, "but there has been no reaction to the stopping of food delivery trucks through Pakistan since the bombings have started.
"This is a silent genocide,"

He returned consistently to the theme of ending violence, stopping terrorism and warding off the impending "silent genocide" of starvation that US bombings could cause millions of Afghans by making food delivery impossible.

Meanwhile, in the Independent, Chomsky continues ...

"I reported the grim warnings [...] that the attack might lead to an awesome humanitarian catastrophe [...] All of this is precisely accurate and entirely appropriate. The warnings remain accurate as well, a truism that should be unnecessary to explain. "

The US Government has said it will spend $18.6bn on rebuilding Iraq.
While most of that money will finance the US military presence ...

• Spinning coloured balls.
• Drop sugar cubes for the ants to find and carry home.
• Feed the squid (who doesn't seem to be very good at catching anything), or watch the scorpion who's much better - watch the ants after they get caught.
• Worm.
• And much much more.

Two issues have made me rethink my acceptance, and I am considering returning the "honour". One is the jingoistic reaction in the press regarding the English (not British) rugby victory. The idea of a vainglorious parade is exclusive of the whole ethnic-minority population of this island and redolent of Anglo-Saxon imperialism.

This rugby jolly has already cost £10m that should have been spent on relieving poverty for the black urban underclass, or perhaps funding sports facilities for those impoverished nations forced to compete on such unfair terms. Sports such as rugby must be privately funded by the wealthy few.

Second, I echo the sentiments of Benjamin Zephaniah, on declining an OBE, regarding the empire, a symbol of England's brutal past.

I've e-mailed them to ask whether this whole sorry charade is receiving any public money or whether the Labour Party is at least paying for it themselves. Of course, as soon as I get an answer you'll be the first to hear what they said.

God, this is depressing. The nursery school teacher from hell (right) takes the class (below, left & right) on an outing to a rally in Gaza of groups opposed to the 'Geneva Accord' - the unofficial peace plan which goes further than the current 'Road map'. Don't forget, kids: wear your Islamic Jihad headbands, wave your Islamic Jihad flags and shout those slogans loudly! If you're lucky and work really hard you might even get to blow yourself up in a crowded restaurant some day! Taking kids along to a rally in support of a peace plan, to wave national flags - I don't have a problem with that. But taking them to a rally opposed to a peace plan more generous than any you can hope to be offered, to wave flags and sing songs glorifying murderous self-destruction... that's just sick. Those children are doomed. (Pictures via yahoo from Reuters/Jerry Lampen and AP/Kevin Frayer).