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US in Iran ?
[news.independent.co.uk] One former defence official is quoted as saying the planning was based on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government”. London Blitz. Berlin 1945. Iraq, quite recently, really. It doesn’t work like that, guys. I wish
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Australian Banks: Wrong PIN? That’ll be $2, thanks
This behaviour exemplifies why it is important for us to keep on top of the UK ATM industry: [www.smh.com.au] BANKS have hit a new low by charging fees for cancelled transactions and incorrectly entered PINs, the Australian Consumers Association says. And most consumers did not know the charges existed, said the association’s senior finance policy
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‘Playing The Clash made me a terror suspect’
Not often I’d quote the Mail, but… [www.dailymail.co.uk] ‘Playing The Clash made me a terror suspect’ A mobile phone salesman was hauled off a plane and questioned for three hours as a terror suspect – because he listened to songs by The Clash and Led Zeppelin. Harraj Mann, 24, played the punk anthem London Calling
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Helen and Sylvia, the new face of terrorism
[news.independent.co.uk] Two grandmothers from Yorkshire face up to a year in prison after becoming the first people to be arrested under the Government’s latest anti-terror legislation. Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 62, both veterans of the Greenham Common protests 25 years ago, were arrested on Saturday after deliberately setting out to highlight a change
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A Very American Atheist
Bart sent me a link to an interview with Sam Harris author of The End of Faith and one of the interviewees in The God Movie. I read it as a terribly American piece – with reason, given the precepts for his argument: Harris: […] religious moderates are giving cover to fundamentalists because of the
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UKIP demands apology from Cameron
[news.bbc.co.uk] The UK Independence Party is calling for David Cameron to apologise after he claimed its members were “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists, mostly”. The Conservative leader made the remarks during a phone-in on the London radio station LBC. He said he believed UKIP was “racist” because of some of the things he had heard
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AcademicSqueaking
Yes, we’ll read it H, but like Jim said… (ObExlpn: ‘H’ is my friend, and an academic criminologist do-gooding lawyer-person. New blogger.)
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November 2008. You heard it here first.
Tony Blair defiantly outlined an agenda to keep him in Downing Street until 2008 as he fought back yesterday against attempts by supporters of Gordon Brown to force him to quit by next year. [www.telegraph.co.uk]
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The Essential Wine-Glass for the Cubicle Generation
Sommelier by Maxim Velcovsky I think these are really cool – the plastic drinking cup is an unremarked design icon and there are thousands of them around water coolers in every office in every company I’ve ever visited. This is a rational progression of form, and it’s marvellous. I totally regret that I’m a klutz
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Memento Mori
How I love to watch the morn with golden sun that shines, up above to nicely warm these frosty toes of mine! The wind doth taste of bittersweet, Like jasper wine and sugar. I bet it’s blown through others’ feet, like those of… …Caspar Weinberger. Explanation. It’s the only thing I knew about Weinberger. Perhaps
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Hut 33 – A Bletchley Park Sitcom, BBC Radio 4
Sounds vaguely like “The IT Crowd for the Vera Lynn Era” :- [www.bbc.co.uk] Hut 33 It’s 1941 Britain stands alone. Bletchey Park is crucial in the fight against the German war machine. Labouring in Hut 33, three code-breakers Archie, Toby and Charles struggle with complex ciphers, irritate one another and fail to impress women. Their
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Eclipse as seen from Space
One for Steve Elliott: [www.nasa.gov] – pretty. Link c/o Rob Diamond.