EDB at Anecdotes from a Banana Republic reports on the US taking sides in the Lebanese government crisis by imposing a Travel ban for Lebanese opposed to Saniora government.

Just as the US has unilaterally decided that Fatah must rule the Palestinian territories, the US has decided that Saniora’s collection of warlords must be the government of Lebanon, and no vote should be held.

You have to wonder how the US government would respond if China started dictating the leadership of Mexico or Canada. The truth is, Syria is involved with Lebanon because they are neighbors with a long common border, and Iran is concerned with Iraq because they are neighbors with a long common border.

It may come as a shock to some in the Hedgemony, but the US isn’t the only country in the world that has a foreign policy, and vital interests in other countries.

The Maine visit doesn’t seem to have impressed Volodya [Владимир Владимирович Путин]: Russia issues new missile threat

Russia has raised the idea of moving new missile forces to Kaliningrad, close to Poland and Lithuania.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov linked the possible move to US plans for a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russia has already threatened to hit back by targeting missiles at Europe.

[Read more →]

Maru of WTF is it now? always has interesting artwork at her place, and the fractal Bouquet led back to this great collection and an interesting dustbin.

The author/artist, another penguin, makes it freely available, but a link is appropriate.

McClatchy has a nice background piece: How U.S. policy missteps led to a nasty downfall in Gaza

WASHINGTON — Officials in the Bush administration awoke on the morning of January 26, 2006 to catastrophic news.

Hamas, a violent Islamist movement whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, had won Palestinian parliamentary elections — elections that were deemed free and fair and a cornerstone to President Bush’s initiative to bring more democracy to the Muslim world.

For the next 17 months, White House and State Department officials would undertake an all-out campaign to reverse those results and oust Hamas from power.

[Read more →]

BBC puns its way to the article, Good vibes power tiny generator:

A tiny generator powered by natural vibrations could soon be helping keep heart pacemakers working.

Created by scientists at the University of Southampton, the generator has been developed to power devices where replacing batteries is very difficult.

In pacemakers, the generator would be powered by heartbeats and body movement. You can read more at the project’s site, Vibration Energy Scavenging [VIBES].

MSNBC notes that Affair with iPhone cools when handset breaks

Falling in lust with an expensive device like the iPhone sets owners up for a hard fall if it stops working. I know, because mine died after only four days into our relationship.

As a general rule heat kills electronics. No matter what the device is, if it is uncomfortably hot to the touch, it will fail. If you think it is too hot, deal with it immediately, because it isn’t going to get better. Equipment cooling degrades after extensive use, so if it’s hot when new, it will only get hotter. It should be warm in use, not hot.