The BBC reports on the world’s newest republic: Nepal votes to abolish monarchy

The Himalayan nation of Nepal has become the world’s newest republic, ending 240 years of monarchy.

A constituent assembly meeting in the capital, Kathmandu, overwhelmingly voted to abolish royal rule.

The Maoists, the largest party after laying down arms and standing in last month’s elections, were committed to ousting King Gyanendra.

While it’s tough to lose a family business that has been chugging along for over two centuries, the fact that in 2001 Crown Prince Dipendra killed his parents and a half dozen other members of the royal family in a drunken rage, which resulted in Gyanendra having to take over a job he knew nothing about, did not bode well for the future.

When it works HaloScan is a great commenting system.  There are times when I’m dealing with comment spam that I would love to install it in this place.

However, there are days, like today, when it is a major PITA.  The sites that use it are not loading, because it isn’t loading.  If you do get them loaded, you have to save your comments for later.

When it works, it is great… when it works.

Moi at Bloggg has had to say goodbye to her friend of twenty years: Feak 1989-2008.

Feak was a fluffy blue with an attitude.

Today I received a “phishing” attempt from the real scum of the earth. Their “phlounder” was contained in an e-mail designed to look like a news flash from CNN about the Chinese earthquake. While the e-mail trace goes back to a Taiwan server, the links go to a Romanian site.

Actually this looks more like an attempt to infect your computer with a Trojan, than a real “phishing expedition”, but it’s sleaze from the bottom of the Mariana Trench.