Posts from — July 2008

… like a poodle and a pant leg [sorry, heraldry joke].

The BBC reports that some say the Iran missile test ‘provocative’

The US and Israel have condemned Iran after it test-fired a long range missile capable of reaching Israel.

Iran state media said nine missiles were tested in total, including a new Shahab-3, with a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles).

Iran has tested the missile before, but the latest launch comes amid rising tensions with the US and Israel over the country’s nuclear programme.

US Under-secretary of State William Burns said the test was “provocative”.

The BBC reported earlier Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’

Israel has carried out an exercise that appears to have been a rehearsal for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, US officials have told the New York Times.

More than 100 Israeli fighter jets took part in manoeuvres over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece in the first week of June, US officials said.

I don’t remember Mr. Burns calling that “provocative”.

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Here’s a list of the real Americans and patriots in the Senate. These are the people who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law. These are the people who don’t believe the government should have an unfettered right to spy on you.

These people voted no on the FISA bill:

There are no Presidential candidates on this list.

Position: 25.5 N 58.9 W. [10 PM CDT] Updated
Movement: Northwest [315°] near 12 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 105 mph.
Wind Gusts: 125 mph.
Hurricane Wind Radius: 30 miles.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 970 mb.

After weakening yesterday, Bertha is again over warmer water and reduced wind shear, so strengthening is occurring. The steering is still not certain, so Bermuda will still be on alert.

At 4 PM CDT Bertha is back to Category 2 status, but higher wind shear and cooler water is ahead on the current track.

At 10 PM they are projecting a return to Category 3 tomorrow and the turn more to the North continues.

He just does it to make the Shrubbery’s kids look bad.  First Prince Harry joins the Army. Then he goes into a combat zone. Now the BBC reports Prince Harry is helping to refurbish a special needs school in Lesotho.

The prince’s charity, Sentebale, is supporting the project at the only school of its kind in the African country, which caters for 43 children.

He has been joined by more than 20 colleagues from the Household Cavalry’s Blues and Royals regiment, in which he is a lieutenant, for the project.

Reporters watched the 23-year-old moving materials by wheelbarrow as he helped build a disabled access ramp.

The group are working to rebuild the Thuso Centre in the northern town of Butha Buthe, which caters for children with profound physical and mental disabilities.

There he is, on his own time, spending his own money, rebuilding a school for handicapped children. Is this any way for a child of wealth and privilege to act? He is just starting trouble, helping the less fortunate and getting dirty doing it.  It’s like having a former American President and First Lady building houses for poor people.

Class – some people are born with it, and others will never understand the concept.

On CBS you have a report on Ahmadinejad’s comments at a Muslim summit in Malaysia, Iran’s President Downplays War With U.S.

(AP) Iran’s president said Tuesday he did not see any possibility of a war between his country and the United States or Israel.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he believed Washington and Tel Aviv have been “focusing on propaganda and psychological war” against his country.

“I assure you that there won’t be any war in the future,” Ahmadinejad told a news conference during a visit to Malaysia for a summit of developing Muslim nations.

Very reasonable and non-hostile, too bad he might have some influence over parking tickets in Tehran and little else.

And then you have this CNN report of a statement from an official with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Iranian military warns U.S., Israel against attack

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While the White House staff did this, the State Department should have vetted it. This is incompetence suitable for a 4th world nation. The BBC reports that Bush sorry over Berlusconi insult

The White House has apologised to Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi for a briefing describing him as a political “amateur” who is “hated by many”.

The “insulting” biography was included in a press kit distributed to reporters travelling with President George W Bush to a meeting of world leaders in Japan.

He was “one of the most controversial leaders” of a country “known for governmental corruption and vice”.

Only last month, Mr Bush visited his old ally, calling him a “good friend”.

The four-page description of Mr Berlusconi had been taken from the Encyclopedia of World Biography.

Berlusconi has been around for a while and supplied troops to Mess-opotamia, so he isn’t some new figure on the scene.  He was out for a while, but the White House should have known who he was.  Plagerizing books when we pay people to supply short biographies of world leaders is grade school thinking.  There has to be a standard State Department briefing book on the G-8, and that should have been used.  Uncouth doesn’t begin to describe these people.

Position: 23.1 N 55.8 W. [10 PM CDT] Update
Movement: Northwest [310°] near 12 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph.
Wind Gusts: 95 mph.
Hurricane Wind Radius: 30 miles.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 985 mb.

Bertha is making the turn to the North and is over cooler water than yesterday, showing weakening. The threat to the US and Bermuda has lessened, but the steering isn’t certain.

4PM: Continued weakening over cooler water, and it is definitely turning.

Not much going on and my brain feels like mush.

Position: 20.8 N 52.8 W. [10 PM CDT] Updated
Movement: West-Northwest [300°] near 12 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 120 mph. [Category 3]
Wind Gusts: 150 mph.
Hurricane Wind Radius: 25 miles.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 115 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 952 mb.

Bertha went right by cat 2 to category 3, a major hurricane, but it is definitely moving more to the Northwest and slowing, so it may yet avoid the coast, but could be a problem for Bermuda.  It is a very tightly wound storm, as evidenced by the small hurricane wind field.  A Hurricane Hunter mission is planned for tomorrow.

July 7^th, 2005, London

BBC In Depth and the Wikipedia articles on the bombing.

Yes, the cycling race is on, started yesterday, and runs for three weeks. This is the year [again] when there absolutely, positively, unequivocally will not be a drug scandal [again].

Well, there are a lot of major riders who don’t seem to be available for this year’s tour, so maybe there has been some progress, but history doesn’t argue for that. History says that the teams will have figured out some way of avoiding getting caught doing whatever they are doing that they think will give them an edge. C’est la vie.

If you are someone who does care, you can check the official Le Tour de France site [in English], the BBC’s Cycling page, or NBC Sport’s Tour page.

At least we now know the real symbolism of the maillot jaune [yellow jersey]. It’s for all the drug tests you have to take.

Position: 18.6 N 48.9 W. [10 PM CDT] Updated
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 20 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph.
Wind Gusts: 75 mph.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 85 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb.

Bertha is slowly strengthening and has a bit more northernly motion this afternoon.  It is expected to reach hurricane force Monday, but should encounter higher wind shear in the next day or two which should limit further development.

Well this certainly inspires confidence, on MSNBC: Internet addressing agency loses its addresses

NEW YORK – This doesn’t sound good: The nonprofit agency in charge of the Internet’s addresses recently lost track of its own.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, said it happened when an Internet registration company it oversees got fooled into transferring the domain names to someone else.

The attack was quickly noticed, and ICANN’s domain names were restored within 20 minutes. However, because many Internet directories retain information for a day or two, visitors could have been redirected to an unauthorized site for longer.

You really have to wonder how this could happen. Why would anyone think ICANN would change it DNS or IP address?

On a lighter note: Rupert Goodwins of ZDNet.co.uk offers his list of the 10 most annoying programs on the Internet.

I only deal with 7 of them, and may be down to 6 if Adobe doesn’t stop with the upgrades.

I wonder what CNN sees as “defiant” in its article: Iran defiant on right to nuclear power

(CNN) — Iran’s government spokesman on Saturday reiterated its right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes, a state-run news agency reported.

Gholam-Hossein Elham made the remark to reporters a day after Iran delivered a response to a world powers proposal that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment in exchange for economic and other incentives, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

World leaders, such as those from the West, the U.N. Security Council and Israel, have been suspicious that Iran is using its nuclear program to develop weaponry. Iran has consistently disputed that and said it plans to use nuclear power for energy.

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