today

The two new tracks between Borivili and Virar are finally ready for Mumbaikars. Officially the lines are to be thrown open on July 7.

The new lines have been activated with 25,000 volts of alternate current instead of the traditional 1,500 volts direct current, which means anyone who comes within 2 metres of the overhead wires will supposedly be instantly pulled towards them and get electrocuted.

It is likely that during the monsoon trains will run with restricted speeds and initially only outstation trains will ply on the new tracks.

About 1,500 people had to be evacuated from their homes in suburban Mumbai from near the banks of the Mithi river as the water rose to dangerous levels. At least five persons were killed in Mumbai, three of whom were washed away in the floods, while neighbouring Thane recorded three deaths, of which two died due to electrocution. Asia’s largest slums at Dharavi in the city were submerged while there were reports of several wall collapses. Officials also said there had been four deaths each in Ratnagiri and Satara districts. The situation could worsen with the meteorological department predicting heavy rains on Sunday as well.

It seems the so-called 'bombs' could not have exploded Some bunch of drunks, cheap teenagers or the like, had apparently crashed cars outside a nightclub full of insurance brokers, gullible tourists on a company-paid-for spree, etc.

The Register say, possibly correctly: "Why is this such big news? Because clowns have got to be passed off as terrorists. Because a vast industry depends on terrorists, real and imagined, to justify its existence. We live now in the grip of the security-industrial complex, and that hungry beast demands to be fed. We feed it money hand over fist, and in return, it feeds us fear biscuits, which we are expected to accept with gratitude." "As we all should know, the local Al-Quaeda branches can't fit under every bush on the street because of the hundreds of paedophiles already lurking there!"

IMO: There are two big bus stops near there, and certainly action should have been taken to ensure nobody was injured by the combustibles. I think I have carried more dangerous stuff in my car, though of course I had reason and I didn't crash it. But a meaningful terror incident ? Hardly, AFAIK. If there really is an incident, we are on the way to nobody caring. [Some said: They are even killing the sacred cows to be on the safe side so nobody has a chance any more. We are all lucky to be still alive with this foul behaviour of the authorities].

Lawyers for a Carmarthenshire-based Hindu group have set out the monks' legal case under human rights laws.

It is two months since the six-year-old black Friesian tested positive for bovine TB during a routine screening. But these routine tests seem only intended to be designed to save Welsh farmers money and not to protect individual livestock from indiscriminate slaughter.

Further tests suggest there are other remedies for those who value life.

Brother Michael, from the Hindu group, said its solicitors had now written to Ms Davidson to set out their position "in relation to the Human Rights Act".

"And we have sent a detailed set of proposals on a simple systematic approach of how we would further test, isolate and treat Shambo," he said. "We are hopeful the minister will take time to look at what the solicitors have laid out and realise we are outside the farming model - none of our animals enter the food chain."

There is a video of the vet's report here, and this exempts Shambo from slaughter too.

TERNI, Italy, June 29 (UPI): Italian experts test JFK assassination gun. Italian weapons experts say tests on the type of rifle used to kill U.S. President John F. Kennedy show assassin Lee Harvey Oswald could not have acted alone. Kennedy's landmark domestic initiatives, passed with modest adjustments after his death, were a civil-rights bill and a major tax reduction to stimulate the economy.

The Warren Commission report concluded that Oswald fired three shots with a Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle in 7 seconds to kill Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. However, tests supervised by the Italian Army showed it would take 19 seconds to get off three shots with that type of gun, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. The tests were done in a former Carcano factory in Terni.
In one test, a bullet was fired through two large pieces of meat to simulate the assumed path of a shot that the Warren Commission concluded struck Texas Gov. John Connally after passing through Kennedy's body. In the test, the bullet ended deformed, while the bullet in the Kennedy assassination remained intact. Conspiracy theories about the assassination have been circulating for more than four decades.

IMO: If correct and important, it certainly took them a long time to find this out, bearing in mind all the publicity already.

According to the UK 'Daily Mail' and many other sources, it seems that judges appointed by President Bush have recently tried to destroy the Kennedy anti-discrimination law, which looks to be still essential in the US for its own stability. Obviously, outside the US, Bush leaves the impression of being an incompetent, corrupt, and ill-advised President. Some say "if it quacks like a duck ....". Maybe we will found out in time, maybe not. If US is really left with a Bush legacy of corrupt judges, and in a minor key the long succession of UK corrupt, alleged pedophile and mad judges have still left a bad legacy in the UK, this bad US Bush legacy may turn out to be hard to remove.

What's more, his new Middle East job will not give him diplomatic immunity, according to Guido.

IMO: Far East comments suggest the Mid-East job may be just a sinecure. It is certainly true that many people have said that the "roadmap" was never intended seriously by Bush anyway, and that things have got so much worse by now that that sort of thing looks not just 'unlikely' but 'totally unrealistic'. Bolton's current views really amount to the idea that the roadmap concept should essentially be disgarded, AFAIK.

Singur and Nandigram are the twin issues that have shaken the Marxists like never before. The new strategy is to watch how whatever initiatives the state government and the CPI-M leadership take to mollify the rural population backfire.

The Trinamul’s Mr Saugata Roy said the Opposition had exposed the state government’s “Machiavellian” design at Singur and kept the police and CPI-M goons at bay in Nandigram. “We are with the rural people wherever the state government goes about implementing its anti-farmer industrial policy. The agitation that we launched can’t be organised everyday. It has gained natural momentum and we will replicate our model when necessary,” Mr Roy said.

Also Banerjee expressed her solidarity with the agitating farmers at Purushottampur in Asansol stating that the Krishijami Raksha Committee members would proceed there to take stock of the situation. She also charged the state government with closing down the tea gardens and promoting real estate business instead of trying to revive those.

IMO: HDIL is involved in new SEZ attempts in the Vasai-Virar district and say. "The company has received an in-principle approval for a multi-services SEZ in the Vasai-Virar sub -region. The State Government recommendation and other processes are on line now. We will venture into that as and when policies are cleared." Clearly there are SEZs and SEZs. I do not yet know of public opinion on this one at any length. Vasai is now much more of a dormitory town for Mumbai than it was, and the average Vasaiker seems to be more concerned with WR tardiness (supposed to improve by month end with quadrupling alleged completion then) and the horrible electricity shortage, sometimes only an hour or two a day - and I have heard of simple insults by the authorities in reply to any complaints - and the electricity situation is much worse on this side of Vasai creek. Maybe the plans for the Vasai-Nalasopara-Virar tramlink will help things transportwise, but how do we know and when.

28 Jun, 2007 LUCKNOW: BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday announced that her trusted lieutenant and Brahmin mascot of the party Satish Chandra Mishra will quit her cabinet in two months and will return to the Rajya Sabha. The buzz in Lucknow is that Mishra might eventually be inducted into the Union council of ministers as a trade-off with the Congress for BSP’s support to UPA’s presidential candidate Pratibha Patil in the event of BSP formally joining UPA.

Mishra was instrumental in wooing Brahmin votes for BSP that helped Mayawati dislodge Mulayam Singh Yadav in the assembly polls. Mishra is facing a controversy over his relatives being accommodated in important posts in Mayawati's Government.

Overall we now have the situation that Pratibha Patil's support cannot improve the image of leftist parties at least for now.

Left parties have, justifiably, prided themselves on two attributes: probity in public life and a secular, modern outlook that takes a particularly dim view of public religiosity. It cannot then be a very comfortable experience for these stalwarts to be confronted with growing evidence that the UPA’s presidential candidate appears to fail the test on both counts. As if Pratibha Patil’s opinion on Mughal rulers and veiled women was not bad enough, now come stories of dodgy banks, dodgy loans and dodgier relatives. There are even ghosts riding the swirling dust of the presidential election process: Pratibha Patil’s reported conversation with her long dead guru during a visit to the Brahma Kumari sect at Mount Abu. Also, with Thackeray as an apparent ally, the left may have a lot to think about.

Revelations that a co-operative bank set up by Pratibha Patil in Maharashtra was delicensed because of financial irregularities has put the Congress on the backfoot.

An international group of researchers, including two Bangalore neuroscientists, has identified an enzyme that causes the syndrome called Fragile X and successfully reverses its symptoms in mice. It’s the chief cause of mental retardation, and in some cases, a known cause of autism. Scientists say we can hope to expect similar results in human beings in five years.

IMO: Decent enough popular summary of work here.

Under the rationing plan, owners of private cars can buy only 100 litres (26 gallons) of petrol a month at the subsidised price of 1,000 rials per litre (0.049p) [I am pretty sure the Guardian is wrong - it often is - and that is nearer 10 cents a litre]. Taxis can get 800 litres a month at the subsidised rate.

The free market price is expected to go up to US 50-70 cents. This is still cheap by international standards.

Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and must import about 40 percent of its gasoline. Imports are a big burden on state coffers. It would be best if the USA tried to work with Iran to help it to reduce its own relative poverty level and raise its standard of living, rather than to force it into corners in an attempt to appease Israel, so it has to be bombed again. Appeasement - that is a word I have heard before.

IMO: Good for Mr Ahmadinejad and I hope he continues to adhere to his brave social principles, and to discipline the louts if they burn down his petrol stations. Those louts could even be CIA-inspired, directly or quite indirectly. We may yet hear the Internationale in Iran.

JUN 26: The BJP on Tuesday contended that it would review its 22-year-old alliance with its ideological partner—Shiv Sena—in the backdrop of the Sena ditching NDA in the presidential election.

“It’s just and simple deal with Congress, according to which, former Sena leader Narayan Rane (now in Congress) would not be appointed chief minister of Maharasthra ever,” BJP general secretary and a leader from Maharashtra, Gopinath Munde said.

In the meantime, the UPA-Left Presidential nominee Pratibha Patil has claimed she had a "divine premonition" of greater responsibility coming her way.

IMO: I'd sooner trust a "divine premonition" (if any) of Thackeray (pictured above) than that of Pratibha Patil. But anyway, let's see what happens next.

The Prince of Wales received a £1.1 million pay rise last year, according to the Catholic inspired UK 'Daily Telegraph'. Be that as it may, as a UK taxpayer, in a country ruled by a so-called 'Labor' Government, I wonder how long we are expected to pay these costs inflicted upon us for no clear reason.

I bear in mind the fact that the present Government appears to have placed the continued rationale of any meaning at all for the Monarchy under real doubt, as already made clear by the B.N.P. I certainly do not want to pay for yet more 'spin'. Surely the Charles/Diana marriage should have said it all for that, anyway. Sponging nobility will no longer do, and Charles himself ought to be aware of this..

The UK Extradition Act (2003) is total crap. I have said this since 2003.

Anyone can see that I certainly hold no brief in any sense for BAE and its doings. God knows 'uncle' Edwards was bad enough. But hopefully such matters will be enough to persuade Gordon Brown to do the right thing for this country and send the Extradition Act (2003) down the drain, largely. Anyway, I think he might have to do "something".

June 26: India is rushing a contingent of para-military commandos to Afghanistan to beef up security of its personnel engaged in reconstruction work there in view of increase in Taliban activity. At least 134 highly trained ITBP commandos will be dispatched.

The decision to send additional commandos was taken in response to a recent SOS from BRO, which is engaged in construction of the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway, a strategic road that will connect Kandahar to Iran border.

M K Kutty, a driver with the BRO, was kidnapped and brutally killed by Taliban in November 2005. The Taliban had then demanded that India end its reconstruction operations in Afghanistan failing which others will meet the same fate.

IMO: It seems to me that the Taliban is supplied in Afghanistan by Iran, and this began mainly after the continued offensives by the US, UK and EU. They are supposed to be there also to rebuild Afghanistan and that does appear to be true, except when the Taliban, supplied by Iran, get it the way. The foolish looking thing seems to be that for the moment India, like Yerevan, are as good as an ally to Iran and in fact the roadworks being built by India clearly and very directly favor Iran !

Due to security and related issues, the estimated cost of the Zaranj-Delaram road project, targeted to be completed by May next year, has almost doubled from Rs 377 crore to Rs 730 crore. After additional ITBP commandos start work, the cost of the project is expected to go up to Rs 746.50 crore. The Delaram to Zaranj will shorten the distance from Kabul to Iran's port of Chahbahar by about 800 km. Nearly, two-third of the work has been completed, the sources said, adding construction is now going on in areas having substantial Taliban presence.

But, there may be another angle !

India on Monday accused "vested interests" for scuttling New Delhi's role in rebuilding war-ravaged Afghanistan. Expressing concern over the resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan, Defence Minister A K Antony said, "Certain vested interests are trying to scuttle our role in rebuilding Afghanistan. We are committed to support this process and help Afghanistan emerge as a stable, democratic state," the defence minister said.

IndiaDefence take this to be a veiled reference to Pakistan. Probably this has to be considered. I would have thought it is basically due to the bankrupt 'Punjabistan' as Pakistan really no longer exists as a nation. 'Punjabistan' depends on its resources from the US and Arabia. If a peaceful SAFTA accord can be reached, then these problems should start to disappear.

One hopes that these matters may be eased by any Chennai talks. The ageing Nimitz is an ally, supposedly, of India. The US needs sensible and realistic allies, preferably on fairly good terms with Iran, in the area.

After Singur and Nandigram, now it is Purushottampur.

OutlookIndia say: The faster Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wants to hurtle down the path to industrialization, the more ferocious the opposition to his plans. And the latest row--over acquiring land at Purushottampur near Asansol for expansion of a public sector steel plant there--provides yet another example of the sheer ineptness and lack of preparedness on the part of government officials and the ruling Marxists.

June 25, 2007: Like I said some time ago was likely, Bajaj Auto today said it was developing a concept for a small car but ruled out being a competitor to Tata's much touted Rs one lakh car.

IMO: Sounds interesting.

Gordon Brown showed his ruthless streak last night by dumping Leftie Harriet Harman into a non-job MINUTES after she became Labour’s deputy leader. Instead, Mr Brown told the party faithful she will become Labour chairman. He cannot afford to give Ms Harman a powerful role because of her Leftie views.

Also, she and her husband Dromey exposed the £14mn loans for peerages matter. There must be plenty more there to expose, such as Brown's own Charity fraud. I am further a little puzzled still about her own need, and what her financial involvement is, in borrowing £10,000 to obtain deputy leadership. We've heard that kind of thing before.

The problem is that Brown might be lucky to have anyone as suitable as Harman, bearing in mind his other choices. At least she must be better than Prescott.

There is also the NHS, still in bad shape and even more corrupt than it was, I think. In fairness to Harman there are a lot of problems, for example the new MRSA report by the respected Soil Association, a new and very pressing problem, especially bearing in mind how Brown's PFI has buggered such hospitals as Hampstead Royal Free with existing MRSA problems. I noticed myself how dirty the hospitals were since PFI, following a brief sojourn therein.

From Brown's POV, and probably the country's, an early election does not seem advisable

IMO: I still really do not feel I could favour the new words, to the tune of 'YMCA'. "You'll all get MRSA, You'll all get MRSA, You can't get yourselves clean, You can't have a good meal, You can't do whatever you feel..." etc. etc. As Harman says, at least Brown is better than Cameron.

In Mumbai the monsoon rains left behind a trail of water-logged roads as air and train services were delayed, and five people were killed in separate incidents of building collapse. Several parts of Lower Parel and Lalbaug, in central Mumbai, and areas like Andheri and Juhu in the south were water logged due to the incessant rains.

The met office said south Mumbai received 200 mm rain since Saturday evening. The suburbs recorded over 55 mm rain.

Rain also caused devastation in Sangli in western Maharashtra, where scores of mud huts have been washed away and one person was killed by lightning. In Nasik, four people died after being struck by lightning.

Mumbai and neighbouring areas bore the brunt of the monsoon fury that claimed five lives in the last 24 hours and the weather office said "heavy to very heavy" rains accompanied by gusty winds will continue to hit the metropolis.

Several flights from the city were delayed and rail traffic disrupted. A partially demolished building collapsed in the Grant Road area in south Mumbai last evening killing two persons, while three persons died in two incidents of wall collapse on Sunday.

Eleven crew members of a barge carrying sponge iron were reported missing after it sank at the Khanderi island in neighbouring Raigad district, police said.

The Met department has forecast heavy rains and thunder showers for the next 48 hours in Mumbai and its suburbs. When contacted the Mayor, Dr Shubha Raul, said, "The situation is under control and wherever we expected that water would log, we made necessary arrangements. We have set about 200 pumps all over Mumbai which will soak water and will be thrown in the adjacent nullahs ."

Bryan Appleyard reviews Tipler's latest book, "The Physics of Christianity" in the "Philadelpia Inquirer" on 10 June, 2007. Appleyard's summary includes: "the experimentally based physics to which Tipler refers predicts a singularity - a point at which all known laws of physics break down and to which, therefore, our science has no access - from which the universe sprang. There is a further singularity at the end of the universe and a third joining the two. This is the Holy Trinity. The first singularity, says Tipler, is God the Father, the second God the Holy Ghost, and the third God the Son. The last, because of his role as the singularity that runs alongside the present, is able to appear in human history."

IMO: I have not read the book but I have read other books by Tipler and I believe I appreciate the thrust of his argument. I'm fairly aware Appleyard is a confirmed sceptic and I think I take that into account, generally speaking. Given that, Tipler is probably still doing damage to established religion by expressing the view that this sort of hokum has any actual value. What people want are ideas. And preferably ideas, to which in substance, we can apply Occam's razor or other reasonable and apparently at least in principle trusted tools. Not entirely. I give bookshelf space to Jung, Eliade, etc. and likewise to the Mahabharata, the Bible, and the Koran. The authors of these books have tried real hard. I give space to Dale Carnegie. He tried hard, too. But honestly, Tipler doesn't cut it, IMO. It would be nice if he did, but he deserves no shibboleth or 'in crowd' status. As yet, and I suppose he could improve, he is out there with the 'crop circles' guys and the "Flying saucers have landed" brigades. A pity.

22 Jun 2007: App-free Windows coming to a poor community near you...

IT professionals wishing to do their bit for charity – could install Windows XP, Works 7.0, or Office XP Standard as one bundled package on old computers. Installed machines would then be donated to an "eligible charitable organisation" or an "MS specifically approved recipient". Hospitals, schools, and other community groups across the world have benefited from the scheme since its inception, while Bill Gates satisfied his altruistic itch.

Microsoft decided to scrap Office as of 27 June 2007, citing "legal reasons", and had already announced plans to remove Works 7.0 back in April this year and had requested that refurbishers send back all stock by 31 July at the latest.

Allegedly this could leave "lots of small charities high and dry and poor users are being excluded from the system and computers are losing a valid second life".

IMO: That sounds like Microsoft, all right. Give a little and then charge like there is no tomorrow. But surely OpenOffice is better than those applications and is totally free, also it is nonMicrosoft. Also, lots of people use Ubuntu, which apparently derives from Debian Linux, is said to be tolerably user-friendly and is actually used by Michael Dell for his personal use, which perhaps says it all. I do not favor Linux much yet, but it is now the norm in many Indian schools, for example in Kerala, where modern mathematics was invented, though I should think that Europeans want to believe everything was invented in the Holy Roman Empire.

And here it is: "Under centuries old British Constitutional legislation our sovereign, as the title implies, can hold no allegiance to anyone except to the people of the UK – which is why, obviously, he or she is sovereign! In fact the sovereign is expressly forbidden in our Constitutional Statutes to subordinate himself or herself to any foreign power or person – as, indeed, are all subjects of the sovereign. For a subject of our sovereign to usurp our sovereignty by recognising the precedence of a foreign power or entity over our sovereign, by signing a treaty that recognises the precedence of a foreign power or entity over our sovereign, is to commit treason. In addition a British sovereign who owes allegiance to any power, by claiming to be a subject of that power for instance, will have committed treason against the British people and, in doing so, have abdicated as sovereign! You cannot have a sovereign who is a subject of anybody or anything, within our constitutional law! The constitutional minefield that the media is apparently desperate to avoid walking into can be summed up in a single question: How can Her Majesty claim to be “sovereign” when all the evidence suggests that her official status is that of a citizen of the legal foreign entity currently calling itself the European Union – which at some stage will morph into the United States of Europe? "

Also, William Hague says "When you examine the small print, it is clear his so-called safeguards have no legal guarantees at all."

IMO: Right now would be a bad time to have a referendum, and in the longer term it may not be needed. Brown seems to have so far behaved quite wisely, though not always scrupulously. We can hope he can deal with the Blair legacy and consolidate his own position, without acting like a Tory on the one hand or a weak trade Union stooge on the other [someone said:"or by going on a killing rampage like Toady did']. So far he has negotiated this position reasonably well. Things like the EU always bring an element of hardship and it is hoped that this will not increase. India is having its own problems with SAFTA which may be starting to work with Bangladesh (which admittedly is rather unwanted in SAFTA in the short term, but India is still India, even after partition and in the longer term all may work very well, with a free trade area).

Lucknow, June 23: The youngest to clear the Class X exams, Sushma left for Shirdi with her father yesterday to seek the blessings of Sai Baba. Confirming that her daughter had not received the mark sheet as yet, Tej Bahadur, a gardener, said Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad, which conducts the UP Board Class X exams, has been withholding it.

However, secretary of the UP Board, in a letter to the Lucknow district inspector of schools (DIOS), has asked him to explain how Sushma was allowed to appear for the high school examinations. Initially, the Parishad it made Sushma over 100 years old by mentioning her year of birth on the hall ticket as 1900. When the mistake was discovered, it was changed to 1990 - still making her 10 years older than she really is.

IMO: Soon these people will reach the high level of competence of the UK NHS, and probably fix the the poor girl's age as 1007 years. At that age she will probably qualify for a job with the Parishad.

Mamata Banerjee says Kalam is her first choice, but he is unlikely to stand for another term, failing which she would possbly have to support Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Yet, political circles feel that it will be a tough choice for Mamata Banerjee not to support a woman candidate, when she has always fought the fight for women empowerment from the front.

To some, presidential nominee Pratibha Patil is still looking like just a governor of Rajasthan, more a staunch loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

She is accused of shielding her brother who is charged with murdering a man in 2005 and alleging that a sugar factory owned by her owed huge sums of money to a cooperative bank. Usual sleaze allegations in short, but sadly such allegations are sometimes true.

Shiv Sena, which stands to lose an ally as much as the Congress in the event of a realignment of political forces, has come out in support of 73 year old Pratibha Patil. “In politics, such allegations are only to be expected,” Bal Thackeray said, virtually giving a clean chit to the first presidential candidate from Maharashtra.

Bear Stearns is caught in subprime mortgages slime, so far assuming 3.2 billion $ in bad mortgage debt.. ``The problem is not what we see happening, but what we don't see,'' said Joseph Mason, associate professor of finance at Drexel University in Philadelphia and co-author of an 84-page study this year on the CDO market. ``We don't know the price of these assets. We don't know which banks are exposed to this sector. These conditions are the classic conditions for financial crises across history.''

For a start we know one such bank. Barclay's allegedly has at least 300 million $ Bear Stearns exposure. “The big worry is: Are there other funds like this out there? Are whole markets going to seize up?” said James Ellman, who says (or hopes) it is not so.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, "I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person." Not that Gates' predecessor -- net-centric drum-beater-in-chief Donald Rumsfeld -- was any better. He never figured out how to get "on the e-mail," either.

Well, apparently Toady B. Liar's Govt "didn't do religion" according to Alastair Campbell. Now apparently B. Liar is thinking of taking Holy Orders or something. The implication is that his political processes have basically been partially determined by the Catholic Church but the voters were not officially told, or many non Catholics (the vast majority of people in the UK) would not have voted for him. Maybe it is about time that some of these old guys moved into the 21st century. Their minds are too much on the brown bags full of $$$ and too little on their public duties, it seems.

IMO: The Taliban are doing emails all the time, and they are experts on God, too, at least in the minds of the otherwise unenlightened. Who's winning?? Look at Iraq and decide.

The new type of aircraft, currently on the drawing board, could be far more efficient than conventional aircraft, produce less greenhouse emissions, and be quieter.

A superconducting motor would be very lightweight and far more efficient electrically, generating three times the torque of a conventional electric motor for the same energy input and weight. In addition, an electric aircraft would be far quieter than a conventional jet as there are no internal combustion processes involved.

Liquid hydrogen could be used to run an electric fuel cell. Liquid hydrogen is cold enough to make the superconducting magnets work but also has four times as much energy weight for weight than aviation fuel. The team is now looking for an industrial partner to build a prototype of the superconducting "turbofan". Allegedly "The technology is there."

IMO: There may not be any fundamental reason why this will not work, but there could be a lot of development problems. For example they say "The energy needed to produce the liquid hydrogen could come from a remote powerplant". Such a powerplant might be solar or wind powered, but we are left with a lot of things that could work, but in actual practice are not working yet. Possibly OK if sufficient incentive is assumed.

Tony Blair is planning to announce that he will convert to Roman Catholicism soon after he meets the Pope at the Vatican tomorrow, according to Church sources and friends of the British Prime Minister.

Blair's wife Cherie is a Roman Catholic, the couple's children have attended Catholic schools and Blair habitually attends Catholic rather than Anglican services. In 1996, a year before he became prime minister, he was admonished by the late Cardinal Basil Hume to stop receiving communion at Mass because he was not a Catholic.

IMO: On the face of it, that implies that Blair has considerable naivety - any fool knows he shouldn't have been taking communion in those circumstances, although you can argue that he is such a pukka sahib, normal church rules do not apply to the likes of him.

Friends say he studies both the Bible and the Koran daily, and much of his political philosophy has been influenced by the social teachings of the Church.

IMO: God help us all. But I suppose we might have guessed.

Others say: "But what is in it for him? The answer, I think, is terribly simple: Tony Blair no more believes in the Church of England than the Pope does. He has always wanted to sign up with the biggest and most powerful gang around, and Roman Catholicism is a big, serious, organised religion. Apparently, his chief of staff once told an ambassador to Washington to "get up the arse of the White House and stay there". One might hope Blair's relationship with the Pope will be rather different, but in the end I think it is true that something of the same impulses led him to Rome as led him to invade Iraq: he wants to be on the side of the angels - the biggest, baddest angels he can find."

Mr Blair is reported as asking his confidant Father Timothy Russ about a possible conversion: "Would this be possible?" He was told: "It usually takes two or three years", to which he replied: "The fact that I'm PM, could this make a difference?"

IMO: That sums it up.

With no publicity or public consultation, or any interest from the mainstream media, and no debate or scrutiny from Members of Parliament, the access of members of the General Public to meet with and lobby and observe their elected Members of Parliament and the unelected Lords has been further reduced as of 1st June 2007.

Protected against what, exactly ? Not against terrorists, since many other laws would already apply. Presumably the protection is against otherwise peaceful demonstrators, with the collateral damage side effect, of further restricting the rights of the general public, even when they are not demonstrating or protesting peacefully.

June 19, 2007 -- A probe of the upper echelons of the human brain's chain-of-command has found strong evidence that there are not one but two complementary commanders in charge of the brain, according to neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
These two 'commanders' do not consult one another but act toward a common puspose — control of voluntary, goal-oriented behavior. This includes a vast range of activities from reading a word to searching for a star to singing a song, but likely does not include involuntary behaviors such as control of the pulse rate or digestion.

For example, on rare occasions patients with brain injuries will develop behaviors that are stimulus-bound: Every time they encounter a particular stimulus, they respond exactly the same way. One man with a brain injury started undressing everytime he saw a bed, regardless of whether it was in a furniture store or his own bedroom.

It is done using MRI scans (mainly Raichle's work) and graph theory, which is a bit like category theory.

Petersen cites body temperature, which is regulated by several independent factors including sweat glands, metabolism and activity level. When one controlling factor goes awry, others can try to compensate for it. Having established that two control networks existed, researchers turned back to their functional brain scans for insight into the networks' roles. One network, dubbed the cinguloopercular network, was linked to a "sustain" signal. In contrast, the frontoparietal network was consistently active at the start of mental tasks and during the correction of errors.

IMO: The approach to these problems is extremely interesting. For a long time I have felt that complex system theory may lead to more detailed enlightenment on the brain's behaviour, and I am providing some material when at the Salzburg and Budapest conferences next month. I do think that many fundamental apects of theory of consciousness could also do with reviewing, nice current popular references by Chalmers here, and all these views are so readily overturnable.

The UK Express said: A ban on a teenage girl wearing a "purity ring" was attacked at the High Court as an "unlawful interference" with her right to express her Christian faith.

Lydia Playfoot, 16, is one of a group of Christians at the Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, who wears the ring engraved with a Biblical verse as a sign of their belief in abstinence from sex until marriage.

Human rights barrister Paul Diamond, appearing for Lydia, argued that the secular school authorities had no right to set themselves up as arbiters of faith and "cannot rule on religious truth".

IMO: As I have said before, this country has no proper balance on religious matters any longer. The secularists need not fear that the admission that some people believe in religion will automatically do harm. There's a good case that this is the opposite of the truth. Even so-called 'Dirty Des' of the highly successful 'Northern and Shell', and the 'Daily Express', can see that.

[Somebody just said: What do these people like anyway ? Drinking, Smoking, Gambling, Womanising, Slaughtering Animals: That is what they seem to like, I suppose. If someone has worn a ring for some purpose, they don't seem to like it. A very strange 'School'. Looks like nothing good is allowed in the UK. Just murder, fraud, bribery, torture and nonsensical and useless politicians.]

The physician-couple who showed off their 15-year-old son performing a Caesarean surgery in a bid to get him entry into the Guiness Book of World Records on Thursday faced the wrath of the Tamil Nadu government.

Tamil Nadu health secretary V K Subburaj said Dhileepan's parents must have been training him in the ‘art' for quite sometime, Subburaj said: "How do you expect a small boy to act like an expert surgeon? I don't know how many patients he'd operated upon in the past."

There is a CD somewhere, it could go down well on U-tube. Quite scary.

IMO: That's Trichy for you! I thought they would go beyond shaving cats one day.

With the induction of the 290 km range (at 2.8 times the speed of sound) BrahMos terrain-hugging missile, the Indian Army became the first force in the world to be armed with surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missiles that would provide a tactical battle edge to the army. BrahMos Aerospace was to kickoff the delivery of the missile system in July 2008, but the Indian-Russian joint venture has beaten that deadline quite comfortably and set the stage for working on a hypersonic version capable of flying at up to eight times the speed of sound. "I visualise long range hypersonic cruise missiles not only delivering pay loads, but also returning to base after the mission" Kalam said.

The US, French and Chinese armies have only subsonic cruise missiles in their armoury. India has already inducted ship-borne version of the BrahMos missile and defence scientists are working on developing submarine and aircraft launched version of the missile.

The army plans to induct three missile batteries, each with four road mobile autonomous launchers, to raise its first BrahMos regiment. The government has approved three BrahMos regiments.

IMO: It seems to be a properly developed missile and could have useful implications in many areas including space technology.

Now Japan and India join the EU and Antigua in demanding US compensation. Mainstream media across the world is reporting on demands for compensation by World Trade Organisation member nations against the United States this week, the result of the unprecedented US decision to withdraw decades long trade commitments in order to maintain its protectionist online gambling policies.

A lawsuit has now been filed against the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which was surreptitiously passed last year and signed into law by the president.

The methods of the US dispute on softwood lumber are very much like the article that describes US methods in the gambling dispute. If the international bodies overseeing trade agreements find against the US the U.S. just refuses to comply.

Why is it still legal to gamble in huge number of Casino's in the US, and moreover why is online purchasing of goods (more at risk from online fraud than online gambling is) still legal!? If this bill was so righteous and correct - why in hell did it get attached to the back end of the Port Security act and whipped through the houses without anyone even seeing it!?

Unfortunately the EU are as bad as USA, all sinking in the same boat.as NGOs denounce EU pressure over new African Trade deals. And certainly no sensible person should want UK casinos, are we down to the level of blowing them up ?

Quite a reasonable but complicated article in The Register.

IMO: USA is behaving like the so-called 'axis of evil' in suggesting something is wrong, gambling in this case, and I heartily agree that it is wrong, possibly immoral, and like cigarette smoking, almost cerainly needs proper control in some way. But then the US goes on and tries to make money out of banning internet gambling, whilst keeping it legal in Las Vegas ! So far from being moral, its leaders are simply hypocrites as we probably already know. These US criminals are like the Taliban, who imposed undue hardships in the name of morals and in doing so rankly defiled the faith of Holy Islam.What's the answer? Well, first of all - not to use rather undesirable activities like gambling to try to regain control of the internet and make dirty profits for their 'big entrepreneurs' (aka 'big crooks') from the suffering of US citizens and others.

Wealthy nickers boss Joseph Corré, the son of Vivien Westwood, turns down MBE offer.

It seems he said: “I have been chosen by an organisation headed by a Prime Minister who I find morally corrupt, who has been involved in organised lying to the point where thousands of people, including children, have suffered death, detention and torture in Afghanistan and Iraq. Furthermore, against this backdrop we are to have our hard-fought civil liberties eroded as a consequence. Don’t forget Jean Charles de Menezes [the Brazilian shot dead by police at Stockwell Underground station on suspicion of being a terrorist] or our rights to habeas corpus.”

Good reading from the Daily Telegraph, eh ? And such a pity that Toady B. Liar is actually no worse than the Tories, who lied and swindled just as much when they had a chance.

This paves the way for the rejection of ALL awards from the Westminster Govt, which is known to be steeped in corruption.

IMO: It is getting to the point where fringe persons, such as common tradesmen, nonwhites and the transgendered, are starting to lose rather than gain credibility by accepting awards or status from such Governments. And for the gays, Peter Mandelson for example is hardly fitter for 'envy' than Burgess, Blunt or Maclean - in those cases, their stance could at least call for a sort of lefthanded respect, even if their apparent political views were not shared.

Iran has stepped up its protest over the knighthood awarded by Britain to Salman Rushdie, whose 1988 novel The Satanic Verses outraged many Muslims. Iran's foreign ministry summoned the UK ambassador in Tehran and said the knighthood was a "provocative act". Pakistan voiced similar protests, telling the UK envoy in Islamabad the honour showed the British government's "utter lack of sensitivity". Britain denied that the award was intended to insult Islam.

When Rushdie's "The Moor's Last Sigh" came out, I was in Mumbai, staying a couple of hundred yards away from Shiv Sena headquarters. Now that book of Rushdie's was in fact banned in Mumbai, and I felt almost instinctive sympathy for its ban for various perhaps rather recondite reasons. For example, I have always had a genuine but tangential interest in undertakers of all sorts and their views, having considered the purchase of a mortuary in North London and for other reasons, and also a deep, genuine abiding interest in religion of all sorts - as well as in the lack of it.. The conclusion that many people had was that the ban in Mumbai may have had political motives. In actual fact I read the book, and could not make out the motives in that way. Still less could I see much merit in taking the trouble to read it in the first place.

To keep the matter short, many people feel that there are no obvious religious motives for banning Rushdie's work. It is probably banal, but at the same time banausic, to say Rushdie's work is total crap, and his motives, particularly with respect to his later work, are self-promotion. Of course you can say the same about Charles Dickens, so the arguments in that sphere are endless.

The big problem in banning such work is that to do so can in itself be the "poisoning of the well" of Islam or, possibly to a much gentler extent, Hinduism.

That is in the trivialisation of religious matters by such measures, and, as just one example, causing the devout to stray from the paths of righteousness by antisocial behaviour. In short, give the complainants an ASBO or plenty of ASBOs if they otherwise deserve them. I think the point is that Rushdie largely sneers at the subcontinent which as a novelist is certainly his right though not necessarily his prerogative. That is all a pity, and whilst doing so he also sneers at organised religion which is perhaps also rather a shame - little more.

[ANGER over a knighthood for author Salman Rushdie has escalated into a full-blown diplomatic row, with effigies of the Queen burnt in Pakistan and Iran calling her an "old crone". IMO: A ridiculous POV, and an apparent affront to Islam as I imply above]

Jun. 17: Iran said Sunday it had received indications from Russia's president that he would not follow through with an offer to allow the US to use a radar station in neighboring Azerbaijan for missile defense against Teheran.

Iran is known to possess a medium-range ballistic missile called the Shahab-3 that has a range of at least 1,300 kilometers, capable of striking Israel. In 2005, Iranian officials said they had improved the range of the Shahab-3 to 2,000 kilometers. With this range, Teheran could strike Eastern Europe, but Western Europe would be out of reach. Although Western experts believe Iran is developing the Shahab-4 missile, thought to have a range between 2,000 and 3,000 kilometers, Iran has not confirmed such reports.

Iran initially acknowledged in 1999 it was developing the Shahab-4, but claimed it would be used only as a space launch vehicle for commercial satellites', presumably just as the nuclear bombs will be used for peaceful purposes.

The above is mainly taken from the "Jerusalem Post", FWIW.

The Qabala, Azerbaijan radar station is protected by checkpoints and electrified fences. Some people in nearby villages were wary of discussing the radar station openly. But others expressed fears that it was emitting harmful radiation.

"This station is very dangerous, it badly affects people's health," Sabir, a retired farmer, told the BBC. "Plants are dying, vegetables do not grow, and lots of women and children have health problems."

Not much of an offer from Russia, then, according to BBC accounts, and USA does not seem to want it anyway. But it leaves the strong impression that both the Russians and Iranians concerned are not peacemakers, and maybe unfit for their jobs from the point of view of their own country's citizens.

IMO: When things get this much of a mess we can perhaps be fairly sure that neither Iran nor Russia remotely understand what they are doing. So this should be a chance for expert Western diplomacy. With Margaret Beckett and her coups and George W. Bush and his Bible Belt diplomacy apparently taken from the Book of Revelations, we can only contemplate the potential number of megadeaths and hope the Russians and Iranians can see reason and cut it out. The quick fix is Bunker-buster bombs and if necessary the removal of Moscow from the most expensive city in the world status (easy with nukes and maybe the old Carter/Kruschev joke (I think it was) would work with Putin, this time the other way round).

Thursday, June 07 The Western Railway (WR) assured the Bombay High Court that the quadrupling of the tracks between Borivili and Virar stations here will be completed by June 30. The PIL, filed more than a year ago, highlighted the difficulties of commuters while travelling from the north western suburbs towards South Mumbai due to heavy crowds and limited train services.

The lawyer for Western Railway told the court that the track expansion work was in progress and would be completed by the month-end.

IMO: I hope this agreed schedule will be maintained. Work seems to have proceeded well till the end of the megablock.

Pre-monsoon showers around here seem to be light, some light rainfall on May 31 around Vasai station etc and there are hopes of few dengue cases around Vasai at this time of the year.

According to the Express, one visit to Pachori and Vadavli gaons in Vasai is enough for one to understand why these areas are considered to be trouble spots for the health officials during the monsoon. Residents in this area face consistent water problems and a “large number of larvae” that breed in flower pots, water tanks and the backyards have been detected in their houses. three cases of suspected dengue were recorded here. Last year, seven persons died due to dengue in the area during the monsoons.

Guwahati is rapidly catching up with the often unfortunate trends of up-market lifestyles. Be it branded outfits, ultra modern restaurants with the various Chinese and Continental menu or other forms of entertainment, the Guwahati crowd is ready to go on a spending spree like never before.

Spending money for branded luxury goods is becoming the trend de jour among the city’s well–heeled, and many are on the look out for something new and exotic, feels an entertainment buff of the city in whose view, “this city welcomes any good change with open arms!”.

The multiplex, with two screens and 500 seats on the bustling GS Road was inaugurated two months back against a backdrop which was not very congenial or encouraging for the cinema industry in the State and the region. The movie market, especially the movie theatres, are reeling under recession. At a time when the entertainment industry is suffering from lack of cinegoers and the blanket ban on the screening of Hindi cinema by the proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), and around 50 cinema halls out of the total of around 115 halls have downed their shutters, opening an ambitious multiplex project definitely aroused apprehensions among different sections.

"As of now, we are in the process of identifying places in Shillong and Upper Assam to launch more cineplexes,” CIL say.

Debajit Phookan says "we are hopeful that we would be able to screen Assamese films in Cinemax in the near future".

IMO: I must say I have mixed feelings about this, as there was always the hope that with mobile phones and advanced computer technology, that the cinemax and mall culture might have been bypassed for more recent developments. Culture has to be supported and a growth in Assamese understanding of the modern world, without losing any desired Assamese qualities, could be welcomed. Assam may bring a new look and reappraisal to any world developments. Ecological understanding is often a widely stressed factor to date in Assam and particularly relevant to the Assamese there in retaining and advancing the Assamese way of life. Lets hope at least the place does not go the gambling casino route and instead does think "Ecology, ecology and ecology", as this is rapidly becoming the trend elsewhere..

New York, June 16 (ANI): Troubled socialite Paris Hilton has been getting a princess’ treatment in jail. A recently released inmate told The Post's Marianne Garvey that the 26-year-old is living in ‘Lean Cuisine’ style, sleeping comfortably and eating roast beef, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken nuggets and fish that others would never get.

The jailbird has recently been shifted to the medical clinic of the women's jail in Lynwood, California, from a Los Angeles jail hospital and is putting up alone in an eight-bed ward for which other prisoners ‘have to be bleeding from their eyes’

IMO: If true, this sort of thing must seem pretty sour to decent Americans and it does not place American justice in a good light internationally.

Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) said it was believed to be the first time a scramjet had been ignited within the Earth's atmosphere.

The researchers said a rocket carrying the scramjet reached speeds of mach 10 -- ten times the speed of sound -- after blasting off at the Woomera range in South Australia Friday. They said it reached an altitude of 530 kilometres (330 miles) before the scramjet was successfully deployed following re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere.

This could cut travelling time from Sydney to London to as little as two hours.

Also, scramjets could also slash the cost of sending satellites into space, because their potential payload was much larger than a rocket carrying its own fuel.

IMO: These have been called 'scamjets' due to the extreme technical challenges involved, but US Army, US Air Force, NASA and others may believe that economic and reliable launch vehicles, missiles etc. may be developed in this way.

An article in the Financial Times, citing German diplomats, claims that France's president has already touted Mr Blair for the job during discussions with Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel. The paper claims EU officials have also revealed that Mr Sarkozy has broached the matter elsewhere within Europe.

But Hullo, Hullo .... According to Reuters, Blair would shun job as future EU president "The prime minister has said quite clearly he would not go back into frontline politics," a spokesman at Blair's office said. "This job doesn't actually exist, there's no clear evidence that it's going to exist in the near future."

IMO: I am tempted to say "The EU and Blair deserve one another". Also, maybe a 'job that doesn't exist' could suit a spin-merchant, to use a EUphemism. Toady, alleged by my correspondents to be a 'call-girl's poodle' with the aid of his erstwhile crony Peter Mandelson, could also help the EU to lick the bum - metaphorically I hope - of any future George W. Bush. Anyway, at least the UK might be rid of Toady that way. Wishful thinking I suppose, bad pennies (or euros) usually do crop up again..

It now appears that if the CBI had been serious in arresting Quattrochi, then it would have got fresh arrest warrant against him after the Delhi HC order in May 2005. This helped in favour of the Bofors prime accused in the Argentine Court.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleges that Quattrocchi, who was once close to late Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi, received kickbacks amounting to $1.4 billion from the now-defunct Swedish arms maker AB Bofors to facilitate the sale of 400 artillery guns to the Indian army in 1986.

The failure to extradite Quattrocchi is an embarrassment for the Congress-led UPA government, which is accused of hiding news of his arrest in Argentina and delaying the Bofors probe.

Princes William and Harry say they are forced to repeatedly defend their mother's reputation from attacks by people who have forgotten the "amazing things" she achieved.

There was continuing disquiet that the BBC had "dumbed down" its approach to the landmark interview by choosing the Radio 1 DJ to conduct it rather than one of its more respected broadcasters. Miss Cotton, who is 25 and has described herself as a "mouthy little girl, got the nod ahead of respected broadcasters such as Huw Edwards and royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell.

I can't see why, as those other people seem less in tune with today's youngsters and to me sound like a bunch of stuffed shirts. Recollect that Jimmy Young, remembered as much as a popular music songster by some as even a popular disk jockey,could do a very good interview and even today I seem to recall an important interview, which I think was with President Nasser of Egypt with whom, unlike some others, he seems to have been on excellent terms and to have had a very fine understanding. I say good luck to all three, and let us not forget Diana either. In some ways she seemed to blossom out after leaving Charles, though it seems clear that some of her later connections were a route to disaster. I remember hearing of her death and thinking that if she associated with that crowd of drunks and no hopers the outcome was inevitable, for whatever reason. In its later days - and it could now be considered pretty much dead in reputation terms - the British aristocracy seemed to consist of sad old ladies and less savory types of the kind found in the BBC 'Lovejoy' series, particularly that fellow called 'Charlie'.

IMO: These lads, naive and gullible though they sound, are in a sad position. Remember Sierra Leone, one of the richest countries in the world and I have been frequently told by its natives that they felt that its richness was a curse to it.

Margaret Beckett has described the recent problems Hammas are having in Palestine as a "coup d'etat". Now Hammas were actually the party elected to run the Government.

Does this mean that Toady B. Liar has committed a "coup d'etat" to run the UK. Many people would say so, and could also take his known breaches in anticorruption legislation, and Gordon Brown's breaches in charities legislation, as evidence for that. We also have the waste of taxpayer's money on cocaine, alcohol and loose women - all spent illegally on foreigners forbidden by their own laws to such actions. And of course all these new casinos Labor seems to want to set up will be ideal for money laundering. Now it seems that Brown wants to detain people without trial for three months, to start with. That will certainly allow plenty of time to question them, beat them, or use whatever "psychological" tactics he fancies.

Why not just give Brown the right to impose the death sentence without trial to whoever he likes. Or perhaps I should not suggest that in case he does it - but then again, after Kelly, maybe the so-called "Government" does it already. And somebody did kill those 750,000 dead Iraqis.

On the sacred bull Shambo. The vet says "It is a crime to put Shambo down", video here.

Procedures on such matters and an understanding of religous principles and morals, seem to me to have gone backwards in the UK even since the alleged "Life on Mars" days of the 1970s.

David Jones, the Shadow Welsh minister, took the opportunity to ask a question about the Smith Institute. He blogs that it is "the registered charity that appears to have virtually set up headquarters in 11 Downing Street... Surprisingly – or not, whichever way you care to look at it - Gordon didn’t answer himself. He left it to his deputy, Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury. I suggested that it was odd that No. 11’s householder was apparently unwilling to answer to the House over his domestic arrangements. Timms is a nice, straightforward man and seemed uncomfortable to be asked the question, so he simply didn’t answer it. And so we say farewell to Chancellor Brown. Next time he is at the dispatch box he will be Prime Minister. But I doubt that he has heard the last of the Smith affair."

IMO: There is also the problem that the present "Government" will try to legislate it's way out of its own frauds. The Guido initiated Charity Commission investigation is a statutory process, subject to judicial review. It won't be easy to sweep things under the carpet, but politicians being what they are, Gordon Brown is likely to try. Maybe there should be a new law "No legislation without representation" - or proper taxpayer's votes on any more laws, with a particular consideration for those who suffer from legal changes, like registered charities and those connected with any charity. Many say the new Charity legislation is too secular, I prefer the term "self-serving"and a way to help politicans commit fraud, some comments on the legislation here.

Kolkata, June 14: The Trinamool Congress has rubbished the West Bengal government's argument that land taken from unwilling farmers in Singur for a Tata Motors' project cannot be returned and said the matter can be sorted out if there is political will to do so.

Banerjee said "Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee does not know the ABC of land acquisition. If the state government has the political will, the matter can still be sorted out."

"It is clear the Marxist government has been hand in glove with big money, represented by the Tatas and multinational companies, to take away fertile agricultural land from the poor farmers and gift it to them."

IMO: Didi seems to have presented the position realistically. Also, I know of no clear indication that ecological factors, a likely real future problem to all concerned including Tata, as earlier blogged here, have been satisfactorarily considered by Buddhadeb at all. Will Bharat never learn? After Bhopal's problem with Union Carbide when people said "never again" and then did a George Fernandes with the money, we now have problems with Dow Chemical in Bhopal as well, and now there is this in Kolkata ! So the Taj Corridor matter could be overlooked by Congress for a few votes but maybe Singur has not got enough Congress votes to allow justice and fairness here. It all sounds short sighted and self serving

The Korea Herald on June 14 said "A resolution to Banco Delta Asia dispute seems within sight with Russia agreeing to the U.S. request for a private Russian bank to accept North Korean funds being held at the Macau bank ....

Pyongyang should take note that dragging its feet on the denuclearization process will only further isolate the country. It should take prompt action to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear reactor once it receives the $25 million. South Korea, Russia, China and the United States have done everything to meet the North Korean demand on the banking dispute. It is now incumbent upon North Korea to promptly demonstrate its commitment to the denuclearization process."

BBC have also got an amusing article covering a Mr. Joe Wong of the bank. And I have to say that a billion dollars worth of money laundering a year, which the BBC speak of, sounds a lot.

IMO: Funny place, Macao, and it apparently lives off gambling, mainly Chinese now. I liked it in the old days though, nice for countryside walks and the sacred cows seemed to be well tolerated. $25 million does not seem too much to pay to be rid of a nuclear menace but as I hear it, US consumer payments for rubbish like dud Viagra and such things still mar the reputation of Banco Delta Asia (a small establishment in world terms).

It is a pity that programs like "The Apprentice" are probably amongst the best non-factual TV programs in the UK, and rightly therefore are very popular.

Basically the motivation seems to be greed, and a post-Thatcherite worship of business by "Thatcher's children", in replacement of a real objective God or striving. After "The Apprentice" in terms of popularity come the even more corrupt "Big Brother" programs which can show an almost American liking for probing the less desirable nicities of today's human experience, but I think in the long term programs like "The Apprentice" are even less desirable and even more corrupting.

That is not to criticise Mr. Sugar, who appears to be a nice, kindly man doing his best with the dross around him, in his own way. You would simply think that those who produce programs could do something a bit more morally uplifting and positive, to encourage growth and insight in a new and more awakened Britain, and not to pander to an imagined audience of "Royle Family" types as such program producers seem to have confused that the characters in that mildly amusing series with its audience. At least, I certainly hope so.

In fact it seems that Mr. Sugar is criticised by Katy Hopkins in this article, who appears annoyed that pieces have been "left out". The reason for this is like in the situation where in a quiz show a contestant gives a wrong answer, disputes the verdict, they then look it up in an encyclopedia or somewhere and find that the contestant is wrong and she is obliged to repeat the incorrect answer without interruption. In these structured shows that is completely normal, in fact throughout the Apprentice series, snippets have openly been made in a way which is usual, to preserve viewer's interest.

Sir Alan said it would be "condescending" not to ask a mother of children with potential who was applying for a job in London from outside the capital how she would manage in practical terms. And whilst undercurrents can clearly be perceived, nonetheless Mr. Sugar is right and one could hope that any potential employer would have been as considerate. It is like the classic case where a series of choices are placed in a non alphabetical or other apparently non ordered style, with the aim that both sophisticated and non sophisticated choosers may readily choose the first item on the list. That sort of thing can make a program interesting.

IMO: ALL THE FOLLOWING IS PAID FOR BY BRITISH TAXPAYERS AND IS TOTALLY CONTRARY TO WAHABI LAW AND AGREED INTERNATIONAL ANTICORRUPTION LEGISLATION.

It seems to have been sanctioned by the UK Parliament, at least since the time of Margaret Thatcher. You may have heard of the UK Parliament, you. know, that mob of worthless scumbags whose jailbirds Joe Kagan and Rudy Sternberg dyed the UK Police blue, who unintentionally admitted offences under the anticorruption act under Blair (blogged here) and have a Gordon Brown being currently investigated by the Charity Commission (also blogged here). The below is from "The London Telegraph" via "The Age". And there's lots, lots more

"Long after midnight, the party is in full swing, the music loud, the whisky and champagne flowing. In the penthouse suite at a five-star London hotel, six attractive young British women, most in short, tight dresses that leave little to the imagination, sashay between wealthy princes from Saudi Arabia, flirting and laughing slightly more loudly than the Arabs' witticisms merit.

A silver dish of white powder, with matching spoon, is passed around. From time to time a couple slips out of the suite only to reappear half an hour later and seek new friends. Others do not feel impelled to leave to share intimate moments but settle on a sofa or the four-poster in the main bedroom oblivious, perhaps, to their fellow partygoers.

A millionaire British businessman standing near the window overlooking Hyde Park, drinks in the decadent scene.

"It was my first party with the Saudis, in the early '90s, and it was a bit of an eye-opener," he recalls. "We'd been to the casino and I watched the princes gamble like there was no tomorrow. The money they threw around was staggering. Then we went upstairs for the party. It was shocking but fascinating at the same time."

One woman at the party tells him she was paid hundreds of pounds to attend and will earn much more by sleeping with one - or more - of the Saudi visitors. "She said she would get £2000 ($A4700) for spending the night with a prince," he says. "The Saudis had their favourite girls and liked to think they were their girlfriends in London. They don't like to admit they are paying for sex."

Days later, back in their home city of Riyadh, some 4800 kilometres from their London playground, the Saudi princes are on their best behaviour. No alcohol, no drugs, no whores. Perhaps the occasional drink, but discreetly, in private, with close friends. They know a flogging awaits those who are caught with as much as a glass of Johnnie Walker by the dreaded religious police, who torture suspects with impunity.

For this is the country where Islamic sharia law reigns, the Koran is the constitution, woman are not allowed to drive and where the religious zealots hold sway over law and order in a delicate pact with the ruling House of Saud, the extended royal family that holds every government post."

And still there is yet more talk and speculation I'm afraid.......

Didi had apparently declared on Friday that Trinamool will continue to oppose the acquisition of farmland for industries.

However CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu, who invited Mamata over to his house for talks on Monday, sounded positive. "A solution is definitely possible," he said.

Mamata made her position more specific during the day. A total of 402 acres owned by farmers from whom land had been taken without consent would have to be returned. She put the total number of farmers at 3,500. She knew the government estimate: 2,885 farmers had refused compensation for 326 acres.

Mamata's objection was not against setting up of industries. "We do not oppose industrialisation," the Trinamul chief said. But she argued that setting up housing complexes and shopping malls could not be categorised as industrialisation. She was, however, against setting up a chemical hub at Haldia as KJRC is against special economic zones.

Trinamool sources said that Mamata is unlikely to yield an inch unless the government agrees to some demands, since Naxalites have joined her movement and are putting pressure on her. "Already, some Naxalite groups are spreading talk that Mamata is in league with the CPI(M)," the Trinamool sources said.

IMO: Be all that as it may, the stinky cheap small cars seems unecessary and probably as planned an outmoded concept. They may end up being denounced by the G8 for ecological reasons and maybe not allowed at all, or only allowed in very small numbers. The Pajero idea of MIT Prof. Banerjee sounded better but only a step in the right direction, and not what people want in their guts right now. We could end up with farmer's land confiscated by such as the Tatas and virtually no small cars anyway, just "shopping malls" or glitzy areas, little more than painted up sheds like in some other countries, which the poor cannot afford and don't need. And recall the Taj Corridor problem as just one horrible example.

Within reason only, my sympathies are with the Naxalites. These days in the UK, Tesco looks to a majority of people like a totally malevolent Josef Stalin - they hate the apparently inexorable hug of the Russian (or now the Tesco) bear. Reliance may eventually look little better if they are not careful.

According to Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu of Zimbabwe: "Such actions by the university are indeed a humiliation to the university ... I say so because the university has taken unorthodox means of making decisions based on propaganda and hearsay ... university senate had been swayed by ill-informed students, and by pressure from Prime Minister Tony Blair's government."

He was speaking about the revoking of a degree to Mugabe due to the alleged massacre of 22,000 civilians in Matabeleland, ostensibly in an operation to quell banditry by rebels loyal to then opposition leader Joshua Nkomo.

Well, as I remember it, Mugabe's regime was at first considered a good idea, but then the World Bank and the IMF let Mugabe down. Zimbabwe was in a difficult economic state and it had really needed international support which it was far from getting. Whether the existing regime should have been supported is clearly another matter. But if on the one hand an honorary degree is given, presumably on the basis of track record, to an African leader in an area where the shelf life of such people is known to be short, it says very little in favour of those giving the award, or indeed the use of honorary degrees at that institution, to just take it away when there are difficulties and issues.

That is not to say, of course, as to what measures are necessary now. But after Idi Amin, such establishments should tread carefully.

IMO: If Edinburgh University had somehow stepped in effectively when Zimbabwe was on the skids, as it presumably would or should have been asked to do, then this matter of handing out and then revoking awards, which must be a humiliation to any University, would not have arisen.

IMO: It is like the Nelson Mugabe drug party pack advert joke, in a recent BBC comedy, writ large.

As Tokyo Sexwhale once said in a not altogether different context "This is a time for crying" (with respect to academic probity).

Sat Jun 9, 2007 1:14PM BST LONDON (Reuters) - Police say they have found no evidence to support claims CIA planes transporting terrorism suspects to face possible torture in secret prisons in Europe landed illegally at British airports.

IMO: Well, maybe they were sanctioned by someone 'economical with the truth'. There seem to be plenty of them around.

Amnesty International 5 April 2006 reported the following flights.

(sample details below, many witnesses from differing sources for flights) Destinations : movements of N313P-N4476S include landings and take offs from the following airports: N313P-N4476S is a Boeing 737-7ET (BBJ) aircraft (m/n 33010) for which there are 396 recorded landings or taking offs between 22 November 2002 and 8 September 2005. Flight records show that it was the plane that took Khaled el-Masri from Skopje to Afghanistan in January 2004, and Human Rights Watch has identified it as the “plane that the CIA used to move several prisoners to and from Europe, Afghanistan, and the Middle East in 2003 and 2004 – it landed in Poland and Romania on direct flights from Afghanistan on two occasions in 2003 and 2004.”

UNITED KINGDOM GLASGOW 19
UNITED KINGDOM LONDON GATWICK 1
UNITED KINGDOM LUTON 9
UNITED KINGDOM MANCHESTER 2
UNITED KINGDOM MILDENHALL 3
UNITED KINGDOM NORTHOLT 9
UNITED KINGDOM OXFORD BRIZE NORTON 3
UNITED KINGDOM PROVIDENCIALES (TURKS AND CAICOS) 8

Destinations : movements of N379P-N8068V -N44982 include landings and take offs from the following airports:

UNITED KINGDOM GLASGOW 20
UNITED KINGDOM LUTON 4
UNITED KINGDOM OXFORD BRIZE NORTON 2
UNITED KINGDOM PRESTWICK 36
UNITED KINGDOM PROVIDENCIALES (TURKS AND CAICOS) 6

Destinations : Recorded movements of N829MG-N259SK include landings and take offs from the following airports:

UNITED KINGDOM BIGGIN HILL 2
UNITED KINGDOM HAMILTON US NAVAL AIR STATION,
BERMUDA 6
UNITED KINGDOM LONDONDERRY 2
UNITED KINGDOM PROVIDENCIALES (TURKS AND CAICOS) 7

Destinations : Recorded movements of N85VM-N227SV include landings and take offs from the following airports:

UNITED KINGDOM BELFAST 2
UNITED KINGDOM EDINBURGH 1
UNITED KINGDOM GLASGOW 2
UNITED KINGDOM LEUCHARS 10
UNITED KINGDOM LONDON STANSTED 1
UNITED KINGDOM LONDONDERRY 1
UNITED KINGDOM LUTON 6
UNITED KINGDOM PROVIDENCIALES (TURKS AND CAICOS) 21

Or to put it bluntly, the Guardian claims that they are liars.

The Guardian claims Goldsmith knew of BAE and the £1bn or more. Then concealed it. This is a serious matter and the sums are vast.

Allegedly Goldsmith hid secret money transfers from international anti-corruption organisations.

More here, and a lot more in The Register, one of the better accounts so far and indeed there is news right through the web.

It is a long story, but remember that the Guardian is effectively a LibDem paper.Would we have received this information if it had been about LibDems ? Possibly the Guardian would have filled the space with rubbishly filler about someone suspected of Labor or Tory leanings, or about some self righteous poofter. Somebody has doubtless got to mull over this matter of course, for example Transparency International, but the hopeful availability of an element of free speech over here in the UK by now means that hardly anybody cares about even more lies unless they are personally drectly concerned.

IMO: But I knew the Government were liars already ! Poor old Gordon Brown, but lets hope Toady goes to jail as he sounds too smarmy by far and has made too many errors. After all Paris Hilton had to go back to jail and she is much better looking and far richer than Toady, even though poor Toady has tried hard enough to trouser loadsamoney, allegedly.

[10/06/07 : The London Times says, blaiming most politicians from Thatcher to Blair
"If the legal position of the British government as complicit in the bribery is untenable, its moral position is laughable. ....it must tell African and Asian regimes that its much-trumpeted stance against corruption is meant to apply only to the poor and the weak. Such hypocrisy in Britain’s name is outrageous."

The Independent on Sunday says
"Staff at the world's anti-bribery watchdog claim they were targets of a British-led "dirty tricks" campaign after they began investigating the Government's decision to halt an official inquiry into secret commission payments to a Saudi prince."
etc. etc.

IMO: It is beginning to look as if US disappointment that they did not get the arms contracts is overlaying a lot of other factors in these Press accounts. Most readers could think we need a more obvious proof of fraud in these matters if they are to become personally concerned. We already have charity scams apparently involving Gordon Brown as I mentioned in a few earlier blogs and also the casino proposals. We can easily worry about them ! There is already a lot to worry about in the UK, never mind spin from USA or elsewhere. Britain is broke by world financial standards and it is well known that he who writes the cheques, tends to rule the world, or 'the penis mightier than the sword".]

Big Brother contestant Emily Parr has been removed from the Big Brother house after using a racially offensive word. Emily was dancing with Charley and Nicky in the living room of the Big Brother house on Wednesday night when she was heard to use a racial slur.

She immediately made it clear that she had not intended to offend and that the comment had been meant as a joke.

IMO: It is rather like making a genuinely amusing concentration camp joke to a Jew, and many would of course resent such things. In the case of Israel, many see the jackboot on the other foot, rightly or wrongly, and the Israelis as now being the Nazis.

These matters put me in mind of the great author Richard Wright. A possibly surprising touch is that Wright's books were banned in Australia at one time, apparently because the US insisted on it, so the radio would broadcast his work instead. An early triumph over US imperialist censorship.

It is years since I have read "Native Son" and I do not know how it would sound today, but at the time I heard it, it sounded great. This is presumably because it was great, an opinion of many others today.

This all made it clear that the US was basically a flawed nation, and it still is. So US activities can now mar the entire world, if the world is not careful. Richard Wright still lives in spirit, like the song "Joe Hill".

The trouble is, with Britain and even continental countries nowadays apeing the USA, there is even today no true perception of the USA position, which still retains flaws.

IMO: A pity, but this sort of thing does no credit to Channel 4. Probably the Diana program was better as it presumably gave the case of the snappers. And obviously relatives of a drunken women may not like her photos being taken in that state, except maybe for the divorce courts. Channel 4 really needs to try harder and have more accuracy and perspective.

Just as, some say, Citizen's Advice Bureaux have already become "Al Quaeda recruiting centres". In the case of CABs you often now see these jam full of East Europeans (probably often illegal immigrants) and Muslim women on the dredge, these women could be described as undraped Muslim women, since they certainly often wear no veils and under Wahabi law could be going in the direction of being beheaded.

Now I have to say I have mixed feelings about all this, as many would say that prayer and zakat are two worthy Islamic virtues, followed somewhere down the line by a reasonable level of general charity, particularly to poor misguided women like this, when it is said that "In Saudi Arabia: Wear no veil and there is trouble with the religious police and in UK: Wear a veil and there is trouble from Jack Straw and the MI5 and MI6, then maybe gitmo or anyway 3 months jail". Usually, I suppose, a hideous compromise is reached at the expense of taxpayers and council taxpayers.

But we are well down the line with expenses in all this. Technically the country will soon be broke. Right now they cannot even afford to replace the old Nimrods, leading to needless deaths in the Armed Services. Latterly I see that to save money, not only is NHS treatment already being threatened to be denied to smokers, and indeed I saw one very agitated woman smoker the other day in that position, but also OBESITY and a large percentage of the people in this country are obese by the standards of today's doctors. All this is not necessarily wrong of course but some intelligence should show solutions - but it will not show more money, the PFIs for example being a case in point. (My view is that PFIs are a nonsocialist device and a gateway to corruption and expense.) Pretty soon people may be allowed NHS medical treatment - unless they are ill.

Why then do I say that English schools are now "child-murderer's recruiting centres"? It is the pressure on teachers by these evil vicious little bastards. And what is even worse, the totally inappropriate behaviour of members of staff of schools, in a smug and sneering way.

The other day a French teacher hanged herself after being slapped by a colleague in front of class.

French-born Vanessa Rann, 26, is said to have been in tears after the alleged attack by Francesca Alcock, head of languages at The Grange School and Sports College in Bristol. Students at the college told how they saw Miss Rann crying outside the school gates on May 17, the day the alleged assault took place Police are not treating the death of Miss Rann as suspicious but have been called in by the school to investigate claims that threatening text messages were sent to Mrs Alcock earlier this week and to establish who wrote threats across her classroom whiteboard. [Sounds like Neasden Central Police Station, as in Private Eye].

A 16-year-old boy in Miss Rann’s French class said: "She was such a lovely bubbly person. "She did try and shout once but lost her voice so she never tried it again. "She had organised a barbecue for her Year 11 students. She was loved by all the students here."

So basically you can't necessarily blame the kids (or maybe even some of the less than bright staff), it is the crap schools, the smug teachers, and the social system forced on us by a series of worthless Governments, and basically also it is the low level of morals and high level of corruption all round. Etc. etc. It seems that 22% of kids do not even know (for example) that bacon comes from pigs, let alone are they able to do simple sums, and a probation officer commented that with all the drunken drug addicted immoral prostitutes the kids have as parents, he is not surprised. That was on Radio 5 today, and is how things are in this vile immoral hell hole of a country cursed and forsaken by God. And don't imagine 'Lord Snooty' (aka cuntface Cameron) with his nasty Eton background would not be worse than Tony B.Liar. He almost certainly would be.

The missile silos that are to be built in Poland next year will house 10 interceptor missiles, whose sole function will be to shoot down missiles fired at Europe and America from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. They are not designed to carry warheads, nor can they be adapted to do so. And unlike the Russian nukes aimed at Europe, the American missile interceptors will be directed at the most likely source of an attack, namely the Middle East and South-east Asia.

The Russians know all this, not least because the Pentagon has been at pains to explain the nuts and bolts of its missile defence system and has even invited Moscow to participate - a suggestion that has met with a stony silence from the Kremlin.

Given all this, some US Democrats still say : "thanks to President Putin -- who has suggested that, instead of placing elements of GMD in the Czech Republic and Poland, the United States should consider using and developing the radar site at Gabala, Azerbaijan"

IMO: I am very peaceful but this sort of thing makes me wish to be a US citizen, just for long enough to vote Republican next time round.

Putin, by selling nuclear materiel to Iran, has sown the wind, and the uncharitable may say that his present attempts to win votes for himself and his dodgy cronies will make the Russian people reap the whirlwind.

Muslim Chechnia has been a problem to Russia since before the time of Tolstoy, and Putin seems now to be trying to win votes by selling nuclear materiel to Muslim Iran and denying Russia any chance of eventual peacemaking or being under a European umbrella.

IMO: When I went to Russia in Kruschev's day, there were 'problems' but at least an element of security, pensions and a reasonably good health service. They warned me then: If Russia links with the Western capitalist monkeys, which it probably will, there will be a bad phase of almost state Mafia control in Russia (I knew what they meant as a student of Gustavus Myers' "History of the Great American Fortunes") - and then - goodness knows but we hope for the best only. Well I have to say there have been failed coups and the like in Russia but still no stability. I am only hoping for improvement and perhaps a decent replacement for Putin. I think there could be a fair chance of this and one thing is that I am not sure of is whether it is helpful for Putin to be shirty with the somewhat inept Toady B.Liar - the poor devil is perhaps trying to offer constructive criticism and at least on paper, both he and Gordon Brown are possibly better socialists than Putin, not that that says much.

Both the London Telegraph and the Guardian ran reports that UK Science Minister Wicks has been informed that all but one of a carefully chosen committee of 7 boffins thought that not only extraterrestrial vegetation, microbes and the like would be discovered, but also extraterrestrial intelligent life as well..One of the boffins jibbed at "intelligent" and said "If there's intelligent life out there, they sure as hell know we're here." He was referring to radio signals having already reached 80 light years away.

Certainly I would hope that intelligent aliens are not listening to "Around the Horne" (a BBC radio series made less than 80 years old and described in my respectable home when it was broadcast as "a farrago of filth not fit to listen to" - a view which I still share). And I hope they will not be smart enough to eventually watch the BBC most favoured (Goatse) version of the new London 2012 Olympic logo, see Cory Doctorow for some brief details, where he refers to the apparently almost Brownite level of corruption of the aforesaid Olympics.

It seems that Wicks is some kind of science buff: If these aliens are watching the BBC filth, presumably it could be argued, rather anthropomorphically, that they will soon be sending out a rescue mission to save our souls, just as the British did years ago in Africa and Asia.

But I wouldn't bank on their troubling to save us, you know what allegedly happened when Jesus Christ (or was it really Dr. Who? or even 'touristguy') tried to do the same, indeed he was allegedly crucified so in those terms we could be said to have had our chance, and are lame ducks who must stand on our own two feet. Perhaps if the human race are just lame ducks these aliens will want to cook and eat us. But I have seen no signs of that yet. So quite possibly the extraterrestrials are decent Hindus, or something like that, which seems to fit better anyway.

IMO: I am sure that the above is all rather too anthromorphically considered and I would tend even to doubt whether radio waves are of much interest to advanced aliens, as to me radio waves seem like a technological fad of the last couple of centuries. Oddly I would have taken al Qazwini al Katibi or St. Anselm as being of more interest or relevance to aliens but obviously aliens could prefer the juvenile farts of Dr. Who. There's no accounting for taste.