David Cameron had better be able to perform miracles

If not he really needs to read Bert Weedon’s “Water into Wine in a Day” sometime soon if he is going to avoid the fate of his predecessors John Major, William Hague, Iain Duncan-Smith and Michael Howard (not that I want him to avoid that fate of course). Today’s Observer has a poll which shows Labour 7 points ahead of the Tories. This figure is of less interest to some of the other findings:

• nearly 40 per cent of those polled want an election within weeks; 70% of people want an election by spring.
• Brown is regarded as best able to handle a crisis by 60% of voters, compared with 13% for Cameron. Brown leads Cameron on this issue even among Tory voters.
• Cameron even trails Brown on one of his key issues, the environment (34% Brown, 22% Cameron)
• Voters believe that Labour will win the next general election: 71% believe Labour will win a majority; just 12% believe the Tories will win; Only 29% of Tories think they will win the next election.

This must have made grim reading for Cameron. The Tory party conference should be the ideal place for him to gain back some lost ground. On the other hand if the party rank and file are in a fractious mood then next week could be the kiss of death for him.

Can Hamilton do it?

Lewis Hamilton took a big step towards becoming the first person to win the Formula one title in their rookie year by winning today’s Japanese Grand Prix in appalling conditions. Hamilton leads team mate Alonso by 12 points with two remaining races in China and Brazil. Kimi Raikkonnen is 17 points behind Hamilton in third place

Hamilton's performance was as controlled and impressive and it means he will win the championship in China next weekend if he beats Alonso, or loses no more than a point to him. The 22-year-old survived a spin following a collision with Robert Kubica. "It was awful conditions and, in the end, I was fortunate I was able to finish the race after my collision with Robert," said Hamilton "When you're behind, and especially in those conditions, it is the responsibility of the car behind to be extra careful and I felt that it was a risk Robert needn't have taken. Still, I got through it and was able to see it home. It felt like the longest race of my life, what with the safety car coming on twice and the conditions being so difficult, but I'm ecstatic to get the victory."

Yet another version of Emergency

by Girlschool. Features Kim McAuliffe on rhythm guitar, Denise Dufort on drums, Enid Williams back after near 20 years on bass, and Jackie Chambers on lead guitar.

And now for something completely different....

The Bad Touch - The Bloodhound Gang

Scumbag Irving is still a liar

Warning strong language ahead

David Irving: anti-semite and Holocaust denier

The Guardian reports that Irving is back in the UK. A stint in an Austrian prison does not seem to have softened him. He is still a piece of anti-semitic shit.

Irving who was described by a high court judge as a Holocaust denier and a racist, says he is launching a comeback with a speaking tour of British cities and a series of new books. "I have kept a low profile for several months because I have had to sort out where to live and to address my financial situation. But now I am ready to start again."

In 2005 Irving was sentenced to three years in jail in Austria after a judge ruled that two speeches he made in 1989, dismissing the Auschwitz gas chambers as a "fairy tale" and questioning the existence of extermination camps, breached Austrian law. His appeal was upheld, with the judge saying the crimes were a long time ago and that Mr Irving had undergone an "impeccable conversion" (???????????????????????????????????????????) . However, Irving says that his views on the Holocaust have crystallised rather than changed. He says that he believes the Jews were responsible for what happened to them during the second world war and that the "Jewish problem" was responsible for nearly all the wars of the past 100 years: "The Jews are the architects of their own misfortune, but that is the short version A-Z. Between A-Z there are then 24 other characters in intervening steps." (My emphasis to underline what a piece of slime this man is)

Lord Foulkes, of the Labour Friends of Israel, said: "It is a frightening thought that he is still pursuing his agenda." Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, said Mr Irving no longer had any legitimate claim to be a serious historian.

Irving still insists he is a respected academic. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) He says that a document, which he is 80% sure is genuine, suggests that 2.4 million Jews were killed in Poland, but goes on to claim that the gas chamber at Auschwitz was fake. "It was not the centre of the killing operations - it has only become a focus because it is the site that is best preserved. Much of what is shown the tourists there is faked postwar - watchtowers, even the famous gas chamber."

"In my opinion now the real killing operations took place at the Reinhardt camps west of the Bug river. In the three camps here [Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka] Heinrich Himmler's men (mostly Ukrainian mercenaries) killed possibly as many as 2.4 million in the two years up to October 1943. Asked if he now accepts there had been a Holocaust against the Jewish people he said he was "not going to use their trade name". He added: "I do accept that the Nazis quite definitely, that Heinrich Himmler, organised and directed a programme, a clandestine programme, for the liquidation of European Jews ... and that in 1942-43 alone over 2.5 million Jews were killed in those three camps." He added that Hitler was "completely in the dark" about the programme.

Oh please. So what about Wannsee? Was that a fake too? Does he really believe that Hitler was utterly unaware of the Holocaust (unlike that vermin Irving I will use the word). Is he calling the survivors of Auschwitz liars? It is clear that Irving has not changed. He was a lying piece of shit who got his just desserts when he went up against Deborah Lipstadt and failed. He remains a lying piece of shit now.

Given that I have been posting quite a lot on free speech recently I would not suggest that his views be suppressed. Irving has a right to say what he says, even if it is utter bullshit. I, on the other hand, have the right to call him a liar and an evil bastard

Tom Wise sticking the boot into Usmanov - the transcript

A few days ago I (and many others) posted a link to an audio clip of MEP Tom Wise laying into Usmanov in a European Parlliament debate on a common energy policy. Parliamentary privilege meant that he could have accused Usmanov of performing any sexual deviance or being the murderer of Cock Robin with impunity.

The European Parliament website has a transcript of the debate here (Thanks to Bloggerheads: the Alisher Usmanov Affair for the link). To save you a search here is what Mr Wise said:

Thomas Wise (IND/DEM). – Madam President, when the EU talks of a common foreign policy on energy, you need to be very aware of exactly who you propose to do business with. President Putin is on record as saying ‘The Commission should be under no illusions. If it wants to buy Russian gas, it has to deal with the Russian state.’

Gazprom is not a private company. It is a state-controlled tool of Russian foreign policy. It is, moreover, in the hands of President Putin’s political henchmen and, allegedly, organised crime. Take, for example, Alisher Usmanov. This gentleman, the son of a Communist apparatchik, is Chairman of Gazprom Invest Holdings, the group that handles Gazprom’s business activities outside Russia. He is the man we are doing business with. He is the man who cuts off gas supplies if client states dare to question Gazprom’s demands. Allegedly a gangster and racketeer, he served a six-year jail sentence in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, his eventual pardon coming at the behest of Uzbek mafia chief and heroin overlord Gafur Rakhimov, described as Usmanov’s mentor.

Usmanov bought the newspaper Kommersant. Three months later the journalist Ivan Safronov, a critic of the Putin regime who just weeks earlier had been vigorously interrogated by the FSB, as the KGB is now called, mysteriously fell to his death from his apartment window, still clutching a recently purchased bag of shopping.

According to Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, it was Usmanov who ordered the cutting off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year. Please take note, Madam President, the Kremlin has now refused to sanction the construction of a pipeline to the EU over Georgian territory. These are the people you want to do business with. These are the people around whom you want to mould your foreign policy on energy. Commissioner, good luck. You will need it.

Schadenfreude can be a wonderful thing! It's nice to see a fat, criminal scumbag and his pack of legal vultures get screwed when they mess with free speech!

Up yours Usmanov!

Photo Hunt - Original

The theme for this week's PhotoHunt is original. This one had me stumped so I thought why not publish a photo where I haven't done any retoucing. I don't usually do a lot of work on my photos except to crop and play around with brightness and contrast levels, but this one of a sleeping Mimi is as taken except to compress the image.

Your country has gone down the crapper:

Unemployment is 80%, inflation is in four figures, what do you do turn your economy around? If you’re Zimbabwe you approve legislation that will force white business owners to hand over 51% of their business interests to black people.

Paul Mangwana, the minister in charge of black empowerment, said only white people "disadvantaged by the colonial system" before independence in 1980 were defined as "indigenous" Zimbabweans who would be allowed to keep majority control of businesses. "The bill is not about economics, but politics. It is about the total liberation of Zimbabwe. The legislation has yet to be approved by the senate and signed into law by President Robert Mugabe, although I would imagine these are formalities.

Like the farm takeovers, the purpose of the bill is to correct colonial-era imbalances. The farm takeover was of course a triumph... (if the colour of the sky in your world is pink with purple spots). It is a pathetic attempt by a vile thug to divert attention away from the disaster that is the country’s economy.

Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai, was among at least nine people killed by Burmese security forces as thousands of protesters continued to defy tea rgas, baton charges and bullets. The true death toll is probably higher.

To keep up to date with developments in Burma I would strongly recommend Ko htike's prosaic collection

I don't care if it's a veggie sausage, it's mine now

This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

God is not on the side of the big battalions....

Anyone who has visited the Shills, sorry Schillings website will know they have a list of case studies which show how they have successfully acted on behalf of their clients. Usually the “defendant” apologises unreservedly, withdraws the allegations, and is then is excoriated (and not in the verbal sense), his home is razed and the land salted; his wife is sold off to a Bangkok brothel to defray legal expenses. Well not quite, but I am sure that many people on the receiving end of a Schillings attack feel that way.

Tim Ireland new blog Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair has a link to Earthquake Cove which has a very funny and quite appropriate suggested addition to the Schillings case study list:

The problem
Our client was a lardy foreign oligarch looking to take over a leading British football club. The former British Ambassador to his country had published allegations about him which he considered to be false and defamatory.

The solution
We put the frighteners on the former Ambassador's webhost to such an extent that it shut down not only his blog, but also other high profile blogs which had nothing to do with it, including that of the Conservative candidate for London mayor, and others in elected office. The allegations then spread around the internet and the mainstream media like wildfire.

When I see how the blogosphere has made a premier and very aggressive law firm look utterly stupid and amateurish I think Voltaire was spot on when he said “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best”

Archbishop claims condoms infected with HIV

This is another one of those news stories which I thought must be a joke when I first saw it but according to the BBC Archbishop Francisco Chimoio ,the head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique, has stated a belief that some European-made condoms are deliberately infected with the HIV virus "in order to finish quickly the African people".

Archbishop Chimoio told the BBC reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids. "Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries. They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time”

Aids activists have been angered by the remarks: "We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC. it is estimated that 16.2% of Mozambique's 19m inhabitants are HIV positive with an additional 500 infections every day.

The archbishop's assertion on infected condoms is preposterous and ranks alongside that of Gambia's president, Yahya Jammeh, who has claimed to be able to cure the disease by rubbing a green herbal potion into people's bodies. Creating scare stories about condoms is counter productive and will do nothing to prevent another 500 people becoming infected in Mozambique today.

Tories choose Boris

Unsurprisingly, Boris Johnson has been chosen as the Tory candidate in next year's mayoral election. He gained three-quarters of the votes cast as he saw off the challenge of relative unknowns Victoria Borwick, Andrew Boff and Warwick Lightfoot.

Burmese junta reverts to brutal type

Having killed up to five people breaking up protests yesterday, Burmese security forces have raided six monasteries and arrested hundreds of monks. A UN Security Council call for restraint on the part of the Burmese military junta went unheeded (no big surprise there) as soldiers smashed windows and doors and beat the sleeping monks, according to witnesses. This has not stopped thousands of protesters taking to the streets again.

Two members of the National League for Democracy, the party led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were also arrested. In Rangoon, security forces have been setting up barbed wire barricades around Shwedagon Pagoda and Rangoon city hall, two of the focal points for the demonstrations. The British ambassador in Rangoon, Mark Canning, told the BBC "There are truckloads of troops in a number of locations - more than there seemed to be yesterday..."There are fire trucks, water canons positioned in a number of places - there are about three of them outside city hall. There are a number of prison vans also to be seen in certain places."

More demonstrations are expected - leaflets have been circulated throughout Rangoon urging people to come out and show solidarity with the monks. It is likely that these protests will be met with brutality on the part of the Burmese junta -- there are no indications that the military government is likely to listen to calls for restraint. Yesterday the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting. Showing its usual spinelessness a call to consider imposing sanctions was rejected by China (as not "helpful") and Russia. Instead, council members "expressed their concern vis-a-vis the situation, and have urged restraint, especially from the government of Myanmar," China and Russia have argued the situation in Burma is a purely internal matter (just like, say. Tibet or Chechnya are simply “internal” matters....)

Analysts fear a repeat of the violence in 1988, when troops opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing thousands. This fear is justified given the vicious behaviour of the junta.

MEP sticks the boot into Usmanov

England Expects reported yesterday that UKIP MEP Tom Wise would use parliamentary privilege to spell out the allegations against Alisher Tarakanovich Usmanov during a debate on the Saryusz-Wolski report "Towards a common European foreign policy on energy".


The purpose of the debate was to discuss the creation of a single energy policy for Europe controlled by an European Energy Minister . According to Craig Murray, Usmanov "ordered the cutting off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year". The allegations are thus relevant to the debate.


The Wardman Wire has a recording of Tom Wise’s speech. It is also available at Blip.tv


The rules governing parliamentary privilege, allow any news organisation to repeat what has been said in the European Parliament. I suppose Wise could have said that Usmanov buggers chickens and fellates donkeys and there would be absolutely nothing his shysters, Schillings, could do about it.


Oh yes, I was amused to see that Skuds points out that Alisher Usmanov is an anagram of "Harass in volume" and "Evil sour shaman". Nice one Skuds!



Update: According to the Guardian Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has said he opposes Usmanov's involvement in the club because it is not sufficiently clear how the businessman amassed his multibillion-pound fortune in Uzbekistan and Russia.

"He's certainly not an open book," the Arsenal chairman said. "Business is murky in Uzbekistan, and that in itself is an argument against him being involved in Arsenal. I wouldn't want him to be the owner of the club."

Intyerestingly the same article features a quote from Laura Tyler, of shysters Schillings, which stated that they did not intend to sue Murray directly over his statements because "they did not want to give him a platform to express his views". Murray says he stands by the allegations. "I was the ambassador in Uzbekistan. Usmanov is the country's most prominent businessman and it was my job to know about him."


So it is clear. Alisher Tarakanovich and his battalion of Bedford Square bastards (aka Schillings) were not interrested in anything in anything but gagging this story. If they had an ounce of integrity they should have insitgated libel proceedings.


The number of bloggers reported as commenting on the affair remains at 251. I would imagine the number is rather higher now.

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North, B3TA board, Naqniq, Yorkshire Ranter, The Home Of Football, UFO Breakfast Recipients, Moninski , Kerching, e-clectig, Mediocracy, Sicily Scene, Samizdata, I blog, they blog, weblog, Colcam, Some Random Thoughts, Bel is thinking, Vino S, Simply Jews, Atlantic Free Press, Registan, Filasteen, Britblog Roundup #136, Scientific Misconduct Blog, Adam Bowie, Duncan at Abcol, Camera Anguish, A Very British Dude, Whatever, Central News, Green Gathering, Leighton Cooke (224), , Skuds’ Sister’s Brother, Contrast News, Poliblog Perspective, Parish Pump, El Gales, Noodle, Curly’s Corner Shop, Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft, otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder Dragon, Cybersoc, Achievable Life, Paperholic, Creative-i, Raedwald, Nobody’s Friend, Lobster Blogster, Panchromatica (251).


Football in Finland

Wordless Wednesday - Geranium versicolor

This week's Wordless Wednesday is the flower of a species geranium, Geranium versicolor. The flower is round 1 inch or so in diameter.

Image courtesy of Beau Bo D'Or

Burmese protests continue in face of threats

Protests in Burma triggered by a government decision last month to double fuel prices of fuel last month continue, despite warnings from the military. Chanting "we want dialogue" and "democracy, democracy" tens of thousands of monks and civilians staged new anti-government protests .

The protestors marched from Shwedagon pagoda into the commercial centre of Rangoon, where they gathered around Sule pagoda and nearby city hall."National reconciliation is very important for us... The monks are standing up for the people," proclaimed poet Aung Way. One monk told the Associated Press: "People do not tolerate the military government any longer."

The monks - who have been spearheading the protests - have been handing out pictures of Burmese independence hero Aung San, the deceased father of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. They are also carrying flags, including some bearing the image of a fighting peacock used by students during the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, witnesses told Reuters news agency. Students were also openly marching yesterday. The junta, which violently repressed the 1988 protests killing some 3,000 people, finally broke its silence over the mounting protests late on Monday, saying that it was ready to "take action" against the monks. It repeated its warning in state media on Tuesday, ordering monks not to get involved in politics and accusing them of allowing themselves to be manipulated by the foreign media.

The Dalai Lama, has given his backing to the monks' call for freedom and democracy.

Usmanov's bully boy antics discussed on Radio 5

The Wardman Wire has a recording of yesterday's Radio 5 discussion about the action taken by Alisher Usmanov (who may or may not be a corrupt, criminal scumbag) and Shillings (who probably don't eat babies for lunch but who may well sacrifice the odd virgin to Satan) against Craig Murray and Tim Ireland.

The discussion, which included input from Clive Summerfield, Bob Piper, Mr Eugenides and a libel expert, covered a wide range of topics, including the sequence of events that led to the removal of Craig Murray's site and the other sites, including the one for the London Bach Choir and British libel law in general.

It is very well worth a listen

John Cale - I Keep a Close Watch

Suburban genocidaires in extradition hearings.

My earlier posts Genocidaires in Suburbia, Genocidaires Still in Suburbia and Genocidaires no Longer in Suburbia? also refer. Today’s Guardian reports that the four Rwandans Charles Munyaneza, Celestin Ugirashebuja, Emmanuel Nteziryayo and Dr Vincent Bajinya, are currently contesting extradition to Rwanda.

Of the four, the charges against Bayinja appear to be the most serious. Yesterday Westminster Magistrate court head that Bajinya was a member of the governing MRND party, and present at a key 1993 meeting in a stadium in Kigali at which the anti-Tutsi "Hutu Power" movement was said to have been born. "He played a high-profile role in that meeting, being the master of ceremonies," said James Lewis, representing the Rwandan government. "The primary purpose of that meeting was to encourage Hutus to dissociate themselves from the enemy."

Bayinja is then alleged to have attended a series of "genocide meetings" in Kigali and become a leader in the Interahamwe militia. He set up roadblocks in the Rugenge area of Kigali, ordering the militia to kill anyone they suspected of being a Tutsi. Court papers allege that in one incident a man called Leandre, suspected of being a Tutsi, was brought to a roadblock where Bajinya was allegedly giving orders. Bajinya is accused of ordering the militia to "cut Leandre into pieces so that he would not recover". Bajinya also, allegedly, led a party to a house where a Tutsi woman was taking refuge with her two-month-old baby, the papers show. After the baby was killed, Dr Bajinya is accused of personally interrogating the woman about where her fellow inyenzi (cockroaches) were before a militia man shot her dead.

Charles Munyaneza was bourgmestre (mayor) of the Kinyamakara commune, the court heard. Mr Lewis said: "He organised the training of the Interahamwe militias, he instituted and supervised road blocks established to identify Tutsis from the identity cards which separated ethnic groups. "Once the Tutsis were identified they were killed by the Interahamwe." Emmanuel Nteziryayo,was bourgmestre of the Mudasomwa commune, and allegedly handed out weapons, oversaw roadblocks and once drove Tutsis to a police station to be killed. Ugirashebuja, was bourgmestre of the Kigoma commune. He is also accused of organising road blocks, urging Hutus to kill Tutsis and distributing guns.

Schillings surveying the wreckage

A little while ago I got a visitor from Sheffield. “Well big wow!”, say both my readers The visitor (IP address is 217.33.207.164) was Schillings “Shysters to the rich and famous – corpulent Uzbek oligarchs, a speciality”


Presumably, some minion has been tasked with performing Google searches to see how their bully boy tactics against Craig Murray have fared. The search that brought Schillings to the Poor Mouth was “Usmanov criminal”. The Poor Mouth was just one of nearly 43,000 results and what they saw on my post Alisher Usmanov and the "Streisand Effect" was mild to what came before and after.


Rather than gag Murray’s allegations dozens of websites blogs and fora now carry links to the allegations or the allegations in full. In addition, I am sure they will not be pleased to see their client described as a “c*nt-faced criminal” and “big fat lying cheating criminal c*nt”

Why can’t I stop laughing?

On the other hand

If there is a snap election then I will have to get off my fat arse and do some party work....not that we stand a chance of unseating Andrew Rosindell. Then again, nobody thought Eileen Gordon would beat Neubert in 1997.

Marginal MPs say “Go”

Err, perhaps that should read "MPs in Labour marginals say Go".....According to today’s Guardian Labour MPs in some marginal seats would support a decision to go for a snap autumn poll, and a surprisingly large number believe he should now take the plunge. The Guardian contacted more than 30 Labour MPs in marginal constituencies yesterday and found support for an early poll from those in the Pennines, Oxford, the West Midlands, the south-west, Edinburgh and the south coast. Mr Brown has been polling in marginals and has a clear and sustained lead. Nigel Griffiths, who represents Edinburgh South with a majority of just 405, said: "He should go for it. If we have the election now, my majority will go up from 400 to 3,000. It is a gamble, but he should take it."

Other figures such as Stephen Ladyman, chairman of the south-east group of Labour MPs, have suggested that they have a slight preference to wait until May, but they accept Mr Brown cannot be sure his standing would be so high in six months.

There has been a run of polls over the summer which indicate that Labour has a clear lead over the Tories. A poll in today’s Sun is no different - itgives Labour with an eight point lead. The Sun reports that Labour's lead rose to 17 points in the unlikely event of Mr Brown conceding a referendum on the EU's draft treaty. (Hmm I think pigs will fly on that one)

For what my view is worth, the course is clear: if the coffers can stand it then go to the country. Although our elections are not presidential (we vote for the party, not fpr a Prime Minister) , an election victory would give Brown a clear mandate in the eyes of the electorate.

Cats with Cerebellar Hypoplasia

There are a number of videos on Youtube that show the effect of Cerebellar Hypolpasia in cats. Mimi has this condition but has adapted (as they all do) and is a loving and active cat (although she can't jump and does have balance problems). Cats with CH will have a natural lifespan.



This is Charley. It could be Mimi - just imagine a little grey cat with amber eyes and a pot belly!

Robyn Hitchcock - Viva! Sea Tac

173... 192... 224... 251...292...302 and rising.....

It's amazing what the crass bully boy tactics of a corpulent Uzbek oligarch and his team of legal vultures (my sincere apologies to the birds of the genus Gyps) can do. At the moment over 300 bloggers from all across the political spectrum have expressed their outrage at Usmanov's antics.

Kudos to Chicken Yoghurt who is keeping the following list up to date.

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North, B3TA board, Naqniq, Yorkshire Ranter, The Home Of Football, UFO Breakfast Recipients, Moninski , Kerching, e-clectig, Mediocracy, Sicily Scene, Samizdata, I blog, they blog, weblog, Colcam, Some Random Thoughts, Bel is thinking, Vino S, Simply Jews, Atlantic Free Press, Registan, Filasteen, Britblog Roundup #136, Scientific Misconduct Blog, Adam Bowie, Duncan at Abcol, Camera Anguish, A Very British Dude, Whatever, Central News, Green Gathering, Leighton Cooke (224), , Skuds’ Sister’s Brother, Contrast News, Poliblog Perspective, Parish Pump, El Gales, Noodle, Curly’s Corner Shop, Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft, otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder Dragon, Cybersoc, Achievable Life, Paperholic, Creative-i, Raedwald, Nobody’s Friend, Lobster Blogster, Panchromatica (251), Back off, man…, Dan Hardie, Krusenstern, Brendadada, Freace, Boriswatch, Fork Handles, Chris Applegate, Christopher Glamorgan, West Virginia Rebel’s Blog, Instapundit, Powerpymes, iDiligence Forum, Gizmotastic, Demos, Gary Andrews, Neweurasia , Never Trust a Hippy, sub specie aeternitatis, Bananas in the Falklands, The Sharpener, Virtual Light, Stu News, Scraps of Moscow, Danivon, As A Dodo, La Russophobe, PJC Journal, Mick Fealty’s Brassneck, dead brains don’t dance, A Comfortable Place, Bamblog, Robert Amsterdam, The Customer, No Longer at Ease, Rachel-Catherine, Humaniform, Mike Rouse, Chesus Yuste, anticapitalista, Aderyn Cân, Ulla’s Amazing Wee Blog (294), Ross200, Disruptive, Internazionale.it, The Obscurer, A Lefty Down Under, Things I Learned or Made Up, Pickled Bushman, Persons Unknown (302).

Football in Finland

I daresay the list will continue to grow.

Photo Hunt - Paper

The theme for this week's PhotoHunt is Paper. Again I had to think about this but decided to re-post a painting (on paper) given to me two years ago by the extremely talented Iranian artist Elahe heidari.


Ever since I first saw her work a few years ago I have been taken by the power of her work, particularly her portrayal of women. I was honoured when she sent this painting to me and more recently this magnificent drawing.


I know I posted this for a Wordless Wednesday but I love her work so much I want to share it with as many people as I can - so sorry if you have seen it before!


Finally, because I posted photos of two of my favourite pens last week, someone asked whether I had the handwriting to match. I think this picture is the answer.

For info. The top line is written with my right hand and says "The quality of mercy is not strained" The bottom line is with my left hand and says the Koala tea of Mersey is not strained *the punchline of a corny joke_

Blogosphere mugs Jabba the Uzbek

Usmanov and his shysters Schillings are like a pit bull and its owner – An inadequate with a dog that should be muzzled and castrated. But I digress (I just felt like saying that) It is good to see that Channel 4 News has picked up on Usmanov’s stupid antics and the response across the blogosphere.

Going by the title “Blogosphere mugging for Usmanov” Channel 4 News notes the revolt across the blogosphere noting that over 100 high profile bloggers (plus the Poor Mouth) have posted on this outrage. Interestingly Channel 4 News noted that Usmanov's prison sentence was for corruption although he claims that this was “politically motivated" (why is my bullshit detector going off?)

Sunny Hundal of Pickled Politics appeared on More 4 News earlier this evening to discuss the case His interview can be seen at Mike Power’s Not a Blog. It is well worth watching (thanks to Tyger for the tip)

In addition both the Guardian and the Times are carrying the story with an emphasis on the closure of Boris Johnson's website. Johnson is unsurprisingly angry calling the closure of his website, calling it "a serious erosion of free speech". "This is London, not Uzbekistan., "It is unbelievable that a website can be wiped out on the say-so of some tycoon. We live in a world where internet communication is increasingly vital, and this is a serious erosion of free speech." He said. Bob Piper whose blog was also shut down (neither had anything to do with the case whatsoever) describes the shut-down of his site as “outrageous”

Alisher Usmanov and the “Streisand Effect”

I will freely admit that I am away with the fairies and a lot of things simply pass me by. I had originally planned to put together a humorous post (probably only to me) comparing and contrasting McGonagall’s abolitionist poem “The Demon Drink” with Flann O’Brien’s celebration of stout “The Workman’s Friend”. That is until I paid one of my regular visits to Tygerland, (Tyger being one of my favourite bloggers) and saw a post explaining why a number of websites are currently unavailable (those belonging to Craig Murray, Bob Piper, Boris Johnson and Tim Ireland). The reason for the outage is muzzling action in response to allegations made by Craig Murray (the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan turned gadfly) about Russian/Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov who has recently purchased a substantial stake in Arsenal FC.

Before going on I would strongly recommend these excellent posts at Chicken Yoghurt and Mr Eugenides

So what is this all about? On 2 September Craig Murray wrote a damning piece about Usmanov on his website (the article is still available on other sites. Do a simple search). The basic thrust of the post is that Usmanov is, allegedly, a “crook and a criminal”.

Craig Murray took apart a press release which claimed that Usmanov did not have a criminal record. Although he had been “imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime” he had been pardoned after “Mikhail Gorbachev took office”. All references to his convictions had been “expunged from police records” Essentially the release indicates that Usmanov is a fine fellow with no skeletons in his closet.

According to Murray, Usmanov served six years in prison and hat he was pardoned by Islom Karimov, the then president of the Uzbek SSR, subsequently the first (and only) president (read dictator) of Uzbekistan. While his pardon did indeed take place after Gorbachev took office it is utterly disingenuous to intimate that he had any part in the pardon. Murray claims that the pardon was ordered because of Karimov’s alliance with Usmanov’s mentor, Gafur Rakhimov, a mafia boss and drug trafficker. The allegations about Rakhimov’s criminal activities appear to be widespread. Interestingly, he was barred from entering Australia for the Sydney Olympics despite being an official of the Uzbek national team.

The allegations continue and if they are even partially true, Usmanov is not a fit person even to run a bath. If they can be substantiated then he should be barred from the UK forthwith.

At present Usmanov does not seem to have commenced libel proceedings against Craig Murray. On 8 September the Times reported that Usmanov’s lawyers were “forced to write” to the internet service provider which hosts Murray’s website demanding that it take down the. In a letter Murray was described as having “an axe to grind” and that he had made “a number of grossly defamatory and completely unsubstantiated allegations about our client in his book Murder in Samarkand and on his website.” It goes on to say that they had “been forced to issue a takedown notice against Murray’s ISP”

In response Murray said that he had not been approached by the lawyers but that he rather hoped. “Usmanov’s hyperactive and expensive lawyers will sue me for libel"

On 12 September the Guardian reported that his lawyers Shills, sorry Shysters, Hang I’ve got it – Schillings (the amount they would sell their grannies down the river for I suppose) had been in touch with several independent Arsenal supporters' websites and blogs warning them to remove postings referring to allegations made against him by Murray. From a quick trawl of sites earlier it seems that Schillings’ approach had been unsuccessful.

Yesterday, Murray’s ISP took down his site. Actually they seem to have taken down the whole server which is why the other sites have vanished too. The likes of Bob Piper and Boris Johnson are suffering from “collateral damage”. While no lover of Bullingdon Boris the shut down cannot come at a worse time for him given that he is a front runner in the race to become the Tory candidate in next year’s London mayoral race. The ISP’s approach is spineless and I hope the victims of this "collateral damage" have a case for legal action against them.

If Usmanov thought that muzzling Murray would put an end to this story he is most definitely wrong. All it seems to have done is fan the flames: quite a lot of people have already posted pieces on this ridiculous event and it is likely that more and more will do so. Iain Dale, who has no cause to love Tim Ireland, has spoken out in his defence .I hope that the story will make it into the press, causing Usmanov and his legal lackeys substantial embarrassment. Meanwhile, Labour MP Tom Watson has stated that he will be raising the matter of Usmanov’s Arsenal bid with colleagues.

Usmanov chose not to take Murray to court even though our libel laws are ridiculously biased in favour of the plaintiff. He has taken no action against his book Murder in Samarkand which is still freely available despite claiming that it containing “defamatory” statements about him. It is high time the UK came kicking and screaming into the 19^th century by having our own version of the American First Amendment. While this will protect some unsavoury characters it would guarantee our freedom of speech and provide at least some protection against (allegedly) criminal oligarchs.

What is the Streisand Effect? This comes from a post on this tawdry tale by sports writer David Warner (I can thank Mr Eugenides for the link to his post). It relates to Streisand's ridiculous 2003 lawsuit against a photographer who had taken an aerial picture of her Malibu home. The photo was taken as part of a publicly funded coastline erosion study and her home was not labelled. Within days the photos of her house were all over the web! With any luck Usmanov and his amoral shysters will get a taste of the same medicine.

Finally Sinclairs Musings (Hat tip to Tyger for the link) has an excellent post which starts "We are all bloggerheads now". When he says that "it's a big issue that can only be addressed by a collective refusal to be cowed" I agree wholeheartedly. Perhaps we all should stand up and say Ich bin ein bloggerhead...

Public Enemy Number One

Alisher Usmanov. His moves to have Craig Murray's website taken down along with those belonging to Tim Ireland, Boris Johnson and Bob Piper (collateral damage so to speak) are being reported over the blogosphere. I will add my own piece shortly.

In the meantime I think the least correct Russian description of Usmanov is:

SIMPATICHCHNOY KOTYENOK

Oh no the human's got his camera out....

Bugger off, I'm asleep

That bloody flash. I'll kill him

Do that again and I'll do to you what you did to me as a kitten

This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

Time to Countersue Roy L Pearson?

I was looking at my blog stats a little while ago and I was surprised to see that there had been a big surge again on my posts about Roy L Pearson (Roy L Pearson in "The Wrong Trousers" and Roy L Pearson to lose his shirt? )

Roy L Pearson was a judge who launched a ludicrous campaign against a dry cleaners over an allegedly lost pair of trousers (pants to you Americans!). The judge in the case threw the case out but it was so idiotic it should never have come to court.

Now it seems that the owners of the dry cleaning shop have closed and sold the shop involved in the dispute. According to an AP report, the owners are citing a loss of revenue and the emotional strain of defending the lawsuit. They will focus their energy on another dry-cleaning shop they still own.

"This is a truly tragic example of how devastating frivolous litigation can be to the American people and to small businesses," their attorney Chris Manning said in a statement. The Chungs incurred more than $100,000 in legal expenses, which were eventually paid with help from fundraisers and donations. Even after the trial ended favourably the Chungs lost customers and revenue. They have now closed two of their three businesses since the lawsuit began.

Apparently Pearson is pursuing an appeal (presumably seeking to call God as a a witness) and has made no comment on this development.

I wonder if there is scope to counter sue Pearson back to the stone age. At least he wont have to worry about lost trousers again....

Giuliani hits the campaign trail....... in London?

"He's due at 12.35," one woman murmured to another in the plush, dimly lit lobby of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge yesterday lunchtime. "But he might be late. You know how these things go." It was 12.32. Exactly three minutes later, Rudy Giuliani sprang from a black Jaguar and bounded up the hotel's rear steps into an ornate dining room; three seconds after that, he was shaking hands with campaign donors.

That is the opening paragraph in an article in today’s Guardian. I know I haven’t been very well over the last month and I don’t always read the papers but I didn’t realise Old Glory had a new star. Like many other citizens of this sceptre Isle it sometimes feels like we are the 51^st state of the USA but I never realised it had happened!

In reality he was here for a fundraiser and to glad hand current and former prime ministers: in one 24-hour trip to London, met Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, and of course Margaret Thatcher (why did he not meet John Major, the mind boggles). Winston Churchill’s granddaughter spoke at a fundraising lunch at the Mandarin Oriental - tickets cost $1,000 each (£500), or $2,300 with the bonus of having your photo taken alongside Mr Giuliani. ($2,300 being the upper limit on $2,300 for individual donations at this stage in the race. Donations can come only from US citizens.).

Giuliani is not alone: Republican candidate Fred Thompson was here earlier in the year, while Bill Clinton will be holding an event for Hillary in Windsor next month; two weeks later Michelle Obama does the same in London for her husband. There is a good reason to devote some resources to overseas campaigning: There are over 6million American expatriates worldwide, of which around 200,000 liver in the UK. If the presidential race is very close then these votes could make all the difference – overseas ballots are reckoned to have swung the result in last year’s Senate election in Virginia to the Democrats.

Apparently both Giuliani and Clinton have also been fighting to claim the mantle of Margaret Thatcher for themselves as she is seen in US politics as a proxy for Ronald Reagan - and a useful reference-point for candidates desperate to distance themselves from George Bush and his foreign policies while retaining an aura of toughness. Mrs Clinton's campaign chairman has made the link explicit, saying the former First Lady would campaign as the new Iron Lady (although, he conceded, "their policies are totally different").

I doubt any candidates will be coming to Romford although they could go to a $5 a head fund raiser by the burger van outside the station on a weekend night, with a doner kebab thrown in, or a Donner kebab if it’s the US Cannibal Party.... Woo hoo I’ve been dying for an excuse to make that lame joke on this blog for ages!

Perhaps some justice?

Some very, very belated good news and hopefully a little justice for a Khmer Rouge butcher: Cambodian police have arrested Nuon Chea, the most senior survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Nuon Chea, 82, who was arrested as part of a UN-backed genocide investigation, has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and Cambodian and foreign judges at a special genocide tribunal.

Known as “Brother Number 2”, he was second-in-command to Pol Pot from 1975-79 - during this 1m people, possibly more, were butchered. He has spent the past few decades living freely in Pailin near the Thai border, the movement's former jungle headquarters.

Nuon Chea rose quickly through the ranks of the Khmer Rouge, as it grew from a small Maoist rebel group to a force capable of taking over the country. Analysts say he had an important decision-making role in the regime, which instituted radical policies aimed at creating an agrarian utopia, but in reality caused the deaths of more than a million people through hunger, illness, overwork and execution. Nuon Chea himself has consistently denied any responsibility for the deaths, but earlier this year he indicated he was ready to face the tribunal.

UN-backed trials are finally expected to begin next year. Only one other suspect, Kang Kek Ieu - also known as Duch - has so far been detained Duch, who was arrested in July, was in charge of the notorious S21 jail in Phnom Penh, where more than 17,000 men, women and children are thought to have been imprisoned and brutally tortured. Four other people are said to be under investigation.

Survivors have welcomed the charges against Nong Chea and Duch, but they have also expressed doubts about whether these elderly leaders will ever be brought to account for their deeds during the Khmer Rouge years.

Why did it take so long for This butcher to be arrested? Why was a Khmer Rouge apparatchik allowed to keep the Cambodian UN seat after the Fall of the Khmer Rouge? What part did the Thais play in protecting the Khmer Rouge after 1978? Did the US indirectly support the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s? The responsibility for the Killing Fields lies fairly and squarely with the Khmer Rouge butchers, there are no mitigating circumstances. I have a feeling though that the Khmer Rouge’s survival for years after their overthrow is a story that will make uncomfortable reading.........

Ahoy mateys!

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!. Shiver me Timbers, Aarrrr and so on on, me salty sea-dogs....



This instructional video is extremely helpful if you are not proficient in Pirate.

Wordless Wednesday - Hairy

This week's Wordless Wednesday features hairy things - hairy string, hairy plant stems and a very hairy fly

Memorial

This memorial stone is by the car park entrance to a church in South Weald, near where I live. It's not the memorial but the occupation of her father, the Bengal Opium Department. This is a piece of colonial history I need to find out more about

Viagra scammers convicted

Five people were convicted yesterday of a multi-million pound conspiracy to sell fake Viagra in the largest ever counterfeit drugs case in the UK. Thousands of customers bought the tablets for up to £20 each but many complained they had no effect or caused nausea.

Pills were manufactured in China and Pakistan were, smuggled into Britain, repackaged and sold online to customers in the US, UK and Bahamas. The products were almost identical to the real thing - containing 90% of the active ingredient, with carefully forged packaging, logos and patient information leaflets. Regulators said customers were put in danger because of other possible ingredients.

Salesman Gary Haywood, 58, student Ashwin Patel, 24, and businessman Zahid Mirza, 45, of Ilford, were all found guilty last month of taking part in the conspiracy. Two other defendants have not yet been named. A spokesman for the MHRA said: "There is no such thing as a safe counterfeit. For all we know they could have been made in someone's garden shed."

Presumably this is what those bloody spam adverts are really selling. I daresay there was no shortage of takers either. I was going to make jokes about splints, Mycoxafloppin and Ibepokin but this IS a family blog after all!

The Man Who Sold the World X3

As done by David Bowie - live on the Reality Tour




Nirvana - Unplugged




And finally Lulu of all people

I have not been following events anywhere with too much attention. I was intrigued by a short piece in today’s Irish Independent. Apparently the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party) was “buying time” on the prospects of a merger with Fianna Fail.

Apparently Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will today outline plans for Fianna Fail to organise in Northern Ireland, a move that could possibly involve, in the long run, a merger with the SDLP. In reality and the shorter term, it will probably entail closer co-operation between the parties.

Fianna Fail has previously resisted calls to organise in Northern Ireland but the establishment of a government, headed by the DUP and Sinn Fein means the idea of expanding into the North is not as sensitive as it would have been previously. Fianna Fail's success against Sinn Fein in the recent general election has also changed the scene.

This could be interesting. British political parties do not really organise in Northern Ireland (although at one time Unionist MPs took the Tory whip), either have parties from the Republic. Sinn Fein is the only party with representation on both sides of the border. I am not sure how this move will go down in Northern Ireland itself. In the Republic, the Labour Party (the Irish party, not the British one) will probably not be pleased as it sees the SDLP as its sister party.

Remembering a black victim of the Holocaust

I know very little about the black victims of the Holocaust so I found the article in today’s Observer about a memorial for Mahjub bin Adam Mohamed very interesting. Bin Adam is the first black person to be given a memorial in Germany as an individual victim of the genocide of the Third Reich. A Stolperstein - a bronze 'stumbling block' - will be erected on the ground outside the house in Berlin where he lived.

The memorial will be placed so that pedestrians have to step around it, and its aim is to stop future generations from thinking of the Holocaust in terms of anonymous, faceless numbers. Until now the markers have been almost exclusively established at Jewish homes, but bin Adam's Stolperstein will serve as a reminder of other minorities who were also murdered under Hitler's regime. The Stolperstein is a project conceived by artist Gunter Demnig. He plans to create a total of 12,000 markers outside houses, giving the name of the person or persons who lived there and the date on which they were taken to a concentration camp.

Bin Adam, who was born in Tanzania, joined the then colonial German East Africa services when he was 10 years old and served with the army. He emigrated to Berlin in 1929, finding work as a waiter in hotels and taking small parts in films. He married a German woman, Maria Schwander, and they had three children - Adam, Annemarie and Bodo. He was arrested in 1941, charged with the crime of 'miscegenation' and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died in November 1944.

Before WWI Germany had extensive colonies in Africa. After the First World War, France occupied the German Rhineland, deploying colonial African soldiers as the occupying force. The result was hundreds of children born to German women by African soldiers who then became a target for Hitler. In Mein Kampf, he referred to them as 'Rhineland Bastards'. By 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had been forcibly sterilised, often without anaesthetic. By the outbreak of war most black people had fled. The few who remained were exterminated.

This is a subject I will have to find out more about.

I would like to thank a person from Toronto who just became the 75,000th visitor to the Poor Mouth

Hookworms – a treatment for asthma?

Hookworms are a parasitic nematode worm that lives in the small intestine. It attaches itself to the lining of the small intestine and feeds on blood. Around 800 million people throughout the world are believed to have a hookworm infestation. In many cases it will cause anaemia to the host. As you can see from the picture it is a handsome fellow!

It comes as some surprise to read that research is underway to see if the hookworm can treat asthma. It is thought that the worm reduces the inflammatory part of the body's immune response which improves its survival chances. Researchers at the University of Nottingham hope the worms may prove effective against conditions where the immune system overreacts, including Asthma, Crohn's disease, hay fever and multiple sclerosis, in which the immune system overreacts

The idea for using hookworms came from scientists noticing that diseases such as Crohn's and MS are uncommon in regions where there is widespread hookworm infestation. So far results are encouraging - although far from conclusive. The team has done two small trials to work out what dose of the worms would be safe for patients. Although it was testing for safety, not efficacy, Prof Pritchard said that many of the patients in a hay fever trial had opted not to have the worms removed with tablets at the end because they had seen an improvement in their symptoms.

The team is now embarking on a larger trial in patients with asthma to work out whether the hookworms actually diminish symptoms.

Very intriguing! I wonder if I will ever be prescribed Hookwormolin instead of Ventolin!

Photo Hunt - Plastic

The theme for this week's PhotoHunt is plastic. This one made me rack my brain to come up with something and then I thought pens! I have a small collection of vintage and moder Conway Stewart pens, a British pen manufacturer that was in operation from 1905 to the 1970's and then from the late 1990's. Some pens were and are made of silver. gold or even casein ( the milk protein) but most are made from acrylic and are very attractive.

This pen is a modern Duro. Most modern Conway Stewarts are normally made in limited numbers, usually 1,000
This is a "Cracked Ice" pattern pen "28" from the 1950s. The cracked ice pattern is very collectable but I treat my pens as something to use rather than look at.

We were pathfinders once and young

This is a group photo of some of the last survivors of the RAF Pathfinder Force. It was taken at their annual memorial day at RAF Wyton (the Pathfinder Force HQ during WWII) last month. All of them are in their 80s or 90s now. At 81, my father is the youngest of the group. He is on the far left in the blue/grey suit. He chooses not to wear his service medals (The Defence and War medals, the 1939-45 Star, the Aircrew Europe, Africa, Italy and Burma stars).

About 3700 Pathfinders were killed during WWII, a high death rate even by RAF Bomber Command standards (45% of all operational aircrews were killed. Only one in three survived the war without injury)

As I have mentioned before my father had two very good reasons not to serve in WWII: firstly, he was a citizen of Eire, a neutral country; secondly, he was only 15 when he joined (The RAF probably still thinks he was born in 1923 rather than 1926!). Despite some awful experiences, he never regretted his war service and he is still proud to have been a member of an elite force.

He was one of many Irish men and women in the British services who uttered the well worn phrase to a fellow citizen "Aren't you glad Dev kept us out of the war!"

Mugabe record to be Zimbabwe’s number one for life

Zimbabwe may have fallen into the abyss, its people may be starving, its infrastructure has collapsed but everything is okay: president-for-life, turned Sun King, Robert Mugabe, has recorded a pop song that will surely raise the morale of a beleaguered nation. Well not quite- Mugabe’s voice has been sampled on a record called "Beitbridge" by Nonsikelelo (Nonsi).

According to Zim Online Nonsi is a popular supporter of government propaganda. The song, arranged in Zimbabwean pop style, features Nonsi’s singing lines such as: “Come to Zimbabwe and see the city of Beitbridge . . . our beautiful city . . . a symbol of a lovely country . . . the future of our children lies in our hands...” Mugabe provides the chorus: “Pamberi neBeitbridge (forward with Beitbridge) . . . nekuvaka Beitbridge (forward with developing Beitbridge) . . . kudya kuBeitbridge (food to the people of Beitbridge)... Dhorobha redu iri hatidi kuti murambe muri shure richisekwa, aiwa. Takazvipira kuti Beitbridge tiisimudzire isvike pamusoro (we don’t want Beitbridge to lag in development. We are committed to the development of Beitbridge)…”

The song is being played with “nauseating frequency” on all stations in Zimbabwe. An announcer at ZBC, who cannot be named, told Zim Online : “That one (Beitbridge) is being treated by bosses here (ZBC) as second only to the national anthem. They are so crazy about the recording and we play it at least twice in every hour. And that’s an order by the way; it’s not by choice because no sane presenter would play that kind of stuff that talks about giving food to the people of Beitbridge when everyone knows there is no food to give. It’s being spiteful; it’s sick, immoral, insensitive and ill-timed.”

Although it has reached the lower reaches of the Zimbabwe top 20, most people see it for what it is: an ugly propaganda piece created in a pointless attempt to endear Mugabe with Zimbabwe’s opposition southern regions. The sooner that Mugabe dies or is deposed, the better.

Ted - lord and master of all he surveys

This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

Okay, perhaps Labour is working after all

It is a little amusing to see that the Labour Party has just appointed Saatchi and Saatchi to handle its advertising for the next election. Saatchi and Saatchi was previously used by the Tories and its "Labour isn't working" campaign was a factor in Thatcher’s election victory in 1979.

Campaign (the trade journal of the advertising industry) describes the appointment as "laced with irony and interest". The appointment will probably fuel speculation that Gordon Brown is planning to call a snap election.

In reality there is no surprise in this move as business is business. Once Saatchi and Saatchi would have been described as loyal to the half-crown. It’s a shame that decimalisation made that joke meaningless....

Castro joins the tinfoil hat brigade

Castro points to alien implant site

Fidel Castro has joined the rabble of idiots who spout ludicrous theories about the events of September 11 conspiracy. He has accused the US of spreading disinformation about the attacks that took place six years ago.

In a 4,256-word article read on Cuban television last night (Suddenly sound bites seem a lot more attractive), Castro asserted that the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers. "Only a projectile could have created the geometrically round orifice created by the alleged airplane," he said. "We were deceived as well as the rest of the planet's inhabitants," he said. This is lie. The remains the crew and passengers of American Airlines flight 77 were found at the Pentagon crash site, and positively identified by DNA.

As for the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, Mr Castro wrote that the way the passenger jets crashed into the twin towers on September 11 and the data from the plane's black boxes "do not correspond with the criteria of mathematicians, seismologists, and information and demolition specialists". (err, I have no idea what the hell Castro is saying here).

I have one word to describe Castro and that is “TWAT”. Perhaps he should have ordered the playing of “Hard Rain” so as to give a certain ersatz Mexican an erection....

Fireworks - Siouxsie and the Banshees

One of my favourite Siouxsie songs

A further break with the Blair era

After an absence of nearly ten years a firm paw is once again residing in Downing Street. Sybil, a black and white cat owned by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and his wife, Margaret, will be the Government’s official mouser. The Darlings have brought Sybil, named after the character in Fawlty Towers, from their Edinburgh home to live in their flat above 10 Downing Street. Gordon Brown's spokesman explained: "It's quite difficult to confine cats. The Prime Minister doesn't have a problem with it. Sarah Brown doesn't have a problem with it."

Sibyl follows in the paw-steps of Wilberforce who served Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher. He was succeeded by Humphrey, a long-haired black and white stray named after Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Mandarin in the sitcom, Yes, Minister. Humphrey served Margaret Thatcher and John Major before being mysteriously "retired" in 1997 amid rumours that Cherie Blair was allergic to cats.

When No 10 announced that Humphrey had gone into retirement, photographers had to be taken to picture him posing with that day's newspapers to scotch speculation that he had been put down. Whitehall files later disclosed he had been pensioned off – with his food and vet bills paid from a Cabinet Office stipend – because he was no longer up to the job of chasing mice.

I’m empathising, honest!

I yawned my head off in school physics lessons, Psycholinguistics lectures at university had me bored stiff, tedious meetings about nugatory exercises at work made me lose the will to live. It thought I was bored stiff – in reality, I was highly attuned to the social world around me.


Research suggests that those who are prone to contagious yawning — the mysterious phenomenon by which the urge to yawn can be “caught” by watching others doing it — also have particularly high empathy for the emotions of others. Apparently they (we?) notice that others are yawning and then unconsciously mirror their actions.


A study led by Catriona Morrison, of the University of Leeds, indicated that infectious yawning is strongly linked to empathy. She found that people who are good empathisers yawn contagiously about three times as often as people with less pronounced social skills. Research led by Simon Baron-Cohen, of the University of Cambridge, had previously indicated that people who are good at systemising, or understanding how things work, are often not as good at empathising. Dr Morrison tested the theory on 40 students of psychology, an “empathising” discipline, and 40 students of engineering, which requires systemising ability. On average, the psychology students yawned 5.5 times, compared with 1.5 yawns for the engineers in the first experiment, and in a subsequent one, the average score was 28 for the psychologists and 25.5 for the engineers. Dr Morrison said that yawning, which is often related to tiredness, may have evolved as a way of improving alertness in social groups.

So the next time you’re bored stiff you have a “get out of jail free” card!

Wordless Wednesday - Upminster

This week's Wordless Wednesday features the Windmill and Tithe barn in Upminster, Essex

Noakes Windmill, a smock windmill built in 1803

Upminster Tithe Barn, built in 1450

The barn is now a museum of local history

Could the Darien Scheme have succeeded?

The Darien Scheme was an attempt by Scotland to create its own colony in the Americas. The brainchild of William Paterson, a financial wizard and founder of the. The plan was to create a settlement on the Isthmus of Panama. The idea caught the public's imagination and public subscriptions raised £500,000 – half of Scotland’s the available capital.

In July 1698 1,200 people, mostly discharged soldiers, doctors, lawyers, ministers and seamen. The adventure cost one fifth of Scotland's wealth set sail for Darien. Initially things went well in what was called New Caledonia. The indigenous tribe was friendly and the settlers wrote of the abundant region as an Eden. However, it was not long before hunger and fever decimated the settlement. The situation was not helped by the fact that the land had been already claimed by Spain. Worse still, King William III, forbade the English colony in Jamaica from helping the settlers since he did not want to offend the Spanish.

By July 1699 the settlement was abandoned – the few hundred survivors had left for New England. A second expedition had already set out and arrived in 1700. Confronted by Spanish warships they capitulated and fled. The publicly funded company lost more than £232,000, virtually bankrupting Scotland. The failure of the scheme was a key factor in the union of England and Scotland in 1707

But could it have been different? Archaeologist Mark Horton believes that the colony may not have been such an ill-conceived idea. After visiting the site he concluded that it was well chosen and that the Scots might have succeeded had it not been for the English. Prof Horton found that the rivers were navigable and would have allowed the settlers to explore the interior without having to clear swaths of jungle. The waters were also deep enough to provide natural harbours for their ships.

Carlos Fitzgerald Bernal, a Panamanian archaeologist who has also visited the site agrees the Scots were not necessarily doomed. "It could have worked for sure. The reason it probably didn't was more to do with the inner workings of the British Empire.”

“Scottish imperial dreams were seen as a disaster but Scots subsequently played a major role in the British Empire as soldiers and businessmen," said Prof Horton. "The irony is that they turned out to be great empire builders after all."

Success in Darien could have changed history, with Scotland challenging English and Spanish might with the nucleus of an empire which straddled the Atlantic and the Pacific. The English colony in Jamestown, Virginia, almost failed in 1607 after encountering similar hardships, noted Prof Horton, but it squeaked into viability. "Who would have thought Jamestown would have led to the USA?"

Curiosity kills the Basking?

I have always wanted to see a Basking shark up close as it makes its slow way just under the sea’s surface, collecting plankton and other little morsels food through its gaping mouth. They are a common sight off the west coast of Britain in summer and have become quite a tourist attraction. However a conservation group is calling for marine reserves to be set up along the British coastline to help save basking sharks from overzealous sightseers.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is reacting to a surge in sightings of the giant fish (the second largest in the world) which have led to a number of the creatures being maimed and killed. One shark was reported to have died last week after being caught in nets and another had two fins sliced off by a speedboat propeller as crowds headed out to sea following sightings off the Cornish coast.

Richard Harrington, a spokesman for the MCS, said: "This year we have had a particularly large number of sightings and the species is suffering from its new status as a tourist attraction. We have received reports of sharks being surrounded by speedboats, or approached too close. Collisions with boats are not unusual, as a feeding shark will not necessarily take evasive action. We would like to establish a network of highly protected marine reserves up and down the coastline to help put a stop to these incidents."

There is only one fully protected area in British waters, in the Bristol Channel. The proposed controlled areas would hopefully protect the sharks and other large marine wildlife, including dolphins and leatherback turtles. Among the areas likely to be designated are the Cornish coast, the Isle of Man and the Western Isles.

Perhaps I will be content with film footage of the Basking instead.

Success through Starch

Man's ability to digest starchy foods may explain the success of the human race according to a recent research. Compared with primates, humans have many more copies of a gene for the enzyme amylase which is responsible for breaking down starches. The authors speculate that the extra calories that came from starches may have been crucial for feeding the larger brains of humans. Previously, experts had wondered if meat in the diet was the answer. However, Dr Nathaniel Dominy and colleagues at the University of California Santa Cruz argue this is improbable.

"Even when you look at modern human hunter-gatherers, meat is a relatively small fraction of their diet.To think that, two to four million years ago, a small-brained, awkwardly bipedal animal could efficiently acquire meat, even by scavenging, just doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

They discovered humans carry extra copies of a gene, called AMY1, which is essential for making the salivary enzyme amylase that digests starch. In addition they found that human groups with high-starch diets tended to have more copies of AMY1 than individuals from populations with low-starch diets: the Yakut of the Arctic, whose traditional diet centres around fish, had fewer copies the Japanese, whose diet includes starchy foods like rice.

The researchers believe our earliest human ancestors began searching for new food sources other than the ripe fruits that primates eat. These were starches, stored by plants in the form of underground tubers and bulbs. In work earlier this year, the team found that animals eating tubers and bulbs produce body tissues with a chemical signature that matches what has been measured in early fossilised humans.

Professor John Dupré, a professor of philosophy of science at Exeter University urged caution. He said it was impossible to conclude that the introduction of starchy foods into the diet lay behind the emergence of larger brains in humans. "Lots of things differ between ourselves and our closest relatives and apart from the difficulty of establishing the relative places in the evolutionary sequence of any of these, the assumption that there is any one fundamental to such change is dubious. The results on amylase genes are quite interesting, and a good indication of something we are beginning to appreciate more widely - the functional plasticity of the genome."
An interesting idea but I suspect Mr Dupré is probably correct to say that will be impossible to prove that starches led to the rise of Homo. Still, it’s not as preposterous as the Italian idiots who recently suggested a link between Down’s syndrome and people from East Asia.

Hawkwind - Angels of Death

Not Hawkwind's best song by any means but it was a live standard for many years after its appearance on the 1981 album Sonic Attack (not one of their best albums either).

Viking boat found in a Merseyside pub car park

Archaeologists believe they have found the only intact Viking boat in Britain beneath the patio of a Merseyside pub. The boat was actually found first in 1938 when a labourer building a pub car park ate the Railway Inn in Meols on the Wirral, Merseyside, unearthed part of it 3 metres below ground. However, his foreman told him to cover it up, because an archaeological dig would have slowed down construction.

John McRae, who discovered the boat in 1938, told the story to his family. Before he died in 1991, his son asked him to describe the proportions of what he had seen, which he turned into a sketch. He sent the details to archaeologists at Liverpool University, who put them on record. When the pub's owner sought planning permission for a new patio, details of the buried boat emerged. Stephen Harding, an expert on the Viking settlement which once covered much of the Wirral peninsula organised a radar scan of the area which revealed a "boat-shaped anomaly". It is buried in waterlogged blue clay a medium , which preserves wood and which ensured the survival of the few Viking vessels found in Norway.

Dr Knut Paasche, of the University of Oslo, has examined the scan and believes the vessel may well be a "six faering", a six-oared boat which could carry 12 people. If this is the case then it will be the first intact Viking boat found in Britain. Examples have previously unearthed at Balladoole on the Isle of Man and Sanday in Orkney, but all that was left of these vessels were imprints in sand and some weaponry

The Wirral was an independent Viking mini-state in the 10th century. Many Viking place names remain, including Thingwall, the name of the parliament., Kirby and Pensby.

I daresay some wag somewhere will make a comment about Anglo-Saxon scallies nicking the oars.....

Christian Louboutin sees red (soles)

Not being one to read fashion magazines I had not heard of Christian Louboutin until I came across an article in today’s Independent . Apparently he’s a “shoe maestro” (as opposed to the Austin Maestro) and “stiletto-maker to the stars”, who love the exclusivity of his creations (ie, they are ridiculously expensive) . What makes his footwear distinctive is............... a red sole (Is that it?).

Louboutin is so angry that other shoe designers have copied this feature that he is attempting to trademark his red soles in the US. If successful he may try to do the same in the UK. Retailers such as Asda (owned by Walmart) may be prevented from selling Louboutin lookalikes. The designer's attack was sparked by an outbreak of “Louboutin fever” (The Center for Disease Control report no fatalities as yet) that has seen a BMW advert featuring a woman snapping off the right heel of a red-soled pair of stilettos so she could go for a drive, and so on and so forth. A New York-based footwear brand oh...DEER! is trying to block Louboutin's move by filing an opposition with the US Trademark Office.

Louboutin first started to used the red sole in 1992 after applying red nail polish on a whim. "The shiny red colour of the soles has no function other than to identify to the public that the shoes are mine... It attracts men to the women who wear my shoes," he told the US Trademark Office (oh yes, we men really look at what shoes a woman is wearing before noticing other, more obvious, attributes). Susan Scafidi, a law professor who edits counterfeitchic.com, said Deer Stags' best hope of beating Louboutin would be to claim "aesthetic function" for their own soles in that the red matches other parts of their design.

When the not-wife saw the article she agreed with me that it was just another manifestation of the bullshittery that is the bedrock of the fashion industry. She pointed out that red heels and soles (or at least sole edges) were fashionable among the rich in the 17^th century. This article at the truly fascinating website The Salacious Historian’s Lair confirms this,. I can quite understand, say Chanel trade marking its crossed C logo but red soles??? Then again there was an attempt some years ago to patent turmeric.

Perhaps Louboutin’s should look at litigation against Watermelon snow. Apparently walking on watermelon snow will often result in the walker getting bright red soles, for free (oh the horror).

Personally I think Louboutin was inspired by the humble Rickettsia, the tick borne bacteria that causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. A red rash on the sole is a common symptom of this disease. There was heroin chic some years ago; Louboutin is surely the pioneer of disease chic.

We Will Rise

By Swedish death-metal band Arch Enemy. When I first heard this song a couple of years ago I didn't immediately realise that the vocalist was female! Being a vegan Angela Gossow will not bite the heads off any bats. Being a vegan, she gets two thumbs up from the not-wife.

Murder he wrote, murder he did.

I meant to blog this story a couple of days ago but better late than never. Polish pulp fiction writer, Krystian Bala, was sentenced to 25 years in jail this week for his role in a case of abduction, torture and murder, a crime that he then used for the plot of a bestselling thriller. Bala was found guilty of orchestrating the murder seven years ago of businessman, Dariusz Janiszewski, in a crime brought on by the suspicion that the victim was sleeping with his ex-wife.

In the novel, the villain gets away with kidnapping, mutilating and murdering a young woman. Janiszewski, said to have been having an affair with Bala's ex-wife, was found in the river Oder near Wroclaw in south-west Poland in December 2000, four weeks after going missing. The police tests revealed that he was stripped almost naked and tortured. His wrists had been bound behind his back and tied to a noose around his neck before he was dumped in the river. The police had little to go on and within six months, the case was dropped. It remained closed for five years.

2003 saw the publication of Bala’s novel Amok, a story about a group of bored sadists, with the narrator, Chris, recounting the murder of a young woman. The details of the murder matched those of Janiszewski almost exactly. Bala, who often uses the first name Chris, was initially arrested in 2005 but released for lack of evidence. When further evidence came to light, Bala was re-arrested. The case against him, however, remained circumstantial.

Police uncovered evidence that Bala had known the dead man, had telephoned him around the time of his disappearance and had then sold the dead man's mobile phone on the Internet within days of the murder. Bala has protested his innocence, insisting that he derived the details for the Amok thriller from media reports of the Janiszewski murder. Sentencing Bala to 25 years', Judge Lidia Hojenska admitted that he could not be found directly guilty of carrying out the murder. But the evidence sufficed to find him guilty of planning and orchestrating the crime. "The evidence gathered gives sufficient basis to say that Krystian Bala committed the crime of leading the killing of Dariusz Janiszewski," she said.

The court heard expert and witness evidence that Bala was a control freak, eager to show off his intelligence, "pathologically jealous" and inclined to sadism. "He was pathologically jealous of his wife," said Judge Hojenska. "He could not allow his estranged wife to have ties with another man."

Photo Hunt Music

The theme for this week's PhotoHunt is music. Now I am tone deaf and can't play a musical instrument to save my life. Instead I have taken photos at some of the concerts I have attended over the last couple of years. All have appeared on previous blog posts.

Dave Brock of Hawkwind at the launch party for their last album Take Me To Your Leader, September 2005

Robyn Hitchcock performing at a Medecins Sans Frontieres benefit, December 2006

Peter Buck playing as part of the Venus 3 with Robyn Hitchcock, January 2007

Clare Szembek, keyboard player of a band called Captain, March 2007

Robyn Hitchcock, performing May 2007

Kimberley Rew, formerly of the Soft Boys and Katrina and the Waves, playing with Robyn Hitchcock at another MSF benefit, June 2007

I saw Robyn Hitchcock four times in the space of just over six months.You may have guessed that I like him a little!

Popcorn is a killer?

Microwave popcorn is a tasty snack but it is potentially lethal. The threat does not from choking or anaphylaxis but from an incurable condition known as popcorn workers' lung.

It was the love of microwave buttered popcorn that caused a relatively healthy 53-year-old American to develop severe breathing problems. The cause of his illness was tracked down to the microwave popcorn he loved so much that he would inhale steam from the bag as it came out of the oven. The link between the man's illness and popcorn was established by Dr Cecil Rose, who had been dealing with popcorn workers' lung for years as a consultant to the food industry. "I said to him this is a very weird question but bear with me, are you around a lot of popcorn? His jaw dropped,' she told The New York Times, 'How could you possibly know that about me? I am Mr Popcorn. I love popcorn'," the patient replied. He had eaten buttery microwave popcorn at least twice a day for the past 10 years. When he broke open the bags, after the steam came out, he would often inhale the fragrance because he liked it so much," Dr Rose said. Dr Rose found levels of diacetyl in the man's home after he made the snack were similar to those in microwave popcorn plants. She put him on a microwave popcorn-free diet. Six months after his diagnosis, the man has lost 50lb and his lung function has improved.

The popped kernels are not the problem; the cause of the condition is a chemical called diacetyl which is used as the butter flavouring. In high levels it is known to cause Popcorn workers lung (because of its prevalence among workers in the food industry) or more, properly, Bronchiolitis obliterans. The condition causes inflammation then destruction of the bronchioles. This results in severe shortness of breath and dry cough. Lung capacity is reduced by about 75%.

Mimi enjoys an ear rub

This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

Alien: where art unwittingly imitated life.

For me, one of the most impressive aspects of the alien in the "Alien" films was that it had two sets of jaws, movie series. Now it seems that this feature is not confined to science fiction: at least one specie of moray eel (an eel that lurks in reef crannies and reaches up to three metres (10 feet) in length) that has a second set of jaws from deep within its throat which it uses to seize prey. The animal kingdom has many mechanisms for ensuring that a meal does not escape: snakes unhinge their jaws, while most fish use suction to draw in their victims. Scientists at the University of California at Davis discovered the presence of what they call the "raptorial pharyngeal jaw" - a mobile inner jaw lined with razor-edged, hook-like teeth.



Situated in the pharynx, it can thrust forward at lightning speed into the mouth, virtually eliminating any chance a prey might have had of squirming free from the first set of jaws. It was discovered after previous research had shown that some eel species do not use suction during feeding. Marine biologists Rita Metha and Peter Wainwright wondered whether the same was true of the moray eel. To find out, they recorded high-speed videos of Muraena retifera, feeding in a laboratory aquarium. That's when then discovered the inner jaw, which is clearly visible in the film. To get an inside view of the mechanism, the researchers did a X-ray fluoroscopic analysis which gave the first detailed view of the eel's hidden dental apparatus in action. Almost as remarkable as the lunging jaw is that fact that it went unnoticed for so long.

File this one under WOW!

While on the subject of Hell

Rowan Atkinson as the devil in one of his funniest appearances outside of Blackadder



And Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder. This is from the episode in the first series where he becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.

Post number 1100

It's the Seventh Circle of Hell for me then.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Seventh Level of Hell

Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood, is the Seventh Level of Hell. The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering. This level is also home to the wood of the suicides- stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit. At the time of final judgement, their bodies will hang from their branches. In those branches the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with human faces, make their nests. Beyond the wood is scorching sand where those who committed violence against God and nature are showered with flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies. Blasphemers and sodomites writhe in pain, their tongues more loosed to lamentation, and out of their eyes gushes forth their woe. Usurers, who followed neither nature nor art, also share company in the Seventh Level.

And there was I thinking I would be a virtuous non-believer and end up in limbo. Ah well it's an eternity with usurers, sodomites and blasphemers... At least I know my friends will be there too!

Thanks go to Matt at An Insomniac where I saw this quiz first.

Mote the Scrote gets Nine Months but keeps his seat

MEP Ashley Mote was jailed today for nine months having been convicted of for falsely claiming benefits of more than £65,000. The 71 year old father of two found guilty of 21 offences following a four-week trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.

The court heard that Mote ran a successful public relations company employing 30 full-time staff until it collapsed in 1990. He then claimed housing and council tax benefits between 1991 and 1993 before finding freelance work in 1995. Mote began to claim benefits again from 1996 but failed to declare income from various enterprises including a cleaning company and gambling on the currency markets.

He was convicted by the jury of eight charges of false accounting, eight of obtaining a money transfer by deception, four of evading liability and one of failing to notify a change of circumstances. He was acquitted of four further charges. However Mote will retain his seat in Europe because he would only have been disqualified if he had received a term of imprisonment of more than 12 months. Now that IS disgraceful He should have been out on his arse forthwith.

Click here and here for earlier posts about Ashley Mote

Scroll Down for Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Gladiolus Bloom

This week's Wordless Wednesday is a bloom from one of our gladioli just as it was beginning to turm. For some reason I like flowers as they but ans as they decline, but then I am perverse.

Ancram calls for Tories to return to its dark heart.

Michael Ancram, former deputy leader of the Tory party under Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, has issued a call for David Cameron to restore the party's "soul" by returning to core values. Returning from a short sabbatical as lecturer of metaphysical politics at Miskatonic University in Arkham Massachusetts, Mr Ancram stated the he wished henceforth to be known as Michael Alhazred, His recently document, The Necronomicon: a Blueprint for Victory, has been seen in some quarters as an attack on Cameron's drive to move the Conservatives into the political centre ground.

Some elements of the Tory right have been attracted to what they feel is the true spirit of Thatcherism. There has already been some support for his proposals for inner city regeneration: “...the lightings of Heaven poured down in stroked of livid and cleansing flame, and the great pillars fell, slowly, one by one, and all they who had come hither crushed in the falling of the great stones”. However, some more centrist conservatives consider his view that Cameron is “damned forever, and cannot even find forgetfulness in red howling madness” a trifle extreme.

Conservative Central Office has made no official comment on Mr Alhazred’s document except to reject a call for David Cameron to change his surname to Cthulhu “We do not feel that name would attract the centre ground”, a spokesman said.

Big Brother was watching Orwell

The release of new papers to the National Archives usually fills a few column inches in the “quality” press and the reports can be make quite interesting reading (they will of course ignore the more mundane in favour of the sensational or unusual). Yesterday papers relating to police surveillances from the 1920 to the 1960s were released to the archives.

Of greatest interest, perhaps, will be the files relating to George Orwell. His file starts in January 1929, when he offered to work as Paris correspondent of the communist newspaper the Workers' Life (the forerunner of the Daily Worker and the Morning Star). During the 30s it notes that he helped out at a left wing bookshop, Booklovers' Corner in Hampstead, where he was a friend of the owner, Francis Westrope. According to a report "[He] and Blair are on friendly terms and the latter is known to spend a good deal of time at the shop. He has on occasion conducted the business. Westrope is known to hold socialist views and considers himself an 'intellectual'."

The file contains a cutting from the Manchester Guardian in September 1938, noting that Orwell had signed the Joint Peace Manifesto alongside the Peace Pledge Union, the Quakers and the Labour party. Two years earlier, the chief constable of Wigan had requested information about the writer, who had been seen addressing Communist party meetings in the town.

The police never found enough on Orwell to prevent him obtaining a passport or being accredited as a war correspondent for the Observer. A record in the file, dated 1942, describes him as someone who "has been a bit of an anarchist in his day and in touch with extremist elements". It adds that he had "undoubtedly strong left wing views, but he is a long way from orthodox Communism

On the other hand one Sergeant Ewing of Special Branch who monitored Orwell's attempt to recruit Indians to work for the BBC's India service in January 1942, noted: "This man has advanced communist views ... He dresses in a bohemian fashion both at his office and in his leisure hours." However, a Home Office official named W Ogilvie responded a few days later: “...I gathered that the good sergeant was rather at a loss as to how he could describe this rather individual line, hence the expression ... This fits in with the picture we have of Blair@Orwell [sic]. It is evident from his recent writings ... that he does not hold with the Communist party, nor they with him." The authorities finally decided Orwell was not a communist from his answers to a questionnaire posed to leading leftwing figures and published in Left magazine, including the question: "Should Socialists support the British war effort?" to which he answered, "yes".

One file contains interviews over years with a Russian defector, Leon Helfland, who had been a KGB officer and assassin, and charge d'affaires in the Soviet embassy in Rome for seven years until he fled to the US in 1940. Helfland told an astonished British consular official named WH Gallienne over lunch in New York in 1941 that the Soviets, Italians and Germans had read every telegram and document from the British embassy in Rome from 1933: "Mr H said they often marvelled at our laxity." Helfland never named the spy involved, but it is known to have been the Italian valet of the British ambassador, Sir Eric Drummond, who refused to believe that his servant could have betrayed Britain.

My Angel - Rock Goddess

I've always been a partial to a bit of HM. Rock Goddess made a minor splash in the 80s then faded away. I saw them at university (late 81 or early 82?) teamed with a band called the Androids of Mu.

MacGonagall tackles a political issue of the day

I am utterly grateful to MacGonagall Online and its “Gem of the day” service which delivers a poem by William Topaz to my inbox every morning. Today’s offering is “Women’s Suffrage” in which he shows his whole-hearted support for the extension of the vote to women. Sadly his laudable sentiments are undermined by his ineptitude as a poet Here is an extract for your delight and delectation:

Fellow men! why should the lords try to despise
And prohibit women from having the benefit of the parliamentary Franchise ?
When they pay the same taxes as you and me,
I consider they ought to have the same liberty.

And I consider if they are not allowed the same liberty,
From taxation every one of them should be set free;
And if they are not, it is really very unfair,
And an act of injustice I most solemnly declare....

....And that, in my opinion, is really very unjust;
But the time is not far distant, I most earnestly trust,
When women will have a parliamentary vote,
And many of them, I hope, will wear a better petticoat.

And I hope that God will aid them in this enterprise,
And enable them to obtain the parliamentary Franchise;
And rally together, and make a bold stand,
And demand the parliamentary Franchise throughout Scotland....


...Therefore go on brave women! and never fear,
Although your case may seem dark and drear,
And put your trust in God, for He is strong;
And ye will gain the parliamentary Franchise before very long.

Wonderful stuff! The world would have been a poorer place if William Topaz MacGonagall had not existed.

The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens

The story of the 50 or so Britons who served in the SS unit the British Free Corps (BFC) has become fairly well known over the last decade or so, in no small part due to Adrian Weale’s excellent book Renegades: Hitler’s Englishmen. There is also a wealth of information on the BFC on the Internet. The Wikipedia entry on the unit is a reasonable place to start and has links to a number of other informative sites.


Far less well know is the story of the Germans who served in the British Forces. A recent book, the king’s most loyal enemy aliens by Helen Fry should do a little to redress this. It is certainly going on my “must purchase asap” list.

Today’s Observer ran an article about these men. Apparently more than 10,000 Germans and Austrians volunteered to join the British armed forces. They became soldiers, sailors and airmen, took part in operations behind enemy lines, carried out vital intelligence work and participated in the D-Day landings. The Great majority, around 85 to 90 per cent of them, were Jewish, many of whom would have lost family members in the Holocaust. The remainder were anti-Nazis and the 'degenerate artists' who knew what Britain was up against. Some of them would have seen the inside of concentration camps before leaving Germany.

Claus Ascher was born in Berlin in 1922. After the Second World War broke out, he was quick to volunteer his services. “The war had broken out and we felt it was our affair as much as anyone else's,” he recalled. “We were very aware of the generosity and compassion of Britain. We owed a debt to this country for saving our lives. I wasn't opposed to Germany, but I certainly was interested in fighting the Nazis.'

Like many others He took an English name. Anson said: 'My old name began with an A and, when I had to choose a new one, an Avro Anson twin-engine flew over, so I thought right, I'll have that.' Anson's father was a German First World War veteran who was disillusioned by Hitler's rise to power. He was identified as a political subversive, interned at Dachau concentration camp and murdered in 1937. Anson escaped to Britain just before his 17th birthday. In 1940 he volunteered for the armed forces, initially joining the only unit open to the refugees the non-combatant Pioneer Corps, known as 'the king's most loyal enemy aliens'. In 1942 enemy aliens were allowed to enlist in fighting units, and Anson was eventually attached to 40 Royal Marine Commando.

The risks were high: Germans caught behind enemy lines were tortured and executed as traitors. Many of those who survived helped rebuild their homelands and hunt for Nazi war criminals before settling in Britain for good. They included Sir Ken Adam, the only German fighter pilot in the RAF, who became a production designer on more than 70 films, Lord Claus Moser, former chairman of the Royal Opera House, Martin Freud, the eldest son of Sigmund Freud, and John Langford, who was Churchill's bodyguard.

The man who caught Britain's most notorious traitor was also German. Geoffrey Perry, born Horst Pinschewer, was a British army intelligence officer when he apprehended William Joyce, the propagandist 'Lord Haw Haw'. Perry, who witnessed fighting in Normandy and the horrors of Belsen concentration camp, said that, despite his nationality, he had met no hostility from fellow soldiers. 'The uniform was a common denominator. Whether you were born in Manchester or Berlin then was of little importance. They knew what you did for the army.' He added: 'The army changed my name for me. At 85, I have Perry grandchildren and my other name is long gone. If you asked my grandchildren I don't think they'd be able to spell it.'

Now more that than 60 years on over 100 veterans will gather for their first reunion at the Imperial War Museum in London. They will be welcomed by Field Marshal Lord Bramall, former chief of the general Staff, at a private event to mark their contribution to the allied victory.

Sir Mike Jackson launches attack on US policy in Iraq

General Sir Mike Jackson , who served as Chief of the General Staff (head of the British Army) during the invasion of Iraq, has launched a scathing attack on the United States for the way it handled the post-war administration of the country. Writing in his autobiography Soldier his comments are the most outspoken criticism by a senior British officer of US military policy and they highlight the tensions between the British command and the Pentagon during the build-up to and the aftermath of the Iraq campaign in 2003.

Sir Mike’s anger is particularly directed at Donald Rumsfeld who he considers "intellectually bankrupt". He accuses Rumsfeld of being "one of those most responsible for the current situation in Iraq" for his refusal to deploy enough troops to maintain law and order after the collapse of Saddam's regime, and for discarding detailed plans for the post-conflict administration of Iraq that had been drawn up by the US State Department.

Sir Mike views failure of the US-led coalition to suppress the Iraqi insurgency was down to the Pentagon's refusal to deploy enough troops. A combined force of 400,000 would be needed to control a country the size of Iraq, but even with the extra troops recently deployed for the US military's "surge" the coalition has struggled to reach half that figure. Furthermore the decision to hand control of the post-invasion running of Iraq to the Pentagon meant that "All the planning carried out by the State Department went to waste." For Mr Rumsfeld and his neo-conservative supporters "it was an ideological article of faith that the coalition forces would be accepted as a liberating army. Once you had decapitated Saddam Hussein's regime, a model democratic society would inevitably emerge."

He and other senior British officers were opposed to the Pentagon's decision to disband the Iraqi army after Saddam's overthrow, a decision he says "was very short-sighted … We should have kept the Iraqi security services in being and put them under the command of the coalition." He also reveals that he and other senior officers had doubts about the weapons of mass destruction dossier presented by the Blair government in late 2002. "Its release caused a stir in military circles", particularly the suggestion that the UK could face a threat of attack at 45 minutes' notice. "We all knew that it was impossible for Iraq to threaten the UK mainland. Saddam's Scud missiles could barely have reached our bases on Cyprus, and certainly no more distant target."

However he was satisfied about the legality of invading Iraq by careful study of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and concluded that action was "legitimate under international law without a 'second' resolution. "Having had some part to play in putting Slobodan Milosevic into a cell in The Hague, I had no wish to be his next-door neighbour."

This is powerful stuff and a damning indictment on US policy in Iraq coming from someone who would have been intimately involved in the invasion of Iraq. It is clear that his criticisms are aimed, not at the invasion itself – he supported the action or at least considered it legal – but the way in which the government of Iraq, post-invasion, was handled. It certainly does not besmirch the memory of those who have lost their lives in Iraq over the last four years.

I would have once thought it unusual for an officer in his position to be so outspoken. However, Sir Mike’s successor, Sir Richard Dannatt went on record last year saying “The point that I'm trying to make is the mere fact that we are still in some places exacerbates violence from those who want to destabilise Iraqi democracy”. In a different field, retired general Lord Ramsbotham was certainly independently minded during his tenure as Chief Inspector of Prisons.