Clare Short claims the UK spied on UN chief Kofi Annan in the run up to the Iraq war - and is branded "deeply irresponsible" by Tony Blair.

Yesterday, a junior spy 'secretary,' Katharine Gun, had her case dismissed, as the UK Gov offered no evidence. It seems as though they didn't want to make too much of a fuss, hoping that the fact that the US asked the UK to spy on the UN would be forgotten about.

Today, Clair Short (who I greatly admire, but I seem to be in a minority) blows the whistle on that spying, lifting it up in the press enough, that Blair has to comment and Kofi Anna's team also calls a press conference calling any spying illegal.

For sure it went on, for sure it was political spying which I believe to be morally wrong as well as illegal. I hope Tony Blair gets fried for it. Long before the next election, so Labour have a chance of winning. Right now, he's killing the party. I liken him to Nixon, and this shoddy affair to the bugging of Watergate.

This had nothing to do with national security. More to do with Blair's pride.

 Source: BBC News | Politics | UK Edition; 26/02/2004; 12:45:27.
1653  At: 6:25:59 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: US asked UK to bug the UN

No, I didn't know what the picture was either. Turns out it's a bunch of galaxies back in the early days of the universe. And those purple clouds may contain lots of gold, certainly heavy metals.

Turns out that it's likely that gold comes from the collision of neutron stars. I know we're made of star dust but hadn't realised this about gold.

And did you know that it is estimated that all the gold in the world, so far refined, could be placed in a single cube 60 ft. on a side. I remember telling my geology teacher something like that, for him to laugh at... Next time I see Mr Curly...

1652 Also posted to: space . At: 4:15:07 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Gold in them there hills dust lanes

For €3000, developers can expect early NDA access to betas and prototypes, business development advice including promotional opportunities and training and support.

Man! That's way out of reach!

1651 Also posted to: cyberSaps . At: 2:03:45 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Nokia wants better developers

"He said a civil service which could "adapt, deliver and innovate is a hugely valuable asset". It "needs to encourage and reward lateral thinking" he added.

"It needs to reward civil servants who look outwards for learning rather than up the hierarchy for approval," the prime minister said."

From what I've seen in the civil service, he's very, very, very right.. I heard the BBC 24 hour news say the word, "entrepreneurial." If only! Nothing I've seen in the civil service is entrepreneurial. When I heard that, I thought of universities, some of which have departments that look into making money out of some of their research. If the UK civil service could start thinking in that way too, they and we'd (us subjects — we're not citizens here in the UK) be so much better off.

1650 Also posted to: warBlog . At: 1:58:48 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Blair urges civil service reform

"This is so far out it is laughable..."

This Salon blogger thinks that Sunday's Observer article was rubbish. I hope so. Germany obtaining nuclear weapons? Sure that sounds unbelievable.

Still, I do watch a lot of global warming stuff on the Discovery Channel and elsewhere, mainly about the mechanics of global warming (nothing about the social or geo-political implications) and I do think the article has quite a bit of truth, all be it a lot sooner than I thought (18 years).

I wonder if those skeptical of global warming watch such programmes or know much about the earth's history of abrupt climate change.

I've downloaded the actual article and will read through it tonight. Will I feel more secure? I doubt it. Global warming is real, is happening, but what I hadn't considered, and what has shaken me is the thought of climate wars.

[Update:] Looks like this article wasn't leaked nor suppressed. Just one of those wilder contingency plans the Pentagon has thousands of. From the downloaded doc, "our intent is to dramatize the impact climate change could have on society." The Observer has over dramatised to sell papers.

1649 Also posted to: warBlog . At: 12:45:58 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Doom, gloom and global warming

Nothing worthy of blogging in my aggregator this morning. Unusually. So, I'm still digging deep into stylesheets. If anybody was asking.

1648 Also posted to: cyberSaps . At: 11:38:08 AM  . .
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PubSub Enables the bi-directional web... The PubSub Referenced URI feature enables painless and effort-free bi-directional linking and TrackBack.

I've been using PubSub for a while now, tracking anything in the blogosphere to do with my name or 'cyberSaps.' It is very good. And now they have a similar feature for URLs. Though I don't think that it will replace trackback, as with trackback notification can be instant. With PubSub, I believe that you need to see the other person's link through an aggregator. Still, very useful... Better go look and check my facts ;-)

 Source: Roland Tanglao's Weblog; 20/02/2004; 21:51:31.
1647 Also posted to: cybersaps . At: 11:34:20 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Is Trackback Obsolete?

The average rate on benchmark 30-year mortgages fell to 5.58 percent, from 5.66 percent last week, Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, said Thursday in its weekly nationwide survey of mortgage rates. This week's rate was the lowest since 5.52 percent for the week that ended July 11.

Can't pretend to understand why the US's mortgage drops while ours (UK) goes up. Nor why oil is currently priced in dollars allowing the US to run a harebrained deficit.

 Source: New York Times: Business; 20/02/2004; 21:51:26.
1646 Also posted to: cybersaps . At: 11:29:16 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: US mortgage rates decline

Stephen Dulaney announces that the SmartManila beta is up. It is a slick editing interface for Manila weblogs. This software makes it much easier to introduce nontechnical newbies in your organization to weblogging. No knowledge of tags necessary. Spell check. Undo. Forgiving editing interface (none of the browser problems you currently run into on all Web-based weblogging systems.

I'm testing this out at the moment.and thinking that I may move back over to Manila. with Radio though I have more power... I also crave simplicity. Manila has loads of that.

 Source: John Robb's Weblog; 20/02/2004; 22:45:23.
1645 Also posted to: CYBERSAPS . At: 11:24:22 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Smart Manila

I've been checking out blogdex for references to this article. I think it's so shocking that most people have dismissed it.

The observer article echoes an earlier, longer more detailed one in Fortune.

MeFiers seem to be putting their heads in the sand. Mostly.

As for me? I'm terrified of such a world, and I know it comes. Maybe it's because I have kids and worry for their future. Right now, as I look over my frosty English garden I wonder where I can run to with them. Australia? I dunno what would be happening down there. US? Not with all those flaky people with guns. Should we stay here? Siberia? People live in Siberia. But the glaciers came as far as here in the last ice age, and that could indeed, be our fate.

Sometimes I wish I never had had kids.

 Source: blogdex - the weblog diffusion index; 23/02/2004; 09:35:34.
1644 Also posted to: warblog . At: 11:21:14 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

On Friday we noted that the Danish government is also standardizing on RSS. It seems that Mr Safe has made his decision.

Alexander Svensson writes: "The German Constitutional Court now syndicates its decisions and press releases using RSS 2.0."

RSS is moving into mainland Europe, but not in the UK (grrrr).

 Source: Scripting News; 15/02/2004; 17:45:13.
1640 Also posted to: cybersaps . At: 12:19:38 PM  . .
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"What is with that little orange XML tag that is popping up all over the Internet?"

Scott Shuda the new Userland CEO outlines RSS for beginners.

1639 Also posted to: cyberSaps . At: 12:18:06 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: All About RSS

Search engine companies are stepping up their efforts to sell online ads to plumbers, dry cleaners and other small businesses, most of which do not have web sites.

Interesting that most Bobs the Builders and Sids the Greasy Spoons don't have websites.

1638 Also posted to: cyberSaps . At: 12:16:49 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: New Source of Online Ad Revenue

Scobble's at it agian. The power blogger, and networking IM'er who chats before blogging, to get his fact right, tells of how the water cooler has gone international.

 Source: The Scobleizer -- Celebrating the Geek lifestyle; 16/02/2003; 11:45:03.
1637  At: 12:07:47 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Corporate blogging

"While a few educators have already started using blogs in the classroom, more have focused on the potential of blogging in teaching and learning..."

Long  piece on edu blogging by two professors from Florida Uni.

1636 Also posted to: cyberSaps . At: 12:03:24 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Content Delivery in the 'Blogosphere'

I've been hacking stylesheets since they first appeared back in the late 90s. But this current project making 20 themes in just stylesheets is the most difficult.

I need to make sure that they work with IE6, IE5.5 and IE5.0 Win. As well as looking good in Mozilla.

Lucky for me, I don't need to consider Safari or any other Mac browsers nor Opera. These themes are for an intranet for the Government and no other browsers are needed.

Still, it's slow. Very, very slow. Make a change — check in four browsers... And of course, making each theme look the same in each browsers is extremely complex. One will, then you change to make it work in another and the first one changes... Repeat and repeat for a whole day, and all you've done for that whole day is one small piece. It's so frustrating.

1629 Also posted to: cybersaps . At: 2:26:29 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Stylesheets are hard

Officials Say Mob Stole $200 Million Using Phone Bills. New York organized crime figures bilked millions of consumers out of more than $200 million over five years by adding bogus charges.

There maybe evidence that this has spread internationally. I'll be checking my bills from all the phone companies I use: Orange, TeleWest and another from which I hire my 0800 numbers from. I've never trusted them anyway. Now, I have good reasons for my suspicions.

 Source: New York Times: NYT HomePage; 11/02/2004; 13:20:10.
1628  At: 2:06:07 PM  . .
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The Labour party is considering giving Tony Blair a weblog as part of its attempt to make its general election campaign an "engaging dialogue with the British people".

Perhaps it's one of those, 'by all means necessary' but could it be that the most powerful man in the UK said the word, blog?

Pretty sure it wouldn't be a bloggers' blog, more a news page updated by lowly labour supporters. Missing that "voice."

1627 Also posted to: warBlog . At: 1:46:10 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Blair may blog the next election

This static underline and this rollover effect are groovy, baby. This static underline and this animated rollover could be used to show external links. (Animation effects are not visible in every browser; some, such as Safari 1.0, show only the first frame.)

From Listapart. More fun with CSS.

1626 Also posted to: cyberSaps . At: 10:01:25 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Custom Underlines

Tony Blair's credibility over his use of intelligence before the Iraq invasion came under fresh assault yesterday when he said that at the time of the war he was personally unaware that Saddam Hussein did not have the ability to fire long-range chemical and biological weapons.

He "never asked?" Not even "out of curiosity."

1625 Also posted to: warBlog . At: 9:51:40 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Blair caught in Iraqi arms row

Wot? No bloggings? Yep, still up to my greasy elbows in CSS work. I'll beat these Manila themes, if it kills me.

1623 Also posted to: cyberSaps . At: 1:16:57 PM  . .
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