British-Russian Tension Escalates - New York Times

MOSCOW -- A British cultural organization on Monday defied a Russian government order to close offices in two cities, creating a fresh strain in the already tense relations between Russia and Britain.

Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador to Russia to its offices and threatened a series of punitive measures, including refusing to renew the visas of the organization's staff and opening tax proceedings against the group.

The ambassador, Anthony Brenton, remained publicly defiant after the meeting, saying that the organization planned to continue operating all of its offices. Mr. Brenton also said that Russia's demands violated international law on consular activities.

[...]

The latest disagreement centers on the operations of the British Council, an organization that is operated and funded by the British government to encourage cultural exchange between the two countries.

Of all the issues of major import to disagree on the choose to squabble over... the British Council?

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

"You can't be a successful crook with a dishonest face, now, can you?" -The Fourth Doctor

LONDON -
Associated Press

The beast of the Book of Revelation intruded into the banter of the House of Commons on Thursday when a motion calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England was numbered 666.

666 is the number of a beast that "had two horns like a lamb, and ... spake as a dragon," and that "doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men."

"It is incredible that a motion like this should have, by chance, acquired this significant number," said Bob Russell, a Liberal Democrat lawmaker.

"It looks as though God or the devil have been moving in mysterious ways," he said

It was supposed to be lentil soup.  It ended up more like... just lentils and rice.  I made the same basic thing the other night, no recipe, just tossing what I had into the pot to see how it worked out, and it was fan-tas-tic.  I blew myself away.  But since it had been largely improvised, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do it again.

Tonight, I tried, and thought it might turn out even better since I had time to go to the store & buy things that I'd wished for the previous time, like garlic and carrots.  It turned out pretty good, taste-wise, although not as good as the first batch.  But I must've gone way wrong with the measurements, because the liquid got all soaked up really fast, and it was nothing like soup at all.  Tasty, but not soup.

On another note, our cheese supply is sort of intermittent at best, but we seem to be in a particular low at the moment.  By "cheese," I mean European-style cheeses, especially hard ones, not the Arabic soft white cheeses of course, which are in great supply.  Those are fine, but... monotonous.

Usually, over the past years, I've been able to fairly consistently find two things at my local grocery:  a decent Irish-made Cheddar, and a reasonable Grand Padano.  Both have vanished completely now; the Cheddar has actually been gone for well over a month.  I kept waiting for it to come back, but there's no sign of it.

What has appeared on the shelves in the meantime is a locally made Cheddar, which I was loathe to try.  This is an indicator that they may have phased out the imported Cheddar in an effort to sell more of the local product.  Some local Euro-style cheese is OK (there's a pretty good local mozzarella) but I knew I was in for a bad time with this cheddar when I squeezed it and found it... squishy.  Cheddar should not be squishy.

Anyway, I did try it with some broccoli tonight, and it was flippin' awful.  I dunno what kind of cheese that is, but it ain't Cheddar.

Sigh.  Add Cheddar to the list of things I need to smuggle into the country now.

Thank You.

Welcome to ET, Paul Krugman

The nearest I've seen is a dismissive throwaway that it's just a dumb Kucinich move cos Kucinich is bonkers. Has anyone seen anything I've missed ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

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It works on salt! Plenty of salt in the desert. Another upside: it works day and night.

Any salt on Mars?

Let's plaster these things across Southern Europe, in Algeria, Morocco, etc.