Said the AppleDroid "No, the Internet can't be used outside of the phone."

Another demonstration of the planet-inspirising awesomeosity that is Apple.

[Sigh...]

Left Dijon at 9:00 and caught the 5:30 ferry (after a sprint around Carrefour for cheese and pate). Back home in tme for dinner.

Apologies to Melancthon for not calling in, I thought you were away. Never mind, I'll be in the area after the Paris meet in Sept so maybe then.....

so now, back to normally scheduled sarcasm

keep to the Fen Causeway

NYT | Now in Living Rooms, the Host Apparent

For clues about who might be next to get a show on MSNBC, viewers need not have looked further than "Countdown" earlier this month. For eight nights beginning just before the Fourth of July, Rachel Maddow, the host of a program on Air America, the liberal talk-radio network, served as a substitute for the vacationing Keith Olbermann.

"At some point, I don't know when, she should have a show," said Phil Griffin, hours before he was promoted on Wednesday to president of MSNBC. "She's on the short list. It's a very short list. She's at the top."

At the moment every slot at night on MSNBC is taken, with David Gregory at 6 handing off to Chris Matthews at 7, and with Dan Abrams at 9 following Mr. Olbermann at 8. But some shuffling could be in the offing; Mr. Matthews's contract, for example, is up next year.

Bye, Tweety.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

This Dutch piece of news from Metro says that according to the Dutch meteorological institute, temperature will increase twice as quick in Western Europe, compared to the global average.

The following New Scientist piece says that meltwater from ice sheets travels slowly, meaning that the melting of Greenland will raise water levels in the North Atlantic by more than expected.

Melting ice sheets will send slow wave around globe - earth - 09 July 2008 - New Scientist Environment

If the ice caps melt, low-lying coasts will disappear beneath the waves first, right? Not necessarily. The sea level "wave" takes time to travel around the globe, so Pacific islands could get a temporary reprieve, while Atlantic coasts bear the brunt.

Many climate models predict that melting in Greenland could cause a global sea level rise of more than a metre in the next century. This would engulf Pacific islands such as Kiribati and Tuvalu.

Yet Detlef Stammer of the University of Hamburg, Germany, says the majority of Greenland's meltwater will stay in the Atlantic Ocean for at least 50 years, causing sea levels here to rise faster than expected. "The Greenland ice cap is much less of a threat to tropical islands in the Pacific than it is for the coasts of North America and Europe," he says.

I'd rather fly to the US and do a week long there (US egyptian dance instructors are the best by a country mile).

keep to the Fen Causeway

well, may not so itsy bitsy...

~ Denial of citizenship for Muslim woman violates neutrality of French secularism

Rock on, Angela!  I agree.  But then I am one of those radical secularist types...

~ Chukotka remains Abramovich's business project

Looks like the Chukchi are suffering some serious grief since Roman stepped down as guv.  Not they are like, "Come back and be our Duma Chair!  We promise, you won't even have to do any work!"  Crazy stuff.  They're mad about him.  This part of the article I am posting just because it is so weirdly written:

Deputies of the local Duma gathered on July 13 to confirm the appointment of the new Chukotka governor, Roman Kopin. The procedure was brief. They also approached Abramovich on behalf of all Chukotka residents with the request to stay in the region and chair the regional Duma. The current head, Vasily Nazarenko is old and weak and is unable to perform his duties.

The deputies stressed that Abramovich would not have to work hard at this position. They know that such a busy man cannot spend all his time in Chukotka. However, the position would not demand it, the message said. It would be awkward to quote the whole message sent to the oligarch, who mainly resides in London, because it is full of praises.

~ Haha!  Even Josh Keating, who can barely let a day pass without saying something not nice about Russia, can't stop himself from posting gratuitious and apropos of nothing "Vovka out on a fishing holiday with, oops!, no shirt on" pictures!

~ From Robert Amsterdam's blog, Dima cracks down on ... old bureaucrats without the mad skillz

Russia's new 42-year-old president showed frustration with government officials who do not know how to use a computer and warned Thursday that they could soon be out of a job.

"They either should learn or, as they say, goodbye," President Dmitry Medvedev said. "We don't hire people who can't read and write. Computer literacy today is the same."

Note to White House, "We don't hire people who can't read and write."  Now, there's an idea...


"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

Whilst I'm entirely supportive of this initiative and hope Obama takes it on board, I have a question.

This is being sold to the American people as a solution to high foreign fuel prices, ie oil. All well and good, but he's really talking about elelctricity generation and there aren't any commercial oil burning power stations in the US. Have I missed anything or is this a way of selling a good thing with a slightly misleading sales pitch ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

 Treasury officials looking at ways to relax Gordon Brown's so-called fiscal rules on public borrowing.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.