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Thursday June 9, 2005

Global warming, erm, sunspots

Anglosphere

I'm already used to half of the Anglosphere being submissive to the Kyoto hype. But when in the Washington Post, matters get truly scary:

Blair has conceded he has no chance of persuading Bush - who questions scientists' view that manmade pollutants are responsible for increasing temperatures - to back the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

The Post could have just as easily written that Bush talked to and listened to scientists who have been investigating sunspots as well as historical data on temperature and climate variances. Apparently it's easier to just build on the image of a dumb President questioning scientists.

Oh well. It could have been worse: Canadian state-sponsored television refuses to air anti-Kyoto documentary. I guess the 4000 scientists who signed the Heidelberg Appeal matter not in Canada - like they don't in the Post.

Remember Saddam Hussein?

Urbanity

Remember the dinosaurs, erm, Saddam Hussein? I do. I even protested against his regime at the Iraqi embassy in Brussels (or rather, Ukkele) in a stars and stripes shirt. In retrospect, that might actually have been a brave act, considering Saddam's London arms and torture hoard that I just read about at the ever-fine Londonist.

Machine guns, Uzis, silencers, bugging equipment.. cattle prods?! For crying out loud!

This find is chilling to say the least, especially bearing in mind the the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in 1984 and the Iranian embassy siege of 1980. One wonders what is lurking inside the diplomatic headquarters of other less-than-friendly states.

Spooky, but there's an upside as well: I'll feel relatively safe in Brixton now.

Is Kontact still a KDE application?

Software

Omg. I was disappointed to see the To/From/Cc fields have become dynamic in KMail/Kontact for KDE 3.4. It's a mess. The duplication of auto-completion caused by working on both name and e-mail address was also annoying. Especially because the name completition didn't load contact-specific cryptography settings. But now they have gone too far:

/img/journal/20050609-kontact.png

Why would a KDE application need a configuration setting to specify whether it honours KDE behaviour?! Even worse, why does it default to off?! Morons.

Violence in Britain

Anglosphere

And another 15-year-old girl is beaten to death in the UK.

"There was a clash between the girls and the oldest girl went for Aimee and was giving her a good punching and kicking. The boys watched at first but then pulled the girls apart. The attacked girl walked a few yards then fell down." But other friends said the gang started pushing and shoving Aimee's group after demanding cigarettes.

I read reports like these every single day and every time I have to hope it's not one of my mates or loved ones.

Hopefully some day I'll be able to convince at least one of them to live a nice quiet suburban life with me in a red state outside the Bible Belt. South Florida perhaps, or coastal Texas. Maybe Neil was right about .

North Korea caught in a lie

Anglosphere

North Korea is building more nukes and they are up to no good. Readers in Seoul or Tokyo and possibly California.. be prepared.

North Korea is boosting its arsenal of nuclear weapons, the communist state's Vice-Foreign Minister, Kim Gye-gwan, has told the US ABC News network.

He said North Korea had enough atomic bombs to protect itself against attack by the US and was building more.

He refused to say whether North Korean missiles could reach the US.

Let's do some simple math. They have enough to protect themselves. Their stated purpose is self-defense. So why build more? It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to discover something's not right here.

Is North Korea merely bluffing? Quite unlikely as we all know what A. Q. Khan has been doing in his spare time: selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. So is their stated purpose a lie? Quite likely.

A nuclear missile or dirty bomb attack would be quickly linked to the country, so I am not completely convinced we're dealing with a potential aggressor. Better safe than sorry though: I want missile defense and rather today than tomorrow. Give us Star Wars, Mr. President, and none of that George Lucas crap.

Funny MySpace error

Software

I sometimes love it when software fails. Check out this funny error I got on MySpace:

Error Occurred While Processing Request

Error Diagnostic Information

An error occurred while attempting to establish a connection to the service.

The most likely cause of this problem is that the service is not currently running. You can use the 'Services' Control Panel to verify that the service is running and to restart it if necessary.

Windows NT error number 2 occurred.

Error number 2. Crap! ;-)

Update: a bit tired of MySpace errors? Check out my own community and profile site, which I am developing as alternative to MySpace, although it also has features you can use on, such as a cool gig calendar. Check it out!

Yay! I'm going to see..

Gigs

Yay! I'm going to see.. nope, not her, but HIM! Had a fab time seeing HIM (and her actually) twice in London last year during Halloween weekend.

And this year? It'll be either September 22 at Paradiso, Amsterdam (pre-sale this Saturday) or September 19 at Shepherds Bush Empire, London (pre-sale this Monday, 9am UK). I'm leaning towards Amsterdam though, I need to reserve some days off for HorrorPops. But if enough fun people come to the London gig.. I'll be there!

Next day: Friday June 10, 2005 Previous day: Wednesday June 8, 2005

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