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“That’s Good, My Friend”
From Saturday’s Grauniad: The much-mocked gold taps in Saddam’s palaces were not fitted by Iraqis but a plumber from Wakefield. Brian Greenwood, 71, installed most of them in the late 1980s. When Saddam spoke to him, it was to compliment him in Arabic: “That’s good, my friend.”
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End of an Era
From BBC News, “Concorde grounded for good“. *blub* Air France and BA are going to simultaneously withdraw their Concorde fleets, probably in October after the summer season. The planes will go through a set of special events and then go off to museums. Definitely the end of an era of flight, and what a shame…
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“I Realize Now, More Than Ever, It Was All Worth It”
Meg Hourihan, one of the founders of Pyra (responsible for Blogger), has always had not wholly pleasant feelings for her experience at Pyra after everything went pseudo-titsup.com, but how tremendous to hear her realise that with the way Blogspot and Blogger are being used during the war to allow even more freedoms of speech, what…
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Fall of Baghdad Close
The mood after my previous post turned more rebellious, and Iraqi citizens started attempting to pull down the statue of Saddam in the middle of the square opposite the Palestine Hotel. US Marines joined in the effort, finally pulling down the statue just before 3pm GMT. A ridiculous and obscene gesture by a US Marine…
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Merkans Roll Through Baghdad
I’ll let the pictures do the talking —
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“And While We’re Sloganeering, TAX THE RICH!”
Scott Murray, Guardian Unlimited journo infamous for his bizarre sports coverage, has been tasked to give a blow-by-blow account of the Budget (when the Chancellor of the Exchequor announces the country’s budget for this financial year). When you read something that starts … “Good morning everyone. First, the apologies. I don’t know my PSBRs from…
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Breakfast Is Serv… What The Hell Is THAT?
This has to be the most evil excuse for ‘breakfast’ ever served — the “Hungry Man All Day Breakfast” (yes, it’s American). You chuck it in the microwave, and out comes sausages, bacon, eggs, something called ‘home fries’ and pancakes. Luckily, merkans get proper nutritional information on their munchies, something that’s only now becoming the…
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Blue On Blue Caught On Camera
John Simpson, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, was caught in a friendly fire incident while travelling with a convoy of Kurdish and US troops. He filed a report by satellite phone immediately after the attack, and a video report later in the day. Although he and his team were lightly wounded, a translator working with…
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Using DSLTV Outside Holland
Tip o’ the hat to John and Slate for this dinky workaround for DSLTV‘s irritating .nl IP address limitation … Change your browser’s proxy settings to use the HTTP proxy at 212.203.5.93 on port 3128 Visit the DSLTV website Pick a channel on the right Make clicky Sorted. Nice one.