2004

Excellent article via Calpundit: The Seven Signs of Bogus Science. An amusing work prepared by a scientist who was asked to prepare some criteria to guide judges in evaluating allegedly scientific evidence. If you’re short of time, the signs are as follows: 1. The discoverer pitches the claim directly to the media. 2. The discoverer…

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Well, it would seem that the government hasn’t entirely capitulated to the mob press over putative migrants from the new member states of the European Union. Now, every other country with the paradoxical exception of Denmark has demanded “transitional agreements” allowing them not to let people from the Central European countries in for up to…

Well, the Russian joint forces nuclear exercise reported in these pages is on, but it seems that the weirdness has struck already…story Apparently, a strategic missile submarine which was planned to launch one (or perhaps two) missiles into a test range in Siberia failed to launch. Or perhaps – depending on version – one was…

“Our information suggests that two two-inch blocks of wood were placed beneath the wheels of the trolley to stop it moving. “Apparently loading had just commenced when the trolley crushed the wood and careered downhill.” Mr Crow said there had been claims the workers were not aware that there were colleagues on the line down…

Thanks for the link, The UK Today!

Army employing students in Iraq The Army is paying students to put their degrees on hold and join troops in Iraq as Arabic interpreters. Five students have already been sent to areas under British control and 11 more are in the final stages of preparation, the Ministry of Defence said. Their work includes translating documents…

I’d forgotten this, but how strange! In her column last week, The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee decided to take the piss out of Michael Howard’s “I believe that the people should be big..”. In fact, this is what she came up with: “A Conservative government would be smaller, he warned. “Smaller government, bigger people” is their…

It seems, according to the Independent, that the Americans now believe that the storming of the police station in Fallujah was carried out not by those elusive foreign militants but by Iraqis. I believe that the fight in Fallujah was an event of the first importance, for several reasons. For a start, this was no…

Rybkin Says He Was Abducted Well, I know this is late, but as I covered the Rybkin story we might as well deal with this. Apparently he was kidnapped in Kiev and drugged: “Speaking to reporters in London, Rybkin said he had been lured to Kiev by a false offer to hold peace talks with…