2005

Hear that? That’s the sound of Professor Mark Grimsley and friends interrogating the project of military history. They’ve dragged it into a windowless seminar room to slap it around, maybe turn on the white noise. Goddamn projects – it’s all they deserve. It’s certainly an interesting blog, even though the curious structure makes it a…

With the announcement of Labour’s new immigration policy, we can at last be entirely sure that the extended election campaign has gripped home. And it’s ugly, dammit. Both big parties are now committed to a policy of dramatic cuts in immigration and of a whole new philosophy on this issue. Crucially, the proposals Charles Clarke…

Here we have the site of some Swedes and their football-shaped robot, designed for planetary exploration and being commercialised for security patrolling. There’s an interesting video. Via Schockwellenreiter. Also check out this (German) report on a similar NASA project, a large white sphere blown by the wind across Antarctica…does anyone feel that they watch The…

or is it everyone else? When you encounter things like this, you wonder. Especially when you see some other bloggers’ responses, especially Brad DeLong who ought to know better. Apparently it’s ridiculous to, uh, switch off the computer when you aren’t using it. Why would anyone do anything else? Do these people really think it’s…

A comment brings us news about the RAF Hercules that was destroyed on election day in Iraq. (Thanks – you know who you are.) Apparently it is now thought that it met its end at the hands of a Soviet-made SA-4 Ganef SAM, in some modified form. That would explain some things – the engagement…

At 0950:55 today, 195.229.241.183 (some server at the UAE’s state-run ISP) searched Yahoo! for “Ali Abdullah Saleh sex porno photo” and hit the Ranter. We are the 5th out of 9 results for this bizarre inquiry. Ali Abdullah Saleh is apparently the president of the Yemen. Needless to say, we have no such photos of…

Worth reading, about that “bulge” in the president’s suit and the New York Times story that got spiked in case it affected the election. Whatever you may say about British journalism, you couldn’t imagine a British newspaper killing a story in case it affected politics – more like the other way round.

An interesting report on troubles in Baluchistan, where a growing insurgency is threatening to destabilise the country still further. Something called the BLA is blowing up trains, gas pipelines, power lines and microwave relay towers. We shall watch this one carefully.

Some more “partial results” from the Iraqi elections are out, covering the 10 southernmost provinces including Baghdad (with the proviso that only 45% of Baghdad polling stations have reported). The main line of reporting on this has been the very strong indeed showing of the UIA list – they could get as much as 66%…

Found via Gregorian Ranting, this outstanding source for weird music. As a service, here are some examples I placed in the Ranter library to spare their server: Ukrainian cover of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell Chinese-speaking version of rock’n’roll standard, Love Potion No. 9 German cover of Rappers’ Delight – beware this is really, really wrong!…