Laura Rozen reports that the US government is talking about Pakistan’s “existential crisis”. (They do not mean, apparently, brooding about lobsters and smoking too much.) It’s currently being manifested by the Pakistani army fighting its way back into the Malakand Division; basic details here. Fans of Winston Churchill’s My Early Life will of course remember…
Read More support your local marplotRemember cows with blogs? Sure ya do. This week I was talking M2M technology again, but with people who are way more hardcore about it than Scottish farmers wanting to give their cows RSS feeds, or even wind turbine engineers wanting to monitor the state of their bearings and power-control electronics. Putting control logic on…
Read More IP over MudI don’t do this very often, but I’m going to link to the Mail: this is a definitive ferret kebabbing reported hatchet job on ACPO. We live in strange times; usually they only devote this sort of work to some poor woman trying to blag £5 more housing benefit. But thar ye go. It’s one…
Read More but how do I vote against them?What is the time value of scandal? One of the curious things about the current MPs’ expenses row is that the whole thing is pointless. Empty. The whole lot is going to be published anyway. So it’s interesting that the political-press complex is so obsessed by getting hold of – or concealing – information that…
Read More it’s like welfare reform but with politiciansIduntity cards. Jamie quotes a Computer Weekly article on a “business breakfast” with Jacqui Smith as proof of private sector interest in the project. A business breakfast with Jacqui Smith; the horror. I remember that a “breakfast briefing” with a certain mobile industry luminary who would always have it at Claridges when he was in…
Read More an enterprise of great advantage, but none to know what it isIran war watch; Pat Lang quotes a Ha’aretz story about the Israeli air force practising long-range missions towards Gibraltar as preparation for an attack on Iran. The original is here. The first thing that is interesting is that this story has been repeated at regular intervals for some time. In fact, I believe it’s been…
Read More still no war with IranDo you know those TV adverts for getting a really big loan to pay off all the other loans, with blue water and pretty girls, and very small print? Debt consolidation. That’s Francis Maude. That’s his job. One of Prestbury’s appointed representatives, Clear Mortgages, encouraged customers to “mortgage up to the hilt in Spain” on…
Read More Francis Maude: Toxic PusherTories. I’m in full agreement with Matthew here; I really suspect that the mood music about “austerity” (plays well with the demographics) and “IMF” is actually preparing the ground for the Conservatives to pull a deliberate financial freakout once in office. Osborne has been pushing a line that We Have No Idea How Bad It…
Read More Osborne goes cap in hand to the IMFSo, it’s over; the British Army’s responsibilities in southern Iraq have been handed over, and now the rapid drawdown begins. Colour me delighted. But…this is also the last opportunity to do anything for past Iraqi employees. I’m aware that some number of them were taken to the UK, but I reckon someone ought to make…
Read More IraqA data point from Germany. You may recall the debate regarding whether or not it was possible for the 7th July bombers to have concentrated their own hydrogen peroxide without needing special equipment; Dsquared took it to the point of carrying out dubious experiments in his freezer. It seems that the so-called Sauerland group of…
Read More …but there’s lots of girls with peroxide curls and the black & tan flows free