The Yorkshire Ranter

Sydney Morning Herald story According to some mob called Access Economics, an immigrant benefits the Australian state on average by 250,000 dollars. Apparently, 15-year olds are the best value – unsurprisingly, refugees get the lowest grade in this rather cold-blooded calculus, averaging only A$111,000. So – how much cash are the Australians spending on scouring…

Yankee Blog “I don’t recall the site, but I recently saw a comment (perhaps in reference to that Zakaria piece) basically asking why Hu Jintao got a better reception in Australia than Bush. Someone responded by basically dismissing Australians as just too left-wing to worry about. This is the most moronic comment in the world.…

Not so long ago, I blogged on the curious contents of this site’s search engine analysis, and referred to a post on Yankeeblog in which they reported that their site was (mysteriously) the third result on MSN’s search engine for the query “I want Pakistani sexy clips”. Foolishly I quoted them – now, examining my…

“The West needs Russian cooperation in the fight on terrorism, it badly needs Russian oil and natural gas because the Middle East is unstable, and is in no position to actively resist a major move by Moscow to dominate and reintegrate the former Soviet republics. Sources close to the Kremlin have expressed the view that…

In the non-smouldering aftermath of Georgia’s revolution, a fresh burst of Caucasus weirdness was only to be expected. Fortunately it has so far kept within limits – just a couple of mystery aeroplanes, phone calls to BP-Amoco and sabre-rattling local bosses, nothing too serious. But that was until this truly odd story emerged… “A £2bn…

The photo shows quite clearly that the no. 1 engine is intact and that the missile hit roughly halfway from the engine to the wingtip. The thingy between the damage and the engine is the flap track fairing, common to all of these aircraft, and is definitely not an antimissile device. It is believed that…

Looks like this.

I’m sure you all know by now that the Georgian president and Soviet statesman, Eduard Shevardnadze, was overthrown by demonstrators enraged by alleged vote-rigging in the recent presidential election at the weekend. After the usual proceedings of post-Communist political theatre – mass demos under the new-old national flag, initial contempt from the boss, then offers…

Strangely enough, I notice in the Guardian today that their sketchwriter, Simon Hoggart, has noticed that Bush says “Trrr” when he means “terror”. Funny that, as I blogged on this as far back as the 11th of June. Curiously though, it’s spreading – just as if you are right wing enough you say “Pa’ment” and…

In Utah, Public Works Project in Digital – NY Times 17 cities in the US state of Utah are getting together to build a huge public-sector broadband system. Sounds like a good idea..