Heart Attack Department

Today's NYAAAHH!! image.

Hobby Corner

It may be only August, but it's never too early to plan for those long winter nights. So, how to fill those boring evenings when there's nothing on the box? Why not build your very own X-ray machine! Amaze your friends! Astound your family! Never wonder again what a radiation burn feels like!

Tip o' the hat to Make.

Behind the Curve

A Dutch zoo is planning to set up an online dating service for orangutans.

Given some of the blind dates I went on in my younger days, I can categorically state that there is nothing new here.

Fat of the Land

According to the Telegraph, the number of obese people in the world now exceeds the number who are undernourished-- and we're told that this bare fact (without the obvious qualifications) is terrible news.

It's a remarkable comment on a civilisation that sees hard-won abundance as a problem, whereas if this had occurred a hundred years ago when famine was still a prospect in even the wealthiest of nations, there would have been dancing in the streets.

Jihadism: The Cuckoo of Islam

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, looks atthe way Jihadism has pushed moderate Islam to the sidelines and how multicultralism helped.

Bloody Favouritism!

The Groaniad is looking at the 15 most important web sites in history. Meanwhile, Time magazine has posted its 50 coolest web sites list.

You will notice the neither Ephemeral Isle nor our sister sites got a look in. It's who you know, I tell you.

Update: Still, this one is pretty neat.

ABC News Translation Service

ABC News Headline:

Cubans Welcome New Photos of Castro

Translation:

Cubans See Prison Door Slam Shut

Health News

Headline from Sci Fi Tech:

Smoking vaccine currently under development

Smooth flavour, but it's Hell to keep lit.

Penny Millionaire

Ever wonder what one million pennies looks like? Here's the answer.

That's 2.3 tons of pennies, by the way.

Digging the Hole Deeper

The Labour MP who showed all the foresight of Julius Caesar at the Ides of March by calling his consituents "inbred" has simultaneously apologised and shot himself in the other foot by saying that he meant it literally and not figuratively.

Some people just don't know when to keep their mouths shut.

Weather Forecast

The ceasefire in Lebanon seems to be holding up (for the moment), and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has declared victory for the Jihadists:

We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without exaggeration.

Much as it pains me to admit it, he's probably right.

"There's an east wind coming, Watson."

"I think not, Holmes. It is very warm."

"Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow.

Urban Compost

As near as I can gather, this is basically a plastic drum that you fill with composting fodder that is then turned by solar-powered rotors to make sure everything stays properly mixed.

I'll grant that this thing looks a lot more pleasant than pitchforking a great stack of steaming compost, though the motor seems a bit pointless, since you can always just roll the drum by hand. The real drawback, however, is that the drum only holds five gallons, so unless you're gardening runs basically to window boxes, you're going to have something lacking in capacity.

Passport to Dhimmitude

A five-year old girl's passport photograph has been rejected by the British Passport Office because she had bare shoulders and this could cause offence to Muslims.

We humbly suggest that the proper response to those Muslims who are offended is, "learn to accept disappointment" and that the Passport Office be sternly reminded which country they serve.

Swords to be Banned in Scotland

Motto of the Scottish Assembly:

If it moves, control it; if it doesn't, ban it.

Come back, William Wallace. All is forgiven.

Jihad in the Land of Swallows & Amazons

Ah, the Lake District; famous for it's spectacular scenery, beautiful walking trails, the serenity of the waters, the poems of Wordsworth, the children's tales of Arthur Ransome, and terrorist training camps.

Welcome to modern Britain.

Survival in a Tin

Having spent so much time outdoors and being a complete paranoid, putting together survival kits is something of a hobby of mine, so when this article from Field and Stream hit my RSS feed I figured it was worth a look. It's not a bad selection of gear, though I wouldn't advise trying to conquer the Canadian wilderness with it, but since it can all be packed into an altoid tin that you can slip into your pocket, there's no excuse for leaving it behind on those "short" hikes that end up lasting a couple of days because you wandered off the trail.

The Leapfrog of Progress

The Seattle Times has an excellent article about small, rural communities that have gone in one go from areas where people don't even have phones to fully-integrated broadband networks. Live in Nowhere, Washington, but get a job in New York City? No problem; just telecommute-- which illustrates that in the 21^st century distance doesn't mean half as much as bandwidth.

For me, this isn't so much a happy tale of progress as a demonstration about how the road to the future is paved with maddening cracks. I'm reading about little timber towns in the Wenatchee National Forest who have blindingly-fast connections, yet I live just outside of Redmond, Washington, the centre of the Microsoft octopus, and I'm stuck with a 56k dial-up service that is only slightly faster than sending data packets by carrier pigeon.

No wonder I burn with a hard, gem-like flame.

Breathing Easier

British scientists have discovered that the reason why cold viruses can cause severe asthma attacks is because the lungs of asthmatics produce insufficient levels of interferon to combat the infection. This raises the possibility that such attacks could be avoided by using inhalers that replace the deficient interferon.

Okay, this may not seem like something of interest to a wide audience, but my four-year old daughter has asthma and every time she has a runny nose it's a coin flip as to whether or not we're going to end up in the casualty ward, so I figured I'd share this ray of sunshine with any other parents whose children have a stay in hospital at least twice a year.

Problem, Meet Solution

The Guardian reports that the British "obsession," as they call it with flat-screen televisions could spark an "eco-crisis" because the increased electricity demand would require the building of two new nuclear power plants.

Okay, so build two new nuclear power plants. We're not talking the Gordian knot here, guys.

Real or Memorex?

Is Castro alive? Possibly, but given the fact that the old monster has absolute control of the press and that this front page and photograph could have been produced at any time, this is not exaclty Mao Tse Tung going for a dip in the Yangtse.

Baby Bomb Onboard

Two of the terrorist suspects swept up in the recent arrests allegedly planned to smuggle their bomb onboard using their six-month old baby's formula bottle. Naturally, the baby itself would have accompanied them.

If the child welfare services have not taken that child into care, then the entire agency should be disbanded as useless beyond belief.

Last of the Summer Whine?

The Muslim "community's" open letter to Tony Blair has elicited a reaction that can be summed up as a steely glare and a forefinger slowly tapped on a desk. The general reaction of the government is illustrated by the Home Secretary:

I'm not going to question the motives of anyone who has signed this letter. But I think it is a dreadful misjudgement if we believe the foreign policy of this country should be shaped in part, or in whole, under the threat of terrorist activity if we do not have a foreign policy with which the terrorists happen to agree.

Maybe daylight is finally beginning to break through.

Doctor Who: The Next Generation?

There's a rumour going about that the BBC is planning on dealing with the problem of what happens to Doctor Who when the eponymous character runs out of regenerations by introducing the Time Lord's "son," who will take over the Tardis key.

The new series hasn't jumped the shark, but if this is true, then it has certainly taken a couple of warm-up laps.

Some People Deserve to Be Offended

Oliver Kamm on the false connecting of dots and taking pride in giving offence.

Peace Plan or Hezbollah Victory?

Israel's acceptance of the current UN ceasefire resolution is not going down well with some.

Just One More Thing...

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient murder at a Romano-British site in Sedgeford, where the vicitm was killed and stuffed into an oven.

Sedgeford police would like to interview anyone in the area who is over 1500 years old.

Peace in Our Time

Three British Muslim MPs, three peers, and 38 Muslim "groups" have sent the Munich Agreement an open letter to Tony Blair (emphasis added):

Prime Minister, As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens.

It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy.

The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.

Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urge the Prime Minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion.

Such a move would make us all safer.

Safer as in paying off the protection racket keeps your shop from being done over. Stripped of all the blandishments and vagaries this boils down to "Surrender and do as your new masters command and the crocodile will eat you last."

Moderate Muslims must learn that if they are to be trusted their first and only duty in this war is to prove their loyalty by literally fighting the Jihadists and not by making demands, whinging and calliing for appeasement.

It's the Glorious Twelfth!

And the grouse are getting the Hell out of Dodge.

Welcome Dallas Morning News & WAFFA.com Readers

Kick off your shoes and stay awhile. I'll put the kettle on.

The Wisdom of Star Trek

Star Trek reduced to motivational posters.

Fascinating.

Quote of the Day

There is no room left for the blind politically correct procedures that ignore this reality — our enemy is nearly always a young to middle-aged man from a Muslim nation or culture, and it is madness not to focus mainly on those who most readily match the known profile.

Birds of a Feather

From the Sun,

Terror suspect Waheed Zaman met controversial MP George Galloway many times, his sister said last night.

Safeena, 24, said of her 23-year-old brother: “He saw it as his duty to stand up for his community and that’s what led him to know George Galloway. He has a lot of respect for him and has met him many times.”

Why am I not surprised.

The Only Sane Way to Handle It

A Russian air traveller manages to take his bottle of champagne onboard-- without the bottle.

Home Grown Blinkers

The suspects arrested in Britain and Pakistan over the attempted airliner attacks were well-educated and middle class. Most were second and third generation British subjects and two were white converts. The plot they tried to hatch has all the ear-marks of an Al Qaeda operation, and police and intelligence services suspect that as many as fifty people were involved-- many of them still at large.

We have an attempt to down ten planes and murder thousands of people, a massive international conspiracy, probable Al Qaeda involvement, home-grown terrorists in prison, more running loose eager to have another go and a Muslim community that still doesn't get it. Now can we stop pretending that this is a police matter, put Britain on a war footing, demand the demonstrated loyalty of the Muslim "community," treat the foreign terrorists as enemy combatants and prosecute the home-grown curs as traitors?

Or is continuing to treat every law-abiding Briton as a potential terrorist still acceptable?

Why Don't I Have This Sort of Luck?

A woman in Charleston, West Virginia came home only to discover that someone had broken in and cleaned her house.

Note to burglars: Read the job description first.

Just Cocaine? That's All Right Then.

Smoking is evil, but Class A drugs are okay. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has finally found a way around the smoking ban that forced Mel Smith to abandon Chruchill's cigar or face prosecution and put a spanner into a production of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.: Change the smoking to snorting cocaine.

You can't parody this sort of insanity.

Ringing the Changes

According to the Scotsman, one in five pub-goers shows up for a cappucinno or some other exotic coffee rather than a civilised pint.

God, times have changed. I remember when if you ordered a cup of coffee in a pub you'd either get a blank stare or, at best, some fizzy Nescafe horror that just layed their and curdled. Now things are going so far in the other direction that if they allowed smoking in pubs again the place would suddenly be filled with disaffected French would-be intellectuals going on about Sartre before you could say "knife."

Child's Garden of Spin

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, we see how Israeli air-strikes have a predictable tendency to scatter remarkably clean children's toys so that they land in poignant positions just right for AP and Reuters consumption.

We Fear a Backlash Against Muslims After the Next Bombing

With remarkable predictability, Muslim "community leaders" have shown their loyalty to Britain and their willingness to stand up and be counted in the fight against the Jihadists in the wake of yesterday's air terror arrests by coming forth... and whinging about the effect this is all going to have on Muslims. A perfect example is Muhammad Abul Kalam from the Muslim Safety Forum who chuntered on about vague claims of increased "Islamophobic attacks" and ended up by saying (All together now!),

We simply don't want to see any kind of backlash unleashed against ordinary Muslims because of what has happened.

I swear they must have a macro for generating boilerplate like that. Not that it matters, because according to the Archbishop of York the problem isn't Islam, but alienation.

Most of them are doing it because they are alienated, because they have been given a vision which is so imaginatively wicked that they believe we can build a better world than actually exists.

But don't for one moment imagine that this in anyway involves Jihad against the kufar, extirpating heretic Muslims, a yearning to expand the umma, impose sharia or establish the New Caliphate. That's just window dressing.

Update: American Muslim groups look to be in full cry-baby mode as well.

Poll Results

Foot in Mouth Disease

Dr. Ian Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich, has blamed the rise of diabetes in the area on his constituents being a load of in-bred yahoos.

In related news, Dr. Gibson kissed his chances of re-election goodbye.

Turning Point in Cuba?

Fidel Castro, the supposedly "out of bed" Maximum Leader, has now been described by fellow despot Hugo Chavez as being in a "great battle for life."

Not that Mr. Chavez is telling porkies. When your body temperature can be best described as "ambient," it certainly is a great battle.

Why We Must Take the War to Them

Highlighting new airline security measures, Harry Houdini models the new passenger seating arrangement and air stewards uniforms.

Mandatory sedation for all travellers is still being considered, though any form of "profiling" has been rejected as Politically Incorrect and an affront to human liberty.

Today's No #%*) Headline

Jets May Be Vulnerable to On-Board Bombs

Martyrs & Virgins

Why Jihadists fight and why the 72 virgins get the dirty end of the stick.

Tip o' the hat to Samizdata.

The Cecil B. DeMille of Hezbollah

Green Helmet: The ubiquitous Lebanese "helper" and propaganda director.

Men On the Outs

A scientist at the Austalian National University predicts that with the decay of the Y Chromosome, men as we know them will be extinct in 15 million years.

In some parts of the West, this is rumoured to have already happened.

We Will Reserve the "Cool" Jokes.

From a recent competition to design the resorts of 2055: a hotel in Antarctica that hangs down into the sea.

What it hangs from? You really don't want to know.

The Phantom Menace

The breaking news this morning is that the British air travel network was effectively shut down as the authorities thwarted a major terrorist attack that would have involved blowing up as many as ten aircraft in midflight.

The BBC, with its usual hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners-as long-as-long-as-it-uncovers-the-truth journalism once again displays an incredible lack of curiosity as to who the terrorists are and what they're motives might be. Though "links to Pakistan" are mentioned and that before the raids police contacted unspecified "community leaders," the Beeb seems to be uninterested in what might be a teeny little fact that might be of some relevance to this case.

It's a two-syllable word beginning with "M."

Update: According to reports, the terrorists were ready to implement their plans and were intending to use a "liquid explosive." As a result, all gels and liquids (indeed, almost all carry-on items) have been banned from British flights and news agencies report that the Americans may be imposing a similar ban.

Robolitterbox

Most people are unaware that the Daleks are actually quite fond of cats and go to great lengths toward providing them with the latest in high-tech litter boxes.

"Seek! Locate! Exterminate! Nice Kitty!"

Number 2 Goes Multimedia

"Where am I?"

"In the Village."

"What do you want?"

"Information."

"Whose side are you on?"

"That would be telling.... We want information. Information. INFORMATION."

"You won't get it."

"By hook or by crook, we will."

"Who are you?"

"The new Number 2."

"Who is Number 1?"

"You are Number 6."

"I am not a number — I am a free man!"

(Laughter from Number 2.)

All Heart

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah shows the depths of his compassion.

I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call on you to leave this city. I hope you do this. … Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood.

As for the Jews and Christians, just sit there so we can get a bead on you. Have a nice day.

Fake Photo Follies

More photo fun from our favourite faker Adnan Hajj; this time from US News and Time magazine.

Todays question: When is a "downed Israeli jet" not a downed Israeli jet?

When it's a burning rubbish tip.

Scruffy is Back In

The metrosexual craze is now officially dead.

Thank God. I can't keep up this standard of grooming much longer.

Where the Solution is the Problem

It had to happen sooner or later. From A&A Products of Hong Kong comes a breathalyzer mounted inside a wristwatch. No more tedious waiting for the police to pull you over; just bend your arm and blow.

I think I can see what they were going for, but if you're the sort of person that needs a alcohol sensor strapped to your wrist, then it's time to cut down a little.

Liveliest Dead Man Since Lazarus

What's wrong with the "dead" Lebanese casualty in this New York Times photo? Follow the link and you'll see that aside from being remarkably clean and sweaty, he certainly jumps around a lot for a dead man!

Big in Japan

Both East and the West are facing the grim prospect of declining birth rates and an aging population. Europe has placed its bets on handling the situation with mass immigration of unskilled Muslims while Japan is pinning its hopes on building a new generation of robots to not only run the factories, but also care for the elderly.

Both these plans have their massive downsides and neither is a substitute for the good old-fashioned solution of having babies, but based on what's been happening in such bastions of multiculturalism as Scandinavia, my money is on Japan.

Today's Safety Tip

A grenade, a sledge hammer; what could go wrong?

Banking with Granny

AP headline:

85-year-old woman is left in bank vault

That is one tough collateral clause on that loan.

Leading from Way Behind

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is going for the ultimate in edgy, transgressive and "dangerous" theatre as a number of productions take on that truly dangerous topic of today: religion.

So, what's on offer? A chorus line of dancing Mohammeds? Live depictions of the Danish cartoons? Biting satires of Sufism? Mockery of Islamic hypersensitivity? A drama denouncing the effect that Jihadism has on moderate Muslims? Sorry, not here. Instead we have such feats of bravery as:

• Petrol Jesus Nightmare
• Mary and The Stripper
• Jesus: The Guantanamo Years

But don't think it's all digs at Christianity. Islam takes its knocks with "We Don't Know Shiite," which is about... Wait for it... British ignorance about Islam. Good Lord, the actors must need round the clock police protection.

None of this surprises me. My years in the theatre have long left me with the impression that artists tend to posture as people of great courage, yet when push comes to shove, 99.999 percent of them will go for the safe targets every time. Go to any fringe theatre production in Seattle on a Saturday night and you'll see all sorts of plays that push the envelope-- provided that said envelope expansion does not even approach goring any left-wing sacred cows or pissing off any minority group that doesn't regard turning the other cheek as an option. Attack Christians, Republicans and the family by all means, but do be careful not to upset anyone who is gay, vegan, feminist, Wiccan or a member of an officially sanctioned ethnic minority. And definitely not Muslims.

When someone does a fringe play guaranteed to make the audience's blood boil by, for example, doing a treatment of a homosexual character that concludes that his sufferings are due to his sexual appetites rather than society's reaction to them, and then I'll say that someone is doing some envelope pushing.

Backing into Space

Apparently Richard Branson has been nosing around an RAF base in Scotland to explore the possibility of converting it into a spaceport for his Virgin Galactic flights.

It's ironic that Britain, which for years has rejected any sort of manned space programme, might find itself a spacefaring power anyway, thanks to private enterprise. See what happens when you start letting capitalists loose?

Jellyfish Apocalypse

First they're in they're off the coast of Japan, then they attack nuclear power plants, then they lay siege to Norway and now they're massing in the Mediterranean.

For heaven's sake, we need a square-jawed hero, a grumpy-yet-lovable elderly scientist and a shapely female with vague qualifications but great gams or we're all doomed!

What Is Thy Bidding, My Master?

One of the more disappointing aspects of the 21^st century is that we're still lacking really cool 3D displays. Realising that you can't hope to have a suitably dramatic audience with the Galactic Emperor without a decent holographic interface, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Keio University and Burton Inc of Japan have developed a neat little prototype that uses focused lasers to produce visible bursts of plasma in the air rather than optical illusions to produce a 3D image.

It may not look like much, being just a collection of dots in midair, but then, early television displays weren't much to look at, as this full size image on the left of an early broadcast reminds us.

Tip o' the hat to Sci Fi Tech.

Picture Kill

Michelle Malkin's take on Reutersgate.

Tomcat Ceases Prowling

Looks like this is the month for retiring aircraft stories. The USS Teddy Roosevelt saw the last launches of the F-14 Tomcat, which is slated to retire from service next month.

As someone who used to live directly under the flypath of these birds, let me be the first to give a final "What the $^&% is that!"

Progress is a Mixed Blessing: Exhibit A

This is why I never park in town if I can avoid it. The city of Hoboken, New Jersey boasts a robot carpark that can tuck your motor away automatically and then retrieve it in thirty seconds. Unfortunately, the city got into a contract dispute with the company that owns the software that runs the thing and hundreds of cars ended up being trapped inside the perfectly sound, yet utterly useless machine.

Not unlike various bureaucracies I could mention.

When Deer Hunting Goes Terribly Wrong

Bambi is clearly cheesed off.

Robokayak

Always daring to push the envelope, MIT is hard at work on the first generation of robokayaks.

Apparently kayaks were the only thing lying around that they hadn't turned into robots yet.

Tip o' the hat to DefenceTech.

What If They Had A Coup and No One Noticed

Christopher Hitchens believes that Cuba has undergone a military coup, but no one seems very curious about it.

If there had been a military coup in any other Latin American or Caribbean country, even a fairly small or obscure one, I think it safe to say that it would have made the front page of the newspapers. But the military coup in Cuba—a nation linked to ours in many vital and historic ways—has not been reported at all.

The MSM motto: If it's not in the script, then it doesn't exist.

Reuters Translation Service

Reuters headline:

Uncertainty over Cuba's fate eases

Translation:

Communist grip tightens on Cuba

Idiocy in Action

Five "anti-war" protestors broke into Prestwick airport for the third time and tried to board a US Air National Guard transport.

This sort of asinine behaviour is dangerous enough in normal times when all you have to worry about is risking a major accident involving airliners filled with hundreds of people, but will someone kindly explain to this lot that this is wartime and that breaking into secured areas and trying to board military transports is a very good way for someone to get shot dead?

Only in America

One of those offbeat native art-forms that makes America such a remarkable place to explore: Sculpting in food. Go to any county or state fair in a dairy-producing region of the United States and odds are there will be a booth where you'll find the local Corn Carnival Princess clad in a winter coat and pretending she enjoys freezing her nethers off while her likeness is preserved for eternity-- or until the power fails-- in butter. Why do they do this? I have no idea, but it's still fascinating.

I particularly like the butter cows. It's a bit like Damien Hirst only not disgusting.

Picture Story

The current Lebanon crisis is producing some interesting photos-- fraudulent ones, that is. By now, many people have heard of the Reuters stringer who felt that his pics just weren't dramatic enough, but this is not the only one. For example,

• There's the Beirut woman whose home keeps blowing up.
• The outgoing Hezbollah rockets become incoming Israeli missiles.
• Same ruins, two different days.
• Defending Israeli plane becomes the attacker.
• "World's Slowest Man."

You'd think the press was trying something sneaky, wouldn't you?

Update: Michelle Malkin has a video round-up.

Update: The possum.

A Public Service

For those of you on a diet, Ephemeral Isle would like to help out by presenting this image of spam fried in butter and pineapple juice and then simmered in barbecue sauce.

Repeat looking at this until appetite is completely gone.

Our Missing Man in Havana

According to Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Cuban government official:

They (the U.S. government) had not expected that a peaceful succession was possible. A peaceful succession has taken place in Cuba.

Fidel's brother has been incommunicado since he "temporarily" took over power and even though we're assured that the still-unseen Maximum leader will live to be 160 we're now told that a "peaceful succession has taken place."

To quote Ash, "Yeah, and maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot. "

Eye to Eye

Videophones have come a long way since the false-dawn of the Bell Picturephone, yet even with the most advanced webcam-in-monitor designs you are still faced with the fact that since the camera isn't mounted in the screen it's impossible to make eye-contact with the other party .

The good news is that the Eye-Catcher Videophone solves this problem by projecting the screen image onto a two-way mirror behind which is the camera, so you don't come off looking as though you're reading the fine print on the fire extinguisher while the other person is talking.

The bad news is that the unit will set you back £7,499.99.

Ant Farm-- of the FUTURE

This is a neat little variation on the traditional ant farm; ditch the sand (of volcanic pumice that they use these days) and replace it with an aqua-blue edible gel that the ants can not only tunnel through, but eat as well. Add some blue LED lights for that high-tech touch and you're set.

The ants, unfortunately, are still just ants, so you'll have to deal with that on your own.

Late to the Party

Down in Cheadle, Staffordshire, retired Congregationalist minister the Rev Ian Gregory is offering a a new Sunday service that he calls "Christianity without religion" on the grounds that all that doctrine stuff is just putting people of-- which really reads more like "Christianity without the Christian Stuff."

Unfortunately, the Rev Gregory is a bit behind the curve. The Anglican Church dumped all that religion baggage years ago and hasn't looked back since.

Duelling Headlines

Israeli strike 'kills 40 people'

One person, not 40, dead in Israel strike: Lebanon

Some days you just can't get a good "massacre" story off the ground.

Castro: Who Says He's Mortal?

Vice President Carlos Lage of Cuba said that Maximum Leader Fidel Castro is doing just fine.

The operation that he underwent was successful and he is recovering favorably. Fidel's going to be around for another 80 years.

You mean Castro will live to 160? That's saying something. His doctor claims he'll only make it to 140.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, I have no doubt that Castro will indeed be around for another eighty years, though in a somewhat more sedentary condition at room temperature.

Video: '30s Style

From the days when movie suites came in a cardboard box rather than bundled with your Mac. It's a DIY silent movie kit from the 1930s complete with scripts, props, title cards and (we don't know why) a cut-out of a skeleton.

Looks a heck of a lot of fun. Now if we can only find a '30s version of youtube.

Doing What Rabbits Do

From the Scotsman:

An animal home has made a desperate appeal for people to adopt rabbits after the number of bunnies in its care doubled.

Not surprising; not surprising at all.

Castro Health Update

Reuters reports that Cuba's Maximum Leader is recovering from surgery and is now out of bed and holding conversations.

If things go according to the usual course of events in Communist regimes, this means he will soon be well enough to be declared dead.

Poll Results

Save the Vulcan

The last operational Vulcan bomber, Great Britain's mainstay during the Cold War and a vital part of the victory in the Falklands, is faced with a permanent grounding unless the charity tasked with her restoration can raise £1,000,000.

The United States seems to be able to turn every bit of decommissioned tin into a museum; surely Britain can at least save some of her history. So, click the link and help keep the Vulcan flying.

Darth Vader Being a Smartass

We seem to be on a Vader roll this week.

Otherwise, a Perfect Plan

When you're the only gay man in the village and have a distinctive, mincing walk, a life of crime might not be the best career choice.

Dhimmi on the Beach

Hotel owners in Riccione, Italy are taking another step toward dhimmitude and requesting that the city council allow them to set up women-only sections on the beach for Muslims.

There is no indication that they will be infidel-free as well-- at least, not yet.

Fire & Water

If you have very strange tastes, like to juxtaposition two elements or just have a problem with bats flying down your chimney, then the Heathfalls is the thing for you.

If you don't mind soggy bats, that is.

It Wasn't Santa

I have officially concluded that I'm living in the country. Not only did we see a deer walking down the road last night, but we also discovered that Chez Szondy is home to a colony of brown bats. Our first reaction was relief that all the droppings we found in the garden weren't from rats and our second was "Cool, we've got bats" with a resolution to build a bat house in the garden to encourage more of the little mosquito-eaters to settle.

Our third reaction came a few hours later when we learned the important lesson that when one is host to bats, one should keep the chimney flue closed, otherwise one will get some rather alarming visitors flying out of the fireplace.

(For the concerned, the bat did get out okay; thanks to the judicious use of a firescreen, a blanket and some careful
manouevering.)

Peace in Our Time

Victor Hanson looks at the current state of the war against the Jihadists and asks if this isn't the 1930s all over again.

It is now a cliché to rant about the spread of postmodernism, cultural relativism, utopian pacifism, and moral equivalence among the affluent and leisured societies of the West. But we are seeing the insidious wages of such pernicious theories as they filter down from our media, universities, and government — and never more so than in the general public’s nonchalance since Hezbollah attacked Israel.

When I see Tony Blair or some other Western statesman getting off a plane waving a piece of paper, then it's time to head for the hills.

At Least a Dwarf Didn't Step On It

Sensation was the watchword at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics show in Boston when the world's largest Etch-a-Sketch was unveiled to rapped amazement.

In related news, the Ohio Art Company deny that they are simply trying to put a positive spin on one of the most monumental blueprint misreading incidents in history.

Chad Vader II

Will Chad rule the retail industry?

Probably not.

Headline of the Day

Britain ready for square watermelons

Japan Announces Moonbase by 2030

No wonder the Americans are going to Mars, the Moon is getting too damn crowded.

Chad Vader

That about says it all.

Somewhat Immediate

From the Telegraph:

Tony Blair has said he is hopeful that a resolution to bring about an "immediate ceasefire" in the Middle East would be tabled shortly at the United Nations and agreed within days.

An "immediate ceasefire" that the UN will consider in a few days. In other words, a "not really very immediate ceasefire."

Deep Space Trouble

NASA confirms that part of its Deep Space Network used to track spacecraft is down for maintenance.

In related news, Commander Xur says that the invasion by the Kodan Armada may now commence.

Spiders! AAAAHHHHH!!!

As we don't have enough on our plates, Austria is suffering from a spider invasion.

John Agar was unavailable for comment.

Ceasefire... For Now

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that he backs a ceasefire in Lebanon. Sort of.

Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented.

I see. Not so much a ceasefire as a pause before the genocide. This madman will be marching into Poland any day now.