Sim-O

Labels: Music

Up to a million unexploded cluster bombs fired by Israel could be in south Lebanon, nearly three times as many as previously estimated, U.N. de-mining experts said Tuesday.
Israel has not responded to repeated U.N. requests to hand over detailed information about the cluster bomb strikes, making the task of clearing the bomblets far more difficult, they said.

“The situation in south Lebanon now, as a result of 34 days of bombing is that there is extensive unexploded ordnance lying all over the place,” Chris Clark, the top U.N. de-mining official in Lebanon, told a news conference.

The bomblets, half the size of a can of soda, are lying in people’s houses, gardens, on the street and on farmland, he said.

So far, 14 people have been killed and around 90 injured from unexploded ordnance since the Aug. 14 cease-fire according to the United Nations Mine Action Center in Lebanon. A week ago, the U.N. put the death toll at 15.

Clark said it could take up to the end of 2007 to clear the cluster munitions.

Labels: Lebanon

This letter is from MBNA, whom I have a credit card with.
Nothing wrong with a little correspondence, notifications of new products, great rates on loans and the like.

Financial institutions haven’t got themselves the best of reputations for responsible lending with extortionate interest rates, consolodation loans and knowingly approving borrowers that are unable to keep up payments.

Some of the advertising hasn’t been to clever either, one advert springs to mind that encouraged borowing to pay household bills.

I think the letter I received is disgusting. I didn’t ask for a PIN reminder and I have never used my card for ‘cash advances’, as for one reason, this sort of transaction attracts the heaviest interest rate, and this letter is encouraging me to use it in that way, it doesn’t ask ‘you haven’t used your card lately, is everything ok?’. It says, ‘Hey, go spend, sod the cost!’

Maybe profits aren’t as huge as they would like, maybe market share isn’t as big as they would like (i.e. a monopoly).
Or maybe that’s just capitalism.

Labels: Capitalism

We’ve just started to really put some effort into recycling with our new green boxes and telling each other off for chucking a tin in the bin instead of in the green box and it’s feeling quite good, still not quite habit, but we’re getting there.

And then I found this via here and now I’m wondering if it is all just to ease the guilt.

Anyway, I want to buy a new car, so if anyone can recommend where I can get solar panels from, that should balance it out.

Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States provides an un classified assessment, based on open source materials, of the kinds of threats Iran poses to the United States.

You would’ve thought after the last time, the case for war with Iraq, the US administration would’ve made sure they got it right this time, as the IAEA have pointed out.

Labels: War On Terror

Re: I.D. Cards
Not quite finger on the post pulse, but I’m still trying to get the hang of this photoshopping lark

Labels: Photoshopping, Politix, War On Terror

Link

Well, it’s that day again.
Anyone who knows me will know I don’t go in for sentimentality, doesn’t mean I’m a heartless bastard, just not one for outpourings of emotion.
So, with that in mind, here’s a couple of things:
What sounds like a couple of films that (intentional or not) further the myth of America.

Two Hollywood films mark 9/11’s fifth anniversary: Paul Greengrass’s United 93 and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. Both adopt a terse, realistic depiction of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. There is undoubtedly a touch of authenticity to them and most critics have praised their sober styles and avoidance of sensationalism. But it is the touch of authenticity that raises some disturbing questions.
The realism means that both films are restrained from taking a political stance and depicting the wider context of the events. Neither the passengers on United 93 nor the policemen in WTC grasp the full picture. All of a sudden they find themselves in a terrifying situation and have to make the best out of it.

This lack of “cognitive mapping” is crucial. All we see are the disastrous effects, with their cause so abstract that, in the case of WTC, one can easily imagine exactly the same film in which the twin towers would have collapsed as the result of an earthquake. What if the same film took place in a bombed high-rise building in Beirut?

And links to a quite convincing argument for a conspiracy theory here and a couple of videos here and here.

Labels: War On Terror

I’m not going to go into detail about the resignation letters to Mr Blurgh and the story behind it, as it’s all over the place and I’m just glad that at least Our Tone will be going sooner rather than later (but still not soon enough) but he did make an announcement about his resignation yesterday from Quintin Kynaston School in north London.

As someone who hasn’t much experience of this sort of thing, Lenins’ report, here, from the wrong side of the fence makes interesting reading, especially the part about teachers trying to intimidate pupils into going away and snatching banners and placards.

Labels: Blair

Gaza: Four killed and 27 injured in two extra-judicial executions in two hours

Labels: Palestine

Watch out General, you’ll be next on the hit list if this is true!

Oh, wait, just remind me who this Osama chap is again?
“Occupation? Unknown” – What? Come on, you’re the FBI!!

Doesn’t matter, you safe from George W., it’s just countries without WMD he invades, so these are safe(ish).

Labels: War On Terror