The War Against Tara Vic:
Oh he was speaking of Tara on Buffy?
That's the impression I got, and the vision of Willow coming over to Reptile, Texas to kick the spokesdroid's butt was rather entertaining.

Willow's razor sharp intellect against Dubya's (er) (ah) doesn't exactly make for a *fair* fight, but he started it.

We thought he meant in Meath, Ireland. We were about to warn Brendan's family to get out of that section of the country.
There is that, but it's uncomfortably close to home.

Actually, it could be a war against the RTE's export channel, Tara tv, coz *he* can't understand the rules of Gridlock either. He's just about OK with Millionaire, but Weakest Link gives trouble at chateau Bush. Oh, there's no problem with the concept of answering questions, but the person with the most votes leaving the game is an idea our anti-hero just doesn't get.

I certainly hope it's not a war against Afghanistan. The Taliban are a separate entity, at least in mind.
Whatever government was trying to run Afghanistan over recent years would have had a difficult job, as there's been an effective drought for three years now. That the powers-that-think-they-are seem determined to crush the spirit of the people makes matters worse.

There would still be an exodus of people from that country; it's far bigger than perhaps it ought to be.

The people there seem oppressed and afraid of the Taliban, not in support of them.
Plenty of conflicting evidence on that - some suggest that the Taliban were cheered as a break from the previous government (and the death of the previous president is too gruesome for words.) Others suggest that bribery is the way to achieve anything, yet others that there is a constituency for this group.

And Bin Laden is even more removed from the general public there. In every sense, it would be innocent citizens that would suffer if the country as a whole were attacked.
This is all striking me as a bit *too* neat. No-one outside the area likes the Taliban regime. It would be in a lot of people's interests to bring about conditions that would make it more likely that the regime would be toppled. And, oh look, here's an excuse to go around in Afghanistan, imposing views.

The international consensus will start to break after bin Liner is captured. If the Taliban falls before, this will be unpopular in the middle east, but can be described as a side-effect of the main campaign. If it goes down much later, the claims that the US doesn't understand Islam will flare up again.

Angela
Members of the Taliban are *from* Afghanistan and they are fearless and formidable.
I'd counsel against portraying any side as superhuman. Last time that happened, they were the Iraqi National Guard, who weren't so much crack soldiers as frightened ones.

Yes, the Afghani are on home territory. Yes, this is a huge advantage. But they only rule by imposing fear on their subjects. And it's possible for a mass uprising (a la Eastern Europe,) or small acts of local resistance (see 1940s France,) to put a spoke in their wheel.

Afghanistan is basically a stone age country - there aren't even *roads*
There are roads. Not the super eight lane highway, often not even tarmaced, but there are established roads.

The Russians couldn't win after ten years of fighting, the terrorists are *warriors*.
So how do we define a win here? The Russians wanted to support an unpopular government, and bit off more than they could chew.

There's talk in the papers about bringing up a UN protectorate, which might attract more support on the ground, and hence could be a little more easy to defend.

There's so much to do. Never mind the small matter of apprehending Osama bin Laden, decapitating the Kabul regime and defeating international terrorism. Tony Blair has dedicated himself to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, creating a New Africa, stopping drug trafficking, conquering global warming, lifting from poverty all the dispossessed billions huddled on this planet, and finding the Question to the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything. The man wants to save the world from terror, starvation, disease, deforestation, and super-idiot shades of the colour mauve. The shining city on his oratorical hill was a new world order of planetary compassion, fairness, and love, sweet love.

Blair talked affectingly about the United States as if America was his constituency, but he never once mentioned Gould, Mulrooney, Gore, or even Bush. He dwelt a while on the economy, but there was no name check for Gordon Brown or even Prudence. It was all Blair, all the way. This is me, that's what Blair was saying with this speech. And it was a speech that could be delivered by no-one else. No other member of the Government, nor any leader elsewhere in Europe, could embrace everyone in his oratory as "the children of Abraham". No previous prime minister - with the possible exception of William Gladstone - would use the phrase to single-handedly reconcile Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

He'll join the euro; he'll sort the Congo. The most remarkable aspect of Blair's speech is its sweep. After four and a half years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair is still astonishingly idealistic, even utopian. Not only does the evangelist believe in heaven, he talks as though it might be built on earth. He projected Britain - and thus himself - as not just the world's police force. This moderate island in the North Sea is to be the world's peacekeeper, aid worker, archbishop, imam and rabbi.

"The moral power of the world acting as a community." That's a fine phrase which he made resounding. Trouble is, this morally powerful global community has a pretty rum membership which includes Russia, Pakistan and China, none of them paragons of human rights. The Prime Minister was right to say that the West should open up its markets to the developing world "so that we practise the free trade we are so fond of preaching". Talking of practising what you preach, World President Blair's claims to the leadership of a compassionate global community would be stronger had his Government met the UN target for international aid.

An AOHellster
Does anyone actually talk about MSCL through this thing???
Once in a blue moon, yes.

I know someone out there has got to be able to help me!!! I will pay you cash and lots of it.
Money, why does everything always hinge on money? What about other ways of paying for these mysterious episodes. Like good works for others. Providing huge entertainment to others. Being a wonderful friend.

These are *so* much more important than the movements of small green pieces of paper.

Help me!!! Please!!!
Stick around. That's quite enough help from this part of the peanut gallery.

A Russian jet carrying 66 Israeli passengers and 11 crew from Israel to Siberia crashes into the Black Sea. The head of Russia's security service confirmed the Sibir airlines TU-154 plane exploded in mid-air. Russian President Vladimir Putin-Power has said terrorism cannot be ruled out. US sources said it may have been shot down accidentally by a Ukranian surface-to-air missile, although the Ukranians have denied this.

Britain's hopes of hosting the 2005 World Championships suffer a big blow as the Government scraps plans to redevelop Picketts Lock. The scheme for a 43,000-seater stadium has been rejected because of cost and the time needed to improve transport. Ministers now want Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium to host it and will meet the IAAF president on Friday to try and persuade him to accept the new plan. The IAAF have said Britain would lose the event if London did not stage it. Spokesdroid Claudio Reineri said Sheffield could not just replace London as host. "I think if another British city wants the Championships they will have to go through the bidding process. The IAAF Council has to reconsider the situation and reopen the bid. There are many other cities that can host it."

Three thoughts on the ongoing war against terror. One good, one bad, one merely noteworthy.

1) Pakistan comes out as a supporter of the indictment of Osama bin Laden.

2) Tony Blair makes a speech that causes three commentators to use the epithet "world president."

3) UK government publishes a digest of its findings. In large type on page 1: This Would Not Stand Up In Court.

Things aren't helped by one of our field people, who has continued to send out emails even though we've told her twice that she has a virus. Send out a cleaning CD and warn the manager of the situation.

byron c go:
Yes, but compared to the so-called "leader of the free world", Blair does come across as much more eloquent and leader-like.
I'm assuming you're referring to former Texas governor George Bush, Anti-President of the USA, not leader of his own country, still less the free world.

Of course Blair comes across as more eloquent. He has command of English as a language. He's a smooth-tongued lawyer, trained to be good at rhetoric.

I did say that there would be problems from the coup in the US last December. This is one of them. One cannot lead the world when one does not have a clear mandate to lead a country. Like it or not, this is something Blair does have.

The traditional saying suggests that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. chelle's revelation informs us that every journey will have something go wrong. In my planning to Coryton, it's the cancellation of the flight from Birmingham to Chicago.
After the best part of 90 minutes in a travel agent, I have an itinerary that works. It starts in Birmingham, and then flies off to Paris. Ooh la la. Je penses que j'aime les cafes francais, mais je dois avoir les francs francais pour ce jour. Thence to Atlanta, and clear US Custard. Then jump on a flight to Alberquerque. Apparently I'll be sat next to an over- heated dog, a jumping frog, and one of the government's advisors on exactly what means war. As ever, Mr Bugs Bunny (for it is he) will fail to make the left turn at Alberquerque, leaving me to fly on to Tucson alone.
Coming back, leave for Cincinnati, where they grow Channel 5 political commentators. Thence to Paris, je penses que j'aime les cafes francais, et je dois avoir les ecu pour ce jour. Quelle domage. Ou quelle fromage, je ne sais pas. Finally, back to Brum.
So. The bottom line is that I'm Going To Be At Coryton. Be there, or I'll get ever so slightly cranky.

We're not meant to have thunder and lightning in October. It's against the laws of nature, or something. Shame no-one told nature about her own laws this lunchtime...

~laura:
i'm very glad for mscl all the same, because it's better than a yearbook or a photo album or saved letters, it's a tiny little piece of semi-painful personal memories. of being there.
We were there.
We saw what happened.
We came out the other side.
We thought.
We grew.
We lived.
We profited from the whole experience.
We have enriched lives as a result.

We were there.

[hugs]

This just about links into Shana Sunshine: gone but *so* not forgotten.

Recyclingbyron c go:
eleven years in the Berkeley area drummed the "reduce, reuse, recycle" message into my subconscious well enough,
As the NYTimes might headline the story:
United Station Does Something To Help Environment
Swedish Ministers Reported "Concerned" Lest Overtaken

(Can you imagine *any* other paper using the word "lest" in a headline?)

so I turned a few old Priority Mail mailers inside out and packaged those books quite well for their trip. The woman gave a lecture about how these mailers are intended for Priority Mail only,
[snip]
She took the packages but told me that somebody else along the line was bound to notice and try to collect Priority postage.
She's making one subtle but significant error: she's assuming that
a) the USPS has people bright enough to spot this, and
b) that anyone falling into category a) will be motivated to act on it.
And perhaps c) that the delivery agent will chase up the notional debt.

In my experience of the UK Royal Mail, there's little evidence for A and B happening, but plenty of evidence for C not taking place. The number of parcels stamped as insufficient postage, or customs due, but just left on the step, is non-trivial.

I know the Postal Service is operating in the red this year, but I really don't think this is the way to increase revenue.
Maybe they get a cut out of the mailer thingies, too, and re-use will cause a big dent in their profits. I should think that packaging is more profitable than delivery...

As you were on most of the other charts: Nickleback holds #1 on Modern and Mainstream Rock, Alicia fends off all-comers in Canada, Jamiroquai's "Little L" pips Kylie's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" in ESL countries. Faith Hill returns to #1 AC after a two week gap, Train holds #1 AAA.

Kylie has the UK's #1 album, "Fever" is her first topper on that list since 92's "Greatest Hits."

The Fab Fifty	Last	Ps	Last	The Weaver 21
cant get you out of my mind kylie minogue	1	01	15	strange little girls tori amos
smooth criminal alien ant farm	3	02	17	f e a r ian brown
hey baby dj otzi	2	03	1	drops of jupiter train
what would you do city high	8	04	4	stop your cryin spiritualized
family affair mary j blige	9	05	21	fallin alicia keys
follow me uncle kraker	4	06	--	alcoholic starsailor
chain reaction steps	5	07	2	common people pulp
thinking it over liberty	18	08	--	turn off the light nelly furtardo
starlight the superman lovers	6	09	3	things that go bump in the night allstars
mambo number five bob the builder	7	10	--	androgyny garbage
let me blow ya mind eve / gwen stefani	10	11	5	london calling clash
luv me luv me shaggy	11	12	--	the space between dave matthews band
sven sven sven bell and spurling	NE	13	6	the way it is bruce hornsby & the range
turn off the light nelly furtardo	12	14	13	hunter dido
i want love elton john	14	15	7	drinkin' in la bran van 3000
fat lip sum 41	NE	16	--	follow me uncle kraker
you rock my world michael jackson	19	17	10	sweet baby macy gray
too close blue	13	18	11	daydream in blue i monster
lets dance five	15	19	16	the pain inside cosmic rough riders
fallin alicia keys	20	20	--	island in the sun weezer
set you free ntrance	16	21	20	what would you do city high

Kylie retains the top slot for a third week, holding off the challenge of Alien Ant Farm, City High and Mary J Blige.
Bell & Spurling have the highest new entry with a hymn of praise to England football manager Sven Goran Erikkson. It's released in the week the team secured qualification to next year's world cup. Canadian rockers Sum 41 have a very high entry with their loudness.
Bristol producer Jean-Jacques Smoothie has an infectious entry at 22 with "Two People". Enya has the fastest climber, "Only Time" leaps from 47 to 27. Another German hit, Sarah Connor featuring TQ's "Let's Get Back To Bed, Boy!" lands at 39. Ash's fourth release from their Free All Angels set, "Candy", is a #46 hit, one place ahead of Right Said Fred's first hit in eight years, "You're My Mate."

University Challenge UCL lost to UMIST two years ago, but crept back at the bottom of the high scoring losers pile. Beating Warwick handsomely landed them with a plum tie against Christ Church Oxford, which they were unlucky to lose. UCL got off to a strong start last year, defeating New Oxford, only to crumple in the face of Manchester in the second round.
The University of Wales in Cardiff lost to Queen's Belfast in 97 and Birkbeck the following year. They did take a place as a high-scoring runner up, overpowering Aberdeen before being soundly trounced by eventual champs Magdalen Oxford in the quarters.
There's no such thing as easy points, unless you're identifying Hanna Barbarra characters as Cardiff did. Confusing Baloo and Huckleberry Hound is not good, but Cardiff still has slightly the better of the exchanges. Nick Harrison (Cardiff, captain) has a brilliant opening section, at one point responsible for 62 of the team's 75 points. His buzzing gives the team a 35-point lead by halfway. UCL takes the lead just before the second pictures (US states from their flags - v. difficult) and slowly pull away. UCL wins 200-145.
Katie Bramall (UCL, captain) buzzes on a question about the heart's movements, gives some long and complex answer, only to be told it's something else. She's a medic, and could be giving the technical term. Paxo lays into Harrison when he doesn't know about DU (depleted uranium,) on the grounds that "I thought you were studying journalism."

Let me set out my biases early. I'm a sucker for people doing silly things on network television. I'm in favour of people being honest and open, forgetting the camera is there. I like the romance of a good travel show, and the thrill of a race. Maybe it's the combination of these factors that explains why I liked WANTED so much.
The concept behind LOST! is simple. Three couples are blindfolded and taken to a secret location. They have three days' rations and 200 US dollars. This week, it was the edge of Anzer (65 09N, 36 14E), one of the Solovetskiye Islands in the Onezhskaya Gulf, just east of Finland. Next week, it's somewhere a little hotter. The week after, who knows, it could be the north-west tip of Spain.
But let's face it, who wants to be in Finisterre? Especially when there's a big cash prize for the first team to touch Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, London. The primary objective is simple: get from there to here as quickly as possible.
This week, the route a crow would take was over Finland, Sweden, and northern Denmark. Our teams are too heavy to jump on a crow's back, and don't have the money to charter a larger bird, so have to take the train and coach. One goes well out of their way through Moscow, Warsaw, and eventually a coach to London. Another seems to be playing more for the experience than the prize, and dallies in St Petersburg and Minsk before heading home. The third team spend all their money on the express train to Berlin, hitch-hike to Belgium, and eventually sell their tent for ferry tickets.
This show works on many levels. At its most basic, it's a race. Who will be first home? Whose trail on the map will lead to London first? Will it be the annoying businesswoman? Will it be the personable Rastafarian gentleman, or the curt Scouse lady?
On another level, it's a travel show. We see the perils of travelling without a ticket on a Russian train. And the joys of international cuisine behind the remnants of the Iron Curtain. A well-known fast food chain is everywhere there.
On yet another level, we have the way the teams cope with each other, and the people they meet. The annoying businesswoman carried her team-mate; he could drink and went off on many delusional ramblings caused by lack of sleep while she shrugged it off, convinced she was winning. The Rastafarian gentleman spoke openly of how he was missing marijuana, but he and his companion clearly had a whale of a time. The Scouse lass was open with her feelings, telling one busy-body lady in St Petersburg "Yeah, my breath smells, but so does your country."
Perhaps on the most important level, LOST! works as thoroughly good entertainment. The remark above is one of many, many classic nuggets from this week. There's double-crossing aplenty at the start, there's confidence and pride and falls aplenty. The whole programme makes gripping viewing. I think what works best of all is that we have the time to get to know these people, see them at their most raw, and figure what makes them tick. Each viewer will have their own good guys and bad guys, a team they want to win and one they might rather leave somewhere unspeakable.
There's a sense that this is proper reality television; while people wouldn't normally be travelling through remote parts of Russia or begging on the streets of Warsaw with a cameraman in tow, it's something that just could happen in real life. And this is honest television: the cameraman is acknowledged, sometimes stepping into shot, travels with the team, and doesn't know where the heck he is.

Five years ago, WANTED had four significant flaws. LOST! addresses all of these.
The show is not live: this week's episodes were filmed almost a year ago, allowing for plenty of editing and still maintaining the suspense of who will win right up to the closing minutes.
Viewers don't have to decide whether they want the tracker or the runner to win: instead, we get to follow three teams and form our judgement through the week.
The game is one coherent task: get back to London. Contestants don't meet the mayor each day for a week then hide out in phone boxes for an hour on a foggy Wednesday night. They just get to London.
And finally, there's no over-bearing host who ought to shut his trap, merely a narrator in the style of BIG BROTHER. Making an ass of themselves is the contestants' job.

This is a very, very impressive debut show. Indeed, I'm hard pushed to recall a better debut show this side of THE MOLE. I strongly recommend it.