I was talking a day or two ago to my parents who live in Oakville, a small town just outside Toronto and they said they were not going into the city because of fear of SARS. I thought at the time they might be over-reacting a bit but it seems both the World Health Organization and the UK government are recommending that travellers stay away from Toronto! Needless to say the mayor is not happy about this.

I tend to be pretty phlegmatic about these kinds of media panics but now I’m starting to worry a bit – lots of my friends live in the city. Though they’ve exchanged a few emails about SARS they don’t seem too concerned yet. I hope they stay safe!3360 ringtones nokia for free polyphonicnokia downloads ringtone 3588i freemotorola 5 ringtone composer linkringtone 3390 phone cell nokia freedownload ringtone free nokia 3588i6102i nokia ringtonesamsung ringtone a920the field across ringtone Mapmerchant account texas credit accept carddvd architect using add creditsloan with horrible credit aaccept credit gasoline cardmasters online degree accreditedmerchant credit account florida card bankcashback credit 4 cardstatistics report credit african-american Map

Check out this amusing (if a teeny bit misogynist) Flash animation short – Hearts and Hammers.sanyo 3g sprint ringtone free5500 ringtone sanyo6340i ringtonesringtone free 6360 nokiaringtone 7250 free blackberry8900 download audiovox ringtoneringtone infinity 93 tillin warrington jobs accounts payable manager Map

A list of the elements as sung by Tom Lehrer to the tune of the Major General’s song from the Pirates of Penzance (in the form of a flash animation). For more G & S Parodies, see here, for more about Gilbert and Sullivan see this and for more about Tom Lehrer see here.

Thanks to my poll I know that some people at least are interested in how I made my weblog in the first place and weblog-related hints – so here are a couple, mixed in with a rant about how complex all this stuff is getting to be.

I feel as if there’s a kind of arms race going on as more and more weblog-related technologies are implemented. Weblogs used to be simple – I just typed in some text on a web form and magically it appeared on my site.
Then I put in a counter so I could track my traffic.
Then I decided I liked the idea of being able to categorise my writing for easier access (see long list at R), so I moved to Moveable Type. Then I started to hear more and more about RSS and XML so I added this XML feed – I no longer remember how but someone else’s computer is generating it automatically.
I have always been interested in the idea of content rating as a voluntary way of ensuring kids are protected from unsuitable material, so I gave my site an ICRA rating.
Then trackback came along so I had to figure out what it is and what it does (let you see who is linking to you) and I had to change my template so that people could do it.
Then I learned about affero and decided it would be fun to give people a way to express their aggregate opinion of my site.
Then I was intrigued by the idea that sites could indicate where they come from so I registered my site at geourl.
Then I thought I would put up a poll to find out how people were using blog.org.
And now I spotted a feature I thought was really interesting – offering people the ability to search the weblogs I read myself (which you should now see at R). But in order to use Micah Halpern’s code I had to convert my list of weblogs I link to into “blogrolling” format (I still don’t quite see why editing one’s HTML template to add or subtract a simple link is so hard people use external software to do it, but it does mean that my list of links is now in a database and can be used and accessed in other ways as well). And then I got a Google API key so your searches wouldn’t use up his allowance.

So altogether having a moderately sophisticated weblog has tied me in to at least nine different organizations or sites providing different complementary capabilities! And I know there are lots of other weblog capabilities I haven’t yet implemented – and that there are features provided by the sites I have already used that I am probably not fully utilizing.

Weblogging takes too much time and intellectual energy at this moment in its evolution – and that’s not even counting the time and energy that go into writing these posts! Of course you can always just ignore the various new technologies coming out and keep plugging away with simple text and links but there’s always the risk that one of those new facilities will turn out to be the Next Big Thing and if you don’t have it your weblog risks looking hopelessly out of date.hot free movies momfree movie galleries housewifes fuckingsex movie indian freesex no movies latina membership freelesbians movie freemovie long free pornfucking machine free moviesmovies free midget porn Map

UpMyStreet, a pioneering experiment in delivery of geographically-based information in the UK, (which also employed a number of people whose work I respect) has
gone into administration. I hope that someone decides to pick up its assets and do something with them. The idea of linking information and discussion to postcodes is an excellent one and with the growth of location-based services of all kinds the site is bound to have a future – its directors say it is “only months from turning a profit”.

I have just put up a small poll to try to learn more about what brings people to this blog and how to improve it. I hope you will take a few minutes to fill it in. It’s anonymous and it isn’t being used for any commercial purpose – I just want to get to know you better.her about mp3sample 2525 mp3matchbox mp3 3am451 mp3 x4gb mp3 watchmp3 01 mp3 search dance myamp3 encoding 320kcruzin 8ball mp3 mjg Map

Accordin to the BBC, the UK has had the brightest March since records began, and the first two months of 2003 were the UK’s second sunniest since records began in 1960. Since the last three years were pretty crappy it’s about time we had some climatic payback!nudes shemaleswomen hard fucked squirting beingpissing girlzphotos teen chested flatlesbians sexy xxxxxxxxteen tgp tinywomen having squirting pictures orgasms ofcartoons xxx simpson homergirls hot horney sexydaddies fucking anal daughters

I went along to a lecture that Habermas gave in London about religious tolerance and cultural rights in democracies. I wasn’t planning to approach him, but he walked off-stage practically into me so I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him about his attitude towards new media. He confirmed that he hadn’t written anything specifically about the new media and that he felt its impacts were ambiguous. He expressed concern about the possible fragmentation of the public sphere that comes when the Internet brings interest groups together – concerns voiced by Cass Sunstein in his book Republic.com and other places. I could have argued with him on that point but I thought I had taken enough of his time – I just urged him to give the matter some more thought and let us know his views when he had formed them.

Thanks to the folks at iSociety for letting me know about the lecture!galerias interracialgranny holland sexnaked women masterbating pictures ofhairy – atk janellesonic porn furrystripers shemalemilfs interracialtoon school strip girl free Map

Readers who have been following the news may be aware that there is a war going on that has attracted some interest. They may also have noticed that there has been little if any comment on said war in my weblog. Well, it isn’t because I lack views – simply because like many people I suspect I have been having difficulty in weaving them together into a coherent position. Still, rather than stay silent I think I may as well put some of my own views down at this point, even though I am still conflicted… Apologies if I don’t put in links to support many of my assertions/beliefs – they are not that uncommon and I’m sure you can find appropriate links and information to back many of them up.

Why has America gone to war?

Because of a threat to its own security?

To my astonishment, a recent CNN poll shows more than half of Americans believe Saddam was responsible for the September 11th attacks. This is just the Big Lie in operation. Put Saddam and September 11th together in conversation frequently enough and people will come to believe there is an association.

Saddam probably does have some tenuous links to Al-Quaeda on the basis of “the enemy of my enemy…” but while he is a ruthless dictator he strikes me as pragmatic, not ideological. The WMDs he owns (or owned) were either for use against internal opponents or as a deterrent to attack. He wouldn’t use WMDs or foster terrorism unless it helped him to prop up his own power. His voiced support for Islamic terror seems to me likely to be simply an attempt to get allies in the Arab world.

Because of a threat to neighboring countries?

More plausible but still unconvincing. It’s true that Saddam invaded Kuwait but since then he has been effectively penned in. The indefinite presence of weapons inspectors would be enough to keep him from making more WMDs and he has learned from bitter experience that conventional military adventurism will be met by force. My guess is that if he had been left alone he would have been happy to stay on peaceful terms with his neighbors, only using his army to threaten his own people.

Because of concern for human rights in Iraq?

No doubt the US would rather Saddam behaved in a civilised fashion towards his own people, but since it was quite happy to turn a blind eye to his many misdoings as long as he was “our guy” and remains happy to ignore the misdoings of other client states around the world it seems pretty absurd to suggest the US really cares about Iraq… all of which leaves the inescapable conclusion:

Yes, this war is basically about oil.

And more broadly a desire to have a strong Western ally in the Middle East from which power can be projected into the rest of the region. This American Life laid out some of the arguments about that in this radio show and it has also been discussed in this New Yorker article.

So you oppose the war?

Well… no. Bush’s motives are dubious to say the least, but I am less interested in motives than I am in the results.

I would say there is a reasonably good chance that the dictator they eventually prop up in Baghdad will be better behaved than Saddam to his own people. And with a “friendly” regime in power the sanctions against Iraq can end and along with them the needless civilian suffering that has plagued the country for twelve years. Commentators have suggested that sanctions have cost the lives of 500,000 Iraqi children so far. It may be that Saddam is to blame for mal-distributing the resources that remain but since there is no other way to remove him than war this is irrelevant to the larger question. War may be bloody but continued sanctions appear to be much worse in terms of the number killed. And post September 11th there was little sign that the sanctions would be substantially lowered any time soon.

But the war is unjust!

Well, it’s abundantly clear to me that there is no “legal” justification for the US’ actions, and that they are transparently self-interested. But perhaps this is just as well. By making it abundantly clear that the US – at least this administration – doesn’t really give a damn about international law perhaps this latest fracas will give Europe the spur it needs to develop some significant independent military and foreign policy capability of its own so that the UN isn’t always subject to the whims of the US for enforcement of its goals.

What about the UN?

I suspect it will go on much as before. Nobody would really expect that it can act effectively restrain the US when it wants to do something. It may even be strengthened if anger at America translates into increased backing of the UN by other nations.

Will the war go well?

Yes, I think so – as well as you can expect from any war. I don’t expect much Iraqi resistance – certainly there is no reason to expect a “Stalingrad in Baghdad” situation. If it looks as if Saddam is doomed and if most of his henchmen are given to understand they will be left alone if they surrender (a reasonable assumption) I believe resistance will collapse.

What about after the war?

Well, this is where things will get really interesting. I (and another recent leftist commentator) fear that this has the potential to be a real problem for the left if (as I expect) the war is “won” – at least in the first few months. They have to try to ensure that the American public with its short attention span continues to pay attention to the fate of Iraq months after most of the American troops have gone home.

My guess is that things will turn out well as long as

1) The Kurds don’t press their (legitimate) desire for independence too hard prompting a brutal backlash from a US-backed regime and/or Turkey and
2) The US doesn’t throw its weight around too brazenly from its new base.

Will the war cause a wave of democratisation to spread across the Middle East?

I doubt it. That assumes that the new Iraqi regime will be democratic, which I doubt (because the US has little interest in making it so – a truly democratic regime with so many different interests would be chaotic and the US wants stability above all). Moreover, I don’t think the US would like to see an Islamic democracy in place in, say, Saudi Arabia – it would rather the same old stable despotic regimes stayed in place.

More thoughts later – meanwhile if you would like to dispute with me or get more detail on my views, comment with your thoughts – but please back them up with evidence…websites movie ratingsquirt movieant movies farm alienmovies dater easymovies lee pam and of tommyawards 2005 mtv moviehome naked moviesnasty movies bukkakenazi sex moviesnot another movie teen trailerskill credits acschedules academy casino busmillion 90 ringtonesaca international creditcasino adress inter90210 beverly hills ringtonefund benson credit acacia stevetechnologies advanced casino Map

The BBC looks back at Beeching – the man who closed about a third of the UK rail network back in 1963. It’s a two parter – I found the first part rather inconclusive. Did Beeching really save British Rail? Or did the massive closures only save BR about £7m when losses were running at £100m a year? The programme doesn’t give you enough information to make up your mind.

If it is a subject that interests you you can email questions to the programme makers and/or return to the website for a web chat with Alan Whitehouse, Professor of Railway Studies at the University of York and Colin Divall, British Rail management trainee and supervisor in the 1980s, after the second half is broadcast tomorrow on Radio 4 and the web (20:30 UK time).

The BBC site also features web links to other resources, a biography of Beeching and even a bibliography.check no 5000 creditonline accept credit payment cardinternet ala accredited coursesal gore carbon creditsaged creditfederal credit acipco unionave credit addison unionaccreditation of ghana university Map