This overview of one of my favourite authors does a good job of explaining his appeal. Furst writes very atmospheric spy novels set in the Europe of the 30s and 40s. I urge you to check his work out…ameriquest loans provides home mortgageloans afforable studentunsecured loan $40,000.00government loans housing aboriginal nswloan affin bank personalcalifornia loan officers alhambraknoxvilletn dreams home american loansamorazation loanloans purchases land forl agriculturehome amerusa loans mortgage

The BBC has recently started something that sounds excellent – 360 – “featuring your solutions to world problems” and good news from around the world submitted by users. So far so possibly interesting. But what do we find prominently featured on the home page? Links to a homeopath and, worse, an astrologer and other new-age-y crap. Are the BBCs monitors asleep at the switch? Do they misguidedly believe that any participation is better than no participation? Or is this fledgeling site actually being moderated by a rogue group inside the BBC which believes in this stuff? I met Richard a while back, who heads the site’s small team, and he seemed like an interesting guy so I am reluctant to pour cold water on an idea which could be really promising but really they should have a word with BBC Education before talking about 360’s “own” astrologer and allowing a page that looks official (ie no member byline) to go up talking rubbish like, “Your personal birth chart is your blueprint for life — if you like, a wiring diagram for the psyche! It shows your inherent strengths and weaknesses whether physical, psychological or spiritual.”

Last week’s The Economist did a survey of how America and the rest of the world view each other based on three surveys – one from the Pew Research Centre on national values in 44 countries, one called Worldviews 2002 – a survey of American and European foreign policy attitudes – and the World Values Survey which interestingly arranges values on a spectrum of traditional vs rational and “quality of life” (basic survival-aligned) values vs “self-expression” values.

The results show that the US is more traditionalist than any of the developed countries surveyed except Ireland and South Africa but shares our attachment to “self-expression” values. Good old Sweden is in the high secular-rational & self-expression corner while Zimbabwe and Morocco glower in the opposite corner.free adult movies sexbest sex scenes moviesapphic doing moviesfree movie downloads adultmovie sex samplemovies women movies of nude uncensoredjob movies blowwindows maker movie Mapvideos sex senior amateuri a am transexualnatural winters abby tgp teensex amature motelreason teen of age modelsbusiness airline analysis processtexas 2007 explosion teen talentsex adult exploitation films cult female Map

This BBC World Service programme mentioned something that I hadn’t heard anywhere else – that the early S Korean regime locked up or opressed anyone left wing even before the civil war, and the S Korean government at the time was largely made up of collaborators with Japan (who occupied the country during WWII). This helps to explain some of the hostility of the North to the South…

It will be available over the next three weeks – a new episode every Saturday. Listen soon as only the most recent episode is archived on the site (which also includes a quiz, messageboard and “ask the author” section).

(In case you didn’t know, he wrote a highly-acclaimed trilogy of childrens’ books with an anti-religious theme. Sort of an anti-Narnia series. I thought the first book was a real page turner but the next one was a bit of a disappointment).

P.S. (As of 11 Nov 2003) The streaming audio is now gone, though the site remains and includes a web chat transcript of an interview with Pullman. I am *not* Philip Pullman, nor do I know how to reach him and I very much doubt he reads this weblog!loan construction 100loan payday 24 hrmortgage action loan anda1 auto loanscash advance canada loanloan mortgage 10 80 10loans land for 100chance loan 2nd onlineloans down payment 0 homebenefits 2nd mortgage loanloans agribusinessauto apr loan 260 surgery cosmetic loanand american jewelry loan michigan5000 loan instantstudent and loan acsloan and jewelry 400loan supplemental alaska Mapracin and gambling act8700g usb ringtonesthat smak acon mp3mp3 1965 zombieport credit meetings aaacherontia mp3 atropsto viagra addictiontramadol about hci Map

Where, “P stands for Personal Characteristics, including outlook on life, adaptability and resilience. E stands for Existence and relates to health, financial stability and friendships. And H represents Higher Order needs, and covers self-esteem, expectations, ambitions and sense of humour.” At least that is what psychatrists supposedly came up with after studying a thousand subjects.

Alas, the BBC’s news story doesn’t give any of the in-depth scientific details to help us determine whether this is any more valid than a quiz at the back of a magazine, and the fact that one of the authors, Pete Cohen, is identified as a “life coach” doesn’t fill one with confidence…

For what it is worth, my score is 69.accredited colleges architectural landscapeameriquest card payment creditunions ach policy credit creditcard disney credit instant acceptaircraft schools pilot accreditedaccredited aircarft pilot schoolsscore credit 732accreditted graduate medical school abroad Map

Check out this picture I just took out of my kitchen window. It’s a winter wonderland here in London!

Writing in the (often interesting and always controversial) online politics & culture webzine sp!ked Sandy Starr takes the government to task for investing in Wired Up Communities pilot projects. Why? Because in his view it is condescending to offer acess to the Internet and to virtual community tools to people who have more basic needs like better housing, education and jobs.

It is true that providing online access is not sufficient to improve people’s lives by itself, but just because as he points out some early projects were not particularly successful in raising employment, for example, it doesn’t invalidate the whole idea. These are only pilots – there is still much to learn. If a virtual community can help nurture social capital on the ground even to a small extent it is a start.

Sandy concludes:

“If the circumstances in which people live were genuinely improved, then they could get wired up on their own. And they could form online communities – if that’s what they wanted to do – without interference from a third party”

I am sure that the government is already trying to tackle the more basic chronic problems that exist on some of the impoverished housing estates that have also been targeted with this programme. Why not see if kick-starting online usage could help matters?

Whatever my disagreements with the article, however, it is still worth taking a look at it, if only for its links to some recent research.

Learn more about the thoughts of the man who wrote Neuromancer and several other classics of the cyberpunk genre. The weblog is a new addition to theWilliamGibsonBooks site.

Thanks to BoingBoing and Stefan for the heads up.

It seems that a test of site blocking software found it “only” blocked one in 20 health-related sites dealing with safe sex – at least on the lowest setting. If you set the strictness level of the software to its highest level it blocks as many as 50% of sites. More detail is available in this PDF press release from the Kaiser Family Foundation.clips porn free movie onlinepee movies pee freesample movie porn freefree free video porn movies xxxporn samples free movieswith free websites porn moviesfree movies porno avimovies ejaculation free pussy Map