New Camera Blogging

My father brought for me a Nikon D40x Digital Camera, as a graduating present and so I've been snap happy today learning how to use it, I took a couple of photos and I have present the three best ones.

To really enjoy the details do click on the photos to see it fully


A headshot of Heidi, its an amazing camera and so unfussy to use, brings out every detail of her whiskers and fur


A photo of George taken on my new camera


Still life photography, a Jade Plant - (Crassula ovata)
better known as a Money Plant

The Failed Bomb in London



Police: car bomb may have been inspired by al-Qaida

Senior police and Whitehall sources today said the failed attempt to inflict mass murder in central London was the work of al-Qaida or those inspired by its ideology.

"You only have to read past cases of those convicted for terrorism to realise they have been plotting to blow up nightclubs and putting gas cylinder bombs in cars," one senior source said.

Counter-terrorism sources said the car bomb found in Haymarket - one of London's main nightlife districts - was similar to car bombs used in Iraq.

There is a silver lining to this, at least it shows whoever planned this does not have access to real powerful explosives, because this was a pretty crude bomb.

Just don't take what the government says at face value till all the facts are in.

Goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester Square...

London Bomb - Cui Bono?

Bomb in London

Friday Opera Blogging

Puccini's Tosca - finale 2nd act

Sherrill Milnes as Scarpia and Raina Kabaivanska as Tosca

Friday Cat Blogging


George and Heidi snuggling up together


Heidi being a girl and having fun with a pink ribbon


Heidi enjoying the fan heater


George looking very handsome


George in his favourite viewing spot in the kitchen

Thursday Ballet Blogging

Death of Nikiya - La Bayadère

Isabelle Guerin (Nikiya), Laurent Hilaire (Solor) and Elisabeth Platel (Gamzatti). From the Ballet Ópera de Paris, 1992.

Britain's New PM



Brown promises 'new Government, new priorities'

Gordon Brown swept into Downing Street as Prime Minister today and promised to be at all times "strong and steadfast" and to govern beyond narrow political interests.

Speaking with his wife Sarah beside him Mr Brown told reporters: "I have just accepted the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen to form a Government.

"This will be a new Government with new priorities and I have been privileged to have been granted the great opportunity to serve my country."

He promised the country: "This will be a new Government with new priorities."

Gordon Brown is going to be either an astounding success or a total failure and I tend to lean towards failure.

More on Blair's leaving

Not the End

Tony Joins The Club

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish


The convoy drives through the heavy black gates of Downing Street to be confronted by protesters on its way up Whitehall
Photograph: Bruno Vincent/Getty Images

Blair resigns as prime minister

Tony Blair has stood down as UK prime minister after 10 years in the job.

He handed in his resignation to the Queen during a private meeting at Buckingham Palace.

His long-serving Chancellor Gordon Brown is now at the Palace where the Queen is asking him to take the job and form a new government.

Earlier, Mr Blair received a standing ovation from MPs in the Commons in unprecedented scenes at the end of his final prime minister's questions.

The warmonger has finally left No10. Iraq is his bloody legacy.

Bye then

And So It Begins

Special Envoy to the Middle East?


Kool and the Gang - Celebrate

Blair's Farewell

Blair to resign as MP tomorrow

Tony Blair will fly to his Sedgefield constituency tomorrow afternoon to resign from parliament with immediate effect.

The move will come as Gordon Brown prepares to enter Number 10 Downing Street just after lunchtime tomorrow and prepare for a radical shake-up of the cabinet.

Mr Blair's local party has been gathered to hear his plan to quit politics to pursue his interests in middle east peace making and inter-faith reconciliation.

Mr Brown will go to see the Queen around 1.30pm to be asked to form a government, buoyed by engineering the extraordinary defection to Labour of Quentin Davies, the pro-European Tory MP, who then delivered a devastating resignation letter to David Cameron accusing him of "superficiality, unrealiility, and an apparent lack of convictions".

So Blair leaves office and ends up as the international Middle East peace envoy, what a stupid choice, it'll really go down well with the Palestinians. Blair has no credibility at all, he won't be regarded as a fair observer. He gave support to a one of the worst mistakes (Iraq) ever made, what makes the quartetthink he can solve the problem between Israel and Palestine?

Fablous post by Watertiger at Dependable Renegade:

It's the Tony Blair Farewell Tour! its incredibly funny and straight to the point.

Tuesday Fun

I have been tagged by Dirk Gently, I have to list 8 random facts about me

so here it goes:

1. My political views could be described as Libertarian Socialist, I am also an anti monarchist and an atheist

2. I have two cats - Heidi and George

3. I have visited France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Egypt and Tunisia

4. I have a BA (Hons) in Ancient History from the University of Wales Swansea

5. I enjoy listening to Mozart and the Super Furry Animals

6. I like watching movies

7. My favourite curry dish is a Chicken Tikka Masala

8. I love reading books

Palestinian Poetry Blogging

Sonnet II

Perhaps you only ask for ambiguity when you turn your back to the river.
There an autumn sprinkles water onto a stag from a passing cloud.
There on what you left behind of the crumbs of your departure.
The Milky Way is your ambiguity, the dust of nameless stars.
Your ambiguity is a night in pearls lighting nothing but water.
As for speech, it can light the night of someone setting forth
between two odes and two rows of palms, with the single word: love

I am the one who saw his tomorrow when he saw you.
I am the one who saw gospels written by the last idolater,
on the slopes of Gilead before the old countries, and after.
I am the cloud returning to a fig tree which bears my name,
just as the sword bears the face of the slaughtered.
Perhaps when you turn your shadow to me, you bestow unto metaphor
the meaning of something that is about to happen.

Mahmoud Darwish from A Bed For the Stranger (1999)

Translated by Sinan Antoon and edited by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché

Photo Blogging

My mother is friends with a scouter in Oman and he took some photos of the recent Cyclone Gonu, which cause destruction and flooding the country.

The Oman Scouts helped with people who were displaced by the Cyclone.

Sunday Fun

Music Video Blogging

M.I.A - Galang

Gordon Brown

Brown pledge to cut state control

Gordon Brown has said he has learned his lesson about "top-down" government and has pledged to involve ordinary people in his decisions.

He told BBC News the public needed to be fully involved if big challenges like climate change were to be tackled.

He also agreed that tax as a percentage of national income had risen under Labour, but said people supported the decision to increase NHS funding.

The Tories have accused Mr Brown of being addicted to "state control".

Gordon Brown seems to take great pleasure in creating byzantine programmes like his Working tax credit what a fuck up that was!

He has to micromanage everything, which won't serve him well when he becomes PM.

Friday Opera Blogging

"Signori! di fuori son già i suonatori" from Act 2, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro

Susanna - Dawn Upshaw
La Contessa - Ljuba Kazarnovskaya
Il Conte - Thomas Allen
Figaro - Ferruccio Furlanetto

Neighborhood Cat Blogging

Duchess, our next door neighbors pussy cat, a sweetie, they got her from a rescue home

Friday Cat Blogging


George in a silly pose


Heidi taking it easy


George at the top of the stairs


Heidi all snuggly

Thursday Ballet Blogging

Alina Cojocaru & Johan Kobborg dancing the 2nd Act of Cinderella

Gordon Brown

Ashdown turns down job in Brown cabinet

Lord Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, was offered a job in Gordon Brown's first cabinet, he said today.

The peer - reportedly offered the position of Northern Ireland secretary - said he refused the job, and would have done so even if he had received the consent of Sir Menzies Campbell, the current party leader.

"It is true that Mr Brown suggested ... that I might take a position in the cabinet," Lord Ashdown said, in a statement sent to the BBC.

very strange behaviour from Gordon Brown, why on earth would he offer the job of Northern Ireland secretary to Paddy Ashdown?

I mean its a step down from being Lord High Sheriff of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Predictable

Jerusalem braced for gay parade clashes

Police in Jerusalem were preparing for violent protests from hardline religious groups today during a planned Gay Pride march through the streets of the city centre.

Police have faced violent skirmishes in ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods of the city since approving the march a week ago. More than 100 people have been arrested, according to police.

Yesterday, Israel's supreme court gave formal approval for the event, dismissing an appeal by rightwing groups.

Up to 5,000 marchers were expected to take part in this evening's parade, which will travel just 500 metres from the city's King David hotel to a park, where a gathering will be held. They will be guarded by more than 7,000 police.

Jerusalem's Gay Pride march is a relatively low-key affair, even by comparison with its annual equivalent in Tel Aviv, with none of the flamboyance and costumes associated with such events in Europe and the US.

Every year, the march prompts an angry reaction from Jews, Christians and Muslims and has increasingly become a point of division for conservative, religious opinion and more secular, leftwing citizens.

Quite depressing no? the only time the three main religions can agree is when it comes to attacking gays,lesbians, atheism, secularism and science.

Certainly prove that the religious conservatives are as batshit insane as each other

Palestine - The Gaza Strip and Hamas

Inside Gaza - calm returns at end of a gun

In the spacious, top-floor office of Gaza's former police chief, the television was tuned to al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas channel, and at lunchtime half a dozen well-armed, bearded Hamas commanders rose in unison and knelt in prayer.

On the streets there were no policemen to be seen. Instead, across the city stood small groups of Hamas gunmen, some in uniform, others not.

Directing the traffic were Hamas "volunteers", unarmed and wearing green baseball caps and fluorescent yellow jackets, each marked the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas.

Hamas might be a bunch of idiots but it is not surprising they would start sorting out the criminal gangs.

Now if Hamas don't start firing rockets into Israel and play along ruling the Gaza Strip then ok, but as soon as they start up again Israel will be in there as fast as possible and this time they will know that anyone with a gun is Hamas.

The quartet are wasting their time backing Fatah, who are discredited in many Palestinian eyes.

The British Military and Afghanistan

Ambassador forecasts 'marathon' British role in Afghanistan

Britain could be heavily involved in Afghanistan for decades, the UK's new ambassador to the country said today, calling it "a marathon not a sprint".

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who took up the post last month after stints as ambassador in Israel and Saudi Arabia, said Britain's recently expanded diplomatic efforts in the country could have begun sooner.

"Maybe we should have raised our game earlier, but now we have," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme from Kabul.

British troops probably really want to go to Afghanistan because its a proper war, with less civilians , a chance for them to fire their weapons, see live action, chance to get a medal heh

unlike Iraq, you know perhaps Britain should withdraw from Iraq and concentrated our forces in Afghanistan. Currently the British army suffers from equipment which is old or wearing out, from helicopters to planes to vehicles.

Monday Fun

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World


The Chinese Bass Baritone Shen Yang was crowned the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007. A well deserved win, only 23 but his voice was superb.

I was rooting for the English soprano Elizabeth Watts myself, her voice was beautiful and she really engaged the audience, was delighted she won the World Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize on Friday evening.

The Audience Prize, voted on by viewers, online users and the audience in St David's Hall, went to South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo.

Sunday Silliness

Cowboys Herding Cats

Palestine



Fatah seizes West Bank parliament.

Hamas hints at talks as chaos reigns in divided Palestine

Islamists strengthen grip in Gaza but western governments, including US, side with Palestinian president in the West Bank

Jubilant Hamas militants cemented their domination over Gaza yesterday but appeared to make conciliatory overtures to their Fatah opponents after a week of intense fighting that has effectively broken Palestine in two.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, called for new negotiations with the Fatah leader and Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and urged calm from his own gunmen after they had routed Fatah rivals and embarked on a wave of looting in Fatah offices and homes in the Gaza Strip. Hamas also released 10 senior Fatah officials captured during five days of clashes that killed more than 100 people.

There will be probably a three state solution. Hamas will rule the Gaza Strip, Israel in the centre and the West Bank will be controlled by Fatah.

Friday Music Video Blogging

The White Strips - Icky Thump

The Gaza Strip


Hamas takes control of Gaza

Hamas fighters today basked in triumph after taking complete control in Gaza as the west scrambled for a response to the arrival of Islamist power on Israel's doorstep.

In a stark demonstration of the new facts on the ground, a masked Hamas fighter sat down at the desk of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, and declared an end to the western-backed authority in the Gaza strip.

In an imaginary telephone call to the US, a fighter from the Islamist movement's armed wing Izz el-Deen al-Qassam joked: "Hello Condoleezza Rice. You have to deal with me now, there is no Abu Mazen anymore."

This is the logical outcome of US and Israeli policy towards Palestine, a civil war.

Its also Yasser Arafat's fault, he sat on his arse doing nothing for 26 years, just collecting the cash. He died and now Hamas and Fatah are fighting over who gets the money, it has little to do with ideology.

In the short term Hamas might offer some stability and get some basic services working, with no one else to fight.

I think all those rallying behind Abbas (the quartet) are wasting their time. Basically Fatah will run the West Bank and Hamas the Gaza Strip. The Egyptians won't stand for Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, especially if it grows strong, they might even invade, as it might encourage their own Muslim Brotherhood and I am surprise Saudi Arabia and Israel have not sorted out the Palestinian situation themseleves, because it is in both their interests, as for those commentators who say 'oh but we must talk to the moderate', what fucking moderates? Sometimes you have to deal with people who you don't really want to deal with. Just look at N Ireland, Martin Mcguinness is now a MP and is in a government with Ian Paisley.

But thats just my view, I cannot give a satisfactory answer as I'm not there

For more in depth analysis

For a Secular, Democratic, Single State of Palestine

Hamastan, Hamastan, Hamastan...

Bountiful Friday Cat Blogging


George enjoying some catnip


Heidi relaxing


Heidi


George playing with a green furry thing


George finishing off a Strawberry Shortcake Freschato from Costa's


George sleeping


Heidi

Iraq - A Bloody Mess

Samarra shrine blasts - The two minarets used to stand either side of the mosque, which houses the remains of two revered Shia imams.

US arms Sunni dissidents in risky bid to contain al-Qaida fighters in Iraq

· Guns and equipment already handed over
· Insurgents promise not to attack Americans

The US military has embarked on a new and risky strategy in Iraq by arming Sunni insurgents in the hope that they will tackle the extremist al-Qaida in Iraq.

The US high command this month gave permission to its officers on the ground to negotiate arms deals with local leaders. Arms, ammunition, body armour and other equipment, as well as cash, pick-up trucks and fuel, have already been handed over in return for promises to turn on al-Qaida and not attack US troops.

What on earth makes the US army think the Sunni insurgents will keep their promise not to use weapons given to them by the US on the US army?

This just adds fuel to an already out of control fire.

Its an incredibly stupid idea, one in a long list of stupidity which has characterized this misadventure that is Iraq.

Meanwhile - Blasts at Iraq's Askariya shrine

A series of blasts have destroyed two minarets at an already damaged Shia shrine in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra.

The explosions were heard in the vicinity of the Askariya mosque at about 9:00am (0500 GMT) on Wednesday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

"The explosion targeted the two golden minarets. They have been damaged ... This is a criminal act which aims at creating sectarian strife," Saleh al-Haidari, the head of the Shia endowment in Iraq, said.

How anyone can claim Iraq is a 'success' is simply beyond me.

Music Video Blogging

The Chemical Brothers - Do It Again

Thoughts on Class and Welfare

In Britain there are three classes today

Old Money

All the Rest

The Underclass (who are the ones who need a safety net)

The old division of upper, middle and working class have gone and this has taken its place

What right wing vulgar libertarian fuckheads forget is that with the process of land enclosures, the taking away of public land, the end of subsistence farming, this left an uprooted populace with little visible means of support, which required a welfare state.

The Land Enclosures led to the need and development of a Welfare State.

Governments and Trust (or lack of)

The nation loses trust in its leaders

A new poll shows that a decline in deference to authority has accelerated in the Blair years

Tony Blair has presided over a dramatic collapse in voters' faith in government amid signs that Iraq has accelerated a post-Second World War decline in British deference to authority.

As he prepares to leave office, just 29 per cent of voters trust the Prime Minister, down from 46 per cent who had confidence in Blair in 2000, according to an Ipsos Mori poll.

All Prime Ministers expect to see their trust ratings decline. But the fall has been particularly acute in recent years. Only 17 per cent of people now believe the government can be trusted to put the interests of the country ahead of their party, the classic trust test. More than double this number - 38 per cent - had faith in the government in 1986.

This does not surprise me, would you trust the government with these new anti terror laws these days? The answer would be no. Blair and NuLab have this great belief that in dealing with a problem like terrorism, a new law needs to be created, however as the police will tell you they already have enough laws, also how many terrorist attacks have happened these past couple of years? One! Your more likely to die from an accident on the M25 than from a terrorist attack, so the endless fearmongering by the government only serves to help them in their need for control.

Laws are created with consent from the people, without it the law becomes very unpopular, doesn't even work if you run a police state. This is what makes the Smoking Ban in Public Places different, in that the majority support it, there is little need for the local councils to go snooping around making sure it is implemented, it has been successful in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Friday Opera Blogging

Verdi's Falstaff, Act 2 Final

Performed by The Metropolitan Opera, conducted by James Levine, directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Paul Plishka as Falstaff, Bruno Pola as Ford, Frank Lopardo as Fenton, Piero De Palma as Dr. Cujus, Anthony Laciura as Bardolfo, James Courtney as Pistola, Mirella Freni as Mrs. Ford, Barbara Bonney as Nannetta, Marilyn Horne as Mrs. Quickley, Susan Graham as Mrs. Page

Part 1



Part 2

Friday Cat Blogging


Heidi and George snoozing


George looking handsome as ever




Heidi in another one of her favourite places


Snugglecat

The British Media


Last month me and my dad were watching archive footage of old news reports from the 80s, to do with the Falklands War and the Beeb was much more hard hitting back then, with the way they presented the news, just straight facts.

Not the current filler friendly howyadoing crap which has infected the Six O'Clock News. There is so much waffle in news reports these days and such inane questions.

Since Hutton BBC News Reporting is not as good as it was, even Sky News, owned by the Dirty Digger and a sister channel to Fox News has had better reporting on Iraq.

I think 24 hr rolling news has destroyed good quality journalism. Chasing ratings and reporters egos being inflated. To any journalists out there, your job is to report the news, not become the news!

Thursday Ballet Blogging

Pas de Quatre on the first part of act 1 of La Bayadére. The Royal Ballet. Featuring Darcy Bussell, Altinay Asymuratova, Irek Mukhamedov, Tetsuya Kuwakawa, Anthony Dowell and David Drew.

Iraq - From Bad to Worse

Sources: Thousands of Turkish troops enter Iraq

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials said.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

"It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands," one of the officials told The Associated Press by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

The officials did not say where the Turkish force was operating in northern Iraq, nor did he say how long they would be there.

This is not very surprising, Turkey has been strengthening the border for the past 3 months.

What is clear though is that Turkey won't stand for an independent Kurdish state, not if it helps the PKK in their own borders, or any neighboring countries with a sizable Kurdish population.

So lets tally up the Bush Junta's 'successes' shall we!

Lebanon is currently tense, currently an uneasy pause between the various sectarian factions

The Gaza Strip is on the verge or already in a civil war

Iraq is currently full of sectarian violence as well, with an added Turkish incursion into the northern Kurdish part.

I hope the Bush Junta and the Neocon fuckeheads feel proud, setting an entire region alight as a result of their imperial ambition.

An article well worth reading - NATO’S ISLAMISTS

Hegemony and Americanization in Turkey

by Cihan Tuğal - h/t Nur al-Cubicle

The London Olympics



London Olympics sport new logo

Sebastian Coe, chairman of London's Olympic organising committee, has unveiled a "multimedia" brand image and logo for the London 2012 Olympic games.

The branding, which replaces the multicoloured Thames river-shaped "ribbon" that threads its way through the current motif, is considered to be a key stage in the transformation of the London bid from the status of successful candidate to host city.

What a crap logo, its like something from the 80s, did they get a 3 year old to draw it? They spent £400 000 on this crap.

Check out some alternative Olympic logos

Bonus Saturday Cat Blogging


"Ready for Roasting"

My mum found George snoozing in the roasting tray.


George licking a yogurt covered spoon, he loves Marks and Spencers fruity and creamy pro biotic yogurts


Heidi and George both too large to fit comfortably in the window box


Heidi relaxing


Heidi chilling out

Friday Opera Blogging

Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss

with Lucia Popp as Sophia and Brigitte Fassbaender as Octavia, singing The presentation of the Rose duet "Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren"

Nosy Busybodies

The man who wants to lead a sensible debate on abortion

'It is an unspeakable crime... I urge politicians to have no truck with the evil trade of abortion... It is the equivalent of... two Dunblane massacres a day' Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Head of The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland

Anti-abortion campaigners are ready to launch a US-style cultural war against the 40-year-old law that allows women in the UK to choose to terminate unwanted pregnancies - with politicians who are also practising Roman Catholics as their first targets.

MPs and other elected representatives who attend Mass but have not taken a hard line against abortion will be targeted by activists who say they should be disowned by the Church.

The head of the 17,000-strong Life League said yesterday that the organisation will write to every Catholic MP demanding a clear statement that they support the Church's line on abortion and all other "life" issues.

What a woman does with her own body is no ones business but hers, the anti-abortion idiots are nosy busybodies who need to STFU. Banning abortion won't stop women getting them, the wealthier ones will go abroad while the less well off will go for an unsafe backstreet abortion, with the possibility of infection or even death. Put quite simply if your pro choice your anti-coathanger. What these anti abortion tossers want to do is condemn women to pain and misery.

I suspect Cardinal Keith O'Brien is fuming at the fact that 90% of catholics ignore what their cardinals say.

Unless the Catholic church stops objecting to contraception, then they have no credibility in this area.

Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo 'suicide' inmate named

A detainee who apparently committed suicide at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday was a Saudi army veteran who fought for the Taleban, US officials have said.

The man, named as Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri, was found not breathing in his cell at the US detention facility, and guards could not revive him.

Saudi Arabia has said it has begun procedures to repatriate his body.

Despair must of gotten the better of him, the realisation that he would never be released.

You know surely its a sign that Gitmo is not a holiday camp despite what its supporters say when an inmate takes his own life, I mean it must be a seriously fucked up place.

How can Bush and Blair hope to say 'democracy' or even go round promoting it with a straight face when they are running the abomination that is Guantanamo Bay?

Friday Cat Blogging


George in his favourite place


George fascinated by water, he loves watching the activity which goes on in the kitchen


Heidi upstairs in the guest bedroom


Heidi and her thousand yard stare