March 2005

An Ilyushin-76TD belonging to suspected Boutco Jet Line International has crashed into Lake Victoria immediately after take-off from Mwanza. All 8 crew were killed. The aircraft was ER-IBR, serial number 43454623, belonging to Jet Line of Chisinau, but apparently operating as Airline Transport, another suspect outfit from Moldova. Unlike Aerocom and Jet Line, Airline Transport…

Read More Jet Line lose a Jet

Well, this is the end of the second week of my career. So far, we’ve had good moments, like interviewing chief executives at Claridges – and less good ones, like proof correcting articles on telephone billing systems. You will no doubt have noticed light blogging, which is hardly surprising given that my previous existence as…

Read More Admin Notice/Metablogging: Blog Eruptions

So said Homer Simpson. The Home Office sometimes seems to me like some crippled retainer or mangy hound, that the king whistles for and sees it keel over embarrassingly before reaching the throne. “Homeoffice!” “Here, sire..” “Urgh..not again!” This impression is in no way dispelled by reports of a succession of ridiculous acts displaying egregious…

Read More Stupidity: the wave of the future

The mighty Martin van Creveld has a sizeable essay in the Boston Review on Iraq by way of Moshe Dayan’s stint as a war correspondent in South Vietnam. (I personally didn’t know he’d been one, so there you go.) Dayan prepared meticulously for his assignment – being a world-famous hero tends to get you good…

Read More Van Creveld, Moshe Dayan, Vietnam, and Iraq

Yesterday, the Unidentified Gunmen attempted to kill Anatoly Chubais, former Russian cabinet minister and head of UES, the Russian electricity monopoly. Apparently there was an explosion by the roadside – funny how these things get around – followed by small arms. Chubais’s bodyguards shot it out with the attackers and he survived. It should never…

Read More Anatoly Chubais – politics of electricity

A little while ago I had some fairly harsh things to say about the French national library’s response to Google’s project to put major library collections on the internet (Google Print). I basically said that their objections were based on chauvinism, and asked why they were doing nothing constructive in placing their own collections in…

Read More Google, Libraries and Jacques Chirac

Via IT Week’s in-house blogger, I learn that Apple are going to introduce a mouse with two buttons. This is good news, I suppose, but I’m not going to jump for joy, because I’m currently experiencing my first extended use of the computer designed for graphic designers by graphic designers. And it’s like rolling in…

Read More Macs!