June 2008 – Page 2 – The Yorkshire Ranter

June 15, 2008 by yorksranter 0 comments

I’m a worse bastard than the fucking shite that I am, and that’s saying something

Finally, we have the best possible argument against the dire Counter-Terrorism Bill. Unfortunately, it’s one that by definition we couldn’t have had before last week’s pornographic nightmare of a vote. It’s a sort of recursive critique. Think about it – by far the worst feature of the damn thing is the awful “concession” that Parliament…

June 8, 2008 by yorksranter 1 comment

still crazy after all these years

Remember we wanted to know more about Asia Airways? This entity has solidified somewhat, and it now has a place of registry (Tajikistan, EY-) and some aeroplanes. There are four Il-76, registered EY-601 to 604, and three Antonov 12s, registered EY-401 to 403. Interestingly, all the aircraft we have any information on have been transferred…

June 8, 2008 by yorksranter 3 comments

selling the dummy

Here’s an interesting question about the finally-released Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II report about the use of intelligence on Iraq. The “Shorter” for Phase II A is quite simply that “yes, it was all bollocks”, and specifically that it was all bollocks in the same way it was in the UK – caveats were removed,…

June 8, 2008 by yorksranter 1 comment

more unwritten books

This is fascinating – a drug that up-regulates the rate of neurogenesis, the creation of new neurons, in your brain, which may be a treatment for depression. Obviously the risks are around what happens to the new neurons. I can’t help thinking there’s a science fiction outcome in this somewhere.

June 8, 2008 by yorksranter 1 comment

The Switzerland of the Middle East (for some periods of Swiss history)

There is a fascinating post at Pat Lang’s about a study trip to Lebanon which involved meeting some interesting and alarming people (Samir Geagea, described here as “a bit Lyndon LaRouche” – well, whatever hard things have been said, quite understandably, about the latter, he never commanded a militia that cut huge crosses in the…

June 8, 2008 by yorksranter 0 comments

Using up SCIRI

I’ve repeatedly suggested that there is an emerging alignment between the Sadrists and political factions close to the NOIA insurgents and ex-insurgents. Here’s some news – a new coalition including Sadr, various mix’n’match factions including the Dialogue (close to NOIA), a chunk of Dawa that has split from SCIRI, and the Allawi fanclub (yes –…

June 8, 2008 by yorksranter 5 comments

Now that’s what I call scienciness

So, the US Army’s research centre employs a climate-change denier as a scientist, and then sets up a blogger conference call with him. I’m less interested in the fact he’s a weirdo on the specific issue than the simpler point that he’s talking out of his arse. Instead, Dr. Bruce West, with the Army Research…

June 3, 2008 by yorksranter 0 comments

Political Pathetic Python Again

Here’s a visualisation of today’s output from the Viktor Bout script, version 2.5, with the help of IBM ManyEyes‘s network graph function. Unfortunately the flight number data in there has somehow been filtered, and there should be arrowheads. Why can’t I have arrowheads? Rest assured the definitive version is coming…

June 1, 2008 by yorksranter 4 comments

Indecent behaviour at a police station, TPCA 1847

This essay by Ian McEwan in the Guardian Review shows precisely why the Decent influence on British intellectual life is so damn depressing. You may think, and I would say the AaroWatch crew are guilty of this, that they are just a bunch of wankers left behind with their blogs after history moved on. But…

June 1, 2008 by yorksranter 0 comments

Does anyone need Qtek 8100 user manuals?

Because although I don’t have one any more, I just stumbled on the user manual and the Windows install CD.