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2005-10-14 17:03

Why I am so very spaced out

Well, we don't actually know. But we have to get a presentation
ready and in the mail ASAP, so it's probably a combination of stress
and Sod's law. Our temperature is certainly below, rather than above,
normal. (Hypothermia in a freezing office - which ours still is? No,
prolly just hypochondria.)


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2005-10-14 12:53

A tale of two (2) headlines

Binnenhof hermetisch afgesloten na terreurdreiging

Security alert grips Dutch city

"Dutch city", Beeboid? Is the Hague really so obscure? (The Binnenhof is where bits of the government live.)

We are, on account of this story, slightly tense.

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2005-10-14 11:10

In an increasingly global world (part 18)

The UK's Tory party is currently picking it's next no-hoper; the LibDems are beyond hope - the job of opposition to the Blair government is and looks likely to remain vacant.

Our proposal, which is ours, is to outsource it. Schroeder's at a loose end, isn't it? He may be a bit German, but he's at least a real politician.

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2005-10-13 13:56

Why I am so very smug

So now we are the proud owner of GBP 2.50's worth of Pinter's finest plays, courtesy of reading Zwedish (we fondly hope) and of getting to the Oxfam bookshop ("bookstore") quickly.

Trophyhuntnings aside, we're actually more excited by finding Die Welt der B�chermacher in the "Die Welt Erkennen" series.

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2005-10-13 10:38

Accessibility Inadequacy Understatement

It is the Swedish internets!

Svenska internetsajter f�r bottenbetyg i fr�ga om tillg�nglighet f�r funktionshindrade.

Zwedish internetsites get bottommarks in the question of accessibility for the disabled.

In fact, Zwedish websites are often hard to access for the perfectly abled, although Dutch ones are no better. Politicians are always in favour of censoring and criminalising almost any form of dissent, but when will they address the civilisation-menacing threat of internal frames, eh? When? Think, we implore or beseech them, of the childrens!

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2005-10-12 18:09

Why I am so busy

I (sic!) am off to the FDR on Sunday. Norfolk, VA, to be depressingly specific. In principle I could've booked a weekend in NY, NY, but in practice I have chosen to take a scenic route with a bankrupt transatlantic carrier to sneak in more time in Nederland, where I appear to have been fasttracked to meeting-the-family status.

We'll (sic!) be in Utrecht for my (sic! Pronouns are hard!) overstoppning, though, since we like Amsterdam vair vair not much.

Between now and Sunday, though, we (sing.) are so very very busy. Posting may get lighter still, even.

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2005-10-12 13:58

Not necessarily stoned, just beatified

It is the Court of Imperial Supremacy!

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal on Tuesday from a Wiccan priestess angry that local leaders would not let her open their sessions with a prayer.

Instead, clergy from more traditional religions were invited to pray at governmental meetings in Chesterfield County, Va., a suburb of Richmond.

Our clean and fragrant heart bleeds for the many dirty smelly hippies affected, since we are if anything even less fond of Merkan Jesusistes. But:

The Supreme Court is already hearing one religious case this fall. That cases raises the question of whether federal agents can stop a church from using hallucinogenic tea in its religious services.

See, silly hippies? That's religion!

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2005-10-12 09:50

Langwidge tact: outrageupwhippning Gaelic edition

It is, quite frankly, bobbins:

GAELIC is a foreign language, at least as far as Tony Blair is concerned.

The Prime Minister has outraged Gaelic campaigners by revealing that his office regards the language - along with Welsh - as so alien that Foreign Office assistance is needed to understand it.

If you have stuff translated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, "outraged" activistes insist, that must mean you think it's Foreign and Commonwealth, isn't it? But Gaelic isn't Foreign and Commonwealth at all! It! Is! An! Outrage!

Donald Martin of Comunn na Gaidhlig, the Gaelic development body, said No 10's answer suggested the Prime Minister was not taking those commitments very seriously. "I think we can conclude that the Gaelic language is being lumped in with foreign languages as far as Downing Street is concerned. There is no logic to that answer that I can see."

None! At! All! There is of course an ontological gulf - a veritable ontological chasm! - between langwidges that are Foreign and langwidges one merely happens not to speak! Certainly for a politician to confuse these utterly distinct and dissimilar categories must cast the gravest possible doubt on his or her judgement.

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2005-10-11 16:13

Sn���������������kaos!

It is Colorado, which is in the FDRUSA, where the weathers are so dangerous that even a little sn�kaos managed to kill three (3) persons:

Det kraftige sn�fallet mandag f�rte til at 80.000 boliger i deler av Colorado mistet str�mmen. Natt til tirsdag var fremdeles 10.000 husstander uten str�m.

The powerful sn�fall on Monday lead to 80,000 citizens in parts of Colorado being without airconditioning electricity. Overnight 10,000 households were still without electrick.

However a crack emergency-relief team from the Libertoonian Army was managing to make its way through the area, taunting those affected for not having their own generators.

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2005-10-11 14:37

Sn���������������kaos!

It is Colorado, which is in the FDRUSA, where the weathers are so dangerous that even a little sn�kaos managed to kill three (3) persons:

Det kraftige sn�fallet mandag f�rte til at 80.000 boliger i deler av Colorado mistet str�mmen. Natt til tirsdag var fremdeles 10.000 husstander uten str�m.

The powerful sn�fall on Monday lead to 80,000 citizens in parts of Colorado being without airconditioning electricity. Overnight 10,000 households were still without electrick.

However a crack emergency-relief team from the Libertoonian Army was managing to make its way through the area, taunting those affected for not having their own generators.

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2005-10-11 12:36

Yeah, what she said

It is Knut "Typo" Ahnlund, Zwedish Academian, who has, with timing doubtless as unprompted by PR concerns as it is by punctuality, has just flouncedoff from said Akademi in protest at the Nobelisation of "Elfin" Elfriede Jelinek. A year ago. �sa Mattsson gives him a dose of what for:

Om du hade l�st Elfriede Jelinek redan n�r hon faktiskt fick Nobelpriset, med den �ran, kunde du ha avg�tt redan f�rra �ret Knut Ahnlund!

If you'd read Elfriede Jelinek before she actually got the prize, with the honour, you could've resigned last year, Mr Ahland.

The new one which wasn't out last week is indeed out this week. We note in passing that the late surge to 5/1 for Joyce Carol Oates has nosed her ahead of the local boy Thomas "Transtromer" Transtr�mer at 6/1. Which is by no means financial advice, of course.

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2005-10-11 10:01

Welcome welcome glorious TLD!

It is the .eu domain!

A compter du 7 d�cembre prochain � 11 heures pr�cises, les entreprises et organismes publics de l'UE qui le souhaitent pourront enregistrer une adresse internet portant l'extension .eu, affichant ainsi clairement leur identit� europ�enne.

Starting from 7 Decembre at 11 am exactly, the enterprises and public organismes of the EU which wish it will be able to register an address with the extension .eu, thus affichant clearly their identit� Europ�anne.

There are 475 authorised agents including 35 in Belgium! We might have a word with the supplier of our Zwedish domain, though, and then think seriously about rehosting somewhere .eu flavoured.

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2005-10-10 17:09

-

PLEEEEASE turn the heating on, persons? It's warmer outside than in the office. (Also brighter, but why we shun the lights is another story, for sure.)

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2005-10-10 12:28

Sm�rg�ssentence

�1.

Crack squirrels are a recognised phenomena [sic] in the US.

[via]

�2.

En stab p� tio-tolv l�kare, barnmorskor och sjuksk�terskor har handplockats till denna historiska f�dsel.

A team of 10-12 doctors, midwives and nurses has been handpicked for this historic birth.

[It is of course kronprinsess Mary of Danmark and especially her imminent infant.]

�3.

Le mont Everest, sommet le plus �lev� du monde, est quelques m�tres moins haut que ce que l'on croyait, ont annonc� des scientifiques chinois qui ont mesur� en mai dernier le toit du monde.

Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, is some metres lower than was thought, announced Chinese scientistes who measured the world's roof last May.

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2005-10-10 10:16

On being assimilated

In order to get a job in Abroad we are seeking to commoditise our skill set. Which in our line of work means Microsoft certification, which in our case will involve C#.

C# is significantly less wretched than C++ or Visual Basic (neither of which is at all hard to improve on) and Microsoft actually give away enough stuff for the learner, but the whole experience is fairly grim nonetheless: Microsoft and its platforms have more in common with Scientology than with the rest of the programming universe, and books - even O'Reilly books - on their many "technologies" are written by losers who know no better, since if they did they'd presumably be doing it.

Jesse Liberty - for it is he! - does what we can only assume is his best with the hilarious abstract virtual public keyword soup and we have no reason to doubt it's the best book on the subject on the market, but it nonetheless isn't very good.

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