The Pandiator

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John McCain, the "pandiator"
John McCain is an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, scandal-associated, habitually error-prone, flip-flopping, ego-driven, condescending, thoroughly reactionary, misnamed "maverick" who enjoys singing "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," is crazily bellicose enough to go to permanent war against the rest of humanity, and may well be in the beginning stage of Alzheimer's.

Other than that, he's okay...


Mission accomplished

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Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144
In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans “have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims” by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.

Ten years ago today, the price of a barrel of oil was just $11. Heading into this holiday weekend, the price of a barrel of oil rested at $144 — a thirteen-fold increase.

One month after 9/11, the New York Times wrote of possible “nightmare” scenarios that would deliver bin Laden’s goal. Neela Banerjee warned that among the “misguided decisions” that would put oil supplies at risk would be “that the United States attacks Iraq.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.


Watching Black Watch

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Black Watch: porn for the theatregoing classes
Why the London literati is lapping up a play about sexist, smoking, foul-mouthed British squaddies in Iraq.

...the show acquires a further twist, with the men seen through the eyes of the slightly camp character researching the play. He is ridiculed as a molly-coddled ‘poof’ in contrast to these hardy, heterosexual men. And through him the play embodies another question. Why are the liberal middle-classes so fascinated by men they would normally revile as sexist, homophobic, monosyllabic bullies? Men who are very unlikely to eat five a day, so much as to smoke 40.

The answer is surely that they represent something intensely ‘real’ to the safe, sedentary neurosis of middle-class life. The extremity of their experience, of killing and being killed in Iraq. fills in the void left by a cosy life not fully lived. These men’s experience seems somehow more ‘authentic’. As such, they become vehicles for sordid fantasies of vicarious heroism which is also how they are treated in less explicit, more sanitised ways by the media. No wonder these men all seem so angry - consumers of porn they find themselves acting out the pornographic fantasies of others.

"...the hand of time rested on the half-hour mark"

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John Redwood: Today we mourn those who died on the Somme
Today we mourn the loss of 19,240 men who died on the first day of the battle of the Somme. Following an eight day bombardment with 1.7 million shells, and seventeen mines exploded under the German front line, 750,000 troops set out across No Man’s land at 7.30 am on that fateful day... It reminds us how much blood and treasure in the past commitment to Europe has cost us, when the world’s oceans beckoned to a better future elsewhere for an island trading maritime nation.


Apture rapture

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Apture: A Rich Multimedia Experience and Linking Platform for the Web
Apture provides the first rich communication platform allowing publishers and bloggers to easily turn flat pages of text into multimedia experiences.

Apture allows you to add a wealth of multimedia links to your site, opening content in new interactive windows that can be repositioned anywhere on the page, or enlarged to fullscreen.

Apture is the only platform that allows you to combine multimedia content from around the web, together in one place. Each item can be associated with related media, enabling you to build a web of information, and help your users learn more about the topic you are writing about.

Apture supports multimedia content from around the web, be that images, documents, audio, video, news articles, movie information, product descriptions, music, podcasts…

Apture also allows easy embedding of content into a page. You can resize the content to best match your page layout, and add a caption to introduce it.


Here's a very small example of some of the things Apture can do:

Operation Chariot

In early 1942 Britain was facing a most critical situation. The success of the German U-Boat raids on transatlantic shipping threatened Britain’s supply of food and arms, and was damaging her morale. The daring and brilliantly successful cross-channel Raid on the huge Dry-dock at St Nazaire, France, carried out by British Commando and Naval Forces, lifted Britain’s morale and demonstrated that bravery could achieve the apparently impossible. Five Victoria Crosses were won on the raid.

To check out all the possibilities visit the Apture website and watch the videos.