Western Mediterranean News

Along the lines of Langwich Sandwich and Tranny, a clunky & limited news aggregator covering this region for until I settle down. That means some of the news stuff will disappear from this page, where it was never greatly loved anyway.

Bush House

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the faithful this lunchtime on their hearing and believing that the BBC called Bush House after George W.

Sound as a pound

‘”[Shahzad Tanweer] is sound as a pound,” said Azi Mohammed, a close friend. “The idea that he was involved in terrorism or extremism is ridiculous. The idea that he went down to London and exploded a bomb is unbelievable.” Nothing much rhymes with “euro”.

Urban terrorism 101: don’t kill furry animals

John Chappell’s got the latest on the anarchist bomb down town this morning. Everyone hated the squatters anyway–squatting has largely become a licence to run tax-free, non-H&S compliant drink & drugs bars that keep the whole neighbourhood awake–but now they’ve killed a dog, and that’s going to finish them. Killing a dog is about the…

Making it up

Daisy-chaining the “they’re lying to us” theme, additional evidence that a journalist is much more than a blogger who gets paid not to fact-check.

Bush more singable than Rumsfeld

That’s what I reckon on comparing Mark Liberman’s transcription of Bush’s 7/7 remarks and Rummy here. I’m not an expert on these things, but my distinct impression is that Bush’s West Texabonics work best as 30s blues from the region.

Victorian Albert

Arcadi Espada’s “Victorian Albert” museum conjures a delightful vision of an old building full of cuddly Alberts rather than the Touch Me trendiness that I so adore. (No Berts in the V&A: as the Queen said, “This will not change our way of life.”))

Beacons

David de Ugarte writes that “Al-Qaeda is the first distributed armed organisation that is open and based on open-access technology, ideology and gear.” The rest is debatable, but the word “first” is wrong. What about all those networks of early-warning hill-top beacons in Scandinavia 1000 years ago, used to rouse people with home-made weapons and…

Whys & wherefores

Livingstone doesn’t travel well, but I thought this was really good. Galloway is deranged and has no place in London, but even he doesn’t go as far as the charming anti-whateverist who told me last night that, in her carefully considered opinion, 9/11 would never have happened had it not been for the invasion of…

The way things are

When you’re halfway up a mountain and someone in London texts you to say they survived and are walking home, the context takes care of itself.