So now the post-Brexit stuff is going down. It's still very murky and unclear and about the only thing I can see a consensus on is that Cameron is a terrible politician. I mean, really. This is the second referendum he's mismanaged, and he can't even keep his own party in check. They may deserve their just desserts. The rest of the UK probably ( Read more... )

This letter is published as received ( Read more... )

It wasn't exactly a peaceful 2012, and 2013 doesn't look a whole lot better. Oh, that Afghanistan thing is still going on, but in other parts of the world there's a whole lot of other civil conflict that looks like it could spill over across borders and into the international playing field at any moment ( Read more... )

One of the things you have to watch out for if you run email announcements for any sort of organization is to always make sure to put the list of recipients in the bcc column instead of the cc column when you want them to stay confidential. There's no better way to screw up an entire business deal then to let everyone know who's in on it. It's one ( Read more... )

A lot of computer people have long suspected that anti-virus software was essentially a kind of elaborate scam, not just the pop-up window viruses that promise you 'virus protection' after they've infected your computer, but the kind of anti-virus programs that they sell in reputable stores. Even when they work, they're essentially attempts to fix ( Read more... )

So how can I distract my mind from the horrific problems of my comfortable, pampered, upper-middle-class existence? By reading about the misfortunes of others, or course! And seeing how everything else seems to be blowing up around us this week, it's pretty easy to find something else to get all depressed over.

( And the news, it is depressing )

In response to mounting tensions along the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey is moving more military forces to the border with Syria, including deploying fighters from an air base near Batman, capital of Turkey's Batman province ( Read more... )

So, in case you weren't watching, there was a coup this week.

Well, maybe. Maybe not. What's clear is that there's a lot of noise right now in the Maldives. First President Nasheed resigned in the face of the mass public protests. Then he declared that he had been forced to resign at gunpoint. Then his supporters took to the street. Now the ( Read more... )

2011 Headcount - including the late Dear Leader:

• Than Shwe (Burma): retired (maybe)
• Ben Ali (Tunisia): deposed
• Hosni Mubarak (Egypt): arrested
• Fidel Castro (Cuba): retired (medical)
• Muammar Gaddafi (Libya): killed while resisting revolution

If you've got some goodwill to spare today, Tropical Storm Emily is hovering within 100 kilometers of Port-au-Prince, Haiti right now, a city where over 600,000 people are still living in tents. Currently it looks like the heart of the storm will pass slightly west of the main city, but even so a possibly devastating near miss is about to hit one ( Read more... )