Agog, and by agog I mean open mouthed agog. A truly agog moment that made me think, out loud, I am agog at that!

What does I mean, boss?

This!

"Iran is a difficult and dangerous state, and it is a state that is pursuing policies that are dangerous to our friends and dangerous to international peace and stability, particularly its support for terrorism and its pursuit of this nuclear technology that could lead to a nuclear weapon," she said. "But we have been very clear that any country can change course. The United States doesn't have any permanent enemies."

Diplomacy, negotiations? Hmmmmm.

Mrs Rice seems to be saying, although not in so many words, that the US would like to be a little bit pally with Iran. Agog moment.

What will this mean to the ongoing negotiations with Iran?

Well, as I have been picking a few policy moments out quite accurately lately, let me state this one for you.

"The US will keep beefing about Iran having a policy of nuclear weapons implementation. This will lead to Iran sticking with its rhetoric of "oh no we don't!" - that in turn will lead to a wider player base of certain Arab nations coming to the table to 'talks' which, in turn, will lead to a brokered deal between the US and Iran selling oil to the US, of course to off set the rise in prices at the US pumps, and bringing much needed investment into Iran so she can become part of a peaceful world again. This will, of course, do nothing to off set Iran's building of a nuclear power station, for domestic use only."

Think I'm wrong?

For the greatest story of how Bush's continued deceptions on Iraq worsened the political/military situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, go to "," where there are links to fountain-head documents. Directed/Produced by Jeff Parry To criticism at Consortiumblog, click . (To make a blog comment about this or other stories, you can use your normal e-mail talk and password. Ignore the prompt for a Google account.) To comment to us by e-mail, click .

To supply so we can continue publishing stories like the one you just read, click .

Estimation post: click

Bloggers are surprisingly conservative, for a group that consider themselves to be on the cutting edge of internet technology.

Blogs started life as opinion pieces, the entry of sites like Blogger and Wordpress made it simple for anyone with an internet connection to dump the caffeine addled contents of their brains onto the web, soon the internet was overun with self appointed political commentators, sports experts, seers, sages and prophets of every possible hue. New Age, Old Age, no corner was left uncommented.

The vast majority of this verbiage was untroubled by readers, a minor flaw in the grand scheme of the self appointed experts, and despite dire predictions emanating from the traditional media, quality of information and quality of writing gradually rose to the top of the pile.

Now I run a technical blog, published on a corporate intranet that attracts many more readers and many more comments than my fiction blog (Grapes Of Wrath) - there are some obvious reasons for this (notwithstanding the possibility that my fiction may be unreadable!) - technology touches everyone, I work for a technology company and my name is better known amongst that constituency than it is amongst the many millions of readers in the wider community.

'Serious' fiction blogs have an obvious problem - in a medium where the attention span is measured in nanoseconds, why would anybody read it - unless they knew that they would get some value from it - either by recommendation or previous experience. In this way, the dilemma faced by fiction writers is very similar to that faced by unknown musicians - why would anybody bother? The promotional stuff needs to be done. (see previous post)

The Grapes Of Wrath has provoked some interesting comment though. To set the scene, the blog is the journal of a fictional character. The events are fictional  - I get a lot of mail to my personal inbox, commenting about the stories, the character, the quality (or otherwise) of the writing, I asked one correspondent why she didn't leave a comment on the blog - the reply was that she felt that a real comment would spoil the fictional integrity - break the spell. I toyed with the idea of creating fictional comments, extending the reach of the fictional world so to speak, but decided against it - the idea of the blog is to showpiece the character and the writing, not to create a stand alone piece of art (though the thought does appeal, I have only the 24 hours in my day).

Up until that conversation, I had one link to the 'author' that led to a Facebook 'fan page' - a bit of fun really, I filled it with depictions of the author and some of the characters and invented a couple of 'fans' who posted pictures of themselves onto the site. I let all my facebook friends know about the fan page - a couple of dozen signed up - to my great surprise - but then something unexpected happened - complete strangers began to sign up too, not many admittedly, but they continue to trickle through from the blog - so some tiny percent of the readers that pass through, 'get it'.

So about the conservatives...I have had a few conversations with people that just don't 'get it'. My argument is that the browser is a medium, like cinema and books. Nobody complains if a film 'isn't true' or even if a book contains blank pages (Tristram Shandy). TV even follows a news program with a sitcom. This is because the rules of engagement are understood. It was not always so - but I wonder how long it will take for people to open up to the possibility that a blog is not necessarily an opinion piece. Don't get me started on wikis!

If so leave your comments here

For those who missed

part 1
part 2

and u want more ?
here is part 3
part 3

I am iRainz now with an iPhone and i now days surf iTunes and iWeb via iWifi in my iHouse in iBlockhousebay in iAuckland with my iHubby and keep iTexting and iPhoning my iFrendz. I go with my iPhone to my i work at iTower and i am a iVegetarian and do not eat IMeat and i have also started iblogging via my iphone and now if u do not ileave me a iComment i will ikick your iass....iLolz (that was a iLaugh).

what I gonna write here?

I have 2 blog in Blogger.com and the link is

• http://junshibuya.blogspot.com
• http://worldinmusic.blogspot.com

Have you visit it, I not very good in blogging.

Will McCain have anyone left?

It looks as though everyone who comes in contact with McCain has to beat it - and fast!

Phil Gramm has now been booted, well, he says steps down - after his gaff about the US people being whiners, not that this was McCain's economic policy - that the whole recession was 'in peoples head'.

But you have to guffaw!

Gramm on Friday said he would "join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters."

Rank and file? Hey Phil - I don't see many rank and file McCain supporters on this blog - mainly pissed off Hillary supporters and right-wing rhetoric followers. One even said Bush was good!

"It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country," Gramm said.

"That kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country."

Concrete programs? W.T.F?

Viagra, anyone?

DUH!

I gonna say Thanks to visit my wordpress blog. I hope you like it. In here I will write something and I will share some file like music and anime (I hope is legal.) Don't commercial every file you download in this blog and also Don't forget give a feedback for me (like comment and Say what files you download in this blog).

Always try to say "Thank You" if you feel you are be helped you. I just gonna say, I not a person like to be admire. I just want you say thanks for everybody who helped you. So, people who help you is happy, not everbody like to help, sometime people help somebody for something else.

Hmm, I hope you understand what I gonna say. I English not very good, I try to write it.

If there have a dead link, please send email to me at shibuya.jun@gmail.com

He then told Skysports:

"I think everybody is jumping up and down and coming to their own conclusions. Let's just wait and see what happens to us.

"I did say at the end of the season that it was the size of the squad which held us together, because we had tremendous (injury) problems.

"There's a long way to go before that window closes and we want to improve the squad.

"I feel that if I get my best XI out there we've got a decent side. I want to add a little bit more to that to get a bit more competition and we're working very hard to do that."

As much as I sometimes question his tactics and his admiration for Carlton Cole, it is comments like this that make me a Curbishley fan. Curbs knows that if Aston Villa come in with a silly offer for Anton, like the £10 million one paper suggested, then of course Anton will be moving. He also knows that if anyone comes in with a decent offer, and we obtain cover in the right-back position then Neill is gone, but instead he gives us fans hope, and says "lets wait and see what happens." Earlier in the week I honestly feared that the 2008/09 season was going to be another relegation battle. Thanks to the clever PR from the Hammers though, some of my fears have been laid to rest over the last couple of days... now I hope that the club sticks by what they are saying and Green and Ferdinand stay put (Neill I'm not so bothered about).

I love that film! Scorcese manages to teeter between psychotic and hilarious spattering the screen with hideous amounts of blood, gore and cuss words. Now by today's standards, Goodfellas is far from being the bloodiest blockbuster on the shelves but for my own particular constitution, Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction aside, Goodfellas is the daddy of the poetic and slightly comic (in places) balance that makes it one of those violent films that most girls will happily sit down to watch without getting bored or feeling that the person who suggested the movie is deeply troubled (as with Hostage and that hideous franchise - Saw).

There is a great adult (predominantly conservative and C of E) mob that believe that the tragic and savage fashion for knife crime is a symptom of the above films becoming more widely seen. As with Clockwork Orange and to an extent, Trainspotting - the glamourisation of illegal and soul-degenerating scenes flickering across the screen is bound to spark copy cats. I doubt very much that the yobs that have been stabbing their way around London Town this miserable year consider themselves to be Henry Hill, nor do I believe that a heroine addict in Glasgow such as the elder sister of a very old friend of mine believes that someday she is going to get away with a duffle-bag full of money to freedom...

The tragedies of 2008 thusfar have been diluted in their own hype and so the individuals murdered are being racked up like statistics rather than like the young men and children that they ought to be valued as. The anniversary of Rhys Jones' murder is closing in and nobody has been brought forward to justice yet although several individuals have been questioned and brought forward irrespective of the fear-struck silence of the neighborhood. 

Homicide in this manner is becoming pandemic, and I dislike using the word homicide as I feel it is divorced from the action of killing rather relabeling it to the passive and pathalogical science of "this is what happened, Sarg" school of thinking. What the hell is going to happen before we all degenerate into two tribes - the ones that stay in after dark and the ones that kick wheely bins over and break into peoples' homes? Is society eventually going to divide thus?

The penalties that are given are like tunnels. The tunnels go on for a measured length of time, the judge who ordered the criminal to walk that tunnel for so many years... months... weeks - they know how long it is, the criminal knows how long it is and can even see where it ends such-and-such a distance away. Only the other week I was sat on an extremely crowded train with a young lady who was howling down her phone that she was on parole for stabbing a man who was feeling up her 12 year old little sister. Its real, its among us now and its not learning its lesson.

I won't pretend I have any real answers. The fact of the matter is that it must take a lot of ingrained anger for the human race to remorselessly end the heartbeats of another human being with a butcher knife, especially as an 18 year old sent to jail for 10 years for murder, even if he/she served the full term (which is highly unlikely) would still be young enough to do everything they wanted to do in life regardless of the pause button being on for a decade. Justice is as cold as the stainless steel six inchers and the damp, tarmac pavements in Lambeth. 

The wonderful thing about escaping this horrific spree by watching films is that unlike in real life, the characters reconcile their stores in the end. Something happens. They get away with it and they're ok and the film balances real life out nicely with the to-ing and fro-ing of clever script-writing or they get punished or killed but in a cinematographic way so we appreciate that it was always coming to them. In real life, we are in purgatory. There are no rolling credits at the end of the murder of a teenage boy, just unanswered questions and unfullfilled promises.

No cussing

No spamming (fgniy7gmbrogbo45y) etc.

You are allowed to count

1

2

3

But one number per comment.

And the last rule is no advertising! If you advertise you will be disqualified.

Comment away!

~Budgee12~

Abcd77:Victorinocp has been disqualiflied for advertiseing!

Recently Oprah conducted an online course with Tolle as guest (freely available). This could be one of the most important web casts that you ever listen to (click here).  In addition here are links to Kalahari and Amazon if you want to buy his books

Mock the Week, BBC2

Often it is not that we don't want to change, but rather that we cannot because either we are totally overwhelmed or because we just don't have the emotional energy to change. How do we stop these potential "leaks" on our energy that have a negative impact on our capacity (physical and emotional) to change. Consider the following:

• Try not to please everybody
• Stop living in the past (it was better then)
• Learn to live a more simple life
• Implement a system where you get everything that you need to do recorded (the GTD approach is a good one)
• Changing your physical and social environment to suit your style and energize you. For example, consider Feng Shui and avoiding negative people

The BLOGS that follow aim to look at building individual capacity to deal with organizational change, and also change in general. It is based on the basic departure point that self awareness, self mastery, relationship building as well as social and spiritual intelligence is the foundation for achieving this. As such the general emphasis of this BLOG, which started with project management, the techniques and tools to deliver on a value proposition, then focused on how to manage change in a project context, now focuses on the human capacity to sustain delivery and change. Hopefully it will also provide a resource and enable a journey to personal and life excellence.

Where does the militant theory come from?

While in the UK and debating about the explosion of newly built, and some were extremely beautiful buildings, mosques in Britain some of the people I spoke to were astounded that the Muslim community was, on the whole, poor. Poor as in not having a lot of cash at hand.

One person said it was because 'they' all sent their money back to where ever. Others said it was because the Islamic faith made them pay off certain debts to money lenders who brought 'them' to the UK. Others simply said that they bank the cash because 'they' come from poor countries and don't realise that jobs are pretty easy to get in the UK. "They thought that the money would finally run out. Again, some others thought that the Muslim community bought gold because 'they' didn't understand what money was all about.

It was all a matter that they built 'their' f*7king Churches everywhere, said one.

That is how many ordinary people see the Muslim community in the UK. The government won't tell you this - to them it is poor ignorance of the Islam. What that leads to is the government telling, forcing so many in the UK to 'learn' about Islam - and of course there is a backlash to that.

The government believes it is simply a matter of a racial divide that no one really wants to cross. The ordinary Joe on the street doesn't want to be enlightened. Which, if those same government officials went out into communities that DO work, they would see that both Muslim and Christian and atheist work, play and talk together on a very regular basis and don't get into dogmatic theological debates.

That is politics on the ground - something just about every government has forgotten.

What you do find in those communities is that when the dreaded subject of religion come up, the Christian, Muslim and atheist will speak openly about it - they will say why they believe in what they believe, and with that you will find that most want and do live in peace and harmony. Obviously not all communities are like that. But, again, it isn't just the vastly majority Christians who make life hell for the Muslim community - though you would think so from what we read.

So what does cause this theological divide?

The clue is in the question - it is those who teach that theology. Where do they teach this? In those mosques that are built. And how to tackle that divide in the teaching that is given and interpreted?

It starts from the top. It is called diplomacy on the international scale, the top brass talking to one another. But, what we have seen, is that when talking to one section of the Muslim community - the UK government have got it wrong - because they only engage those who agree with them. Which, as history has shown so many times, is what gets things started but then fails.

The cash for a lot of those mosques comes from Saudi - so they will, even if you don't believe it to be true, have a say what is taught in those mosques. The hard-line mantra comes from a hard-line country, but that country sells oil and buys a lot of military hardware. Can you see where the obstacles begin to form?

This interested me - and I do hope it will happen.

Historic challenge

But there are bigger issues at stake than the niceties of political relations with small but vocal groups of activists.

For decades Islam has been slowly shifting into an ever more conservative mould, influenced by the huge amounts of cash thrown by the Saudi religious establishment at mosques around Europe.

There are many ordinary Muslims who want to shift the terms of debate back again.

And there are many Muslim thinkers in Europe who believe that the future of Islam lies in working out its relationship with the West.

This intellectual battle is emerging in Britain and France, the twin centres of Islam's exposure to a secular continent.

And if some of these ideas of how Islam sits with modernity can be exported back eastwards, there are many British-born Muslims and thinkers who would think that a rather good idea.

I think that is a good idea, too.

So I do apologise if I haven't replied - there is a bug in the system and I have reported it to support.

Will

From wikipedia:

The Segal method is based on traditional timber frame methods modified to use standard materials available today. It eliminates the need for wet trades such as bricklaying and plastering resulting in a light-weight methods which can be built with minimal experience and are ecologically sound. The roofs tend to be flat with many layers of roofing felt, which allows the creation of grass covered roofs. Foundations are minimal, often just paving slabs, the strength coming from the geometry of their construction. Segal houses have been compared to traditional Japanese houses.

Examples of construction

Current Segal inspired projects

Extracts from the spec:

• The IC Manager is responsible for providing input and leadership to the design and/or virtual design and construction process.
• Coordinates design team members and Preconstruction services (i.e. estimating, scheduling, project planning, constructability, site utilization, etc.).
• manages the integrated delivery team’s resources
• Oversees the preparation of models for facilities management.
• Facilitator of project collaboration and integrated delivery activities

and basic responsibilities:

What is missing of course is the green sustainability theme, but then some would say that is taken for granted today, a given that an integrated construction manager would build green. (Discuss!)

Tempted?  Seattle?  Very...

480x360 | wmv format | 4.05mb

~> DOWNLOAD HERE <~

SOURCE: ORICON STYLE 1-1-2008

Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK-GBC,: “Industry needs a clear and practical route map and milestones that are aligned with Government policy to give it the confidence and knowledge to move forward on a trajectory to 2019.

UK-GBC Chairman Peter Rogers , “The UK-GBC wants to see very wide take-up of robust and customer-friendly tools, and we believe that the standards at the heart of a new Code for Sustainable Buildings should be ‘open source’, meaning that such a Code could potentially be incorporated into a range of different tools, from a range of providers who could then compete in terms of service provision, without confusing the industry with different standards.”

The concept of open source, is to be welcomed, allowing the code to be incorporated into regional, corporate and community developments, and also allowing other standard bodies, building firms and consultancies to use elements of the code in their own green building guidelines.  And it flies in the face of the more closed and commercial approaches from BREEAM and LEED

The final code, which is scheduled to be published in March next year, is expected to mirror the government's Code for Sustainable Homes and as such, will feature wide-ranging rules and guidelines on the metrics and best practices builders should embrace to limit the environmental impact of offices, commercial properties and other non-domestic buildings.

Is there something else here,? Can codes, approaches, tools and technologies which in essence will improve environmental performance, carbon emissions, sustainability generally, and 'save the planet' morally be closed and commercial. The emerging models of wikinomics, freeconomics etc must be applied to sustainability, where the economic model is built upon giving away free 'lead' products.

I would love to see much more open approaches with the built environment sustainability agenda using for example the creative common model.

Some believe Palestine will be back only if we destroyed Israel, how original.

some believe that the one-state solution is the only solution that would guarantee Palestinians' rights, oh that's me by the way.

some dont approve of the right of return, and they happen to be non-palestinians who have a say on that matter only because they're "pro-palestinian" or "academics".

and some are pro-palestinian and anti-hezbolla. please madam, define hezbolla?

and who are these people? they are the lebanese diaspora. diaspora doesnt mean that you should be living in another continent, you can be living 300 meters away and be foreign to a one single moral adopted by Hezbolla which speaks a lot about the ethics of Hezbolla as a community: a promise is a promise.

here in Achrafiyeh, in Hamra, and other "liberal" and "open minded" areas in Beirut and in lebanon where they're proud of their French and English, but not their Arabic, five Lebanese who fought for self-determination were considered criminals. they are considered criminals in a segregated society in lebanon, and in a segregated world. what do i mean by segregation?

in a sexually segregated society, a male becomes exotic to a female, and vice versa. but thanks to a world where sex is sexualized, they will always try to reach each other, via healthy means? nop, not at all.

unlike syria, beirut's society is not sexually segregated, it is rather ideologically segregated, and i did not use the word "sectarian" alongside "segregated" 'cause i think sectarianism is an outcome and not a cause to the lebanese problem. and it is an outcome in the sense that it is constructed by politicians and Europeans to be used to control the masses, and damn well they're controled.

back to segregation, in an ideologically segregated society a group will only meet, live, process itself apart from the potentiality of being exposed to a total foreign thought and a foreign idea, and that's how racism, sectarianism emerge in a materialstic, economically controled world.

living for 3 years and a half in achrafieh, i meet amazing people everyday, who despise hezbolla and the people in hezbolla just like people in other continents who never been to the south do.

it's all about our spacial context.

its easy for southern lebanese to hate achrafieh people, and it is easy for the latter to hate the former, but for me, i cannot hate anyone who i've shared good memories with.

because i am living on my own, meeting everyone, i had the chance to process a lot of systems i was brought up with.

i am no longer syrian, i no longer believe in these nations, nor in any belief systems, including atheism, not in bombastic slogans Arabists go on baffle me with, seriously, humans are pathetic creatures struggling to belong to an idea they constructed it themselves. to a system they want to be forever comfortable with.

justice is not an idea, it is a meaning.

hezbolla is an idea, Kuntar is an idea, neither are heroes, nor evils.

so far i can't see no justice in the air.

Until lastnight, I thought these communities could be limited to comedy vloggers (whether they are actually funny or not); musicians (spanning the entire talent spectrum from professional to downie-with-a-guitar) and those people you get who comment on videos - generally either praising Stevie Nicks for a great atonal screech midway through of Edge of Seventeen; or speculating on who she was sleeping with at the time of the recording, or how much cocaine she had up her butt during a certain concert.

Although I would include myself in the musician and worthless-comment-maker categories of YouTube user; I don't think I am a true member of any YouTube community (unless you include the fact that I search for new videos under "Joni Mitchell" every single day of my life without fail). Unlike me, some people actually use YouTube as a window - for complete strangers - into their world. This concept was completely new to me, defying the three other categories. What I found were not comedy vlogs, they were personal diary vlogs. Sure, you're thinking "clichéd and behind the times," byt wait! What I found were in fact THEMED personal diary vlogs! This may not sound exciting enough to merit two separate exclaimations, but until I discovered their YouTube diaries, I had not lost any sleep over... FEMALE TO MALE TRANSSEXUALS.

Disclaimer #1: You may have noticed that this blog contains the word "tranny" almost as often as "the" or "arse". Let me explain: I have a perverted sense of humour, and so do my readers. Evidently, most of my readers come to me because they have searched for something along the lines of "tranny blog".

Now let's face it - female to male transsexuals, or "F2Ms" as they seem to be known as in YouTube communities - are alien to me. In fact, the only place I've ever come across an F2M before is in documentary programmes that feature condensed material, and make these people out to be freaks and weirdos. YouTube actually provides a forum for people, especially those who are different from the status quo, to let themselves be known and to give help and advice to other people in the same position. The videos in the F2M community are unedited, raw footage; focusing on their joys and their pains. I spent the other night watching video after video about surgery, testosterone treatments and the like, which were incredibly thought provoking. I don't consider myself to be the World's Most Perfectly Average Human Being, but at least I don't have to go through surgery and hormone treatments to feel right. Watching these videos made me realise that although I may not be wired up absolutely perfect; how lucky I am to be a relatively normal person.

Disclaimer #2: I may sound as if I am disparaging the entire F2M community by implying that they are not normal. I merely mean that they are wired up far worse than I am. I, of course, am not apologising to any tranny who has been offended thus far by my blog: no tranny is that thin skinned. I was actually just covering my arse from the PC brigade - at least until Labour get booted out of government. I would blog about party politics, but no-one would read my entries anymore.

Sure, watching videos about drastic surgery and the results thereof can seem like a big deal - in fact, these are the things that documentary makers focus on; but that's not the whole story. One of the F2Ms spoke a lot about her personal life in her vlogs, for example about how he was dumped by her lesbian fiancé because she didn't want to marry a man; and about how buying tampons and shaving cream can be embarassing and upsetting. These things make total sense, but when would they ever be brought out in the open otherwise?

People say that my generation is the first to be given the hugely educational tool of the internet, and we have squandered it. Instead, we make pointless blogs and spend our lives on MSN. We make MySpace profiles that reveal weaknesses in our half-developed characters. But these vlogs are educational! The undramatised, first hand footage found on YouTube is worth far more than an agenda-ridden Channel 4 documentary; and the fact that people so confused by their sex have a pool of support waiting for them is testament to the power of this educational tool. My generation, regardless of what media commentators may suggest, may be the most focused, sorted and self aware of any that has gone before.

Either that or the generation most pacified by bright colours and shiny music.