December 31, 2003
Sir Tim
Actor Kevin Spacey and Tim Berners-Lee
The British physicist, Tim Berners-Lee is to receive a knighthood from the Queen for "services to the Internet". He created World-wide Web in his spare time while working as a researcher at CERN. He fought to keep the Web free rather than patent it, which has led to the rapid growth of it. There has been a lot of controversy lately over the UK honours system. Recently the Sunday Times published a list of 300 refuseniks that had declined the offer of awards from the Queen.
December 28, 2003
Weapons of Mass Deception
Paul Bremer, U.S. top official in Baghdad, rejected Blair?s weapon claim without realising its source. In a Christmas message Blair claimed there was 'massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories'. Oops!
December 27, 2003
Thanks Derek!
Derek Jolly is one of the British emergency experts who dropped everything to fly out to Iran to help with the earthquake rescue effort.
Earthquake Update
Earthquake is now thought to have killed over 25000.
Relief International is accepting donations on-line.
In UK you can make a donation by calling 020 7245 1000
or write to:
Iran Earthquake Appeal
British Red Cross
Freepost
London SW1X 7EJ
Links:
Debris and devastation
Aid teams reach Iran quake zone
Dangerous buildings, lax rules
Shockwaves at speed of sound
Offers of help flood in
2000 years of history in ruins
Interactive guide on earthquakes
Iranian Truth has many more links and updates
December 26, 2003
Earthquake Strikes Bam
A powerful earthquake has struck southeastern Iran near the ancient city of Bam, with officials saying thousands have died and 60 percent of the historic city's residential area had been destroyed. I always wanted to travel to Bam which is the biggest mud-brick complex in the world.
December 23, 2003
December 22, 2003
House of Sand and Fog
Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and actor Sir Ben Kingsley.
In his latest film - House of Sand and Fog - Kingsley is portraying an Iranian immigrant who buys a house to begin a new life for his family in America. I am not so sure about his Iranian accent but I cannot wait to see the film anyway. Here is an interview with him about the film.
December 20, 2003
From Science Fiction to Science Fact
The picture on the left is the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and the one on the right is the Beagle 2 leading scientist Professor Colin Pillinger. Beagle2 was successfully separated from the European Mars Express orbiter 400 million km from earth, to start its final leg towards Mars.
December 17, 2003
Conspiracy Theory
Saddam's end is an early Christmas present for Bush and Blair. The looming spectre that the Saddam Hussein somehow might return to power had cast a pall over their administrations. But with the former dictator?s capture the cloud has dissipated and it gives both an opportunity to revive their flagging electoral campaigns. Read this conspiracy theory, which is a good one!
To wear or not to wear
France is to ban the hijab in schools. But forcing girls not to wear is as bad as forcing them to, writes Marjane Satrapi an Iranian living in France.
December 11, 2003
Shirin & Magdalene
Shirin Ebadi who accepted the Nobel Peace prize yesterday and St Mary Magdalene's painting by El Greco.
December 10, 2003
December 09, 2003
Photographs of London
Matt Stuart's photographs of London are great. Check them out.
December 08, 2003
Google knows
The first search result in Google for "miserable", "failure" or "miserable failure" is this page!
December 06, 2003
House of look-alikes
Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo and Catherine Zeta-Jones!
Aghdashloo is acting in a new film "House of sand and fog" which will be on release in the US in Christmas.
December 05, 2003
A thousand words
Here are some shocking photographs that provides the human context to some recent crisises.
December 01, 2003
World AIDS Day
These are terrifying figures. Click here for more info.