AARDVARK

Hello Kitty Banana Cover (Hello Kitty Hell) (Blog via Nag on the Lake.)

Arrest Made in Bomb at Texas Clinic (AP)

Two more important statements by major Iraqi Sunni groups today. First, from Abu Abdullah, Amir of Ansar al-Sunna (available on most of the forums). It begins by denouncing unnamed but easily inferrable personalities who hold conferences and make speeches about...

Since Steve and I are both very involved with To Kill A Mockingbird….we will need a little help the next couple of weeks. Anyone interested in watching one loving monster….email me or comment here! I know I need someone as soon as Thursday night…and I will need someone off and on next (tech) [...]

Lifts (or elevators, for those from across the big blue sea) generally have two buttons to make them come to your floor. One with an arrow pointing upwards, which you press if you want to go up, and another one with an arrow pointing downwards, which you press if you want to go down. Consequently, on the top floor you will find only one button, pointing downwards and on the bottom floor you will find only one button, pointing upwards. So much for a quick introduction to lift buttons. Oddly enough, most people tend to misunderstand the lift buttons in a major way. They try to determine where the lift actually is (sometimes a floor indicator helps), and then they press the button in which they want the lift to move. So if they are standing on the second floor and if the lift is on the eighth floor they press the "down" button even though they really want to go up. Which means that you stand in front of the lift door on the bottom floor, and it opend, and you politely wait for people to get out, but they won't because they never wanted to go down in the first place, and then all the way up you have to listen to their angry complaints about the stupid lift and how they are going to have the janitor fired one of these days for not fixing it. And it's like you want to tell them how the buttons really work, but somehow you know it's probably not a good idea.

Today we went for a walk on The Roaches. The five of us, together with my parents, my sister and my nieces walked from Roaches Gate to the highest point, although my Mum, sister, Chloe and Imogen turned back early...

David Petraeus said some very interesting things while in Washington, which - if you read between the lines - suggests that he gets what's going on in Iraqi Sunni politics. His remarks hint at the dividing lines between al-Qaeda and...

1822: Frederick Law Olmsted is born 1986: The world’s worst civil nuclear disaster occurs at Chernobyl

Is it more than just a little tacky to try and leverage the general population's respect for our fallen war dead as a way of promoting half-priced domain names?

Allen Lee, an 18-year-old straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with disorderly conduct for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location. […] Today, Cary-Grove students rallied behind the arrested teen by organizing a petition drive to let him back in [...]

… but you can’t make it give you its PIN. Drunk Man Parks Horse in German Bank (AP)

It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy — but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps. As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps [...]

Sometimes I can have the personality of a cardboard box, so I’m Walking Stereotype, but for non-Asians who are socially awkward, they?re just quiet. And Unusually Loud Asian Woman can’t be herself, either, without being, well, Unusually Loud Asian Woman. Virginia Tech shootings bring out stereotypes (Hyphen Blog)

There are funny ways to make a prank call to a Chinese restaurant. A couple of guys with a radio show decided to skip the funny and go straight to the racist. Surprisingly, Chinese Americans were offended. Who could have seen that coming? Someone’s gotta go down for this (Angry Asian Man, with the story and [...]

Mohamed Abu Roman, one of the smartest Jordanian writers on Islamist issues, turns his attention today to Hamas Iraq. Like me, Abu Roman places the appearance of Hamas Iraq directly within the context of the growing intellectual and political divide...

PIPA has just released the results of another major public opinion survey in four Muslim countries (Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, and Pakistan). The survey is unusually interesting, with some very well-designed questions. Overall, the survey strongly supports the notion that al-Qaeda's...

1898: The USA declares war on Spain 1944: George Herriman dies 1953: James D. Watson and Francis Crick describe the structure of a deoxyribonucleic acid molecule (DNA)

Happy Birthday Bur Oak (WILLblog)

Captain America Arrested With Burrito In Pants

In a surprise move today, the Discordian Society, a small neo-religious group which worships the Ancient Greek Deity of Chaos called “Eris” (and known to the Ancient Romans as “Discordia”), have announced that they have acquired the non-corporeal realm known as “Limbo”. Limbo, the theological concept [claimed as] previously belonging to the Christian Catholic Church, was [...]

… starring Mugen the Wonder Kitten! Note for those unfamiliar with OS X: F9–F11 are, by default, mapped to Exposé. Make a lolcat of your very own: lolcat builder Linguists, take note: Cats Can Has Grammar Also: Mugen is way bigger now. His fighting style is based on breakdancing.

Friday night Scout got to meet her first celebrity. Mary Badham, famous for her role as Scout in the movie To Kill A Mockingbird, was at the Library for “A Night With Scout.” We were lucky enough to be invited to the VIP party before the program. Under normal circumstances…I would not [...]

Please note, from virtually every corner of the white media (and from black conservatives who are quick to let whites off the hook no matter what we do), the conversation has shifted from Imus’s racism to a full-scale assault on rap music and hip-hop. In other words, it’s those black people’s fault when one of [...]

1916: The Easter Rising 1990: The Hubble telescope takes off for space

The split in the 1920 Revolution Brigade, with the rump faction renaming itself Hamas Iraq, was one piece of evidence I offered of the growing divide between the locally oriented insurgency and the globally oriented trend led by al-Qaeda... and...

Today, we walked the route of the Lichfield Canal. The canal is being restored by The Lichfield and Hatherton Canal Trust. It took us the best part of 4 hours in total. I've used the new My Maps feature on...

I just now saw on al-Jazeera a statement by the spokesman of Hamas Iraq (nee 1920 Revolution Brigade) denying the existence of any negotiations with the American occupation or with the Iraqi government. Interpretation to follow... for now, just a...

I had planned a long post today about the growing ideological rift between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the more locally oriented insurgency factions, but alas - spring came to Williamstown at last today, and playgrounds were a lot more appealing....

Over the last couple of months I've been working on a couple of new website design projects. The first is The Barry Diston & Fidget Weblog. So far, we've got the index page sorted but need to update the archive...

I've got a new piece up at The American Prospect on the implications of the recent public confrontation between al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and major factions of the Sunni insurgency. Where my Guardian piece last week mainly described the...

The Islamic State of Iraq clearly felt the pressure from the insurgent groups such as the Islamic Army of Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna, and has responded with what is being portrayed as a conciliatory tape by its leader Abu Omar...

Today is Caroline’s birthday! Happy Birthday Caroline! She is such a badass…I hope I am that cool when I grow up.

I finally found and settled on a place for Scout to spend her days when I go back to work in August. She will only be going about 3 days a week…the other days she will spend with Mom or Grandmother. I am VERY excited and pleased with where she will be going. [...]

Dr Hani Siba'i is a London-based Egyptian expert on radical Islamist movements, once affiliated with Islamic Jihad, and a very influential commentator within the jihadist world. He was interviewed after the Algeria and Morocco bombings on a number of Arab...

Muthana al-Dhari, the chairman of the media committee in Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars recently gave an interview to al-Jazeera about the formation of the new Council of Ulema. He denied that this Council posed a challenge to the AMS,...

Why are there so many places to get title loans and checks cashed. I really can’t imagine that the demand is sooo high that we need one of these places every 10 feet or so…. and yet, there they are. They are like bunnies. Please help me to understand. I have [...]

I did something exciting … I pre-ordered the new Tori Amos album (American Girl Posse). The release date is May 1st…but if you pre-order it now from iTunes you get the song Big Wheel immediately and then another bonus track when the album is released. I am listening to Big Wheel right now [...]

The Washington Post picks up today on the developments I've been following the last week, noting the growing confrontation between the insurgency and al-Qaeda. The Post makes a mistake in the very first sentence (the Islamic Army of Iraq never...

Text from Sharon yesterday: Connor has just sat next to me, snuggled up close and whispered "Mummy, lets talk to God", closed his eyes, put his hands together and said: "Dear God, Please can I have a real penguin...... Amen!"...

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } IMG_1149, originally uploaded by aisforaardvark. My Grandmother made this dress for Scout from an embroidered pillowcase. Pretty cool. The pink tatting around the waist and neck was made by my Great Grandmother…so Scout’s GG [...]

I am so excited! You know i love flickr…maybe not as much as some people…but I do love it! I have joined some groups and started submitting pictures…and this week they chose one of my pictures to be the group icon for the week! I know in the whole scheme of things [...]

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Kisses, originally uploaded by aisforaardvark.

Every toy Scout has picked up today has been used as a phone. She grabs whatever and immediately puts it to her ear and says hi or dada. It cracks me up. She will just sit there with a maraca pressed to her ear and talk. You will occasionally hear [...]

It's been a while since I've posted. It's difficult to explain why but has something to do with the anger I've been feeling recently. For the last month I've been constantly on an extremely short fuse, just permanently angry. And...