Apologies for the outage, which was purely technical and non-sinister and to do with the domain name expiring yesterday, but having to be renewed the Friday before because yesterday was a public holiday in San Francisco. I am dashinng off to Madrid today to give a talk there. Am seething with outrage about Babar Ahmad and at George Osborne; please express some outrage for me on those topics till I get time to do so!!
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Let us mourn the recent demise of M. Thierry Breton, chairman of Atos SA, who became an ex-capitalist (despite a £1Bn bonus) on Oct 8th, 2012.
But all is not lost. A DWP tribunal ruled him fit to work and withdrew his state benefits yestwerday…
@Willyrobinson-you’re welcome. Andy Worthington’s work is invaluable.
For those who were wondering, CFoI has had a very successful year. In which:
“CFI’s delegation programme to Israel and the West Bank has been an integral part of our work. CFI has led or coordinated four separate
freebiesdelegations to Israel for as many as 22 Conservative MP’s in 2011. These delegations are a particularly valuable educational tool, with MPs benefiting from a first-hand understanding ofwhich way to vote if they know what is good for themthe complexities of the country and wider-region.”Also note the prominent participation of the Rt. Hon George Gideon Osborne in the events of the year-
http://www2.cfoi.co.uk/Events/PastEvents/
The Titanic can rise from the deep and be refloated (on the sea of quantitative easing).
Britain can rise again – Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron vows to build an “aspiration nation” to save Britain from economic ruin, as he closes the Conservative Party conference.
In full: Cameron speech
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19890459
He brought his late father and his dead disabled son into the speech, linking to the higher visibility of disabled people thanks to the Paralympics. Disgusting trick to wow the adoring gathering and draw applause.
In a pre-speech release there is this:
But on the day after the IMF issued another downgrade of its UK growth forecasts, Cameron will also issue a stark, almost existential, warning to the country, saying unparalleled global forces mean the country is at an hour of reckoning. (Guardian)
He appears to mean unregulated global business interests (rather than plate tectonics). Which, forgive me if I’m wrong, he supports unconditionally. So, come on you fat cats. We’ll give you a bargain-rate pool of meat robots to work for you, bail you out when your corrupt deals go tits-up, and put the frighteners on the public about the hour of reckoning when inspiration otherwise fails.
Challenging those who see the Conservatives as the party of snobs and the rich, he will say: “There is nothing complicated about me….
Or, as it used to be permissible to say, he’s simple-minded.
Wondered when Jack was going to show up again on Crimewatch…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/10/jack-straw-torture-libyan-dissidents?newsfeed=true
Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, and Sir Mark Allen, a former senior MI6 officer, have been cited as key defendants in court documents that describe in detail abuse meted out to Libyan dissidents and their families after being abducted and handed to Muammar Gaddafi’s secret police with the help of British intelligence.
The documents accuse Straw of misleading MPs about Britain’s role in the rendition of two leading dissidents – Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Sami al-Saadi – and say MI6 must have known they risked being tortured. They say British intelligence officers provided Libyan interrogators with questions to ask their captives and themselves flew to Tripoli to interview the detainees in jail.
Continues…
Technical bits for some questions above
It works if you edit the host file because the URL you enter will still contain “craigmurray.org.uk” as the domain in the requested URL and this is passed to the server so it knows which of many potential sites it is hosting. If you enter the IP address then the server does not know which site you want.
The DNS expiry did not relate to the craigmurray.org.uk domain but to nameservers for the craigmurray.org.uk domain belonging to expathos.
PS:
13 December 2005: “Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States …There is simply no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition full stop, because we never have been.” – Jack Straw to the Commons foreign affairs committee
12 January 2012: “The allegations raised in the two specific cases concerning the alleged rendition of named individuals to Libya and the alleged ill-treatment of them in Libya are so serious that it is in the public interest for them to be investigated now” – the Metropolitan police
Thanks, Anon. But the entry in the hostfile should be
94.124.88.232 w w w.craigmurray.org.uk (without the spaced w’s) and works, apparently. Type that into the browser and you only get the Apache status. Would be helpful to know why, since both the IP and the info the server requires are there.
Covering up the stench of corruption:
http://enews.fergananews.com/news.php?id=2378&mode=snews
Maybe she’ll send Dave a bottle.
“Harvard graduate, Doctor of Political Science, Professor Gulnara Karimova previously presented herself as a pop singer and a clothes and jewellery designer. Cosmetic line Well-Being for Soul&Body from Guli has recently been presented under the GULI brand.”
Is it any wonder the Orient hates Western Culture, Komodo? :>)
Further to editing host file:
During the outage, I googled for a solution and found a few pieces of advice about editing my hostfile, and the gist of it was that the exact edit depended on your O.S. and browser. They suggested trying a few permutations. For me, (Win 7, Firefox), adding the line …..
….worked. No spaces between “w”s, no “#” signs, no “£” signs. I was then able to enter the site and post comments during the outage.
further to my comment above:
Some auto-formatting feature of this blog has added “http//” to the line I added to my hostfile.
How confusing.
Thanks, A.Node. Yeah, the spaces were to prevent it doing that…
could have sworn I tried that exact format (XP and Opera) and it didn’t work. Ho hum.
Ben, well, no…Ms Karimova is also the target of a couple of scam investigations, one by Russia ( god help her), and I gather Oxus Gold isn’t too happy with the Uzbek business model either. So it’s maybe a two-way street.
“why, since both the IP and the info the server requires are there”
You cant type them into a normal browser like that just because it is not expected. Normal browsers expect a valid url, not an ip followed by a url. To experiment with that kind of thing, there are browser addons for it like ‘httpfox’.
Just as Bliar used the mantra, Education Education Education, so Cameron said NHS NHS HHS. Last night when asked by Snow why he continues to give the likes of Lord Sugar a winter fuel allowance and a free bus pass, he said he made a promise to keep them and that he does not break his promises.
How about these promises Dave?
I know you have done very well on No 4 here but you have lied and are selling off the NHS. Safe in YOUR hands? Definitely not.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/6932087/David-Camerons-NHS-pledges-the-20-points.html#
See what has gone on in just one area in Dorset.
Preferred provider for medical services announced
25 September 2012
NHS Dorset is pleased to announce that Virgin Care has been awarded status of preferred provider for the medical and community services at Lyme Regis Medical Centre on Uplyme Road, Lyme Regis.
The recommendation to award preferred provider status for the APMS (Alternative Provider Medical Services) contract was made by the Primary Care Trust’s Lyme Regis Medical Centre Procurement Project Team and was approved by the Board of NHS Dorset following a competitive, robust and open bidding process.
Virgin Care was selected as preferred provider based on a range of criteria, at the heart of which was their ability to provide high quality services that meet patients need.
/..
(http://www.dorset.nhs.uk/Default.aspx.LocID-00knew056.RefLocID-00k002004001005.Lang-EN.htm}
Komodo; She didn’t ante up their cut? The greater scandal is taking a Harvard Doctorate and transforming it into a Pop Star bling.
‘Europe is still a contentious issue for the Conservatives:
There’s nothing the members like more than a little Europe-bashing, and Grayling played to the gallery with his will-he, won’t-he teasing on possible withdrawal from the European Court on Human Rights. The suggestion was only fuelled by interviews with the right-wing press that almost read like it was a done deal.
But just an hour before Grayling’s speech, attorney general Dominic Grieve was ruling withdrawal out completely, pointing out we’d be left in the same position as Russia in terms of our position on human rights. Do not expect us to ditch the court anytime soon.’
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/blogs/blogs/news-blogs/ten-things-we-learned-conservative-party-conference
In the Times today, which I read in a caff, judges’ pensions are being cut. Hitherto described as ‘gold plated’, cuts of 25% are proposed and also to the very large lump sums. Cannot link due to paywall. I thought of Judges Thomas and Ouseley.
{http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/judge-speaks-out-pensions}
🙂
Komodo
If you type the ip address into the browser directly then the server at the far end never sees w w w .craigmurray.org.uk”. It is only passed the URL you typed in. So if it is in your host file In the format you specified) then your PC knows the IP address to talk to but sill tells the server it wants something from the craigmurray domain (that’s what you typed in).
Single hosts servers (or one with a default domain) will respond correctly if given an IP format URL as opposed to a DNS format one.
Mary,
An RAF signals contact in Ayios Nikolaos Cyprus suggests a ‘no fly zone’ is the next push by Britain to smash Syria. Syria’s fixed air defense installations will possibly be targeted from the British Dhekelia in Cyprus.
There is concern by the RAF that Syria may have Russian S-300 missile defense system(s) in addition to the SA-22, a mobile anti-aircraft system equipped with its own target acquisition and tracking radars and carrying 12 medium range 57E6 radio-guided surface-to-air missiles and defended by two 30 mm auto-cannons.
Thanks Mark. ZBC and Mr Marcus are still churning out this stuff, including ‘info’ from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. See the Wiki entry below.
Turkey warns Syria of stronger response over shelling
Turkey’s Gen Ozel met relatives of those killed by Syrian shells in Akcakale
Syria conflictNo-man’s land
Turkey-Syria tensions
Assad heartland
Bombed from above
Turkey’s top military commander has warned Syria that it will respond with greater force if it continues its cross-border shelling
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19894110
Note the confirmed presence of a US outfit in Jordan to monitor the chemical and biological weapons. Just saying it convinces the reader that they must exist. Same old Same old…Iraq.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) is an information office opposed to the Assad-led Government of Syria. There is a conflict between Rami Abdulrahman,[1] a Syrian expatriate, and Mousab Azzawi about who has the right to the name Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.[2] Abulrahman’s UK based SOHR has been cited by virtually every western news outlet since the beginning of the uprising.[1]
The Syrian based SOHR runs the website http://www.syriahr.com.
The UK based SOHR is run out of a two-bedroom terraced home in Coventry, UK, by Rami Abdulrahman (or Rami Abdul Rahman, or Rami Abdelrahman), a Syrian Sunni Muslim who also runs a clothes shop. After three spells in prison in Syria, Abdulrahman came to Britain in 2000 fearing a longer, fourth jail term.[1]
In a December 2011 interview with Reuters Abdulrahman said the observatory has a network of 200 people and that six of his sources had been killed. Abdulrahman reports on events in the Syrian uprising, including the deaths of civilians, rebels and army defectors (which he calls “martyrs”)[3] and government soldiers.[4]
They act like this is a bad thing…
“A merger to create the biggest aerospace and defence group in the world from EADS and BAE Systems collapsed on Wednesday, with analysts saying Germany shot it down to avoid being sidelined.
The two groups issued a statement announcing the failure, and a source close to the talks said they fell through because of government opposition, especially from Germany.
It had looked late on Tuesday as if France had opened the way for an extension of the talks, with sources saying Paris had agreed to limit its shareholding.
But observers said Germany torpedoed the deal to create a giant worth $45 billion (35 billion euros), because the power behind the civilian arm of the group would shift completely to Toulouse in southern France where airliner maker Airbus is based.
Berlin was also said to fear that the group’s military operations would be run from London where BAE Systems is based.”
http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=126185918&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281
“Suspect arrested at Heathrow ‘could be NHS doctor who led Syria terror group’”
This is utterly farcical.
The USA, Saudi, Qatar, France, and the UK, are supporting the anti-Assad forces in Syria, right? With money, weapons, technology, medical supplies and whatever.
But an NHS doctor who by all accounts was fighting with one of these a rebel/terror groups has now been arrested at Heathrow suspected of being involved in “terrorism”.
“The doctor was one of ten to 15 Brits in the terror group, members of the extremist al-Absi organisation which aims to exploit the rebels’ fight to overthrow tryant Bashar Al-Assad to set up a fundamentalist Islamic state in Syria.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4582679/Terror-suspect-arrested-at-heathrow.html
Obama and the UK are tying themselves up in knots. “You’re a ‘rebel’ in Syria and we’ll support you any way we can. But don’t try to fly in here, or we’ll arrest you, for terrorism in Syria.”
What sort of blithering idiots do they think we are??
I left out Turkey, but no matter.
Judge Mitting looks likely to foil St Theresa’s plan to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan.
Abu Qatada: Evidence extremely thin, says appeal judge
The Home Office says Abu Qatada continues to pose a risk to national security
Related Stories
Profile: Abu Qatada
Abu Qatada refused bail by judge
Can Abu Qatada get a fair trial in Jordan?
A judge reviewing the decision to deport Jordanian terror suspect Abu Qatada has said his links to an alleged bomb plot look to be “extremely thin”.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19891520
I’m probably impossibly naive, for which apologies in advance, but still I’d like your opinion : how is it that the UK pouvoir public (police, etc…) is able, within minutes, to get its hands on a British couple arriving from Egypt and allegedly on their way to Syria to engage in terrorism and on the other hand unable to nail Jimmy Savile despite the man’s 40 year record and numerous allegations over that period?
Incompetence? Unawareness of the mechanics of child abuse? Hands-off approach (friend of the great and good, eg Mrs Thatcher)?
Please elucidate for this silly foreigner.
Mary “Starr is 69. Did you see his ‘fiancee’ standing beside him”
Yeah, I thought that was his carer at first. I wonder what she sees in the multi-millionaire, one-foot-in-the-grave, has-been. He’s willingness to appear on TV lying through his teeth demonstrates how much these people crave attention – it’s not like he has a career to worry about.
Why is Turkey committing national suicide?
http://www.yerkirmedia.am/?act=news&lan=en&id=8811
A picture tells a thousand words.
“The whois records don’t show an anniversary on Monday.”
Yes, I noticed that on Saturday. Checking both DNS servers at expathos.eu showed that they were down. The provider of the DNS is a German company called Key Systems whose tag is “Die Domain Experten” 🙂
That’s why you have to put it in the hosts file. Apache uses virtual hosts in order to share an IP address. The request must have the domain name for apache to know which site you want.
Another thing that’s useful with the hosts file is blocking facebook, twitter etc. from tracking you by entering “0.0.0.0 facebook.com, twitter.com” – this also makes browsing a bit faster on sites that have FB/twitter links.