Was there fraud in Iran?

A very sober, not to say impenetrable, from a Michigan University statistician, who specializes in election forensics: "While it is not possible given only the current data to say for sure whether this reflects natural complexity in the political processes or artificial manipulations, the numerous outliers comport more with the idea that there was widespread fraud than with the idea that all the departures from the model are benign." *linking to Pdf.

Iranian election

http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/stealing-iranian-election.html

Good source:

http://niacblog.wordpress.com/

Soccer forum is another good source of photos and videos:

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=17946433#post17946433

This will be fun:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97328&sectionid=3510211

A full screen, high quality version of Obama's Muslim world speech at Cairo University

I wanted to watch a full version of Barack Obama's big speech to the Middle East at Cairo University. Most versions are cut and spliced with journalistic comment but this one seems to be straight. Double click to watch full screen:

North Korea

The dead land.

On Subsidies

from Calvin and Hobbes.

It could never happen to us

Wonderful photo ...

... of the atmosphere. Vulnerable.

Anarchism by Noam Chomsky

Or you could have been doing something more useful instead, like playing a free rice game from lots of corporate types.

The bleeding obvious

That`s why they call them "intelligence" I suppose.

The difference between Persians and Arabs.

Funny.

(Hey, I get to use my "Iraq" and "Silly" tags on the same post!)

Lithuania's favourite personality:

PC 1064 of the Norfolk Constabulary.

Fifteen Britons in a sea of intrigue

I found this helpful in trying to understand what is going on in Iran at the moment.

Biofuel

Not good think Monbiot and Castro.

We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem... the invasion, that is...

The accidental Alpine anschluss of 2007.

Remember Comical Ali?

Few people can have had such an ignominious 15 minutes of fame as that clown who acted as Saddam's press spokesman during the invasion of Iraq. "Comical Ali" was what they called him. It was his unquenchable optimism in the face of grim reality that made his name, like claiming there were no American troops in Baghdad when US tanks were only a few hundred meters from where he was holding the press conference. There were other ramblings too:

"Do not be hasty because your disappointment will be huge.You will reap nothing from this aggressive war, which you launched on Iraq, except for disgrace and defeat."

"We will embroil them, confuse them, and keep them in the quagmire...they cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege."

Crazy old loon! Imagine what would happen if our own leaders had such a semi detached connection with reality. A scary thought.

Liar

The celebrated Ryszard Kapuscinski and his lies.

The Great War of Africa

Amazing how parochial I am. I did not really know anything about "Africa`s World War". More background.

For that matter, I don't know much about the continuing conflicts across that continent.