LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I watched some of Mary Poppins this afternoon - the first time I had seen it since I was so high. It is not a patch on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Yes, I am determined that Liberal England will be more controversial in 2006.

Well here we are, 2006. I am quite optimistic about it. I have a few resolutions, Stop Smoking, actually I am quite pleased with this one, I had read the book ‘how to stop smoking’ I actually stopped on the 28th as I ran out of cigarettes and thought what is the point of buying some more just so I can go on smoking for a few more days. This is an improvement on the normal half hearted new years eve resolution, where you smoke like a trooper whilst out in the pub partying and wonder why ...

If there is only one thing you do this year, it has to be this. One of the worst vulnerabilities in Microsoft has been found and it is really really easy to exploit and be caught. Please download and install the temporary fix from this nice bloke's blog Hex blog: Windows WMF Metafile Vulnerability HotFix More info here: F-Secure, Microsoft and US Cert

This weekend Heather and I went to Welsh Wales to see Sally from the Valley. This is Peter (and me), say 'hello'! Peter is cute and only 5 weeks old. Heather wouldn't let me take him home :( More pictures on flickr

Over the holiday I went down to London to see the Samuel Palmer exhibition at the British Museum. It runs until 22 January. If you can't make it, try the Tate Collection site for some Palmer pictures. If you do get to Bloomsbury you can take in the London Review Bookshop too.

Not a bad start to 2006, saw a mixture of English and Russian TV last night (Bananarama performing on stage in Moscow!) and have celebrated by buying one of Ryan's hoodies . Onlinefocus is starting to look reasonable , although there's a fair bit still to do... Happy New Year to everyone!

New Year’s Day is a good time to do that upgrade of Apache from 1.3 to 2.x that has been on my mind for some time. Much help received from this excellent Debian article and I think I am there. Happy New Year folks! 2006 could be a good ‘un.

Tim Worstall has posted his latest selection

Via the Pub Philosopher comes news that several evangelical "mega-churches" in America didn't open their doors on Christmas Day. This story got a lot of coverage in the US blogosphere, but I didn't really see anyone in Britain comment on it (funny, especially given the hostility of the anti-American left towards the religious right). As a primer, I suppose, here are a number of links to blog pieces - Psychobilly Democrat, Mere Comments, the CNN news site, theEclecticSoul, and Challies. The thing that struck me most of all was the way that the megachurches had assimilated the language of big ...

Who fans may be interested in the new blog by Paul Cornell, which he started just before Christmas. Via Paul, I’ve also discovered Vicious Imagery, by David Bishop, and Neuralgia Nostalgia. Tags: paul+cornell

In a globalised world we need to keep track of many things. So lets see… there is a lot more in the current Gas Row between Russia and Ukraine than meets the eye. GAZPROM, the Russian gas supply giant is today (Jan 1st 2006) cutting of the supplies to Ukraine as Ukraine cannot or will not pay a 400 percent price hike. Since Russia’s supplies to western Europe run through pipelines routed through Ukraine, and GAZPROM does not want Ukraine tapping transit supplies, this may lead to gas shortages in countries like Germany (not yet directly to Britain but ...

And good riddance to 2005, the year my dad died in a 'one star' hospital and my husband was made redundant from Staffordshire University, which is now only just over half the size it was eight years ago. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to resume blogging every Sunday. First Grauniad type error of the year: The Observer Life section, on the web today, curiously thinks it is April 2002! There was an interview in yesterday's Guardian with the environmentalist James Lovelock. It referred to a climate map on his computer 'updating constantly ...

The link is to a "model tracker" which is a moving pictures/sound (multimedia) description of what might happen at the end of the week. As usual people need to keep an eye on what the numerical models and other forecasts say as we get closer. People such as the BBC would never talk about such forecasts as they are so far in advance that they cannot be relied upon. It is, however, a useful

My New Year's resolutions made (and no, I'm not telling you what they are!), it's time to turn my attention to actual achievement. Having decided that I would run for Regional Secretary, following the kitchen sink drama that was my resignation in late November, I should at least state why I'm doing it and what I hope to deliver in 2006 if elected. Good administration matters. Not good