The intelligence picture that they paint is one accumulated over the last four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative. It concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes, including against his own Shia population, and that he is actively trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability.

Tony Blair, 24 September 2002

Sir John told the inquiry that he was not pressurised into firming up the dossier, but considered that it would have been better for the document to have stated that the 45 minute claim referred to battlefield munitions, not long-range missiles, to avoid the information being “lost in translation.”

“There was absolutely no conscious intention to manipulate the language or to obfuscate or to create any misunderstanding on what this might refer to,” he said.

The Chilcot Inquiry – 8th December

Saddam has used chemical weapons, not only against an enemy state, but against his own people. Intelligence reports make clear that he sees the building up of his WMD capability, and the belief overseas that he would use these weapons, as vital to his strategic interests, and in particular his goal of regional domination. And the document discloses that his military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them.

The September Dossier

Between $50 million and $6 billion may be owed to musicians and artists in Canada, but not from your run-of-the-mill file sharers. The Canadian recording industry itself is being accused of massive copyright infringement, and the list of miffed artists just keeps getting longer.

Hurr hurr.

The cool thing about this case is that the companies have already admitted that they do not have permission to use the songs—apparently under Canadian law you can go ahead and publish as long as authorisation is ‘pending’.

Instead of keeping up with its tab on the pending list, the recording industry just kept adding songs—without obtaining any rights. The pending list among the lawsuit’s defendants has topped 300,000 songs from both large and small artists alike—300,000 songs that the labels are openly admitting that they have not secured the rights for.

Via DK.

Respect to whatever marketing exec that came up with this campaign eh. Over 500,000 copies sold. Even at 20p a hit, that is about £100,000 of pretty much all profit. A great day’s work really.

Here is Biffy Clyro covering said song. It’s quite amusing when, after a bit of eager anticipation, the band pussy out of singing the famous refrain. The crowd begin to boo, then take up the chant themselves.

New LED traffic light covered by snow. Wonder how much they cost then?

Hurr hurr.

They didn’t think this one through did they.

All across the US, traffic lights have been upgraded to use LEDs. These bulbs save energy and last longer, and presumably count towards some carbon trading quotas.

However, when it snows, they don’t work!

Britain, under encouragement from ‘environmental’ groups seems to be following suit.

Around 57,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide could be saved by converting all UK traffic lights to LED (light emitting diode) lights by 2010, according to new research.

The UK currently has an estimated 420,000 traffic and pedestrian signal ‘heads’ [1], a figure that is rising at around 3% annually. Currently, these use an estimated 101.7m kWh of electricity per year and cause the release of around 50,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.

So said the UK Energy Research Centre. And oh yes, the politicians have fallen for it.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said “I’ve seen the future and it comprises these tip-top, energy-busting traffic lights. Installing these eco-bulbs will cut the climate change emissions coming from London’s galaxy of traffic lights by over half, as well as saving money from energy bills.”

“We are pressing ahead to get many more of these illuminating orbs on to our streets to join a range of other energy-zapping measures already saving us money such as solar-powered bus stops and shelters.”

Steve Levitt asks:

Is it surprising that scientists would try to keep work that disagrees with their findings out of journals?

Yes. Yes it is.

It’s also deeply depressing.

Luckily, the fuckers that work for the CRU don’t appear to be scientists. Rather, they deal in statistics and prediction (much the same as economists like Steve Levitt). So I suppose I’ll accept that these people shouldn’t be held to any standard of ethics or integrity.

However, The Strongest Beer Ever may help.

If I can find some that is.

There can’t be much else to do up in The Broch eh!

[Update (having seen the price): Thirty five pounds!?. I think I will get a nice bottle of whisky instead. If Aberdonians are tight, who the fecks buying this then?]

I near shit masel.

Here. Cleanse your palette.

Via Pop Cop

A fairly concise summary I thinks. He also neatly encapsulates the typical AGW response.

Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.

Unfortunately…

female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.

however…

large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial.

…and what exactly constitutes ‘large quantities’?

For those drinking little – less than a shot of vodka a day for instance – the risk was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less.

Love those Spaniards.