It's time

Yep. I think it might be time to get out of this blogging fishbowl. A few weeks off has breathed life into old interests, and some new ones, and I'm liking it.

I'll skip the usual bouquet tossing: -- I've been thinking about this for some time and a combination of factors has helped me come to a decision. It's not the first time I've been this schizo about blogging and it probably won't be

Now hear this...

FM is incredibly busy this week so it's unlikely he'll be popping by for any blogging.

It's terrible, I know, but somehow we'll all just have to carry on. I know I'll miss him (sniff).

He says if you're bored, you should check out the links in the sidebar. Or just cry yourself to sleep. It's your choice.

That is all. Carry on with your normal lives -- if you can...

Nice

It's a good look. And it's nice to see Linda in command of the new squadron. She's a top lady. Full story here.

It must be something in the air

Speaking of photographs from Afghanistan that look like oil paintings, here's another one from the Brits:



The accompanying British Defence News story is here.

Freaking wonderful

News.com.au: Rockets for sale on streets
As many as 20 rocket launchers have been smuggled into Australia from the Middle East and are on sale for as much as $50,000 each in Sydney's underworld.

The weapons were obtained by a Sydney criminal gang to fight a turf war, but authorities fear they could end up in the hands of terrorists.

A Sunday Telegraph investigation has revealed the B-7 type

Full list of labels

As I noted in an earlier post, my old del.icio.us tags have been replaced with the new blogger "labels". For brevity, there is an incomplete list of these labels in the sidebar plus a link to the relevant labels in each post.

The full list of labels (as of November 06) follows:

Afghanistan
Africa
Australia
blogging
Canada
China
Dutch
East Timor
Europe
Fiji
Global Warming
India

PNG's slow demise

PNG's The National: Ban Expanded
The country is failing so badly that the United Nations is mulling a downgrading from ‘developing country’ to a ‘least developed country’ status.

The World Bank, in a report released last year, noted that a greater proportion, 70%, of PNG’s five million people lives in poverty now than 10 years ago.

Here are the excerpts of the Deuteche Presse report:

“At

Fiji police intend to arrest the military chief

Via Ms Vakaivosavosa (and in turn, Radio New Zealand): Fiji police say they will arrest the military commander for sedition and disobedience after he returns from the Middle East.

The police commissioner, Andrew Hughes, says the police are also gathering evidence to charge Commodore Frank Bainimarama with treason.

Mr Hughes says the commander’s latest threats to force the government to resign