Canadian intelligence services say a man arrested trying to leave the country last week is a Russian spy with forged identity papers. 

The man, who used the false name Paul William Hampel, will appear in court in Montreal on Wednesday with authorities calling for his deportation.

So, let me get this straight.  They’ve caught a spy trying to leave the country, arrested him, put him on trial, and are calling for the court to… throw him out of the country.

Apparently, the song was filmed as a birthday tribute to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenbery.

While I’m on the theme (sorry) of Picard singing, I thought I’d also take the time to bring you the rather moving Picard’s Song:

(Can you tell that I’ve spent this evening procrastinating?)

The Christian Science Monitor calls the new tactic:

perhaps the most effective act of nonviolent protest in the six-year Palestinian uprising

But I wonder if it is actually one of the least effective. 

The Israeli policy of telephoning warning was one of the most positive developments in the otherwise pointless conflict in Lebanon.  It was one more step in the long road taken by democratic countries towards limiting civilian deaths through conflict.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly better than bombing target buildings where civilians were sheltering.

But now Israel can’t send warnings to civilians about which buildings it will bomb.  Instead, if it feels it needs to destroy a building, it will need to attack it while civilians are still in residence.  The results will be awful, and the death toll among innocent bystanders will increase.

This is a victory for Palestinian civilians?

Gosh.  Hasn’t time flown?

Tessa [Jowell’s] speech was so electric that the main course, which had already been kept waiting for an hour, started to overheat and caused the fire alarms to go off and, consequently, a full evacuation of Shoreditch Town Hall, where the dinner was held.

How will be be able to tell if Al Gore’s going to run for President?

“An Inconvenient Truth will probably be nominated for an Oscar. It’s the third highest grossing documentary in history and the most successful documentary of 2006. It will probably win. If you see a chubby, happy Al Gore standing next to the producer and director, celebrating the win at the Oscars, forget it, he’s not running. Nothing to do with Hollywood plays well in the heartland… However, if Gore chooses not to be there — if he’s at the spa that day — then you can take it to the bank. Big Al’s running.”

He has a bunch of other reasons, some serious, some not.  For me, I think he should run.  Whether he’d win the race for President, or even the Democratic nomination, I don’t know. 

But Gore today is once again a political heavyweight.  And to see him standing against someone like Hiliary Clinton, or John McCain can only enhance the level of debate in US politics. 

Plus -  these days, with his grey hair and all, he just looks statesmanlike.  And that’s always a good thing. 

By the way - did you know Roseanne has a blog? Here’s a sample of Roseanne’s thoughts on those pesky Jews:

The jewish organizations in germany helped to round up all the jews and deport and kill them. It could not have happened without jewish help. In this country right now, jewish leaders are selling the peace and the security of jewish citizens of America.

Note how “America” gets a capital letter, while “jewish” and “germany” are afforded no such respect.

So, just for fun, some sadist has re-created it - as a screensaver:

And can you guess who is so generously revisiting this horror upon us? 

Why, Microsoft, of course. 

In an attempt to prove their faith in the model, they’ve invested $25,000 in paying bloggers to write reviews of Review Me.  Never one to turn down the opportunity to earn easy money, I’ve signed up for the site, and taken the Review Me shilling.  So, here’s my experience so far.

Heard about the site yesterday and signed up immediately.  The signup process is very simple – just provide a few details about yourself and your blog.  The hardest part was signing up for my first ever paypal account!

Once signed up, they take a quick (presumably automated) look at your site, to check that it’s been around for a while, and that a few other people like it enough to link to.  Then – and here’s the bit I was really waiting for – you get to find out how much they’ll pay you for each review.  The scale runs from $20 for the smallest blogs to $250 for the biggest blogs (although Review Me charge advertisers double that and pocket the substantial amount of change).  Anyway, I think you can guess which end of the price scale this blog comes in at. 

Then, click on the big flashing sign that says $25,000, write a 200 word review of Review Me, sit back and wait for the cash. 

Took me about 15 minutes to write this review of 305 words (on Taking Aim you get 50% extra free!), the largest part of which was taken up with battling with the broken keys on my keyboard.   So, $80 per hour, pro-rata.  Not too shabby.

The only question is – will anyone other than Review Me actually pay for reviews?  Time will tell.

And the cost?

Mr Livingstone said the cost of the trip was “modest”.

The mayor and four officials stopped in Cuba, at a cost of about £20,000, including £16,991 in flight tickets.

When Mr Livingstone’s plans to go to Venezuela fell through, the four officials carried on at a cost of nearly £16,000, including £12,948 on flights.

Ouch.  That’s a lot of money to spend for the London taxpayer to spend on Ken’s humiliation.  

It’s really tempting, as one of those taxpayers, to say that I consider the money well spent.  But instead, I’m wondering whether its time I set myself up in the travel agency business.  

Sergei Ivanov said: “By January 1, 2007, the General Staff will lift all restrictions on the precision of coordinates, so that the system can be used to develop the economy and transportation system.”

Current restrictions limit the accuracy for civilian users of Glonass to 30 meters.

A new entrant into the GPS market, competing with the US and EU systems can only be good for the consumer.  It looks like the unrestricted version will only be able to Russians initially - coverage of Russia is 100%, whereas coverage in the rest of Europe and the US isn’t quite at the level required for commercial use. 

This is partly because the full complement of satellites hasn’t yet been launched, and partly because the satellites that are already up there have been focussed on Chechnya to aid operations there.  The Russian military has plans to fill in the gaps in their network as soon as possible, though, with three new satellites planned for December. 

Why does it look so good?  Because I didn’t design the theme myself.  Thanks must go to iqwolf, for his snappily titled theme: Unnamed One.

The new design isn’t just a pretty face - click on the ‘Open/Close’ link in the top right hand corner for some fancy pop-down menus, or try a quick search and sample the new style results.

I’ve spent most of the last couple of weeks playing wih my new toy - a Windows Mobile phone.  (Sorry to those of you who have been expecting regular updates - now you know why).

Browsing blogs on the move has now become a part of my daily routine, albiet a frustrating one at times.  Newsgator Go!, which I’ll review another time, makes the job of keeping up with my RSS feeds simple.  But browsing individual blogs online (including my own!) can be a real hassle on a small screen.

Well, I can’t really do much about other blogs, but I can make sure that my own is as easy to read as possible on a mobile.  So, with thanks to Alex King, I’ve installed Wordpress Mobile Edition for those few of you daft enough to try and read this page on the move…

Update: Hmm, something’s gone slightly awry with uploading the screengrab, which is oddly low-res in my browser.  Trust me though, it looks great in my paint programme.  And, more importantly, it looks extra-lovely on my Windows Mobile phone!

Bill Gertz, who breaks the news, thinks its all a bit embarrassing for the US, particularly for the hopes of closer co-operation between the US and Chinese militaries: 

The submarine encounter with the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships also is an embarrassment to the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, who is engaged in an ambitious military exchange program with China aimed at improving relations between the two nations’ militaries.

I can’t really see why, though.  The whole point of a submarine is to travel undetected.  If anything, the Chinese Navy have done their American counterparts a favour, by demonstrating just how vulnerable carrier groups can be to comparatively puny submarines - even the diesel ones that everyone seem to write off these days.

Moving on, the Iowa Voice has posted some background information.  Of particular interest to British readers might be the news that an Argentine submarine - the San Luis - managed to successfully tail the British carrier fleet during the Falklands War.  Only faulty wiring in the San Luis’ missile systems saved them from what could have been a catastrophic suprise attack.  

Insular, patriotic and fiercely independent, they have usually subcontracted their monarchy to foreigners. After being conquered by Saxons, Vikings and French, they offered the crown successively to Welsh, Scots and, ad infinitum, Germans. They made only two requirements, fecundity and the right religion. They were constantly let down on both scores.

These days, we seem to be developing a bit of a fetish for Scottish Prime Ministers.

Paris Airport Bars Muslim Staff 

More than 70 Muslim workers at France’s main airport have been stripped of their security clearance for allegedly posing a risk to passengers.

The staff at Charles de Gaulle airport, including baggage handlers, are said to have visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

At first glance I, and others it seems, read this to mean that the airport had introduced a blanket policy on Muslim staff.  Far from it.

The BBC’s headline is a shame, because it distracts from the questions that should be raised by this important story - the most important of which relates to the sheer number of staff involved.

72 is a massive number of staff.  Either Charles de Gaulle was infiltrated on a massive scale by terrorists (which, lets be honest, is unlikely), or the authorities have made a huge mistake by putting two and two together to reach 72, or the authorities are taking an ultra-cautious line and suspending anyone who they think might pose even the merest possibility of a risk.

Which brings me to the oddest part of this story:

However, about a dozen other workers who have been identified as security risks still have access to sensitive areas of the airport because under French law they must be allowed an opportunity to respond to the charges before they are suspended.

I really find it hard to believe that, faced with a real and immediate security threat to their skies, the French would allow the niceties of French employment law to hinder their security operations.  Which leads me to believe that, actually, these employees aren’t actually any kind of real and immediate threat.  The fact that none of them have been arrested would seem to add to my suspicions. 

I wonder how many staff there are at the airport in total, and how many of those are Muslim.  I’d be very interested to know what percentage of the workforce, and in particular what percentage of the Muslim workforce this affects.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a mass of lawsuits in the coming weeks and months from disgruntled employees.