possible explanation

Today officially Tony Blair is out and Gordon Brown is in as the new occupant of the 10 Downing Street. We’ll have to see how British foreign policy will change with Brown, and especially during these delicate times regarding Kosova’s final status. There is no doubt that in Blair, Kosova had a staunch supporter for its independence. In a letter last week, Blair assured the Kosovars, that his successor will be following the same policies, however we’ll have to see how the nuances will change. In the meanwhile, one thing can be said for sure: Blair is far more presentable, youthful and charismatic than Brown. In an interview given last week to BBC, I noticed that Brown has a certain, let’s call it “jaw-drop”, between sentences. If you press the shutter at the right time, I think you can produce a pretty silly picture of him. Would be pretty funny to see him side by side with W, actually I can’t wait for “Saturday Night Live” to come up with his imitation.

Until that time, let’s enjoy this precious picture: Here we have former MP Quentin Davis, a Tory defector and an avid sucker - that after breaking his own finger from over-sucking, is being offered a new thumb to suck. What can Brown do for you? Just ask Mr Davis. Our online pharmacy is the perfect resource for people to get their drugs without any hassles or awkwardness. buy cialis We work hard to make sure you save money every time you shop with us. buy levitrabuy soma At our online store, you pay less and get more. buy viagra

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that blocking independence for Kosovo could allow the Serbian province to slide into instability. He made his point very forcefully:

   

Mr. Putin, wasn’t sure he understood everything, so he asked a few questions:

At the end, Mr. Putin wasn’t very pleased with the message:

Proof that Bush’s watch was not stolen in Albania.

This is obviously a hoax on the part of media, and is a sign of unprofessionalism to even feature such a story without a careful examination. There are two videos I’ve seen of the moment, from two different angles, and is clear that at one moment, President Bush pulls out of the crowd, takes the watch off and puts it on his right pocket before going again into the crowd. From one angle is hard to see his movements, however you can see that he puts his right hand in the pocket. I also don’t believe the story of the Albanian bodyguard, Bush went in with some 500 Security agents, I doubt any Albanian bodyguard would’ve been around him at the time. It makes for a funny story, but I don’t think it’s true.
I believe this whole thing is being pumped by people that are only too eager to humiliate and put him down at every moment, and want to somehow ridicule the warm welcome he received in Albania. Albanians were supposed to automatically protest, according to media, but I think the enthusiasm was genuine.

From the press conference of President Bush and Prime Minister Berisha in Tirana:

PRESIDENT BUSH: What you do is you get your diplomats working with Russian diplomats, as well as EU diplomats, to see if there is not common ground. In other words, there has to be an effort to see if we can’t find a way for everybody to say, well, it’s a good idea. And if you end up being in a position where you don’t, at some point in time, sooner rather than later, you’ve got to say enough is enough, Kosovo is independent. And that’s the position we’ve taken.

As an American citizen, there are many things I dislike about Bush’s policies in US and the world. However, as an Albanian citizen I would like to welcome the president of the USA, in my home country and wish him a pleasant stay, as the leader of a country that has proven time and again to be a great friend of Albanians, and as a champion of freedom and human rights in the world. So, welcome President Bush in Albania.

This was almost predictable. It didn’t take too long for the story to hit the web, for the petition people, to … well write a petition.

Interestingly, I didn’t find a single Albanian name on the list of the signers. I wonder how many of the petitioners would actually bother to write on behalf of the Albanian children spending their childhood in poverty, or about old homeless people left without a penny by the social changes, about orphans or unemployed (roughly 20% of the workforce). Sad as it is to see the wolf in a cage, it can’t compare with … the entire population of Albania stuck behind the high bars topped with barbed wire of the foreign embassies, unable to obtain a visa to travel abroad. People with illnesses that can’t be cured in Albania, students that would like to study abroad, or simply workers that would like a earn a decent and dignified living from their work. Now, who’s going to write a petition about them?

Fixed an issue with the sidebar weather plugin that is displayed on the right of this screen. Wordpress, is an open source software, and among other great things, has plugin support. I wrote the weather plugin, using Google Maps API and RSS weather data from Yahoo! that is updated continuously. The architecture of the plugin is very simple, just one php file to handle one filter that writes the javascript that interfaces with Google Maps API and one action to write the plugin on the sidebar, actually on the meta section but that can be fixed by installing a wigdet management plugin and turning my plugin into a widget. The filter calls a separate php that sits outside of Wordpress and collects the weather data (presently from Yahoo, but other channels could be used) for a few locations of interest, with the info for latitude, longitude, weather description and icon. This data is then used by the javascript and passed on to the Google API for rendering on the map. Very simple. Tested it with Firefox and IE.

The only thing I don’t like though is that the Google copyright information spills over outside of the Google map, but since I use their component I’ll have to live with that. If anyone is interested to use such a plugin, I’d be glad to give out the code and help with installing it.