New Year

Well, it's that time of year again. 2006 - come and gone, and right now, I have 10 minutes left. Instead of looking back or predicting events, I'd just like to make a few personal comments.
I've had a tumultuous year - ups and downs, and so on. The latter half has brought me so much more than the first. To be honest, I ain't a confident person at heart. I don't think I was born with that self-assured zest. I get depressed most of the time, if I care to listen to that voice, or rather, feel that ocean of misery that wells deep in the corridors of my mind. Yet I have managed to beat it, I have listened to reason, and I am lucky to have good family and friends to help. I have a challenge coming up now, and that voice just tells me that I can't do it, that I won't be able to. But what I say is f*** that. I can take this on. I am sure that I do have the maturity to go for the big one. And that's my resolution for this year: to see that I keep trying, and to make sure that no matter what situation I got myself in, I won't be blue.
This is me back after a full 40 minutes of fireworks in the neighbourhood - none of them mine - and I'd just like to say, coming after a period of so many wrongs, I want you all to have a year that is fantabulously successful and full of all the fun you could possibly get.

Death of a tyrant

Well, it finally happened. Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti has been hanged on the charge of crimes against humanity.
A despot who ruled for decades, his death will probably the last noteworthy of 2006, coming on the morning of Saturday, 30 December. The last few hours were confusing for the world, his location seeming to alternate between Iraqi and American custody.
By law, his death had to come within 30 days of an unsuccessful appeal. However, it seems to me to be a bit rushed - perhaps a desperate US attempt to salvage a result by the end of this year.
Whether or not his death will change Iraq is yet to be seen, but it probably won't: the conflict now is about far more than him. Whether or not his execution was justified is also up to debate - but whatever the argument, he still had to be punished for what he did.

Pictures

Paris

Oui, je suis en Paris en ce moment and it isn't as great as I thought it would be. Yes you get to see the wondeful Champs Elysées with the Arc de Triomphe at the end and the landmark Tour d'Eiffel shimmering in golden ecstacy in the frosty night. But, mon dieu, the traffic is astounding - Manhattan is far better, trust me! It's pretty dangerous too, especially in the little free-for-all at the Arc de Triomphe, where you can never be certain when someone's gonna cut across you. And the people - well, I can say I've met nicer folks. They're not too bad actually. I guess their lives are pretty hectic - you can see that in the métro. I've taken loads of pics already, will post some when I get back.

Hope

It doesn't matter if you fail trying to do something, it doesn't matter if you struggle doing it. But TRY. When one gives up, we let our spirit, mind and body rot, and then we are truly losing.
What the f. I'm neck deep in shit and I don't know what the hell I'm saying. Nice to dish out soundbites like this without paying head to them. Jeez, I'm just pissed at everyone, and what I would like most is to just scream everything out.

TIME's Person of the Year: You!

Congratulations! You've won an award that places you in the same league as JFK, Bill Gates, Bono and Hitler. Yes, you! Well done y'all - you've finally made it big time.
I can just imagine it now - Americans in shorts traversing Europe in shorts and a t-shirt that says: "Time Person of the Year 2006". Seems a bit cheesy - then again, I guess having the Fuhrer on the front cover might have been as well. At least it wasn't as distasteful, desperate and demeaning as the 2004 winner: George W Bush.

The Polonium Affair

What a great can of worms we've got on our hands. An ex-KGB man dies in London, the Russian government is implicated and it seems the Italian PM was investigated for links with Soviet Intelligence by an associate of the dead man. And all around this, polonium 210, an obscure yet dangerous isotope of an element discovered by the Curies.
The stuff emits alpha radiation (i.e. a helium-4 nucleus) - not too dangerous outside the body, as it has only a range of a few cm and is almost completely blocked by a sheet of paper. If it's taken in though, it's a different matter: alpha radiation, with a charge of +2, ionises (removes electrons from atoms) strongly, altering body chemistry. According to that bastion of knowledge, Wikipedia, half a gram of polonium -210 can release enough energy in its decay to raise its temperature over 750 K ( subtract 273 for T in degrees C). 1g of it can produce 140W of power.
Even better - well, not if its inside you - Po-210 has a half-life of around 138 days. I guess that means that if you inhale 2g of it, you'll end up with 1g of it still in you after more than 3 months. And half a gram, you'll remember, is pretty powerful.
In any case, despite being a truly horrific case of brutality and inhumanity, it seems to be a classic thriller played out in real life; science and politics mixed up in just the right amounts. I guess we're gripped by it for the same reason that we watch CSI.