Hard to disagree!

Courtesy of Wonkette, this perceptive caption appears to have been the work of the staff of Sky news. Though officially, the blame will of course be placed on Michael Brown, who had previously demonstrated that he was not capable of organising horse shows.

Do you believe in magic

The former Mr Schiffer, David Copperfield, is «planning something spectacular» for his upcoming Belgrade performance. He promises that he could even, «with the permission of the Serbian government and people,» spring Slobodan Milošević from the Hague. That would be a trick, certainly.


Daniel Radcliffe as the young David Copperfield in the 2001 PBS miniseries.

Legal documents of our time

I don't think I will bother translating Vojislav Šešelj's letter to the ICTY secretariat. He would appear to be making some sort of promise or another.

Update: Ah, but somebody did bother to translate it.

The wisdom of Barbara Bush: On hurricane victims

Courtesy of Atrios, here is what the president's mother had to say about people whose homes were destroyed in New Orleans, and who sought refuge in Houston:

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle)--this is working very well for them."

You can listen to Mrs Bush laughing at the "underprivileged" in an mp3 file provided by Mr Atrios.

Most people have probably heard the line from F. Scott Fitzgerald about how rich people are just like us, except they have more money. Not true: this unfeeling creature is not one bit like us.

That could be useful

It is possible that this year Bosnia-Hercegovina might get a translation of its constitution, which exists now only in its official English-language version. Law professor (and holder of many government positions at one time or another) Kasim Trnka makes the obvious point that "in practice, this creates serious problems, because there are several translations both of the constitution and of the Dayton agreements in their entirety. With the constitution, which is the most sensitive document, there are very often translations into three languages in which there are material differences, which can and do cause problems in application and interpretation."

Tsunami threat in Bulgaria?

The National Geophysical Institute of Bulgaria has warned of the possibility of a disastrous tsunami on the Black Sea coast. Seismologist Bojko Rangelov anticipates that the northern coast would be most threatened. The last time this happened was in 1901, when waves brought about by an earthquake sent water fifty miles inland. Bulgarian media note that no warning system is in place.

Count on a teacher

It is reassuring that the schoolteachers in Stolac are not willing to go along with the plan by the local ruling political parties to require children of different ethnic backgrounds to attend school in separate buildings.

Regional agreements of great importance

The Friulian winegrowers hope to be able to reach an agreement with their Hungarian colleagues over the rights to the name "Tokaji," or names that sound like it. Everyone of good spirit is of course familiar with the Hungarian grape, from which a variety of wines are made, but most famously the sweet dessert wine Tokaji Aszú. The Friulian "Tocai" is a dry white wine which is regionally popular and ideal, as ANSA helpfully points out in their report, with fish. The Italian winemakers point out that the Friulian white has used the name "Tocai" since the Middle Ages, and that they would have difficulty marketing their old wine under the proposed new name, "Friuliano." Enzo Marsilio, of the Agricultual Association of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, is "moderately optimistic" that a compromise can be reached. But the last word may have come from the European Court of Justice, which has ordered the makers of both the Friulian Tocai and the Alsatian Tokay Pinot Gris to find a new name by 31 March 2007.