IanVisits…

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Iran tenders for two nuclear power plants

Filed under: Politics — Ian Mansfield at 1:25 pm on Saturday, April 28, 2007

As you are presumably aware, there is a lot of political fuss over Iran’s nuclear ambitions - with Iran claiming it is purely a peaceful effort, and many other countries claiming that it has a military aspect.

From what I have read, the evidence does veer towards at least, some military use, but this week lurking in the classified adverts of the excellent The Economist magazine - is a tender application for a company to build two nuclear power plants.

Personally, I think this is just political posturing, as it helps deflect accusations against Iran - and frankly I really couldn’t see any major commercial company wanting to touch this with a bargepole as the political situation is just far too unstable to risk the investment.

Still, it was oddly amusing to see the tender document published.

Iran tenders for two nuclear power plants

For those who wonder why I was looking at the tenders, I always read the back section of The Economist as governments often advertise telecoms tenders and privatisations there - which interest me.

As interested in nucelar “stuff” as I am, I am not in a position to build a whole power plant!

That said, Iran is opening up some of its nuclear facilities to tourists - and following my day long tour of Sellafield last year, a trip to Iran would be appealing. I still need to sort out the trip to Chernobyl as well, after that was cancelled when I was ill.

Trapped by the London Marathon

Filed under: Random — Ian Mansfield at 9:44 am on Sunday, April 22, 2007

Today’s the day I am “jailed” inside my flat as the London Marathon snakes through Docklands. It’s only one day a year, but I do usually need to get out of the flat at least once a day, even if just for a walk. Today, all the roads by my place are sealed off.

I can get out technically, if I go down towards Greenwich and take the river taxi into central london, but otherwise - no chance!

Last year, I was able to get to the shopping center via the riverside then catching a train from Westferry, but this year the riverside walkway is also closed.

I admire the people running it - and quite enjoy the atmosphere it creates - it’s just a bit “climbing up the walls” for me today as well.

Maybe I should get a medal as well ;)

Security Certificate failure at LloydsTSB online banking

Filed under: geekery — Ian Mansfield at 10:12 am on Friday, April 20, 2007

Just tried logging onto the Lloydstsb online banking website to be presented with a security warning that a certificate cannot be trusted - and it came from a 3rd party website.

I think I will stear clear of their website until that has gone!

Sent them an email to their email pishing address (and that seemed to be the only email address available) - I certainly wasn’t going to go through the hassles of navigating their call center system.

The certificate seems to belong to clickshift.com - who are a website monitoring company.

The Independent Newspaper

Filed under: Politics — Ian Mansfield at 8:12 am on Thursday, April 5, 2007

The Independent newspaper had a very clever front page this morning following the release of the British Navy people in Iran yesterday.

The “UK” version

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And if you turn it upside down…

The “Iran” version

iran.jpg

Clever ;)

Matt Cutts - hacked?

Filed under: Random — Ian Mansfield at 7:45 am on Sunday, April 1, 2007

One of the more high profile blogs around - written by Google staffer, Matt Cutts seems to have been hacked overnight.

It could be an “April Fool” - but unfortunatly, it looks legit.

Hopefully he will get it back online later today, as it is good to hear an “unofficial” voice from inside Google at times.

The blog is one I link to on my sidebar - Matt Cutts

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There is a link on the hacked site to http://www.darkseoteam.com/