11 November 1918: The armistice that brought the Great War to an end. It was meant to be The War to End All Wars, but as we watch the videophone images from Fallujah, we know that this was a forlorn hope. While intolerance, greed and ignorance prevail in the world's corridors of power, we shall never successfully manage international conflict.

Your Excellency,

On the sad occasion of the death of President Yasser Arafat, we extend our condolences to the Palestinian people and to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. We also ask God’s comfort for the members of his family in this time of deep grief.

President Arafat will be remembered for bringing the Palestinian people together and for his unique and tenacious contribution to the cause of establishing their national home.

The death of Yasser Arafat has just been announced.

His importance as a leader of the Palestinian resistance over the past half century cannot be over-estimated. His methods were not always defensible, and while his presidency of the Palestinian territories in the last decade were a fitting reward for a lifetime of struggle, he really did not have the qualities to manage the conflicts of the past few years.

His treatment by Israel over the past two years has been appalling, and one has to wonder whether his death was entirely due to natural causes.

Premier Steve Bracks should get to Mildura now and start talking before he needs a visa to do so.
- Cr Vernon Knight, Mildura Rural City Council, 28.10.04

Mildura is thinking about seceding from Victoria and joining either New South Wales or South Australia. This comes after the Victorian Government proposed a toxic waste dump at Hattah-Nowingi, about 40km south of Mildura near the Calder Highway.

Last week Arundhati Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize for 2004. Previous recipients have been Professor Muhammad Yunus (1998), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1999), Xanana Gusmao (2000), Sir William Deane (2001), Mary Robinson (2002) and Dr Hanan Ashrawi (2003).

"Well I'm back", he said.

I've been off the net for eleven days (which I think is my longest absence since our UK holiday in June-July 2000), and have seen very little news due to three children aged between three years and nine months commandeering the mother-in-law's television for the purpose of Wiggles, Play School and Hairy McLairy DVDs. One of said children being a young girl by the name of Adara Madeline Eyre.

We're going away on holiday to Adelaide for the next eleven days. Mother-in-law's birthday party next weekend. It's unlikely that I will be updating my websites till then (apart from the dynamically changing stuff), in which case I'll see you all on November 10.

Much ado in the media today about the discovery of a extinct "hobbit"-like human species which lived in Indonesia about 18000 years ago.

Homo floresiensis is the name given to this new species. Reports from National Geographic News (they apparently have a program coming up on the subject) and Nature magazine.

There wouldn't be too many people still around who can remember the Red Sox last World Series win back in 1918. Even that great Bostonian, JFK the First, would have been less than 18 months old when they did it. The question now is whether Boston can make it a double: the Red Sox today, and the junior senator from Massachussetts (JFK the Second) in the presidential election on Tuesday?

A great, and concise, comment on the Red Sox win at guff.szub.net:

It took less than a minute for the Boston Globe to put this up on their home page:

More later. Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox on their first World Series title since 1918.