Techo-Geek, Part 4,398,222

Once again I 've recorded about 4 minutes and managed to upload only 2...

What I was saying about comments was...

MOSTLY, your comments are quite wonderful and well told and full of good information and excellent stories and I really appreciate very much your input.

Best wishes...

Cheers!

Ciao Baby

I'm leaving on a jet plane.

Venice, Sicily...Carnivale, Corleone...

I won't be posting on this blog again until March 3d.

But...

If you feel so inclined, check in occasionally to my other bog site,

http://laughingintheisles.blogspot.com/

which I last used during my '09 trip to Edinburgh and Dublin.

I'll endevour to get some good fotos of the masks and costumes in the Piazza, and the hillsides and Greek ruins in Sicilia.

A tough assignment, I realize, but...

Be well, Tutti!

True Crime

Cosy Cave Lane.

Respected and admired Air Force Colonel charges with multiple murders of young women.

This is the stuff of old Law and Order episodes.

Will Ben Stone come out of his drunken retirement to prosecute?

Forgive me, for this is no laughing matter to the families of these victims.

The story is horrifying and fascinating and too much like a movie.

No doubt some enterprising HBO executive has already bought the rights.

Round the Bend

Iran is fronted by a madman.

It is run by fundamentalist religious clerics.

It is increasing its nuclear stronghold.

And claiming that this is in the interests of medicine.

Read the latest from the NY Times and then pray or go jogging and try to forget that there are rogue nations on this earth that pose a clear and present danger to humankind.

(The "other guy" is American Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates.)

The IOC - Such a Happy Little Group

This was forwarded this morning from a friend on Hornby Island, where people read the news very early each day. Thanks, Gary.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Convicted ex-Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee was
reinstated Sunday as a full member of the International Olympic Committee, a
boost for South Korea's bid to host the 2018 Winter Games.

Lee's rights were restored by the IOC executive board, although the IOC also
gave him a public reprimand for tarnishing the Olympic movement and banned him
from serving on any IOC commissions for five years.

Lee voluntarily gave up his IOC rights after being indicted in 2008 in a
financial and tax evasion case. The South Korean government pardoned Lee last
year, clearing the way for his return to the IOC.

Lee is now free to attend IOC sessions, take part in IOC votes and help South
Korea's latest campaign to host the Winter Games.

The South Korean government has said Lee will be a key figure in the bid from
Pyeongchang, which is competing for the 2018 Games along with Munich and
Annecy, France.

Pyeongchang is bidding for the third straight time after defeats for the 2010
and 2014 Games, which went to Vancouver and Sochi, Russia. The IOC will choose
the 2018 host in 2011.

With Lee's reinstatement, South Korea has two IOC members. The other is Moon
Dae-sung.

"We are delighted to hear the news," said Park Yang-chun, chairman of the
Korean Olympic Committee's international relations commission. "We are very
pleased to hear of his reinstatement."

Park said it was too early to determine Lee's exact role in the Pyeongchang bid.

"One way or another he will join our bid," he said. "There is nothing official
yet. Mr. Lee will decide."

Lee's reinstatement follows the pattern of previous IOC ethics cases. French
member Guy Drut was provisionally suspended in 2005 after being convicted in a
party-financing trial. He was reinstated by the IOC a year later after being
pardoned by then French President Jacques Chirac.

Lee stepped down in April 2008 after 20 years at the helm of the Samsung Group
after being indicted in connection with losses at a Samsung affiliate and for
tax evasion. He later was fined and sentenced to a suspended three-year prison
term.

In Sunday's ruling, the IOC ethics commission said Lee's conduct "has tarnished
the reputation of the Olympic movement" and violated the IOC's ethical
principles.

The IOC issued him with a "reprimand" and a five-year suspension from sitting
on any commissions.

Asked how the committee could bring back a member who had been convicted of
criminal charges, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: "He has received two of the
three strongest sanctions the IOC can give."

The strongest sanction is expulsion.