We're reliably informed that the spectacular breaking of ice from the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina on Monday has little to do with global warming, and more to go with the glacier's alignment.

Still, it's 91 years since ice has broken from this glacier during an Argentine winter. Video from Reuters:

It's a warm welcome to Bulgaria, Estonia and Turkey. One of the more sensible outcomes from this week's ICC meetings in The Home Of Cricket, Dubai, was the expansion of the governing body's membership by three, to now encompass a total of 104 countries.

This represents cricket's biggest incursion into eastern Europe to date. Estonia is the first state of the former Soviet Union to attain ICC membership, while neighbours Bulgaria and Turkey join Croatia and Greece as south-eastern Europe's representatives in the cricketing community.

There's been no official announcement yet, but if all the rumours are true then the ICC executive is about to alter the result of the 2006 Oval Test between England and Pakistan. The BBC, Cricinfo and the Press Trust of India are among sources reporting the Orwellian masterstroke, by which the two year-old result will be amended from an England win to a draw.

With five weeks remaining till the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, the laying of the turf at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre is running ahead of schedule.

Visiting yachties are said to be delighted at the massive carpet of green algae that is spreading across the venue for the games' many sailing events. A total of 32000 square kilometres of ocean off Shandong Province is covered with enteromorpha prolifera, including about one-third of the Olympic race course.

Lawn bowls officials, having seen the new offshore greens, are said to be livid that their sport has yet again been left out of the Olympic program.

A spokesperson from the Qingdao Oceanic and Fishery Department said that the algae outbreak had nothing to do with the chemical, industrial and human waste dumped in Chinese rivers and thence into the North Pacific.

More at The Guardian.

Wishful thinking. Sigh.

The Everything-New-Is-Old-Again Labour Party wasn't expected to win the Henley by-election. It was, after all, an extremely toffy-nosed Tory seat, made vacant when Boris Karloff became Lord Mayor of London. But how many people expected Labour to (a) come fifth, behind even the Greens and BNP, and (b) score less than five per cent of the primary vote, thereby losing its deposit, so to speak?

At least Richard McKenzie (Labour, 1066 votes) outpolled such lumninaries as Bananaman Owen (Monster Raving Loony Party, 242 votes) and Harry Bear (Fur Play Party, 73 votes).

More information from the UNHCR, as well as their Youtube WRD video playlist.

See also the Refugee Council of Australia, who are conducting Refugee Week across June 15 to 21 in Australia.

See The Ocean Project for more information.

The theme for 2008 is "Helping our climate / helping our oceans" with a special focus on coral reefs.

(2008 has been designated the International Year of the Reef by the Interational Coral Reef Initiative, an NGO which sits outside the UN framework.)

One of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history has come to an end, with the commencement of the withdrawal of our combat troops from Iraq.

The withdrawal came more or less with a whimper, and certainly not telegraphed in advance. Earlier this year the Senate Estimates Committee was told that Australia's role in Iraq was complete, and this was confirmed by Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston yesterday (video). We, of course, should never have been there, an aggressor nation (along with the USA, UK and numerous smaller members of the "Coalition of the Willing") invading a sovereign entity on the other side of the world, on the basis of fabricated "intelligence". The acronym for the original (subsequently discarded) US name for the invasion, "Operation Iraqi Liberation", sums up the underhanded motives fairly well.

My third change of address in three years out of the way, it seems to becoming a seasonal thing. Ah well, back in business, and wireless broadband to boot.