“I used to be Prime Minister, you know”

Thatch visits No. 10:

Former prime minister Baroness Thatcher returned to Downing Street earlier for an hour of private talks with Gordon Brown and a tour of Number 10.

Lady Thatcher, 81, spent more than two hours at her former home, where she was greeted with a handshake from the PM.

Mr Brown recently surprised many by praising Labour’s long-time political foe as a “conviction politician”.

The Tories said they were “relaxed” about the meeting, pointing out that she had previously met Tony Blair.

The visit followed an exchange of letters between Mr Brown and Lady Thatcher, who led the country from 1979 to 1990, shortly after he became prime minister in June.

Man sues Autodesk over shrinkwrap license

A man is suing Autodesk over their shrinkwrap software license:

A lone quixote in Seattle is suing Autodesk for sending copyright infringement notices to eBay, where he is a professional seller. At issue is Tim Vernor’s listings for used copies of Autodesk’s AutoCAD software — Autodesk says that when you buy its software, you only “license” it and so you don’t get the right to sell it after you’re done with it. Vernor is seeking $10 million.

(From Boing Boing)

Our debt to Russia

The war machine of Nazi Germany was the greatest, most finely crafted, fighting implement the world has ever seen. And what destroyed the German army, the best army in the world, was the Russians. As Ian Shaw put it:

The Russian Army was the largest in the world in World War II. Its training was simple, logistics crude, and medical facilities nearly non-existant. It also defeated the best army in the world, and produced some of the war’s best generals.

The great battles that broke the back of the Wehrmacht — Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk — were fought by the Red Army, and for that the world owes them a debt. As Paul Keating puts it:

The visit to Australia by Vladimir Putin is the first ever by a Russian head of state or head of government.

President Putin, who arrives on Friday, is representing Russia at this week’s APEC leaders’ meeting. Moscow’s membership of APEC is as much an accident as it is a reflection of Russia’s Far East economy.

Russia was offered a place at the APEC table, not because it was a natural constituent, but as a consolation prize by the Americans, for their having taken strategic advantage of it in the years immediately following the Cold War.

No one should ever forget that the Russians carried the primary burden of winning World War II, losing 26 million of their people in the process. More than the present population of Australia. A level of death, destruction and misery on a scale unprecedented in human history.

When Hitler failed to smash Britain with his blitz, he unleashed on Russia the full might of his army and air force, then the largest in history. What followed was carnage and human suffering on an unimaginable scale as the Russian people absorbed his ferocious power. A battering they took for four solid years before a second front was opened in the west at Normandy.

History tells us that the Russian people, with all resolution, summoned all human strength and resources to repel the Nazis, right down through the bloody battles of East Prussia and into Berlin.

Without that Russian sacrifice, Europe could never have been liberated from the west.

While the cause they fought for was evil, the German army of WW2 was probably the best army that’s ever existed — at least in modern times — and I salute them for it. And the Red Army beat them, and I salute them too.

(Link from Normblog)