It’s nothing more than speculation at this point, but at least a few people are getting excited about the potential for Google to buy the Ford plant in Saint Paul, which is slated to close in 2008. The hydroelectric dam provides a goodly amount of power, and the complex itself is fairly easily subdivisible and developable.

Google or no Google, the Twin Cities desperately need new datacenter space; the few we have are grossly overpriced, grossly overcrowded, or run by dangerously inept and short-sighted companies (Unisys). Getting some decent leasable datacenter space in the heart of the metro, and some decent network transit to go with it, would do wonders for local tech businesses, many of whom find it easier and cheaper to colocate machines in Chicago than having them nearer to hand.

The downside, obviously, is that the Ford plant not being abandoned inhibits the ability of local urban explorers to get in and photograph the place. Ah, well; considering some of the idiots that like to run around abandoned buildings around here, it’s probably for the best.

One of the interesting aspects of urban exploration is that it can happen pretty much anywhere people have left their mark on the world. Sure, you might be limited by an absence of actual steam tunnels and accessible sewers and drains in the middle of nowhere, but UE is enough things to enough people that, unlike, say, spelunking, the minimum requirements are quite easily met nearly everywhere.
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A decade ago, American and NATO forces in the Balkans working to broker lasting peace in that part of the world started coming across weapons whose model, design, markings, or age precluded their having come from regional military stock. From brand-new assault rifles, to the latest model of RPG to rocket launchers and everything between, new weapons were showing up in the hands of the various parties involved in the conflicts, despite embargos and similar restrictions.
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Mike, over at What Really Happened, in a breathless little bit of outrage, proclaims “The Iranian 81mm mortar page is a fake!”. His proof? Apparently incorrect WHOIS data, typographic errors (in English), and the IP address belonging to an Iranian college. Never mind it’s a government-run college with some very shady programs; that’s good enough for him to discount it as fake… and for Kurt Nimmo to retract his retraction.
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This, I feverently hoped, would be the final word I wrote on the “evidence” that’s been produced by the U.S. government, supposedly demonstrating Iran’s complicity in attacks on coalition forces in Iraq. Alas, I then had to point out that What Really Happened is wrong, again when they assert the Iranian website at the heart of the 81mm mortar flap is a forgery. Oh, well…
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