The Arsenal News Review reports Usmanov newest PR efforts: “On Tuesday, Alisher Usmanov flew the British press to Moscow in a private jet and put them up at the five-star Kempinski Hotel. An amazing stunt which many have dubbed a ‘charm offensive.’ The party of about 10 reporters included The Guardian (Matt Scott), The Daily Mail ( Charlie Sale),The Times (Matt Dickinson), The Sun (Shaun Custis), The Mirror (Martin Lipton), The Daily Telegraph (David Bond), the BBC (Richard Galpin) and The Independent (Jason Burt). The press conference at his Moscow HQ was widely reported on Wednesday morning but only Charlie Sale admitted they were all flown there in Usmanov’s Gulfstream 550.

I love Nuremberg. I do love Nuremberg. Though it has been voted to be the most boring city in Germany by Spiegel magazine several years ago. The author just has to have had made a mistake. Nuremberg is one of the most exciting, yet unboastful city with a lively and vibrant subculture, it even has a bigger alternative and autonomous scene than posh and tidy Munich, and of course, culturally hip Edinburgh. Maybe the poll editor just looked in the wrong places and looked for trendy, upper class clubs and discotheques of which they are few? The trick is that Nuremberg lies very close to two other major cities: Erlangen, where most of the shared university is located, and Fuerth, which is best known for its industry.

This weekend we enjoyed the Edinburgh Open Day [pictures], organised by the Cockburn Association. We were able to visit the inside of the HBOS headquarters, the Parliament House used for High Court, the Fire Museum, the Reid Concert Hall with the Collection of Musical Instruments and the historical “Caves” in South Niddrie Street, which are a part of Underbelly during the festival but historicaly were built under the South Bridges to store whisky, but they were a bit too damp, so they were just filled with rubble, mainly Oyster Shells. Unfortunately we did not manage to see the historical Drumsheugh Baths Club, mainly because we weren’t sure if we should bring swimsuit or not to the Open Day.

This morning I was suddenly astonished by a mass of links to my site. It seems the resistance against Alisher Usmanov started to link to my blog, too. It’s now more than 300 blogs which reproduce the initial blacklisted article or give background information on the events. Tim Ireland gives a timeline of events on Bloggerheads. Reads like a drama, maybe a new version of Macbeth or something. One of the interesting things is, that when the 2007 article was taken down, the lawyers seemed to focus on the 2005 article about the torture of Sanjar Umarov, leader of the Uzbek opposition Sunshine Coalition, and Craig Murray’s analysis of Alisher Usmanov’s involvement in the confinement and torture of this other oligarch?

The Magazine “Grow Your Own” has a very active Forum called “Grapevine”. They are running an online fruit and vegetable show with photographic entries allowed till 30th of September. They have some nice prices for winners, too. But what I like most about the Forum is the seed swap. I got some passionfruit seeds, apple cucumbers are on the way, purple kale and peanuts and cabbage seeds so far, and I sent away a bulk of sweet peas, nasturia seeds and shared some asparagus seeds and hot pepper Jalapeno with interested gardeners. The mix of seeds consists partly of shared commerical seed packets, as sometimes there are hundred of seeds in one packet when only few are needed.