Iran: US exit key to Iraq peace

US troops must leave Iraq if security is to be restored, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said during talks with the Iraqi president.

The instability of Iraq was detrimental to all countries in the region and the US had no hope of improving the situation, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

US army 'to suggest Iraq changes'

US military leaders are preparing to recommend changes in strategy on Iraq, America's top military officer says.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Peter Pace said commanders were having their own dialogue and would make the changes that were needed.

Why the hell to create a blog?

"Why the hell to create a blog?" was the question we posted in the Ovi Forum back in April 2005 after a number of our regular readers had encouraged us to start one. Most of the comments were negative, such as Bighairyfinn's "It gives you the 15 minutes of fame required to make the average egocentrist happy" and harryparry's end statement, "If there is something you want to write about or if you have opinions that you want to express, then start a blog. Otherwise, why bother?"

Well, 19 months later we have learnt for ourselves 'why the hell to create a blog' and we have gone one, no two, maybe three…many steps further by creating more than one Ovi blog and have even chosen 'Blogs' as the theme for the 17th PDF magazine released today. We understand 'why to bother' and we feel that we have something to say. Okay, we have a great deal to say about everything, but that is why you read Finland's opinionated daily magazine.

The Ovi team were reluctant to change our magazine into a blog because we believe that an online magazine has a different reputation to a blog. We don't consider magazines better than blogs, or vice-versa. Instead, we believe that when a reader arrives at a magazine they expect something different from the content and style, which wouldn't be found on the average blog.

We actually discovered the difference for ourselves in the form of a personal freedom. Maintaining our own personal blogs or the Ovi blogs allows us to write about events in an alternative style to the magazine articles. Why? We don't really know, but Ovi does encompass over 80 different writers and they all have their own opinions, so the Ovi team owe it to one another to maintain a professional style and approach. However, the blogs free us from these constraints and we can exercise our…cheekiness far more.

Today, Thanos launches another three personal blogs in addition to his existing god-knows-how-many. We have a suspicion here that when he has created his 52nd blog he will create the Thanos Blog Playing Card Series - each card has the front page of one of his blogs. Anyway, one of the blogs launched today is written in twisted Athenian slang and another features tales, such as fairytales and other children's stories, so check those out.

Blogger and WordPress may dominate the blogosphere, but Asa has been experimenting with MySpace and he gets a secret thrill with every 'So-and-so wants to be your friend' message, while many of our readers also maintain their own blogs. How do we know? Well, they actively support and promote Ovi magazine via their pages, add us to their Blogrolls and pester fellow bloggers to do the same. They have also gently guided us through the rocky blog landscape, pointing out the dangers and being supportive, which is the other reason for our decision to choose 'Blogs' as our PDF theme: We wanted to say, "Thank you!"

The new PDF has become a landmark issue for the Ovi team. The reason for such a long gap between our 'Copycats' PDF and issue #17 is due to the desire of implementing a number of fresh ideas into its pages. You will spot some of them immediately and the others will merely soak into your unconscious because Thanos has performed some minor miracles with the style and overall feel of the layout, but you should look for yourself because we are a little biased.

PDF Issue #17 is full of articles about blogs, bloggers and blogging, plus a couple about podcasts and other web-related content, plus cartoons, jokes and other Ovi nuances that you have come to love. The first-timers are the luckiest of all because you have no idea what to expect, which is something that we often envy.

In case you don't know, the Ovi PDF is free to download and read. There are no catches to downloading the PDF; you don't need to register, you don't need to sacrifice your firstborn, you don't even need to say, 'Please!' A computer, net connection and a PDF reader go without saying, but you can always ask a friend to do it for you.

In April 2005, we began a long journey of discovery and today we are confident that we could satisfactorily answer our own forum question: "Why the hell to create a blog?" Could you?