[the viper inside] pre-emptive paranoia alive and well

Yeah, right, Mr. McNab. How did you ever get inside as a church mentor in the first place?

Don't answer that.

Brits of a certain age will also recall David Jenkins and his 'conjuring trick with bones' statement and there is a healthy [?] tradition of clerics worming their way into positions of influence within the church and then doing dirt on it.

Why would a national newspaper choose to run a giant poster like yesterdays' in prime position on the front page and run this guff as front page news?

Why would a modern newspaper choose to run a denunciation when there had been no positive assertion otherwise which had grabbed the popular imagination and needed counteracting in the first place ?

These pre-emptive denunciations have a history too.

The Dome on the Rock, in its Inner Octagonal Arcade, [then stressed twice in the Outer Octagonal just for good measure], assures the world that Jesus of Nazareth is in no way divine.

Why? Why would they even bother?

Why wouldn't they just lay out their own stall and let it go at that? Why, today, would anyone bother decrying a religion which is supposedly down on its knees and virtually snuffed out? Why does Christmas need to be renamed by the paranoid when it is just a historic tradition with little modern relevance to its roots, according to the renamers? If multiculturalism is the reason, then surely this festival takes its place as one of the many under the tolerant umbrella of relativism?

Why bother pro-actively discriminating against this particular one? And a second question: 'How scholastically honest is it to do so?' And why would a university administration go into a Christian chapel, remove and lock away a cross, declaring the chapel open to all religions?

Do you detect a whiff of obsession with these people? What is it that they actually fear?

[british airports authority] interesting decision

Interesting priorities, in that BAA chose to keep Stansted and let the others go.

Assuming that they are not complete idiots, that they have their own forward planning and no doubt have inside info on government forward planning and realizing they had to sell off any two of the three, then why would they release the multi-billion pound Gatwick, first particularly as the DfT said:

We do not support options for two or three new runways at Stansted.

Any ideas?

[charisma] is it calculated or natural

The prettiest picture I could find of Mata Hari

Mata Hari illustrated two things, as far as I can see:

1. how people whom you would not actually describe as 'beautiful' can carry themselves in such a way that they 'create' charisma and an air of mystery [the French are masters of this], as distinct from being natural charismatic as people;

2. that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Anne Boleyn [forgive me for not using the other spelling] was also counted not beautiful and yet she had enough to keep the red-blooded Henry sufficiently enthralled but out of her bed for around seven years. How many more, both men and women, could be counted in that category? Would you put Groucho Marx in there?

I suspect there's a lot of arrogance and 'lack of caring beneath the caring' in many charismatic people and they tend to polarize opinion. On the other hand, just the simple character trait of being interested in and caring for others [and I hold up my mother in this category] illustrates the point well. Pity you never got to know her though undoubtedly yours was also the goods.

I wonder how much of a role a smile plays. McDonalds seems to think it's pretty important.

A detractor made the comment on an earlier post that, 'Really, it's being such a cynic that keeps you happy, isn't it? The thing about being in a down time is to remember it is not everyone's fault, may not be yours, may be no one's at all!'

Well no, cynicism doesn't keep a person happy - quite the opposite. She was right, however, in the sense that a positive outlook itself is more pleasant for all around and that's what I think she was driving at. Which brings us to the next point.

People prefer other people to have cheery countenances 24/7 and the vacuum created by current social conditions means that there is a premium on a smile and a person with one [though not a permasmile] is more likely to do well. That, in a way, is a form of charisma by default.

[odd one out] and why

Answer:

They're all from London except Jane Seymour, who came from a little further out and calls it Middlesex.

[the myth of multi-tasking] inefficient and shallow

How To Shower - Men Vs Women - The most popular videos are here

Gender differences?

My friend here has a theory that no one actually "multi-tasks" - he or she is "time-slicing", i.e. creating a timetable mosaic of filled in spaces.

Whilst many agree that women do this better than men, there are downsides to it, e.g.:

An example of a negative impact that divided attention or multitasking can cause is when someone’s attention is stretched as in “divided attention,” memory is negatively affected. Psychologist John Arden (2002) writes in his book about theories on multitasking that “Multitasking decreases your memory ability.” He also claims that for every new task that you take on “you dilute your investment in each task.” (Arden, 2002)

Also, it's a myth that it is more efficient:

Dr. David Meyer, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, claims that multitasking can actually slow you down (Seven, 2004). He says that through research he has discovered that the more complex activities a person takes on, the more time it actually takes in the long run. His point is in agreement with Arden’s (2002) written views. Again, when you take on multiple tasks, you cannot perform them all at an optimum level. Meyer is also in agreement with Arden that when you are multitasking too much, you can experience short-term memory problems or difficulty concentrating.

... and:

Dr. Glenn Wilson (2005) recently performed a study for Hewlett Packard to explore the productivity of multitasking. What he discovered is astonishing. The average worker’s functioning IQ, a temporary qualitative state, drops 10 points when multitasking. That is more than double the four point drop that occurs when someone smokes marijuana.

As for the gender difference:

Dr. Marcel Just, Director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University agrees with Meyer. His studies on brain mapping, with participants between the ages of 18 and 32, show that women only score higher when asked to listen to two things at the same time (Just, 2001).

I like the vertical, linear model. Whilst every effort is made to fill each space with effect energy usage, as my friend says, you can only do one thing at a time. When you split your attention to concentrate on another thing, even for a short time, the divided attention dilemma comes in.

He points out that it depends on the task.

When putting the spuds in to cook, it's pointless sitting watching them, so you do another task. Well, that's agreed but time is still linear. I was thinking more of the general manager walking along with his entourage, with people coming at him, left, right and centre, to whom he replies in shotgun, staccato fashion.

I'd like to do a time and motion study on him to see just how efficient he is overall. There is the little matter of the depreciation in the quality of his attention due to the constant switching, no matter how second nature it becomes.

Certainly there are tasks which can run themselves and so you spread your attention over different fields but in the end, it is still linear, time.

Is it a myth to say that multi-tasking is more efficient and it's certainly not more in-depth? Is it also a myth that women do it significantly better? There is a definite psychological mindset [of which women have only a part stake in the territory] in which the person sees him/herself as more effective if doing things this way. It's like a self-reassurance he/she wants those who matter to share.

At this point, the whole shebang is brought to a shuddering halt by observation, i.e. in the workplace, women DO seem to perform multiple tasks better. Why? If you accept the psychological test results, then there has to be another reason.

My friend comes up with a reason - women are more interested in doing it this way, therefore they've had tons of practice, therefore they do it better. Put her on a rugby field with it's intricate plays and would she do as well? Put her on a dance floor and she'll most certainly drop into her rhythm as if it's second nature, which it is.

Another thing to look at is exactly which tasks she is actually multi-tasking - how demanding is each and how in-depth is each? How much lateral thinking is required?

In the end, one would have to conclude that the gender differences in this are minor but the differences in life stories, interests and what has been practised so far may be immense. These are erroneously construed, by many, as gender differences.

[the power of people] separate yet together

Firstly, Ordo asks today:

Are we seeing the beginning of another Great Depression?

We're certainly on the brink of one, but whether we totter over the edge or not depends on how world governments respond to the current financial crisis. Unfortunately, nobody really has a clue what to do.

Martin Kelly has similar thoughts.

Ordo, I see it, not as being dependent on what governments do but on what WE do, as people. Guthrum's and Wat Tyler's piece touch on the matter and David Farrer quotes Vox Day:

This isn't a failure of free market capitalism. It's precisely the opposite, it's the failure of government-controlled faux market capitalism.

An example of good intervention, on the other hand, is the way that a threatened blogger can be supported. Read Alwyn's piece on this:

Last year there was a blog consensus that the blogosphere would stand up to rich people trying to bully individual bloggers when Asmanov went after Bloggerheads, where is that blog support for Kez [Kezia Duggdale ]?

There are other issues as well, such as social engineering [read Richard Havers on this] and people out there who can put things so much better in one paragraph than I can in five strung out posts, such as:

Ultimately a Fabian State will be a “Failed State”, under UN current definitions, given the administration costs associated with a deliberately destabilised civil society, and the absence of industry and jobs resulting from a high taxation bureaucratic regime that administers lorry-loads of “sand” to the economic “cogs”. The nature of this failed state must necessarily be militaristic.

Here is another beauty:

Incompetent state structures have been put in place, at monumental expense, to substitute for the State Destroyed structures, those of the “family”, primarily, and continue to grow their legal mandate for ever more state intrusion into the personal lives of the citizens, all in the name of social cohesion, which the Fabian thought processes have set out to, and succeeded in, destroying/undermining in the first place.

Anon now waxes lyrical but also to the point:

Imagine that, like some kind of science fiction dictator, you intended to rule the world. You would probably have pinned over your desk a list something like this:

[1] Eliminate personal knowledge.
Make it hard for people to know about themselves, how they function, what a human being is, or how a human fits into wider, natural systems. This will make it, impossible for the human to separate natural from artificial, real from unreal. You provide the answers to all questions.

[2] Eliminate points of comparison.
Comparisons can be found in earlier societies, older language forms and cultural artefacts, including print media. Eliminate or museumize indigenous cultures, wilderness and nonhuman life forms. Re-create internal human experience—instincts, thoughts, and spontaneous, varied feelings—so that it will not evoke the past.

[3] Separate people from each other.
Reduce interpersonal communication through life-styles that emphasise separateness. When people gather together, be sure it is for a prearranged experience that occupies all their attention at once. Spectator sports are excellent, so are circuses, elections, and any spectacles in which focus is outward and interpersonal exchange is subordinated to mass experience.

[4] Unify experience, especially encouraging mental experience at the expense of sensory experience.
Separate people's minds from their bodies, idealise the mind. Sensory experience cannot be eliminated totally, so it should be driven into narrow areas. An emphasis on sex as opposed to sense may be useful because it is powerful enough to pass for the whole thing and it has a placebo effect.

[5] Occupy the mind.
Once people are isolated in their minds, fill the brain with prearranged experience and thought. Content is less important than the fact of the mind being filled. Free-roaming thought is to be discouraged at all costs, because it is difficult to control.

[6] Encourage drug use.
Recognise that total repression is impossible and so expressions of revolt must be contained on the personal level. Drugs will fill in the cracks of dissatisfaction, making people unresponsive to organised expressions of resistance.

[7] Centralise knowledge and information.
Having isolated people from each other and minds from bodies - at this point whatever comes from outside will enter directly into all brains at the same time with great power and believability.

[8] Redefine happiness and the meaning of life in terms of new and increasingly uprooted philosophy.
Anything makes sense in a void. Formal mind structuring is simple. Most important, avoid naturalistic philosophies; they lead to uncontrollable awareness. An emphasis on sex as opposed to sense may be useful because it is powerful enough to pass for the whole thing and it has a placebo effect.

They may well be the Statist's Standing Orders but in Britain, say, there is also a strong innate, quiet determination within the indigenous people to passively resist this seemingly all-powerful push and ultimately one has to believe that the human being will win out and here's where I part from my humanistic brothers in that I firmly believe in that biblical expression 'ye are gods'.

This expression does not say, IMHO, that each of us is an island in him/herself but rather that there is a bit of the deity in each of us, connected to the whole and unable to exist on its own, just as the hand or foot cannot exist without the rest of the body and mind. I believe that that is what caused all the trouble way back when it was discovered what G-d was up to - recreating really good things in a package called Man.

I believe the primary purpose of a certain force I nether fully understand nor wish to understand was to separate man from his higher self, to bestialize him, to do dirt on him and this force has legions of accolytes because it is the province of the weak-willed, the ones who prefer the easy solution and are attracted by bells and whistles.

That explains a lot, such as why Man sees himself as controlling his destiny when he can't, why he sees himself at the centre of his universe, when he's not, why he destroys so easily but can only build under certain circumstances. We don't like to see ourselves as mere cogs in the machine but people like the Australian aborigines find no problem in that, in being at one with the whole of nature. We don't like to see ourselves as the star's tennis balls, do we?

Why are we satisfied with staying in our little boxes and not relating neighbour to neighbour? Get down to specifics and look at WW2 or any other conflict where the people have ultimately won out, [only to go under again].

Right here is where some of us part ways, I suppose.

The socialist construct is that social cohesion, being such a powerful force, is best served by mindless Socialism, as Anon described above, of forcing people to combine in ultimately unproductive and inefficient ventures, whilst killing off incentive.

Some of us, though, point to two things:

1. the silent [divine?] power which is produced when humans combine for good purposes, such power, by definition, only operating well when it is free of constraints and yokes and is a voluntary combining of individual powers;

2. the vital importance in humans being able to pursue personal goals in an atmosphere which encourages that and supports it without applying constraints. So if you've worked all your life for certain things, the politics of envy is abandoned. Rather than glance enviously across at our neighbour, we try to do well ourselves and find people are willing to help people who try to help themselves.

The State is powerful and creates it's own new autocratic entity to sustain itself but the divinity inside people who combine for good always ultimately wins out, though at a terrible cost.

Phew! [What did I just have for breakfast?]

[are we going mental] it’s going global

According to this article, mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders and depression are common and under-treated in many developed and developing countries, with the highest rate found in the United States, according to a study of 14 countries.

Five illnesses I'd really not like to have are:

1. In Micropsia. objects are perceived by the sufferer as being much smaller than what they actually are in reality. For example, your pet dog appears the size of small mouse.

2. G. M Beard in 1878 observed that, when given a sudden command in a loud enough voice some individuals will carry out that command instantly and without a thought, even if you tell them to hit out a loved one.

3. People may believe that they have lost parts of their bodies or even their souls and some might go as far as to really believe that they are already dead and are indeed a walking corpse.

4. Where one hand appears to take on a personality all of its own and acts in such a way that is completely out of control, the alien hand may unbutton shirts or remove clothing whilst the other hand is trying to button up or get dressed.

5. Some people experience their external genitals shrinking or disappearing, especially when caused by cold water or cold weather, putting it down to wicked gods.

I have a theory that we're all mentally ill to a certain extent, in the same way that there are degrees of homosexuality and heterosexuality in each individual. Most of us might accept the epithet "eccentric" but would take it a bit amiss being labelled "left field".

Some of the most sane-seeming, e.g. the people in charge up there ... well ... least said the better. Sociopaths are easier to spot and there are checklists about on the net. I have an article that most bosses are mentally ill but that might be stretching it a bit.

And those who claim to be thoroughly sane ... methinks they possibly protesteth too much.

Lastly, there does seem, to me, to be an increase in "brittleness" and "strangeness" in little ways with many people across society, this maybe stemming from stress in today's society.

[consider sicily] an alternative break

From Welshcakes and I thoroughly endorse this:

LEARN ITALIAN IN SICILY - 2

I [Welshcakes, that is] am posting this on behalf of the English International School in Modica.

Since I last wrote about the School's services, we have received many enquiries regarding our prices, the cost of accommodation, transport and so on. I hope that the following information will be helpful:

ITALIAN COURSES FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES
The School offers individual, semi-individual [2 students] and group courses and can tailor a course to your needs. All teachers are mother tongue.

We organise our courses according to the level of students' knowledge of Italian: elementary, intermediate or advanced.

Courses last a minimum of one week (Monday to Friday) but we can extend the number of weeks at students' request.

Course structure
Semi-standard [2 hours per day]
Standard [4 hours per day]
Intensive [6 hours per day]

We can also organise personalised courses for students enrolling for individual lessons: students can decide, with the teacher, how many hours and how many days of tuition they require during the week. Students who enrol for semi-individual or group courses can also request some individual lessons to clarify certain points or for extra practice.

Lesson content
Conversation
Grammar
Lexis
Idioms
Analysis and comprehension of descriptive, narrative and poetic texts where appropriate.
Italian and Sicilian traditions and customs.

Students will also be able to see some Italian films and plays.

On request we will organise excursions so that students can see some of the architectural and natural wonders of Sicily, such as the Baroque heritage of the Val di Noto, the nature reserve at Vendicari, Greek monuments at Syracuse and Agrigento and those of the Arab-Norman period in Palermo.

Course fees
There is an enrolment fee ( which also covers the cost of course materials) of € 50 for all courses.

Fees for a one -hour lesson
Individual - € 25
Semi-individual - € 15
Group - € 10

Fees for one week of individual tuition
Semi-standard course [2 hours per day] - € 225
Standard course [4 hours per day] - € 500
Intensive course [6 hours per day] - € 750

Fees for one week of semi-individual tuition [2 students]
Semi-standard course [2 hours per day] - € 150
Standard course [4 hours per day] - € 300
Intensive course [6 hours per day] - € 525

Fees for one week of group tuition
Semi-standard course [2 hours per day] - € 100
Standard course [4 hours per day] - € 200
Intensive course [6 hours per day] - € 350

These prices do not include excursions, cinema or theatre tickets.

Booking procedure

The € 50 enrolment fee is payable upon registering for the course. The balance must be paid, by bank transfer, 3 weeks before your course commences.

GETTING TO MODICA
To get to Modica you need to fly into Fontanarossa Airport, Catania as Palermo is a 4- hour bus journey away. Direct flights are operated from the UK and you can also fly to Catania from Rome, Milan or Pisa. From the airport the AST company operates an efficient and direct bus service to Modica. A taxi to Modica for up to 3 people would cost € 130, whilst a minibus for 6 people would cost € 160 [prices valid until 31.12.08].

ACCOMMODATION
Here are 2 examples of bed and breakfast prices in Modica: Bed and breakfast at the Luna Blu, in historic Modica Bassa would cost € 25 per person per night. Bed and breakfast at The Garden, Modica [within walking distance of the School] would cost € 40 - 50 per person per night. It is also possible to rent a modern, self-catering apartment for 2 people in Modica Bassa from € 25 per person per night.

CAR HIRE
You can find information about car hire and other services in Modica here.

CONTACT US
Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Contact: Catherine Ciancio, Director of Studies
Tel: +39 0932456613
Fax: +39 0932456613
Email: english_int.school@virgilio.it

[luvverly day] the day we went to the dvla

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
I'm off to the ^&*$£()*ing DVLA

Yep, Higham is off on another identity-establishing jaunt today to a far flung town, finding his way around said town, wading his way through conflicting statements on multiple guidance leaflets and helpline advice, buying a cripplingly expensive lunch and then tackling the transport system [especially the return without any identity documents which will have been left at the DVLA for loss and later retrieval], before eventually arriving back here .

The real joke though is that he thinks he can also encompass taking his specimen to the local doctor, as per request and registering at another local employment office, minus the requisite documents, all on the one day.

But the joke's on them because I've already lost most of my hair so I can't lose much more.

LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE

Well, what fun that was. The DVLA itself was not really a problem but that is a problem in itself in that no real questions or issues were raised which I could imagine there might have been. Thought I'd ask the lady about the rumour that the DVLA lost passports and things and she said, 'Oh not that much really.'

The smile froze on my face.

Later, seeking employment, the usual status issues arose but hopefully that'll be sorted out tomorrow. 'Oh, we don't get many of those over here,' she said, meaning people who've been gallivanting round the world. 'Yer well travelled then, aren't ye?'

Hopefully that's not held against me when we get down to the nitty gritty.

The return bus ride took us by the scenic route so that was nice too. Luvverly day?

[scanner] horror movie coming to you soon

US airports Los Angeles, New York's JFK, Baltimore-Washington, Denver, Albuquerque, Ronald Reagan Washington, Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix Sky-Harbour, Washington Dulles and Las Vegas are now employing whole body scan technology on randomly selected passengers:

Unlike the puffer machines, which blast a person with air, then vacuum the particles and scan them for traces of explosives, the body-imaging machines use millimetre waves. A passenger steps into the machine and remains still for a few seconds, while the technology creates a three-dimensional image of the passenger from two antennas that simultaneously rotate around the body.

Millimetre waves use electromagnetic waves to generate an image based on the energy reflected from the body, creating a robotic image. The energy emitted is 10,000 times less than that of a cell phone, the TSA said.

They're scheduled for introduction at other US airports and it is probably a question of time until they enter the UK.

My question is: 'Is overseas travel the fun experience we like to delude ourselves it once was [ignoring transfer problems, hotels not up to scratch, being shunted into a tourist zone with all the others, interesting breakfast arrangements at the hotels, food hygiene and hotel building construction issues, pool hazards et al]?"

Could "the authorities", from the initial document renewal and submission phase through to the insurance lodgment for compensation phase later, be trying to give us a simple message:

"Much better to stay home and be a good little boy or girl?"

[the local rag] do you think they do it deliberately

Local rags can be highly entertaining, as well as providing SFA, jobwise.

Nevertheless, the question does arise as to whether the sub-editors are naive or naughty. A headline like "Towpath Revamp" only causes a snigger about its provincialism but "Two Cars Gutted" is more promising. Can't you imagine them being one number off a lottery win and totally gutted about that?

Or "Woman Flees Fire" on the left page and tucked down low on the right page - "Man Burnt in Housefire".

I also love "Pains After Crash". Well ... er ... yes, suppose there were.

How about "Appeal to Find Friendly Labrador"? In our area, presumably, they're all savage killers, the labradors.

"Pastors on Patrol" reminds me of Hell's Grannies and "Irish Send Fast Filly to Feature in Festival" is too lyrical to be anything but an alliterate contrivance.

However, my favourite has to be the feature piece, "Forensic Evidence of Students' Work", which sports a large photo of five students, in full forensic scientist uniforms, sifting through the undergrowth in search of any work they might have done.

Local rags are the goods and cheaper too by a long shot.

[britain today] viewed through jaundiced eyes

Credit debt fuels all this and people pretend this is quality of life.

Having only just returned some weeks ago, it's nevertheless been interesting to observe differences and similarities to the last time. Some things I took as read are just not as bad as they are painted and there have also been some nasty surprises.

First up is that almost anyone [except those with specific strikes against their names] can work if they are human enough and want to. There is a labour office downtown here, I was in there and I could be working in a factory or shop tomorrow, for a bit above the minimum wage. Without a base, that doesn't help me, as it would not cover a flat rental, even if one could get it but it is OK if you had a place already and really needed the money.

Going one rung higher, wage wise, is adult education or tutoring. This brings in CRB checks and though these are not a real worry, the lack of any history over the past few years is. At least, there is a well-documented history in my case but an unwillingness for British officialdom to accept that there is what there is.

Costs are the killer. Last time I was back, they weren't good but they seem to have gone through the stratosphere now. This puts any but the most perfunctory travel or basic food right out of the window. So this, in turn, means that unless you are well heeled, in which case you can travel the country at will, seeking your perfect role, you are stuck in one place and seeking work locally.

The perceived solution, although I do believe that the Brit knows it is no solution, is the credit card, without which you might as well be a non-person in this society.

There is very much a three tier society now - the Brownite level with their world travel and bizarre lifestyle [compared to the average Brit], the reasonably well-off with their house, cars, work and the ability to move round Britain and take holidays and then there are us.

To really fall into the dole-check, scratching an existence together life is not one anyone wants but make no mistake - we can fall into that quite quickly through a conjunction of dire circumstances. Readers of this blog are generally the middle category who have not been looking for their next tin of dogfood to survive but some correspondents to my email have been there and not so long ago.

This is frightening and to keep one's nerve is what it's all about, at a time when that is the last thing it seems possible to do. One thing I do know - that the average person I speak with is not a happy chappy about what's happening in the society and very soon, something's going to give and middle Britain is going to react quite savagely, perhaps in a way it has not done before.

I have an interesting article by Brian Walden about the war years but that was still a relatively compliant population. I think those who see us as sheep, as we've always been sheep in their eyes, are in for a rude awakening. Frodo's return to Bag End seems to be the coming scenario.

Yet the parks are still there, mums and dads bring toddlers to play on the swings, the land looks green and pleasant, the weather is not nearly as bad as many think [one can rug up], ASDA, Aldi and others have great prices which make life possible and they're not always miles from town, requiring a car. Bus rides are cripplingly expensive and the roads are clogged.

So the verdict is 50-50 at this time.

[poll interim report] still open, by the way

The poll on this blog is not over but the trends are pretty clear and the overall feeling I get is that people are happy with it as it is, give or take certain things. The results came out like this:

1. There was a strong feeling that I keep the site layout as it is but clean it up a bit. This latter was particularly a need for IE users, for whom lines were all over the place and text too wide;

2. Navigation seems fine but WTF [said one commenter] is Engine Room? ☺ Think I’d best change this;

3. Navigation to the left and fiddly bits to the right was strongly approved;

4. Graphics – not bad now but no lower resolution please and one person suggested keeping them all to one side [shan’t do that];

5. Articles - in depth are all right but not too many, as people won’t read them. Don’t go the route of lazy, small, heavily linked one liners – people want some sort of blogger input. The bulk should be medium length pieces if possible;

6. Content coverage was about right except for quirky pieces and observations which people wanted far more of. One commenter said, ‘I think you are best talking about life and your impressions of it and being a citizen of the blogging world.’

Well, all right. Other than that, people wanted to see slightly less NA, Middle- East, and Oceania politics, global crises, economics, polls and surveys and quizzes. Some wanted more 'identity changes' via the profile and some wanted me not to keep changing the blog all the time.

I’d like to thank everyone so far [hope there’ll be some more responses] and it has definitely made me re-evaluate and tweak. While certain people said that it was my blog and I could do whatever I damn well liked with it, I’m a person who couldn’t be bothered blogging into the night if no one wants what I offer.

This is a discussion point, really – whether we publish and be damned or whether we take into account our readership.

[sitemeter] if it ain't broke, don't fix it

Exceedingly peeved by Sitemeter and it illustrates the veracity of a basic rule of life:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Sitemeter once had a viewable, clear graphic representation of what the blogger needed. I always looked at the bar graph of how many uniques there'd been the last week, then the list of referrals to see if there was someone I'd missed visiting, then country share.

Quick, clear, taking a minute or two.

Now thay've gone all techartyfarty, with slick gunmetal boxes too small to view, superimposed stats and a distinctly cold feel to it all. They couldn't leave well enough alone, Sitemeter. In the name of Ever Onwards and Upwards, they've blown it like Brown's government. It seems whatever such people touch, they ruin.

This does not even take into account the difficulty in 'migrating', as they call it, failing to recognize passwords and emails and so on and so on.

Not good enough, Sitemeter and as I put in my contact with you just now, seriously thinking of moving to another meter service after all this time with you.

[breakfast] do you believe me

[bikinis] and governing bodies

Fabrizio Rossini, press officer for the Federation Internationale de Volleyball, which officially governs Olympic volleyball, said most female beach volleyball players prefer the bikinis. "It's a very tough sport."

Olympic bronze medallist Holly McPeak, 39, said about one piece costumes: "When you dive, the sand goes down the top and collects in the bottom."

My question is more about why the French get to run international sport in the first place - Fédération Internationale de Football Association, Fédération Internationale de Basketball, Union Cycliste Internationale, Fédération Équestre Internationale, Fédération Internationale d'Escrime, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Aviron, Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne, Fédération internationale de Natation, Fédération Internationale de Volleyball and the Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées, before we even start looking at winter sport.

I mean, who appointed them? Did we all say, "Go ahead, Pierre - we can't set up governing bodies ourselves," and then let them go ahead and institute them? The Americans are known for turning any championships in the U.S.A. into World Championships but the French seem to have this penchant for setting up governing bodies.

[supper] just add sausages or corned beef

[guilty] or not guilty

The task is simple, the answers not so simple. Not a quiz but an opinion poll. The question is:

Were these people really guilty or not?

casino - rascasinos.com

casino en ligne - dkaplan

casino - rascasinos.com

ras casino spiele

casino en ligne - dkaplan

casino - rascasinos.com

ras casino spiele

Click on either the yes or no in each case.

Rocky and the Rainbow Bridge

Rocky and the Rainbow Bridge

"I've larked about with Rocky lots of times in the park and he's fab! We chase each other and have a ball... I'm glad he's not off to Rainbow Bridge just yet... I'd miss him!
Jezbo, Hull
commented on 12-Sep-2008 11:41".

I Googled the Rainbow Bridge and found this enchanting poem.


The Rainbow Bridge (audio and visual version).

[trips abroad] fraught business today

I used to run holidays for our school groups in the 90s and it's clear the situation has changed:

A statement on the XL group's website said: "The company's entered into administration having suffered as a result of volatile fuel prices, the economic downturn, and were unable to obtain further funding."

Bob Atkinson, of the price comparison website Travel Supermarket said XL's troubles would be a blow for the travel trade. He said: "They are a very large operator and this will send serious shock waves through the industry."

When I was involved in a lot of travel, Britain was known for its many tour firms which catered for schools, as well as the "bucket shops" where one could find a good flight to Australia for £650, as against the major airlines' £1950. All this appears to have gone by the board now.

Operators still seem to be in business and the prices look quite reasonable, all told but there is difficulties these days, including safety and litigation.

The Norfolk Blogger ran a piece on this in 2006, giving some sound reasons why teachers just won't touch these trips any more. In addition, there is the nature of the teenager in the school now and the changing culture in which he/she is growing up. The IPPR report was given the Daily Mail treatment but much of it still holds water.

Incidents I recall from two trips in the past:

There was a primary age child in our party and she was skiing towards the base of the hill where the piste narrowed to a little footbridge. The way we worked it was that one leader would ski up and down any hill where we knew our kids were and this gave them some freedom of movement but not a lot.

On this particular afternoon, I was just approaching her from further up the hill, shouting for her to get off the bridge, when two Germans [as we found out later] shot past and went straight across that bridge, knocking the girl over the parapet, into the shallow gully. She and I were lucky in that she was a tough little lady and it was the shock more than anything but still - it illustrates the problem.

Another was when one of our leaders who lacked confidence agreed to go down a blue slope with me and it was a case of snowploughing ahead of her, then stopping and waiting for her to ski across, then turning and repeating to the other side and so on. She became progressively happier about it as she went and so it continued until suddenly she lost all confidence, her skis turned down the hill, she panicked and took a tumble, falling awkwardly and injuring her leg, which put her out of the trip. This put a dampener on everything.

Imagine that today.

[survey] please answer six questions

You might notice the survey of this blog at the top of the left sidebar, with the pic of the puzzled chap.

Please, if you can spare a few minutes [and some have already done so] take the time to click answers to the six multiple choice questions. There is a panel to comment as well if you wish.

This would help me immensely and I notice that the last one I ran was a year ago now, so time flies.

[911] remembered

[thought for the day] thursday evening

Courtesy of Bob G:

"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."

[G.K. Chesterton]

[ethnicity] the extremes of the food spectrum

Ethnicity is an interesting concept. Seems to me it's more of a sliding scale than a finite division - more like one of those colour spectra you get in net programmes where there is a circle of varying colours but all tend to the same colour towards the middle, whereas at the extremities they are very pronounced indeed.

You can apply this to accents. My accent is a mix of ethnicities but tends to the centre, not being extreme one way or the other, whereas my father's was distinctly Yorkshire and never changed over the years.

Similar thing with food tastes. Most of us have international tastes but when we get into the extremes of each country, it takes some getting used to. Escargots spring to mind, as do Australian witchety grubs. The British aren't exempt from extremities when you find the following atrocities being eaten:

1. Black pudding - sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.

2. White pudding - similar to black pudding, but does not include blood. Consequently, it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of a large sausage.

3. Haggis - sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.

4. Whitebait - Whitebait are tender and edible. The entire fish is eaten including head, fins and gut but typically each 'bait' is only 25-50 mm in length and about 3 mm in cross section.

The nauseating part of the last one is that you eat the head 'n all. Ugggh! Other things to gag on are oysters, calamari and all other slimy or offal type foods.

Hope you're not reading this around dinner time.

[virginity] a market commodity

Concerning this girl who is auctioning her virginity:

The woman, who has earned a bachelor degree in women's studies and now wants to start a master's degree in marriage and family therapy, is hoping the bidding will hit $1 million.

Marriage and family therapy? Hmmm. Also, who would pay that sort of cash in the first place in a supply soaked market? And lastly - though I took a basic course in Female Anatomy 101, I wonder how she plans to establish ... well ... if she ... well ... best leave this now.

Think I'll offer up my virginity for £99.99.

Any takers?

[invest] in the merry-go-round

Think I converted mine just in time.

And yet there is this.

What should one invest in if one had more than a hundred or two?

[lhc] to serve man ... a cookbook

Been on the first jog around the blogs today and certain things became apparent in the public and blogger perception of the non-event.

May I put it this way?

If I had a multi-billion project under way and public perception was a very large factor in its continuation, if I had quite a few round table partners and they had certain expectations of a return on their investment, if I had subscribed, long ago, to a game plan for Europe and beyond, along with many others, then I'd manage the release of the information to the press through carefully selected channels.

Where I couldn't control this, I'd make sure the project began inauspiciously, innocuously, just a zap around the complex and no doomsday whatsoever. The more ambitious parts of the project would perhaps not form part of the press releases to my more sympathetic journalists and media icons and would not be scheduled for some weeks.

This would be a very cynical approach, I confess, relying, as it does, on the first premise that "if it hasn't happened today, it ain't gonna happen" and on the second premise that "the public needs its news here and now, after which it loses interest".

Of course there is no cynicism in this project whatsoever, just good old science and altruism. It's all to serve man.

[thermopylae] near naked men with swords

Just finished watching "300" and decided to do a Gracchi here. Now I realize this battle has been much on your minds lately so it's time to rush you the post-mortem.

You know, of course, that the Chili Con Carne Festival had almost cost the Battle of Marathon, when the Spartans couldn't leave home and arrived late and now, when Xanadu decided to try his luck one more time by building some ridiculous bridge called Hell's Pont, which he then ordered beaten with sticks, the Spartans were forbidden to travel and so the free world had a little problem on its hands.

Not to worry.

King Leonardo [da Vinci] gathered a bodyguard of 300 interestingly dressed men and had a cunning plan. He'd defend the pass of Thermalundies, which was only 20 men wide and so could rest his rear end and generally get into the blood, gore and slaughter thing up front, piling the Persian bodies sky high in a wall.
Nice people.

They fought really well, the Geeks, forming their shields into a Phallus and preventing the assault from hurting them but then the deformed Eponymous Tracheotomy betrayed them to Xanadu by showing him a back passage behind the Geeks and that was the end of the ball game.

The Geeks did go down after that, initially at least but Xanadu who, as a God-warrior king-type, proved himself no sailor, lost his fleet and the conquest of Europe was over.

There were some great lines in this saga and an awful lot of rhetoric. When Leonardo was asked by his wife the Gorgon what she should do while he was away, he said, "Marry a good man," and when asked to lay down his arms, he answered, "Come and get them." When told that the Persian arrows would "block out the sun", he answered, "we shall fight in the shade."

You have to admire his sense of humour really.

Pot of chili sauce for the Con Carne Festival

[prosecuted] for saving a life

You're probably sick to death of reading of the latest bureaucratic turn of the screw but we were talking about getting authorization and clearance for this and that.

Currently renewing my driving licence and doing other little ID things, we were discussing a hypothetical question of what you'd do if you were not certified in a critical situation, e.g. a Health and Safety issue.

There was a real case, some time back, of an ambulance driver in this situation and this one about the coastguard is getting closer and this one is even even closer but this is the scenario we were thinking of:

Imagine you were at your local swimming baths and a regular swimmer sees a child in difficulty at the bottom of the pool. There are a handful of locals around but the pool attendant is up the stairs at this second and as the swimmer knows, pools are noisy and the attendant is out of range. The swimmer is not technically qualified [lifesaving certificate long out of date] but he realizes that the action needs to be fast.

He gets the nearest person to go [walking, not running] and get the attendant, he calls out if anyone's a qualified lifesaver but no one's listening, of course. He jumps in and remembering his lifesaving drill when he was a kid, he manages to get her up to the surface, just as the pool attendant takes over.

He's prosecuted for assuming duties he's no longer qualified for and has to face up to the local magistrate.

Would you have dived in like that or would you have done it differently?

[middle-east update] a peace of sorts

Just to bring us up to speed on the Middle-East, the most recent news I could get was August 26th:

Occasional rocket attacks from the Palestinian enclave, controlled by radical group Hamas, have continued despite a ceasefire agreed on in June. Israel usually responds by shutting border crossings with Gaza, and preventing humanitarian supplies to the region, home to 1.5 million people.

Other news collected in passing:

Israel is developing, by means of visas and passes, a separation of the two states on the West Bank and Gaza, involving three month time periods for travel, the necessity to be married and to be working for humanitarian causes.

... and:

The PRC said the rockets it displayed recently are but a drop in an ocean of surprises in store for Israel should it attempt to reoccupy Gaza, from which it withdrew in 2005. "We have been under siege for the last two years," said Ibrahim Dahman, the only militant who allowed his face to be videotaped, since he already is wanted by Israel. "The only thing left is for them to invade and kill us."

However, all is not well in Iran:

Teheran's former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani said that Ahmadinejad's policies have done more harm than good in his three years in office, adding that the hard-line leader missed out on "golden" opportunities to develop the Persian state.

Speaking to a meeting of the Moderation and Development Party on Monday, Rowani singled out Iran's high inflation - a fact despite huge oil revenues.

He said Ahmadinejad failed to privatize the economy as required under the constitution and didn't use opportunities at the international level to improve Iran's global standing.

Apart from that, the nuclear issue in Iraq and Olmert's corruption charges seem to be the main news.

All in all, in Middle-Eastern terms, it's non-news just now. For how long? And the big question - why won't the Arab states just let Israel be as a nation? Naive question in one sense but fundamental in another.

[business wear] on the tube in this gear

Oh yeah!

This is a must for going for job interviews. Throw away your ASDA George outfits with the variegated stitching and get into this, man.

There's a nice little pink number too if you'd prefer. Sensible wear for sensible people. I can see our fellow bloggers in it now.

[around bloghounds today] the people are hurting

Richard Havers:

It's about fairness and unfairness. It's about providing support to those who played by the rules but are struggling with rising prices. It's about making sure that a fair chance is provided to all.

Andrew Allison:

Like many of you I am sick and tired of being described as a racist the moment I bring up the subject of immigration. Articulate some views about gay adoptions that do not go along with the liberal consensus, and you are described as a homophobe and are squeezed out of the debate. If you don't go along with the jolly view that everything is wonderful in EU land, and you are a bigoted, little Englander. Politics has gone from the grassroots and is ruled centrally.

Sackerson:

All I'm looking for is a FISCAL conservative... And by the way, whatever happened to "moral suasion"? Why does everything have to be banned or compulsory? ... And maybe US demographics, like here in Britain, would be very different if the slaughter of the innocents hadn't happened - but we are all bending under the weight of a thousand daily coercions.

Cassandra:

With Palin we say, "pray (...) that there is a plan, and that plan is God's plan." That would be far much more attractive than the "world historical events" cabal who pretend their machinations are Acts of God, while they are actually thought up and steered by their own One World Totalitarian Collective agenda.

Daily Referendum:

Before I go any further I want to point out that neither Harry (to my knowledge) or I are raving anti Muslim loons. I am however worried that we could be running two very different systems of law. We have a system of law in this country and it should apply to every citizen regardless of race, colour, sex or religion. This story is running in the Sunday Mercury.

Debacle:

Having given up trying to have any decent, normal, honest, straightforward dialogue with public bodies, the obvious thing to do - apart from exiting the planet - was to write. The vital importance of keeping good records became obvious: these public bodies are exceptionally skilled at obfuscating and distorting and sending you off on wild goose chases and round and round the roundabout that, without a clear record, they can also send you round the bend. I reckoned that I may as well share it all publicly.

[implosion] might not be such a bad idea

When the experiment begins soon after 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on September 10, disaster scenarists will have little to work on. In the first tests, a particle beam will be shot all the way around the LHC channel in just one direction. If all goes well, collisions might be tried within the coming weeks, but at low intensity. Any bangs at this stage, said one CERN researcher, "will be little ones."

Right. I don't actually believe Europe is going to implode from this thing and yet did anyone see Terminator 3, with Skynet?

Different thing of course. isn't it? That one was about machines becoming sentient. OK, what about Deep Blue Sea? Saffron Burrows represents all that we love to hate - a know-all scientist who puts the experiment and funding before human lives, so much so that they had to redo the end of the film:

In the film's original cut, McAlester [Burrows] lived, but test audiences made it clear how much they disliked the character (going so far as to shout "Die, bitch!" at the screen) as her actions had caused all that had gone wrong. Thus, the decision was made to re-shoot the ending so that her character died.

The Mummy series springs to mind in this context as well. By the way, does anyone know Saffron Burrows' real life persona - interesting. Read her mini-biography.

Real life is a bit as if we're all living in some giant progressive tragedy where we know who the baddies are and the supposed goodies [humanity] and it all inevitably occurs, despite warnings. Doom and gloom soothsayers are labelled, mocked and vilified, then it all happens and the scientist supposedly says, as Woodrow Wilson did, "What have I done? What have I done?"

Does anyone know of one of these experiments where it actually ... er .. worked and brought peace, love and really good things to humanity?

[birmingham] and stephane dion

The beauty of Birmingham

How well do you speak English?

Canada's main opposition leader Stephane Dion says his biggest handicap as he campaigns for votes in the country's snap elections is his difficulty communicating in English, which he blamed on a "hearing problem." "I have a hearing problem and it may be linked to that," the Liberal leader said in an interview with the Globe and Mail newspaper. "I have difficulty to isolate sounds," he said. "It may explain the fact that the music of the language is difficult for me to catch."

Question - should that be "to isolate", "in isolating" or should another construction have been utilized? No matter.

Speaking of Brummies, we were discussing them today and the question arose of their accent. "Oh, they're much improved now," my friend corrected me.

"Well that's nice to hear," I replied. "I always considered that my strangulated accent was not the worst accent in the British Isles but now I see that it is."

'Yes, it's much improved now, Birmingham," he continued. "They've done the city centre up quite nicely, in fact."

You'd have to agree with that. Look at how spic and span those canal boats in the picture [above] look. I've just had the most brilliant idea how to overcome my current job flow crisis - set up a Birmingham Narrowboat Holiday Company, funded by Northern Rock.

[raschida dati] did nick do the deed

Lowering the tone on a drizzly Monday morning, Paris has this today:

The rumour that the unmarried minister — noted for her closeness to President Nicolas Sarkozy — was pregnant began, as rumours tend to do in France, quietly, over lunch tables and in the gilded salons of the establishment. Naturally, not a word of conjecture was allowed to soil the pages of the daily prints, for to do so would be to deprive the French public of its cherished right to be told as little as possible about the private lives of its politicians.

Which of these most closely approximated your reaction?

1. Who cares when there are poverty and all sorts of other bad things about;

2. Thataboy, Nick, you son-of-a-gun;

3. The man needs castrating to stop him rutting;

4. Poor Carla, poor, poor dear;

5. Could have been anyone - not just Sarko;

6. Sigh

7. Other?

[resource deployment] outer space or poverty

Large Hadron Collider, near Geneva

Interesting, if not predictable, that Sir David King should say that the most brilliant minds should be directed to solving Earth's greatest challenges, such as climate change ... and that less time and money is spent on endeavours such as space exploration and particle physics.

The thrust was that the best minds should concentrate on solving climate change and presumably starvation in Africa and so on. He mentioned seemingly spurious but highly expensive research on such things as the Large Hadron Collider, with a spin-off, for example, being Tim Berners Lee's world wide web.

Surely that was worth the money?

Where do we start? It's the old "should we go to the moon when people are starving" argument all over again. We're all caught in an impasse. Governments and corporations can allocate billions on ostensibly innocent programmes like nuclear fission and the results are history. Certain groups get their hands on the best science and the result is destructive.

So it's all very well Sir David King saying that but the whole thing is geared in such a way that the money can buy the best researchers and the goal is not necessarily always philanthropic.

The argument then goes - well, the warmongers are at the controls, therefore we need to up our own research in mass destruction and conventional weaponry to offer an effective deterrent to them. Billions are poured in which might have been used to house the homeless and retrain them in new skills or to provide for single mums.

This blog doesn't necessarily accept that line holus bolus and the welfare fraud is staggering and yet I'm not far off that position myself of being homeless, jobless and on the street.

Turning the attention to allocation of funds by local councils, do they spend two million on a sculpture in the town square, in the interests of civic pride and everything looking lovely or do they allocate it to revamping housing and providing local services such as bin collection?

Is there some sort of compromise position perhaps?