[crucible of character] when the ship goes down

“The ship must sail on... regardless of who the captain is, regardless of who the admiral is...”

One should never try to plumb the depths of the Pungeoning for meaning but take the theme for what it is and admire the accompanying graphic work.

This one today is more accessible for us lower ranks - the notion of the ship [state department, commercial organization, arts council or whatever] suffering a series of flawed heads and slowly sinking to oblivion.

It was changes in the Admiralty that led not to mutiny, but desertion by 90% of the crew. The Resbo’s remaining days were helmed by a procession of impotent captains, Queeg-like but without the experience. Needless to say, the lingering skeleton crew had clung to the gunwales, the seas growing fiercer with each successive voyage.

But the end is always inevitable:

EPILOGUE: All of the original crew, and finally Merbos, did eventually jump ship, as one must when fatal leaks and other Benny Suggs go unacknowledged by brass. The Resbo continued to limp along with clueless crews, captains in name only, and admirals who abandoned them to the wind. She was lost at sea about a year later.

This has happened three times with me and one has to wonder how far I contributed to the demise though in subordinate capacity. Certainly I jumped ship on all three occasions. The latest one was by accompanying the Admiral of the time to his new abode, from where we could gaze across and observe the foundering of the old ship under the incompetent newbie, Mr. Arrogance.

I'll say the exact number - 63 - 63 crew departed voluntarily [from 84] , investment then channelled itself through the new agency with its brass and glass penthouse welcome and the old ship, which can never officially sink, still limps along in name only.

Speaking to the Admiral, I asked if he felt vindicated or regretted what had happened. Oh regretted, to be sure. All those years building it up to the point where Europe was visiting - all now gone.

Yes, regret to be sure.

[thought for the day] thursday evening

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation. [WC Fields]

[trends] damned lies and statistics

Both sides of the debate will latch on to this and use it as "evidence" but it seems to me one of the more sensible approaches:

Now, the Wilkins ice shelf on the other side of the peninsula appears to be disintegrating. All these changes would seem to be signs of global warming, but are they just a recent phenomenon or part of a natural cycle?

There is controversial evidence from sediment cores drilled from where the Larsen B Ice Shelf used to be that suggest it may have broken up previously.

"Marine sediments tell us that an ice shelf break-up happened around 5,000 years ago as well. This core will tell us for certain if it got warmer then, too," Dr Mulvaney said. It should also tell him about how the great Antarctic ice sheets began to retreat at the end of the last ice age.

I think I'd prefer evidence like that rather than statistics cleverly used to support things just not happening. Broadening this away from climate change, Andrew Brown wrote on my post "[britain] could be america, canada or australia", undoubtedly from good motives:

A little more digging and I see that the ONS are saying that the number of teenage conceptions are at the lowest rate for 20 years. You can download the data here.

On the other hand, this seems to tell a different story:

Britain's teenage pregnancy rate is the highest in Europe. In 2002 there were 39,286 teen pregnancies recorded. The government has spent more than £60 million to tackle the problem but so far failed to halt the rise.

Andrew would say that is old news [2004] and that the government campaign is working. This is why it might be working:

Encouraging schoolchildren to experiment with oral sex could prove the most effective way of curbing teenage pregnancy rates, a government study has found. Pupils under 16 who were taught to consider other forms of 'intimacy' such as oral sex were significantly less likely to engage in full intercourse, it was revealed.

Oh wonderful, wonderful. So children are going to be told they have to do oral sex. Are these people off their collective brains or are they just lost to evil?

Never crossed the government's mind that this is an activity between adults in a marriage? Never occurred to the government to re-establish the family as the unit and work on parents to take responsibility for their children?

Never occurred to the government to adhere to the country's tradition of sane societal values e.g. kids are kids and adults are adults and it's a gradual process from one to the other at ages 16-21 as it most certainly was earlier?

No, the approach of NuLab and it's accolytes in the teaching profession prefer to exacerbate the problem by pleading "well, kids are already doing it." And why are they? Because you people turned a blind eye instead of educating them.

And why did you turn a blind eye? Because you yourself were allowed to adopt stuffed values, in line with being a modern person.

Enough, I say. Quantum shift needed here in the paradigm. Total shift in values required. And from where will it come? The termited C of E? Will it heck as like.

So from where?

[thought for the day] wednesday evening

boomp3.com

[ugggh] better not to know

Me not well - gut ache - more tomorrow morning.

[good blogging] much better than the msm

This man has to be one of the very best around.

Think I might do a listing of various bloggers that are so good they can't be missed.

[anti-american] or myopic intolerance

Ruthie Zaftig has touched on the whole trouble with debate today - polarization of opinion:

There’s a divisive conflict. There’s a conflict that has people all over the world lining up on one side or the other, declaring one side to be the “good” side, and the other side to be the “evil” side, arguing that the evil side subjects the good side to any number of atrocities, and that the good side deserves to prevail.

I have friends on campus who are rigidly pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. They will list Israel’s crimes all day, but turn a blind eye to the equally egregious misdeeds of extremist Palestinian groups like Hamas.

She mentions an incident at her local Christian church:

One church member—a very intelligent, artistic, compassionate sort of man—spent two weeks explaining the central tenets of Islam so that we might better understand our Muslim neighbors. The presentation had a pleasant tone—he explained, for example, why zakat is important to Muslims. He talked about the different sects within Islam and how their beliefs differed. He talked quite a bit about history and the spread of Islam in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

When he was done speaking, another member of the congregation criticized him for looking at Islam through “rose-colored glasses.” He berated him for failing to focus on Islamic extremism, for failing to be alarmed at what he perceived as a dangerous religion. He characterized Muslims as wanting to appear virtuous, but not wanting to actually be virtuous.

Now many of my readers know I'm involved in a Muslim community of bloggers and with one in particular with whom many progressive discussions have taken place over this. I also live in a Muslim republic and deal with Muslims each and every day. Most just go about their day to day lives as most westerners do, with an added sense of personal and societal morality a possible distinction from many of my mates.

The real problem is that the concept of jihad is so misunderstood, even by nominal Muslims. It should be to "struggle in the way of G-d" or "to struggle to improve one's self and/or society." Jihad is directed against the devil's inducements, aspects of one's own self, or against a visible enemy of the word of G-d.

Now just look at this post and the way I rail against societal evils. One of my Jakarta friends would say to me: "That's jihad, James." Well, if it is, then I'm a mujahid 'cause I'm going to continue railing against those things.

Looking at the real evil in the west which this blog is basically all about [see the micro-control series of posts for an overview - don't google but type "micro control" into the blogsearch top left - 1, 3 and 7 are perhaps the best of them], this, by definition, transcends national boundaries and leads to the completely erroneous conclusion of most Muslims that "America" per se is evil - the Great Satan - and the equally erroneous conclusion of patriotic Americans that blind loyalty to their leaders, e.g. Bush and Co., whom even Alan Greenspan criticized, is the gung-ho way to truth and really good things.

Thus we have a blogger called Great Satan's Girlfriend and that's just craziness. The average American is no more satanic than bambi but he is patriotic and he is loyal to the constitution and the flag. Nor am I anti-American for saying these things and nor is Ruthie anti-American for her post. This is garbage. For myself, over 40% of my readers in the morning are American and you don't get that by being anti-American.

It's the intolerant debate, the non-debate, the polarized, entrenched positions which are the problem. It's the lack of real understanding, esp by the Beslan murderers, the 911 gang, the throat slitters and so on and also by our own side, entrenched in our narrow focus, which is the key issue.

You know that I am an English nationalist but many blogfriends are Scottish. I'm a Christian but hobnob with two Muslim communities. I'm western but live in Russia. This does not make me a relativist or multi-culturalist. I'm still a conservative in values and libertarian in outlook.

But I sure as hell am not going to turn up my nose at good friends in other communities.

Will his vision prevail?

[thought for the day] tuesday evening

If suffer we must, then let us suffer on the heights.

[Victor Hugo]

[curves] in the eye of the beholder

Via Max: Sleep tight little angel, it's your Fairy Grandmother.

Which naturally leads us to Nunyaa's question:

Guys say they like curves, well which one here is more appealing?

[britain] could be america, canada or australia

[Despite my bit of fun in the sidebar at the moment with this Gobi Desert thing and recent spurious photos of myself, I'm deadly serious about the issue below for which we will be held accountable. We must, must act on this.]


Coming back to Iain Dale's distressing report yet again:

* An epidemic of violent crime, teen pregnancy, heavy drinking and drug abuse fuels fears that British youth is in crisis.

* 27% of UK 15 year olds have been drunk 20 or more times compared to 12% in Germany, 6% in Holland and 3% in France

* 44% of UK teenagers are frequently involved in fights compared to 28% in Germany.

* 35% of UK 15 year olds have used Cannabis in the last 12 months, compared to 27% in France, 22% in Holland and 18% in Germany.

* 40% of English fifteen year old girls have had sexual intercourse, compared to 29% in Sweden, 24% in Canada, 20% in Holland, 18% in France and 14% on Spain.

* 15% of English girls fail to use contraception.

* A 2007 UNICEF child welfare study placed Britain bottom of a league table of 21 industrialised countries.

* Between 2003 and 2006 violent crime committed by UK under 18s rose 37%

* Marriage rates in Britain are at a 146 year low.

* Class sizes in Britain are among the highest of 20 Western countries.

* British children start school earlier and take more exams than other European countries.

... we can add Johnathan Pearce's piece at Samizdata [thanks Lord Somber]:

It has been blamed on many things, with varying levels of plausibility: the lack of authority figures that can inspire and instill respect in youngsters, mostly boys; the breakdown of the family and the rising levels of single-parenthood, which in turn is encouraged by perverse incentives, such as the Welfare State.

Throw in a culture that celebrates, or at least does not condemn, yobbery and violence plus the decline of manual labour and lack of outlets for youngsters who are not academically gifted, and you have quite a toxic mix.

... in which Time's piece is mentioned:

None of those indicators are good, but it's the increase in nasty teenage crime that really has Britain spooked. Violent offenses by British under-18s rose 37% in the three years to 2006.

... and the matter is brought home personally to fellow blogger Clive Davis, whose teenage son was assaulted by ASBOs:

My son was attacked - without provocation - on Saturday night. (He told the kids who punched and kicked him that he had a pacemaker, but it didn't make any difference. He was knocked cold in the end, and he's still suffering from concussion.) Yet the officer handling the case didn't plan to interview the main witness - one of my son's friends - until this weekend.

... the lily-livered response by the authorities followed - unbelievable!

We abandoned the moral code we paid lip service to in the 60s, parents went all out for the "self-fulfilling" lifestyle, children were allowed to grow up in a moral vacuum and look at the 22 year olds today - nightmare scenario.

What the F? 14 year old girls having group sex at overnight parties and doing drugs is somehow progressive? Hey, there used to be a thing called fathers protecting their daughters' reputations. Running a good chance of being bashed on the street is onwards and upwards? There used to be such a thing as police jumping on these things. Give me a break.

And some have the nerve to say society's improved.

Tom Paine has commented and it needs to be included in the body of the post here:

The established middle classes refuse to believe the sombre truths evident to those more recently emerged from the working class. No, Hermione, you would NOT get pregnant in order to get a council house. Nor would you keep getting pregnant to maximise your benefits. It would not make sense for you to do so. But if you were unskilled, poorly-educated and your alternative was a part time job at the chip shop, you just might.

If you offer farmers subsidies to grow certain crops, are you surprised if they grow them? We have now subsidised baby-farmers at the margins of our society for three generations - and those margins are widening in consequence. Some of the mothers may - when confronted with the reality of their offspring - actually raise them lovingly. I am sure many do. Nature programmes us to take care of our genes and there are few drives stronger than parental love. But many mothers who conceived with such attitudes do NOT care for their children. That is a terrible fate for the child. Are we really surprised to find feral youths roaming our streets? In their place, mightn't you be angry and vengeful, Hermione?

Our grandparents and parents' generations were naive fools. They visited many ills on us; not least the debts of their unfunded healthcare system, pensions (especially the generous and entirely unfunded pensions of their public employees) and their myriad state benefits. Their worst legacies of all though are the ills fostered by their crypto-marxist ideology and hippy social attitudes - especially to education. Those selfish boomers are now gearing up to check smugly out of their heavily-subsidised existences, leaving us all their messes to deal with.

[western gobi] khan's own country

My half brother Nesnej spreadeth half lies about my rightful right to this Khan forsaken piece of land we've come to know and love for our children and our children's children and our children's children's children.

Recently raiding the tent compound in Athek, my stronghold at an undisclosed location, he made away with 74 concubines and impending children. Not a lot by historical standards, I realize but they eased the aches and pains after a hard day's horse riding in that bloody sand.

So I call on all good people to rise up and help overhrow the usurper [and help me get my women back too, which is the main point of the exercise, truth be told].

Sigh - look at the beautiful landscape - isn't it worth dying for?

[fed power play] here we go, here we go

The Creature from Jeckyl Island is making it's latest power grab:

The plan would beef up the powers of the Federal Reserve, which earlier this month engineered the purchase of troubled investment bank Bear Stearns by JP Morgan. It would give it greater oversight of all kinds of financial institutions from hedge funds to insurance companies.

"Our current regulatory structure was not built to address the modern financial system,"
said US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. "Government has a responsibility to make sure our financial system is regulated effectively. And in this area, we can do a better job."

The government says the proposals are an effort help US firms become more competitive in the global economy. The 218-page report was commissioned before credit markets began to seize up in August last year.

The reactions to this tightening will clearly range from "right, so here we go" to "the Fed's a government body, isn't it?" Capitalist bloggers fall somewhere in between, knowing full well that the Fed is a privately run concern, not only influencing the regulation of markets but also playing in them and yet not willing to accept this thing for what it is.

The long and the short is that the Fed is Morgan and associates, who have a habit of bailing favoured firms out of crises and panics. They control the economy by ostensibly playing the government watchdog whilst at the same time creating the ability to openly play the markets through the FOMC and working closely with Europe.

The reason this is evil is because of all the human misery which has historically attended it, including housing crashes, depressions and war. Either Google the Federal Reserve or search this site and there is considerable material in support of this contention if you look.

They can be stopped if everyone is awake to what's going down but no one sector of society, e.g. the economists, can see the others sides, e.g. depopulation and Eisenhower's military-industrial complex.

There's no one authoritative ombudsman body which can draw all the threads together and see where this is going and why it is.

[thought for the day] monday evening

You're only young once but anyone can be immature!

[higham exposed] incredible green man

Taken by my computer ten minutes ago. :)

[iceland] and the non-graffiti solution

Where to spend your summer in Iceland

Iceland used to be a prime source of material for this blog but I don't know what happened - perhaps westernization - but things have paled somewhat of late. Now we're back again with an important new phenomenon:

The Graffiti Painter-Overers

A “gang” of mystery painters who go by the name of Betri baer (“Better town”) painted over graffiti in central Reykjavík in the shadow of darkness on Wednesday night in protest of the lack of action taken by city authorities to fight graffiti.

And in classically quaint Icelandic reporting style:

The boys who were responsible for the latest wave of graffiti on Laugavegur were arrested and will probably have expensive fines.

Expensive fines! Wild times in Old Reykjavik these days. If you'd like to see the original post on this humble blog, here 'tis, still open for comments if you'd care to.

[mobiles] another nail in the coffin

Mobile phones will overtake asbestos and smoking as a leading public health danger, a top neurosurgeon says.

Research by Canberra Hospital’s Vini Khurana found that in the next four years, the full impact of brain tumours caused by mobile phones would be revealed.

Read the full report here.

The previous report on this growing menace is here.

[blogfocus] from ef to el

Meandering through the F to L of my roll this morning, I picked up these gems:

Gavin Ayling with what must be the classic quote of the day:

Poetry, as I said recently, has only just made sense to me and, of course, science always has been deeply important to me so I thought it appropriate that I share it with you.

Grendel is one year old - yo! And the Gypsy Haven also has a real birthday plus a shot at paradise [pic at the top]


Guthrum the Old reminds us of a very special day coming up and Ian Parker presents a poem on the topic:

The French and the Germans may call themselves such
As may the Norwegians, the Swedes, and the Dutch.
You can say you are Russian, or maybe a Dane,
But don’t dare say you’re English ever again.

... do read the rest of this.

Helena, in creating a likeness, presents her goddaughter [see pic below].

Iain Dale presents some quite frankly horrifying stats about our fair land:

* 27% of UK 15 year olds have been drunk 20 or more times compared to 12% in Germany, 6% in Holland and 3% in France
* 44% of UK teenagers are frequently involved in fights compared to 28% in Germany.
* 35% of UK 15 year olds have used Cannabis in the last 12 months, compared to 27% in France, 22% in Holland and 18% in Germany.
* 40% of English fifteen year old girls have had sexual intercourse, compared to 29% in Sweden, 24% in Canada, 20% in Holland, 18% in France and 14% on Spain.

Verlin's Lil Bit has scored her first goal in soccer so you'd best get over there and catch the video of said event! She's a great player!

Jams poses the quite important question - how many 5 year olds could you take on at one time? Do go and test your strength out against the wee mites.

John Trenchard presents a video illustrating the prowess of the Honey Badger ...

... whilst Juliet presents the cardiologists' nightmare and describes her attempt to make it in truly Juliesque terms:

Though I realise now that the lovely moist texture is due to the oil, I still can't get over that we ate a cup of oil in addition to the cake being covered in cream cheese, butter and icing sugar, and that we were willing to believe that the inclusion of a couple of grated carrots could somehow mean it was 'healthy' when in fact all it needed was a couple of spoonfuls of glaucoma-inducing MSG to make the horror complete.

[thought for the day] sunday evening

A torchlight procession, marching down your throat

[O'Sullivan, 1898]

[kate's back] you probably already know

[history quiz] sunday memorizer

1. In which war did jet aircraft first fight each other?

2. Only one South American country had a Monarchy. Which was it?

3. Parker and Barrow were the surnames of which famous couple?

4. Rorke's Drift was a battle in which war?

5. Sitting Bull belonged to which tribe?

6. The Condor Legion was the name of the German air force flying for Franco's nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War. What was the name of the Irish volunteers on Franco's side?

7. The eruption of Mt Vesuvius that buried Pompeii also buried another town. Which one?

8. What was Operation Sea Lion in the Second World War?

9. Which American City is named after a British Prime Minister?

10. Which civilization built Machu Picchu?

No peeking, now:

The Korean War, Brazil, Bonnie and Clyde, The Zulu War, Sioux, The Blue Shirts, Herculaneum, The invasion of Britain, Pittsburgh, The Incas

[surveillance] doing well, thank you

Thanx Banxy

Englisc Fyrd summarizes some of the latest moves:

* CCTVcore.co.uk reveals how the government plans to roll out a mugshot database. You can read the article here.

* The idea of a database containing naughty children's details has been touted for a while. Tony Blair was for the idea, but it seems said database is coming closer to fruition to help with "spotting future offenders". This is London reports on it here.

* The Telegraph reports that CCTV is slowly creeping into schools, their article here details the complaints from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers who fear school rooms are becoming Orwellian. The article reports that:

"Schools are believed to have first installed classroom CCTV four years ago, with an academy in Middlesbrough using cameras to monitor pupil behaviour and protect expensive equipment."

I could go on and on but you'll need to read for yourself. However, there's more from David Farrer:

But BAA says the fingerprinting at Terminal 5 has been installed under orders from the Government.

It says a working group, which included the Home Office's Borders and Immigration Agency, decided it was the "most robust system" to protect Britain's borders.

Truly wonderful. And let's never forget this, from December 2006:

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act

[home] tongue in cheek

It's all very well coming home unless:

1. you're not sure which one is your home;

2. it's not there when you get back [or not in the same form].

Sandy Denny sang, in Farewell, Farewell:

"No, I will never cut the cloth
Or drink the light to be
But I'll swear a year to one who lies
Asleep along side of me"

Farewell, farewell to you who would hear
You lonely travellers all
The cold north wind will blow again
The winding road does call

The immortal Sandy Denny. This is home.

[45 today] no not me - jams

Now life can really begin, young man! Happy Birthday, Jams!

[thought for the day] saturday evening

Never forget:

A hen is just an egg's way of making another egg.

[unsung achievers 1] alison clarkson

Eurasian Alison Clarkson [born 1970 in Kensington] was and still is a talent whom Madonna called "criminally overlooked". I'm no fan of Madonna, nor of Clarkson's later dance work but the woman can write songs and is more than useful as a performer.

There are those who say she helped save the British music industry which in 1990 was under severe assault from the American rappers and it needed someone to step up for the Brits. She did and how. She later said of this time:

Basically I wrote my own stuff, I wrote it all in my bedroom and I had a lot to say really. Having been bullied when I was younger I just saw it as a way to get my own back on everyone."

Here's one of her biggest hits and you might wonder how this blogger can like something so kitsch and shallow. I like her, that's all and admire what she did in swimming against the stream at the time:



Of course she was big in the UK but didn't do so well in the US market - predictable really as she didn't try to be black or appear to be any more or less than a Londoner.

Betty became a journalist's favourite due to her forthright and sometimes downright catty opinions on her fellow popsters. She once said she didn't like former New Kid On The Block Joey Lawrence because he had 'girly arms'.

Relations between Betty and GA's record company soured when they asked her to pay for her own Platinum disc of their first album. She asked them how big the disk was. They replied, "normal size." She then asked, "Is it big enough to stick it up your arse?"

Unfortunately, Boo came a cropper in Australia when she dropped her mike onstage and in that country in particular she is vilified for "lipsynching" which practically every artist does anyway.

In this blogger's opinion, people, particularly women, who go their own way as she has done, are always going to come a cropper and for that also I like her. I like that she refuses to play the record label game plus she's a homegrown girl - one of our own.

Here's a recent interview which is quite entertaining if you've got this far in the post:

[twilight zone] where rationalization ends

Where to and why?

Some time back I asked an ultra-rationalist mate of mine about UFOs, knowing what his reaction would be.

Then I asked if he believed in G-d [he does] but he said the two things are completely different. Why, I wanted to know. A spirit world is a spirit world. If there be angels and all that stuff, why not UFOs?

The look I got - I changed the topic.

Michael Palin, in his Ripping Yarn Curse of the Claw [and I can't find an online script] is a boy sitting in the family living room and he asks about, I think, India. His austere Victorian father says it doesn't exist.

Palin answers back and says he's heard all about it and his mother cuts him short: "Your father has spoken, dear."

End of discussion.

I don't believe the receptors we have are capable of discerning the nether world and every so often something comes up which defies rationalization. In come the rationalists and say it had to be the light reflected from a plane or else it's hallucination or whatever.

Not for one second does the person stop and try to analyse the thing and admit - well, we just don't know. Then, in an attempt to come to terms with it, the cliched put downs begin - talk of little green men and so on.

This could be double exposure - or not

North of England

A group of us were on the side of a hill in the early 90s, looking across to a rocky point where a hotel had its lights on. I didn't see the thing come but there was a hubbub and everyone started looking at the hotel. Above it was an elongated light and I can't recall the colour - it was light and the shape from the side was cigar shaped.

Then, some twenty minutes later, it went up and then veered off to the right and disappeared. That was all. There had to have been twenty of us who'd seen it. Now I've been guilty in my time of perpetrating hoaxes like convincing a kid that Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy do exist but this was different.

Double exposure again or what?

Real, hoax or error

There was an article in the physics area in New Scientist which showed that many rational phenomena are equally inexplicable, e.g.

“Cold fusion would make the world's energy problems melt away. No wonder the Department of Energy is interested.”

It just doesn't seem sane to me to dismiss these things out of hand, just because one's mind can't come to grips with them. Roswell, Philadelphia, crop circles - possibly hoaxes, fevered imaginations or perhaps true.

Here are ten of them summarized.

I'm semi-sceptical about much of it - for example orbs or double-exposures in photos but some still seem a bit hard to fathom.

My favourite below - shots 4 seconds apart

[dreams] the waxing and the waning

While researching this post, I found an interesting piece on kid's dreams and nightmares. Can't say I was ever prone to them and even as an adult, have missed out on the pleasure of the erotic dream.

There were one or two times in childhood where a dream occurred and it was always the same - someone was after me, chasing me, bunch of thugs I'd provoked and at the end of the dirt track, near the cliff, was a huge pile of spaghetti and I was always able to hide under there. Always thought my pursuers were so stupid not to look under the spaghetti.

There is one recurring adult dream, not particularly traumatic and it's a bit like this:

I'm in the clouds [always cumulus for some reason - golden in the sunlight] and things are pretty good, when from the left front [45 degrees] appears a woman [I think a young woman but that's not clear].

She has not particularly shiny golden hair and robes of white which are also not crystal clear. The thing is that I must be looking ahead or whatever.

I don't notice her hands and feet, just the heart-shape of her face and she's neither pretty nor not, neither tall nor small. I look across and smile and she returns the smile. She stretches out one hand towards me [let me try to remember which - I think it must be the right because it is closest to me] and now I look more closely and she becomes clearer and is very sweet and fair.

Before I know what I'm doing [and I know from experience not to] I reach out what must be my left hand and as that happens, as my body turns towards her, she starts to fade backwards [neither down nor up and not particularly gliding]. I almost reach her hand but then she recedes into the cloud and is gone.

I turn back to where I was going and continue on through the sunlit cloud. It never happens at night, this dream - only through the day.

The dream came back today.

I was chatting with an overseas friend this morning and it was nice and then she was gone. So I looked at the dialogue window, typed a couple more things and then just went on composing the last post below this.

The last few weeks were like this too. When we got to the point of some sort of joy or solace, for some reason she faded away and is now like a wraith that occasionally answers an e-mail. She visits, I know but I don't know for how much longer.

My ex-love faded away this way some years back but now, as if orbits are once again coinciding, it's waxing again and the other evening was close once more. I'm expecting it to fade again as usual but will have to wait and see.

The puzzle for me is not how it gets off the ground nor why it continues but why it fades. If you like something, it doesn't fade and if you don't, then why did you remain so long? Better touch wood but it seems that I'll continue on through the day and night and people will come, people will fade.

Do you dream?

[thought for the day] friday evening

On the human race:

It's in your nature to destroy yourselves.

[The Terminator]

[wrong way gordon] round table trek

It's now hit world punters how Gordon, Czechoslovakian geography guru, impressed the Queen with his navigational ability:

Witnesses say she then leant across the table, laughed, and said to her daughter Princess Anne: "The Prime Minister got lost. He disappeared the wrong way ... at the crucial moment" Her comments were picked up by the microphones placed on the table for the speeches.

One guest said: "He thought he was supposed to be in line for the greeting, but he should have been sitting down like the rest of us. "When he discovered his mistake, he had to walk the long way round the table."

Thank goodness the country is in such good hands.

[mobiles] and the curse of the texter

Lifted virtually complete from fellow blogger Grendel, this sums up the issue better than I could:

I dislike mobile phones. The premise being based on your availability or the expectation that others may have of your availability 24 hours a day.

However I went on to say that the thing I really disliked was text messaging. The constant ‘mipping’ noise indicating that a new message has arrived. The daily vision of people hunched over their phones, their features seeming ever more gaunt when picked out by the LCD backlight.

Groups of kids huddled together all with phones in hand most likely texting each other. It seems that one can’t go for a walk, a bus ride a train journey without seeing people bashing away at the tiny little key pads as if their very lives depended on it.

‘Oh I must text because if I don’t text other people they won’t text me and than I won’t have any friends’.

And I’ve often thought that there must be something wrong with quite a few of these people. But as I found out today there actually might be something wrong with quite a few of these people in reality.

According to an editorial by Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University published in this months American Journal of Psychiatry text messaging is becoming an increasingly commonplace compulsive-impulsive disorder. Dr. Block goes on to suggest that it should be added to psychiatry's official guidebook of mental disorders.

Block says users can lose all track of time or neglect "basic drives" such as eating or sleeping. Some may need psychoactive medications or hospitalisation to combat their over-reliance.

I personally detest them and ban them from anywhere in my space, at university or elsewhere. My ex-girlfriend knows very well that if we go out, the texter goes away.

Unfortunately I can't do much about private clients. One usually lays two or three of these implements out on the table in front of him and our "conversation" involves getting into a topic, losing it to the texter or mobile then trying to start all over again.

For a start, it is insulting to the person you're with. One or two girls have recently made a joke about being able to Multi-task. It's not multi-tasking - it's simply old fashioned insulting. If someone comes to you, then they should get your undivided attention, at least for a space in time.

Not possible says the compulsive texter/mobile obsessive. "I might lose business. I might lose friends." I'm afraid ths speaks volumes for the modern slide to zero respect for one another which manifests itself from everything from loud train conversations to road rage.

[thought for the day] thursday evening

Two out of every three people wonder what the third one is doing.

[power of the blogosphere] at the end of a switch

How it started

The power of the blogosphere, particularly the UK sphere, was shown in the Usmanov affair, if you recall, where the Uzbek bully-boy forced certain blogs off air because he disagreed with them.

That was reversed and the result was a sort of camaraderie between certain of us.

But who is "us"? Well, it doesn't appear to be the "myspacer youth" or "the garden looked lovely this morning" type.

I suppose it's a loosely defined club of political bloggers, mostly male, who inhabit the sphere and charge around each others' blogs doing what they can.

I feel proud to be partially accepted into this although my personal reputation is slightly left field.

The Kareem rally was a little less successful for mainly logistical reasons and for the lack of clear intent - how would this change things?

The recent "ban the UK Chancellor from all pubs" campaign began like this:

I'm delighted to say that [as of Tuesday afternoon] the Snob's campaign to get Alistair Darling barred from every pub in the land has now crossed over, with today's Edinburgh Evening News covering the story.

News of the first pubs to take action is also now trickling in. Let's just say I wouldn't go to Lewes on my summer hols if I were him.

A worthy cause indeed but perhaps not relieving the suffering in Darfur or getting the troublemakers like DEFRA removed from positions of influence. Plus one other very worrying, ever-present danger for the blogger, for example in Myanmar:

The 45 megabit per second circuit connecting Myanmar to Kuala Lumpur that is Myanmar’s primary connection to the Internet came back up at 14:27 UTC today. It had mostly been “hard down,” indicating either that it had been unplugged or that the router it was connected to was turned off, with the exception of a few brief periods since September 28.

The truth is, chaps, we can be disconnected at any moment and the tools we use hacked:

Did Laura hack Blogrolling.com?

Blogrolls around the globe now all point to Laura's blog. Laura doesn't sound like your stereotypical evil hacker to me, but something sure went wrong at Blogrolling.com. Anyone know what? Laura's blog seems to have gone down what with all the hits it must be getting, but you can still read Google's cache of it.

It's a very tenuous thread connecting us to each other and thus the notion that we can be a powerful force in society must be seen in this context.

[23 today] get thee over there one day late

[thought for the day] wednesday evening

Have you considered:

When Beckham gets his 100th cap, 1,321,851,888 people in China won't care.

[olympics] politics versus sport

Well, you know, this is a tough call:

The problem is China's human rights record in Tibet, which it has ruled since annexation in 1949. On March 10, anti-government, pro-Tibetan independence protests started in the capital of Lhasa to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against the Chinese Communist Party's rule. It turned violent four days later. Tibet's government-in-exile estimates 140 people have since been killed by Chinese troops.

It never alters, the politics and sports dilemma:

Freney was the major organiser, with Meredith Burgmann, of the demonstrations during the 1971 Springbok tour of Australia. The protestors, through their theatrical antics, caused this to be the last such tour; it was a major setback for the apartheid regime in South Africa, and a mind-altering event in Australia.

Right back to Hitler's time and before:

From the very beginning of the project, Hitler recognized the political value of architecture as a vehicle to proselytize Nazi Socialism and he mandated that not only should the stadium be constructed entirely with German materials but that in appearance it must enhance the collective tribalism that would resurrect the majesty of the Volk.

One of German fascism's first major architectural statements, the entire Wagnerian scale venue reflected the chauvinistic agenda of the Third Reich: statues and reliefs celebrated Aryan athletic youth, the Maifeld's four stone pylons were named after early Germanic tribes (Frisian, Franconian, Saxon, and Schwabian), and the Dietrich Eckart Amphitheater underscored Greco-German links--both real and imagined--to the new regime.

Sometimes it's not even for a public cause - do you remember the abandoned 3rd Test at Headingley in 1975, when vandals dug up the pitch and poured oil into it to prevent further play?

So yes, China is using the olympics, drug riddled and corrupt as it is and the question remains - should the olympics be abandoned and along with it all the idealism associated with it and the only real chance of international cameraderie?

The sense of friendship, even (dare I venture the word) cameraderie, the world en fete? Sure I think the Games will be great for London, but I find that the sport is the least attractive element and isn't that a shame for a sports nut?

Or look at the achievement of actually getting to the olympics:

The Afghan Olympic team has plenty of problems with run-down facilities and a woeful shortage of funds, but only Mehboba Andyar. the sole woman competitor, has had to prepare herself mentally for the biggest challenge of her life while dealing with sinister midnight telephone calls, the open derision of her neighbours and even police harassment.

You cancel the olympics and sure you comment on woeful human rights records and the whole thing but you also kill aspiration, hope, the cameraderie of youth and idealism.

Sure we can do that and then sink into our slough of despond or we can acknowledge the appalling hijacking and perversion of de Coubertin's ideal and concentrate more fully on the spirit of man as demonstrated by the bringing together of so many diverse elements of humanity from around the world.

It's not an easy issue.

May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure. [Pierre de Coubertin]

[family] only one of seven planks

Please do go over and read the whole of this by MJW:

David Cameron’s plans to make a “family friendly” Britain are rather brave for two crucial reasons, firstly the social liberal left has done a remarkable job chipping away at the foundations of family values, supposedly for the benefit of those who choose less conventional lifestyles (and no matter what dysfunction the attitude of “all lifestyles are valid” causes). Secondly, because focusing on family values leaves the party open to criticism next time an MP lauding such values is caught shagging around.

What MJW is unconsciously and yet by accident referring to is the spitting on the family by the globalists for which this is one plank in the platform I've published at this blog a number of times. Here it is one more time [yawn]:

1) Abolition of all ordered governments
2) Abolition of private property
3) Abolition of inheritance
4) Abolition of patriotism
5) Abolition of the family
6) Abolition of religion
7) Creation of a world government

It's written down, they don't deviate from it, it's only us who waver and say it's not possible. Scroll down to the Morgan post and there is their dystopia in one - cold, grey-blue, metallic, lifeless, joyless, soulless. What an aim in life!

[climate change] shhh - the sceptics might hear

I'm modifying this post from it's original gung ho form:

A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate. Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

in the light of further developments. I feel no shame in this - I just want the truth, that's all. Please leave your thoughts on the Wilkin's Ice Shelf and other matters pertaining to GW but in this manner:

1. Let's just try to present the science, not the entrenched positions

2. Let's not ignore the otehr side but try to explain their point away somehow.

3. Let's have some genuine debate on this - where one commnet follows on from the other.

4. Let's steer clear of ad hominem and attack positions with stats.

I genuinely want to know the truth on this matter.