Romantic notion

Still feeling gripey about work, but I'm not going to dwell upon it. Tomorrow we have teppenyaki lunch arranged. Now that can't be bad can it.

I understand the thinking behind the British governments proposed new "incitement to religious hatred" law. I cannot however understand why they need to specifically target racial hatred. If I shout hateful abuse at someone because they are black or Jewish, is that worse than shouting hateful abouse at someone because they're physically or menatlly disabled? Does a physical attack motivated by racism need to be treated any differently to an attack motivated by some other kind of hate? I would say no. An attack is an attack isn't it? And, though I've not read the proposals yet, I do know that we already have specific laws that deal with matters of racism. The whole thing just smells of bureaucracy to me. The governement was threatened by a revolt from it's own back benches. The revolt didn't come, but there is still the House of Lords.

James said that I should construct an official DongXi Shit List and I'm thinking about it. I could flash it up and include a game to shoot people or throw poo at them or something. The idea is coming to me slowly.

A new style space ship designed to sail on solar winds has been launched using Russian technology and appears to have run into trouble. The idea is that the craft is driven by solar particals caught in a huge sail. But it seems as though the rocket that was supposed to take it to an orbit 500 miles above earth may have misfired and no-one knows exactly where it is. It was to unfurl it's sails and orbit the earth taking pictures. I think I read that it would accelerate for a while before leaving orbit.

It's a romantic notion, solar sailing, and that alone is enough for me to want it to work. It seems a long shot though and I can't justify the therory in my head properly. I hope they find it anyway. Click and click.

Apparrently the British royal family cost us about 37 million pounds per year. That's about 61p per person. That doesn't include security costs. My guess is that security would easily double the figure. Alan Reid, keeper of the privy purse claims they are good value. Well he would wouldn't he, seeing as they pay him and he gets his 61p back. I personally think that the embarrassment they cause the British public with their increasingly bizarre lifestyles costs us far more than the money value. Click.