Happy Halloween

I can't decide whether to enter the NaNoWriMo competition. You have to complete 50,000 words of a novel between 1st Nov and 30th Nov. On the down side, that's 2,000 words a day, which is hard work. On the up side, I can't see myself ever starting my novel again without a kick like this. And of course, if I don't actually make 50,000 words in 30 days, I dont lose anything. It starts tomorrow, so I have only a few hours to decide.

I'm childish and it's halloween, so I guess you may be expecting the foillowing picture:



This paragraph has spoilers about the movie Flightplan. I watched Flightplan yestreday and it's supid. I mean it's really stupid. I thought it was going to be a bit lame when I read that it was about a woman who loses her daughter on a flight. I mean, how can that happen? The plot just doesn't work.

Here's what happens: Jodie Foster is flying to America with her daughter. Her dead husband's body is in the hold. She wakes up and her daughter is gone. The crew have no record of the child and are unwilling to help her. She looks like she's mad. It turns out that her husband was killed and explosives were put in his coffin the air marshall and one of the flight crew. How they engineered the coffin to be on their flight or even how they knew the coffin would be flown to America is not made clear. The air marshall tells the captain that Foster is a mad hijacker and is going to blow up the plane. The plane lands early and Foster saves the day by pretending to be a real hijakcer and not letting the air marshall off the plane. She then slugs him with a fire exstinguisher, finds her daughter and everyone lives happily ever after. Honestly, don't waste your money, this is tripe. I give it 3/10. what were Jodie Foster and Sean Bean thinking?

David Blunkett is in trouble again, good! He shouldn't even have a cabinet post anyway, since his apalling behaviour as Home Secretary.

I want to talk about the Blackberry "Women in Technology" awards, which apparently named Jackie Edwards as "Best woman in technology" last week. Edwards lectures and uses the Sony AIBO robot to encourage women to enter technology. In other words she's using someone else's reaearch project (probably an exclusively male team), which has never made any money, to try and get women interested in technology. Well there's someone with a finger on the pulse. Honestly, it's not exactly ground breaking is it? And why do people insist that we need more women in technology? If women don't want to do it, why are you pushing them? I've worked in technology for years. It's a nasty cut-throat, largely underpaid industry that I wouldn't wish on anyone. Am I being sexist here? I don't maind women in technology if they want to do it, but hey don't seem to and I don't see why it's so awful. Here's the report.

This must be a record for me, 9.30 and I have an entry finished. This is so I can plan a novel and start writing tomorrow.

Body count

The first things you noice as a westerner when you arive in Asia are the differences. The culture is different, the food is different, the people drive differently, everything is different. Then, after a month or two, you start to notice the similarities. There are McDonalds everywhere, and American style convenience stores on every corner. People wear jeans. Everyone wears jeans. I've always hated jeans, not because they're not practical, convenient clothing, I just hate the fact that they're everywhere. I don't own a pair of jeans, and I have no plans to buy some any.

Yesterday I was talking to friend Andy about this and he asked, "do you think there is a one-way transfer of culture from the west?". My immediate answer was yes, but then I started thinking, things go back the other way too. We give Asia fast food, nasty sugary drinks to rot their teeth and make them fat, convenience stores, and the least imaginative articles of clothing the west has to offer, and these are all lapped up by the naive youth. What does the east send back to the west? Feng Shui, quackery, cheap dangerous fireworks, and plastic models of the Statue of Liberty with a pencil sharpener in the bottom.

There is an irony here. We're sending each other our crap.

I thought you might be interested in my cockroach trap. I set this up under my desk Wednesday. It looks quite cute when assembled as you can see.



When opened of course if reveals all the foull little creatures inside. Are they attracted to the sticky stuff inside? Would it work better if I baited it with a jelly baby?



I realise that this makes it look as though I work in a filthy, roach infested, rat's nest of an office. That is not quite true. It's just that large insects seem to like it here. I'm not in the lead as far as body count is concerned. Jamie has more in his trap, and he actually has two traps under his desk, so I'm not sure that they shouldn't be counted together. And I think Sumedha is winning the contest for largest corpse. I may give you an update here on Monday. Incidentally, they don't die when they get trapped. All those little beasties are still waving there antenna around and trying to escape.

I must apologise to Luscious who is into Irish dancing and was falsely attracted to this page yesterday. I did insult Irish dancing and I'm sorry. Not very sorry, but a bit sorry. I'm not turned on by Riverdance, what can I say.

Live Roach Cam

This could be a short entry since lunchtime was taken up with swinging clubs on the driving range. It was a mistake to order lunch at the range as it took an eternity to arrive. It was quite acceptable when it did arrive however, though we were late returnng from lunch. I still can't seem to shake this cold off completely and I was too tired/achey to really have any fun. This week appears to be dragging.

I'm up to the 5th episode of the I should be writing podcast. It's good. Frustrated writers should be listening.

I have a cockroach trap under my desk at work. I put it there yesterday and there are already about a dozen little blighters stuck in there. I'm thinking I might rig up "Live Roach Cam" on the website.

Here's a groovy site that was passed to me today by the boss. You have to play around with the mouse for a while to discover how it all works. It's imaginative.

Prince Charles has been telling the world how the threat of climate change is the most frightening thing in the world. He's such a prick. He should keep his unqualified, unresearched and generally unwanted opinions to himself. It really bothers me that this idiot is already abusing his position and will no doubt continue to do so when he becomes king.

Irish dancing

Jim is right, we don't really want movie companies giving us summaries of plots. I wasn't really suggesting they should. What I meant was they should provide an idea of whether it contains anything potentially offensive or unsuitable for children; sex, nudity, violence, Irish dancing, drugs etc. I'm just suggesting that the certificaion element is arbitary. If I as a parent, don't mind my kids seeing nudity (and I don't, what's wrong with nakedness?) but I don't want them seeing something about drugs, the 12 certificate is fairly useless to me since it tells me tells me that the film could contain nudity, slight violence, references to drugs, but doesn't tell me which.

I just had text with Dickie on Skype. He seemed very interested in what I was eating for kunch, so I took a picture. What is that drink? I haven't opened it yet. I think I'll let the Dragon give it the once over before I open that one.



Incidentally Dickie, I take your point that owning guns does not in itself present a particularly big threat to the richest government the world has ever seen. I still say that launching a rebellion with guns is easier than without.

There's a new podcast that I have come across called I should be writing. I don't know if it's any good, but I need some motivation. I'll let you know how this goes. We do like podcasts. The first one seems promising. I say it's new, that's something of an exagerration. It's been around since August, I just found it for the first time last week and I have about 10 shows to catch up with.

A piano is a deadly weaopn

Two notes on my last entry. Abby asks what kind of lunatic is going to attack someone carrying a gun, Andy says why shoot someone when you can drop a piano on their head. I think Abby has the right idea here. I have seen figures that suggest crime goes down when the good guys have guns. I also think Andy has a point. There are lots of things to use as a deadly weapon besides guns. There are few so convenient however. A Deringer fits nicely into a sock, handbag, or pocket, a razorblade filled lemon merengue pie deos not. Still however a worthy point.

I'm not sure whether citizens holding guns really represent a threat to governments that hold nuclear fire power. I was watching the Penn and Teller Bullshit show on gun control just a week or two agao and they brought up the same point. The constitution gives Americans the right to guns to keep the corrupt government in check. Does that still apply? I suppose it could. A rebellion with guns is more effective than one without.

Next month the UN summit will debate who should be controlling the internet. Currently the US has a monopoly. It's run by ICANN and overseen by the US government. Just about everyone in the world except the Americans think this is a bad idea. There is a danger that, if the US don't agree to some power sharing deal, countries like China will start to create national internets and the web will break up. This is further complicated by the fact that the US can veto any resolution the UN puts forward which will produce a stalemate. It'll be interesting to watch.

I meant to tell everyone that I watched History of Violence this week. I've noticed two things about this film; all critics seem to love it, and all critics seem to compare it with Sin City. The first I can understand, it's a good film, it's thoughtful and very watchable. The second thing I can't understand. Apart from the fact that both films are based on violent graphic novels, they are miles apart. I'd recommend it, though I don't think it's as great as some people are making out. The plot is really very simple. It's well executed though and it's worth a watch just for that. I think William Hurt was a really menacing mob boss, though I read one bad review of that performance. I'll give it 8/10 I think. Don't take the kids, it's violent.

Guns and colonialism

Did I mention that we saw Wallace and Gromit? It was good, really good. It's great to see a cartoon being made without computer generated models zapping about everywhere. It has real character. The next movie to watch for is Harry Potter which comes out on Nov 18. Looking forward to that also.

I've been thinking about guns. We're not allowed any guns in Britain except shotguns. And you need a licence to keep those. You can have air powered guns, but there is a power limit. I think you may still also be able to keep rifles for sporting use, but again, you need a licence. I'm not a gun fan. I wouldn't want to carry one myself and I'm no gun sportsman, so the law doesn't affect me at all, but all the same, I can't help thinking that the guns now in Briatain are all in the hands of criminals.

I've seen reports that muggings in London are now more frequent than in New York. Is that because muggers are more scared to attack a New Yorker in case they pull out a weapon? If people on the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center were carrying guns, would the outcome have been different? And when legislation is passed banning gun ownership, would it stop criminal people from carrying guns? I can't see how it would, since criminal people are already law breakers by definition.

These thoughts are leaping around my head largely because the Brazillian people have just voted against a national ban on gun ownership, despite having one of the worse gun crime records in the world.

And another thought; I mentioned a while back that I was reading a book called "Re-reading Harry Potter". The author draws a parallel with Kipling. He says that Kipling places two races of people together in a single environment. One is superior (more powerful). He means the British in India at the end of the 19th century. The author claims that Kipling's justification for the British in India is bascially a racist stance, and I think he's probably right. In Harry Potter two races are also thrown together, the wizards and the muggles. The author claims that the stance is again effectively racist (unless I have read it wrong) because the muggle comunity are only free because the more powerful wizarding commnity choose to let them be.

I can't see how the two are comparable. In Kipling's work, he justifies the invasion and ocupation by the white man by claiming that they are helping the helpless Indians. In Rowling's work the more powerful magical community atempts to leave the muggles alone as far as possible. Have I missed something?

The unfinished symphony

I took the day off yesterday (Thursday) because I thought I as dying. Honestly, I thought I had SARS or something. I got some medicine from the doctor which seems to be helping. Back at work today feeling much better. And the weekend is coming, that means Wallace and Gromit. Looking forward to it.

The new Harry Potter film has been given a 12A certificate in Britain which apparently means children under 12 cannot see it unless they have an adult with them. In America it's been given a PG13 which means children under 13 can watch it alone, but parental caution is advised. I can't help thinking that it's a complete waste of time certifying films. I think the film makers should be obliged to publish a summary of what the film contains and then let parents choose for themselves.

Just two contenders left in the race for Tory party leadership. I'd say the smart money is on David Cameron now. He is something of an unknown quantity however. I don't know his views on Europe, Iraq, or ID cards. I think everyone is against ID cards actually. I don't mind who wins now, but I think I would still go for David Davis if I had a vote.

Nothing else very interesting has happened in the news that I can see.

Above written Friday. The rest written today, Saturday.

Tonight we meet Vivian and Andy for Indian food. I think that sounds good. Tomorrow we have Wallace and Gromit penciled in. I'm thinking we shold try and get tickets today. I'm sucha child.

I'm a bit worried about the dragon. My SARS is no more than an annoyance now, slight cough and gallons of snot. The dragon however seems to be sneezing quite violently and woke up with a headache. She can't take any medicine because she's pregnant.

It's now SUnday evening. Never really did finish writing this entry. Oh, there is somethign else to report however. The dragon got her settlement visa for UK, so there was no need to worry about that.

Our adventure at the BTCO

I just got back from the British Cultural Office. The interview for the Dragon's settlement visa was, well unsettling. I spoke to the immigration officer on the phone to arrange an interview. She is nothing like she sounds. She's a middle aged woman, slightly overweight with a large bruise over the bridge of her nose and one eye. It looked like she had been hit in the face with a brick. I don't think we should hold that against her however.

I made the decision to keep quiet and let the Dragon answer the questions. It was ostensibly an interview with her afterall. One of the first questions was, "Why do you want to settle int he UK". I wasn't expecting this. It seems like such a stupid question. The Dragon wasn't expecting it either. She replied that she wanted to be closer to my parents who were getitng older. We were then told that it was not a good answer. That answer was a good reason for me to go back, but not my wife apparently. This floored the Dragon for a second but she recovered and replied that she would obviously want to be with her husband who wanted to be nearer his parents. So immigration lady wrote down, "To be with husband" on her paperwork.

So... Apparently "to be with husband" is a perfectly acceptable reason to want to settle in the UK, despite the fact that her husband has not been resident in the UK for four years; but "wants to be closer to husband's family" is not. I questioned this and got a very vague answer. I wanted to make it quite plain that we were intending to move back because we made a decision together that it would be nice to be closer to my family. She then made a big deal out of the fact that many Taiwanese women want traditional post natal care and move back to Taiwan when a baby is born. I can't see why that is relevant. We are applying for a settlement visa because we want to settle. If our plans change or don't work out and we move away again, what does it matter?

She then asked about how we would support ourselves in England. I made a mistake here. I was keen to indicate that I would be looking for a job as soon as I could, but that I was not going to be a father who never came home. So I said that I had no job to walk into and I was thinking that I might get something not very taxing for a while so that I had more time with my family. This prompted a barage of questions about how I would make ends meet. This ended with me pointing out that I would have to work but that I had some savings that would last a while. This didn't appear to satisfy her. I should have just said I was actively looking for a job in the tech writing field.

She now needs a letter from my parents to confirm that we can stay there until my place is vacated by the current tennants. I also need a letter from my current business confirming how long I have been working there. Why do they need that?

It will take a few days for the application to get processed now. I'll keep you posted.

The insidious ID card scheme has just scraped through the House of Commons in Britain with a tiny majority and now heads for the House of Lords where it is expected to be mauled. I do hope so. It bothers me that it managed to get this far.

I keep hearing about a raid on a "massage parlour" in Britain, somewhere in the Midliands. Police apparently stormed the place and "rescued" 19 women whom they claim were victims of human trafficing. It seems however that nobody has been charged with trafficing and that the six women still being held are claiming that they were in no way forced into the industry, kept there against their will, beaten, blackmailed, or otherwise badly treated by the management of the establishment.

Much is often made of human traffic and the sex industry, and as usual I have an opinion. How do you keep 19 women in a public service industry imprisoned in the sex trade against their will? I'm assuming that this "massage parlour" had a front door through which clients could enter and presumably workers could leave. I'll bet there was a telelphone and windows that gave access to the outside world. If the workers were so anxious to leave I think they could have, or called the police while their minder was taking a pee. On top of that, these women are prostitutes. They have clients whom they see again and again. How could you possibly stop women from telling their clients about maltreatment? I'm not saying that trafficing doesn't happen, but to get 19 women together and stop them from blowing the whistle is pretty nearly impossible I would have thought.

Ken Clarke has been forced out of the Tory leadership race. This is good news I think. I want to see an anti-Blair Euroskeptic right winger in there.

Yes Mr Cat6, David Blaine is treated like Jesus by some people, but he does do some pretty amazing stuff. Or pretty stupid depending on your point of view.

Levitation

In case anyone is interested, the plant I mentioned yesterday turned out to be a Night-Blooming Cereus, also known as Epiphyllum Oxypetalum, Broad Leaved Epiphyllum, and according to Sumedha, King of Himalayan Flowers and Saussurea Obvallata. It's a cactus and it really does flower only once a year, at night for a few hours. So there you go, I feel special because I saw it. Here is a website that has more pictures.

Tomorrow we have an appointmetn with the British Cultural Office in Taipei. I'm still in two minds as to whether I should wear a tie or not. I think I will. Can't do any harm can it. The people at work will laugh at me of course when I return in the afternoon, but I'm not one to shy away from the lime light.

I'm trying to perfect the David Blaine levitation trick. I've made it work a few times but I've discovered I don't have the same power over my audience as Mr Blaine. Not sure why this is. I was hoping to amaze people with my skill, but so far most people have just raised their eyebrows and asked me how to do it. I may make a video of my attempt to run it by you guys.

It's nearly midnight and we have to get up eearly tomorrow. I may not get time for an update tomorrorw, but who knows.

Goodnight.

Chicken nuggets

I ate chicken testicle soup yesterday. I shit you not ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking chicken soup with real chicken nuggets floating about in there. I'm not one to pass up an opportunity like that, so I went for it. I wasn't expecting a soft texture. They were shiny and I think I was expecting "playdough in a condom" sort of firmness. They were however quite mushy, like baked beans. They're bigger though, like small grapes. Not unpleasant if you can ignore the fact that you are in fact eating some poor cock's nut cluster.

This particular gastronomic wonder was served up at the wedding of one of the dragon's cousins. Actually it was billed as a wedding, but word on the street is that it was actually only an engagement, and it may have been something of a shot gun engagement at that, since the bride is 4 months pregnant. For all that however, it was a good day and there was much eeating and drinking. In addition to the testicle soup I decided to attempt lobster. I usually avoid all shell fish due to a to crab allergy . However, I have never had a bad reaction to anything other than crab and I decided that yesterday was the day to go for lobster. And the good news is, it didn't kill me.

I wish I had been more organised and taken a few picures, but I discovered far too late that the camera battery needed charging and it was not to be. We got home late in the evening and discovered the plant on the balcony was flowering. It had three huge, white, and very pungent blooms. This is significant because the plant only flowers for one day, at night, once a year. By morning the flowers are gone. I did manage to get a picture of this.



I have no idea what this plant is, but if anyone out there recognises it, I'm interested to know.

Oh no, not again

Hysterical, the diarymaster has forgotton to renew his subscription to the opendiary.com domain name. It would serve him right if someone bought it.

I'm fed up with downloading new updates for iTunes. Version 6 came out yesterday. I seem to have upgraded 3 times in as many months. And while installing version 6, I was informed that I needed to shut down my browser and Outlook as they were using some of the files that needed upgrading. I find this development insidious and worrying in the extreme. I don't use Outlook at home.

Tonight we are going out to the Frying Scotman, Taipei's only traditional British style fish and chip shop. I've never been there but I am told the owner is indeed a Scotsman. I just hope his food is better than his website. I don't think the Dragon is going to make it, but if it's good, we can always go back another time.

Check this out. The guy that played Chewbacca hardly needed any makeup.

This weekend we have a wedding to attend. I have to buy a new tie because I send all mine back to England in a parcel I think. I was thinking that next week I should probably wear a tie to the interview at the British rep office. Actually I'm not sure that they want to interview me at all. I think they may want to talk to the Dragon on her own. We shall work al that out when the time comes anyway.

Got a couple of notes on the last entry: yes djd, Shubu Shabu is Japanese style and the word comes from the action of waving a thin slice of meat in the pot between your chopsticks. There is a big Japanese cusine influence here. It's left over from when it was a Japanese colony. And I can't believe *LuckyMe* has a think for Boy George. I think I'd have more chance with him than you, given his sexual preferences. But it's academic anyway. I still wonder what's going to happen about this latest drug problem he has.

Again with the snot

I have a cold, it's official. There's snot and everything.I have some purple drink to make me feel better. It's nearly the weekend. We have a wedding to go to on Sunday. It's the Dragon's cousin. I've never met her, but I like Taiwanese weddings.

I just found out that we have to deliver the Dragon's visa application to the British rep office here in person. Silly me. I thought that because we were compelled to complete it on line and send it, that we wouldn't have to go there and deliver the hard copy. How foolish of me. We have an appointment on 19 Oct.

Tonight it's shabu shabu dinner at sister in law's house.

Pictures from inside the womb

I touched upon the exciting news yesterday that our new baby waved at us. I wasn't there however which annoyed me. Next month we will go for a detailed scan and we should know what sex it is. Actually, maybe someone who knows what they're looking at could tell now, but I certainly can't. Here are the pictures anyway. Click for larger image.



As you can see, there are some helpful diagrams there from the dragon to help you work out what's what. If anyone thinks they can spot a penis, I'd very much like to know about it.

There was also a birds eye view done. This is to measure the head size. Not sure why they need to know, but here it is anyway.



Not such a spectacular picture. Next month we get a high definition scan and the option of a 4D scan which would mean we get a 20 minute movie of young Herbert dancing. Quite looking forward to that.

Absolutely nothing happened in the news or in my life apart fromt he above, that requires retelling here. So, here I will leave it today. I still have a sore throat by the way, and lots of snot.

It waved!

I have a sore throat.

The dragon went to hospital this morning to check on our baby. My presence was not required because it was just scheduled to be a urine test. But, wouldn't you know it, they did a scan and the litle soldier apparently waved at them. I can't believe I missed it. Anyway, I'm told we have pictures and I guess I will post them tomorrow. We went to see a presentation by the National Geographic channel at the wekend and we learnt all about 3D and 4D scans. I'm hoping we can get that done because it seemed to show some amazing images.

I can't believe how fat Boy George has got. And Sumedha says he doesn't have beautiful eyes anymore. I can't say I ever found his eyes beautiful to be honest. He didn't look like the guy that used to prance around in Culture Club when he touched down in England yesterday. I'm confused about the events leading up to his arrest. He called the police to report a burglary apparently. The police found cocain in the apartment and arrested him. And now I'm reading that he is also charged with falsely reporting a crime. Something doesn't seem right here. Who calls the police to report a crime that isn't happening and then invites the police into his home with several grammes of cocain lying around?

Is it my imagination, or has Madonna formally lost the plot? What is it with her and this Kabbalah garbage? It seems to have screwed up her husband as well. She's written a song for her new album about a 16th century Jewish mystic called Yitzhak Luria. Apparently however, the song has upset the rabbis that guard the tomb of this guy, because it's forbidden in Jewish law to use the name for profit. She's going to receive punishment from heaven it seems.

I see that the British government are now going to shelve plans for the proposed smoking ban. What ever this government does, it buggers about and ultimately achieves nothing. First they try and produce am "almost" total ban on smoking in public in an effort to please everybody, now they scrap that because it would "fail to meet health fears". So farting about doing nothing I suppose is a better answer is it? That satisfies all "health fear" concerns does it? It doesn't matter which side of the debate you favour here, everyone must agree that doing nothing is the worst possible option.

This weekend I watched a Penn and Teller Bullshit show about PETA. In the past I have always assumed PETA to be harmless freaks. It seems however that I was rather ill informed. PETA are very closely associated with the Animal Liberation Front who are basically terorrists. And, since they have to make their accounts public due to their charity status, it can be seen that they even fund the ALF. Specifically they donated $70,000 to Rod Coronado who has spent time in jail for fire bomb attacks. Nice people. Incidentally, everyone should watch the Penn and Teller Bullshit series, there's some great stuff there. It's a bit profane here and there, but it is well researched and they have covered some really unusual topics.

Thanks MissTick

Before I do anything else, I should say thaks to MissTick whoc left me instructions on how to reset my iPOD. See, people do read this drivel and it even gets the odd result. Yesterday the old iPOD wouldn't even turn on. Today, after a quick butcher's at the MacFixIt website, all is well.

It's 10/10 day in Taiwan today. I can't really work out what is beging celebrated, but it's a national holiday which means I don't have to work. It's been raining intermittantly all day however, which is something of a downer. It's nice to not have any work however. It is also my Father's 70th birthday and we just spoke to him on the phone. He likes his book of Chinese poetry and the Carmina Burana CD.

I mentioned yesterday about the race of robotic vehicles across the mojave desert. Last year no-one finished, this year 4 cars completed the course from a field of 23. I think that's an amazing achievement. I may right more about htis tomorrow. Here's some pictures.

Not enough hours in the day

You didn't get an entry yesterday because I had to work through the lunch hour, how dedicated is that? It's now Saturday and I want everyone to know, I've also worked from 9 am - 2:30 pm today.

I was sort of hoping to get some hate mail or something after describing Nelson Mandela as a Marxist ex-terrorist in my last entry. Either the general public are more in tune with me than I thought however, or no-one realised to whom I was referring. No mater, I can be contraversial in other ways.

My bloody iPOD has decided to die. It was working perfectly well yesterday, this morning, nothing. It's still under warranty but I don't have a receipt for it. At least, I can't find it. I got it from the official Apple shop however and I think they record the serial numbers anyway. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I got a receipt. It's common practice round these parts to avoid giving receipts if possible because it means that certain taxes can be avoided. I'm off to the Apple shop tomorrow anyway.

I've just started reading a book called "Re-Reading Harry Potter" by Suman Gupta. It has some interesting ideas. Suman Gupta is an Open University lecturer in the UK. He writes badly. I mean, he writes really badly, worse than Dan Brown. I can't understand why academics that can't write don't get someone to ghost write for them. I may treat you to the odd passage of apalling writing when I find one worthy of repetition. But I digress, the book discusses the social and political impact of the first 4 Harry Potter books. I'm only 20 pages in, but it looks interesting. More news on this as it unfolds.

It's peeing down with rain again and the weatherman says it will continue for 3 days. Well that's just great. I actually get a 3 day weekend this week; well, 2.5 day thanks to this morning's episode; and it's going tip down with rain until the day I have to go back.

I see that two scum-bag, virus writers have gone to prison for their part in creating the T-K worm - Good! I'm glad that they went to prison, sorry it was only for 3 and 6 months. I hope they have to share cells with someone really unpleasant.

The DARPA $2 million chalenge is on again. This year 23 contestants have entered and will try and get robot vehicles 240 km acros the Mojavi desert. I think this is an amazing competition. I'm finding I have moral objections because it's in an effort to develop defence hardware. I can't decide whether I am becomming more opposed to war because I am gettng older, or because Bush and Blair are making such a hash of the world with their war effort. Either way, I'd love to enter somethign in the DARPA competition, but I'm buggered if I'd let the US defence department have it.Click.

Too Stupid

A new BBC poll out this week has revealed who the general public would like to lead a fantasy world government. The top ten were as follows:

Nelson Mandela
Bill Clinton
The Dalai Lama
Noam Chomsky
Alan Greenspan
Bill Gates
Steve Jobs
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Richard Branson
George Soros

Now, call me cynical but that's a Marxist ex-terrorist, a corrupt politician that was nearly impeached, 2 religious fundamentalists, the guy that intvented/caused the Y2K fiasco and then held the general public to ransom over it, an author (?), and some assorted mega rich businessmen. It seems that more than half the 15,000 votes came from the US, which is ironic since Idiot Boy Bush was placed 43rd, well behind Fidel Castro (36th) and Hugo Chavez (33rd). This my friends is an excellent advert for giving up on democracy because the general public are clearly too stupid to vote.

In answer to Abby's questions, the Liberals traditionally occupy the middle ground in British politics, but right now they are the most socialist of the parties as New Labour has moved right. The Conservatives are the Tories, and they traditionally occupy the right. They are still on the right, but there is some left wing feeling in there in the form of Ken Clarke. The Conservatives tend to identify with the American Republicans, but there has never been any Christian element to the party, not in my life time anyway.

Dickie, Mach3 razors don't take razor blades, they take cartridge things. Maybe that's what the survey menat by razor blades, but I was thinking of real razor blades. I use a Gillet Sensor Excel incidentally. I was thinking of attempting a Salvadore Dali moustache, but that's a whole new area of discussion.

And finally, weird news of the day comes from the Florida swamps. A 3.9m python has exploded after attempting to eat a whole 1.8m alligator. There's even a picture of the event here.

Song and Dance

Why do all British political parties make such a song and dance about electing a new leader?

I have a problem with Ken Clarke. I'm not a Tory, but I want to see Blair ousted, and I have no wish to see Brown replace him. The only people that can do that are the Tories. The thing is, Clarke agrees with Blair on the two most contraversial issues, Europe and Iraq, and he's right on the left of the party. Since Blair is the most right-wing Labour leader in history, they look like the same men in different ties. Of course, if Clarke wins the leadership contest he won't stand against Blair in an election, he'll stand against Brown probably, who is far more left wing. Clarke did say something sensible about Brown this morning on the Today programme however. He says that Brown will be even more autocratic than Blair and that makes him dangerous. I think he's right.

Here's the thing though, everyone hates Blair. Evn his own party are claiming that they won the last election despite Blair rather than because of him. That means the strongest weapon the opposition has is anti-Blair feeling, and they're not exactly cashing in on that with Ken Clarke are they? I decided I want David Davies to win. He's a right winger, Euro-skeptic, younger than Clarke, ex SAS part timer.

I wondered how long it would be after the death of Ronnie Barker before the BBC ran a news story about his son being wanted for child porn offences. Sure enough, it happened today. It's funny how this story stayed so quiet. I found out about it months ago by accident. The BBC ran a story about Adam Barker not showing up for his hearing after being bailed in June 2004, click here. It didn't mention that he was anything to do with Ronnie Barker. I found out from the imdb entry for Adam Barker, when I was trying to find out who the hell he was. Anyway, it now seems he can't turn up for his father's funeral for fear of being arested.

A new survey out today seems to suggest that Britain has the worst shoplifting problem in Europe, equal to about 1.59% of retail turnover. The most commonly stolen items are apparently razor blades. Who the hell wants to steal razor blades? I don't remember the last time I saw a razor that takes real razor blades and they only cost a few pennies anyway.

Culture Vulture

It's October and it's still reaching the low 30s during the day here. That's up in the 90s for you American types. It's too hot, really, it's quite ridiculous. They have Christmas decorations up in Britain I'm reliably informed. If I was a politician I would be campainging to ban Christmas decorations except in December. It seems they go up before the begining of October now. That's more than a quater of the year!

It seems Abby already knew about the singing horses yesterday. I thought I had a scoop. It just goes to show you doesn't it.

I'm meeting the dragon tonight in Nanjing East Road. I have to get my father a birthday present. He's going to be 70 in a few days. I can say all this here because I know he won't be reading it. The parents have gone off to live in a converted chapel in the middle of nowhere in Cornwall for a few days. It's their idea of a holiday. The internet hasn't reached those parts yet. I have no idea what to get him. I'll report back tomorrow.

This was written yesterday, and never finished. It's now today, and in case anyone is interested, I bought my father a book of Chinese poetry (translated into English) and a CD of Carmina Burana. He's a culture vulture, what can I say?

Singing Horses

Regarding Dickie's note about The Blind Watchmaker, I'm happy to report that I have already read it and consider it essential reading for, well everyone really. I need to read "Pandas and People" which is apparently the text recommended by pro ID nuts for students being taught evolution.

I saw Wolf Creek this weekend. I heard a review that said it was a nasty, graphic horror film and that on average about 2% of the audience leaves before the end because they can't cope with it. Well it was quite graphic, but it wasn't a complete gore fest. I didn't find it in the least bit chilling, quite the opposite in fact, I thought it was pretty run of the mill stuff. It reminded me of The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer, made in 1986. I'd give it a 5 out of 10. I wouldn't bother seeing it again.

We got typhooned at the weekend again. Apparently it was quite bad in some parts. We saw lots of wind and rain, but we didn't suffer any breakages or other damage.

I just read a story about an electrician in Wales who installed a burglar alarm for a client and at the same time planted a hidden spy camera in a wardrobe in a bedroom. The camera was connected to a transmitter int he roof which broadcast a signal to a reciever in his garage. Did he really think he could get away with it? They discovered the camera (admittedly only after 2 years) and immediately worked out who had planted it. The electrician is now serving three months in prison. Actually three months seems very lenient to me. It makes you wonder just how much of this goes on doesn't it. Click.

I found a cute flash toon thing that I think deserves passing on. You need headphones or speakers, but it is work safe. Singing Horses.