Flim-Flam

I received a parcel in the mail yesterday from the James Randi Educational Foundation. Within was a signed copy of Flim-Flam by the man himself. He's signed it to me personally, and he has beautiful handwriting. I feel special. In fact I'm not really special because anyone ordering a book from Mr. Randi's website can request that he sign it. It is however a thing to treasure.

Currently I am reading "The End of Mr Y" by Scarlett Thomas, which is turning into a remarkable read. I'm 100 pages in and I have to finish by 2 July to submit a review. I may have just enough time after that to read Flim-Flam before the new Harry Potter comes out. Flim-Flam looks a bit technical; probably not a quick read. And I don't want to spoil it, since it is a special signed copy.

I suspect that George W Bush is attempting to piss off as many people as possible before his presidency ends. He's managed to alienate the entire muslim community already of course. I estimate that to be about 20% of the world, or around 1.5 billion people. He's pretty much despised by everyone in Europe, apart from Tony Blair, who appears to be his best friend. So that is another 0.7 billion. Well, lets say 0.5 billion because some of them have to be counted in the Muslim figure above. Then there's China. They hate him, just because he's American. Call that 1.2 billion. That's 3.2 billion already. Now he's attempting to upset Russia by building nuclear weapons bases all over Eastern Europe. This has resulted in Russia threatening to point weapons at Europe for the first time since the cold war ended, thus reinforcing the loathing for him already nurtured in the Europeans, and evoking new loathing for him from the Russians, in one devastating blow. Truly remarkable. Population of Russia is around 140 million. Well, every little helps. The thing I can't understand is why no one has shot at him. People loved Kennedy, and Reagan, and they were both shot at.

There seems to be a huge backlash against the newly released London 2012 Olympics logo. Apparently £400,000 was spent developing the logo, and frankly it isn't very good. It is eye-catching, but it doesn't really say "London" very loudly, and it really doesn't capture the spirit of London. London is one of the most historically significant cities of the world, with instantly recognisable landmarks and cultural icons, some of which date back centuries. You'd think that a logo designed for the city would take advantage of this. Are the organisers scared of being too Anglo Saxon?

It seems that John Prescott has pneumonia. Told you it was more than a chest infection.