Strangely Perfect

Bloody Sunday The Saville Report, probably the longest and certainly the most expensive enquiry in the UK ever, is now out.  The ramifications are continuing, despite the Prime Minister trying to draw a line under everything.  See Bloody Sunday report published History On that day in 1972, 13 folks were killed, and overall, in what [...]

Introduction Some time ago I tried out Flickr, ultimately deciding to host my own pictures on-site.  I don’t the idea of someone having MY picture resource at THEIR beck and call… Whatever.  FlickrHQ sent me an email today (from “The Flickreenos” by gad!) introducing me to something they call, People in Photos. As they say, [...]

Our existence in this world can be likened to a dream. The issue of the greatest importance and eternal relevance is how we face death, the inescapable destiny of all living beings. For in the face of death, external factors such as social status or position in the organization count for naught.  Everything depends on [...]

Who?  Who Are Megrahi and Calley Megrahi is a Libyan, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 270 people by blowing up a 747 over Lockerbie in Scotland – but released early after 8 years (but 10 years in prison) and sent to Libya to die of cancer. Calley is an American, convicted and [...]

British Workers Sacked for Striking at French Company Total’s Site – see news report Joan la Pucelle. [Aside] Done like a Frenchman: turn, and turn again! – Shakespeare, History of Henry VI, Part I, Line 1695 In Lindsey, Lincs, 650 workers have been sacked for being on an “unofficial” strike (whatever that means in a [...]

The Next Dalai Lama Rejects Buddhism and Hero Worship, that is! Way back in 1986, the next Dalai Lama, a little Spanish boy, was chosen.  Apparently, Osel Hita Torres can’t take it, a life deprived of television, movies (save one), football and girls. He’s now a film student in Madrid. He rejects all that his status [...]

Too Little, Too Late, Gordon Brown This morning, PM Gordon Brown told Andrew Marr that he wants to ‘clean up’ parliament. He wants a ‘code of conduct’ for MPs to follow. The thing is, there’s already a code of conduct – it’s called the law! All we,  ‘the people’ want, is to have reasonable laws [...]

Introduction I’m a born twiddler.  Even though something works quite happily, I’ll try something else. So it was yesterday. In an effort to improve the ‘user experience’ and promote a bit of feedback on this website, I’ve been twiddling with various plugins. Caching for Speed Some time ago I changed caching methods from Donncha’s WP [...]

Two news items today confirm the inadequacy of any security system made by man.  After all, once a secret is out, it’s no longer secret. We have the simple human error of losing something combined with the natural inquisitiveness of human beings.  Both these absolute facts of life should drive a big hole through any [...]

Following on from the Google Street View roll-out, two issues have popped up – again; People’s privacy on the streets vis-a-vis a commercial organisation like Google People’s privacy on the streets vis-a-vis government organisations like local councils For the first, the self-appointed guardian “Privacy International” have made an official appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office [...]

WARNING:  This Posting Contains Illegal Pictures I Can Be Imprisoned for Publishing Them. A little realised consequence of Bush’s ‘war on terror’ and the ramping up of common hysteria across the English speaking western world is, bizarrely, that it’s now illegal to take pictures of people commemorating, in a patriotic symbolic way, the lives and [...]

Chinese Censorship: As part of the BBCs “take” on the international views on the new, 44th President of the United States, their China correspondent Michael Bristow has reported that his inauguration speech was censored in China. Apparently, the English version on the Xinghua News site is okay, but the Chinese version for the locals has [...]

View Larger Map While walking George the dog today, I spotted an Egret in town! You can tell it’s an egret because nothing else is so brilliantly white. The seagulls and terns look dull in comparison! This really shows the pace of global warming in my short lifetime. When I first went to France in [...]

Many moons ago I read the short story with the above title. Although not one of Pohl’s best works, it has nevertheless left an obviously lasting impression on me. Written in the mid-fifties, it’s a future tale of consumerism gone mad. In the tale, it’s illegal not to consume as much as possible.  The hero [...]