Personal – Page 10

Political manifesto things of interest

Here is a list of things of interest taken from the manifestos of various UK political parties. I’ve included mainly things that are plainly and clearly stated. Anything that is suggested, implied or “worked towards” is mostly ignored. I’ve also included some things that make me laugh, and things that make me apply for Canadian citizenship.

These things are of interest to me. Luckily though, I am for good things and against bad things so everyone should, of course, agree with me.

The Green party

Cancel debt for 52 poorest countries
Oppose the hugely wasteful, flawed and insecure ID card system
Stop subsidising the aviation industry (currently to the tune of £9 billion)
Decommision our nuclear weapons
Replace WTO with something must better
Return rail and tube networks to public ownership
Replace VAT with a tax based on natural resource, pollution and waste.
Stop using GDP to assess wealth
Replace road tax with higher fuel duty. Drive less, pay less.
Ban genetically modified food
30% organic production by 2012 target

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4/5/2005 4 Comments

Sgt. Akbar gets death penalty

In Marchs 2003, American soldier Sgt. Hasan Akbar rolled two grenades into a tent of fellow soldiers and shot at them as they tried to escape, killing 2 and wounding 14. A military jury of “nine officers and six noncommissioned officers” found him guilty this week and he was sentenced to death.

And the punch line? Lt. Col. Michael E. Mulligan described Akbar as “a hate-filled murderer who waged war on troops he did not know in the middle of the night.“*

pH irony indicator level: 7.3

* I can’t find another reporting of this exact quote so it’s probably incorrect. It seems this is just a summary of what was said, which included “He is a hate-filled, ideologically driven murderer”, which is still amusing.

29/4/2005 Add Comment

BBC ignored weapons claims

The BBC has been accused of failing to investigate claims that the US used banned weapons in Iraq. Is it ignoring the story or has it done its best to seek out the truth?

Well, they’ve:

not mentioned that the US have already admitted to using modified napalm
stated (falsely) that Human Rights Watch investigated these claims and found nothing (something HRW deny, as they do not have the freedom to conduct investigations in Fallujah)
Ignored multiple media reports (rebroadcast on the BBCs very own worldwide monitoring service) stating that “the occupation forces used poisonous gas”
Ignored investigations and reports made by Iraqi medical staff and officials at Iraq’s health ministry
Stated, falsely, that their reporters had full access to all military documents and briefings and heard nothing of banned weapons

And it’s clear that they’ve only published this Newswatch article because they’ve been repeatedly pressed by Medialens.

18/4/2005 Add Comment

Savages and Cannibals

Last night it was suggested to me that when the British empire was exploiting and murdering the people of (amongst other countries/continents) Africa, we saved them from themselves as they would repeatedly war with each other. We brought stability to these “savages”.

Obviously my cynical and suspicous mind immediately suggested, perhaps, that not all was as it seemed (especially as “what seemed” had no doubt been extracted from British “history” books).
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15/4/2005 Add Comment

Compact flush card

One of my 256MB compact flash cards containing some photos went through the wash. It was a colours cotton wash at 40 degrees with a spin cycle at the end and then into the tumble dryer for 60 minutes or so.

It still seems to work perfectly, though some of the colours in the photos look a little lower saturated (read: ‘washed out’). If this were a floppy disc I’d expect extreme data loss (though, at 1.44MB, that’s less that one lost photo), and when I’ve washed CDs before, they were completely destroyed.

I bet if this were a microdrive it’d be broken too.

12/4/2005 1 Comment

Amsterdam irony

We were wandering around Amsterdam looking for a bar to have a drink in (yes a drink) and found one with a pinball machine, which made it an easy decision. As we walked in through the candy-floss-thick plume of smoke and approached the bar, the big shaven head bar tender showed us the herb menu. We instead looked around for what beers were on offer, noticing the shelves fully stocked with Pringles crisps and M&M’s chocolate.

After a minute or so the bar guy asked: “You’re not schmoking?”

Us: “Uhrm, no, just a beer.”

Him: “Schmoke first, beer later. If you’re not schmoking then you must leave.”

Us: “Heh, seriously?”

Him: “Seriously. Leave.”

I see now that he knew we’d only have one beer each and spend a measly 30 euromonopoly dollars in the pinball machine, rather than buy his overpriced marijuana then spend all the money we had on crisps and chocolate to sate our munchies.

Back home in the UK we would have been thrown out of a bar for smoking the illegal weed, whereas in Amsterdam we were thrown out for not. Then again, alcohol does account for 50 times as many deaths as all illicit drugs put together, so the guy was probably just thinking about our health.

11/4/2005 Add Comment

water cooler

I managed finally, after lots of prodding of the site manager, to get a water cooler installed down here in our department. The water supply down here tastes funny (and is usually warm) so I complained. Unfortunately they’ve plumbed it into the same water source as the tap (duh, I did warn them of this) but with it being cooled, I can no longer taste the fun.

Increased efficiency due to being properly watered: 10%.
Loss of efficiency due to many more trips to the toilet: 2%. Bonus!

I wonder if I can get them to install a urinal down here now. Obviously not in the kitchen, that wouldn’t be hygenic, but there is space in the server room.

6/4/2005 1 Comment

Photos from Amsterdam

A few photos from around and about Amsterdam, but the majority are from the ARTIS zoo. I’ve uploaded them to the usual place. You can see how tiny my hotel room was, Tux advertising ice drinks, and this bear showing the crowd what he thinks of them.

The zoo was rather depressing. Many of the animals had very little space and looked so sad. So many people were tapping on windows and annoying them too (even using flash photography in the aquarium). This guy was a complete dickhead. Clicking his fingers and shouting at animals to take photos of them. His horrible daughter had learned the same behaviour from him. I clicked my fingers and shouted until he turned around and then I took a photo of him myself. He didn’t get it at all.

I’ve got more stories from Amsterdam which I’ll write later.

5/4/2005 Add Comment

Black Hat, Amsterdam

I leave for Amsterdam on Wednesday where I’m attending the Black Hat Briefings. I was at DefCon in Las Vegas a few years ago so I’m interested to see what the BHB are like in comparison. I hope it’s not just a big ugly advertis-a-thon. I’m there for a few days courtesy of work and will have photies to post when I get back I expect.

My new Laptop arrived today too (not got it in my hands though). The ickle IBM Thinkpad X40 is very portable, but I’ve been using it for more of a desktop replacement than a portable troubleshooter, hence the new Viao one. Big 17inch widescreen LCD, crazy CPUness (for Doom3 and Half Life 2 fun), and 1G RAM. I expect it’ll weigh more than two Terri Schiavos* but I’m a big guy.

* – Please note: topical reference.

29/3/2005 Add Comment

NCFE exam

It’s my NCFE Asian cookery exam tonight. We’ve got to make a Sindhi Korma, and some other stuff. I’m looking forward to passing. Let’s hope I do.

update: Both myself and Louisa passed the practical and written exam. I won’t belittle my achievement but I will say this: whilst I’m very confident at cooking various Asian curries and breads now, I won’t be winning any positions in the kitchens at Aagrah’s or Akbar’s.

I still plan to write up the missing recipies, and anything new I try.

Follow your dreams. You can meet your goals. I am living proof.

22/3/2005 4 Comments

punch drunk love

Warning: spoilers herein.

The film is about a nice guy (Adam Sandler), who basically has a mental illness which results in various strange behaviours, one of which is random(ish) violent outbursts. He phones a sex line because he’s lonely and wants to talk to someone but it turns out to be a scam and they try to blackmail him. They threaten him, turn up at his house and beat him up and take money from him. In the meantime he meets a nice girl and falls in love.
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19/3/2005 Add Comment

New photo gallery

I’ve written a new photo gallery system and am now using it for my photos. I’ve also uploaded a huge back catalogue of photos. Take a peek and tell me what you think.

The best place to start might be the yearly selections.

There are lots of new snaps up, such as when a bunch of IRC buddies came to visit, when I visited James in the USA or various drinking times.

I’ve been to loads more places than I’d previously let on, such as Budapest, Brimham Rocks and recently York. Lots more photos around Leeds and Bradford too.

Lots of portaits too. Some of me in all my glory too. And cats.

A few more to come, including Prague, which I seem to have missed.

4/3/2005 1 Comment