British Library to sell rare books via Amazon UK

Following on in it's moves to adopt more modern technology, the British Library has announced that it is to team up with Amazon.co.uk to sell antique and out of print works. What's confusing in the presse release (see below) is that the alliance is simply allowing Amazon to access the records the Library keeps about the books, rather than unique parts of the Libary's collection itself. So they're only letting Amazon use its bibliographic information to provide details for other third party sellers. In part this is a move for Amazon to take part in the famously technology shy industry of antique books, but is just as much a statement by the Library that they want to make their collection available for the public to 'access'.

Natalie Ceeney, Director of Operations and Services at the British Library added: "The Library's alliance with Amazon.co.uk is a wonderful way to make our catalogue data relevant and available to an even wider audience. Our bibliographic catalogues are second-to-none and we are delighted that Amazon.co.uk will be using them to underpin and support the marketplace service."

BBC summary
Zdnet linkPress Release

"Just look at the exciting titles Amazon can now sell: Cake Design And Decoration, published 1963, and the ever-popular How To Keep A Man Eating Shark, published 1967!"

That was fun

I was out last night in a club - surrounded by girls. A new sensation for me which no doubt did not go unnoticed by those around. Was out for R's 21'st birthday 'event' which was more of a mass night out than a party in itself. We took over a pizza place in the center of town with a booking for 40, then pissed off the staff by only arriving with 35. Oops. I thought I managed the night rather well - kept my ability to hold a conversation despite the effects of six shots of Aftershock racing through me from the drinking games we began before going out. Then there was the wine. A word of warning there, never get a house white to go with pizza - it stank. I was out with cheap students and though the house wine was over £12 a bottle, it was still completely shit. However, I'd never even considedered Rocket on pizza before, which turned out to be amazing.
And finally one last thing to consider: Aussie bars with crooners doing cover versions of old brit-pop songs. Stick to dance music on some other floor, evacuate the area of the dreary 90's durge. Plus, the whole bar was full of ugly twenty-eight year old men trying to look young in their Ben Sherman shirts and loafers. Then when they thought they'd got the combination right they'd down five pints of beer and try to hit on some poor unsuspecting girl. Gross.

Jumpin jacks - hopping roos in Aussie passport.

Australia has unveiled a new passport with floating images of kangaroos that appear to hop up and down making it virtually impossible for criminals to fake, the government says. Launching the passport on Thursday, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it will be "the most secure Australian passport ever produced." The kangaroos appear to hop up and down when the page is moved backwards and forwards, and my department thinks that that is a very nice touch," Downer said.
via BoingBoing

Fag jokes by politicians. Very funny 'har har'.

The Times is shocked to hear that William Hague [former Conservative Party Leader] should have resorted to politically incorrect humour while giving an after-dinner speech. How could he possibly have thought it suitable to make dirty jokes involving reverse gears and Peter Mandelson at the annual dinner of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders? The ex-Tory leader, now an honorary adviser to Michael Howard, can make up to £10,000 a go with his star turns — a pretty sum by today’s standards.

“I agree with a lot of things the prime minister says. Particularly that I have no reverse gear,” ran the gag during the shindig last Tuesday at one of the London Hiltons. “I too wouldn’t have a reverse gear if Peter Mandelson was standing behind me.”

It doesn't change does it, when facing the public in a bid to appear accepting and open to 'all points of view' the right wing can be all nice and demure. When wanting to be 'one of the guys' and show their real face with a bit of humour, the isolationist jokes come back to the fore.
link

Woman Knocked Unconscious By Wal-Mart Shoppers

Good lord, people can be so keen! Like dogs on heat, you don't know what to do about it but shake your head and look away...
link

Red Ball appears around Sydney

Another inflatable ... another big thing. Panorama. This is a big red ball, an art installation by American artist Kurt Perschke - which is appearing in unannounced locations round the city for the next few weeks. This was its inaugural appearance - outside the Sydney Town Hall on Tuesday.


Peter Murphy's Panoramic VR

Mike Allen's private notes on Bush's visit to Baghdad

The President left Waco secretly Wednesday at 8:25 p.m. Eastern (7:25 p.m. Texan) with a small pool, stopped at Andrews to pick up a few staff and a few more poolers, change planes and then head to Baghad. Both flights were what we think of as the normal Air Force One, Boeing 747 with the normal marking. The President landed in darkness at Baghdad International Airport at 9:31 a.m. Washington time (5:32 p.m. local) on Thursday, Nov. 27, Thanksgiving Day. He took off at 12:03 p.m. Eastern time, so was in Baghdad roughly 2.5 hours.

The staff aimed to keep the trip secret until after he had taken off from Baghdad ? no filing was permitted from the site, by the pool or by locals. The President landed with barely a sliver of a moon. He was already in a white Land Rover or Land Cruiser by the time the pool reached the Tarmac. The staff said the motorcade was 12 vehicles plus a military ambulance.

The event had been set up with Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Paul Bremer, the chief civilian administrator. When the President arrived, the soldiers were still thinking those would be the speakers. General Sanchez said, "God bless you for all of your sacrifices," and hurriedly introduced Ambassador Bremer. Bremer said he had Thanksgiving greetings from the President. But then Bremer, hamming it up, looked toward stage left and said, "Let's see if we've got anyone more senior here." Then the President came out and the room erupted even before he reached the stage, with soldiers standing on chairs, standing on tables to bark, hoot, yell and "Hoo-ah!" their approval.

The President then plunged into the crowd to meet with the soldiers. He served food and worked the entire length of the long building. The President seemed to be into the serving thing. "What do you want?" At one point he said, "How many do you want, one or two?" Secretary Card worked the crowd separately. The President did not eat while the journalists were in.

"The first conversation about this trip took place approximately five or six weeks ago ? the concept of visiting the troops during the holidays. The President instructed him to do some diligence on the logistics of this. Joe Hagin, the deputy chief of staff, is the one who's been spearheading this trip. The President went to the next level of committing to do the trip during the Asia trip. There are a certain amount of people you have to include in planning something like this. So they went to the next level of due diligence. He made a final call this morning. {hellip} He had two kind of final opportunities to make a decision. One was while he was in Las Vegas, he gave the final approval, which required another level of planning. And then made the final, final approval this morning when he was on a CIVITS call this morning with the chief of staff, the vice president and Dr. Rice." secure videoconference, where he gets his intelligence briefing.

What an amazing insight into the style of the President, whilst also a look into the way a pool reporter works, the way they're treated on the ground. The West Wing sounds pretty accurate to me now!
link

Beautiful night = cold snap

I was putting through a service call on some of our equipment yesterday and as the store is based in the states, much of our support is routed via the US meaning that the call was to a company in Minneapolis/St Paul. I was waiting on the line (as usual) for someone to pick up, and found that the hold music they have there, rather than being just the standard Muzak was in fact the local radio station. I should have known they were going to have something fancy on their system, they were a digital audio company! So I'm sitting in Britain listening to the weather and ads from Minnesota and find that the weather there is pretty much the same as it is here: cold. Everywhere's cold, but the nice thing was that it's a bright sort of cold. Before I went out last night I did some shopping for my sister's up-coming birthday. I hate shopping after work as I'm always exhausted, but it had to be done.

What made the whole thing a bit more enjoyable was that I took my new digital camera into town for the first time and took some shots. One of the photos I took was this one on the left, a train station just adjacent to the town centre. I was amazed by how beautiful it was looking with all the ironwork and arched brick doorways. The cold made the air clear and bright, meaning this beautiful photo was the result...

messed up... the hours are running out!

The act of staying out until two wasn't in itself a bad idea. Well, perhaps it was a bad idea, but it wasn't in itself a bad thing. The problem was the early start. Waking at five AM after going to sleep at two AM does no favours for one's general appearance or state of mind. I was dead to the world today. Normally people are amazed by my attitude and remark on how cheerful and happy I appear; none of that today. Today I was a sloth-like waste of space. At least I know I'm not being paid the earth for it. In fact I'm hardly being paid at all for it. Damn them. This is what the store looks like at night. If you image it at 7 o'clock in the morning, that's exactly what it looks like so it shouldn't stretch your imagination. Contact me if you're having trouble: I'll send you the larger image of it.

Part of the going out last night was the fact that one of the group was held up by the bouncers or 'big butch men who scare queens' as they're otherwise known, and sent to the back of the line outside the club because they'd supposedly seen him jumping the queue. Completely unfair: especially since everyone else in our group had walked all the way along the line too! I strolled through the entrance whilst one of us was torn apart by the gathering wolves of steroid laced flesh.
I was however wearing a slut-like t-shirt with 'Flash' written out in bold across the figure hugging black fabric. It works as long as you're slim and have pecs. Thank god for heavy books eh! I call it literary aerobics.

short back and sides?

My sister, Dad and I were washing the dishes this evening to the sounds of the pop music pumping out of our radio. The track playing fades out and the DJ starts talking. Oddly enough – FOR A POP STATION - they start talking about waxing. This guy is making fun of his producer (a woman) and her waxing habit and how she always has stubble legs. The finisher is when the DJ moves onto another track by saying that it's at least better than his wax - back, sack and crack.
You haven't experienced silence until you get the stunned silence of a group of people pretending not to have noticed anything out of the ordinary when someone says something like that. Everyone attempting to appear either 'tolerant' or simply not laugh! I just kept washing the dishes.

Bored of Google News? Read Newsblaster!

How is Newsblaster different from Google News?
Google News does not do multidocument summarization; it simply uses the articles' leading sentences. In addition, Newsblaster produces multiple summaries for an event, each reflecting the media from a particular country. Future expansions such as tracking events across days are also in the works.

Every night, the system crawls a series of Web sites, downloads articles, groups them together into "clusters" about the same topic, and summarizes each cluster. The end result is a Web page that gives you a sense of what the major stories of the day are, so you don't have to visit the pages of dozens of publications.

It actually creates a written summary of the story that's going on at the moment, saving you going around all the different sites for the varied perspective. I also love the way there are links in the article to the original article from which the sentance came - meaning you can go further in depth if you like. The funniest thing about this site is the summary of images and how it's arranged. You've got a little table the has headings of Struggle, Politics, Disaster, Crime, and Other. The inclusion of struggle there makes it sound like the title of a book!

Did someone cut the line?

The web is back online after being almost dead yesterday.
It seems that an undersea cable was cut or broke or something and so links between the UK and the states (ie the UK and the rest of the world) were severely hampered. Read all about it:

the register blames the cable
zdnet talks about where the cable is and why the problem was so bad
zdnet reports the outage

personally, I don't think it was a DOS attack - the net worked for some sites a little (and slowly) though others were completely unavailable. This would indicate to me that the ISP's servers were running but that the connection with outside world wasn't. This was especially apparent as BBC Online was running perfectly.
NTL's outage was even more complete - my friends on their network couldn't access anything.

fire! fire! Run and help me

There's been a breakdown in my internet:

We are currently investigating a national issue with platforms. All blueyonder customers will currently be experiencing problems accessing their email, webmail, the selfcare tools on the blueyonder website and their personal web page.

This issue is being investigated as a matter of the highest priority and we hope to resolve shortly.

then they added:

This issue may also affect broadband users trying to access web pages.

it does.

According to the ISP's website there's been an explosion in a junction room that has cut the cables that supply us. Oh, and by 'us' I mean the UK cable broadband. Only two million connections! Have fun folks.

Press Release

It's shallow and silly and something else with 's'. It's also a hilarious press release from last year by my favorite pr agency: Borkowski Pr. I know that most people don't have a favorite agency but that's just because they've haven't made up their minds yet. Of my list of great agencies, this one comes out top.

A number of key industry figures and general bread-heads have accused Borkowski PR of playing a significant role in securing this substantial commercial success, worth millions in over the counter sales. They have suggested that because the brand’s growth coincides exactly with Borkowski’s tenure of the PR account, there is some connection.


These are the facts of the case, pure and simple. It is hoped that this will end any further speculation on the matter. Borkowski PR has asked that anyone with any further interest in the HOVIS case should draw their own conclusions and – if appropriate – contact the agency’s New Business Director, Larry Franks.

B O R K O W S K I P R

Tangent

On slashdot they tend to go off on a tangent. Really easily. You think they're all going to go off talking about some new technology and it turns out the 'conversation' drifts to the funny things that happen when cultures collide. Luckily from this comes a story by David Sedaris called Jesus Shaves.

"He nice, the Jesus. He make the good things, and on the Easter we be sad because somebody makes him dead today."

"And what does one do on the fourteenth of July? Does one celebrate Bastille Day?"

On an unrelated note, he's got a new book of christmas related stories out that I saw the other day. Santaland Diaries
thanks to www.stocktheory.com for that

Slashdot asks: are call centres moving back to their home country?

"Fox reports that Dell is moving its call center operations for the Latitude and Optiplex computers back to the US from Bangalore, India after an onslaught of complaints from dissatisfied customers who couldn't cope with the differing accents and scripted responses. Is this the beginning of a trend where companies recognize that the quality offered by relocation to cheaper centers around the world doesn't result in customer appreciation and better quality?' "

Not according to Fuckedcompany reports recently:

When you care enough to send your very best jobs to India
Rumor has it Hallmark.com just told employees that 30% of them are about to be laid off. Word is IBM will assimilate these workers for a year (5 year contract worth about $25 to $30 million), then train replacements in India. "Some of us at Hallmark.com have been with Hallmark Cards for 20 or 30 years," according to one employee and FC reader. "Thanks, Hallmark."
When: 11/13/2003

Lane Fox leaves before the minute's up

In another story using the tabloid style that BBC News Online has adopted of late, Martha Lane Fox - the MD of Lastminute.com, is being reported to be standing down. Her company is famous as one that everybody knows but nobody has actually used. The system works by Lastminute being supplied with information about deals from agents and tour operators that haven’t yet sold. The company then posts this information on their site and takes delivery of payment. Essentially they are a forum for deals that haven’t found a buyer elsewhere which operators would rather fill up that have go unused, and along the way they charge for the privilege.
The redeeming feature of the article is the analysis of lastminute as a whole which mentions the all to obvious and yet oft missed fact about online businesses:

With no bricks and mortar presence on the high street, online retailers had to - and still have to - compete in the sphere of media mobilisation.
The news media themselves also had an interest in following the dot.com story closely. A new medium was both a threat and an opportunity to their own businesses.
So the photogenic and public relations savvy Ms Lane Fox became a natural star of the show.
Publicity, after all, is cheaper than marketing.

Part of me thinks that she’s leaving for green pastures since operating a site continually on one’s personality might become a drag after five years; perhaps a nice magazine business to run, as she clearly needs something cut-throat. But at the same time she may just be trying to generate some much needed attention to the site – after all, it hasn’t exactly been top of my daily list of sites. Is she jumping ship once the positive image has returned in order to avoid a follow up dip in performance? I think it would hardly be charitable to seriously consider this as she has just steered the company through its most demanding year –it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that the motive for leaving is something more than just looking for a new field to sow.

link

according to fark.com:

Spam company targets Dutch bloggers. Blogger begin DDOS war which takes spammer off of the Internet. Currently in 2nd round of attacks
Love that!

"The weblogs, known for their satirical pranks, had written a script of war to push Customerblast off the web with sustained distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. This was in response to a mail bomb sent by the spam firm to Retecool. For those unfamiliar with Retecool that has the same effect as pinching the behind of a club bouncer. "

link

Norwegian PM's car bomb proof but too heavy for roads

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's new bomb-proof BMW is 40 kilos (88 lbs) too heavy for Norwegian roads and can not be approved by the Public Roads Administration. The discreetly armored vehicle must now be overhauled by the manufacturer before it can hit the streets, newspaper VG reports.
link

Adage slams Dion-Chrysler partnership

One year after signing a three-year contract with Ms. Dion for a reported $14 million, Chrysler is all but pulling the plug on the French-Canadian chanteuse. The advertising campaign that featured more Dion than cars has been a disaster for Chrysler. Dealers complain that the branding campaign did more to sell the singer than it did the new Pacifica.

It is not as though Chrysler wasn't warned. Sources say Chrysler's ad agency, BBDO Worldwide, of Troy, Mich., discouraged its client from using the singer for its commercials. Still, the campaign went ahead despite test numbers showing that Ms. Dion appealed to a much older audience than Chrysler wanted.
"None of the Celine ads did especially well at breaking through the clutter," said Bob Coppola, Chrysler account group director at Millward Brown. "It was just about average."

link

Don't come to England.

It's cold.

Temperature
Max: 2 °C
Min: 0 °C
Wind Speed 4 ( N )
Air Pollution N/A
Sun Index 1
Sunrise 7:40 GMT
Sunset 16:05 GMT

Watch an amazing movie today

It's a simple tale of a boy (Hayden Christensen) growing to love his parents (Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott-Thomas) once more, of returning to the real world, and all the while learning to accept the loss and heartache that will come with loving somebody.

From Amazon.com:

Playing an architect with terminal cancer, Kline gives an Oscar®-caliber performance, reaching out to his estranged, nihilistic son (future Star Wars star Hayden Christensen) and ex-wife (Kristin Scott-Thomas) as he wrecks and rebuilds the Malibu cliff-top home that contained his most painful memories.

Life as a house"

"Constituency of One"

The West Wing writers sat down with John Wells amd Warner Brothers and pondered how they could get the flagging series to perk up AND to run another season. They're limited in the White House by the fact that Bartlett can't stay for more than two terms. They sat down and out of that meeting came this. What are they doing? I know the show was never meant to be subtle, but how heavy handed and obvious can they be. There's going to be a shakeup in the West Wing.
Hint: you can tell when they're getting serious by spotting one thing: they always put on my favorite rumble music when things get back to basics just so that we never get lost. You think you hear thunder, watch out, Leo's gonna be pissed.
link

What a success!

And the good news we can all celebrate is this: the children's classic "The Cat in the Hat" movie is being supported by promotional links with over 40 brands. That's a load off my mind.

"This is one of the largest promotional programs put into place because it's such a wonderful piece of Americana, and companies want to be associated in these times with something very American and very beloved," - Susan Brandt, vice president of licensing and marketing at Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

In "Minority Report," 22 products were prominently placed and in surveys after the movie, kids remembered about 18 of them, said Martin Lindstrom, a brand marketing expert. "It was a shocking number."

Leave the analysis up to you. Make up your mind whether you want kids to be pestering you for sweets/candy because it's been tied in with their 'favorite' story character, but I must say I wouldn't. I have enough trouble when the kids I babysit come back from activities they do buzzing from the sugar that they're loaded with. I don't need movies to push them towards even more tie ins. Plus, why would a tie in like this make you buy more Febreze? Of all things!

link

copied from mediawench.com :

A new series of state fact sheets summarizes the impact of the Bush tax cuts on residents of each state. Each state fact sheet includes information on the distribution and cost of the Bush tax cuts enacted so far, for each year between 2001 and 2006. The fact sheets also include information on the number of families with children who are unaffected by the recent expansion of the child tax credit, and the impact of the Bush tax cuts on the amount of federal debt shouldered by residents of each state.

The fact sheets are available on CTJ's website at
www.ctj.org/state.htm

i'm leaking

I was just sitting typing. I was sitting typing and I think that the roof has started leaking because by upper back has become really wet. I don't know what it's from until I turn to look at it after patting the wetness with my fingers. I find that my shoulder is all red and by fingers are sticky because my shoulder is bleeding. I got a scratch on my shoulder today, a tiny scratch, which I thought completely insignificant as it hardly breaks the skin. Next thing I know I'm swamped by blood pouring out of my shoulder as though I've cut an artery. Of course the shoulder being close to the heart the pressure would be high, but my gosh the amount of blood. Sorry for being so biological, but it was a big surprise. I didn't feel anything, I just suddenly realised I was bleeding!

Again

'We' are attacked. Again we cry and see that pained expressions of sympathy and determination on the faces of our leaders. We expect the same to happen again.

Video link

"Once again, we're reminded of the evil these terrorists pose to innocent people everywhere and to our way of life. Once again, we must affirm that in the face of this terrorism there must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace, in attacking it wherever and whenever we can, and in defeating it utterly."
Our response is not to flinch, give way or concede one inch."

Bush and Blair looked calm and ready in their press conference. They came across as genuinely thoughtful, personable people who just happen to be blighted by the harsh realities of having to create policies for their countries. GWB seemed very disappointed and sad. He looked like he'd just received news of a personal friend's death, whilst Tony Blair looked pumped up and ready to take them on with hands waving in the air and big grandiose gestures. We have two leaders who have such different styles, such different views of the world that perhaps they moderate each other. They manage to speak in the same room and appear to be reading off the same page where Bush will start say a sentance and Blair will and a semicolon finish it off. I like the fact that the two of them get along. Perhaps it will help iron out (ie stop) some of the idiotic things happending in the world like EU-US steel wars.


If I didn't know what Bush does the rest of the time, I'd really like him.

Buy Maxim, get this 50,000 Acre Forest - FREE!

Felix Dennis, the owner of Dennis Publishing and publisher of Maxim Magazine, likes being a philanthropist. He 'hoses' money away on family, friends and 'buddies'. He clearly likes his life of girls, wine and fun, but other than his poetry there's just one main goal; a forest. As he's said before, he aims to create a 50,000 acre forest in England before he dies.

“In my mind, I don't think I'll manage to get more than 20,000 acres done. But in my mind, I'd like to do 50,” says Dennis. “It’s the biggest forest in England.”

And how will he pay for it? Dennis revealed he plans to sell Dennis Publishing, the publishing empire he spent a lifetime building.

Is this a way of giving back some of the riches that he’s acquired? Or is this a massive ego trip?

“Let’s say it’s a little of both,” says Dennis.

I'd have to say that anyone who wants to create forests print (ironically enough) whatever they like. As long as those habitats are being recreated where they once more, I don't mind how many nude photos of Christina Aguilera he prints.

link

shots

Young Bradford's right - these are stunning photographs. Brian Pearson Photography

AHOY THERE ME MATEY!

A RUB-A-DUB-DUB AND A TALLY-HO-PIP-PIP-PIPETTY-CHOCKS-AWAY TO YOU. A pirate walks into a bar with a peg leg, a hook for an arm and a patch over one eye. The bartender asks "what 'appened?". "Well," begins our scurvy dog, "I was in a cutlass tournament aboard the 'Devil's Grog'. After three easy rounds I was finally bested by that legendary type fearful Pete. He sliced me arm off before marching me to the plank. In the salty drink I went. As I flailed hopelessly in the tropical seas, gasping for air, a shark must have picked up on the scent of blood from my wound. He managed to maul off me leg before some sympathetic sot hauled me back on to me vessel. " "Blimey" said the bar-tending type. "wotta tale. But what about the *chortle* eye patch?" "aaaarghhh!" exclaimed our nautical hero. "first day with the 'ook!" *chortle*
see you tomorrow me matie
XXXXXXXXXXXXX



so that's what a text message to ME looks like. That was ___6___ messages long. Good lord.

ETCH A SKETCH DRAWS PRIZE PRODUCT PLACEMENT

Oh my god. It's like the most innocuous and child-like of products just became a coca-cola whore. I know it's only right that they get some prominence somewhere but just reading about this makes me sad.

In the movie, the main character, raised by elves, searches out his real family in New York. He uses his Etch A Sketch as a kind of elfin Blackberry. In several scenes, elves in Santa's workshop are seen building Etch A Sketches on an assembly line.

Time Warner's New Line and Ohio Art are dispersing Elf -themed study guides to a million grade schoolers around the country this month, and hundreds of thousands of Etch A Sketches will sport Elf stickers and inserts

link

someone else (his) writing

I'm learning! Not that I would expect this one to be top of my list of worries!

In the second installment of "teach your faggots well," our program to impart the collective queer knowledge on those just coming up and out, we here at AKA would like to underscore the following time-proven warning:

Be Careful What You Ask For

paris honey, could you get the phone? i'm, er, busy

Free speach as long as we like it

The BBC has a site where reporters are logging what's happening around them throughout Bush's visit to the UK. From this morning is an insight into our wonderful country. Though if it's any compensation for what's to follow, the images created by the visit are superb - all the places Bush and Blair will visit have been tarted up and really made to shine. link

Protester Joe Gittings brought out a megaphone during the arrival ceremony and started a series of chants to the tune of 'She'll be coming round the mountain'.

The first was "If you think that Blair's a poodle, shout woof woof". However, of the hundred or so people lining this part of the barriers only two joined in with him.

He then started singing Yankee Poodle Tony Blair to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy whereupon two City of London policemen approached him, took him to one side, and told him that there were a number of US citizens nearby and there could be a breach of the peace.

He asked "Will I be arrested if I carry on?" and was told "There is every chance".

Mr Gittings did not thereafter pick up his megaphone.

oh yeah it's more:

Two . Day . Old. news


Two days ago, two girls were suspended for two days for kissing in the school cafeteria after they were asked to perform a 'nonconformist act' for their English class. Most other kids did the predictable stuff - calling teachers by first names but these two went the whole way. Go for it!

Via Mediawench.

Ha Ha!

Send a voodoo curse right now.
From where you're sitting.


digital voodoo

This doesn't sound like a IM chat I'VE ever had

'interview?'
xeni, she needs some more casual conversation in there. not very chatty.

BT to introduce roaming phones

That will operate over a mobile network and over a bluetooth wireless connection to facilitate changing between being charged mobile network level tariffs and fixed line costs. An idea similar to this has caused outrage in the Indian telecoms industry recently - a company had wanted to introduce a phone that would jump across cordless landline cells to be used like mobile phone but doing us by using hundreds of cordless phone base stations in normal people's houses. Obviously this isn't the same thing yet - I assume that BT would tie the user down to using one fixed line connection, but perhaps it could be extended?

link to story from The Register

John Simpson - Reporting war - Debrief on Panorama

BBC reporter John Simpson was a member of a party that was mistakenly bombed by an American pilot. The man standing by his side - his local translator Abdulla - was killed. Simpson lost his hearing in his left ear. With blood dripping out of his ear and from the shrapnel wounds he suffered, Simpson talks direct to camera. This footage was broadcast on Television moments later in the UK - a real life situation developing before our eyes. In this investigative programme - made by the award winning Panorama team - Simpson visits Iraq to apologise to Abdulla's family and attempts to discern the cause of the accident.

Watch the Programme

If you're in a rush, click through the menu within Realplayer to 'BBC team caught in 'friendly fire'' or 'John Simpson investigates'.

"While filming at a cross-roads in northern Iraq on April 6, 2003, a US Navy jet launched a bomb into a crowd of US and Kurdish soldiers who the BBC team were accompanying.

The bomb killed at least 16 people, including a member of the BBC team. 45 were injured.

In the seconds that followed, BBC cameraman Fred Scott began to film the disaster as it unfolded. He filmed the dead and the dying and the desperate moments in which friends, colleagues and comrades tried to find out who was alive and who was dead. "

In the line of fire

all i can say now is this:

there was a shooting.
now i'm happy

No Doubt

It's kind of obvious but I'm always influenced by the way so many bands are a real letdown life. I've really noticed this with No Doubt over the years and recently, surprisingy, Nelly Furtado. In 'Making Out' featured her Gwen Stefani often doesn't go for the high notes of the No Doubt songs - the features of the songs that make them interesting - but stays safe by dropping an octave.
I really hate that, then they try and hide it by doing harmonies with the other band members. Sucky
Video Gallery

Funny Business

Just spent half an hour trying to get my dad’s contacts in. He’s never had contacts before and is RUBBISH at getting them in his eyes. He'd try and flip them around so as to put them in his eyes, but manage to fold them on his finger again. Then he'd drop in on the table and have to wash it in solution again after which he'd peer at his fingers as though there was something wrong with them; being longsighted he can't actually see what he's doing close up. He's useless at it and it takes ages. But it's also very funny. I couldn’t stop laughing at him – somehow he didn’t seem to think it was funny. I wonder why that was?

Yeah, Didn't see that one coming

Bush and Blair are getting at oil supplies again. surprise surprise
story

"The government is helping the US to secure a guaranteed supply of oil from new sources in Africa and elsewhere, official documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
According to an internal memo to George Bush and Tony Blair, cooperation between the two governments has already delivered "immediate... substantial benefits".

The decision to act was taken at a private summit at the president's Texas ranch in April last year.

The joint initiative may be formally announced by Mr Bush and Mr Blair at their summit in London, which starts next Wednesday. "

When Bush was in Africa a few months ago, the trip had nothing to do with oil. In other news, the Onion is all true.

Bush trampling around Europe again

Who cares?
People seem to think that because they're making a big fuss when he comes to Britain, protesting and annoying the Secret Service, he'll change his ideas. They think it has an impact. They're wrong. He only cares about middle America and where their votes are going. Very few people in the states actually watch CNN - one of the few who would report this stuff, and if they do watch it, they're too rich to CARE about the Iraqis. Do something useful with your time people.

It's the eyebrows

I bought a camera today.
I've been trying so hard to keep quiet about it but just can't any longer.
Especially since I look so much like some sort of Turkish infidel!
I love Turkey.

I don't want to write about it

Because I wouldn't do it justice. Below's a link to what I'm talking about. For my point of view, all I can say is I'm not sure either way - show it or not to show it.
Barnados Ad Story

5 Days 5 Girls

Last week Radio1 aired a series of interviews with the current big divas of the world. I missed most of them since I actually have a job, but they're available online for those of us with an ounce of determination to listen to. Definitely check out Pink's interview - it's a fun one, whether it actually tells you anything or not. I'm pretty sure she's not drunk during it. Right?
link

I'm dying here

I've got the most awful cold like thing. My throat feels like someone's taken sandpaper it. Not so much fun.
Famously, I wake up at about 5:30 AM everyday but today I woke up at noon. Awww. Don't knock, don't visit, I'm in living hell.
Oh well.

Kill Bill

So in preparing to go out to 'In America' I did some research on how good it was, what it was like etc. Unfortunately, the reviews I turned up were dreadful. It really wasn't liked. One source I trust rather a lot - the Guardian - hated it. The review ended with:

[The] movie lacks conviction from implausible beginning to sentimental end.

Slammed.

So, we went to Kill Bill instead. Which was great. Did I say great, I meant superb. It was a bloodbath of action from beginning to end. The cinematography was superb with some of the most beautiful shots displayed amongst the melee of movement. Some of this is inherent in the fact that the film focuses on Samurai where the grace of their combat creates fine opportunities for staged shots. The good thing was that this was taken advantage of without the drama of a ‘dramatic shot’ that often accompanies such things where there can almost be a subtitle indicating the amount of awe the audience is supposed to express at the given point.
One thing that was rather comic about the film was the spurting blood. There’s no hesitance in chopping off limbs and then showing the resultant blood. What’s hilarious is the way the blood gushes much like one would expect a fire hydrant to - in a way of course this is realistic. If in a high school biology class (or equivalent) you’ve ever seen that video which shows a chicken’s throat being slit and the blood spurting out afterward, the film is reminiscent of that. However, the victims in the film move their bodies around spreading the blood about as wide an area as possible whilst making no attempt to cut off the supply of blood gushing out. It’s completely implausible, which is the point, which makes it funny.

Old school - night at 'the movies'

I'm off to see In America with Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine.
I've heard that it's good but of course, movies are always hit or miss.
Might change our minds once we get there.
As usual

Unpopular kid - I want one

Tim Burton wants an unpopular child:
"Nerds of the world can appreciate filmmaker Tim Burton talking about his hopes for his new son with Helena Bonham-Carter:
'I just hope he's not popular,' Burton told the New York Times. 'At my 10-year high-school reunion, all the popular people, the good students, turned out to be unappealing. ... You don't like talking to anybody? You like sitting in your room alone? Well, we have nothing but hope for you.'"

Partners of HIV+'s to get drugs

- to prevent transfer of the virus. Researchers at London's Royal Free Hospital are calling for antiretroviral to be given to partners of those infected.

Dr Mike Youle told the BBC: "I would feel that if we had agents that could treat HIV, they would also be likely to prevent HIV and this should be evaluated.

"There are animal studies that show you can prevent infection with these drugs."

He said that people taking the drugs would have take one tablet a day, or possibly one just before having sex.

I like the idea in theory, it's stopping people becoming ill unnecessarily. But Will Nutland of the Terrence Higgins Trust, the largest charity for gay men in the UK said:

"We should be looking at the rights of people who are in HIV relationships or with HIV to be thinking about whether this gives them the opportunity to be having condomless sex that many others enjoy"

I really don't like that part of the idea - it's making the point that people have a 'right' to have unsafe sex with a person who carries a life threatening virus. People need to keep this in mind - you will die if you contract HIV. Why be reckless?

I want Freeview

Digital TV. For Free. From the BBC.
Sucks to you if you don't live in the UK.
Freeview
link
yeah, the name sucks, but it's a great service. Like a cable package, but free.

The Register Makes fun of The Matrix

Much like everyone else.

They've got a piece about the Matrix Revolutions, pointing out the errors in continuity that are apparent to those too bored to watch the actual movie and so forced to look out for the number of olives in a martini glass.

When Trinity is meeting with the Frenchman, the olive in his martini changes. In the first close-up shot, he only has one green olive on the cocktail stick. From then on he has two, until he eats one.

The Register
http://www.moviemistakes.com/

Go Soros Go!

George Soros is famous for being one of the most famous people on the planet having made his money bringing down the British Pound in 1992 on a day when he made over a Billion dollars in profit. Today he's made headlines for giving away another $5 Million to MoveOn.org in a bid to bring down Bush. link

"America, under Bush, is a danger to the world," Soros said. Then he smiled: "And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is." He has elicited cries of foul play from the right. And with a tight nod, he pledged: "If necessary, I would give more money."

Recently Soros has become notorious for supporting the left whilst still raking in the profits. He supports many educational projects in Eastern Europe through the Soros Foundation especially in what he calls 'open societies' ie eradicating corruption to make societies and economies more transparent and accountable. He's also got some powerful ideas about healthcare and the future of world economies. He's not about to give unqualified support though - in a BBC interview recently he said:

"The United Nations is not an organisation that is terribly effective in promoting open society because it is an association of states... states always put their national interests ahead of the common interest.

"There is a group of - I would call them extremists - who have the following belief: that international relations are relations of power, not of law, that international law will always follow what power has achieved,"

huh!


By the way... On a related note.... Is this getting too tabloid? Just LOOK at that 'headline'!

Slam 'em where it hurts

Bush is so dumb. Whilst the EU is almost sloth like in the length of time it takes to make a decision, the fact that they do act in the end after such long deliberations makes their actions all the more significant. The WTO gave the EU permission yesterday to slap tariffs on American exports. Whether the US hates Europe for being leftwing 'surrender-monkeys' of not, economic sanctions would HURT! Sucks to that! link and again link

Of course the sanctions would hurt poorly paid workers most - they'd be the ones to be fired. What would be really creative would be to impose duties on all transactions by American banks with Europe. In that realm (hopefully) only the rich would be busted.

blogblogblogblogblog

Via some roundabout route that I can't even remember and my IE history will no doubt have completely mashed up, I cam across Geekslut today. I know it was from a site that lists posts by gay (etc) bloggers. Anyway, I don't know about you, but I hate reading just the very latest post by a person; I like a bit of background. So once this page loads up I scroll right down to the bottom of the page and read some of the stuff he's written.
And my GOD it's a different life. In a way what he writes about i.e. here makes me appalled, but at the same time there's a vague fascination with this other world. The promiscuous and carefree life of not always thinking 'how will this reflect on me' is so alien.
But I love reading about it!
Look at the site just to the style and to see how some people view things (much like bathhouseblues. It's funny, I walk past a 'sauna' almost every day - there's one just near my work - and I don't really think about it. I don't really think about it deliberately. In a way the idea puts me off, the thought that one is so desperate for a fuck that you've got to go to a random room where all the other guys are looking for the same thing, but also (as above) fascinates me!

GeekSlut.org

Look up! Look up!

HBO have made a mini-series that's going to last six hours and has cost them over $60 million. It's got an amazing cast and as a result of all this there's a definite buzz about it around. A Newsweek piece running at the moment is basically a conversation with star actors and the creator Tony Kushner. It's great because the actors pose questions to one another and you get an impression on the feel of them as people as opposed to as press junkies.
There's a summary of the plot here which tells the story rather succinctly - though, not wanting to know the whole thing, I've only read part of it!
HBO Films: Angels in America

Three headed dog

Great image from halloween celebrations of three headed dog/puppet addition....
link

Cox Vehicle

Does the idea of Courtney Cox making an interior design programme make anyone else think 'star vehicle'. The idea that she might be interested in design is nice and all, but I suppose the cynic in me makes me want to vomit all over the new laminate flooring who's brand name they'll subtly mention for inshow sponsorship. She's nice, but not THAT great!
link

Girl elected as homecoming king!

Article from the Oakland Tribune reports how a California High School has elected a girl as their homecoming king - a reported first. After much initial apprehension and fuss, the idea seems to have been taken on board. She was entered in the election as a joke to accompany her best friend of many years, and was surprised to find the idea taking off. As one would expect there followed the normal flurry of accusations about race, sexuality and gender politics, but I think it's just a great deviation from the norm.
link

Notes of a West Wing extra

I came across a page by a woman called Julia Falcone today. She is studying at USC and attended a day's filming for the West Wing. The episode she was there for was shot the DAY after Allison Janney won an Emmy for her performances in the show. It was episode 403, called "College Kids" and originally screened on October 2nd 2002.
She's written a kind of journal of the day - what she did and what she observed on set - with a few photos. It's a great piece and comes across as being really sincere and honest. Look at it.
The rendition of 'Shed a little light' by Aimee Mann in the episode, by the way, is amazing. I can't find a copy of it anywhere other than in the show, but if you do, tell me!

entrepreneur

I feel hesitant thinking it. I feel even worse saying it. I feel awkward agreeing with it. But I still do think it:
Over the last few months I’ve been noticing and wondering about the way that ‘black’ culture isolates itself much of the time. I don’t understand the point much of the time, and would have thought the process counterproductive. This session of pondering was brought about by a magazine. It was called ‘Black Enterprise’. The thing is this: I can understand wanting to have an African-American perspective of the Investing world and the intricacies of finance, but I don’t think making it a black only thing helps. I think this kind of thing isolates a lot of black people because it assumes that they’re already being excluded from the present publications such as Forbes, Fortune, Mother Jones, The Economist, Business 2.0 and so forth. As a result people feel they’re excluded and so want an outlet for this. I think it can then spread to the wider culture - people thinking that they’re not accepted, but rather merely tolerated.
As a customer from Amazon.com commented:
While this publication may target those of African American descent, it is an excellent resource for people of all races.

I’d read it – I just don’t understand the ‘black’ tagline – it seems as though it’s being exclusive.

On a kind of related note, there’s a really interesting page on their site which lets see their advertising rates – very revealing!
link

Boing Boing linking competition

They've just had a form of competition to garner the most odd and interesting collection of links around from the www. Anything odd or quirky will do - the more eccentric and 'out there' the better (it seems)! It's an interesting collection of sites. Actually to be honest I haven't visited most of them, but it's an interesting collection of NAMES of sites.
"Laters"
link

SUITS! You've got to be kidding

I was in H&M yesterday buying the usual stuff that one buys from a clothes store such as this, namely, clothes. Whilst traipsing through all the useless kids and womens clothing departments I got the usual tour of the store that they seem to like to give us now - one must go through all the crap to find anything of interest. Just on the border of the menswear and the womens lingerie there was a wall of H&M suits. Quite literally, I had to stand back and catch my breath. I was blown away by the fact that anyone woud even consider purchasing somethig as quality dependent as a suit from H&M - after all, they're famous for their poor quality stitching and fall apart nature of the clothes. We all love the fact that they're dirt cheap and manage to knock off supposedly fashionable styles months before the rest of the industry can copy them from the latest Tom Ford catwalk, but a suit!
I asked the sales 'assistant' and she confirmed by initial hesitance - they do sell LOTS of them! I can't believe it... Bad news all around!



link

"And Australia's like WTF?"

Thanks to yb for this:end of the world
It's the most hilarious (and thankfully, short) flash movie ever. Great animation, timing and style
Check it out.

Family event

And the gathering in the north (it turns out) was a bit of a success. I didn't know where we were going until I got in the car, being driven to wherever it was. IT turned out to be the border of Cumbria and Yorkshire. Well, I knew the name of the town, just not where THAT was in comparison to anywhere else in the country. My UK geography is so impressive. Stayed in a cottage with 10 others of the family. Lots of wood fires and one long walk - too lazy for the second one so sat at 'home' and mooched around. Mooching sounds right - it was particularly appropriate because there was no POWER all day Saturday as the electricity company had helpfully turned all the power off. It was supposedly a 'surprise power outage' according to their phone helpline, even though we found a letter dated the 3rd October saying that the power would be out between 9 and 4. It turned back on at... seven.
Loving it
Plus there was the dog that farted, and a cousin called Patrick. All very helpful.

Leicester Square & Hair

As well as an aside on Chinese food.

We were stuck in the tube carriage for ages. We got impatient and got off. Moment afterward we were on a train to Leicester Square. The idea behind this was to go anywhere busy and to get some food. As you can see on the map accessed by clicking on Ken Livingston's face, jumping from South Ken to Leicester Square is easy - a few stops. We jumped. Getting off at Leicester Square we decided to simply meander around in an attempt to find somewhere to eat. It was the kind of evening where we didn't want anything fussy, expensive, or time consuming; we wanted food. To our good fortune, and because of our obvious prior knowledge, we were in the Chinese quarter. The thing about the Chinese district is that it isn't expensive, fussy or time consuming. Hence Chinese food = ideal.
After a few walks up and down some random road the name of which I've forgotten, we plumped on a place. A large part of the decision was based on the number of local (i.e. Asian looking) people who were eating there. I felt bad doing this because it was taking advantage of the locals and meant that we had to put relatively little effort into finding a place, but it did honour them with our trust in that we were assuming they went to the overall better establishments be that measuring value or food quality. I thought it was great.
Having finished eating around eight we thought, no I thought I'd restate my previously thought-out-loud desire to check out the hair dressers across the street from the restaurant. It was an Asian place (surprise surprise), and looked slightly closed; there were people inside but no hairdressing actually going on.
I went in, glanced around, and was immediately greeted by a voice saying something like 'Haircut!’ I looked around to try and place the voice, not having been able to locate the source. It turned out the noises were coming from a short and thin woman who had her hair in a sink being washed by another younger woman. Rushing a towel onto her head she grabbed my arm after I'd made some sort of affirmative nod, having not been able to think of a suitable reply to this, what seemed like an exclamation.
She ushered me towards a book of photos of boys. This was more like it! It turned out she wanted me to give some sort of guide towards the style of haircut I wanted. Needless to say, I didn’t know what I wanted – that’s the heterosexual man in me, the only last scrap.
I actually had my hair cut by ‘Sun’, a woman of about 22 from Malaysia who spoke “hardly any” English, though “hardly any” was far better than what my French would have been. She also spoke four other languages, not counting English. Another experience for me was that she washed my hair three times over the course of the 45 minutes it took to cut my hair. Superspeedy.
I enjoyed it – mainly because of the off chance nature of the evening. Let’s do something spontaneous.

Other things

Popped into the Natural History Museum for a quick look around. This was just before becoming stuck in a Tube carriage for half an hour at South Kensington Station. The museum was great - whistle-stop tour which was superb. Plus the fact that it's free now meant that we could just 'pop' in and glance around and then RUN. There was an exhibition of Earth From the Air images outside. They were full size original prints on show which was superb - the detail being so much greater than in the books made the images all the more engrossing. I love how they're from all around the world - a surpising number coming from South America - in places like Chile and so forth the colours and contrast were clearly more defined or at least easier to spot.
Talking about the underground 'pause', this is what happened:
We got on a train as it arrived after waiting for about 3 minutes on the platfrom - the previous train had just pulled away before we got there. Jumped into the carriage - it was almost empty! Yah! Then nothing happened. More people got on. Italians. Then some more people got on. two families with 5 under 10's in total. We waited a little while longer until the operator told us that we would leave in a few moments.
More people got on. Business man.
More people. - A mum and her son - 7ish.
About to leave. More people, a guy with a guitar.
All this time I'm standing with my head bent as I'm standing next to the door and the ceiling slopes. Crick in neck. The carriage fills and I'm breathing the stale air, having walked into the carriage first we were getting all the air that everyone else on the train had already been through. My partner for the day, being claustrophobic, didn't enjoy this.
After about 25 minutes of standing there getting increasingly apathetic, I decided that we should just get off and go.
We did. And did other things, better things, but moreover, did them immediately. I didn't care for Piccadilly Circus THAT much.

Shopping spree?

If buying a single pair of shoes and a sleeveless gay t-shirt counts as a spree, then yes. However to the rest of the world, I had an extended browse punctuated with stints of purchasing.
I must have spent over three hours in Harrods on Monday. It's quite a place. There are floors where you think you've suddenly stepped into a downmarket, tawdry, rundown, suburban shopping centre, whilst there are others where the opulence is simply astonishing. It's a bit unique which is what makes it attractive. It's not like any other department store you'll ever see. It's got its own bank, an 'egyptian' escalator, food halls complete with Krispy Kreme counter, 'hip' clothes as well as couture designer. It's also an odd place with so much money kicking around that the famous owner Mohammed Al Fayed removes £10,000 a day from the store's safes. That's cash kids. Something to ponder.
Well I probably contributed £10 or so profit to that the other day - enjoy it Mohammed! Don't spend it all at once.

Seattle Man Admits Killing 48

Investigators had thought his killing finished in 1984. Little did they know that his last admitted murder was far more recent than this - 1998.
His first victim - who survived - was a first grade boy. Link to Seattle p-i story

How does someone manage to get to a stage of themselves where they can tolerate that kind of violence, and for such an extended period of time? How would you live with yourself? I don't understand it, and in a way, really don't want to.

Armani - A Retrospective

The Royal Academy in London is showing an exhibition of Giorgio Armani's work. The exhibition has previously been shown at the NY Guggenheim, and will no doubt travel elsewhere from London. The exhibition is being shown around the back end of the Royal Academy meaning that one has to walk through Burlington Arcade; one of the most upmarket covered markets the world has ever seen, or Old Bond Street - as seen here. It's mighty posh and acts as an appropriate warm-up for the riches and wealth that are to follow.

The exhibition itself opens with a compilation of video shots from Armani catwalk shows. It's a great start because it really shows what the garments, mainly dresses of course, look like in the flesh. On a mannequin the clothes can look tired and lifeless, but on the models they come alive as something much more invigorating and stylish. The setting for the exhibition is interesting in a way, but also appearing slightly tired. The gallery is of course historic and beautiful, but the old buildings that house so many British Art Collections can often feel tired and in need of upkeep; there is a slight air of this here. The rooms are themed, so you'll start the exhibition by going into a brown themed room where many of the clothes - from years like 1988-94 are in earthy tones and the room is rather dull grey/brown colours.

Other rooms sport: silver slabs of stainless steel cladding the walls and ceiling of the airy white clothes room, to the purple deep pile carpets of the room housing the intricate asian inspired vest dresses of the 2001 season. Especially relevant to the 'rest of us' is the red carpet room where images of celebrities wearing Armani clothes to events accompany the actual pieces themselves just in front of you. This means that whilst you see a photo of Winona Ryder wearing an outfit, you can see the actual outfit right there, so close you can (could) touch it.
I feel like I'm detailing a club 'in the trance room they play...'

Overall it's an interesting exhibition showing a lot of Armani's work over the years. Some of the clothes could use a good ironing just to make the look less tired, but it's an insight into someone's style. You really notice how he LOVES his beadwork and the flamboyant clothes. Also, he must just KNOW women's breasts so well now - having designed for them for so many years.. Most of his designs have some sort of reference to breasts within them weather a shimmering fabric which hangs over the nipples or a dress made from sequins. He's familiar with the subject.

"Giorgio Armani is recognised as one of the most influential and iconic designers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He has been universally credited with both radically changing the rules of contemporary fashion and creating a timeless vision of modern dress. By removing excess ornament and translating traditional sportswear looks into business and evening wear, Armani has developed the contemporary casual style that defines the modern wardrobe."

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/giorgioarmani

updates coming

News to follow - about:
Harrods
The Royal Academy/Armani
Natural History Museum
Leicester Square
South Kensington Underground Station
Car Parks
Hair
5:30

jpeg to ascii

I've been looking for this page for so long
I'd found it ages ago but somehow lost it:
link

Punctuation

Their voices on this track are so amazing - the staccato of them!


You make me wanna throw my pager out the window
tell MCI to cut the phone calls
break my lease so i can move
cause you a bug a boo, a bug a boo
i wanna put your number on the call block
have AOL make my emails stop
cause you a bug a boo
you buggin what? you buggin who? you buggin me!
and dont you see it aint cool

Dolphin tradgedy and the debate over whether the red water (shown) is fake

After a long absence from the page that is BoingBoing, I checked it out today. As is the usual situation, there was something highly exercising and interesting hanging around. Amongst the general chit-chat about technology; gif photos that 'move' and such came this:

Fishermen in the Taiji area of Japan regularly hunt dolphin during the October to April season. This year they've caught over 60 dolpins under the quota system which the government uses to 'regulate' their capture. The meat is processed and sold to supermarkets and restaurants. There's a tiny clip of video of the hunt which the group managed to film showing the fishermen dragging dolphins into the boats they're using. From the number of dolphins 'harvested' in the catch filmed, the number of dolphins taken this year seems astonishingly low despite the fact that there's only been a month of hunting.
The fishermen corral the dolpins into a tight space and then slash at them with sythes and such. It's a brutal practice made even more so considering how intelligent the dolphin is and how they'd realise just WHAT was happening to them...


Metafilter discussion
American anti whaling group's own details of the hunt
Seashepherd's video of the fishermen
bluevoice
another metafilter discussion of the topic
personal home page
conservation group page showing the graphic red blood in the water following a whaling

horrible stuff

My phone is coming to me!

I didn't get the t610 because of the awful Mobileburn review(s). I'm SO happy that they're doing an update though as I love the style and am a fag for the look!
link

Corey Spears

Thanks to YB for the heads up - great interview with Corey who's now getting a website. Nice coming out stuff. Well, nice for me anyway! 'Laters!'link

Logitech Webcam follows your face

something that's been needed for ages on webcams. What's the point of having a camera that just jumps out of focus the moment you move about the tiniest bit. Nice thought - here's technology that's actually working for us for a change rather than adding bloatware.
link

linkage

another really intersting blog
BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

No more waiting at red lights

What a joke!Gizmodo link