Here’s my opponent Nathan Gregg, kicking off with the white pieces. Luckily for me, I was able to prevail. Will post moves later…
Posted in Chess
This was “the biggest thing in exoplanets since the discovery of 51 Pegasi B, the first exoplanet, back in 1995″, said Jack Lissauer of Nasa. So far only individual planets have been discovered and they’ve all been gas giants. This system features much smaller planets. Surely it is only a matter of time before a planet capable of sustaining “life as we know it” (to use the captain Kirk definition) is discovered. Proving the existence of extra-terrestrial life itself may be more tricky but I’m convinced it will be done in my life time. That’ll leave the theologians with a bit of an issue. A friend of mine is convinced they’ll make contact with us within his lifetime – the aliens, not the Catholics – albeit that a two way conversation is less likely. I’m not so sure but if the behaviour of the driver of the Number 56 Brighton bus I’m blogging from is anything to go by, we may be heading for contact sooner than any of us think. He’s driving like a nutter.
Few Britons could explain the difference between England, Britain and the United Kingdom, so I’ll turn to an American to the job for us.
Where did it come from?
Found this superb visual joke this morning. I like jokes. I love graffiti. Personally, I think that it ought to be compulsory to paint pictures on walls. These people show great graffiti.
Posted in Art, Street Art
Until recently, I didn’t know there was such a thing. I’m not that great with food, which is probably why I’m overweight. That and sitting on my arse playing with computers, which doesn’t help. Apparently donkey milk is not the next big thing. Can’t think why. Perhaps the difficulty of obtaining it?
Another not the next big thing is camel milk. I say this despite research showing that mixing camel milk with urine treats cancer, albeit in mice but humans are to be tested next. Does it matter where the urine comes from, I wonder? I can’t help thinking that it would be best to avoid animal milk altogether, due to the carbon footprint of growing the beasts but I do love cheese. Probably should wean myself off it. My bad food skills are demonstrated by this:
Where's the rest of the label gone?
Yes, that is the remnants of the meal I cooked and ate last night, a nice little number with baked potatoes, tomatoes, asparagus, chickpeas, some stock, a little garlic and a barcode label.
Posted in Food
Life has a habit of being tripped up by events. Techies have been routinely tripping up our so-called leaders. Across the world, our leaders, elected or not, are out of touch with the children of the internet. Obama has finally declared that there must be change in Egypt and it must happen now. Took him a week to catch up publicly. Perhaps he had been bargaining with Mubarak behind the scenes. Perhaps not. Perhaps he was bargaining with other actors, General Mohamed Tantawi (head of the army), ElBaradei (Nobel Peace Laureate – you must have heard of him by now, only recently involved in politics), Ayman Nour (leader of the Al Ghad party, jailed after 2005 elections but freed in 2009 after international pressure) but probably not the Muslim Brotherhood. UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt, who on Friday was called for “stability” in Egypt is now left floundering, with little left to do except hand out travel advice. Certainly he doesn’t want to talk about democracy in Egypt or human rights anywhere.
Meanwhile Bradley Manning, the whistle-blower who passed the US Embassy Cables to Wikileaks, turns out to be a British citizen. Strange that we didn’t know this until now. Our last government was woefully slow in defending the rights of British citizens held illegally in Guantamano Bay detention camp. I doubt Manning is holding his breath for a visit from British consular officials now. His best chance is other netizens looking out for him; Amnesty International has stepped in on his behalf.
You can do your bit tomorrow by calling the White House to ask for Bradley Manning’s basic rights to be respected by the prison authorities. You can call as a fellow British citizen. I’d suggest that you concentrate on the fact that he has now spent eight months in solitary confinement, despite not being convicted of a crime. Don’t forget to call the US dialing code first if you are calling from the UK: 001 (how’d they get that number?), then the White House Switchboard number: 202-456-1414 or their after hours number: 202-456-1111.
Its fashionable in Britain to complain about our democracy rather than make use of it. It is even more fashionable to complain that the US isn’t a democracry, which is very wide of the mark. Make your voice heard, literally, by telephoning the White House tomorrow and telling your MP that you’ve campaigned on behalf of Bradley Manning.
Posted in Egypt, Solidarity, Technological Change