IMG: Thaw
Posted on | December 24, 2010 | 2 Comments
Stupid snow. We are due to travel to my parents for Christmas dinner. The Snowpocalypse saw us panic-buying emergency Christmas fare in case we’re unable to do so. It had better keep thawing as I’m not relishing the thought of the turkey substitute we’ve been lumbered with. It looks like a huge, frozen, chicken McNugget.
IMG: Corvidae Cold
Posted on | December 18, 2010 | 2 Comments
That’s actually ice on the end of its beak. Chilly rook (I’m sure it’s chilly and relatively sure it’s a rook – my ornithology’s not what it was in my youth).
IMG: Power Cut
Posted on | December 9, 2010 | Comments Off on IMG: Power Cut
Mulling: The Future Of Facebook
Posted on | December 8, 2010 | 2 Comments
I’ve been considering Facebook lately.
I’m not certain why but it’s been on my mind. Mainly, I’ve been considering its future and wondering if it has much of one. Certainly, half a billion users is nothing to be sneezed at and few could argue with Facebook’s current clout in the Internet world but still I find myself wondering.
Perhaps this is all personally coloured and biased because I grew, quite a while back, to hate Facebook immensely.
Perhaps…
I’ve been feeling for a number of months now, however, that Facebook may have plateaued and might even be due a turn.
It’s the geeks, you see. The geeks tend to be the early-adaptors and social media is no exception. The geeks also tend to be among the first to move on though, and – I think – that’s begun to happen. Whether they portend or cause the demise of Internet giants, the geeks are frequently a good indicator.
Of course, a lot of people have a lot invested in Facebook but I wonder if a sea change isn’t coming over the next year or two. If nothing happens, I’ll quietly delete this post in two years but, if Facebook gets MySpaced, well, I’m going to look like some sort of Internet savant and will probably make millions on speaking engagements as a technology pundit.
If you’ve been considering closing your Facebook account, therefore, it would really help out my plans.
Tags: Facebook > Future of Facebook > Internet > mulling > social networking
Count The Cost
Posted on | December 3, 2010 | Comments Off on Count The Cost
I am attempting a new regime.
Since my daughter started the latest term of school, a couple of changes from the previous year have altered my/our routine. The upshot of these changes is that I have less time to do certain activities and what time I do have is fragmented. This has led to a fall-off in these activities and it’s been bugging me.
As I’m sure you’re aware, I’m nothing if not a consummate self-improver, so I’m going to try to do something about it. I imagine this may be a slow, and possibly painful, process but the benefits should make it worthwhile.
One thing I will do is to carefully weigh the cost to me of doing stuff (I mean the cost in time, by the way). I intend to more ruthlessly assess what I’m doing and what I may take on. There’s no point taking on something that provides little reward or challenge if it means something I really want to do falls by the wayside.
From now on, I’m counting the cost to make sure I get to do what I consider important (and happily, one of those things is spending time with my daughter).
If Charles Babbage had done likewise, perhaps he’d have gotten around to actually building his difference engine instead of just designing it (as, if I remember properly from my recent visit, a shiny plaque in the Science Museum informs us). What a layabout Babbage was.
Tags: Charles Babbage > difference engine > New regime
IMG: Forebear – The General
Posted on | November 14, 2010 | Comments Off on IMG: Forebear – The General
Mass Libel Reform Blog
Posted on | November 10, 2010 | Comments Off on Mass Libel Reform Blog
Many of those reading this will be aware of Simon Singh, a writer who was sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association over an article he published in his Guardian column during 2008. The case was followed pretty closely by many science and sceptic (or skeptic for our US cousins) writers and bloggers and the charity Sense About Science campaigned to keep attention on Simon’s progress. There’s no need to go into the details here (read Simon’s Wikipedia page for more information) but suffice it to say, after much legal too and fro, the BCA withdrew their action earlier this year.
What this case has done though, is to call attention to issues with how libel cases are dealt with in the UK and give impetus to a campaign to reform UK libel law.
Now, as an Irish citizen and resident, how is this relevant to me. Truth is, it’s relevant to everybody who ever commits a thought to print (or pixel). Libel tourism is an interesting practice in which someone from any country in the world can be sued for libel through UK courts. Also, while the UK’s laws are considered pretty poor as far as world standards go, let’s face it, those in my own country are little better.
With all that in mind, I’m happy to support the campaign. Remember, you can sign the petition no matter where you live – you don’t need to be a UK resident.
The Mass Libel Reform Blog – Fight for Free Speech!
This week is the first anniversary of the report Free Speech is Not for Sale, which highlighted the oppressive nature of English libel law. In short, the law is extremely hostile to writers, while being unreasonably friendly towards powerful corporations and individuals who want to silence critics.
The English libel law is particularly dangerous for bloggers, who are generally not backed by publishers, and who can end up being sued in London regardless of where the blog was posted. The internet allows bloggers to reach a global audience, but it also allows the High Court in London to have a global reach.
You can read more about the peculiar and grossly unfair nature of English libel law at the website of the Libel Reform Campaign. You will see that the campaign is not calling for the removal of libel law, but for a libel law that is fair and which would allow writers a reasonable opportunity to express their opinion and then defend it.
The good news is that the British Government has made a commitment to draft a bill that will reform libel, but it is essential that bloggers and their readers send a strong signal to politicians so that they follow through on this promise. You can do this by joining me and over 50,000 others who have signed the libel reform petition at
http://www.libelreform.org/sign
Remember, you can sign the petition whatever your nationality and wherever you live. Indeed, signatories from overseas remind British politicians that the English libel law is out of step with the rest of the free world.
If you have already signed the petition, then please encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Moreover, if you have your own blog, you can join hundreds of other bloggers by posting this blog on your own site. There is a real chance that bloggers could help change the most censorious libel law in the democratic world.
We must speak out to defend free speech. Please sign the petition for libel reform at
Tags: bca > british chiropractic association > libel reform > sense about science > simon singh
I’m A Star, Dammit
Posted on | October 25, 2010 | 3 Comments
I am angry.
Yesterday, my daughter (who’s six years old) took part in a performance staged by the drama group she attends. This group is run by a stage school organisation that has a lot of members around the city. The ages of the kids that attend run from about four to mostly mid-teens. And there are a lot of them
The organisers arranged a relatively large production that included an hour of singing and dancing and then about an hour and a quarter of a panto-esque show. In the weeks before the show, I began having misgivings the more I heard of the scale of this. We had to shell out some money for tickets – more than you might expect as a reasonably large theatre had been organised for the show. OK, they’re kids and it seemed overkill but, as long as they enjoy it, great.
The first, singing and dancing, part was fine. Lots of kids of lots of different ages all doing their thing. A few of the ‘bigger’ numbers and solos seemed to be handled by people I’d have estimated were in their thirties but, for the most part, everyone got a look-in.
After the interval however, there were mostly varying numbers of people in their late twenties and their thirties on stage. Most of them were (I understand) the organisers and teachers. The kids were shooed on a couple of times for token numbers (never with the main, older, cast). The whole thing stank massively of self-indulgance and really, really pissed me off.
I saw it coming. I had a nasty feeling as I learned more in the weeks before the show. It didn’t make me feel better to be proved right though. It was an annoying vanity project. The organisers can happily pad their CVs with it but all it did to my daughter, and, at least, a couple of other kids I know, was piss them off by sidelining them and having them sit around backstage for hours while the grown-ups took in the limelight. She’s six, and there were younger and sadder than her around.
They’re kids. They’d be happy on stage in the local school hall. Don’t drag them around as an excuse to get your lovie on with uninspired and poorly written, sub-panto entertainment. If the kids had performed it, it would have been fine – not so with the ‘grown-ups’.
I’m annoyed. And my daughter’s upset.
Wankers.
The Beginning Of Life?
Posted on | October 22, 2010 | 4 Comments
It is my birthday. I am no longer a young man. It’s official now.
It is the birthday that dare not speak its name. The birthday at which life is supposed to begin. I’m unsure about this. It seems the stuff of well-wishers and self-deluders.
That said, I don’t feel any different than I did yesterday. Even though my wife took the day off and told me I could have a lie in while she took our daughter to school, I still got up early for a run as Friday is normally a running day. I accept, however, that a psycho-analyst may well read something into this other than me just wanting a run. Perhaps.
Anyway, I’m bracing myself for my mid-life crisis. I don’t really know what to expect though. I’ve done the sports car thing as a younger man and don’t feel any major temptation in that direction. Maybe a motorcycle is the way I’ll go. I did go through a phase of wanting to buy one after reading Robert Pirsig but it wore off. Lately, I’ve been feeling an odd urge to grow my funny little beard into a funny, slightly longer, beard. Perhaps that’s how it starts. Perhaps soon, I’ll be trying to woo ladies half my age with words like ‘woo’ and much beard-stroking.
Or I might just have a beer and some crisps.
Or cheese.
Cheese, it is. What abandon. Who says I’m over the hill?
Dear God, I Am A Runner
Posted on | September 28, 2010 | 9 Comments
About a year ago, when I had to trudge to the shops on the night before a friend’s wedding in order to buy a new suit that would fit around my waist, I took a good hard look at myself in the mirror and realised that I’d become morbidly tubby.
This was a far from pleasant revelation and I resolved to do something about it. Cue some sensible diet changes and a trip to join a gym. My manly willpower and sensibleness won the day and I was soon having to buy yet more new trousers (although at least in a smaller size than usual).
As part of my gym regimen, I began running. At first in short, wheezy bursts but, much more quickly than I’d have imagined, I began to increase the duration and speed and decrease the rasping pain in my lungs.
I’ve since stopped going to the gym (embracing the recession – the world is now my gym) but I’ve kept running. I remember, long before I’d begun this sort of aberrant, ‘fit person’ behaviour, reading that runners actually feel guilty if they miss a run. I dismissed this as the worst sort of exercise-nazi tosspottery and probably had a beer and some cheese while laughing at the speedy losers before coughing unhealthily and scratching my proudly lazy arse.
However, for reasons beyond my control, during the last week and a bit, I’ve been unable to run as often as I normally would. And, while ‘guilty’ isn’t really the right word, I do feel weirdly wrong about this. It’s not guilt per se, although there may be a small element of that. It’s… It’s like I’ve missed out on something I wanted to do.
When, the hell, did that happen? I don’t want to run. Do I? Surely, I don’t want to get out of bed an hour earlier than everyone else in the world just to move about quickly for no good reason. That can’t be right. Can it?
I’m confused and frightened by this strange feeling.
Tags: crazy and frightening feelings > exercise > gym > running
Gerry Hayes
I mostly sit around all day and drink tea. Occasionally, I write stuff and send it to strangers so they can humiliate me and deride my efforts. Other than the self-harm to dull the shame of failure, it's not a bad life. Like I say, there's tea.
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