2009-07-31
The journal has been discontinued and moved over to blogger. To go there click: here
I want to allow commenting again and I haven't got the time to write the script (I am not a great coder), so I went for blogger. Feel free to read, comment and enjoy.
2009-07-25
Harry patch, the last surviving WWI veteran to have fought in the trenches has passed away. A sad day, but I reserve my sadness for the fact that he lived long enough for the fascists he fought so hard against elected to power in the UK.
Fuck you BNP.
2009-07-25
For reasons I can't really fathom, Thunderf00t has decided to debate the creationist and perennial idiot Ray Comfort (the guy who thinks bananas prove god). Check it out.
2009-07-21
Did you see it? Check it out:
This is an impact on Jupiter that happened yesterday and it seems to be a collision which hit at cometary speed. This is the second impact we have observed after Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter fifteen years ago. This is interesting because it helps us learn about the formation of the solar system as this is the kind of thing that was taking place during the Late Heavy Bombardment.
2009-07-18
It is 0252 on the 18th and I am just recovering from the inexorable adrenaline high of my graduation day (technically yesterday, although I have yet to go to bed). It was brilliant. I have said all I have to say about university and the experience it gave me and, save for me repeating old truths, there is nothing new under the Sun where that is concerned.
I have posted photos and a video in the gallery, online now.
Don't forget to also check out my new book, IV - available now in the store
2009-07-16
I have finally published my second book! Check it out here. You can buy a paperback version or, if you like e-books then each story is available individually as well the the whole thing together. The collection comprises of:
I hope you all enjoy reading it!
2009-07-15
It is 0546 on a wet Wednesday morning and I have been awake since 0424. Oddly enough I have awoken at 0424 for 9 consecutive days. Very strange. It's currently raining and I cannot figure out whether it is a real summer or not because thus far the weather has been fairly well split at 75/25 blazing sun and pelting rain. A very strange, almost tropical summer. This shifting to a mini version of a tropical climate is possibly a consequence of global warming.
Since becoming a graduan (I am reliably informed that this is the term for a person who has received a degree award but who has yet to officially graduate) I have been serving a research internship at university. I am supposed to keep a diary of this and, being a blogger I of course intend to do so online. I have yet to do so. It is actually a great opportunity and definitely the right one for me. The research is being conducted with a publisher who has a vested interest in it so I am limited in terms of what I can publicly say about it. It is research in to digital publishing media such as e-books, audiobooks and suchlike. I am permitted do work from home and I have been given what is pretty much a free hand in order to determine the course of my research as I see fit, checking in with the project leadership every so often. It's been a fascinating couple of weeks thus far. Last week the team paid a visit to the British Library (pictures posted last week - see below, several posts down) to visit an exhibition of e-readers and to meet with the contact at the publisher we are working with. That was a cracking day - what an amazing place the British Library is. For reasons best not entered in to at great length here, the train home was a late one so we ended up with three or four hours to kill in London so we went to the pub and watched the cricket.
The internship itself was originally for one person to undertake but they expanded it to two in order to accommodate both myself and the other intern. I am told this was because we both greatly impressed and I received word yesterday that I had so impressed with my work to date that my superiors had successfully applied for more funding to double the duration of my project there. This was a most rewarding and satisfying feeling, a vindication of all of the hard work and principles I have applied since attending university. Since I began on my scholarly path I have cultivated an all-consuming and unbending dedication to knowledge, and I have come to believe in knowledge and the academic way above all other things. Nothing has changed the world the way knowledge has. Nothing has done anything that comes close to the good that knowledge has. Knowledge has created and continues to sustain everything the world is and holds dear, and to be able to contribute in some small way to the canon of knowledge assembled in the academic world is a privilege and an honour. I will always remember the day I was bitten by the academic bug of unending and unshakeable curiosity. It was my first day at university as a student. I sat amongst my fellow freshers, going through the rigmarole of induction and the various bits of stuff and waffle these occasions always entail. I do not know if it was because I was older or some other reason, but I knew that this would be a precious period in my life, and also a fleeting time which would pass sooner than any of us thought. I took a moment to sit at the top of the lecture hall venue in the back row and just take in the feeling whislt observing, loking around at what I was about do become a part of forever. It was a seminal moment, a sense that I had arrived home. That feeling has never left me and whilst other universities and academic institutions may well beckon in future, I will never forget the University of Central Lancashire, its attitude to learning and its attitude towards me. After that first day I attacked my studies with alacrity and passion. In the second year I had a pretty nasty accident on my bike, being shunted by a young driver and the university was so gracious and patient, affording me the sum of its resources and time available to help me through that without missing a year of study. My personal tutor was a remarkable woman, patient, forthright, compassionate, passionate, understanding, I could go on and on. To her as much as anyone I owe my thanks.
In my final year I won a scholarship to attend a conference entitled 'Poetry and Belief'. That was an excellent experience which I thoroughly enjoyed and whilst it was draining to listen to so much knowledge and research from some of the smartest people I have ever met in my life, it was exactly the sort of experience I have come to adore. I spent the day being completely blitzed by the knowledge and experience of better people, and understanding that the brilliance of intelligent men and women is not pretentious (as is so often said), nor is it a threat, rather it is a challenge. It is an opportunity to hear and be inspired by the best minds, and a chance to learn and become better and smarter oneself. I have often thought it a great shame that the world reacts so badly to smart, clever people. It is easy to see why. A person that cannot think is always at the mercy of the person that can. A dull, under-used brain can betray its owner and leave them feeling utterly embarrassed in the company of sharp, quick-witted minds. I know this because I am constantly made to feel this way in this line of work, however, I have never once been frightened by it. I simply want to learn from these people and to say I was a student is not the case. I will never be anything but a student.
Anyway, this internship has afforded me the time and space to formulate my future plans and to plan my masters degree whilst not having the pressure of finding a pointless and inane job just to pay the bills. Of course, I may still have to do that when my research ends, but that will not matter so much. I have tasted knowledge and I want more, and I know that I can do it. There have been more proud moments and more achievements in the last four or five years than in the rest of my life put together. I have published several times, obtained my degree, won two separate academic appointments - granted these were not the 'big ones' i.e. lectureships or anything like that, but they were, nonetheless, the right choices for me and they were not given to me - I had to compete for them and won them in a strong field. This success, although small in the grand scheme of things, represents a vindication my part, proof that doing it my way does work and that I was right all along. All I lacked was opportunity. Well, I have only had one real chance in my life to flourish and I have taken it. For me there can be no greater feeling, no greater success, no greater joy than to do what everybody said I could not do. Well, I did it, and I did it with certain people, people who should have been there for me not only going absent, but also trying to hinder me, and still with others laughing in my face.
In other news, Friday is graduation day and I cannot wait. On top of my degree I have so much to celebrate. My next book, my extended research and, far more importantly, my children. Jake has just turned in an excellent years' work at school, culminating in a report that showed him to be streets ahead of his age group. In doing so well he has earned himself an X-Box games console. Yes, it is bribery but that's okay. The whole family beamed with pride the day he came home with his report, an excellent years' work and he did it all himself. We gave the incentive but he did the work and he continues to hold his head high with full support and justification from us. Also, our next child is due in September so that will be another step on the Chuppet highway. I cannot wait to meet him/her. Luca will be two years old shortly afterwards, and he is getting very big very quickly. He is starting to talk and he is full of energy and vitality. Then, would you believe it? It will be Christmas!
These golden years are the best of times. Long may they continue, long may my family line enjoy success and happiness. Most importantly. May they continue to live and do as they see fit, free and contented. Whatever comes our way, I know we will prevail.
2009-07-12
The reasons for living are the reasons you're dying.
2009-07-12
Pure genius:
2009-07-11
2009-07-10
Check out Recently Reviewed. It is a consumer-type blog I have just started writing for.
2009-07-10
An acquaintance of mine is forging a career in art. Check out her stuff: Pluto 2 on Etsy. She's great, and so is her work.
2009-07-10
2009-07-09
Yesterday I had a very long, but very rewarding day as I took a trip down to London to visit the British Library. Surprisingly, the train journey was a painless and rather relaxing affair, two and a half hours direct from Preston to Euston. Colour me shocked. The British Library itself is a fantastic. Here are some pictures:
I was very impressed with the architecture of the place. I was expecting a dusty old Victorian building but it is a fantastic modern facility. I love the light, airy tones and the extensive natural lighting. It's a fascinating place, full of history but suitably modern.
2009-07-03
Check out my latest publication, 'Dunes' - an anthology of poetry. Available exclusively as an e-book, just 99p to download.
Dunes download site
Enjoy!
2009-07-01
Unforgettable Sagan:
2009-06-28
I have to say it, I love the French. Well done Sarkozy for taking on Islam and the burkha. Whatever you think of his proposal to ban it, at least he has the balls to say what he thinks. Can you imagine a politician in the UK saying anything about this? Of course not.
Personally, I have my own solution. All the male lawmakers that want to accommodate this - make it compulsory for men to wear it, even in the blazing heat of summer. We'll see how fucking tolerant you are the won't we?
2009-06-20
Just a short blog today.
Today is Saturday. Last night was a rough night, not much sleep due to kiddies etc. Oh well. I begin my internship at the University of Central Lancashire on Monday. I am very much looking forward to that. My second book, a collection of short stories entitled 'IV' is at the printer and should be ready for me to shamelessly whore out at my graduation ceremony. I will update my official author's website and post viral videos for IV very shortly.
Sorry to be so brief, more later...
2009-06-16
Check it:
I want to get in to beekeeping after I finish the house. I am genuinely fascinated by these gentle, misunderstood creatures. After reading up on the almost-Nomadic culture of apiarists in the USA I feel strangely inspired. It would be a great hobby for me too, totally different to anything else in my life, very cerebral and engaging.
2009-06-13
Man, it's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that y'all. My time is now at a premium, more so than ever in fact. Our next baby is due in around three months, I begin an academic internship next week, She who is getting fatter starts her maternity leave at the same time. I have been stripping my gardens bare and burning all of the waste, I have been busy preparing my forthcoming book and the publicity work that goes with it and did I mention that I have been working on the gardens? Man, that has been a graft and a half, but also utterly rewarding and fantastically enjoyable. Playing with chainsaws and hedge cutting equipment is fantastic, as is burning stuff! I get Jake involved wherever I can. There is something about gathering around a fire that makes for an extremely strong bonding experience. I have actually succeeded in chainsawing the conifers to the ground, but to kill them I need a professional because conifer roots grow sideways, meaning that they are nigh on impossible to dig out without plant machinery. I have taken all the creeping ivy down. It was around fifteen feet tall and had crept all the way over our outhouse, in to the fence (which it was woven in to so well that we must replace the panels) and under the roof of our external corridor between the house and outhouse. I climbed up on to the roof of our outhouse, sawed through the connections to the plants themselves and just rolled it up like a carpet! That made things a lot easier. After that I began digging out the tree roots and brambles that are growing wild in the back, but unfortunately the spade handle snapped under the strain. I don't mind - it was left here by the previous owners and it was pretty naff to start with. After that I dug out the washing line pole that some imbecile decided to put down smack in the middle of the garden. I don't know what kind of pillock thought that was a good use of what is a substantial garden space, but it's gone. It was anchored with around a half a ton of concrete so there was a lot of huffing and puffing that went in to getting that thing out.
We are essentially restoring the house to it's most basic state. Whomever lived here before was an idiot. Almost all of the light switches are outside the rooms they operate. Everything has been poorly enclosed, meaning that the whole house feels claustrophobic. Space has been poorly used and adapted, and the workmanship done previously was done to a poor standard. The rooms have been stripped and will be skimmed as we go. The gardens are being razed to the ground and all of the shite that clutters this place is lowly being skipped, burned or dumped.
We have painted the dining room a shade of buttermilk and put light-coloured, pastel-ish curtains in, and next up we shall do the same to the living room. The nursery has been prepared well in advance, painted a nice tasteful green. All the carpets bar the stairs and bathroom have been replaced with wood flooring, mostly oak, with the exception of the children's rooms where maple has gone down as it's cheap and damage is inevitable as they grow up. A decent central heating boiler has been put in, replacing a skanky old back boiler. Not bad for five months' work eh?
Next up is a set of French doors to the rear where they will open up on to a patio I will put in. That means I have to move around two tons of Earth minimum to make room for that. I will use that Earth to level off the back garden. Once done, I will have to get a Hilti drill and drill out the concrete path that the aforementioned idiot installed, and which bisects the garden in a way that suggests the culprit was blind as well as stupid. Whilst doing that I will also clear the various bricks and flagstones that litter the back garden, before completing the clearing by digging out any remaining plants etc. After that we will finally get to lay new turf. Behind the patio will be a vegetable allotment and on the turfed side we will plant fruit trees, most likely apple, orange and cherry.
To the front, after the conifers and remaining shrubs have been cleared the old flagstone path will go, making way for a new one that may be pebbles, may be new flagstones, I have yet to decide. Either side we will re-turf and plant more fruit trees, as well as bushes such as blackberry and strawberry plants. Hopefully by autumn we should have all of this done and we will plenty of play space, plenty of home grown food, and we are hoping to bottle our own cider made with home grown apples. After that I may throw up and collapse.
As you can see, we Chuppets have a busy time ahead of us...
Such is the world of house renovation eh? Hopefully we can be totally finished by 2010, ready to sell up and buy a farmhouse or something similarly country-esque. Much work lies ahead, but also much satisfaction.
2009-05-28
Lady GaGa reveals she is bisexual
Oh dear. The latest celebrity no-talent attention whore is Lady Gaga (who?). I had never heard of her so I looked her up on YouTube, and, as I suspected, she is shite. After coming out this week she said
"The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'".
YEAH!!!! GIRL POWER!!!
Erm, no. NOBODY CARES. "LIKE, OH MY GOD, LADY GAGA CAME OUT! OH YOU GUYS, SHE IS LIKE, SO WHATEVER".
Nobody is intimidated by bisexuality. We do gaze in pity at your attention whoring though. I grew up in the 80s. We had Boy George. Just get your baps out and be quiet.
2009-05-25
Today is Monday, and today is the day when Burnley FC make their way down to Wembley to play Sheffield United in a fight to the death for a place in the Premier League. Good luck lads.
The Sun is blazing once again, and today I shall endeavour to bring some semblance of order to my garden. I need to dig out the trees and turn the soil over ready to be re-turfed. I have been looking at it for a while now, but every time I get a spare day to do it I either end up catching up on work or it rains. Today should be a decent day to get after it though.
In other news, I saw a preview of Windows 7 today. Rather predictably, they have copied everything Apple includes such as photo import software, a DVD burner and music streaming to an X Box etc. The rip-off is so blatant that they even say 'A leopard can change its spots'. My iMac has done all of this for yonks and I am not at all surprised that Windows copies it all. At the link I posted it boasts features such as attractive desktop wallpapers (pathetic) and a revamped calculator. A calculator?. Seriously? That's the selling point? Every mobile phone in the universe has one, Google will do currency and measurement conversions, and failing that there is good old mental arithmetic. So they want me to buy Windows 7 because it has a great calculator? Another benefit they trot out is that you can calibrate your monitor to work with it. REALLY? You mean you're making software that works properly? I wouldn't expect anything less than that. Of course, the reason I won't buy it is that previous experience tells me it won't work properly. Apparently it also 'handles your photos differently'. How? Does it sing a song while it does it? Or pass out doughnuts?
Windows 7 seven is going to do what Windows always does: suck the sweat off a dead baboon's balls. The only difference being that this time it is going to do it harder than ever. Microsoft should just start again, and stop piling crap code and dreadful interfaces on top of crap code and dreadful interfaces.
2009-05-23
University is finally over with, thank god. Well, obviously I don't really thank god, but, since the phrase is a social convention, well, bah, you know what I mean. I have been so, so, so busy, what with deadlines, papers to write, my book coming out (number two is on the way) and renovating the house. I have missed blogging and updating this place, but priorities mean that needs must.
Lately I have been frequenting various discussion boards on Facebook, one of which is devoted to St George's Day. I am not at all nationalistic and I don't really care whether or not people celebrate St George's Day. Each to their own. As long as no-one gets hurt I see no problem. However, what I am disappointed by is the ignorance displayed by fans of the BNP and UKIP, the latter being something of a silly joke party to me and the former an obnoxious rash on the arse of UK politics. I am always amused by the opinions of the average BNP advocate. It turns out they are a very uniform bunch and one phrase I keep hearing is 'no surrender'. Since WWII ended decades ago I don't know what they are refusing to surrender to, however, I really must go a little deeper in to the discussions I have been having. Obviously I understand the concerns the UK has regarding immigration, racism, integration etc, however, I have always maintained that the BNP line of ethnic cleansing as a means of solving such problems by deporting foreigners en masse is absurd and would be laughable were it not such a frightening prospect. In the discussion group there is the usual jingoistic working class bunch who say things like 'British jobs for British workers' and blame immigrants for absolutely everything, and, well, to be honest, they tend to rabbit on about the disadvantages they have and how the UK immigration policy is to blame for it. As a working class man who, relatively speaking, never had much opportunity and who has had to better himself under his own steam I can do nothing but laugh at these people. Moaning about how crap your life is and blaming others is pathetic. Take a course, study, get a hobby, travel, enrich ourself however you can I say. Blaming immigrants because your kids go to a crap school in a run-down area, and blaming them because you can't get a job is pathetic.
My reason for saying all this is that I simply must reproduce an email I was sent by one Facebook user. Upon hearing my suggestion that perhaps the BNP ideology of ethnic cleaning and repatriation might not be, shall we say, the 'English way', I received this:
Header: YOU SCUM
Message:
Your a waste of space scum its people like you that let fucking imigrants take over this country, your fine with being a minority? i seriously despise morons in England that are not PROUD to be English and think that all these foreigners aint a problem when they blatenly are you SCUM!!
I should at this point state that I am not ashamed to be English. I am indifferent to it in a benign sort of way and I do not particularly oppose national pride. I prefer to think of myself as a human and nothing more. It may not surprise you to learn that this message came from a young man who is clearly disaffected in some way. I should also point out that this is the best endorsement I could have come up with for being a libertarian. I was very tempted to reply, correcting all his spelling and grammatical mistakes, but any satisfaction derived from doing so would have been deferred since I would not have been able to see the veins popping out of his head in anger. I also ignored it because I didn't want to give him access to my profile.
Wit hall of this in mind, I address the current BNP controversy this way. The Queen has had to invite them to Buckingham Palace as they have a man on the London Assembly and he wishes to take Nick Griffin, the overweight, holocaust denying, racist, xenophobic, anti-semitic, obnoxious leader of the BNP along as his guest. There is some controversy as to whether they should be allowed to do attend the gathering at the palace and whilst I am not qualified to judge as to whether there is a legal precedent for stopping them, on a point of morals I would not stop them either. Let them go I say. Let the country hear first hand what the little toads have to say. Rather than being horrified and offended by them, I say let them speak, and then point and laugh at them.
Now, of course, deep down I would rather not hear what they have to say at all, but they will not go away and moral outrage at the BNP is good publicity for them. I say scorn them. Make them the figure of fun they deserve to be with their eighteenth century ideas. What I really want to say is that we have been let down badly by the government and politicians of all stripes, and this is a fruitful time for xenophobes, extremists and opportunists like Griffin who will jump on this in order to gain power and influence.
One of my favourite quotes is Nietzsche, when he says: 'Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.'. These words have saved me in difficult circumstances more often than you can possibly imagine, and we would do well to hold on to them at this difficult time. In facing down corruption in UK government we must not act to replace it with even more corruption. A protest vote is the worst kind, for it is an attempt to hurt those who hurt us by voting in those who would only hurt us all. We must not act foolishly and hastily by handing power to those who promise us what we wish to hear, but which they cannot and will not deliver.
In staring at the beast of what the House of Commons, we must not become the beast and put the BNP in there. The moral abyss within government is sickening, it is awful, but it is judging us too.
2009-05-16
Been busy, not much bloggage, however, another good video from Thunderf00t:
See y'all soon. Two days of undergraduate life left, then I will be back, blogging in force until the masters begins. Stay with me!
2009-05-09
The reaction of many people to the swine flu pandemic has been so predictable that I could have set my watch by it. I have heard a few people insinuating that it is a government/Illuminati/Masonic/*insert bullshit paranoia organisation here* conspiracy to control the world. I am not going to dignify such nonsense with a response, however, suffice to say that the ignorance and paranoia promulgated by these idiots presents a significant danger to us all. What is really disappointing is when I hear things like 'normal flu kills X number of people a year - this has only killed 40 people!'. I mean, seriously, read a book for crying out loud. The problem with these people is that they do not know what they are talking about but they pretend that they do. Firstly, the 1918 Spanish flu started out exactly the same way, yet it went on to kill 50 000 000 people. The reasons for this are not that hard to understand. Firstly, regular flu mostly kills those who are weak, old, already ill, essentially those who are on the way out. Secondly, many of us have some sort of natural immunity to it. This is important for the crucial reason of infection rates. Put simply, If infection begins with patient zero, then goes to two people. If 50% of the population is immune then only one of those gets ill. Then they transmit it to two people. Only two of those four get ill. They transmit and generation four and out of the sixteen only eight become ill. Of the next generation only 32 get ill and so on. Now, swine flu is something none of us is immune to, so we get patient zero who then infects two, two infect four, four infect sixteen, sixteen infect sixty four. the infection rate is clearly bigger, and not only that, swine flu, like Spanish Flu is killing the young, the healthy and the strong. This means that the mortality rate is not only significantly higher, but it is far more lethal and so the pandemic potential soon becomes a threat.
The other reason that we should be worried is that the 1918 Spanish flu began as swine flu did, killing very few, but it, like swine flue had the following characteristics:
Are you seeing it yet? A fast moving, infectious and highly contagious disease has already covered the globe. All you need to add to this mixture is a mutation that greatly increases the lethality of the virus and you have a pandemic that will kill millions and we have no way to fight it. So imagine a virus that has a 75% mortality rate and watch the generations, assuming each victim has four friends or family members they infect (not unreasonable): 1, 2, 4, 16, 64, 256, 1024, 4084, 16336, 65344, 261376, 1045504. Assuming ten day per infection from contact until death that is more than 1 000 000 dead in around 120 days.
Do the world a favour. Wash your hands, follow simple hygiene protocols and don't pretend you are invincible.
2009-05-08
I wonder if, like me, you occasionally find yourself screaming at the television, or in my case, BBC iPlayer. Today I watched the repeat of Question Time online and I decided that I am going to vote at the next election. The reason is that the Labour Party has become the most terrifyingly authoritarian organisation I have ever seen. I am, for the first time in my life, genuinely frightened of my government.
Two people in the Question Time audience proposed, in agreement with the Labour ministers present, the notion that the entire UK population should have their DNA taken and stored in order to prevent and prosecute crime. This is what happens when people stop reading about history. Pick up a history book and read about what happens in states where the government has this sort of power. I am reminded, once again, of the words of a man whom, along with Thomas Jefferson, I have become something of a fan of; Benjamin Franklin:
'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
It's time for the electorate to tell these authoritarian bullies that we will not be ruled in such a way.
2009-05-01
Effective swine flu prevention and actions planning for the worst:
If you have a website please help this go viral, post it everywhere.
2009-04-29
Kudos Thunderf00t.
2009-04-28
Today I booked tickets to see Dream Theater play live. This will be my fourth Dream Theater gig. The bonus is that the support act is the excellent, and criminally under-rated Frost. If you enjoy progressive music then check out their two albums, Milliontown and Experiments in Mass Appeal. They are a superb band. I saw them with a friend at the Manchester Academy last year when they supported Spock's Beard. We didn't stay for the Beard. Since Neal Morse departed they have sucked the sweat from a dead baboon's balls. Interestingly Morse, despite being a bit of a religious twerp has continued to make excellent music.
2009-04-27
Bea Arthur. Outstanding.
Rest in peace, oh she who was the subject of such a funny joke in the film Airheads. In what has been a rather surreal week I also saw this headline on the BBC news Twitter feed:
An Italian cruise ship exchanges fire with pirates in the Indian ocean, beating off hijackers.
It's funny because it's childish.
In the news this week I saw that there has been a new law introduced to combat prejudice. It baffles me to think that ministers believe that hearts and minds can be changed this way. Nobody is ever going to change their mind because of this. Speak to the average jingoistic racist who believes that there are millions of immigrants entering Britain every second who are all getting jobs that belong to white male heterosexuals and you quickly realise that these boneheads will not be convinced no matter what you tell them and no matter how succinctly wrong you prove them to be.
Personally I think it's a complete waste of time to pass legislation like this, and I don't necessary think that this law is a good thing. If pregnant women are to get parity for instance, then give men nine months off as well. Religious discrimination is another tough one. If a person believes in a talking snake and the Ark then I think that such a person should be treated as less able than someone who knows that type of thing is tripe. I also do not think it is fair that employers pick up the tab for maternity leave. I love the fact that women get the time off but I don't see why their employers should effectively have to pay just short of a year's wages to a person for doing no work. It's ridiculous, and of course it is a law championed by Harriet Harman, who has made a career out of ludicrous political posturing. I guarantee that this will change nothing, save for inserting another level of bureaucracy for people to negotiate.
2009-04-27
This film cannot be shown enough:
2009-04-23
Well, yesterday's budget was a lesson in how to bottle it if you are the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We have given the banks billions of pounds and now we are borrowing it back from them. Does anyone else around feel as though something is not right? Of course, in addition to this we are allegedly gouging the rich, with a 50% income tax bracket. Genius. So, let's recap. We gave the banks billions and billions of pounds, but we took no assets against it. After that we gave them even more to get them to lend for mortgages again. They are not doing. Now, we have seen the budget where the banks are finally lending to us. They are lending our money to us.
WE HAVE GIVEN THE BANKS MONEY AND NOW THEY ARE LENDING IT BACK TO US AT A PREMIUM.
My head is about to explode like the motherfucking Death Star.
2009-04-20
I must mention this I suppose. Susan Boyle. Unfortunately YouTube has disabled embedding of the video of her singing, no doubt due to copyright issues. What I found hilarious was the panel. Why didn't they just say:
'Wow! When you came on we thought you were a complete scrubber who lived in a ditch by an abandoned farm!'
For crying out loud, what are these people like? I suppose it's all symptomatic of Cowell's world. Ordinary people cannot possibly be talented eh?
2009-04-18
2009-04-17
2009-04-15
A sadness bearable only to those that saw his videos greets the news of the death of one of YouTube's premier idiot creationists:
The real sadness is reserved for the girl that this individual murdered before he killed himself. His handle on YouTube was Tony48219. I am unsure as to whether his channel is accessible, or if there is any residual online evidence of his activities, but look him up if you can. See what Jesus did for him.
This article has a little bit more to say. It's fairly clear that he was seriously mentally ill, and that Christianity used him and then dumped him when he became a liability. The police were even warned about him. I came across him several times but I always ignored him as I was convinced he was insane (literally). To be honest, if he were just a hate-mongering little scrote I would be pretty apathetic about this. I am never to bothered when an idiot Darwins him/herself, but he needed help, and he took an innocent woman with him. Thanks a lot religion for giving us one more tragedy.
2009-04-14
I find myself impaled upon the horns of something of a dilemma. What do I do on St George's Day? The reason I ask is as follows. When England play in the World Cup, the flag is everywhere. I love a sense of national pride. I love community, I loved the day we snatched the olympics from under the noses of the French, especially given how arrogant their premier had been about it, assuming that they had it in the bag. Personally I am neither proud nor ashamed of being English, but I am proud of myself, and I do think we have the most neglected, yet one of the richest national heritages. What I find so upsetting, and I use that word carefully, is that the flag of St George has now become synonymous with jingoism and that the BNP, the political choice of village idiots, has succeeded in making English national pride a thing of derision, an object of scorn. I have a flag and I would dearly love to fly it, but I do not do so because I would immediately be labelled as a racist, BNP supporting, unintelligent moron. I find this to be immensely frustrating. I would dearly love to see our culture and heritage celebrated, but the BNP has all but made it impossible to do so without being a suspected racist. By being so xenophobic, racist and isolationist they have not only made the flag a quasi-racist emblem, but also they have made the English a figure of fun.
The worst thing about the BNP is that people actually believe that they would change things for the better. If you look at their manifesto on their website you will see that they wish to bring back conscription, with those who refuse to serve deprived of their right to vote. Say what you like about the pros and cons of conscription, that is not the point. Any organisation who believes that they confer human rights upon people is dangerous. Certain rights, such as free speech, self-determination and the right to vote and so forth transcend government. They are neither granted to, nor conferred upon a person by the government. They are the rights of free people. Even more terrifying is their desire to control what is and is not taught in universities. Make no mistake about this, every extremist and despotic organisation knows that the threat to their authoritarianism comes from scholars, and from knowledge. We owe our free world to people like Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, William Wilberforce, Voltaire, Spinoza, Marie Curie, Marie Stopes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and many others. Educated men who wrote, said and did things that shaped the free world. Now I find that I cannot celebrate these people (I know that I am taking liberties with nationalities here, but I do so because of the misogyny of the BNP) without seeming to be a jingoistic goon.
Much soul-searching awaits.
2009-04-13
Hi y'all. Sorry about the delay in posting. My web connection went down for a few days, but now I am back with you all. I missed it too...
Before I begin, I am starting a new feature on here. It's called 'obnoxious penis of the month' and it is devoted to those people who really think that their way of life is so important that it should be my yours and my way of life as well, whether we like it or not. The inaugural 'obnoxious penis of month' award goes to the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, and his 'Fury over football on Easter Sunday. Now, I have to expand a little upon this. First of all, I should say that there is no doubt in my mind that old Johnny boy is upset because he and his organisation, the Church of England, are no longer allowed to simply murder those who disagree with him. This used to be the favoured tactic of religious men, but thankfully we had the Enlightenment and did away with that. What I do find interesting is the choice of quotes chosen by the article writer. We have this gem:
'The present financial crisis has dealt a heavy blow to the idea that human fulfilment can be thought about just in terms of material growth and possession'
Followed by this little belter:
'Accepting voluntary limitation to your acquisitiveness, your sexual appetite, your freedom of choice doesn't look so absurd after all as a path to some sort of stability and mutual care. We should be challenging ourselves and our Church to a new willingness to help this witness to flourish and develop'
Let us take a more in-depth look at these two shall we? Firstly, His first quote says more about the recession than football. I assume he is linking the capitalist-driven expenditure of football with materialism, and thus believes that materialism is what caused the credit crunch. This all seems a little obvious to me. It reeks of GCSE economics. My reading of it is informed by the comments made by many religious organisations at the onset of the 'credit crunch'. They are thrilled to bits because they hate it when people enjoy themselves, something which is clear from the second quote. Why is he so concerned with our 'sexual appetite'? That is something about religious people that is extraordinarily creepy, and this dirty little religious deviant is clearly no exception. What the church is dying to say is 'SEE! Look! God has punished you for enjoying yourselves!'. They are loving it. You will note that churches are not going bankrupt. This is because they have grown fat on the offerings of the vulnerable and the needy, people to whom they have lied, promising heaven and riches if they give enough money. I note that he is doing just fine in these tough economic times.
Clearly Sentamu is linking excess and football, and making the tedious assertion that we should not play or watch sports on Easter Sunday. Good idea I say. Let's watch a man being whipped senseless, then nailed to a tree, and then we can watch his hideous lingering death unfold in real time as it happens. In fact, let's nail Sentamu to a tree. He clearly has a fixation with such matters, why not let him emulate his god? Oh yes, that's right. Some of us have evolved a little further than the bronze age shite by which he choreographs his life. Let's stick with Yeshua ben Joseph on the tree shall we? After we nail him to the tree we can hijack the Solstice, pretend he was god, and celebrate his aforementioned terrible death by exchanging Pagan fertility symbols.
Or, you could simply join with me in my chorus of disapproval for Sentamu and his shenanigans. John Sentamu can stick his bigoted opinions up his arse. I like watching football and I like playing football. If he doesn't like it then no-one is forcing him to watch it or play it. So, here's to you, John Sentamu, my inaugural OBNOXIOUS PENIS OF THE MONTH.
2009-04-03
I am posting at 0545 am during a bout of insomnia, so if there are mistakes in this post I apologise in advance. I really am that tired.
I just found a couple of great videos on YouTube, featuring John Cleese. They are clearly taken from the same interview, and they deal with the US presidential election that Obama won and the first one is about Sarah Palin (for those who know me well and live nearby - there is definitely something of the Joyce Brown about this woman - she really is that stupid):
If you do know Bonehead Brown then you should see an alarming similarity between her and Palin. Thank god Mccain didn't win. The idea that A woman who tried to ban books, and who believes that dinosaurs walked the Earth 4000 years ago would have the arming codes for the biggest nuclear arsenal on Earth kept me awake at night. Apologies if you do not know me personally and just read this blog. Trust me - it is funny and relevant to mention Bonehead. I thought his parrot metaphor was extremely amusing and scarily accurate. The second video is more interesting:
Isn't it remarkable how well comedians seem to understand politics and politicians? I watched this and I thought immediately that this is possibly the most intuitive assessment of America I have ever heard.
2009-03-31
Well, what have we got to say today? Several things actually. First of all, YouTube is turning in to a shit hole. I am a user and my channel can be viewed via the link above. However, the place has gone down hill in recent times. The appeal of YouTube was that it was a free, open forum and a level playing field where all comers could publish videos and make a statement, or argument, or whatever. Recent changes include an algorithm that promotes the videos that generate the most advertising revenue. This may sound fair but it is not, because one of the problems they had was, for example, an anti-religion video would cause them to serve adverts selling bibles, purely because the video was about religion. Their advertising algorithms could not target ads any better than that. This means that, practically, the more intelligent videos on YouTube are appearing less and less frequently. Then we had videos from atheists that would be subjected to spamming and flagging campaigns from creationists. This disingenuous tactic was used to rate videos using votebots, thus misusing the system. Then came the DMCA issue. Creationists whose videos were used by atheists to debunk the videos themselves were filing copyright infringement claims. This is essentially misuse of the law, because atheists would reproduce the creationists videos under fair use rules, and therefore free from copyright, and when they did, creationists would file illegal DMCA claims for copyright infringement. This was an intimidation tactic and it backfired spectacularly because what the religious fuckwits did not realise is that knowingly filing a false DMCA copyright infringement claim constitutes PERJURY. One of my favourite users, Thunderf00t, spectacularly bitchslapped VenomfangX, the most popular creationist on YouTube, resulting in a humiliating video where the religious idiot was forced to apologise or end up doing four years porridge for his crime. This video is here:
Of course, the lying little shit has continued to make videos despite being totally discredited, and the sheeple who believe his drivel still believe it is a government conspiracy against him and god continue to spout off the same nonsense.
I digress, however.
Now the latest trick is for creationists to club together to down-thumb any video by an organisation that is promoting knowledge, which eventually results in account suspension of the down-thumbed channel, and the latest victim is the James Randi Educational Foundation. This is a charitable organisation dedicated to learning and knowledge. If anyone is in any doubt why I hate these fuckwits and their ilk with all my heart: THIS IS WHY. They dare to attack educators who are promoting knowledge and the growth of those who wish to learn. They dare to come in to schools and make my children listen to their rubbish. They hinder the educational progress of those with a passion for learning and knowledge. They attack anything that is a threat to them, and make no mistake, anyone in the religion game knows that the most potent threat to them is knowledge, and it always comes from scholars. There is a reason they locked Galileo in his house, and it is fairly clear what that reason is. So, after all of this is said and done and they are finished with their bullying, what do they do? OH DEAR CHRIST THEY CLAIM TO BE A PERSECUTED MINORITY. That's right! If you oppose them in any way, the first thing out of their mouths is 'Jesus said we would be persecuted for him'. Look! Help us! We're being oppressed!
That's right folks. They are one step away from attempting to shut down schools for not teaching the Bible as absolute truth. I am not one for moral crusades. I have my passions and that is it, but on this occasion I implore any sane, right-thinking individual to get on YouTube's case about this. I absolutely support the right of creationists to state their case, in fact I hope they do as it is the best evidence against them that anyone can find. I do not, however, want to see them succeed in intimidating others and making it impossible for genuine talent to show itself.
2009-03-30
I am going to be the first to say it.
DO NOT SACK JACQUI SMITH!
You cannot buy comedy like this! Her husband is sitting at home beating his meat whilst she runs the country - brilliant!
Alright, seriously, what a shithead. There are people who literally cannot pay their bills, selling their pets because they cannot afford to feed them, losing their homes, and Mr Smith is spending tax payers money on spanking his monkey? How the hell can she not resign for this? I bet she thinks he is a right wanker. Alright, I will stop the daft puns now. I only wish we were in the middle of a run of Have I Got News For You. I would love to hear what Merton and Hislop would have to say about the husband of the home secretary charging the taxpayer so he can pull his duff.
2009-03-30
Ok, this is an unprecedented second post in a single day, but I really have to do this. During my usual YouTube scouring run I have encountered a real plant pot, the ironically named How The World Works. Forget every creationist, New World Order, 9/11 and moon landing conspiracy theorist you have ever met. This guy is taking the proverbial biscuit. Whilst he stops short of actually wearing a tinfoil hat during his videos, he is every bit as insanely paranoid as the biggest ranting lunatic you have ever met.
Typically he makes incredible assertions, incredible claims and outrageous theoretical constructions, but, in keeping with those of such convictions, submits no evidence, relies on no previous received knowledge and utilises no theoretical or logical premises.
Which is basically a nice way of saying he is a complete bullshitter.
2009-03-29
I appear to be having the same experience repeatedly. It is not quite my own personal Groundhog Day, but nonetheless a very uncanny and strange experience. I am sure you have had it too, dear reader, but I thought I would mention it anyway. I keep coming across people I used to know, who were really great people, good friends, and who have subsequently let it all go in a huge way. By that I mean they have become very fat, very angry about something or other and very unpleasant to talk to. This makes me wonder whether I have become like that. Of course, there are certain people I treat like that, but that is because I do not like them and holding a grudge against someone who truly is a complete penis is a beautiful thing, but this is something different. I have encountered a staggering number of people whom I used to be quite friendly with, who have become horrendous racists. I don't understand where that kind of hatred comes from. As far as I can tell there are two varieties. There are those with a persecution complex and who believe everything the Daily Fail tells them, such as the government has banned the English flag or government documentation does not have the option to state one's ethnicity as 'English'. Then there are others who use the words 'Muslim', 'Terrorist' and various racial pejoratives interchangeably. It is really quite odd when I think about it. I just cannot understand where such divisive hatred based upon ethnicity comes from and I cannot understand why people allow ignorance or blatant untruths to dictate how they think. I have heard statements such as 'wherever there is a war there is a Jew making a profit' from people who genuinely believe that such a statement is not only true, but also morally defensible. It is difficult to know what to say to such ignorance and prejudice. I fear that much of it is to do with our evolutionary history as small groups fighting and killing other small groups, because such hatred is so ludicrously irrational that I wonder if is something bred in to people. What is equally as frightening is how hard people can be seen cling to this nonsense. It is almost religious in nature since, no matter what you tell them, no matter how succinctly wrong you prove such opinions to be, they refuse to abandon them.
On a more sentimental note, I leave you today with song that is a true classic:
2009-03-27
Well, aside from the initial weekend when we decided to go green and start growing food the weather has been so bad that it has been either too cold or too wet to do anything meaningful to the gardens, although our plants are coming along nicely indoors in our little outhouse. When we eventually get the weather we will be potting some fine, substantial plants but until then we are a wee bit frustrated regarding Operation Chuppet 2009. I can only say this: GRRRRR. I am sure things will turn around shortly.
In other news, I discovered a rather good band called Shinedown this week. They are a wee bit American, i.e. a bass-y vocal, PRS guitars and double kick drums but they aren't bad.
This week I decided to delve back in to the dusty old CDs I own and dig out my Pearl Jam records. I have the CD discography as far as Yield, so I obtained the rest promptly. Of course I did not download them illegally using BitTorrent and a suitable client such as uTorrent. That would be a heinous thing to do. Anyway, I remember missing out on No Code, their fourth album, and then buying Yield on release in the UK and thinking what a radically different band they were from the days of Ten. I bought No Code shortly after Yield. At the time I was disappointed because the sound I heard on Ten was genuinely unique. I don't think that there is another album like it. I certainly look back now and see that pretty much every American rock band since Ten has used a vocalist who sounded like Eddie Vedder. Jeff Ament's bass is not at all what I would play as a bassist myself, but you have to credit the guy for making fretless bass cool again, as well as for using a twelve string (Ament said in an interview that Kings X 'invented grunge' - make of that what you will) and the songs were pretty unique. Not the raw edge of Nirvana or the ever-so slightly prog of Alice In Chains (a criminally under-rated band by the way). What they did really well was detach from Ten quickly. Vs was different and then Vitalogy was as real departure from Seattle, very punky and bluesy. The point is that, having subsequently listened to Binarual, Riot Act and the rest I have found them again, and these subsequent releases have reinvigorated Ten and Yield for me. I found the band quite irritating during the Ticketmaster crusades, but they have grown and they have rediscovered a new creativity, with better songs and lyrics than before. I hope they come to a festival or venue near here soon.
2009-03-26
The Chuppet management has received a complaint. Apparently I am not blogging enough. In my defence, I am rather busy these days, with two children, one on the way, three dogs, my degree, my writing, and figuring out what the hell I am going to do with myself this coming academic year. So there. I feel odd about leaving university, and I am certainly going to step up my writing and general all-round harassment of publishers. Kai, my first book is now finished and I am ploughing on with The Final Flight of the Good Ship Solaris. Two very different stories, hopefully two decent stories.
I stumbled acorss this on YouTube:
Brilliant.
2009-03-18
Bonjour all. Recommended listening in the Chuppet household: Real Time with Bill Maher. An excellent television show screened on the HBO network in America. This link takes you to a free audio podcast of the show, which features excellent discussion and satire about politics from an American point of view, with comedians, politicians and writers of the highest calibre. Very funny, and Maher is the brains behind the excellent film Religulous, available on all good torrent sites. I am not suggesting you download it illegally of course, I am merely saying that it happens to be there.
In other news, why isn't the pope in jail? Seriously. This week he has gone to Africa and said that condom use is not the solution to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region. I just do not get this at all. How does this Roman Catholic pseudo-Sith lord even think he has the right to do something like that? Leaving aside the inherent creepiness of a 75 year old virgin who wants to regulate the sex lives of the people of world, how does this charlatan get away with it? In many regions of Africa the only information about sexual health comes from Roman Catholic ministers. The infection rate for HIV and AIDS on the continent is skyrocketing and the epidemic is hopelessly out of control, and this joker comes out and says this. This is genocidal stupidity and he gets away with it. Why? WHY? WHY?. One has to wonder what the solution is then if condom use is not the answer. Perhaps the traditional route of sticking one's genitals in to the anuses of young choirboys is the answer? I hear that is quite a popular pastime in the Catholic priesthood.
2009-03-15
I have become something of an evangelist for all things Apple. I am amazed that I persevered with the garbage that is Windows for so long. Having used a Windows PC and a Windows smartphone for a long time, I swapped a while ago, first buying an iPhone, then eventually buying an iMac. It has been a revelation and a lesson in how computing does not have to be a nightmare from the moment one turns the thing on. Paying more has definitely been a worthwhile expense, although, having gone through three £300 laptops in a year, it seems that, in reality, I haven't paid over the odds. My iMac is clearly going to outlast all three laptops. When I finally start working again I will trade this iMac in for a top of the range one. It has been such a godsend to have a computer that works properly, has a hard drive that means I don't have to keep deleting files and making space for things. When I upgrade I will get one with a hard disk measured in terabytes and a screen like a cinema theatre. After I bought my iMac I very quickly snapped up an Apple TV and upgraded to iLife '09, which has iPhoto, Garage Band, iMovie and iWeb, all of which I have put to good use, most notably iMovie and Garage Band, which I have been able to use to finally make the astronomy videos I have been wanting to put online for so long. iPhoto is marvellous too
Of course, if there were other companies making things as well as Apple does I would be championing them in equal measure. The Android OS Google is using for mobile phones looks like serious competition for the iPhone and that can only be good news for techheads like me, however, I still have to credit Apple for that because the iPhone has so massively destabilised the smartphone market that other companies have no choice but to innovate or die. One only has to look at the piece of junk that is the Blackberry Bold to see how far behind the rest are. Blackberry were once the champions of mobile business computing but the iPhone has come up on the inside and got in front by a nose. Every industry review of a new smartphone now asks one question: is it an iPhone killer?
Apple's attempt to knock Microsoft off it's perch has also seen the emergence of good quality, cheap Linux laptops, particularly from Asus, and again, this is a good thing. Anything that weans the world off Microsoft is good. I know so many folks who think that Windows is how a computer works, and that there is nothing else, and, more crucially, nothing better. It's fairly obvious that Microsoft, throughout the 90s could sell computers no matter how shite they were (and they were total shite) because of their dominance. That is changing and it is thanks largely to the innovation of Apple and also the flourishing open source market. Google's catalogue of free software, Firefox, Opera, Flock, all these things have shown how much better computing can be if people think about it instead of churning out shite.
2009-03-14
The sound of Manchester United being destroyed by the Mighty Reds today, in front of their own fans, was a beautiful thing indeed. I still think they will win the league but this is an excellent time for Liverpool. What made it brilliant was to see that ugly bastard Rooney get his 'I hate Liverpool' rant shoved up his po-faced, spotty, jug-eared, Shrek-a-like arse.
In other news: I destroyed the trees in my front garden with a chainsaw today. It feels so much better out there already. It baffles me why anyone would want to take a garden and completely enclose it in Leylandii, possibly the most hideous, god-awful tree in the universe. The only thing more detestable in a garden than Leylandii is decking. Bloody decking.
2009-03-13
It is Friday the thirteenth. Fortunately I am not a sufferer of triskedekaphobia so I am not too worried. If anything bad happens today then it is simply a coincidence. I suppose there may be an element of determinism involved in the myth about these days but beyond that it is not really an issue for me. As most people who read this blog will know, I am not a superstitious man, nor do I hold much sway with the superstitions of others. It therefore simply remains for me to say to those that do hold to superstitions and suchlike: GET A GRIP
In other news, our little herb garden is coming along nicely, with shoots appearing everywhere now. It is getting warmer all the time, meaning I can soon get on with the business of chainsaw-ing our garden to death and planting new trees and shrubs. Having looked in to solar power, specifically the installation of photovoltaic power cells, I find to my eternal disappointment that the technology looks to be around five to ten years away from being residentially viable. Of course, you can install them but a maximum saving of £160 per annum is pretty poor when balanced against the £10000 cost of installation, meaning that to break even I would need 62.5 years of usage from it and that requires it to operate continuously at optimum efficiency. It's not going to happen is it? In a decade perhaps it will be an option for us. I find it hugely disappointing really. Given all that we know about climate change, diminishing fossil fuel reserves and suchlike I find it criminally negligent of our government that they are so far off the pace when it comes to renewable, clean energy. I would be happy if I saw my taxes spent on environmentally friendly infrastructure. I would be putting solar power in every house in the country. I would be making recycling a profitable business, rather than what it is used for by local councils at the moment, which is as a cash cow, rather like that which speeding fines have become, simply a way to use a good idea, i.e. road safety/clean and renewable energy, as a way to squeeze even more cash out of the taxpayer. I would be backing the car industry to build solar powered cars. It seems insane to me that we pipe gas and oil to heat and power houses when it can be done for free using wind, Sun and hydroelectricity. One thing which is clear is that, when it comes to renewable energy, the 'Google' or "Amazon' of the field has yet to emerge, the genuine innovator and giant has not yet appeared. The knowledge and technology exists, it is simply a case of the political will versus the political won't. In any case, we can still get our house as friendly to the environment as possible.
2009-03-10
My Basil has sprouted! There is a tiny green shoot poking through the soil in which I potted my first plant, a crop of Basil. Here it is in all its glory:
Edit: picture temporarily deleted due to security issues.
Now that I know I can do it Operation Chuppet can begin with earnest!
2009-03-09
I have just re-read my previous post and the part where I said that I was growing herbs sounds as though I am cultivating some sort of marijuana factory. I am not. I have never used drugs, and I don't feel the need to do so any time soon so let me just set the record straight on that front. I was referring to basil, rosemary, cardamon, coriander, thyme and suchlike.
Anyway, drug use, and more specifically a lack thereof, aside, today is many things. It is sluicing down with rain and I am stuck inside with a toddler with energy to burn. Welcome to insanity. Moving beyond such trivial matters, today is the third day of the NASA Kepler mission. You can see a photograph taken at the launch here. The Kepler spacecraft is the first ever space probe with equipment onboard that is sensitive enough to detect Earth-like planets as they orbit around other stars. This is a very exciting time to be an astronomer, because the potential to find such worlds represents a significant step forward in exoplanetary study, with the potential to detect life on other worlds. If memory serves me well the Kepler will use the transit method to detect planets. This means that it will watch stars as they shine, and look for regular dips in their light. This means that something is orbiting and passing in front of it regularly. There are other methods of detection, such as watching for the gravitational 'wobble' a planet exerts upon a star, but the transit method is best in this instance because it means that light from the star will shine through the planet's atmosphere, and this means that a spectroscope can be used to determine what compounds and elements are present in the atmosphere. What we should really hope to see are things like methane - hydrocarbons that can be produced by organic processes, by bacteria or more complex forms. The dead giveaway would be the detection of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll can only be produced by organic processes, meaning that wherever there is chlorophyll there is life.
I will be watching with baited breath.
2009-03-08
My blogging is more sporadic than usual. This is down to a combination of factors, university, illness, children and house renovations. Many apologies.
I have decided this week that 2009 will be a year for two things. First of all, the UN has declared that this year will be the international year of astronomy. My response to that is not only to get my telescope out more often, weather permitting of course, but also to keep up Elegant Universe, to keep posting videos and hopefully to expand it in to a decent discussion forum for novices and kids alike. With that in mind I have revamped the site in a blog-based format with a comments section. Check it out, you might like it. This year will also be the year of self-sufficiency for us. Every year the family launches 'Operation Chuppet' for that year. Last year the object was simply to simply have a great family year travelling to as many places as a family with a six year-old and a baby can. This year it is self-sufficiency, ecology and environmentalism.
I have always been something of a closet greenie, and this year I intend to be more proactive in this respect. I have no interest in being a born-again environmentalist bore, rather, I am simply going to make our house as environmentally friendly as possible. With this in mind we are already shoring up the winter defences of the house, with a new boiler, loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, and hopefully the addition of solar power, provided it is cost-effective and that our house faces the right direction. In tandem with this we are going to put our land to use. When we moved last December we knew that both of our gardens would be a challenge because they had not been worked on for years so I saw this as an excellent opportunity. This summer, as part of Operation Chuppet 2009 we are going to grow our own fruit and vegetables. We hope to use one half of the back garden as an allotment, and we will plant a small orchard and orange grove on the other side. At the moment I am growing herbs in the house to get a feel for the art of horticulture. When summer approaches I am going to get a chainsaw and hack through the mess in both gardens, essentially razing them to the ground. After that that the planting shall begin. At the front we will only plant saplings because fruit trees are too tempting a target for drunks and kids, but at the back we are going to grow potatoes, carrots, leeks, peas, apples, pears, oranges (bit of a wild card that one), possibly plums, strawberries, raspberries, bilberries and anything else we can think of. I might even brew my own cider!
Operation Chuppet 2009 will see us making our lifestyle and home an environmentally sound place, where natural beauty abounds. We will be due a new vehicle shortly so there will be plenty of soul-searching and thought going in to that. I shall, of course, continue to walk and cycle everywhere. We will get solar-powered lighting for the garden and we are going to recycle all organic waste as compost. We have bought a can crusher from Nigel's Eco Store as well as organic and environmentally friendly consumables wherever possible. Watch this space for progress reports and pictures from OPERATION CHUPPET 2009.
2009-03-02
Sometimes there are things that are too funny for words:
2009-02-21
My life-long love affair with astronomy continues as I have launched a website and YouTube channel that features free educational videos about astronomy for novices and youngsters. The homepage is www.elegantuniverse.co.uk and the YouTube channel is http://www.youtube.com/meekychuppet. You can subscribe at YouTube by signing up for an account, visiting the channel, and clicking the 'subscribe' button. I hope you enjoy them!
2009-02-18
Gutten morgen. Bien Venu. Good morning all, it's 0740 right now and yesterday was a rather excellent day if I do say so myself. The winter has been pretty naff really this year, damp, cold, dark etc. Such conditions make family life difficult because it's not really practical to go out. The fields and parks are either waterlogged or closed, the temperature makes hiking unfeasible with small children around so we have been stuck indoors for much of the last few months or so, which is very frustrating for an active, outdoor-loving family. Yesterday, however, we decided to find something to do, so I looked up The Lowry and saw that they are showing an exhibition of pop-up art from around the world, so off we went to see it and it was great, an unexpectedly interesting day out. Here are some piccies:
They were the Statue of Liberty, The Great Pyramid of Giza and the Golden Gate Bridge respectively. They covered several countries, obviously the USA and Egypt, but also Australia, Germany, France and others. There were pop-up versions of the Eiffel Tower, the Guggenheim, the Sydney Opera House and many more. After that we went through to the art exhibition which was showing (inevitably) the work of LS Lowry, and also photography of seascapes which alluded to Lowry's lesser known work, paintings of seascapes, plus, there were also poems mounted on wooden plaques. I found that to be very evocative and interesting and I still haven't figured out why. Writing poetry on wood seems an odd thing to do but it added a quality to it which is perplexing me at the moment.
I should also mention that the staff at there were really very good. It isn't so long ago that children weren't allowed in places like this, and if they were they were expected to walk around in silence, with their arms at their sides, not touching anything, something which, from the age of five, I have found to be patently ridiculous. Here at the Lowry the staff were so child-friendly and accommodating to them, which I think is a great thing because the Lowry is exactly the kind of place where they should be, learning, enjoying, soaking up knowledge and culture, learning about art and aesthetics. Jake and Luca loved every second of it. Granted, Luca spent most of his time running around simply because he was out of the pram, but he still took the time to look at what was around him, and children notice and understand more than we adults give them credit for sometimes. I thoroughly and wholeheartedly recommend this exhibition, and the Lowry itself, to anyone who wants to see something more than their four walls and workplace. It cost me £5 in the form of a gift-aided donation, something I had no problem giving, and it was the best day out we have had in a long time.
2009-02-16
As a shameless fan of 80s music of all kinds, I am sure you can appreciate what a gold mine YouTube is for tracking down various music videos. I tracked down the following performance by Heart, a live rendition of one of my favourite songs, 'These Dreams'.
I should point out that the original recording is in the key of G sharp minor, whereas this has been dropped a whole tone to F sharp minor which suggests that age has taken it's toll on their voices, although they do perform 'Alone' in the original key of A sharp minor (possibly the saddest of all keys) and that has an almighty soprano scream in it so perhaps it's just easier to perform 'These Dreams' in a more laid back style. I note that the bass line has also been simplified, more root notes, less harmonies and intervals, and also, despite the sprinkling of a few arpeggios played on electric guitar, the performance has a distinctly 'unplugged' feel to it. I think it translates well. However, despite my obsessive muso-style analysis - something no musician can help doing - I have to stand back and say: what a performance!
I miss the 80s. They were so absurd that they were the greatest years ever, and I think that, even if we did have a revival of music and fashion, which is something that is constantly hinted at in the media, it would not be the same. Boy George is boring, the music belongs in it's time and being camp or gay is no longer salacious or shocking. I do think, however, that the era becomes more influential over time. I hear it's influence in music and see it in art and fashion, and that seems to contradict what I said earlier, but it really doesn't if one is intelligent enough to see the subtleties in it's influence. The 80s used to be blatant and in your face, but now the era functions as a watermark. Faint, indistinct and deeply embedded, but the signature is unmistakably everywhere. Say what you want about the music, but many of these bands are still performing and they are selling out stadiums. I can't think of so many bands from the 60's that were selling out stadiums in the 80s, nor can I think of many bands from the 70's that were packing them in during the 90s. Much of the 90s was informed by 60s and 70s culture but the influential nature of the 80s as it stands just wasn't there for those earlier acts.
I love the 80s.
2009-02-14
Well, the spineless politicians in the UK government have only gone and given Geert Wilders exactly what he wanted haven't they? By banning him from the UK he has received publicity far in excess of anything he would have ever received had he just been allowed in to show his silly film and take a few questions. Why did they ban him? That's right, they bottled it. When faced with an unelected lord who was threatening to mobilise ten thousand people to illegally barricade the Houses of Parliament they capitulated.
I have watched Fitna, the film Wilders is promoting, and it is a rather predictable montage of verses from the Q'uran, juxtaposed with footage of various atrocities committed around the world. Unfortunately it makes no intelligent point, rather it is just a mixture of various bits of content which hints more at correlation than causation. I personally do think that religion is, frankly, taking the piss as far as it's undeserved influence in society is concerned and, whilst I do not care for Wilders, what I do care for is the fact that British law is now being abused in order to defend the Q'uran from criticism. It doesn't matter that the criticism was poorly thought out, poorly argued (if one could say it was argued at all - I don't think it was) and that it was completely inane in terms of it's ability to win over anyone with a reasoning mind, what matters is that his right to free speech has been denied. I say it constantly and I have no problem saying it again: free speech is the foundation of Western democracy. Without it our free society would die a quick and ugly death and I cannot believe that, in the twenty-first century, we find ourselves having to defend our own country from those who threaten religious violence in response to different views and opinions.
But what else does this tell us? Why is Islam so vehemently opposed to any speech against it? Why are they so violently opposing criticism in increasing measure? Well, an analogy if I may. I have, on several occasions at university, tried to have a discussion with a particular student who is, and I use this term deliberately, a militant feminist. Now, I get a lot of unfair criticism from her and others and I am often labelled a misogynist because I dare to challenge them concerning their opinions. Being twenty one years old renders them a lot like me when I was their age, essentially believing that being passionate about one particular ideology will mean that the rest of the world will bow at my feet in agreement. Clearly this is not the case, and thank god I was able to get an education which taught me how much more there is, and indeed, how much more I do not, and could not ever know. In my various conversations I have tried to express my opinions on feminism. Incidentally, I don't really have much of a beef about feminism, all I have ever tried to say is that a little perspective is needed. Before we deal with some of the more trifling complaints maybe we should act on things such as the treatment of women in Islamic societies, i.e. female circumcision, the beating and murder of women with no husbands, or who dare to show a bit of flesh etc. I think these are more pressing concerns than the ones we have in this country. However, my point is this, the most I have ever been allowed to say, before I am shouted down and preached at is this:
'My problem with feminism is.'
At that point I am screamed at and essentially refused any time to give my opinion. Now, what does this tell us? Well, it alludes to a simple principle. A person who does not allow their actions or views to be subjected to criticism behaves in that way because they know that their views and actions are morally indefensible, and that they will not stand up under scrutiny. This is very common amongst religious sorts. For example, I built a parody website concerning a church near me, and I was told I would be dropped from their football team if I did not take it down. Why did they threaten this? Because they knew I was getting to them and they knew I was right. If not then why did they bully me in such a way? To my eternal regret I did take it down for a quiet life. Shame really, but the point here is not what a person thinks or believes, but it is how they behave in regard to those criticising it. As far as I am concerned, the minute this unelected peer made his threat to blockade parliament he should have been dragged through the courts for threatening to start a riot, and anybody who did turn up to violently protest should have had the same treatment, and our government should have the balls to stand up to such bigoted, violent bullies and tell them that if they attack those who speak freely then their sorry backsides will be dragged to jail.
We are rapidly progressing to a point where free speech is no longer valued and this should terrify every single one of us.
2009-02-11
Lowri Turner is the biggest dickhead on television, and she is rapidly becoming a poster girl for the professional stupidity that seems to be becoming more and more desirable in the UK. She is everything I despise and is without doubt the archetypal pushy mother. Today she argued, with out any hint of shame, that children whose parents have decided not to immunise their children through vaccination should still be allowed to go to schools. She essentially prioritises their parental rights over the rights of every other child in the school. One only needs to look at what diseases such as diphtheria, polio, rubella etc have done in the past to see how ridiculous this position is. We have heard the objections about autism and there is no connection between that and MMR. How do I know? Because I am, out of every parent I know, the only person that has actually read the research and weighed the evidence. Every other person I know has simply listened to the scare stories.
It's a simple thing really. If you do not get your child immunised you are abusing them, and by refusing to have them vaccinated you are also potentially murdering every other child who has not been immunised, including my children who are too young to have their jabs. How dare you endanger my children, you arrogant moron.
So what does Lowri say?
'I think there are children who are vulnerable.'
This statement is utterly meaningless. This statement is simply an attempt to scare people in to thinking that vaccination = autism. Well, non-vaccination is irresponsible. I absolutely defend the freedom of any parent to reject the jabs. But here's the kicker: I defend the rights of all the other kids you endanger too, so, no, you may not, if you refuse vaccinations, send them to school where they are a danger to the school population
So, here's to you Lowri Turner: YOU ARE A COMPLETE FUCKWIT..
2009-02-10
What is it with the news services in the UK and bad weather? They report a snowfall as though it is a sign of the impending apocalypse. Countries like Australia and USA have tornadoes, forest fires and suchlike. That is the kind of thing I expect to see reported on TV, not a snowfall. I can appreciate the point that the UK is not equipped to deal with anything beyond a moderate snowfall, however it is so rare that there would be no value in spending the money to deal with it, but is there really no other news than this? On the BBC One breakfast TV show the reporting on location from Gloucestershire comprised of 'it's very snowy here and the locals are fed up of it'. How Royston Vasey can this get?
2009-02-09
Via the excellent Twitter I have stumbled across the Jodrell Bank seven metre telescope webcam, which looks interesting, as does the rest of the site which, as yet, I have yet to explore. I also listened, for some insane reason, to a few more LCB podcasts. I don't really want to say too much as they are not even remotely amusing any more, just banal and dull, however I must share a revelation. I was listening to Matt, the man who, despite hearing fifteen years of 'he won't work at the church because his dad does', now works at church because his dad does, and I suddenly realised something. Had I not left all those years ago, I would be spending my Sunday mornings listening to a twenty-five/six/seven (whichever applies) year old virgin with no discernible talent beyond an inherited gift for extorting tithes from the gullible masses, telling me how to live. It is therefore with a huge sense of irony, that, when I see the long line of cars parked all, the way down my avenue on a Sunday morning, I think to myself 'there but for the grace of god go I'.
Incidentally, if any lifers are reading, I note that the car park has yet to expand, so you should be aware that, if you park outside my house, your car will be on bricks before communion is served.
Moving on, I have become infatuated with the micro blogging offered by the aforementioned Twitter. It is a fascinating experience, especially following the quasi-famous people I do, Stephen Fry, Wil Wheaton etc. It's easier and more streamlined than Facebook, although I am not giving up on it, I still love Facebook as much as ever. Twitter is simply different and more interesting because it is less cluttered. You can follow if you like. My handle is, rather predictably, Meekychuppet, and I update far too often for my own good.
2009-02-06
I am, in the purest sense, an aristocrat. By that, I mean not that I am a fan of the British aristocracy, but rather that I believe in aristocracy in its purest and most generic form; I believe in the rule of the best. I believe that if we adopted this as a methodology and ideology for life then we would not be, as a country, in the mess we are in. Right now we are sliding in to the worst recession that any of us is ever likely to see in our lifetime. The reason for this is very complicated, but one thing I have watched with mind-boggling incredulity is the lengths to which the government has gone bail out the perennially stupid who have taken mortgages and credit-based debts that are valued at margins far above and beyond what they will ever be able to pay. Why? I see no good reason to do this. We are now in a situation where those who have taken reasonable mortgages and who have not spent beyond their means are left to struggle under the crushing weight of a recession caused by the morons who are being bailed out by the government. Is this fair? No. It is a massive extension of the classroom principle that education moves at the pace of the slowest learner. Is that fair? No. Should this change? I think it should. I would go even further. Why have taxpayers been forced to pay to bail out banks and bankers who share the responsibility for this mess in the first place? If we are going to go down the route of bailing people out, then why not let the banks be hanged by their own petard? Why not use the money to pay off every mortgage in the country and let the banks swing? It would have been far cheaper. Then we could just go to the Bank of England for all our borrowing and banking needs. The banks are a national utility, so nationalise them. We allowed them to run themselves and they showed us how good they are at doing so by creating an unsustainable sub-prime debt structure. Am I the only person who sees the inherent madness of giving these people even MORE money?
Ultimately the best should rule. Those who are most worthy by nature of their actions and abilities, their innate qualities and their intellect and reasoning skills should be those who rule. What the country has collectively done is to reward those who deserve it the least. Those who have managed their lives poorly should be allowed to face the consequences of their actions rather than running to the government with their hand outstretched. The more we nanny such people the more gormless we all become, and, make no mistake, we are all guilty.
Ironically the market forces theory works at a medium-scale level because, despite the recession and the tough economy there are still people cleaning up, buying property, making money and they are doing so because, during the 90s they did not expend all of their capital resources, and therefore now they are in a position of power, able to use their cash flow and capital to bully sellers down in order to get a good deal. Money still talks in this respect. What these smart people know is that, even during the crazy days of easy credit, the cash buyer is king. It is still as true as ever to say that he who has the gold makes the rules.
Right now we are in the worst downturn since the Great Depression. The best are making a killing.
2009-02-05
This is a review from Amazon for Ricky Gervais' children's book, Flanimals. I promise you that this is not a joke:
What a moron.
2009-02-04
The Daily Fail has a story today that warmed my heart. a nurse is facing the sack because she went to a patient's house and offered to pray for her. Of course the Daily Fail has gone for a rational and balanced headline:
Persecuted for praying: Nurse who faces the sack after offering to pray for sick patient
I just cannot help it:
You're not paid to pray love. Shut your trap and get back to work.
Of course the predictable spin is one of oppressing religious freedoms, well, fine, I say. Have your freedom to pray, as long as you do not mind being sued when it is not answered.
Anyway, believe it or not, that was not my reason for posting. I just stumbled upon it quite accidentally. Lately I have been considering the problems the world faces, such as terrorism and religious fundamentalism and I wondered why the world has so readily accepted the loss of liberty in exchange for safety. Many freedoms have gone, practically without a fight. Why? What is so terrifying about this struggle and this threat that is so different from others? It's an interesting question isn't it? Well, it seems to be that the reaction to an old threat has changed, but that is not the case. It is a subtly different threat. Our first and worst attempts at moral philosophy were the various religious texts we have. Things like the ten commandments were put in place to stop the threat of the individual against individuals. Fast forward to the industrial revolution and laws are expanded in tandem with the expansion of industry and technology. Personal liberty was deemed precious mainly because technology enabled the threat of the many against the one. The Luddite movement was founded, essentially upon this notion. The threat ceased to be symmetrical. It was realised that large scale deployments of technology and manpower must not be allowed to threaten the common man. Our new threat is also non-symmetrical. It is an inversion of the industrial threat. Technology is now so far advanced that the individual is now a threat to the many. Weaponry is now sufficiently powerful to enable the delivery of destruction on a catastrophic scale whilst being controlled from a single point on a network. Computer viruses can, potentially, collapse countries if they can be successfully planted in the computer networks of banking institutions. One person carrying laboratory-synthesised Smallpox can walk in to a city and kill millions.
The one now threatens the many. By comparison it is easy to patrol big business and big industry, but to patrol every one of the Earth's six billion inhabitants? How do we do it? Can we do it at all? It would seem that the only way to defend against this is to restrict the free movement of information, the very thing we are defending. It is sad that people are so fanatical that destruction is the only way they see to make their point, and now that technology has given us all the ability, it not only saddens me, but it frightens me, especially for my children.
2009-02-02
Today's topic for the stupid to prove how stupid they are? Jonathan Porritt, ecology buff and general all-round wing nut believes that having more than two children is bad for the environment and further suggests that government intervention in the size of families is appropriate to combat this. Naturally, my first reaction is to tell Porritt to go fuck himself, and add him to my 'list of creepy people that have a sexually deviant need to regulate how I should reproduce and what I should do in my bedroom', where he resides with all major religions, anyone whose surname is Brunton and US Republicans. Beyond that, I am extremely concerned about the fact that it can be proposed at all, that we should have the government telling us what we may and may do in the privacy of our own homes. I would, of course, never seriously suggest what I am about to say next, but if we are so concerned about depletion of resources and suchlike then killing off the elderly would be a far better idea, essentially disposing of those who give nothing and only require increasing levels of care and resources to keep them alive. Naturally such an idea is abhorrent, but then again so is Porritt's obnoxious suggestion.
Have we really go to this point? The UK is once again reverting to an absolute socialist nightmare state, where the government wipes your arse for you. Why is it always children and young mothers that these cowardly men go after? Why not take on our entire new generation of upper class fuckwits, none of whom seem to perform any particular vital function. We could begin by culling the monarchy, all the hangers-on and social climbers, and stop when we get to Peaches Geldof. After that, why not go for societies most useless people - celebrities? All applicants to Big Brother could easily be walked in to a gas chamber and they would never know. Then expand it to all contestants and applicants to reality TV, and finish it off with the demise of Kanye West, Jodie Marsh and Calum Best.
Can anyone honestly that my way is worse? Of course not. Mr Porritt can go and stick his head up his arse.
2009-02-01
Today I awoke and discovered, quite incidentally, that Billy Graham, the shrivelled up, Palpatine-esque, anti-semitic, lying, money hoarding, conniving little presidential butt-monkey is not dead yet. That put a slight downer on things, but not too much. I was just surprised he was still around.
The real reason I post here and now is to publicise the excellent online resource that is known as Fora.tv. It is a website that contains debates, lectures, talks etc on all manner of things, all of which seem, as far as I can see, to be available free of charge, both to stream online or to download in iPod-compatible audio or video formats. It is similar to TED but less academic in nature, or rather I should say that the content is not exclusively academic. I am so pleased with both of these sites that I have linked to them from my homepage. A high accolade indeed.
2009-01-31
Today is a happy day in the Chuppet household as we announce that our third child is on the way. The hormonal lunacy begins once again, the lady grows fat like a budding rose once more, and the house begins to heave in preparation for the formative yearnings of another child. Just as the most recent arrival has started walking and doing something with his mouth that could resemble the first attempts at talking, his, and his older brother's successor is already in utero, gestating, preparing to come in to the world screaming it's little arse off, for this is what they do. That is the code. Where babies reside, chaos doth abide. Never let it be said that I am a man who possesses neither the love, neither the ability to rise to this task. Rather, simply permit me the good grace to raise me a family who knows the value of the virtues to which I hold dear. I do not want my children to think what I think, nor do I expect them to do as I say. I wish to raise free thinkers who, whatever they believe and do, they do it for themselves. It is for this reason that I have decided to formulate a family constitution, a manual for the safe and continued harmonious operation of the Chuppet household.
Part One - the Chuppet Manifesto
To my sons, and, as yet, unborn ones
My boys, and my unborn loved, some things you must know. Before I met you, each of you was loved, longed for and wanted. If that were not the case it would not matter, since each of you is so easy to love. In this life, which your mother and I gave you, she and I can only be guiding lights, for it is we who are learning a far harder lesson than you. For this reason we declare now, and it shall ever be so, that in our household, as long as there is breath in our lungs and strength in our bodies, there will always be more smiles than tears. We shall not avoid the tough times, rather we shall embrace them, for nothing shall ever be so satisfying as to rise to the challenge and succeed. It is the tough times that make the good times so sweet, and the tears only have somewhere to go because they flow down the laughter lines. We shall teach you to love, not only by loving you, but by endeavouring ourselves, to be lovable, and to be loved. We are committed not to raising boys and girls, men and women, for nature shall have her way and these things shall take care of themselves. Rather, we are here to bring to fruition dreams, to create life in all it's forms and to ensure that you have that thing, so precious and necessary to any young mind: a fair chance to pursue that which makes you happy. If and when you achieve this, even in it's lowest form, your mother and I shall be happy and contented. Yet always know, that we love because you are, not because you achieve.
Part two - Good advice for good living
On childhood
Do not make haste in your journey to grow up, for these years are precious, so fleeting, and so often longed for the world over by those whose childhoods have long since expired. The things you see in adults which you envy, self-determination, excess, the right to eat dessert before a main meal, these things are excellent, but they pale in comparison to the magic of childhood. Do not give away easily that which will be taken from you in a shorter time than you can possibly imagine. Play with all of your heart, run as if you never have to stop running, laugh as though your insides are going to burst, and cry as if you really feel.
On family
We are the Chuppets. We stand together, we fall together. When one of you hurts, we all hurt. When one of you laughs, we all laugh. Whatever we have in this world, the most important thing we have is each other. Be aware that families argue like no other and dispute is to family what heat is to fire: an inevitable by-product. In your quarrels remember that you are each other's family, and remember that no problem is too great to solve. Find a way to live together in peace. For we are family. We are one.
On morality
Treasure your freedoms. Free speech, free thought, free inquiry. These are all yours. Nobody confers them on you, nobody grants them to you and nobody permits you to engage in them. They transcend government, religion, ideology, even family. These ideals are worthy enough to be defended to the death. Let no-one take them from you and permit no-one to ever enslave your mind. You may not use these freedoms to without penalty, denigrate other people, to slander, libel or otherwise criminally injure another, however, you may say anything you like in discourse, about religion, politics, belief and anything else anyone else says or claims to know. In the free movement of ideas, nothing is precious or sacred EXCEPT THE FREE MOVEMENT OF IDEAS. You may, and your mother and I will damn well expect, that you challenge us, and argue with us about what we think. This does not give you the right to argue irrationally, act foolishly and still have your views respected. What it does mean is that you have a fair opportunity in open forum to make your case, and if your reasons are good and the case holds merit then you shall win the day. Be warned in this respect, however, that you will be scrutinised mercilessly, for he who merits shall prevail.
Give nothing away that you do not wish to be thrown back at you. Do not sign when a 'yes' will suffice. Do not say 'yes' when a nod will do. Do not nod when no agreement is solicited. Your words follow you, make them intelligent, make them good. In this respect you owe no-one an explanation but yourself. If you are undone by your own argument then you are a fool.
Oppose passionately those who would tell you how to live, and do not be afraid to stand up to a dignified bully, a gentle tyrant, or a pleasant bigot. Whatever a person's character may be, know that it has no effect on the veracity or validity of what they say or claim to stand for. For a wolf in sheep's clothing is the worst kind of bully, and the most malevolent of people will pose as the most benevolent, and it is they who fool most people most of the time. To avoid being seduced by such folks, simply evaluate their argument and their reasons and always remember that if an argument is good then it is good no matter what sort of character is making it. Remember this, and your mind will be yours. Own your mind.
Do not concern yourself with whether your actions are good or evil, rather ask yourself if you are creating beauty or ugliness. In doing so no crime will you ever commit. Always remember that the greatest moral statements and ethical actions come from free thought, knowledge and art. There is no greater calling than to beautify that which you believe to be of value.
On the future
The future will happen to you whether you wish it to or not. It is up to you to determine the conditions in which you travel there. Your mother and I are always behind you, and no matter what you do we shall stand with you. There is no choice, nothing you could do that will separate you from us, and furthermore, your mistakes are signs of endeavour. For the one who makes no mistakes achieves perfection by doing nothing of value. The presence of past failure is a hallmark in the life of every successful person. Take risks, take a chance, especially when you are young enough to rectify the consequences if it does not go your way. Remember that the cost of success is to fail until you succeed.
Find what makes you happy and do it. Find whoever makes you happy and be with them. It does not matter what colour, gender, race they are, nor does anything else about them make any difference as long as they make you happy. Take care of your body as much as your mind. If you do so when you are young you will be rewarded by it when you are old. Those you love, defend them when others would harm or denigrate them. Always be ready to give your loyalty to those you care for, for of such things friendships are made.
On vocation, occupation and renumeration
You need money, but you need happiness far more. Do not sell your labour for anything less than it is worth. Do not labour if it makes you unhappy. Do not sacrifice that which you hold precious in the course of your employment. Money cannot build anything, but principled people can move the world. If there is ever a question of choosing your job or your principles, there should be no contest. If you are ever required to treat someone unjustly by a superior, then never be afraid to tell such a superior to do it themselves.
On religion
There is no greater evil than that committed in the name of a god, and men and women never do evil so cheerfully as when they do it out of religious principle. You are free to believe whatever you want, let no-one tell you otherwise. Should you wish to be religious, then be so with all of your heart. Do not be a bully. Concerning devout men and women, know this: they will push you, they will bully you, they will intimidate you and they will harass you. They will personally attack you and say the most offensive things imaginable, and they will do so in a brazen fashion and without a hint of shame. They will act as though they are the victims and accuse you of everything they have done to you. Stand your ground. Never, ever give in to religious tyranny, for you are under no obligation to respect any person's beliefs. In the course of standing up for what you believe in, do not become like them, for when you stare in to the abyss, the abyss stares in to you also. Do not insult them, do not be offended by their attacks, do not engage in any discussion about your person or your character, for it is irrelevant, and furthermore, you owe nobody an explanation, least of all a religious person. Simply stand on the foundation of knowledge, intellectual thought, and reason. Should you ever wonder how a religious person might treat you, simply read about how they treat each other. Always remember that no deity is required for moral thought and actions to occur.
Part three - the family hierarchy
We are your parents. At no point is there ever a correlation between parenthood and perfection. If you are unsure as to who is in charge, be assured that it is not you.
Talk to us. There is nothing you cannot tell us, and there is no way we can help if you do not. We have been where you are and you cannot shock us.
Treasure your mother, for she will always be your strongest ally. By comparison she is, physically, far weaker than me. Do not be deceived by this. Do not underestimate her. What she was required to do in order to bring you in to the world is a far greater thing than I could ever do. She knows more than you think. She will never judge you or do anything less than love you. Lean on her, trust her judgement. Love her and tell her that you do. Show her in any small way you can.
I am your father. Listen to me. I definitely know more than you think but less than I should. At the age of eighteen you will think that I know nothing of value. By the age of twenty five I will seem a lot wiser. You will be amazed at what I will have learned in those seven short years. My authority over you begins with love, exists because of love and ends with love. I am not afraid to be bold, I am not afraid to discipline, but most of all I am not afraid to love you.
One day you will be taller, stronger, and more vital than both of us. Take care of us when we are old. The love we invested in you, return it to us when we need you more than you need us. If all goes well then you will be settled and happy when the time comes for you to put us in to the ground, do not be bitter. Grieve, but remember the years gained, not the times lost. Do not indulge yourself in grief. Simply give us the appropriate respect, take the time you need to deal with the loss, and then stand up once again, on the foundation we gave you. Whatever you learned from us, pass on to others.
Part four - amendments
Any amendments to the Chuppet family constitution shall, after due consultation, appear here.
2009-01-27
It's almost February. Can you believe it?
In other news, if you are female and you lie to your partner or husband about the real paternity of the child he is raising, the courts will allow you to get away with paternity fraud. I am so sick of this sort of thing. the disparity concerning the way men are dealt with by the law and society when they have been wronged, and women who find themselves in a similar position is infuriating. I have read and listened to a lot of debate on this issue before posting and this one issue of parity stands out like a sore thumb. The arguments I have read and heard are as follows:
1. What kind of man does this (sues for restitution as a result of the fraudulent actions of the mother) to a child?
2. It should not matter to him whether it is biologically his child.
3. How terrible it is for a woman in this position, wondering whether to tell him
In order to redress the balance, please allow me to say a big, fat GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK. Has anyone at any point castigated this cheating, money grabbing whore? Of course not. Has anyone suggested that she is entirely responsible for this situation and as such should be compelled in law to make restitution, as men routinely are? Of course they haven't.
The first of the three arguments may have some merit, being as it is not the child's fault, however the other two are pathetic attempts to justify the behaviour of a thieving, adulterous trollop. Of course it matters whether the child is biologically his. The humiliation this man has been subjected to is beyond belief, and the real father should be immediately identified, prosecuted along with her as a co-conspirator to defraud and made to pay the consequences. Finally, to say that it is a terrible situation for her is so contemptuous as to barely merit a response, however, yes, it may well be terrible but ITS HER OWN DOING. Would anyone say of an adulterous male 'what a terrible dilemma for him'? Of course they wouldn't. He would be left to deal with the consequences of his actions, however, switch the gender and all of a sudden you can be defended in the courts against the consequences of your behaviour as a thieving, money grabbing, adulterous liar. Now the law endorses a situation where a woman can sleep with whoever she wants and lie in order to get some poor mug to pay for the little spawn.
I am so sick of seeing women profiled as victims and men as aggressors. Real female victims such as abused partners and wives, genuine assault and rape victims etc deserve all the sympathy, compassion and resources that can be found in order to deal with their situations.
A similar thing as this story happens when a woman is found to have lied about being raped. All you ever hear is 'it makes it worse for the real rape victims'. Nobody ever mentions the poor bastard who has been publicly named and shamed even though there is no conviction, and whose life has been destroyed by such an accusation.
2009-01-26
After reading in further detail about the story in my previous post I sat down in my lounge and cried last night. I am sure that seems a little silly to some folks but I am genuinely terrified for my children, fearful of what kind of what kind of world they may grow up in. This week my partner is going to be asked to provide a fingerprint scan to her employer so they can monitor her, and out of the people she works with, she is one of a small minority who did not say 'I have nothing to hide so I don't mind'. Good grief, you should have plenty to hide. It's called your personal, private business and you have every right to hide it, and furthermore, the fact that you do hide it is in no way an admission of wrongdoing in any way. The number of people I know who think this way far outweighs those who do not and the simple fact is that, when it comes to the government, especially the government in fact, you should never surrender anything to them that they do not have the right to ask for. A great poet, Edward Abbey once said that 'A patriot should always be ready to defend his country against it's government'. Forgiving the gendered language here, that is truer now more than ever.
I am a finishing student at the University of Central Lancashire, preparing to continue to a masters degree and then a PhD, and when I arrived there I was looking forward to being in the midst of a hotbed of political thought, activism and philosophy. What a letdown my student colleagues have been. Never in my life have I met so many people who are so ready to accept authoritarianism. Many of them have said that they do not mind carrying an identity card, they do not mind being photographed, tracked and tagged like cattle. They are growing up in to voting adults believing that they are accountable to their government, when in reality it is their government that is accountable to them. With free speech being curtailed more and more by ridiculous rules governing hate speech, laws that are passed by ministers who do not have the balls to stand up and be counted, and who do not possess the moral fortitude to know that the freedoms we are betraying, freedoms such as the detention of suspects, the right to legal representation, the right to speak freely, are precious and date back to the Magna Carta. They are men and women who lack the courage to stand up to religious fundamentalists and simply tell them 'No, you will not import your bigotry, censorship and violence and dismantle our democracy'. The time for respecting religious nonsense is long gone and we should each be terrified of where this all might end. We cannot continue to respect a person's beliefs simply because they happen to hold them. I am not talking about banning freedom of religion or anything else, I am simply saying that the taboo surrounding religious beliefs must be broken. After all, where else do we see beliefs protected from criticism? Nowhere. Nowhere in our discourse do we allow unsubstantiated beliefs to dictate policy and law to us. It is reason, free movement of information and ideas, and critical thought that has built the first world country in which we live. I fully support the right to say and think anything you want, but when it comes to passing laws we must not respect a person's beliefs in the way that we do. We must evaluate reasons. If an argument is good and reasonable, and it stands on it's merits then any rational person will helplessly accept it, because it is intelligent and reasoned.
For example, in America, where stem cell research has been blocked for eight years, due solely to religious objections, they have paid an extraordinary price for such thinking. At this point it is worth noting that any great advancement in medicine is usually made in the face of religious opposition. However, consider the reasoning behind religious objections to stem cell research. Bush banned scientists from using embryos that were not viable, and thus destined to be destroyed, from being used to conduct stem cell research. He did so because he argued it was a slippery slope, one that would see viable embryos used for the same research, and that any viable embryo is a potential human being. Please also be aware that these embryos are literally seven, eight, nine day-old clumps of undifferentiated cells. Please also consider how absurd this line of thought is. Sam Harris puts it very well when he points out that this whole argument balances on the medieval notion that the soul enters the zygote at the point of conception, and thus these blastocysts which are cultured in laboratory petri dishes have the same rights as Parkinson's sufferers, or victims of spinal cord injuries and so on. He further points out that any cell in the human body is a potential person. Every time the president scratches an itch he, according to religious logic, commits genocide. So how can one possibly be swayed by the objections of the religious right? The answer is simple. People are swayed because we allow nonsense beliefs to hold the same status as well reasoned thought, because it is fundamentally taboo to criticise a person's religion. This has led to the point where embryos that are destined for the incinerator, not viable, but which could potentially contribute to research that will save and/or improve the lives of many suffering people are protected to a ludicrous degree by unjust and pointless laws.
I hope Obama changes things. I hope he does not permit himself to be bullied by bigots who hold Bronze Age beliefs. Whomever was advising Bush on these matters did America a great disservice because they clearly did not say to him 'This is bullshit, you stop passing laws based on this crap'. It is time to put reason back in it's rightful place, along with religious belief. Whilst I stress again that any person should be free to believe anything they like, in public arena and in politics religion should be met with the scorn and derision it so clearly merits. The day a religious man presents a reasoned argument that stands on it's merits is the day I will accept religious ideology, but as things stand, we cannot continue to respect the medieval gibberish. The taboo surrounding religious belief must be broken and they must be made to give an account of themselves, and they should not be permitted to demand influence and respect which they so clearly do not deserve.
2009-01-25
Would you believe that the Netherlands is the current cultural epicentre of a war concerning free speech? A Dutch politician, Geert Wilders is to be charged with insulting Islam. This is it. This is the most significant case in European history. This will decide the fate of all of us. If this threshold is breached then the death of free speech may come to the rest of Europe. If the Netherlands allows the most dangerous and violent religion in the world to have protected status in law then the game is over and we shall see the decline of everything we hold sacred. What an irony that this should happen in the once liberal Netherlands. This is a man who already has to have a 24 hour armed guard because Muslims have been threatening to kill him for years. In the face of that fact they prosecute HIM.
You see, I despise Islam. Not Muslims, just Islam. I despise Islam because it despises me. I am, according to the Q'uran, to be put to death if I do not convert to Islam. I am to be executed if I exercise my right to speak freely about it. It is not my intention to offend Muslims, or anyone, but if offence comes as a result of me exercising my right to free speech then that is tough luck. Shame on the Netherlands for allowing this to ever happen in the first place. Shame on us all for not being more aware of this, and pressuring our own governments to talk sense to the Dutch. This is how liberty dies, when free speech is restrained.
'All that is required for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing'
I do not want to ban Islam, I do not even wish to stop them speaking hatefully, provided I can criticise their bigotry. I believe in Voltaire's famous adage:
'I may not like what you say but I shall defend to the death your right to say it'
Our rights to freedom of speech, liberty and freedom from tyranny are slowly being traded for a little safety and political expediency. This is the tipping point that history will remember if we sell our rights to the devil. This is the moment that the world will judge to be the fulcrum of the battle between religious oppression and democracy. I am sure this all sounds dramatic, so if you don't believe me, watch, and mark my words. Mark them well. If we are to go the way of human enslavement and even extinction, then this is the moment to which our children will point. This is what they will never forgive us for, the day a relatively unknown, minor politician had his sacred right to free speech taken from him and sacrificed on the altar of cowardice and political expediency, the day we protected an ideology and forced people to respect it despite it's lack of merits. They will know that we sacrificed not only his liberty, but theirs too.
2009-01-24
It had to happen didn't it? Following Richard Dawkins' 'There Probably Isn't a God' campaign over Christmas, which I thought was pretty lame incidentally, the fundies have got together and started a 'There Probably is a God' campaign, apparently started by some chap called Gerald Coates. Leaving aside the irony of such an unlikely proposition as Christianity being described as 'probable', it makes you wonder why they are so frightened of Dawkins doesn't it? I originally had in mind to make a short analysis of why Christianity is so statistically improbable that the statement: 'There Probably is a God' is patently ridiculous, but instead I am posting after having joined their Facebook group, where I have witnessed first hand the terrifying ignorance and stupidity of various adherents of this scheme. One particularly amusing irony was the conversation with an Air Force academy student, a man who denounced evolution, despite the fact that the jets he wishes to fly are designed using evolutionary algorithms. What I find remarkable is the victim mentality adopted by butt-hurt Christians. One tried to equivocate my criticism of faith with racism, evidently unable to understand what free speech is. Even more terrifying was the lady who argued that 'intelligence is a hindrance to god', therefore we should not value intelligence.
This leads me to what I find so laughable about people like this. They claim that knowledge is not productive to humans, yet here they are, using the Internet. They try to stop and censor data networks and free movement of information, not realising that the very knife edge upon which they and the rest of the humans exist is exclusively a construct of, and maintained by, science and the free movement of ideas.
They believe that evolution is wrong, yet they have their children vaccinated, they accept medical treatment, they use medicine. None of these things work if evolution is wrong. Down the road from me is a church where the minister regularly rails against evolution, yet he still took advantage of germ theory when his son needed his vaccinations. He still accepted chemotherapy and radiotherapy when his dying wife needed it. I wonder what would have happened if they had been refused either treatment because 'evolution was wrong'? I know exactly what would have happened, he would have sued them in to oblivion. Do the scientists who use evolutionary theory to devise and implement such treatments withhold it because of his obnoxious, bigoted opinions? No. Do they even ask to be thanked? No. And yet this man, if he had his way, would dismantle the machinations of the scientific and academic machine simply because it does not agree with his blood-soaked holy book. Such people long for a time when science and scripture agree. Well, we have had such a time. It is called the Dark Ages and we know exactly what it contained. Astronomical rates of mortality, both for infants and for women in childbirth, commonplace amputations, typhus, cholera, plague. People were executed and tortured to the point of madness for teaching that the Earth was round, that we orbit the Sun etc. We know exactly where rigid adherence to scripture leads - a real shit-hole of a planet AND WE'RE NOT GOING BACK.
I am not anti-faith, I simply think religion is taking the mickey and should be reined in, before we go the way of the Islamic world, plunged in to an academic dark age for centuries, and from which it has still yet to emerge. If you don't think it could happen then read up on history. The great Islamic empire was the centre of knowledge at it's height as a superpower. It was destroyed by religious fundamentalism and the things that it brings - censorship, moral absolutism and bigotry. But don't take my word for it. Read up on it yourself.
2009-01-23
I often wonder if it is me, or do you also have trouble understanding the point of Graham Norton? I can only see one use for him, and that is for me to formulate a television show called 'Hunt down Graham Norton and beat him to death'. The concept is fairly simple. I and a team of trained specialists hunt down his white trash ass, and, well, I am sure you can fill in the blanks.
At the moment I find myself a full time father whilst I see my way through my degree, so I inevitably end up watching a lot of daytime television shows, one of which is The Wright Stuff on Five. Occasionally they debate interesting topics and they have the usual phone-in section which features a typical audience of working class men, nursing mothers, racists, white-trash-cracker Clampetts and occasionally the odd fair-minded and rational individual. Once or twice there is even a caller who doesn't start their call with 'I'm not racist, but...'.
Okay, I was being silly there. Moving on, however, a couple of days ago they had a phone-in debate about Madonna, her muscles and whether she should, being, as she is, post-fifty, cover up and become what is rather oddly described as more 'dignified'. I was amazed at the hatred and general rage directed at Madonna, particularly by other women. I should, at this point, say that the panel members, which was composed of educated people, were as guilty as the callers. It occurred to me that, in the West, there is a huge level of anxiety concerning older women. We really don't know what to do with them. From the day a woman gets married she is surrounded by reproductive pressure. The wedding cake is a symbol of fertility. The cutting of the cake is a rather obvious and crass metaphor. It is thought odd, or at least the exception rather than the rule, if an older woman does not have children. It is still often taboo for a woman to talk about despising children, evidently all women should feel the maternal need and urge. Huge amounts of NHS funding are devoted to fertility and IVF treatments. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but men don't face anything like that sort of pressure. It seems to me to be a very relevant and profound question to ask 'What should the West do with women beyond reproductive age?'. Of course, the irony of me, a man asking that should not be lost on anyone and, in order to stave off feminist objectors, I should point out that I don't necessarily think that we should 'do' anything, or even suppose that we should think we have to 'do' anything with older ladies. Nonetheless, the fact remains that, now that women routinely survive childbirth, have careers, have at least something of a voice, write, perform etc there is a question surrounding the role of the older woman. One only has to remember the pictures of Helen Mirren in a bikini at the age of sixty to realise that. The fact that she made the front pages whilst no-one bats an eyelid at topless older men shows that there is still a new-ness, a raw-ness about this. Personally I think older women are far more attractive than younger ones, but that is just my opinion of course. Female role models are still, largely, young women. There is a separate issue, that of queerness amongst young women, seen most prominently when slender, elfin, boyish young women achieve fame with Twelfth Night-style looks but it does not detract from the relevance of this issue.
So what do we do? Well, the answer is at least partly obvious, in that we in the West must stop viewing women solely in terms of their reproductive lifespan. It is a rather cruel biological trait in women, that they should have an expiry date. I doubt anyone would or could rationally deny the obvious evolutionary advantage that this biological urgency gives, but, as intelligent and evolved beings it must be the case that we are able, if we want, to move beyond reproductive function when we determine a person's worth. I think that women, having been afforded far more rights than ever (although clearly not enough as yet) should take advantage of them and formulate their own voice. I remember Christopher Hitchens, for instance, pointing out that in comedy there is no genuine female voice yet. Most female comedians, he pointed out, are either gay, butch or Jewish, all of which are, traditionally, male comedic forms. That is not to say that they do not or should not do them well, but he is correct in his observation. There is something about maleness that is exclusive, the interfering projection of the phallus if you will. Men tend to assert themselves in life and any woman found doing the same is immediately perceived as either butch, man-ish or gay. Perhaps, for women there is, or should be another way, and of course, I am the last person to ask about that, what with me being male.
I recently studied a female postmodern performer, whose name escapes me, but who had quite a substantial effect on my thinking. She would perform a poem that she would, in full view of the audience, pull out of her vagina. Most people I know. both sexes included, find this repulsive, disgusting, ridiculous and so on. These reactions highlight, in my mind at least, the anxiety about femaleness, in particular menstrual blood and the vagina. Christianity and Islam, two very male religions, both have rather extreme regulations concerning menstrual flow. Buddha was allegedly born through a slit in his mother's side. There seems to be a terror concerning the birth canal in many men, and I have to say that I don't get it. I am not talking about hygiene here, but rather the fact that femaleness, as defined in terms of anatomy and sexuality is seemingly meant to be covered, not spoken of, taboo. We expect men to flaunt their sexuality. Watch any footballer when he scores for instance. The arms go up, exposing the pelvis, and the phallus is thrust out in front of the spectators. If a woman did that it would be thought of as odd, distasteful even. As a man I am not really the one to answer this question, but I can at least ask it:
Men have the phallus. So tell us girls, what have you got?
2009-01-22
Last night I went to see the mighty Kings X. LONG LIVE THE KINGS!
They played an absolutely sensational set. The two support acts, Haken and To Mera were a mixed bag however. Haken were superb and very typically progressive rock inasmuch as their set list consisted of two songs because the songs were so long! I picked up their CD for £3 - a bargain. To Mera were awful, living proof of the axiom that you can have five great musicians who, together, cannot make a decent sound. No thanks To Mera. Kings X absolutely rocked. I have seen them three times now, the last time being, rather amazingly, in 2000 during the tour for the 'Please Come Home Mr Bulbous' record and during that tour they looked incredibly unhappy and washed out as a band. I somehow suspect that the harassment they received from the USA Christian music market over their refusal to conform, and the treatment of Doug concerning his sexuality had taken it's toll. Last night was a real return to form and the guys looked really happy. They put on an incredible show and afterwards they came out to the merchandising stand, signed autographs and posed for photographs with everyone who wished to do so. They were genuinely the nicest guys I have seen perform and it was great to meet my heroes, even more so when I saw they loved, respected and appreciated their fans.
After the white noise of To Mera, with their gigantic drum kit, bassist with a five string bass, their guitarist with an eight string guitar and two seven string guitars, and lead singer who sounded like Bjork (she didn't have an impressive range so she used odd inflections instead) it was incredible to see Kings X create their sound. Jerry Gaskill played his minimalist, five piece kit, Doug Pinnick had his regular four string bass and his twelve string for a couple of song, Ty used one Yamaha guitar all night and they all pitched in for the three-part harmonies. I have said it before and last night it was especially true, I have never heard a band create such a full and expansive sound, and furthermore, Doug Pinnick's singing is as amazing, so soulful and heavy. It seems that their label has finally, at long last, put some money in to them too. They have been given a decent producer for their last two albums, they are releasing a DVD and they were filming for the MTV headbangers ball last night. Last night was their first trip to England for years and so I hope they finally receive some of the acclaim they deserve.
LONG LIVE THE KINGS!
2009-01-21
Today I woke up to a brand new world, a world that, for the first time in history, had a black leader of it's largest superpower. I couldn't really let this pass by could I. Despite meekychuppet.com being a small, backwater blog with a tiny readership, I have to say my piece about this momentous occasion. The first thing to say is that the election of Obama is absolutely marvelous. It is long overdue and it is a breath of fresh air when one considers the disastrous presidency of the fundamentalist Christian, war mongering hawk, George W Bush.
A few words about Bush: his policies were dominated by religious dogma. He claimed, in open forum, to have invaded Iraq because god instructed him to do so. He opposed stem cell research, the most promising area of research in modern science, because he believes that blastocysts in petri dishes, which are simply clumps of cells, are human lives. This means he believes that the soul enters the zygote at the moment of conception and that the rights of a clump of undifferentiated cells trump the rights of sufferers of spinal injuries, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and so forth. He has authorised the use of water-boarding at Guantanamo Bay and justified doing so by saying it technically is not torture. According to the Wikipedia article about water-boarding states that it causes long-term psychological damage including panic attacks, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. You are, of course, free to draw your own conclusions about the status of water-boarding as torture, however, it is worth noting that, as far as I can see, the United States is the only nation on Earth to argue that it is not torture. He brought us The Patriot Act, possibly the most Draconian piece of authoritarian legislation ever passed in a first world country, clearly unaware of the words of the great Benjamin Franklin:
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'
This is a man who claims to hold sacred the words of Jesus, words such as 'blessed are the peacemakers', and 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'.
On Obama. His first action as president was to suspend all activities concerning detainees at Guantanamo Bay. That is a bold, powerful and effective statement, and one I completely support. What a moment when he uttered the words:
"You will be judged on what you can build, not what you can destroy"
I, personally, am not ashamed to admit I became tearful at that moment, and the realisation occurred to me that this was the unveiling of the first genuinely great leader that I have seen in my lifetime. I also hope, on a cautionary note, that the world does not become hysterical and forget that it is still acceptable to criticise him and his methods if they are bad, but that is not the point. Here and now, the man deserves his moment. The challenge for Obama now is to deliver on his promise. I hope he promotes liberty and personal freedom, and I hope that, just as the UK whored itself out to a Republican, born again America, that we now stand proud on our own, and that we reject the authoritarian madness of the last few years that has seen people snooped on and relentlessly filmed, photographed and harassed, particularly by local government jobsworths.
Above all the things I consider myself to be, I am a libertarian and I believe in the freedom of the individual above all other things. I despise all tyranny, be it economic, religious, or worse. The last eight years have been defined by the shameful treatment of brown people in the Middle East, fundamentalist Christian madness governing policy decisions in America, and by definition the UK. I genuinely hope religion is put in its place as a personal ideology and something which has no business interfering in politics or education. I hope that war is reduced to something that is remembered with great sadness, rather than promoted as something to be used to intimidate those who clearly have no chance against the great super-powers. I hope that there is dialogue between the Occident and the Orient. I hope that he stands up to the oil companies and tells them that, despite what they may believe about themselves, they do not own or rule the world. I hope he takes global warming seriously and dismantles the fossil fuel empire infrastructure. I hope that he gives white supremacists a chance to lay down their hatred and to come in from the cold. I hope that he stops trying to blast Bin Laden out of the Tora Bora mountains and actually speak to those who hate the West so bitterly. I hope that he unclenches his fist, as he implored others to do.
I hope he succeeds.
2009-01-20
In a blaze of glory I have received the second best piece of news of 2009. Those legendary boys at Versatilia (for all your web hosting needs) have ONLY GONE AND RESTORED MY OLD JOURNAL DATABASE! I wish I had the words to express my gratitude and relief, but I do not so this will have to do. I will retrieve the script and post it as an archive. It's actually worked out quite nicely because the old journal was getting bloated, with loading times getting painful on slow connections so it's nice that my hand was forced in to archiving it. I was quite upset when I nuked it because it covered the dates from when I met Laura and Jake, the pregnancy with Luca, as well as some pretty special times after I bought my first house on my own. Pretty unique moments and events.
The best piece of news that I have received in 2009 is... Well, all will be revealed later, in the appropriate time.
Later I shall actually post meaningfully, but right now it's early and I am off to have breakfast.
2009-01-19
Finally the journal returns. The last few months is what happens when I decide to fiddle with things.
It's great to be back and I will be posting soon.
2009-01-19
Aloha!
Well, as I have previously stated, my journal is finally back. We have moved house and had a very busy time of it too so I haven't had the time or the inclination to rebuild my journal until now. My regular reader will remember that I accidentally deleted the old journal database. I am harassing my host for a backup/restore so watch this space. In the interim period I did flirt with an open source script, something I have done before. Unfortunately, it served the same purpose as it did previously, as a magnet for masturbate-mouth, plant-pot creationists. If there is one thing I am not prepared to do with my time it is moderate comments from morons, so I am back with the 1998-era retro stylings which, I must confess, I actually rather like.
In the intervening time much has happened. Notably I, amongst other things, performed naked in a drama production. Try not to think about it. there is no sense in getting yourself all upset now is there? In related news, this year sees the commencement of my masters degree, provided all goes well of course. In addition to that I have finally dispatched manuscripts of my book to various publishers, so now it's all about nervous anticipation...
Oh, and just for old times' sake, LCB is a shithole that functions as an incubation chamber for the dim witted, so ner ner.