...but as long as we're on the subject of food, these are excellent cookie cooking tips. It even answers the question, "what makes some cookies crispy while others are soft and chewy?"

Obviously substitute Fair Trade chocolate for the naughty multi-national's brand.

I've been craving chorizo and eggs recently - real Mexican chorizo with fried potatoes and tortillas. Mexican chorizo is quite different from the Spanish chorizo you get around here. The latter is a dried cured sausage, while the former is more like spicy fresh sausage meat. The best chorizo forms pools of bright red oil on the plate - clearly not healthy, but essential.

I found what looks to be a good chorizo recipe. I did half a batch using lard instead of the pork fat and crushed about five chili de arbol with 4 cloves of garlic and rock salt. Even though I wore surgical gloves (yes, I have jar of them - and?), my mouth is already burning. I may regret this...

(that orange thing under the date is a cat)

The all-seeing, all-knowing home network is growing. The bunnyCam is on the Mac, which can be driven from any of the PCs using the ChromiVNC server. PC-Mac filesharing is done with Lavasoftware's PC-Mac-Fileshare application, although I expect Dave does it better. Couldn't download the demo, though.

Now, anyone know a good way to share a USB Epson printer on a mixed PC/Mac network?

Wow, I'm number 11 on the top 100 index of BlogShares and apparently valued at $50,657.27. I've never heard of this. I wonder how it works?

(update: I just read the FAQ and it has something to do with the value of incoming links. Always nice to have popular friends. ;-) Although it also says that the game is still in Alpha, so I expect my position so high is some sort of glitch.)

It really is ever-so pointless, but I've got time on my hands, ok? Watch those wascally wabbits and see if they get into any mischief. If I can find a longer usb cable I'll put the cam at bunny height...

Talk about jammy. Ian Hargreaves leaves the heady world of Independent and New Statesman editorships for sleepy academia, writes a book about his observations of modern day journalism and the public's relationship with the press and manages to time its release with the most reported on and media-centred war in history. A war that has begun to question the role of journalists and the fundamental freedoms of the press that have underpinned democracy since the 18th century.

Ian Hargreaves was at Heffers in Cambridge last night, talking about his book, Journalism: Truth or Dare in which he attempts to unravel the current state of journalistic integrity and indeed, seems to question whether or not it still exists. It certainly appears that the public doesn't think so.

Recent polls have indicated that journalists are among the least trusted individuals in the western world -- only 5 to 10% of people have any faith that what they read and see in the media is the truth. In fact, according to Mr. Hargreaves, most Americans think of the press as a benign force that must somehow be restrained and regulated -- a concept met with horror from the mainstream press who cries censorship at any whiff of regulation.

But Hargreaves suggests that this attitude is more protectionist that altruistic. His contention is that while there are plenty of good things to say about some aspects of the media, the press is getting terribly sloppy - 24/7 news, quick soundbites and instananeous reports from the front line are turning into sensationalism and unsubstantiated rumour that doesn't get checked and then is rarely apologised for when it all turns out to be some weird form of Chinese whispers.

The "uprising" in Basra provided Hargreaves with the perfect illustration. An "embedded" journalist gets a second hand report of an uprising which is sent immediately out onto the airwaves as truth. The fact that the "uprising" was, in reality, a couple of blokes carrying banners in front of a government building, does not seem to have made the corrections column in any of the news sources I've read. He couldn't have made up a better example. Didn't I say Hargreaves was a jammy sod?

Journalism, said Hargreaves, is the historical handmaiden of democracy. What grew out of 18th century Britain and America was a unique and people centred method of providing checks and balances on government. For this reason, the very first amendment of the US Constitution protects the right to free speech and the press. But as multi-nationals increasingly control the media and see it not as the protector of democracy, but as big budget entertainment, there is a worry that the free press has had its day. The domination of the message by big media agencies makes gives the BBC an voice untarnished by commercial consideration and should be looked after and protected from any attempts at privatisation.

Actually, not so much a worry as a recognition that despite the freedoms granted to the press by America's Founding Fathers, there has not arisen regulation (self or otherwise) that makes the press accountable to the truth. I think Mr Hargreaves is not making friends with this assertion, but it is certainly a pragmatic comment on a nearly intractable problem. He suggested that the press was being overly-defensive and evasive when called to task for these trangressions.

At the point when Mr Hargreaves reminisced about a school teacher who wrote on the blackboard, "Capitalism contains the seeds of it's destruction. Socialism contains the seeds of its purification", I thought that the solution was going to be a radical one, but he was, in fact, pointing out reasons to be cheerful.

And, indeed, he started out with what we've been reading from the blogging trenches already - bloggers provide, if not seeds of purification (god knows that unsubstantiated rumour is the cornerstone of the blogging world), then at least the seeds of its self-improvement. Although the sources of information and opinion are vast, "the truth is out there". To be honest, my own opinion is that while varying opinions are a good thing, the real benefit of the blogging world lies in the very, very few who provide a conduit to observations we could never get from the mainstream press. I can really only think of Salam Pax as example and even then, there was much discussion as to his authenticity. The range of opinion from American and British punters means very little until they can be countered by bloggers in Afganistan, Columbia, Zimbabwe or Myanmar. But again, we'll only see the opinions of those with enough wealth to afford an internet connection - it's hardly the most democratic form of public opinion polling.

The healthy state of the book publishing industry is another reason Mr Hargreaves is optimistic (and not just because he's got a new book on the shelves). Books are now providing the in-depth investigative reporting that is so lacking in the 24/7 satellite news broadcasts from the war zone.

And the final reason to be cheerful is Al Jazeera and the other middle eastern news agencies that are coming onto the world scene. With access to many views, opinions and sources of news, we now have the opportunity to decide for ourselves what we can believe and who we can trust. The fact that Al Jazeera broadcasts images that the western world has been too squeamish to show (or is too much under the thumb of multi-nationals who don't want to offend advertisers and governments who wants to control the message), we are getting more sides of the story than ever before.

Hargreave's final message was that the media needs to recognise and take seriously its duty to democracy and it certainly appears that the penny has finally started to drop as journalists begin to question Pentagon briefings and as the public begins to recognise the over-arching power the big corporations have over the messages we receive.

As for me, I'm still thinking that about those seeds of destruction and wondering how long it will be before capitalism rots from the inside out, but maybe my socialist tendancies are straining to break free...

I may not have been terribly clear in my ramblings about my former place of employment and the project I was working on but, in case you're wondering, Creature Labs was known for having developed a remarkably innovative computer game called Creatures that gained a huge following after its release in 1996. I spent a lot of time communicating and serving this community of users in my role as Creatures product marketing manager and "evangelist".

One of the most respected members of the community and someone who made important contributions to subsequent Creatures titles was a talented young kiwi named Chris Double.

Back in the middle of February, Chris sensed from afar our own growing unease about the future of Creature Labs and penned his own goodbye.

The Sims on GameCube and Xbox is shipping today, and despite my vow to spend nothing at all until I'm employed, I'm going to have to get one or the other. The question is, which one?

The Xbox is in the lounge, the GameCube is portable. The Xbox is the grown-up toy, the GameCube is my daughter's.

The full press release, by the way, is here.

EA Ships The Sims for the Xbox and Nintendo GameCube
The #1 PC Game of All Time is now on All Next-Generation Console Platforms

CHERTSEY, UK, March 25th, 2003 – Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) today announced that The SimsTM for the XboxTM video game system from Microsoft and the Nintendo GameCubeTM has shipped. Players can create and control their Sims like never before with level-based gameplay, two-player modes, and dynamic 3D graphics.

"The unique and challenging experience of The Sims is now available on all next- generation console platforms," said Sinjin Bain, Vice President and Executive Producer of the game at EA's Maxis studio. "After the wildly successful launch of The Sims on the PlayStation® 2, we are excited to bring the zany and creative gameplay of The Sims to Xbox and GameCube players."

Now Xbox and Nintendo GameCube players can create and explore in the entirely new 3D world of The Sims. The Sims for the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube features an all new level-based mode called "Get a Life," where players can start with just one Sim and move him or her through life's big moments including moving out of Mom's house, getting a job, and having a family. As players progress through new challenges, they will unlock console exclusive objects. A love tub and aromamaster are some of the wacky items your Sims will discover and use to spice up their lives. Both versions will also feature the classic Sim-style open-ended gameplay.

Players can interact with a cast of madcap characters that are exclusive to the next- generation console platforms, including a Monkey Butler that can be unlocked to serve the every whim of your Sim. Customising the appearance of a Sim reaches a whole new level of detail with accessories such as stylish hats, trendy glasses, cool hairstyles, and an enormous variety of clothing options. Unique to the console versions, players will be able to make changes to their Sims appearance mid-game with the unlockable vanity mirror. In addition, players can play The Sims with or against each other in challenging two-player modes.

The Sims for the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube were developed by the company's Walnut Creek-based MaxisTM studio in conjunction with Austin-based, Edge of Reality, Ltd. and carries an ELSPA rating of 15+. It is available in stores now for a recommended retail price of £39.99. More information on The Sims for the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube can be found at http://www.thesimsconsole.com.

The Sims skyrocketed to the top of the charts when it began shipping to stores in February 2000 and quickly became a universal gaming and cultural phenomenon. The Sims was the best selling PC game of both 2000 and 2001 and is now the best selling PC game of all time. Translated into 16 different languages, The Sims has inspired five expansion packs; The SimsTM Livin' it Up, The SimsTM House Party, The SimsTM Hot Date, The SimsTM On Holiday and The SimsTM Unleashed. Combined sales for the franchise have topped 24 million units life-to-date. For more information on The Sims franchise titles, visit http://www.thesims.com.

Electronic Arts (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts posted revenues of more than $1.7 billion for fiscal 2002. The company develops, publishes and distributes software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSTM, EA GAMESTM, EA SPORTS BIGTM and EA.COMSM. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://www.info.ea.com.

# # #

Electronic Arts, EA SPORTS, EA GAMES, EA SPORTS BIG, EA Store, Maxis and The Sims are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. EA.COM is a service mark of EA.com Inc. Nintendo GameCube is a trademark of Nintendo. Microsoft and Xbox are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Yet more unbearably frightening news to come out of the US is this LiveJournal entry from a Detroit teacher who asks why American muslim students seem to be disappearing. As in, poof - they're gone. Jesus.

The bit about taking World History out of the primary and secondary curriculums is even more deeply scary. Rewriting history? Or repeating it?

(via PeteAshton.com, who also points to some more comments on the entry and the issue at large)

If you've not seen it already, Clayton's got the hilariously funny Other Axis of Evil Wannabes.

As for me, I'm forming the "Axis of Not at All Evil But Maybe It Would Help If I Wore Black Leather Trousers".

(Not by John Cleese, by the way. Says the author: "Strangely enough, this SatireWire story lately has been zipping around the 'Net attributed to John Cleese. That's flattering and funny and all, but now I'm getting so many emails asking who "really" wrote it that it will make my life easier to nip it here. I apologize for any disappoinment, but the story was written by Andrew Marlatt. It first appeared on SatireWire on Feb. 1, 2002, and was subsequently published in several major newspapers, including this version still available at The Washington Post. So that's the deal. All the best -- Andrew." )

I notice a bunch of Creatures Community members are visiting from Creatures Caves and German Creatures and so I wanted to say hello and say how sad I am about the whole Creature Labs thing.

As I go through all my projects from my time at CLabs I've been remembering all the incredible stuff that went on. I even ran across a biography of Douglas Adams at Heffers today that said his extemporaneous talk at Digital Biota back in 1998 was his finest public speech. I remember how excited I was to be a part of that - meeting Douglas and Richard Dawkins and swearing I'd never wash the cheek that Chris Langton kissed.

Of course, Creatures was amazing - is still amazing. To this day it's the only game I've been completely obsessed with and so many others say the same. Creatures changed my life rather dramatically. It introduced me to ALife, chaos and complexity and completely changed the way I look at the world. Later, when I went off to work on Yeren (which was called Beasts at the time), I had the opportunity to learn about Tibetan Buddhism and had the most remarkable revelation that really, they were both the same.

And then there's you lot - the Creatures Community. You are amazing as well. Loyal and critical at the same time - critically loyal, maybe. Scrappy and argumentative, but capable of so much depth of feeling and kindness. And undeniably clever. I wish we were able to poach more community members into the company. As Frimlin and Daniel will tell you, we certainly had our problems, but we were still a great company to work for.

You guys taught me a lot and I only regret that I didn't get a chance to re-connect with the community. The saddest thing was I was working on a new Creatures title but wasn't quite at the stage where I could get public feedback. In fact, I was only at the stage to start getting internal feedback when it all came to an end.

Well, I had hoped to do a better, more considered epitaph to the wonderful Creature Labs (AKA CyberLife), the incredible bunch of people that worked there and the phenomenon that was the Creatures Community, but knowing me, I'd never get around to it anyway.

So, thanks for the memories (and the fish). Enjoy your Albias and take good care of those Norns! And most importantly, in the immortal words of Masha, "peace and carrots."

Living in Cambridge provides some mixed blessings. I was all set to go to the Cambridge Discovery Lecture at the Sedgwick tomorrow evening when I passed by Heffers Bookshop and noticed who they had lined up to speak.

Ian Hargreaves is in town to talk about his new book, Journalism, Truth or Dare? which is undeniably relevant - both to the times we're living in and the current debate about "embedded" journalists. Says Martin Bell at the Times:

Hargreaves identifies some disturbing trends: the blurring of the boundaries between advertising and editorial, and indeed between fact and fiction; the redefinition of news as whatever sells newspapers; the concentration of ownership in the hands of great corporations and multinationals; even the phenomenon of the journalist-as-celebrity, with its striking ill-effects: “Fly-in fly-away presenters are no substitute for reporters who know the terrain.”

Looks like the Maori are going to have to wait...

In my long and illustrious career, I have felt the need to sign on only once. No, make that twice, for today I did sign onto the dole (as you Eengleesh say) for the second time in my life.

I have to say, I find the experience faintly humiliating, much as I did when I claimed unemployment in the states all those years ago. To be honest, much of it is the same - interminable reams of forms to fill in and promises to be good and look for work. Some of the questions make me feel rather like a naughty schoolgirl. I'm fully expecting someone to ask me to write one hundred times, "I will read the classifieds and I will make a list of potential employers". Good thing there's no blackboard in the JobCentre.

In the interests of avoiding hand cramp, I declined the offer of filling in more forms to claim income support as a single parent. I think they were slightly incredulous at my refusal of the grand sum of £14 a week. Truth is, I'm only signing on so my credit card payment protection insurance will kick in. If I don't get a job fairly soon, neither the £14 or the £50 Jobseekers Allowance per week is going to do me any good at all...

Oh, and can we say "dead trees"? I can't even begin to imagine how much money it costs to print all those forms - each one a different size, different colours, multi-pages, pullouts - the works. All of which is then duplicated by hand into their computer system and then handwritten out again on more booklets, forms and bits of paper. Can we say "bureaucracy gone mad"?

All that said, the weather is still stunning and I've got a possible photographic assignment coming up which is kind of exciting (unpaid, but hey, it's always nice to see one's work in print). I've also got another interesting project to pitch for. It's not games, but rather consumer software and is probably a contract position but looks interesting as well.

I fully expect that I'll be gainfully employed the day before my nightmare project portfolio is finished.

This Thursday's (27 March) Discovery Talk will be given by Dr Amiria Henare in the Sedgwick Museum, Dept of Earth Sciences. As usual, the talk will start at 7.00pm. The doors will open at 6.30pm.

'Adventures in Maoriland: Cook's Tours, Arts & Crafts and Early Anthropology in New Zealand'

We will examine the relationship of leisure tourism and scientific ethnography in the early twentieth century, focusing on expeditions sponsored by New Zealand's Dominion Museum along with their surprising Cambridge connection.

"A kind of order may be buried in the occurrence of indivisible numbers."

I'm so not numerate and it would take me some time to work out what this means, but apparently systems like interacting prey and predator species with different life cycles show patterns that depend on prime numbers. This was always a tricky relationship to simulate.

I love the idea that mathematics are so implicit in the functioning of the universe (I had an "experience" with numbers in my wild and crazy youth which was a bit of an epiphany... you'll have to guess what that refers to ;-) ).

You know, I'm all for war games. It seems somehow healthy to be analysing strategic tactics within the context of a virtual war where the only downside to getting killed is that you respawn in the same bloody bunker every time.

There's been rather a lot of Battlefield 1942 being played around mine at the moment. Perhaps it's because you can cheer the winning side. In the real war, I can't do that - it feels wrong to want anyone to prevail when real death is the result.

So, on that note, you can start looking forward to a second expansion pack, tentatively titled "Battlefield 1942 Special Weapons".

I reckon there will be weapons. And they'll be quite special.

Being unemployed and all, I've been working on my portfolio. For some unfathomable reason, I decided to do it in MT and while I'm already totally sick of the design, I think it's nearly finished.

There is still quite a lot in the way of descriptive text that needs to go in, as well as a couple of projects I'm still trying to find copies of, but I'd appreciate if you'd have a quick look and let me know if it's legible at the very least.

Update: Well, not quite so nearly finished. :-) I've got a rather intractable problem with the site in Opera. I'm sort of regretting doing the thing in MT, but now I'm too far down the line to back out. Martin very, very kindly pointed out some confusing navigation that I suspected but was too close to - or more likely, too lazy - to admit to. (There are far too many to's in that sentence.)

So, I'm going back in and although I may be some time, you are welcome to watch my progress. While you wait (because I know that you've been glued to your screen waiting for my posts), you can check out the "Related Entries" plug-in solution that I got from Kalsey Consulting.

Thankfully, Salam has posted again and is also in the Guardian .

Seems the Beeb left off some important bits of Demoustier's (the ITV journalist that survived the "friendly fire") account:

He told Barbara Jones of the Mail on Sunday, who rescued him, that they had been fired on by tanks from coalition forces at Iman Anas, while they were trying to drive away from a group of Iraqi soldiers.

"Immediately the allied tanks started heavy firing directly at us. Rounds were coming straight at the Jeep, smashing the windows and puncturing holes in the bodywork," he was quoted as saying.

"Then the whole car was on fire. We were enveloped in flames. It was terrifying. I'm so angry that we were fired on by the allies. The Iraqis must have been their real target but I'm sure they were surrendering and anyway they were all dead within minutes." Demoustier said he had tried to break cover and join an Iraqi farming family who were walking down the road with a white flag. But he was forced to retreat to the ditch when machine guns began to fire again."

From MediaGuardian.co.uk: ITV stands down crews as reporter is killed, but there's more here.

I'm going to trash your house, right? Then I'm going to come in, take all your stuff and, oh, I'll have your wallet, as well, ta. Don't worry - your money is going to good use. I'm going to pay myself to re-decorate your house the way I want. Sure, I'm expensive, but only the best for me, I always say. Now, be a good citizen and stay out of the way or I'll kill you.

NY Times: Which Companies Will Put Iraq Back Together?

The layout's gone all screwy in Netscape on a Mac. That's what I get for making a couple of tiny wee changes...

Recently there have been a few pundits who worry that a democratic Iraq could mean a democratically elected anti-American fundamentalist government and this NYTimes article, The New Agenda: Go It Alone. Remake the World isn't particularly enlightening in its discussion of the issue, but then I read this:

Then, too, since World War II, the United States has been the primary force behind a number of astonishing transformations in the international order - everything from rebuilding Germany and Japan, to the defeat of the Soviet Union and the reintegration of Eastern Europe and even of Russia into the democratic fold.

The "defeat of the Soviet Union"? Did I miss a war somewhere? I seem to have a completely different memory of the breakup of the Soviet Union...

Richard Dawkins in the Guardian today: A political system that delivers this disastrous mistake needs reform. I couldn't pick out just one good summary quote. It's all quite brilliant.

(via Bifurcated Rivets)

in a different desert country nearly a century ago, another dictator...

A Nation in Flux

Mexico in September 1910 could be compared to a shiny apple whose glossy skin conceals a putrifying interior. But the corruption underneath was still a secret to the rest of the world. Porfirio Díaz, the old dictator who had held power since 1876, was probably the most respected political leader on earth. Tolstoy called him a "prodigy of nature," the German Kaiser awarded him his country's highest decoration, Andrew Carnegie praised his "wisdom and courage" and even the progressive Teddy Roosevelt characterized him as "the greatest statesman now living."

September 16 was a banner day in Don Porfirio's life. He had celebrated his eightieth birthday the day before and now, his beautiful young wife beside him, he was reviewing a massive parade that marked the centennial of Mexico's independence. Mexico City's boulevards rivaled those of Paris and -- as yet unpolluted -- its high altitude and clean, cool air made it a magnet for foreign visitors.

Behind the glittering façade was another Mexico -- one of poverty, illiteracy, exploitation and peonage. Though himself an Indian, Díaz was completely beholden to a European-descended elite and the country's indigenous population was horribly oppressed. Major industries were controlled by foreign interests, the illiteracy rate was 80 percent, infant mortality averaged 439 per thousand, life expectancy was 30 years, 50 percent of all houses were classified as unfit for human habitation and in Mexico City 16 percent of the population was homeless. Yes, Díaz had brought about social peace -- mainly through recruiting bandits into his dreaded rural police -- but he had done so at a terrible cost.

The Ethnologue Country Index is a fascinating look at the languages and people of the world. A brief look at the languages of Asia is quite interesting as well. Did you know that North Korea has a higher literacy rate than South Korea? And both Iran and Iraq have relatively high rates of literacy - certainly compared to India, Nepal or Afghanistan.

Interesting stuff.

On May 3rd, 2003, The Works on Shirts Project invites you to take part in "WEARNICA", an international exhibition of artistic reactions to war created on the backs of white cotton dress shirts. On the day of the event, participants in cities around the world will form a walking art gallery, wearing original works they've created into museums and monuments, parks and shopping malls to help raise public awareness of the brutal and self-destructive nature of war in our time.

On March 20th, The US and it's allies began their invasion of Iraq. Don't let battlemaps and high-tech pictures of military weaponry be the only images we remember from this war! It's up to all of us to bear witness to the images that don't show up on the evening news. In 1937, Pablo Picasso was moved by the massive bombings of a small town in Northern Spain to create "Guernica," one of the twentieth century's greatest, most unsettling visual expressions of the horrors of war. By following Picasso's example we can help portray this tragedy for what it is, in the hopes of making future wars less palatable to those who would wage them, and those who would stand by and do nothing.

The Idea is Simple:

By creating original anti-war inspired artwork that can be worn as clothing, it's possible to stage a demonstration in any location open to the public. As long as the individual participants conform to the standard behavior for the general public in the space, the white dress shirts will tie the pieces together into a cohesive whole, and the images will speak for themselves.

Creature Labs is no more, but hopefully it's not the end of these sorts of nights. I'll miss working with you guys. You're the best and I adore each and every one of you...

From the Independent Media Center, a very well-done piece that demonstrates how the arguments just don't add up...

Note the dole office in the background. More later - I'm off to the pub.

(P.S., I may be smiling in this photo, but really I'm gutted - I've just had a couple of months to get used to the idea...)

A couple of days ago, I rashly posted a link to what turned out to be an Onion article which then evolved into a more considered conversation about religion vs. science over at fuddland.

Coincidentally, I attended a science festival talk at the local Buddhist Centre on Sunday entitled Modern Science meets Ancient Insight. I'm still trying to gather my thoughts about that, but in the meantime, another coincidence turned up this highly relevant (6.6Mb) mpg of Douglas Adams speaking at the Digital Biota Conference we organised in 1998. I understand that the full text of this talk is reproduced in his posthumous collection of writings, Salmon of Doubt.

(Many apologies for the dreadful quality - I'm going to try and get the .swa to work at some point.)

BBC NEWS | Politics | List of Labour resignations

11:56GMT - Anne Campbell, Labour MP for Cambridge, resigns from her role as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Patricia Hewitt, secretary of state for trade and industry.

Well done, Anne. It may not have any real effect, but I'm sure the voters will remember that you have supported the views of your constituency.

KartOO is a flash-based metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. It's very cool looking and although I prefer Google for research, this is a great alternative for random browsing.

That said, it does some kinda clever stuff, so I could be dismissing it out of hand...

Consider this a dispatch from the borderland between parenting and politics...

On a recent weekday morning, my wife, Rae, and our 4-year-old daughter Sophie sat at the breakfast table, playing a "Who's that?" game with pictures in The New York Times.

"Who's that?" Sophie called out in her gravelly sing-song. "That's Michael Jackson," Rae responded. "That's Nicole Kidman." "That's Siegfried and Roy." After a while, Rae turned to the front page. As is the norm in these dark days of aggression, she was greeted by the pinched and scolding glare of our prevaricator-in-chief. "Who's that?" Sophie asked. When Rae answered, "That's George Bush," our daughter did not hesitate. "Fucking asshole," Sophie said.

A couple of days ago, I pointed to Matt's comment about genetic engineering: "Change by selective breeding uses the mechanisms that have evolved to change the genome by environmental feedback (set methods?) -- the data return path from the phenotype to the next iteration. New GM methods play with the genome itself, editing private variables. Who knows what they're used for."

Lest anyone think I'm against genetic engineering in any form, I should qualify my agreement with his statement.

Selective breeding in a Mendelian fashion does indeed use the same techniques that nature does in selecting for survival or in our case, robustness, flavour, whatever - and there's nothing wrong with that sort of fiddling. But genes are hugely, unfathomably, complex and the lion's share of the genetic material really is a mystery to us. We have no idea what most of it does or why it's there. Consequently, we have no way of knowing the long term consequences of micro fiddling.

The trick, in my opinion, is to start small. Enrico Coen, at the John Innes Centre in Norwich uses genetic manipulation in concert with a computer model to identify subtle genetic effects in flower blooms; things like local gene expression, for example.

A far better approach than barrelling in ham-fisted into human cloning, in my opinion...

If you run Moveable Type and your server can handle (or is the correct term support?) WML, you can make yourself a WAP version of your weblog very easily. You are more than welcome to use my MobileToast template which I have put online. If you do a mobile version of your weblog, do let me know and I'll put a link on my virtually contentless WAPlog...

What kind of bird is this, does anyone know? I don't think it's a ruddy duck because it's more goose than duck-sized, but I could be wrong...

I've got new books. I'm going to go sit in the sun.

I made myself a photolog for a reason, but I often forget to use it. Eventually I'll get around to moving relevant photos from weblog entries over to it. Hopefully.

I have, however, put some more of yesterday's photos of Cambridge in the cheesy photolog. I'll run out of server space long before I run out of photo ops around here.

Colorgenics is another one of those quiz sites, and while the tests themselves are interesting, the results are fairly incomprehensible. Nevertheless, this "Fantasy Abstraction Profile" is quite good. It builds up a little story and analyses the choices you make.

Brilliant weather for the science festival today. I wasn't able to see half what I wanted to due to the need for some last-minute birthday present shopping. We spent most of our time in the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences which was fine, 'cause we love that and even then we could have easily spent another hour or so there. More photos (loads) below.

Not a wood owl, but a Great Horned Owl from the Raptor Foundation.
He and his friends were hanging in Downing Court.

It was half one on every face... (I'm sure my camera can put the date
on the photo, but I couldn't remember how.
Yes, it was half one precisely.)

Sundial detail.

Wok and roll music, Downing Court (harharhar). No, really - this is a
musical instrument. I wasn't quite sure why they put this right
next to the poor birds, though. I'm sure they weren't happy about it.

Inside the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences:

Geologist's paraphanalia (clearly ciggies are crucial to every dig).
Click for huge-enough-to-read-the-labels.

I love the old signs and labels.

Anne Elk. Anne Giant Elk, in fact.

Label on a skull of one of them what's on the label.

The Barrington Hippo. Found just west of the city in Barrington.
Believed to be the only mounted hippo fossil in the UK.

The skull on the right found at the Shippea Hill Neolithic site near
Littleport, north of Cambridge. (Click for big.)

Green - You believe that small economic units should control the goods, and that the government should be permissive of "victimless crimes," respectful of civil liberties and very strict towards big business. You also believe in either a socialist tax structure or more power to local communities. You think that environmental policies should be written into law. Your historical role model is Ralf Nader.

Which political sterotype are you?

(Cool quiz. I always thought Ralf Nader was a bit of a whinger, but otherwise, I'm cool with that result. Sorry, I can't remember where I saw this - cheers, though whoever!)

Looks like virtually everyone's either prophet, satanist, or Illuminati. A weird website with non-functioning java navigation. Interesting articles though. First time I've seen Isaac Asimov on a list of occultists, though I can't quite work out what the author thinks he's done bare possessing a very tenuous (and posthumous) link with the number 9...

George W, on the other hand, I can believe...

Comic Relief raised more than £35 million yesterday! I'm still amazed at how virtually everyone in the UK gets involved in some way or another. Even our honourary European, Bill Clinton, had some words for the event.

But Matt said it better. Just swap his "unsure" about genetic modification for my "uncomfortable".

Vischeck is code that post-processes a webpage and simulates three different types of colourblindness. Great idea considering that one in twelve people have some sort of colour vision deficit.

There's also a photoshop filter that you can download. Some sort of version for games would be fab, though fairly impossible to do in realtime 3D unless built into the engine from the getgo. Still, screenshots and the photoshop filter could be an acceptable way to QA for that sort of accessibility. Now I can really understand what my colourblind friend Pete has been going on about all along.

The frogs have spawned in our pond overnight...

Mark and the rest of the Time of Defiance boys are down at I15, Multiplay's giant LAN gaming event in Newbury this weekend. I15 is hoping to be the first UK LAN party to break 1000 participants.

Wish them luck in whatever it is that they'll be doing there...

According to a transcript of an Irish radio interview with Kate Adie on GavinsBlog, a Pentagon official has stated that 'unauthorised' journalists will be fired upon by the US military in Iraq.

Unauthorised, presumably, means anyone other than FoxNews...

And since a war does seem so close, I can't not post these things I run across. Like this from the Times:

“'Please help me. Please tell me how to get out, we are terrified,' whispered a war veteran, who rolled up his sleeve to show a grave wound from fighting in 1991. 'We can’t endure another war. We can’t survive.'

Hannan said that most people would stay in their homes, push their mattresses in front of their windows, wait and pray."

Tell me that doesn't break your heart?

The bunnies have sculpted a bunny!

(PS and BTW, Happy Red Nose Day! Have you been watching Celebrity Fame Academy? I'm loving that. I was never a big fan of Ruby Wax, but I'm liking her more and more and hope she wins. It's quite heartening to see celebrities gripped by nerves and stage-fright. Still, I'm hugely impressed by Ulrika, Doon and Will. Still want Ruby to win, though.)

"Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Robert Edgar, and other religious leaders call for candlelight vigils around the world on march 16th to say yes to peace -- and no to war with Iraq."

The vigil will be held on Sunday, March 16 -- 7:00 PM. Find a vigil in your area or organise your own at MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action.

(Cambridge's will be held at the Guildhall, under the clock tower)

We may not know what it is but it's coming says Greg.

"The mood at the Game Developers Conference this year was, fundamentally, one of despair. To even the blindest apologist for the silly, if monstrous, construct the game industry has become, the handwriting on the wall was clear. Ten years ago, you could find a dozen publishers to pitch to; today, perhaps five. And of the remaining, half are on their last legs...

"Year by year, budgets increase. Year by year, sales increase less. And year by year, the publishers become more conservative; at $3m a pop and a 3 year dev cycle, it's too risky to invest in any game that's--risky. Thus only sequels and licensed drivel get funded."

But, he says, "Something is about to blow."

We live in hope.

Football side names are a curious thing. Rushden and Diamonds, Sheffield Wednesday, West Bromwich Albion, Queen's Park Rangers - funny names to a merkian anyway. But even more amusing are the team nicknames.

Oh, happy day. Martin at the Sun Pig has pointed me towards the Rosslyn Deli in London that offers foods from the US.

I wouldn't go so far as to put any of the fantastic American food products in the "very best of American cuisine" category, but a sometimes source of my favourite comfort (read "crap") foods like Cap'n Crunch, Masa Harina, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and sweet pickles is absolutely what I need right now.

This may well turn into one of those projects that gets off to a slow start, only to mire itself in treacle. I found a translation of an article in Los Gobernantes de Queretaro, a history of the the Mexican state and its governors. There are two pages about my great-grandfather Abraham Araujo, except that some of the material was left out of the translation and although I should definitely be doing something else right now, I'll try to add the missing translations in over time.

So, an interesting family history project that could turn into something more if I get off my arse and do some research.

Really could do with a holiday to Mexico, though...

The fisherman's friend...

Really! The BBC says so: Let slip the sea lions of war

According to George Monbiot in today's Guardian article, A Wilful Blindness, the previously mentioned Project for the New American Century and the US government has "called for the development of a new generation of biological agents, which will attack people with particular genetic characteristics."

(via The War in Context. Go read everyday so I can stop posting this. Top site.)

says Peter Molyneux, Managing Director of Lionhead Studios.

He adds that "making a successful video game has become too expensive for the smaller, independent developers.

"It is well known that Britain leads the world in development terms. There's no other place on Earth that has the concentration of development talent."

More importantly, Britain possesses some of the most creative dev teams in the world and their demise will surely mean fewer original and interesting games.

The BBC article also points out that "ten years ago, the average game cost £200,000, whereas now the average budget is £1m," but I can assure you that is hardly an average - more like a minimum for anything save the cheapest, nastiest PC-only or GBA game.

Molyneux adds "A few developers are really, really struggling."

That's not the half of it - again, as I can personally attest...

Wow Cards are "playing cards folded in ways that seem intriguing, counter-intuitive or impossible. If you study one and try to figure how it was made, you may discover aspects which seem baffling or hard to explain.

(via ol' Petey-boy)

Yesterday was the 44th anniversary of the Tibetan People's Uprising of 1959. On that day 44 years ago, 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka Palace to protect the young Dalai Lama from the Chinese who, they feared, were planning to abduct him. On the 17 of March, the Dalai Lama, disguised in a soldier's uniform, escaped over the Himalayas to make his way to India and exile. In the days to follow, more than 86,000 Tibetans in central Tibet were killed by the Chinese. For 20 years the Chinese brutalised and oppressed the Tibetan people. 1.2 million Tibetans - one-fifth of the country's population - died as a result of China's policies and more than 6000 monasteries, temples and other cultural and historic buildings were destroyed and their contents pillaged. Today relations are improving, but there's still a long way to go.

Yesterday His Holiness the Dalai Lama issued his Statement on the occasion of this anniversary and obviously his belief in non-violence resonates with other events taking place at the moment.

The reality today is that we are all interdependent and we have to co-exist on this small planet. Therefore, the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences, whether between individuals, peoples or nations, is through a political culture of non-violence and dialogue. --His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Decisions, decisions. This weekend marks the beginning of Science Week here in the UK and there's a fantastic line-up of activities at the Cambridge Science Festival. We seriously run the risk of over-booking, however (assuming anyone manages to roll out of bed before noon, of course). This is my "short" list:

Saturday (all day):

• Eye to Eye Contact - Raptors on show


• Hands-on Maths Fair - SOMA cube, Tower of Hanoi, Levitron, Hoberman Sphere, Tangrams, Aunty’s Tea Cups and giant dominoes


• Visions of Science - winners’ exhibition of this year’s Novartis/Daily Telegraph Visions of Science photographic awards


• Women and Science Day - Women scientists demonstrate their skills and up-to-the minute research in all areas of science and offer some practical careers advice and mentoring


• Paint Your Own Rock Art - inside a yurt


• Scrapyard Challenge - Make a moving animal or insect from scrap metals and junk


• 11:30 to 1pm - In the Footsteps of Cambridge Scientists - A walking tour visiting some of the sites associated with the great names of science which have made Cambridge world famous


• 11am - 12pm and 2pm - 3pm - Get Set - Find out what it's like to study science, technology or engineering at Cambridge University


• 3pm - 4pm - Eye See: Brain and Mind - Join neuropsychologist Dr Roz McCarthy as she discusses some of the fascinating things that the brain does to visual information, and what can happen when this is impaired


• 7.30pm - 9pm - Modern Science meets Ancient Insight - Hear how Buddhist ideas find meaningful models in the empirical method, relativity and evolution; and even lend a new layer of significance to them.

Messrs. Orange, Pink, Blonde and White will appear on PS2 and Xbox at some point as SCi snaps up the interactive rights to Reservoir Dogs.

Says them:

The game design will remain faithful to the original movie with gamers able to play all the key characters, including the infamous Mr Blonde. There will be the opportunity to take on the role of key policemen, plus take part in large multi-player games. As well as significant amount of combat action involved in the heist itself, which is described in the movie as a “bullet festival”, the game will also include a number of highly charged driving escape sequences.

A device the size of a ballpoint pen that projects a keyboard onto almost any surface.

Now how cool is that?

I love old photos and a nice coincidence today has allowed me to enjoy some little snippets from the past - mine and England's.

After searching everywhere a couple of months ago, I found a load of old family photos, including the image above of my great grandfather, his wife and my grandfather and great uncle. I also found a newspaper article from 1954 from when a quarter of a million dollars in jewelry was supposedly stolen from my grandparent's Park Avenue apartment.

The other nice coincidence was finding that English Heritage has just put 300 years of England's history online. This image from 1920 of typesetters at The Morning Post in London is fantastic.

(update: wait a minute... 300 years can't be right can it? The camera was invented in 1839. Where did 300 come from, I wonder?)

Another chapter in my eternal search for the perfect Buffalo Chicken Wing recipe. This time I kept it quite simple, but did end up making my own ranch-style dressing as our corner shop didn't carry anything even close. It came out well, if a tad too garlicky. I even made buttermilk if you can imagine. The recipes are below in more.

And now for something completely different:

The 11 am Puzzle, in honour of Diamond Geezer's Birthday
I made a load of chicken wings last night, but there was also a ton of bread, so not all of them were eaten. If everyone save the one vegetarian guest ate 9 pieces of chicken and the cat managed to steal one piece for herself, how many chicken wings were left over this morning?

Buffalo Chicken Wings II
This recipe is for loads of people. A big pack of 14 wings will feed two if that's all you're having. I made enough for six...

Joint the wings, discard the tips and place the pieces in a single layer in a baking dish. Pour on a little oil to keep them from sticking and bake in a hot oven for about an hour, turning every so often. If you have lots, rotate the dishes as well so they cook evenly. When they're getting brown pour off the excess oil and drain the wings on kitchen towel (paper towels) briefly.

Put them back in the dish, coat with the sauce below and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes. Serve with ranch dressing for dipping, thick crusty bread and maybe some raw veg for the odd veggie...

Hot sauce

melt together in a saucepan:
250g butter
4 (or more) Tablespoons (60 ml) Dante's Hot Sauce
4 Tablespoons (60 ml) ketchup

Ranch Dressing

Traditional Ranch calls for buttermilk - something that's pretty impossible to get in the UK (at least no one I know has ever heard of it). I made buttermilk by mixing 1/2 cup (150ml) of evaporated milk with 1/2 cup (150ml) of water and a tablespoon of lemon juice and then let it stand for 5 minutes.

1/2 cup "buttermilk"
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonaisse
a teaspoon or two of powdered garlic
a handful of dill

You could also add some or all of the following: chopped or dried parsley, celery salt or chopped celery leaves, onion powder, dried thyme leaves or chopped cucumber. I didn't because I didn't have any of that stuff.

No, not the meme. This is the BBC's 10 things we didn't know this time last week

I like number 7:

"The White House asked if President Bush could address the European Parliament, Baroness Williams revealed on BBC One's This Week show on Thursday. But, she said, Euro-MPs were told there was a condition attached to him making the speech: a standing ovation should be guaranteed. The speech has never taken place."

And as for number 1: I think having 15 children is irresponsible and quite sickening in this day and age. The planet isn't big enough for people to be so selfish. If you really have to have tons of children around, open a day care centre or adopt.

According to CBBC, Britons are Europe's biggest sweet eaters.

Just ran a Browser Security Test on IE6 and Mozilla 1.21. Moz came out with 0 vulnerabilities, while nasty, naughty IE had 7 High risk vulnerabilities and 4 medium ones. I could tell it was going badly when I saw my C drive open up in a browser window. Now, I recently ran Windows update and upped IE's security levels, so for this to happen means something is seriously wrong. Of course, this was on Win2000. Mark ran it on XPPro and found no vulnerabilities at all...

(Update: IE6 on Win98 had only 2 medium vulnerabilities. I guess we all know who the weakest link is now, don't we? Probably explains why that nasty Xupiter was able to install all kinds of nasty stuff in the registry of my work machine.)

(via Neil's World)

Sony has announced European trials of the online gaming service for PS2 will start at end of March.

Unlike Microsoft, Sony won't be charging a subscription fee for online play, but wants to ensure the service is compatible with as many broadband providers as possible.

You'll need to buy the £40 PS2 network adaptor which also contains a headset and a version of SOCOM: US Navy Seals and then you'll be ready to kick virtual terrorist butt.

I really shouldn't laugh being a bunny-lover and all, but, I can't help it, Eat Bunny is just too cute. There are icons for Mac and PC, as well as a CafePress Shop and was made by one of those funny bunnies at b3ta.

Don't worry, pixels aren't fattening...

(via IdleType)

Back in May, archaelogists unearthed the remains of a rich and powerful man some five miles from Stonehenge. The burial dated from as far back as 2300 BC - around the same era as the building of Stonehenge - and there's current speculation that they could be related, especially considering that it's the richest burial from that time period ever found in Britain.

Analysis of his tooth enamel seems to imply that the man grew up in Switzerland and what's even more interesting, the man with whom he was buried (assumed to be his son due the both of them possesing identical foot deformities) appears to have been brought up in England - again, evidenced by his tooth enamel.

I'm sure someone will write a novel around this story. I'll buy it next time I'm at the airport...

(via New Scientist)

Add jojoba oil to the vegetable oils suitable as replacements for fossil fuels, albeit in small quantities. According to New Scientist, researchers at the United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain and at the Helwan University in Cairo ran an engine on a fuel called jojoba methyl ester - methanol, a catalyst and raw jojoba oil.

Jojoba compared favourably with diesel and runs quieter. It contains less carbon than diesel and contains no sulphur, so no sulphur oxides and a longer-lasting engine.

And, obviously, as a desert plant, can be grown in poor soils and arid conditions.

Inexcusable, really, but three recent top-of-the-popdex articles have made me wonder what has happened in the states while I've been away and quite relieved that I'm not there. Obviously the lawyer and the t-shirt story seems quite an unbelievable occurance, but seeing as the NY Times cites a poll indicating that 48 percent of Americans believe in creationism, and only 28 percent in evolution, perhaps it shouldn't be such a surprise.

Does no one see that religious fundamentalism is dangerous irrespective of the religion? Is this the beginning of new holy wars?

Richard Dawkins has said much the same (I found as I searched for this snippet he wrote in a recent Independent article):

"Dear Colleague: You are a member of the leading scientific nation, by far. No wonder there has been a brain drain from my country to yours. The trickle in the other direction has been, alas, negligible. Occasional attempts, by my own university of Oxford among others, to compete on the open market to recruit leading American professors or promising young scientists, have usually foundered on the problem of salary. But is it possible that things are now beginning to change? Could it be that political developments in your country are now starting to make emigration look more attractive, in spite of the salary differential?

"I know, of course, without even asking, that you were a member of the majority who voted for Al Gore. When your majority in the country, reinforcing your clear majority in the Electoral College but for dead-heated Florida, was reversed by the Supreme Court coup d'état, you must have been saddened, even infuriated. You presumably consoled yourself that it couldn't last more than four years.

"All that has now changed, and you must be close to despair, especially if you happen to be working in a field such as stem cell cloning and find your research blocked by the religious bigotry of this administration, the most anti-intellectual administration in living memory.

"Have things reached the point where you might consider moving? We in Britain may not be able to match your salary, but we can at least offer you a civilised, decent government, very different from the one you are eager to leave behind."

Dutch policemen hold up traffic to save guinea pig

Have I ever mentioned what nice people the Dutch are? You can't look at a map in Amsterdam without someone coming up and offering you directions.

I never realised that there are aerial photos at StreetMap.co.uk. You can see my office from way high up. On the map, Quayside is the bit of orange at the top centre of the map. The complex to the right of it (between the river and Thompson's lane) is the Quayside Buildings. All that green space at the left belongs to Trinity and St Johns colleges (mostly).

Then on this photo you can see the tennis courts on Jesus Green. The building left of the tennis courts (the brown rectangle thing in the lower right) is the erstwhile Rat and Parrot, our former local, now a posh restaurant.

What fun! (Update: What bollox - I can't link to the actual photo - you have to go through a nightmarish random link-clicking to get to the image link. I see, however, that you can "buy them for your website". Hmm, maybe not.)

This amazingly balanced report of anti-Americanism in Europe made me laugh. I should point out that I've never had even the slightest problem with anyone who can tell I'm American, but then I try and keep a low profile (and a low voice) and try not to get on people's nerves by telling them how small and quaint their country is.

The report finished with a tale of actor Vince Vaughn's recent experiences in the UK:

...one incident really stung.

"Man, it was bad," says the Rat Pack-y star of Swingers. "These girls saw us and were kind of flirting, and they kept asking us if we were American. Finally we said, 'Yes,' and they just took off.

'One girl turns and says, 'We were hoping you were Canadian.' Canadian? Since when was it cooler to be Canadian?"

Excellent. Maybe the Canadians can hire themselves out as America's ambassadors...

So, the odd non-Brit might be amused at all the references to Pancake Day today. Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) is when you use up all the leftover eggs and flour before Lent and there's a fondness here for the old tradition, probably because it's always a special occasion when you can eat pancakes for supper.

Of course, we're going to have American-style pancakes with maple syrup after dinner. You can only take a tradition so far...

So my previous post got me thinking about why I love living in Cambridge. This isn't to say I didn't love living in Long Beach, Marblehead or Monzuno and in fact I loved those places for similar reasons: the beauty of the surroundings and the community. So different, but really so much the same...

See below for more images of the city from my Sunday photofest (hover over the images for comments)...

More of my Cambridge photos here, here and here or see the blog category (hmm, maybe I need to consolidate).

(weird coincidence - Lemon Jelly's Ramblin' Man was playing on my launchcast station as I posted this)

Apparently Solonor has a feature asking people to contribute to a discussion about why America is so cool in an attempt to counter the America-bashers. But as Heeb points out (via Nick), lots of countries are getting a bit of a bashing these days and so he proposes something similar but different. Go and comment about your favourite countries.

I've often been frustrated that what we see here in Europe is an unblinking resolve for war coming from the the US. This link to MoveOn.org: Emergency Appeal to the U.N. came from one of my American relatives and I'm proud to say that I'm finding little support for GW's war amongst my family members in the states.

Please join us and sign today...

---------------
"We've launched an emergency petition from citizens around the world to the U.N. Security Council. We'll be delivering the list of signers and your comments to the 15 member states of the Security Council on THURSDAY, MARCH 6.

Sincerely,
[Number] citizens of the world."

When I was living in Long Beach, I had two staple meals: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (of which I could eat an entire box in one sitting) and Buffalo Chicken Wings. Then I used to use an asparagus cooker as a deep fat fryer and made the sauce just with tabasco and butter. They were quite nice, but never as good as Legends during happy hour. On a trip from California to Boston, I ate at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, supposedly the inventors of the Buffalo Wing, 'though I can't say they were the best.

The last time I made them they were really good, but I can't remember what I did, so I figured the weblog was as good a place as any to write down the recipe for tonight's version - not as good, but not bad at all. Coulda been crispier...

Cut up about 12 to 18 chicken wings and place in a oven dish in a single layer. Add a bit of olive oil to keep them from sticking. Bake in a 180C oven for about half an hour, turning frequently. When they start to get crispy, mix up the sauce. Drain off the extra fat from the wings and coat them in the sauce. Bake for another 10 or 15 minutes. Serve with Ranch Dressing.

Sauce (all quantities are very approximate):

About a third of a pack of butter
Tablespoon chili paste
Tablespoon of sun-dried tomato paste
Couple tablespoons ketchup (it needed a bit of sweetness)
Teaspoon guntar chili powder
10 - 15 drops tabasco

Some images of the Cambridge Backs and Market Square taken today.

I did my Mardi Gras drinking last night seeing off Frimlin at the Pickerel.

I'm definitely not in the mood for drinking now (oh, no), but over in New Orleans, the party is in full swing. Enjoy the fun without the hangover. (via Like Sunday)

I was disappointed that the Cambridge Dictionary that I referenced recently no longer hyperlinks every word in the definition.

But that's ok, 'cause the HyperDictionary does. And in fact, Hyperdictionary had a definition for "wain" while the Cambridge one didn't (incredibly).

Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and that paragon of intellect and leadership, Dan Quayle, are amongst a group who "aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership".

These are very, very dangerous people.

Kill me now...

(via My Life in the Bush of Ghosts)