(Update: fixed the link to the mini-quiz and retook the Political Compass one: Economic Left/Right: -6.50
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.56

And while you're there, check out the new Iconoclasm quiz. Fascinating. Incredibly, I got 11 of 16 correct!)

Via the Dustbinman, a very, very short quiz: Your Political Philosophy.

According to my answers, my political philosophy is left-liberal.

"Left-Liberals prefer self-government in personal matters and central decision-making on economics. They want government to serve the disadvantaged in the name of fairness. Leftists tolerate social diversity, but work for economic equality."

My Personal Self-Government Score is 100%.
My Economic Self-Government Score is 40%.

Nice to know I'm consistent at least. That's about the same place I am on the Political Compass.

Phew. Finally finished my 26 things. I copped out on "construction" and took a photo of my tool drawer. Luckily a little helper stopped by. "Light" was also particularly difficult.

That was quite fun, 'though just like when I was in school, I had to cram at the last minute. Unlike back then, I've finished a day early. Yay.

Ah, British weather reverts to type. I wonder how many times I've said that?

Now as I'm working from home, my schedule is as I make it - which is a bloody good thing, 'cause I have a pre-teenager to entertain at the moment. So, I work through the morning and take lunches late, often going into town for a couple of hours. Today I needed to go to Staples for some software research purchases, which luckily suits an 11-year-old girl down to the ground. She was in heaven and I got another 26 Things photo.

The sky opened up as we were ready to leave and it really didn't look like it was going to stop, so we made a dash for the Boathouse pub across the road. Because my schedule is all arsed up, neither of us had eaten lunch, so imagine my excitement when I found menus on the table at quarter to 4. Americans may not understand why this is a big deal, but 12:30 to 2:30 is lunchtime in England and if you want something past that time, you'd better go home and cook it yourself. Of course, that's not always the case - there are the odd pubs that serve food all day and restaurants in city centres that may oblige, but get outside a ring road at 4pm and you'll be lucky to get a packet of crisps.

"Quick," I said, "decide before they change their mind!" I went to the bar and asked if they were still doing food. Dubious looks were exchanged and the waiter went into the kitchen. "No, sorry, cook's stopped." Sigh.

It was still pissing it down so I hummed and hawed and stalled for a few minutes, then decided to order a half and hope it would stop raining.

Meanwhile, a German couple went to the bar and ordered food. You could imagine what I was thinking, but it turned out they were going to wait an hour for the cook to get back on duty. Really, we were starving so we did the same. A pint and a half, a few games of hangman, 3 more of my 26 Things photos, 6 or 7 trips to the toilets, and 3 pages of cartoon animals later our order came.

After all that time, the food was pretty bad. You'd have thought they'd cooked it when I placed the order and had been keeping it under the lights for an hour. Any self-respecting American would have sent it back, but, I didn't really feel like complaining. I knew there wasn't much chance I'd get food at that time of day anyway and I don't really expect much from pub food. I now know to give the place a miss for food - it's nice enough for beer and they weren't rude about it - it was just the way it was.

I don't know - on the one hand, the "eating out" situation here in England is pretty dire, as this Guardian article points out (via Nick Barlow). On the other, I don't want to get into a situation where I get wound up about it. Sometimes, the food here is excellent. Teriaki is amazing and we've been going to the same pub for Sunday lunch for nearly two years now, the food is almost always excellent and the publican gruff in Basil Fawlty sort of way. I'm sort of on the fence with this one.

I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that I enjoyed this very silly techy-mystery tale or that someone would go to so much trouble to solve it.

(Via Señor Prandial)

Remember that old geezer that reportedly tripped over the skull of a plesiosaur at Loch Ness a few weeks ago? I said at the time that it seemed rather unlikely.

Apparently scientists think it was a plant as well. Poor old Nessie - she really is getting trashed these days.

The environment Agency says some companies just 'fail to learn' how to conduct themselves properly and are continuing to commit serious environmental crimes.

Among them are: United Utilities, Anglian Water Services, Thames Water, BP UK, TotalFinaElf, 3C Waste Ltd, Tiles-R-Us, BT, Stationery Box, Yoplait and Tesco.

Not a lot I can do personally about the most of them since I don't use them anyway, but I can certainly stop shopping at Tesco.

(sigh - this voting with your feet lark is a bit tedious. I'm going to run out of places to shop pretty soon)

And some more:

Faccenda Group (South) Production meat and poultry products
BP Oil (UK) (fuels and related products)
TotalFinaElf UK (fuels and related products)
S H Pratt and Company (Bananas)
Kronospan Manufacturing (wood products)
Lear Corporation (Nottingham) (motor vehicles)
Lear Corporation UK Interior Systems (motor vehicles)
English Welsh & Scottish Railway Transport (railways)
Europackaging plc
Computer 2000 Distribution (electrical and others)
Stationery Box
Greenvale Foods (food products)
Banham Poultry (meat and meat products)
B & D Electroplaters (electrical)
F & R Dunlop Services
Lear Corporation (UK) (motor vehicles)
Bernstein Group plc1 (furniture)
Budgens Stores
P W Greenhalgh & Company
E Harper (York)
Hedon Salads
Bowood Event Hire
Junckers
Yoplait Dairy Crest
British Telecommunications plc
St James Haulage
Honda Trading Europe
Nippon 2000 Spares and Tyres Company
Paul Hartmann (pharmaceutical)
Coventry Presswork
Tesco Stores
Interbrew UK
CPS Group

Ever catch the yawns? Apparently, self-awareness makes some people yawn-susceptible.

It doesn't look as if knowing this tells us any more about why we yawn. I've always said it's a lack of oxygen, knowing that was unlikely to be correct and it appears that it's not.

Of course, even stranger is the fact that I'm yawning uncontrollably right now - just thinking about it.

The Chairman of the PTA in the UK says children are 'under too much pressure' to grow up.

You know, as much as I think children are wonderful and important, I have to think that's bollocks. If we're not careful, our childhood is going to end up lasting until we're bloody 30. Think back 100, 1000 years and you'll realise that children were not considered children after the age of 11 or 12 when they were often married off or sent to work. The whole concept of "childhood" is actually rather a new one, popularised in Victorian times.

Kids aren't stupid and TV is not making them grow up any quicker. They understand the things they need to when they are able. I don't like the idea of coddling and protecting them from everything. It seems a good way of ensuring that they are completely unprepared for the world.

Just my opinion, of course. I'm considered the local witch 'cause I let mine watch age 15 movies at age 11, so you can take that for what it's worth...

I've been meaning to mention... on a tip-off from the very clever Mr. Route 79, I picked up an e-cloth at B&Q a couple of weeks ago. It really is fab. I've not used a single chemical cleaning product since I got it (except for Dettol on the floors - mucky bunnies).

Absolutely everything in my kitchen is so much easier to clean using this little piece of (un-impregnated with nasty chemicals) cloth. Considering how many shiny things I have, it's pretty remarkable.

Buy some quick! I love it when technology works.

A rather graphic example of democracy's failings as California goes bankrupt. Not that I have anything against democracy, obviously (obviously!) but sometimes it just doesn't work as well as you might think.

With my tongue planted firmly beneath my lower lip, I must applaud the incredible news that "children who are given musical training have better verbal memories than those who have not had lessons" and that "students with better verbal memory probably will find it easier to learn in school."

Gosh, next they'll be telling us that students who study do better on tests.

I do like scientific endeavours as much as the next geek, but there is something faintly distasteful about a robot controlled by a rat's brain. Perhaps it's the "semi-living" moniker that they've given it, or my imagination running away with me (or even too many conversations about "living" virtual organisms), but I can just imagine a day when the poor rat neurons organise themselves to the degree that scientists hope they will and paint, "Help! Get my brain out of this petri dish!"

Perhaps I should cut down on the science fiction...

BBC 'proves Nessie does not exist'.

The 26 Things Photographic Scavenger Hunt deadline is fast approaching and since uploading the images is kinda time-consuming, I thought I'd get a head start.

Some of the images have already been posted to my PhotoNet portfolio in their "Lomo-like" state, but these are the normal scans from PhotoCD in this collection.

So, I still have 'love', 'weather', 'scape', 'you' (me), 'time', 'sound', 'transport', 'empty', 'monument', 'new', 'construction', 'light' and 'numbers' still to find. Eek - better get snapping.

(The images are all somewhat large and the page may take some time to load, mainly because they are all on one post. If it's painful to load the page, leave a comment and let me know and I'll split it into separate posts...)

You know, I realise that I have no concept of the reasons or consequences of the Korean War, short of what I know from watching M.A.S.H.?

Good, because you're less likely to suffer the symptoms of a cold.

In a couple of related stories, a new jab offering protection against hayfever seems to work, but I like the idea of eating local honey much better because we need to encourage bees and beekeeping, as opposed to genetically modifying grass.

GM grass is a stupid idea. Why? Because as the first article points out, "There are a lot of interactions going on in the body which we just don't fully understand."

And the answer is... Naked 'Bambi' hunts a fraud.

And the mayor of Las Vegas is not amused...

If you're like me and was rather annoyed when DigiGuide stopped offering a free multi-channel online TV guide, you'll be pleased to know that Channel 5 has picked up the slack and offers the DigiGuide terrestrial content plus a bit more. (The page defaults to channel 5 only, but there's a link to the multi-channel grid on the top.)

Eccellente.

Those intrepid rubber duckies are due to invade Britain within the next few weeks. Apparently they are becoming quite a cult collectors item. An American company is offering $100 (or equivalent) savings bond to anyone finding one in Greenland, Canada or the US, but only a certificate to anyone finding one washed up on British soil.

Sod 'em. I'd rather have the duck.

Watching Apollo 13 just now, saw Tom Hanks use a slide rule and realised that some day, when the end of the world is nigh and there's no more electricity to run our calculators, we'll either have to use solar powered ones or learn to use a slide rule again.

Not that I've ever even seen one in person... honest.

Flea Circus is a cute Lemmings-like java game my daughter found. I don't have the patience for more than a couple of levels myself, but it's amusing nevertheless.

Hunter Thompson is back and ready to rumble.

Hurry up, dude, I want to read more!

(via Andrew, the on again, off again Londonite - at least I think that's where he is now)

Been collecting bunnycam captures. Guess it's time to clear my desktop. See "more" for a few of 'em.

Eek, where are my front feet?

Nice try burying the body...

Streech.

Doin' the bunnyflop.

A disgraceful story of corporate irresponsibility and greed as a Coca-Cola bottling plant in India drains the ground wells dry. I'm glad I've switched to iced tea, although that's small comfort to the 10,000 people whose livelihoods have been destroyed for a plant that employs only 134 permanent staff.

Iraqis still don't believe that Saddam's sons are dead, so the US is letting TV cameramen into the morgue.

But apparently, officials have told Reuters that the bodies had undergone post-mortem "facial reconstruction".

Erm...?

(Update: after seeing the photos of the "reconstructed" Uday and Qusay, I'm now, ever-so-slightly grossed out. Blech - freaky.)

I don't know, maybe it's the anthropomorphic terminology, but I think providing pension rights for Indian elephants is really quite sweet. After watching Spy in the Herd the other night, it seems only right that elephants receive some of the respect that humans are entitled to (not that either get it most of the time, of course).

Try saying that that 3 times fast.

Or, for a more useful endeavour, you can check out the Japanese pronunciation guide at the rather good Anime Encyclopædia.

There are also audio clips on a number of the entries.

I dunno, I'm normally a pretty squeamish person, but photos of dead people don't bother me much, if at all.

What really grosses me out are TV programmes that show people undergoing cosmetic surgery, or worse, eye surgery. Dead people don't feel any pain, after all.

To find out why. Too funny.

Since when does a government agency intimidate people into taking drugs?

That is, without a doubt, the most outrageous thing I've ever heard and any school official that demands a child take Ritalin should be imprisoned for drug peddling.

Threat rating: High. The Bush administration is concerned that it may not get a second term. Therefore, we are going to change the rules so that each Democrat vote only counts as 0.2 votes because Democrat is a shorter word than Republican

What threat to the Bush administration are you?

Funny. (Via the Green Fairy)

Yet again. Absolutely brilliant post from bar room philosophy about GM and how it's not quite the boon we're being told. Says Justin at BRP:

"The whole North American experience of growing GM crops seems to be under-reported if not completely ignored. As documented in the Soil Association's report Seeds of Doubt (10), the experience has been a far from happy one.

"The main GM crops grown in North America are maize, soya and oil seed rape. They have been engineered with two additional characteristics: a resistance to certain kinds of herbicides, and the ability to produce an insecticide bacteria. Unfortunately, in many cases, the new crops have not performed as advertised.

"Despite being billed as providing higher yields, only GM maize yields have increased and not by enough to cover the increased production costs."

I couldn't sit through more than a couple of bars of singing politicians myself, but I have to admit, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Elvis impersonation was bloody good.

I need a bit of help from any typeface experts that could possibly wander by.

Please see "more" if you're interested...

I'm working on a logotype that has a lowercase "g" in it. Now, I've found a typeface with a very groovy looking "g" but it's one of those funny ones with the little filip at the top. My client says it looks like it's backwards and hence doesn't look like a "g", but when I turn it around it looks backwards to me.

First off, does anyone know why some typefaces use a curly "g" (like this "g" as opposed to this "g")? And if a curly "g" with a filip is used backwards, do you think this is a big problem? I'm afraid I can't decide. If you want to see the actual typeface I'm using, let me know in the comments or by email - I don't want to give away any secrets!

So says a little bird:

"i was there when they filmed the first episode. it was so bad the audience walked out!!! only about 15 left at the end!!! it was a joke."

neener neener neener.

The BBC reports on Tory plans to raise speed limits. The Tory attitude towards transport is absolutely scandalous and terribly backward, but this comment made me laugh:

"But Mr Duncan Smith says the rise in car use only corresponds to an increase in the number of licences issued - and this was down to women learning to drive and finding new freedom, for which they should not be 'punished'."

Oh wonderful. Welcome to the 20th century, Mr. Duncan Smith. Pity the rest of us are a part of the 21st.

Just picked up a couple of CDs of slides from Anglia Photoworks on Devonshire Road and they are, without a doubt, the worst quality I've ever seen. The images are all way too dark and no amount of brightness or lightness will fix them They look much better under a loupe, so they either scanned them badly or the equipment is faulty (Konica rather than Kodak). I'm terribly disappointed. My results photographing the same slides through a slide viewer were better than these.

They are also very low resolution - only 115Kb on average. They have a weird app that allows you to set the pixel size, but I can't seem to get them out of the application.

Major suckage.

I ran across a product on a website I won't name because I'm just about to trash the whole concept and I don't want to be rude, but how stupid is this tea bag bin idea? The site that led me to it said they liked it because now they didn't have to leave tea drips on the counter or stains in the sink.

Well, I have this clever tool called a "hand" and I can cup it underneath the tea bag on my spoon and carefully walk it to the bin - no mess, no drips. If I've not squeezed it enough and perhaps fear I will get a tiny drop of hot tea on me, I can even use the cup itself! Wow.

Then they reminded me that tea bags can be composted. I've not saved my teabags for the heap, probably because my compost heaps now cover a good 10% of my garden due to copius amounts of bunny litter, but hey - I'm green - I'll compost my teabags.

I've saved myself a fiver and built a custom teabag bin for my own kitchen. Amazing, huh? I'm gonna call it the "tea bag bowl". Woot! I'm gonna make a fortune!

The French government is offering grants for game developers to help them weather the rough global games market.

Good on them. I wish the British government would recognise the potential of the games industry and help as well. Games have the potential to make Britain the Hollywood of the games industry but only if there's support for it. The UK has traditionally been a hotbed of original game ideas, but with the costs of making games increasing at such an alarming rate, developers can't continue to be creative without some assistance.

when packaging designers try to get clever?

A Cambridgeshire Bunnycam that's not my bunnycam.

Isaf (international peace-keeping troops) in Afghanistan are buying endangered animal pelts. I can't tell you how upset that makes me.

Oh, phew, it was all just a misunderstanding. When they said they were looking for WMDs, they really mean they were looking for maps of Iraqi oilfields. This huge sigh of relief brought to you by the Dustbinman.

Better be careful, though. Don't print it out to read it. You could get in a lot of trouble from the FBI.

How cool is this? The British Library is offering mobile phone companies the pick of 100,000 animal noises so you could have a ring tone that sounds like a nightengale or a greenfinch.

Of course, there are so many birds in my garden, I might never hear my phone, but that's not 100% a bad thing!

I may have to start a animal-cam category what with this Live BarnCam© I found. (Well, I like them)

A Mexican water park has captured 33 dolphins and are holding them and more than 160 others.

It really is beyond immoral to use captive animals as entertainment. Clearly the Mexican government doesn't care a bit. As much as I'd love to swim with dolphins, perhaps some economic pressure will help to stop this sort of thing. Don't go here.

I've noticed recently that the US and now Britain are hoping that a propaganda news channel is what will create "A profound change in the Iraqi frame of mind" to change "suspicion to trust".

I'm not sure, but I suspect that while we westerners are quite used to being manipulated by the media and are pretty susceptible to it, Iraqis will be far more suspicious.

Isam al-Khafaji was a member of the Democratic Principles Working Group convened by the U.S. State Department last fall to discuss the future of Iraqi governance and has explained why he resigned from this post on July 9.

According to the American Cancer Society, a recent survey found that "79 percent of Americans believe radiation is a major cause of cancer, 66 percent believe pesticides on produce are, while 62 percent blame nuclear power and 49 percent credit food additives."

Of course, the truth is that smoking is the biggest single cause of cancer and a better diet and excercise could prevent at least a third of the 500,000 US cancer deaths each year.

The CNN article also pointed out that the research found that most Americans clean their plates no matter how large the portions are. Actually, first it said 69% cleaned their plates most of the time and then later it says that 36% do all the time. Still, considering that 69% of Americans are overweight or obese, it's quite alarming that this figure rose from 7% to 37% in just three years.

I guess people are just determined to eat themselves to death. I say we let them. After all, isn't that what natural selection is all about?

I always thought that The Times of London was a paragon of journalistic integrity. Not sure where I got that idea - I don't read it as I've also believed it's quite conservative in its viewpoint.

The last few days, however, have convinced me that it's simply a tabloid rag parading as a serious paper. First was the headline about the Marine and the 12 year old girl. Before anyone knew much of the story, the paper screamed something about the "pervert" that had abducted the girl. Now, a pervert he may very well be, but that's not the sort of language I expect of a proper newspaper.

Next was this morning's headline: "Eating GM foods will not harm you, says official report" which preceded a paragraph which contradicted that by saying, "The risk to human health from genetically modified crops is 'very low'". Low is somewhat different from non-existent in my limited understanding of the English language.

Finally, there is a clear agenda in their reporting of the death of David Kelly. They seem determined to lay the blame on the BBC for not revealing whether Dr. Kelly was the source or not. As opposed, for example, to the government, who are so concerned about their jobs, that they trash a loyal civil servant and treat him disgracefully. I'm sorry, but the right of the press not to reveal their sources is a long-standing and important one and one that, according to Reporters without Borders, is slowly being eroded in many Western countries.

I did, however, learn that local celebrity Jeffery Archer is due for release today and that his incarceration has cost more than £70,000 per year. I do think that a wealthy man like that should be forced to pay the costs of that. I don't like the thought that a man convicted of lying (rather than a violent crime) is being punished in a way that actually costs me money. He's no danger to me or anyone else. The crime of lying seems like it would be better punished through fines - excessive ones if need be.

Bill Thompson suggests banning kids from chatrooms'. I was interested to know how he recommended this be done. I'm none the wiser, I'm afraid. In the first instance he says that "whatever age verification schemes we might come up with, a determined adult will find a way around them" and then suggests "the only answer is to keep kids out of these spaces - to make them adult-only and require age verification by those hosting them."

The fact is, if a determined adult can get into a child's chat room, so can a determined child get into an adult chatroom. He talks as though only big companies host chatrooms and so could perhaps be regulated. What about the tons of web-based chatrooms that are actually coded and hosted by kids themselves or by individuals all around the world? Finally, if you've ever attempted to set up an age verification scheme (I have), you'll know it's not just "inconvenient", but pretty close to impossible.

Erg. Another old story from the same site, but really quite sickening and I have no doubt that live feeding as entertainment still exists in China and elsewhere. There is a telling exchange with a "park official" at the Xiongsheng Bear and Tiger Mountain Village in Guilin (which may end up being drowned as they fill the Three Gorges Dam, now I think of it):

Inside is a number of albino Siberian tigers. You read a sign in Chinese and English describing them as: "The White Tiger from the United States of America, Japan and Australia." You ask a park official where she thinks these particular tigers originate.
"These ones are from Australia," she replies. "They costs 300 yuan each."
"There are no tigers in Australia. Except in zoos."
"Oh. Well you've probably never seen them there because they are white - they're very hard to see in the snow."
Next to the "Australian" tigers are the Bengals. Another sign says they are from "Bangladesh, Italy." The park is home to six South China tigers - a species on the brink of extinction, with only 50-60 believed remaining in the wild.

Maybe I watch too many movies, and I'm struggling with the idea that it would be fascinating if it could be done, but cloning a wooly mammoth does seem like it could possibly be a bad idea.

(via the BBC who seems to be so short on news today that they've dug up this year-old story...)

Via Blue Witch comes An Appraisal of the Utility of a Chocolate Teapot.

They may have a little more trouble finding a commercial-grade chocolate fireguard, but that would be my choice for the next test...

Did you know that there's no such thing as saltine crackers in Britain? The closest they get are table water biscuits as far as I can tell. Well, that used to be that case, until I found these:

Saltine crackers are such a staple in the states - served in millions of little individually-wrapped packets alongside soup in restaurants or sold in huge 4 foot square catering packs in the supermarkets.

Another amusing BBC quizlette, this one about recognising famous faces. I got 8 out of 12, though there were at least three where I realised I was wrong just as I pressed the button.

I was trying to find a font for a logotype that I had designed some years ago and couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. WhatTheFont allows you to upload an image of the font in question and they identify it for you. Worked perfectly.

Bloggers will know that it's almost impossible to know what sort of post will spark off a conversation. Sometimes the ones that I think are a little mundane get such great comments.

Go read the comments in the honey post for recipes from Mr FunJunkie and excellent advice from the bee-keeping Blue Witch.

I had a bit of my local honey just now and got to wondering how the difference between set and regular honey comes about. I found a good explanation of the whole honey construction process.

A page full of International Standard Paper Sizes. How the ISO paper size system works with standard sizes charts. Not that I didn't know it all already, of course. ;-)

A pensioner in Loch Ness has tripped over the fossil remains of what appears to be a plesiosaur - a long-necked dinosaur that bears a rather striking resemblance to the fabled Loch Ness monster.

Of course, the fact that it's the first of its kind ever found at Loch Ness and was simply laying around in shallow watter gives a little weight to the possibility it was planted.

Whilst at my aforementioned cheese shop (which is well contaminated by cheese, by the way), I saw a rather intriguing sign:

Of course, it's not always easy to find local honey. I suppose you could get an allotment and keep them yourself.

Isn't the internet grand? Jag has posted a fully illustrated recipe for what he calls "Pilchard Rice", although with all those nice spices in, it sounds like it should have a more exotic name.

In the spirit of recipe sharing, I'll share a recipe for a very, very nice potato salad that I just scoffed. It's not so much a recipe as a bunch of ingredients, however:

Potatoes (some - boiled and cut into big chunks) Eggs (a couple - hard-boiled with the potatoes if you like and then chopped) Herbs (a small handful, fresh and chopped - I used tarragon and marjoran because that's what's growing in my garden) Dry mustard (a spoonful) Pimenton (a smaller spoonful) Mayonnaise (enough)

and the magic, special ingredient:

Caper berries (a bunch, chopped) and a bit of the caper berry vinegar.

Stir. Eat. Was very nice with lamb steaks.

Speaking of caper berries, Cambridge Cheese Company in All Saint's Passage sells these fruits of the caper bush (Capparis spinosa) which are sort of like a rose-hip. Capers, on the other hand, are the immature buds of the flower. My trusty Joy of Cooking tells me that the buds of the Marsh Marigold that lives in our garden pond can also be pickled like caper-berries. Of course, they are highly poisonous as well, so I may just give that a miss.

Oh, phew - no it's not.

Stompin wiggidy wack. I've learned my lesson. I promise never to pirate video games if you promise never to do another advert like this.

(via b3ta - like the last one actually)

...and lonely? How's about a little chat with a search engine? God knows why or how, but you can add Google to your online contacts in MSN Messenger and Chat to Google.

Google wasn't online when I tried it. I wonder what it was doing?

There's a new mad bastard in town.

Total Film Magazine has published its choices for "nastiest screen character" and Michael Caine's portrayal of London gangster Jack Carter took top honours. It compares interestingly to the American Film Institute's choices for the same accolade:

And a fine summer it is turning out to be, although today wasn't particularly city-like.

I've pretty much spent my photographic budget now as we took a long ride up the river to Fen Ditton on the new Jubilee cycleway along Ditton meadows. We turned around at the A14 and came back again, stopping at every pub we could easily get to from the river's side. We sat and watched a kingfisher fishing and dragonflies flying and took about a million photos. OK, not a million. Thirty-six, if I'm honest. Nice slow Velvia slide film, so hopefully I'll have some good photos in the bunch.

Today was also Cambridge's annual Big Day Out on Parker's Piece so we stopped by there to browse the French market and watch Musical Youth perform. Yes, that Musical Youth. Not too youthful anymore, but they were good and provided an appropriate end to the day.

So, a good long day and home for tea. Make mine iced, would ya luv?

It sounds like a surrealist film or something, but back in 1992, a consignment of rubber bath toys fell off a ship travelling from China to Seattle.

More than a decade on, the intrepid duckies have found their way through the Bering Strait and are due to wash up on New England beaches any day now. (wash up - geddit?)

It's amazing what can wash up on beaches. I was just told of a friend who found a huge package of weed washed up on an English beach - all wrapped up and ready to go.

Werner left a comment on an earlier post pointing us to this hilarious comparison between Italy and the rest of the EU.

This one's dedicated to our friend Claudio - we know it's funny because it's true!

Another example of how you really can not trust the press comes via Ben Hammersley. Euromyths debunk all those stories about EU rulings. You know, curved bananas and straight rhubarb.

Hilarious.

Don't know who did the survey, but apparently, according to it, British women would rather have a house than a diamond engagement ring.

It was one of the first things I noticed about the UK; women here don't tend to wear - I suppose because British men don't buy - big flashy engagement rings.

The British are traditionally a very frugal, pragmatic people, and even those with the money to spend on those sorts of things don't parade it about too much. Unless they live in Essex. ;-)

It's a little ironic, actually, but it appears that consumer pressure may prevent Britain from becoming a GM Nation.

In a BBC article, the Soil Association policy manager stated that "GM food has already been rejected by all the major supermarkets, most large food manufacturers and the public" while Liberal Democrat agriculture spokesman Andrew George adds that "there is little economic demand for GM products in the UK."

A government report due out today is expected to conclude that there is little economic benefit to be derived from GM crops.

I'm sure those Monsanto people can find something else to screw around with. They're not likely to find anything quite so fundamental as our basic sustenance, it must be said, which is all the more reason for them not to get their greedy hands on it.

They are blessed with the most incompetent bunch of politicians these days. With 10 million German tourists visiting Italy every year, you'd think the tourism minister could keep his mouth shut.

According to Rebecca Mulhern at the Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College Department of Psychology, "given a forced choice, men did favour an attractive older woman as a long-term partner over younger, typically more fecund though less attractive potential partners."

Result. ;-)

(via the Black Dove. And help Rebecca with her research here.)

I dunno - sometimes the news is awash with the bleeding obvious. Today's news that British men are living longer, although still not as long as women, mentions,

"figures show that men are much more likely to die from potentially fatal diseases like cancer, heart disease and suicide or accidents" and "researchers said the findings highlighted the need for specific public health policies targeted at men."

Um, has no-one noticed that men are more likely to engage in risky activities of all sorts, like extreme sports (or sport in general) and are more often engaged in dangerous jobs (firefighting, policework). Gee, what a surprise that women live longer.

We have rather a high standard of buskers in Cambridge. Not counting the penny whistle beggars, there are some pretty talented people performing on the streets hereabouts.

Grafitti Classics were today's entertainment and I stopped for a good 10 or 15 minutes to watch the fun.

I really admire people who can play an instrument that well whilst jumping about like mad things (5Mb Real Media file).

Another MS product that is. Thanks to Mark, I can skip buying nasty, evil MS Project.

I mean, really, a collaboration, project management, timesheet time tracking, bug tracking, task scheduler tool online and free?

I think I can afford that.

It's an idea that seems like it's been around for ages, but no one has really taken it up on a large scale. Well, apparently the Europeans have, but now English Nature is trying to persuade property developers to turn roofs into meadows.

There's a green roof at Canary Wharf they say. That reminds me of the floating barge gardens I saw last time I was there - wasn't sure why the barges were covered in plants, but they looked cool. Meadows on all the rooftops and all the parking underground is my personal idea of good urban planning. You can download a PDF of the Green Roof report.

Now, if only I had a big flat roof to convert...

For me!

Today was my daughter's induction day at her new secondary school and anyone would have thought it was quite a big day for her. I was worried about going with her to school, worried about not going with her to school, worried that she wouldn't know anyone in her form (home room), worried she'd be overwhelmed or that the older kids would be unkind.

She, of course, had no such worries. The sum total of her worry is that she'll get too much homework once she starts in September.

Tonight, then, was a chance for the parents to meet the form tutors, see the school, try on uniforms, order calculators and French dictionaries (they all have to study French - like anyone other than the French speak French these days - must be a tradition... or an old charter or something).

I never really paid attention to the parents at her primary school, but the parents tonight were an interesting lot - especially the dads. There were the dreadlocked hippy types, the black polo neck-wearing arty types, crumpled academics, a shaven-headed tatooed dad with multiple piercings, and a dad in a Ben Sherman shirt who commented loudly about the fitness of the form tutors.

It was never like that when I were a lass. But then we didn't have a Buddha garden in the quad either...

It's been a while since I plugged my Cambridge GameDev mates. No random pluggage this, however, as NicelyCrafted picks up a nomination for best Online Development Studio in Develop Magazine's Industry Excellence Awards. They are sooo the best, so here's hoping they win!

Our friends at Sony Cambridge have also been nominated in "Best New IP" for Primal. They've got a difficult slot, however, as they're up against The Getaway, Conflict: Desert Storm, the superb Battlefield 1942 and the bloody brilliant Ghostmaster.

Please, please, please, dear American voting types, vote this man out of office.

Those Victorians, hey? What did they ever do for us? Well, they built my wee house and they produced an amusing view of the future (uh, present) in postcards.

(via Interconnected)

Minolta DiMAGE 7i

Apparently, Stonehenge was actually a giant vagina.

Take the BBC's Senses Challenge.

I got 14 out of 20.

After looking at those lomo photos, new cameras of various sorts, slide scanners and the like, I've had another go photographing some of my slides using a slide viewer and my digital camera.

The results are at left, and even though they are a little distorted and not as sharp as the originals, I rather like them.

I think that will be my theme for the 26 things challenge. Until I change my mind, of course.

As much as I love my little FujiFinePix, I'm a little itchy for something different. I'm struggling a little with the 26 Things photo scavenger hunt as well. I have the urge to theme the theme - if you know what I mean - and I can't seem to get the colours I want with the digital.

My old Minolta is nice, if heavy, but I hate having to wait for the slides to come back and slides are approaching what I want colour-wise.

So this desire for instant gratification really isn't going to be satiated by this surprisingly affordable and very cool medium format camera. But oh, look at how lovely it is.

They're such nice girls, aren't they? So sweet in victory and defeat.

Following on from the Saturday Kitchen is Animal Park which follows the goings on at Longleat House, a Safari Park in Wiltshire at the stately home of the Lord of Bath.

Bits of his rather extensive autobiography is online.

Quite a character, he is.

Rick Stein, on the Saturday Kitchen took us on a tour of a warehouse containing fish trawled from the depths of the North Atlantic trough.

Weird-looking fish that for the most part, we don't know what they are or how many of them are left. They just get ground up for cheap school dinners. Tons and tons of them.

He held up an orange roughy and explained how the fish was probably around 80 years old. Can you imagine eating a fish that's been living for 80 years? It's quite sad, really and I will thank the fish gods heartily when next I eat my sushi. I think I'll pass on the Roughy, though...

Although the memory of working with other people is fading quickly, I had to laugh at some of the BBC's workmates' habits that 'drive us mad'.

Top of the list was workmates who refuse to take their turn making the tea. I never understood this. It's a very homely practise - one I think may be more common in offices with a percentage of females. At my last job, I was for all intents and purposes, the only woman in the office (the office manager sat near the CEO, so didn't really count). We didn't do the tea ceremony thing and I'm glad for it.

You want tea? Make your own bloody tea. I don't want to drink tea when everyone else does, don't want to waste my time making 7 cups of tea, trying to remember how everyone takes it and don't want to miss the opportunity to take several breaks a day to make my own tea (or coffee).

Apparently people who don't make the tea get gossipped about more often. Oh well.

Berlusconi denies apologising for Nazi jibe.

took a bit longer to get here than I'd imagined, but there is finally a new entry in my portfolio.

I'd go have a lie-down, but another project beckons.

It's always hard to get good builders. Half the time they don't call you back, the other half, never show up. Last year I had some work done by a company called Bromley Property Management. Prices were good and quality of work was excellent. I called them yesterday and left a message as I need my back door replaced. They called me this morning and sent a guy 'round to measure up. The guy showed up about 15 minutes later (no waiting around all day in the hopes someone would show)!

How very rare. Highly recommended if you're in Cambridge and need a builder.

Berlusconi said he was being ironic when he compared a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp guard. Ironic indeed that a facist would choose a "joke" like that.

Euro vote ends GM food ban.

The man is a complete nightmare. Bet he and Rummy get along like a house on fire.

It seems it's the othercheek that's the sexiest part of a man's body. Go on, girls and see who you think has the sexiest cheeks. But for god's sake, DON'T get it wrong! You'll hate yourself in the morning.

So much for summer. :-(

About bleeding time I say. A couple of things shocked me a little when I first moved to the UK: page 3 girls and job ads that asked specifically for "young, energetic people". I've gotten used to naked women in the newspaper, but never could get my head around the practise of putting your age and marital status on your cv.

A conversation in the women game developer mailing list brought one suggestion from a doyen of recruitment to those women in the games industry over 35, "dye your hair and lie about your age". Thankfully, lying is uneccessary (I already dye my hair) as this new law brings employment practises in line with European law and hurrah for that.

In the states, of course, it's illegal to ask a person's age, marital status or religion and illegal to state a preference for a particular age group or gender and quite right too. It's in the employer's best interest not to allow their preconceptions to prevent them from hiring what could be their perfect employee.

I almost thought it was satire, or a typo, but apparently Activision has filed a breach of contract suit against Viacom for letting "the once proud Star Trek franchise stagnate and decay."

They claim that the license is now "significantly diminished" in value as a result of the latest series' poor ratings and the lack of a new movie.

It's usually the games developers who get schtick for mucking up a brand, not the brand owners themselves...

In case you missed it, the big debate about GM foods in the UK occurred last month. The website dedicated to the debate is pretty disappointing as far as I'm concerned. It looked all the world like the pro-GM lobby set it up as the "pro" arguments were much better formed than the "anti" arguments.

What would be better is a bit of detail, like 5 Reasons to keep Britain GM-free which, despite being termed "somewhat hysterical", is rather more in-depth.

That said, whoever wrote the headlines on that article was a bit of a drama queen.

I can't bear to leave the blog mired in so much negativity, so here - if you're bored - is what looks like some rather challenging origami projects, thanks to the Yamaha Corporation.

Interesting bit of brand diversity. I coulda sworn they made motorbikes (metal ones, not paper).

(via b3ta)

Just wait 20 years or so: America to build super weapons.

What the hell are we going to do about this?

BMA doctors want the government to pressure schools not to install soda machines. Apparently they are a big source of income for some schools. Why, I wonder, do they not install fruit juice and water machines instead?

Oh, I forgot - fruit juice isn't addictive. Charming, isn't it?

US government (read US industry) plans to privitise all aspects of Iraqi life, specifically healthcare.

Amazing how they are willing to take a system which is a complete failure to a country that is fundamentally socialist in it's outlook. If it didn't bode so tragically for the Iraqi people it would be sort of funny.

Finnaly, hunting fox for sport has gone the way of bear-baiting and cock-fighting.

It amuses me how the pro-hunt lobby insists that it's a class issue. They wish!