…and there are screams from souls at the end of their tether. The latter comes closest to describing this posting from Bellatrys…
Year: 2005
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Annie and Alice
Annie Leibowitz’s view of Alice in Wonderland in a series of fashion shots commissioned by Vogue. As someone who finds the Fashion industry totally bizarre, to me this seems somehow very appropriate. -
Anne Rice on New Orleans
Anne Rice writes eloquently and passionately about the heart and soul of New Orleans in the New York Times today. Go and read it. -
Blogging in the Eye of the Storm
Blogs are a fascinating development, allowing practically anyone the potential of reaching an audience of millions. Throughout the events of the last few days in New Orleans, there’s been a bunch of people holed up on the 10th floor of a building there which houses a computer data centre. They’ve been determined to keep the data centre running. One of them has been keeping a blog of the events. Pretty scary stuff.The blogger seems to be a survivalist – probably not the type of person you would want to get on the wrong side of, but handy to have around at times like those in New Orleans. Me? I’m a lapdog of civilisation – when it goes, I go – I doubt that I’d survive to see the new world order. -
Not If, But When
The National Geographic carried a prescient story about what would happen if a category 5 hurricane hit New Orleans in one of its issues last year… -
Open Mouth – Change Feet
President Bush has always struck me as having no charisma whatsoever, to the point of verging on the socially dysfunctional. I was reminded of that while watching him in a TV interview a couple of days ago – he was smiling while discussing what a terrible thing had just happened in New Orleans… (the video is available here, look for "Bush on GMA").It would seem that he only opens his mouth to change feet. Take this other example, from a speech he gave yesterday:"The good news is — and it’s hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter.)Er, excuse me, but this attempt at folksiness is so horribly misguided at a time when people are still dying and drowning four days after Katrina struck that it beggars belief. Ezra Klein and Andrew Sullivan are amongst those who also find this bizarre in the extreme.Update: I’ve just watched the video of the speech. Un-fucking-believable. Empty words from an empty President. And what were all those military personnel and helicopters doing just standing around in the background of this stupid photo-op? Had they nothing better to do, like being out there helping to save lives, for instance? Americans can be better than this. -
GodDitIt – Film at 11
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that an evangelical pastor has claimed that God wiped out New Orleans to purge the city of its decadence. Still, one of the comments on the story brought a smile back to my face: Just you wait Rev. Shanks, when the gays come back, we’re going to have a big decorating party… -
New Orleans and Geopolitics
Doug Merrill over at A Fistful of Euros points out that New Orleans is the linchpin of the Port of South Louisiana. That is the world’s fifth largest port after Rotterdam, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It is a vital part of the US’ industrial infrastructure, and it needs a city to power it with a workforce and logistics services. As a result, while some might talk of abandoning New Orleans following the disaster, it is inevitable and imperative that the city rise again from its watery grave. The US cannot afford to abandon the Port for economic reasons.This reasoning is put forth very cogently and succintly in an article by George Friedman: New Orleans: a Geopolitical Prize. Well worth reading. -
A’ima Bridge, Baghdad
And across the world from New Orleans, another human disaster. This time not from the forces of Nature, but the forces of human nature. Once again, I’ll leave the words to someone better qualified than I: Salam Pax. -
Katrina – The Aftermath
I don’t have the words to write about what Katrina has done to New Orleans and the surrounding area. Instead, I’ll leave the eulogy to New Orleans in the hands of Howell Raines, writing in today’s Guardian. -
WinFS Beta 1 Released
Once upon a time, long long ago (well in 1991, to be precise), Microsoft announced the Cairo project. Sometimes it was touted as an operating system, sometimes it was a project to develop new technologies, but whatever it was, it was something that used to remind me of the attempts of the Brown Booby bird to get off the ground, and never quite managing to do so. Still, over the years, more of the technologies that it was supposed to deliver have in fact finally appeared from Microsoft. All except one – and arguably the most important one – the "radically new" Object File System.Now, the first beta of that has arrived in the form of WinFS. Channel 9 has a video interview with some of the developers, and a demonstration of some of the capabilities. The beta itself is currently only available to MSDN subscribers. I think it’s significant that the beta is available for Windows XP, and not confined to the next generation of the Windows operating system family, Windows Vista. But that does raise the question of what will be the value proposition of Vista, if all the major technologies (WinFS, WinFX) are also available for Windows XP. -
Back Again
Sorry for the slight hiatus in posting over the last few days. We’ve been househunting in Gelderland. We visited four houses (and saw more to be added to the "to do" list). So far, none of them has made us go "wow".The visits have been useful, though, because it helps us refine what is important to us in a house. It’s also helped to confirm that the connection between an estate agent’s language and reality is tenuous at best. For example:– "Picturesque" means "it needs a lot of work doing to it"– "Original features" means "it needs even more work doing to it"– "Unique features" means "kitsch beyond belief"– "Tasteful conversion" means "kitsch beyond belief"– "Child-friendly neighbourhood" means "lots of screaming kids"– "Views of Montferland" means "if you lean out of the attic window and look to the left you can just about see it"– "Quiet location" means "there’s a dirt track, which will require you to have a 4-wheel drive vehicle in the winter" -
Getting Closer – Part 2
I wrote last week about the fact that the avian flu virus is getting close to Europe.On a parallel track, the Intelligent Design meme (a "virus of the mind") has been spotted in the UK. It’s a piece written by Bryan Appleyard for the once-great Sunday Times: George Bush and the Meaning of Life. As is only to be expected, it’s rubbish. There is an excellent dissection of Appleyard’s twaddle over at the Educated Insolence blog. -
Katrina
Reading about the expected effects of hurricane Katrina on New Orleans is a sobering experience. It’s not just the 160mph winds, of course, it’s the fact that New Orleans lies two metres below sea level, and if the sea defenses are breached, the scale of the disaster could be taken to a whole other level. Living, as I do, six metres below sea level makes one somewhat sensitive about these things…
Update: This article, written in 2001, may be a prediction of events about to unfold…
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Celestia
Following on from World Wind, another stunning piece of free software is Celestia – planetarium software that lets you explore the universe in three dimensions. It’s available for Windows, Mac OS and LInux. Warp Factor 9, Mr. Scott!(hat tip to The Scientific Indian) -
Hello?
…I think I’ve fallen asleep and had an epiphany. Why? What’s happened?Well, first it was the item on BBC News tonight about "Predator Awareness Training" for Great Bustards. I’m sorry, I noticed your capitalisation as an attempt to make this seem more important than it is, but what are you blathering on about?It was a "Silly Season" filler on the BBC News tonight – apparently the great bustard chicks that are being imported to Britain don’t seem to understand that british foxes find them a delicacy. And?Well, they get eaten. So someone in the importation programme has come up with the brilliant idea of subjecting the great bustard chicks to "Predator Awareness Training". And this is?It seems to consist of a rather embarassed-looking alsation, apparently pretending to be a fox, being shoved into a pen of great bustards while volunteers throw water over the birds. And this accomplishes, what exactly?Well, I think a lot of great bustard chicks getting wet and thinking "what the fuck is going on?" I see.Wait, there’s more! I was afraid of that.Yes, researchers at MIT have come up with the Electronic Squirrel. I notice you’re using capitals again. It almost makes me afraid to ask what an electronic squirrel is.It’s brilliant – it’s an animatronic desktop cuddly toy squirrel that – you’ll like this – answers phone calls, works out if you are busy or asleep, evaluates how important the incoming call is and takes messages. I can’t believe you’ve just said that.No, really, here’s a spiffing series of photos that try to give you an idea of how cool this cute squirrel is in action… Look, can we just pull the plug on humanity now? I think this experiment has just about run its course…
Geoff Coupe's Blog 