I’ve mentioned Pilobolus and Momix before. Their dance performances always take me to another place of wonderment. Their movements flit between human and alien in the whick of an eyelid. If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience one of their performances, I see that TED Blogs has an example of a dance performed by a duo from the Pilobolus company. Go and see them.
Year: 2007
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The Joy of Call Centres
I mentioned my brush with call-centres a couple of days ago. Little did I realise it, but in comparison with some people, I escaped almost intact from that experience. My friend Andy Hayler has emailed me with a link to his own entanglement with call-centres. The Horror! The Horror! -
Security Hits Bottom
Improbable Research draws our attention to a travel risk likely to be encountered by those wishing to enter the US and who happen to have a particular medical condition. Don’t, unless you have a strong constitution, click on the perianal sepsis link… -
Eddies in the Entropy Stream
There’s an article in the New Humanist this month on Frances Crick, written by Matt Ridley. At the heart of it is one of those sentences that, to me, are like the spoken equivalent of an earworm. In answer to the great question: what is life?, Ridley writes:Life is the use of linear digital codes to construct machinery that can cause eddies in the entropy stream.Wow. -
In a Volcano???
In the light of recent events, Chris Clarke and his partner Becky are in need of some diversion. So he rents a film – a deliberately schlocky film. But he wasn’t prepared for just how bad the science would be… -
Happy Birthday, Charles!
I realise that I’m a little late in adding my best wishes – so many other bloggers have got there before me – but Charles Darwin has his 198th birthday today. Only two more years to go, and then we’ll really put out the flags… -
Technology – Part II
Since Saturday evening, I’ve been without ADSL service, and suffering withdrawal symptoms. As I suspected yesterday, the fault was not, as the nice man on the KPN helpdesk tried to persuade me, caused by a faulty splitter in the meter cupboard.That’s because today I watched a KPN engineer drive past in his van on his way to my neighbour’s farm. She had a problem with her phone line, and also her ADSL service was gone. Because her phone service was completely dead, an engineer was despatched. A short time later, he drove back, returning to base. Now, it may have been purely a coincidence, but guess what? My ADSL service was back and steady as a rock.So tomorrow, the postman will deliver a new, and surplus to requirements, splitter. Perhaps I can use it as a paperweight. -
Technology…
…when it works, it’s wonderful; when it doesn’t, it – well – it sucks… to quote our American cousins.My ADSL line has gone on the blink, so communication with the outside world, for the moment, will be of the message in a bottle variety. I’ve had to resurrect a dial-up modem (which has the speed of a Galapogos tortoise), but at least I can squirt a few bits out into the ether.Hear Ye, hear ye… I shall be withdrawing from the frenetic pace of today’s internet for now. Hopefully, my service provider (KPN) will repair the problem in the course of the next few days. Although, I have to say, I am not convinced. The problem is that my ADSL line is going up and down like a yo-yo. According to the pleasant gentleman on the helpdesk, this will be solved by a new splitter. In which case, why is it that without the splitter involved in the connection at all, I can still see the ADSL line going up and down like a yo-yo? Ho-hum, let’s follow the script… This means that I shall install the new splitter that they will send me on Tuesday, and then report it has made fuck-all difference. Then, once again, on the merry-go-round we climb to see what the next solution will be that is spat out by the script.The fact that my neighbour has also got a problem with her ADSL connection is totally irrelevant. It is not in the script. It does not compute.Sigh. -
Friends and Enemies
I’ve mentioned the ding-dong between Pascal Bruckner, Timothy Garton-Ash and Ian Buruma before. Other voices are joining in, but can I just refer you (at the risk of seeming a trifle immodest) to the excellent commentary on the whole affair by J. Carter-Wood over at Obscene Desserts… -
Taking Me Back…
In a former life, I was a software architect. Reading Roger Sessions’ excellent paper on A Better Path To Enterprise Architectures brings it all back. Do I miss it? Nah…(hat tip to Coding Horror) -
It’s Alive…
I remember the days when I had a live yoghurt culture lurking in the kitchen. That was bad enough, but I don’t think I would have let a Kombucha loose in the house; ever. -
Short And Sweet…
…that was the snow that fell today around us. It’s already melting, alas, but it was pretty while it lasted…
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The Book Of Rules
The Taliban’s Book of Rules contains some breath-taking precepts:24) It is forbidden to work as a teacher under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels. True Muslims should apply to study with a religiously trained teacher and study in a Mosque or similar institution. Textbooks must come from the period of the Jihad or from the Taliban regime.25) Anyone who works as a teacher for the current puppet regime must recieve a warning. If he nevertheless refuses to give up his job, he must be beaten. If the teacher still continues to instruct contrary to the principles of Islam, the district commander or a group leader must kill him.26) Those NGOs that come to the country under the rule of the infidels must be treated as the government is treated. They have come under the guise of helping people but in fact are part of the regime. Thus we tolerate none of their activities, whether it be building of streets, bridges, clinics, schools, madrases (schools for Koran study) or other works. If a school fails to heed a warning to close, it must be burned. But all religious books must be secured beforehand.And while I’m reeling from this I come across:19) Mujahideen are not allowed to take young boys with no facial hair onto the battlefield or into their private quarters.Er, what?(hat tip to Norm) -
Jaw Drops…
…I’m sorry, but this makes me want to scream. "Their money"? So that makes it OK then? With financial advisers like this, who needs people slitting your veins? -
Read…
…mark, learn, and inwardly digest. The Method is the Message (if I might paraphrase Marshall McLuhan a tad). -
Life’s Too Short…
…for me to bother trying to learn how to Aquaskip… -
The Vista Experience
Last month, I mentioned the beautiful book reader for Windows Vista released by the British Library. It gives an inkling of how the user interface experience might evolve now that the Vista platform is out in the market. I see that Microsoft has started to collect examples of innovation using Vista at the Vista Innovation Café. -
Anaesthesia Can Be Fun…
BBC Four had a fascinating documentary on last night called Medical Mavericks. Presented by Michael Mosley, last night’s episode was devoted to the history of anaesthetics, and the range of colourful characters who discovered them. It turns out that many of them experimented on themselves first, a practice not without obvious dangers. Not to be outdone, we were shown Mosley being given nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and describing the results. He was also given a device with which he could self-administer electric shocks. Clearly unpleasant when he had not taken the gas, but once he had, the sight of him giggling and merrily pressing the button repeatedly was quite amazing.He traced the story of the pioneers – Humphrey Davy (who discovered nitrous oxide, but failed to appreciate its anaesthetic properties, instead he and his friends used it as a recreational drug), Horace Wells (nitrous oxide), William T. G. Morton (ether), and James Young Simpson (chloroform).Excellent programme and I look forward to the rest of the series. If it comes your way, do try and watch it. I don’t think you’ll be put to sleep by it. -
Life Imitates Art
The news item that an astronaut has been charged with trying to kill her rival in love is already bizarre enough in itself. But then, as pointed out over at the Ballardian, the news story bears a number of hallmarks of the typical motifs of J. G. Ballard. Spooky.At least it’s a better referent to his work than the twaddle written by Liddle recently. See Obscene Desserts for the full story and riposte. Oh, and as far as I’m concerned Mr. Liddle lost any claim to be talking sense some while back. I now classify him as being in the Jeremy Clarkson pigeonhole: best avoided, at all costs.
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