For the life of me, I can’t understand what is misleading about this description of Berlusconi. Spot on, it seems to me. Even more astounding is that the White House, under this administration, got it right for once and told the truth. No wonder they felt the need to apologise.
Year: 2008
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If Scientists Were Tabloid Fodder
This segue into a parallel universe is not just perverse, but has the whiff of greatness about it. Away with Britney Spears – give me Stephen Hawking in compromising situations! But I have to concede that the finishing touch is the rebranding of Michio Kaku as Mucho Kaka. I’ve often thought the same, myself. Simply brilliant.(hat tip to PZ Myers) -
The Standards Office
Related to the last post (about the description by Pat Helland of the two camps in IT: Controllers and Doers), Stephen Walli has his own thought-provoking post about setting up a Standards Office within Google. Such a place is usually seen by the Doer camp as being staffed only by Controllers (and mostly in a highly negative sense), but it need not be this way.Stephe brings his long experience in the Standards game to bear on laying out the case for why Google should have a Standards Office. I found it very compelling, but I couldn’t help wondering that if Google has not already got such an office and associated processes in place, then are they not too late to be thinking about it now? If, indeed, Google is driven primarily by the Doer camp, then I can’t help feeling that it’s more likely to end in tears sooner rather than later. Stability comes from the tension and interaction between the two camps. Both sides of the coin are necessary for the coin to continue to exist… -
Controllers and Doers
Pat Helland has a few wise words about the two broad categories of people who work in IT: the Controllers and the Doers. I recognise the types very well. Indeed, I started off in the Doer category, but for most of the latter part of my career (if such a grand word could be used about my working life) I was quite clearly in the Controllers’ camp. -
Horses and Carriages
This weekend saw another gathering of horsey people and their animals around here. It was rather pleasant.
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Just Desserts
I see that Stephen Green is claiming that he is facing bankruptcy following his failed bid to bring blasphemy charges against the BBC for daring to show Jerry Springer – The Opera. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving case. Mind you, he’s set up an online petition to beg that the BBC waive the costs that were awarded against him by the High Court. Look Stephen, it’s clearly God’s will that you lost, so just pay up.I also note that a counter-petition has been set up to suggest that he abide by the law. I’ve signed that petition instead. Let him reap the whirlwind. -
Mischief
I don’t know about you, but if I were to set up a Public Relations firm, I think that last thing I would call it is Mischief PR. It sounds such a hostage to fortune to me. Anyway, someone’s gone and done it, and guess what, they’re refusing to come clean on the data behind a story they’ve apparently concocted for one of their clients. Why am I not surprised? -
The Margarets
My interest is piqued by this review of Sheri Tepper’s The Margarets. And not just because I was totally surprised and astonished by the twist in Tepper’s The Family Tree that is referred to here. The Margarets sounds like a book to add to the wishlist. -
Woodpeckers
From where I sit behind the computer, I can look out onto our front garden. It is often visited by green or spotted woodpeckers. Yesterday, there was a thump on the window – a juvenile green woodpecker had flown into it. It staggered about for a moment or two, and then flew off before I could grab the camera. Here’s a couple of shots of other woodpeckers investigating the pear tree in the garden.
Update: that juvenile woodpecker was obviously destined to be unlucky. This morning I found it dead by the side of the road. I’m pretty sure it would be the same individual, and it had probably flown into the path of a passing car… -
Live Search Sucks
Why is Microsoft’s Live Search so bad at searching? It’s a question I often ask myself. Take today, for example, I wanted to check my blog for entries about the woodpeckers that visit our garden. You may have noticed that on my Live Spaces homepage, there’s a Live Search gadget that enables you to search my blog entries directly.
So I go ahead and type in "woodpecker" and click the "Search" button. Result? Zilch, nada, nothing, zero result. That’s odd, think I, because I know that I have a blog entry on the woodpeckers in the garden. So I go to Google’s blog search and do the same thing. Result? A hit on the correct page.As I say, why is Microsoft’s Live Search so bad? It’s embarrassing.Update: you may note that now the results are more or less correct. That’s because months have gone by and Live Search’s spider has finally got around to visiting the relevant web pages. Well, whoop-de-doo. It still doesn’t excuse the miserable performance of the service as a whole.Update II: I’ve now removed the gadget entirely since it recently stopped working at all, and always returned zero hits. The reason is that bloody Microsoft went and changed the search query syntax of its search engine, so any code out there that uses the old syntax is now well and truly screwed.Update III: …and has Microsoft removed the gadget from the Windows Live Gallery? Nope, of course not. It’s still there, and in a prominent position. People – don’t you care that you’re increasing the noise to signal ratio? Clearly not. There’s a lesson for us all here… humankind will be Easter Island writ large… -
Re-visualising Da Vinci
And on a lighter note, rather than dwelling on waterboarding, here’s news of Peter Greenaway’s attempt to cast Da Vinci’s The Last Supper in a new light – literally. The video is quite intriguing, although I can’t say I was taken by the music. I note that "Some of Greenaway’s more controversial plans had to be shelved, such as to depict Christ’s genitalia and show the apostles’ cups overflowing with blood". Well, there’s a surprise, then. -
Waterboarding Hitchens
Earlier this year, Christopher Hitchens agreed to undergo waterboarding in order to answer for himself the question of whether the process constitutes torture or not. His answer, in this month’s Vanity Fair is non-equivocal: Believe me, it’s torture.Even more harrowing was watching the video of him getting waterboarded, despite the strains of Enigma playing in the background. What astounded me was seeing for myself how little time is required before the victim believes himself or herself to be simultaneously smothered and drowning. Tellingly, Hitchens says that since the experience, he’s had nightmares about it. -
Head-Wall-Head-Wall
It’s not often that I feel sympathy for Inayat Bunglawala, but I do in this exchange he has had with Harun Yahya. The latter is a typically depressing denialist of the fact of evolution. It’s enough to make the brain cells shrivel reading his utter bollocks. -
Rodeo Fun
And you thought Goat-dressing was bizarre? Meet Whiplash. I’m still trying to digest the semiotics. -
A Little Problem
So I read Anne Atkin’s apologia about Gafcon, and, I’m sorry, but I think it is perverse. Yes, I’m sure that she thinks she is right, but, sorry, I think she is deluded."I find this utterly thrilling stuff, which is why I was there. It has changed my life, shaped my choices, gloriously enriched my relationships, and most important of all, will get me through the biggest challenge I will ever face: my death and what lies beyond."Erm, reality to Anne, there ain’t nothing beyond your death. Do good in your life, it’s all you have – and on this evidence, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Your Gafcon crowd are simply causing misery. That I consider immoral. -
The Big Bang Machine
All you ever wanted to know about the Large Hadron Collider, courtesy of the Guardian. I’m looking forward to it being switched on. -
So Fucking What…
Sorry for the intemperate headline, but while thinking about Stephen Fry’s response to sensitive souls who take offense at every little thing, it seemed to me to be aposite for Stephen Lenski’s reponse to Andrew Schlafly’s particularly stupid queries over Lenski’s research. As Lenski says,In other words, it’s not that we claim to have glimpsed "a unicorn in the garden" – we have a whole population of them living in my lab!Ridicule is the best weapon against these IDiots, I’m sure.Update: Here’s the complete exchange between Schlafly and Lenski for your delectation. -
Too Late…
For my vicarious pleasure, I often peruse the Not Always Right web site, where the more depressing side of humanity is often on display during a customer/vendor transaction. While most of them make me despair for the future of humanity, some (thankfully) make me realise that we are all simply susceptible to human foibles. Long may it continue. -
Wind-powered Skyscrapers
Architect David Fisher has come up with the idea of skyscrapers where each floor can rotate independently, driven by wind turbines. Intriguing, although I assume that the kitchen and bathroom units will hug the central, static, core of the building. Otherwise, rotating plumbing could present some interesting engineering challenges.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 