Today was a pleasant day, I went out cycling in Reeuwijk and took my camera. A small selection of the photos are in the photo album here called "Spring Day". Simple pleasures.
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A World First?
Over at that very civilised web site: a Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down, Nicey reviews what is claimed to be the World’s very first cookie designed for dunking. His verdict: a definite thumbs-up. It’s a Marks and Spencers product, which is a crying shame, since M&S withdrew from the Dutch market a few years back, so I can’t indulge myself.
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See Your World From a New Perspective
World Wind is a visualisation application that uses satellite imagery and other data to present the world in startling new ways. If you’ve got a PC with a fast graphics card, then this application is quite stunning. You can "fly" over the Earth’s surface using your mouse.
While the application comes with a fair bit of topographic data, as you zoom into points on the Earth’s surface, more detailed data is fetched from NASA’s servers to build up the picture. Add-ons such as data from scientific visualisation servers allow you to see events such as weather patterns, floods or forest fires.
It’s an incredible teaching resource that could have only been dreamed about a few years ago, and then would only have been available to a select few researchers. Now anyone with a modern PC and an Internet connection can tap into this data and display it in ways that are immediately understandable. I reckon that in under 5 years we’ll be seeing mobile phones, cameras, laptops and tablet PCs with GPS built-in as standard. Then you’ll be able to retrace your travels, or use the virtual Earth as a way of organising your holiday snaps. Simply "fly" to Barcelona and view your photos as you move through the city.
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Another Bit of Bad News
First of all it was the disillusionment that set in when confronted with the fact that farting cows are a major source of greenhouse gases. No longer could I gaze at a field of grazing cows in a contemplative mood – all I could think of was the fact that each cow would be letting slip 200 litres of methane per day.
Now comes the news that wood-burning pizza ovens are likely to fall foul of new environmental restrictions.
I predict that in less than 10 years time we’ll have an army of inspectors poking around our wood-burning fire in the living room complaining that it does not conform to some new batch of environmental laws. We’ll probably have to replace the thrill of a real fire with a flat-panel screen showing an endless loop video of flickering flames. It’s not the same, I tell you.
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The Apprentice Revisited
Since I last mentioned The Apprentice in my blog, I’ve been there, religiously, each week on the sofa watching each episode from behind my fingers. And it gets better and better each week without fail.
Since at least last week, I’ve been predicting to Martin that the final standoff will be between Paul and Saira, simply because that’s what the producers of the series want to feed us to make "good television". A needle match between the two most opinionated, pig-headed and arrogant participants, who (oh how very convenient) happen to be on opposite sides of the gender divide.
In actual fact, I thought that of the contestants, Miriam, Tim and James have the qualities to reach the final, and I thought that, in an ideal world, it would probably be between Miriam and Tim/James.
But, of course, tonight, Miriam got the shove, thus pushing me towards the view that it’s really nothing to do with the intrinsic qualities of the participants, but purely towards what makes good television. What a world we live in (thanks, Rufus!). A view that was only reinforced by the brilliance of tonight’s episode, set as it was in that hell on earth – TV Shopping.
Yep, tonight the two teams had to pick products and sell them live on TV shopping channels. It was a real eye-opener for me to see behind the scenes and to share in the daily lives of those who are consigned to this particular circle of Hell.
And, of course, the real kicker was that we should never underestimate the depths of bad taste to which the TV buying public can sink. So a piece of way-overpriced foam-rubber (of a particularly bilious yellow) and a particularly naff jacket of synthetic material decorated (if one can use the term) with a "Wolf-Spirit" motif turned out to be the top sellers.
Humans, you gotta love them, if only because they’re my species, but why is it I increasingly feel like a cuckoo in the nest?
Update: Nancy Banks-Smith, the Guardian’s TV critic, has a typically witty piece on this episode of The Apprentice. Well worth reading.
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Outsourcing Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be
Infoworld reports on a recent study by Deloitte and Touche that demonstrates that outsourcing is far from a silver bullet for organisations seeking to make their IT operations more efficient. The report itself makes for interesting reading.
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The 50 Best Restaurants in the World
If you’re interested, this entry on the Vinography blog has this year’s complete list of the World’s 50 best restaurants as published by The Restaurant magazine.
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Kitchen Confidential
I’m currently reading Anthony Bourdain’s "Kitchen Confidential", which was recommended to me (thanks, Mike!). This is not your usual autobiography of a chef – this is a combination of a ride on the Ghost train crossed with a roller coaster through Hell. Simultaneously both laugh-out loud funny and a peer over the edge into the Abyss. Highly recommended.
I am prompted to write this in part because Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant The Fat Duck in Bray has just been voted the best restaurant in the world by 500 experts around the world for Restaurant magazine. There is no doubt that Blumenthal is a culinary innovator, but I sometimes think that the line between worthwhile innovation and schlock shock is a thin one. It’s interesting that these same experts put the El Bulli restaurant in Spain at number two, a restaurant which according to a food-writer friend of mine, is simply a case of "the Emperor’s New Clothes".
Oh well, only a complete of weeks to go before Martin and I make another pilgrimage to a restaurant that I know will deliver: Can Fabes.
2 responses to “Kitchen Confidential”
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Very, very glad you like it. Meanwhile, my copy of McGee’s "On Food And Cooking" arrived last night, so I’m so far *quite* pleased you tipped me off to that. Actually, I owe you an email with the latest reading list and recommendations; I was thinking through it this afternoon.
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"*quite* pleased"? – sounds like "modified rapture" to me :-)Finished "Kitchen Confidential", next step is to dip into the Les Halles cookbook and try out a few recipes. I like his style of writing, too.
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Fasten Your Seatbelts…
…It’s going to be a bumpy ride: Ratzinger’s got the job.
There clearly is no god. "Billions of voices, making all the wrong choices…"
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Microsoft Malaise?
An interesting post from Dare Obasanjo today. While I expect the Slashdot kids to heave rocks at their hated foe Microsoft at every opportunity, it is somewhat different when a Microsoftie such as Dare refers to "the current malaise that has smothered main campus [at Microsoft]".
Watch this space – I think the pressure is building.
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Shell Colleagues Celebrate Diversity and Inclusiveness
My old employer, Shell, was, and is, very keen to encourage employee networks. While I was with Shell, I was a member of the GLBTN-NL (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Network for Shell in the Netherlands). I am very pleased to hear that the Network is organising this year to participate in the Amsterdam Gay Pride Canal Parade on 6 August 2005.
The organising committee writes:
Shell Nederland has agreed with enthusiasm to sponsor our participation (not the parade as such) – this agreement is the result of a number of years of lobbying with Shell Nederland management for visible recognition and celebration of who we are and what we do in Shell, regardless of sexual orientation.
Many people both inside and outside our network have helped make our case, for which we are very thankful. We are now working hard to have a great day for all in August, again with the help of many people across Shell in the Netherlands.
We encourage you all to come and watch on Saturday August 6 along the Prinsengracht, with friends and family!
I’ll certainly be there to cheer them on. Well done to them!
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Amaztype
The Language Log today points me towards Amaztype. I think that this cross between Web Services and Typography deserves an entry in my "Slightly Bizarre" list. So it’s got one.
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Things I Don’t Miss About Work
#4 in an occasional series.
Dilbert today sums it up pretty well. Not that all my managers were bad – far from it, most were excellent, but there were a few around that I thought fit this particular glove…
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Adobe Buys Macromedia
So, Adobe is buying Macromedia for a cool $3.4 billion. While I’ll let the pundits ruminate on whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, there are just two tangentially-related points that I will comment on.
The first is that Macromedia’s Flash technology is, like most technology, capable of being used for good or ill. This was brought home to me yesterday while compiling the list of "Wines I Have Known". I tried, wherever possible, to include a hyperlink to a wine producer’s web site in my entries. A lot of these web sites used Flash on the entry page. And, with very few exceptions, their use of Flash was utter, utter crap. Where was usability? Where was the user experience to entice the user into the site and deliver information? Nowhere. Instead all I got was completely pointless Flash animations, done purely because the web designers thought it was a cool thing to do. Take it from me: it is not cool, it is fucking counter-productive.
So, point one: Flash technology should be used with extreme care, and preferably NOT AT ALL on home pages.
Point two: I really don’t think Adobe know how to program. Yes, their applications may be powerful, but their user interfaces stink like rotting fish, and they blithely ignore any conventions of the underlying platform. I’ve complained before on this blog about Photoshop Elements, but other stuff of theirs is just as bad. They remind me of SAP – you vill learn to do it our way, or else! I remember many years ago pointing out to Dr. Peter Zencke (one of the directors of SAP) that I thought that their user interface in SAP R/3 would be better following the user interface guidelines of the underlying platform, to whit, Windows. I got an earful which told me in no uncertain terms that he just didn’t get it. Well, I don’t think Adobe gets it either.
One response to “Adobe Buys Macromedia”
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I totally agree,i hope to go into flash development after uni, however the bad use of flash has tarnished flash with a bad name. those who use flash because they can, instead of because its appropriate drive me nuts. to see some good use of flash ( in most cases ) follow this URL: http://www.favouritewebsiteawards.com/I hadnt heard about Adobe buying out Macromeida, id like to think its because my pc is on the blink, however its equaly as likely im not reading the same news casts as you. I think this buy out will stunt growth in the flash technology which macromedia have developed so well. i love the flash interface, compare that to Adobes standard GUI and i pick Macromedia every time, im unsure if this is becuase i use Macromedia products far more than Adobes, but id be inclined to say, regardless of my uses i prefer Macromedia. Although ive noticed a narrowing in the difference between the two since the introduciton of the Flash MX GUI, which has a vast change from Flash 5 towards the Adobe GUI.
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Another Pointer To Your Personality?
Following on the theme of pointers to your personality, there is apparently some evidence that parasites can affect personality.
It’s long been known that certain parasites affect the behaviour of their hosts in ways that tend to ensure the success of the parasite’s survival. For example there’s a fluke, Dicrocoelium dendriticum, that will make its intermediate host, an ant, climb up blades of grass and stay there until the grass, and the ant, is eaten by a grazing mammal.
And research into the cat parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, seems to indicate that it has an effect on the behaviour of intermediate hosts. Rats, for example, are afraid of cats – for entirely understandable reasons. However, researchers at Oxford University demonstrated that rats that were infected by Toxoplasma appeared to lose their fear of cats. This is good news as far as Toxoplasma is concerned (but obviously not for the foolhardy rat) as it increases the chances that the infected rat is eaten by a cat, so that Toxoplasma ends up in its final host.
You will be delighted to hear that Toxoplasma is also very common in humans – some authorities think that half of all the people on earth carry its cysts in their brains (yup, that’s where Toxoplasma lives in its intermediate hosts).
So, if Toxoplasma affects the behaviour of rats, what does it do to us? Well, parasitologist Jaroslv Flegr has been looking at this. And it does appear that there is a statistically significant difference between people who are infected and the control group. Infected women are said to be more outgoing and warmhearted than controls, whereas infected men are more insecure with proneness to feelings of guilt.
While such behaviour differences may not matter while you’re around the domestic cat, I wonder if it could be significant if you’re on safari?
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Wine List Coming
I’ve been working on a list of "Wines I have known", which I’ll probably post here as a list. The idea of doing so was prompted by Paul Stamp putting up a similar list on his blog. Not being afraid to steal with pride, where appropriate, I have no qualms about doing something similar.
The ratings system is very simple – from one to five stars:
– Affordable, easy drinking –
– Good stuff –
– Very good –
– Excellent, for special occasions –
– I’ve just died and gone to Heaven –You can tell I’m no expert of wine, I just know what I like (the cry of the Philistine down the ages, I hear you say). Well tough, it’s my list.
I only have two five star entries, both for dessert wines, interestingly enough, enough though I’m basically a red wine drinker. One is for Chateau d’Yquem (and I still have a half bottle nestling in the cellar – yippee!). The other is for Tokaji Eszencia, which I was lucky enough to be able to taste through the generosity of a friend of mine. He was presented with an exceedingly rare (and it goes without saying, expensive) bottle as a birthday present from his wife, and he poured out a glass for me to try. What’s that expression? Like angels pissing on your tongue… Yep, that comes close…
The list will have hyperlinks in most of the entries, either to the producers own web site, or to writers on the Web who know much more about this stuff than I. I’m finding I’m making quite a lot of links to The Winedoctor, who writes well, but is not afraid to send himself up when the occasion demands. Ah, Blue Nun! I remember it well. And no, it’s not on the list.
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Wine Is A Pointer To Your Personality…
…So gushes Dr. Irwin Wolkoff, a Toronto-based psychiatrist.
"Red Burgundy is the goddess of wine. It’s really a lot like the Judeo-Christian God. One does not question the will of pinot noir. It rewards, it punishes and it is ours to follow without ever losing faith. The vast bulk of pinot worshippers are helpless, hopeless (wine) nerds."
Well, I always did view psychiatrists with more than a modicum of suspicion, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at his bizarre theory. At least it’s a step short of oinomancy, so one should be grateful for small mercies.
2 responses to “Wine Is A Pointer To Your Personality…”
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Well I can be a complete whore in the temple of the Diva that is the Aussie Shiraz….when feeling noble I will worship at the lesser alter in the alcove that is the nubile pinot noir… when feeling liking running naked in the woods in summer then I would always turn to the goddess of plenty…Charddonay!Otherwise, I just drink gin…martini…port…Baileys….guinness is great too, at the right bar where they know how to store and pour it right. Oh dear….where is the no for AA…..tea anyone
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Ha! I must admit that I do like wine. In fact, I’m working on a custom list to be posted in my Space on "Wines I Have Known". I wish that there was a way to get the Ratings element from the music list into it…
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How Will It All End?
Being an increasingly grumpy old man, I take a positive pleasure in reading stories such as "What a Way to Go", in today’s Guardian. I can spend many happy hours ruminating on the chances of each of the ten threats to human existence listed. My money’s on number 9: the Super-Volcano.
As a friend once remarked to me: "You have to remember that we live at the bottom of a gravity well, on a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball. I’m not sure if this is the stable set of parameters that we think it should be…"
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Real or Imagined Threat?
I was watching the report by BBC Home Affairs editor Mark Easton on the BBC News last night. I was struck by his language, both verbal and body, that seemed to me to be exaggerating the threat of al-Qaeda. Yes, we can all agree that Kamel Bourgass was a dangerous individual, and it is better for us all that he is now behind bars. But was he a highly-trained individual in an al-Qaeda ring, who manufactured poisons? Mark Easton’s report certainly came down heavily, one might say, unrelentingly, on that side, with his theatrical brandishing of jars of Nivea and his language, which seemed to me to be more redolent of the Yellow Press, rather than sober reporting from the BBC.
Because there are still some awkward aspects in the case that Easton played down or skated over completely:
- Four other suspects in the "UK cell" were acquitted this week of any part in a conspiracy, and the trial against a further four has been abandoned.
- Despite Easton’s jars of Nivea, no trace of ricin was ever found in the flat where the arrests were made – in fact, only recipes were found.
- The recipes themselves are apparently direct copies of recipes concocted by the US survivalist Kurt Saxon, and readily available from an Internet web site based not in Afghanistan, but in Palo Alto, California.
A much more sober assessment of the facts, written by Jon Silverman, is buried away on the BBC News web site. It probably does not make such good tub-thumping television as Easton’s over-the-top report.
As Duncan Campbell, writing in today’s Guardian, puts it: "I do not doubt that Bourgass would have contemplated causing harm if he was competent to do so. But he was an Islamist yobbo on his own, not an Al Qaida-trained superterrorist."
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Landscape and Memory
Vincent Creelan over on his Eclectic Tardis Blog has a contemplative post describing a walk through a local landscape and his life.
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Yesterday was a marvellous day, bright sunshine, fresh breeze, a real sense of spring …and summer to come. The Cherry blossums are already fading and the Elder flower and Hawthorne blooms are showing. I went for a long…ish walk with my partner and his sister Claire around Scrabo Country Park at the top of the Ards peninsular. This is an area that has been inhabited for thousands of years, on the hill where Scrabo tower now stands, iron age mounds can be seen scattered around (what is now a golf course) and when they dug the foundations for the tower they found a hoard of coins from the Roman times. Also from that vantage point you can see right down the lough and could imagine the times when the Viking long boats appeared when they sacked the Abbeys along the coast from Portaferry right up to Greyabbey 12 centuries ago. The tower itself..a folly..was erected in 1856 in memory of a local titled Aristocrat who met an untimely death, built in his memory by friends and faithfull tennants…well nearly, lol, those were poor times(potato famine etc) and the grand design had to be somewhat tailored to meet the budget. Nonetheless it is an imposing structure which sits high on a hill visible for many miles, from its tower you can see to Belfast on one side, the Mourne Mountains on another and across to Scotland too.
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End Quote
His description of the landscape reminded me very much of walking on the Isle of Man – all the echoes of previous societies and lives being etched in the lie of the land. And it might very well have been that the Viking long boats that he mentions came from the Isle of Man. It was in a strategic position in the middle of the Irish Sea. From there, the Vikings were very well-positioned to carry out rape and pillage on Ireland, Scotland Wales and England.
He goes on to reflect on the choices we make in life. He wonders what it would be like if he were able to go back and make different choices – the choices that he would make with the benefit of hindsight.
Well, I wonder – I have a very strong feeling that if I were able to do that, the "me" that is here now would not be the same "me" if I had made those different choices. While on one level I have the sense that I am still the person I was when I was 20 – just older and greyer – I wonder if that is really true. We are surely shaped by the decisions and experiences that we undergo all the time – and the individual that has resulted in me would be very different had I taken a different path through life. It’s like identical twins – they may start out as genetically identical specimens, but they end up as two distinct individuals as a result of their life experiences.
One response to “Landscape and Memory”
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LOl…truth be told I wish I had the chance to live in a different age….born in March my star sign has me as something of a dreamer and one easy lost to fantasy….being a cop for 20 years in N Ireland was just an emotional and psychological balance to that part of me!! I have to say thatI would probably be a very different person had I walked into that LGBT meeting at college etc. My experiences with religion…as a father…a cop have moulded me and I trust given me the capacity to be a better man…friend…member of the community. I could so easily ended up as a self indulgent queen who had missed out on so much else life had to show me.
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Geoff Coupe's Blog 
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