Had a fantastic day with a lovely Sunday Roast at the Fox on the River in Thames Ditton, just over the river from Hampton Court. Enjoyed very nice roast turkey – the first of the season….yum !
Month: November 2003
oh wow !
have I just spec’d up a new monster PC – 64 bit system with all the trimmings. Mammoth graphics and sound cards and speaker system to die for. Excited as a child in a sweetshop ! It’s my new video editing machine……hoooray !
time to buy !
it rains….
It’s been raining now for 3 days solid. Driving rain that floods the place and penetrates to the bone. The kind of rain that makes you want to get on a plane to anywhere but here ! Grim, grim, grim !
Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768.
The picture shows a family group witnessing a scientific experiment performed at the home of a wealthy squire in the English Midlands. The experiment is being carried out by an itinerant lecturer of natural philosophy.
I’ve always been fascinated by this picture. A copy hung on the wall of the science department at school and I’ve always remembered it. It’s weird, a bit scary, but compelling. You are drawn to the plight of the bird in the air pump, the sad and frightened girls and the wild eyes of the quack scientist. Also, the boy seems as fascinated by the experiment as the young couple on the left seem disinterested. The man seated on the left calmly holds a stopwatch, ready to record the time it takes for the bird to die. On the table in front of them is a skull in a jar of cloudy liquid.
Our attitude towards science, experimentation and even death seem to be captured in this picture.
Bush Protests
Today was the big demo against Bush in Trafalgar Square. I was there and this is my photo diary.
[you will need to sign up with Sony Imagestation to view my photos – don’t worry, it’s free !]
So, Bush has arrived !
So, Bush has arrived ! He touched down at Heathrow at 7.30 this evening. Sneakily, I listened in to Heathrow’s air traffic control on an old digital airband radio I picked up a coupla years back. It was hard to make out what was going on, but lots of American military type voices and one clearly saying that they were coming in 3 747s and 2 helicopters (geek ! moi !?).
Air Force One touched down with its presidential cargo and a few minutes later a couple of sleek helicopters took to the sky to ferry The Commander-in-Chief to Buck House to meet the Queen. Interestingly, Dubya’s distinctive green and white presidential helicopter flew strait over my house….. (how nice !)
Dubya
So, Dubya’s in town next week for a full blown state visit to Britain. They’ll be rolling out the Queen, state banquets, addresses to parliament and all the trimings. The big question is why him, why now ?
There are going to be huge protests in London about the visit, and on Thursday a statue of Bush will be symbolically torn down just like the one of Saddam in Baghdad. Sounds interesting ! So, I’ve book the day off and reckon I’ll go along and take a look with the video camera.
5k ?
Concerned about delivering bloatware online ? Worried about serving fat pages to impatient users ? Here’s a challenge then, have a go at winning a 5K award. The concept is simple, do what you can with a file limit of 5k !
That’ll keep the creative department quiet for a while……
Smoking…. it’ll kill you !
Ever wondered why you should quit smoking ? Look no further than ‘Smoking Sucks‘ a great little website from The Newfoundland and Labrador Alliance for the Control of Tobacco in Canada. Great site, strong message…send it to everyone you know who smokes !
There’s an interesting section on ‘The Tobacco Industry: Merchants of Death’ which has loads of outrageous statements from the tobacco people like this one from a Phillip Morris document of 1991:
“Today’s teenager is tomorrow’s potential regular customer, and the overwhelming majority of smokers begin to smoke while still in their teens… the smoking patterns of teenagers are particularly important to Phillip Morris.”
Jesus, who are these people, peddling death for profit….QUIT NOW !
…..here ends the lesson ;)….
hmmm
life is for living, not just for getting through….
So yeah... 