http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/en-UKhttp://backend.userland.com/rss092http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/http://data5.blog.de/design/preview/60/967d2eb52a5efa26ca27f231973966_160x200.jpg <p>I can't take any credit for this but it's another that deserves immortalising:</p> <p>"SOCIALISM</p> <p>You have 2 cows.<br> You give one to your neighbour.</p> <p>COMMUNISM</p> <p>You have 2 cows.<br> The State takes both and gives you some milk.</p> <p>FASCISM</p> <p>You have 2 cows.<br> The State takes both and sells you some milk..</p> <p>NAZISM</p> <p>You have 2 cows.<br> The State takes both and shoots you.</p> <p>BUREAUCRATISM</p> <p>You have 2 cows.<br> The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away...</p> <p>TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You sell one and buy a bull.<br> Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.<br> You sell them and retire on the income.</p> <p>SURREALISM</p> <p>You have two giraffes.<br> The government requires you to take harmonica lessons</p> <p>AN AMERICAN CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.<br> Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.</p> <p>ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.<br> The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.<br> The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.<br> You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows.<br> No balance sheet provided with the release.<br> The public then buys your bull.</p> <p>A FRENCH CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.</p> <p>A JAPANESE CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.<br> You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.</p> <p>A GERMAN CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.</p> <p>AN ITALIAN CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.<br> You decide to have lunch.</p> <p>A RUSSIAN CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You count them and learn you have five cows.<br> You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.<br> You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.<br> You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.</p> <p>A SWISS CORPORATION</p> <p>You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.<br> You charge the owners for storing them.</p> <p>A CHINESE CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You have 300 people milking them.<br> You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.<br> You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.</p> <p>AN INDIAN CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> You worship them.</p> <p>A BRITISH CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> Both are mad.</p> <p>AN IRAQI CORPORATION</p> <p>Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.<br> You tell them that you have none.<br> No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.<br> You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy....</p> <p>AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> Business seems pretty good.<br> You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate. </p> <p>A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION</p> <p>You have two cows.<br> The one on the left looks very attractive." </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/11/09/political-systems-7335508/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/11/09/political-systems-7335508/Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:10:15 +0100 <p>"If we aim deliberately at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare predict, will not limp. Nothing can then delay for very long that final civil war between the forces of Reaction and the despairing convulsions of Revolution, before which the horrors of the late German war will fade into nothing, and which will destroy, whoever is victor, the civilization and the progress of our generation. Even though the result disappoint us, must we not base our actions on better expectations, and believe that the prosperity and happiness of one country promotes that of others, that the solidarity of man is not a fiction, and that nations can still afford to treat other nations as fellow-creatures?" - The Economic Consequence of the Peace, Ch. 7 'Redemies', sec. 1 (1920).</p> <p>Thirteen years later, after Germany had been saddled with crushing war reparations payments which Keynes had shown were impossible for it to meet, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. And we all know where that ended up. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/30/the-prophetic-j-m-keynes-7273597/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/30/the-prophetic-j-m-keynes-7273597/Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:15:35 +0100 <p>I read with delight that a female journalist has been sentenced to 60 lashes over a TV show in which a Saudi man openly discussed his many extra-marital affairs (he got 1000 lashes and five years in prison):</p> <p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8324117.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8324117.stm</a></p> <p>Yet again the Saudis lead the way in re-establishing morality in the cesspot of vice that is the modern world. Hurrah; we are saved once again. </p> <p>But surely this sentence is, if anything, too mild? For merely reporting such filth, the journalist should surely at least have had her eyes put out. And why not actually castrate the philandering beast who she deemed worthy of airtime? If there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, it is that God only intended us to have sex for purposes of procreation. Such a vile and unspeakable form of activity could have no other justification. I am tempted to write to the members of the House of Saud and urge them not to go soft; I can detect the sulphuric stench of Western liberalism at work here, and am deeply concerned lest this creeping corruption reach any further. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/25/saudi-justice-3-in-an-occasional-series-7238885/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/25/saudi-justice-3-in-an-occasional-series-7238885/Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:39:03 +0100 <p>I wrote the following as a response to something else...</p> <p>"I am probably both somewhat rationalistic and somewhat nihilistic. I take the general Nietzschean point about the lack of foundations for a meaningful human life to be entirely true, and to an extent one can embrace and even celebrate this as liberating, fashioning one's own meanings out of the materials one inherits, appropriates, or even invents for oneself. But then along comes the Buddha with old age, sickness, suffering and death, and none of these things strike me as particularly worth celebrating. An appreciation of one’s own mortality is one of the curses of self-consciousness; animals do not live every day knowing that they have to die, or indeed that they could do so at any moment with all their works unfinished. And that is merely at the individual level. When one surveys the extent of the vanity, stupidity, misery, and injustice in the world at large, one can indeed feel quite nihilistic about the human condition. </p> <p>There was a lot to be said for the medieval conception of humanity as situated between the angels and the beasts – we are creatures of marvelous intellectual, artistic and scientific creativity, and great sympathy, friendship, and love for one another, on the one hand, and greedy, short-sighted, and even willfully destructive and malevolent, on the other. In the face of this paradox it is sometimes easy to despair, and for the insane laughter of absurdity to take over. Reason, insofar as it can recall one firmly to the facts of the matter, and thus pave the way for constructive action, is in this sense a kind of solution – but it is of course reason with a small ‘r’ that I have in mind, and it goes along with the cultivation of a ‘better half’ in oneself that cannot, in the end, rely solely on reason. Even then it offers no ultimate guarantee; there is actually no way I can see of insulating oneself altogether from nihilism, though that may in the end just be a matter of (my) temperament – some individuals may simply possess more natural equanimity (or insensitivity?) than myself (sensitivity by no means being an unqualified good; it can take a morbid form that can be quite literally unhealthy)."</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/21/credo-7213818/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/21/credo-7213818/Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:22:22 +0200 <p>Kind of a trick title, that. There isn't going to be one. At least, not for a while. Here is a marvellous quote from Max Weber, who understood a thing or two about capitalism:</p> <p>"The Puritans wanted to be men of the calling - we, on the other hand, must be. For when asceticism moved out of the monastic cells and into working life, and began to dominate innerworldly morality, it helped to build that mighty cosmos of the modern economic order (which is bound to the technical and economic conditions of mechanical and machine production). Today this mighty cosmos determines, with overwhelming coercion, the style of life not only of those directly involved in business but of every individual who is born into this mechanism, and may well continue to do so until the day that the last ton of fossil fuel has been consumed".</p> <p>Weber wrote those words in the original version of <i>The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism</i>, published over a century ago now in 1905. All that has happened since then is the intensification and extension of the mechanism. There is much talk, following the economic crisis of 2008, of the end of capitalism; in fact, I strongly suspect it is simply another of its periodic crises, one of those episodes of creative destruction of which Marx wrote. </p> <p>What is very striking is that the whole world is now committed to the capitalist enterprise; the global effort by the major economies to co-ordinate fiscal rescue efforts was truly unprecedented. Whereas the crisis of the 1930s with which the present one has (in some ways justly) been compared occurred in an era where there still seemed to be genuine alternatives (communism, socialism, national socialism, fascism), the distinctive feature of the contemporary situation is that nothing else is on offer. The market is now regarded as the only viable form of economic exchange, for good or ill, just as Weber foresaw. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/21/the-end-of-capitalism-7213753/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/21/the-end-of-capitalism-7213753/Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:09:56 +0200 <p>As proof of the trouble that the internet can get you into, look no further than Maxi Sopo, who was on the run for credit fraud. </p> <p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8306032.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8306032.stm</a></p> <p>He managed to get himself busted because - get this - he was updating his Facebook profile by telling everyone what a great time he was having and in so doing giving plenty of clues about his whereabouts. Don't today's youth watch spy movies any more? Does he not realise that if you are a wanted criminal then the last thing you should be doing is making public announcements on the web? This is on a par with the woman who went swimming with polar bears (see below); at least she was probably suffering from a mental disturbance of some kind whereas this is really just plain dumb. Enjoy prison, Maxi; you belong there. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/14/a-whole-new-kind-of-stupid-7165345/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/14/a-whole-new-kind-of-stupid-7165345/Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:41:09 +0200 <p>There's this channel I've been hanging out in for years. This might give you some idea of why... </p> <p>7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) School 1970s vs. School 2000s<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fight after school.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 1974 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best mates.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 2009 - Police are called; Armed Response Unit arrives and arrest Johnny and Mark. Mobiles with video of fight confiscated as evidence. They are charged with assault, ASBOs are taken out and both are suspended even though Johnny started it. Diversionary conferences and parent meetings conducted. Video shown on YouTube.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) Scenario: Jeffrey won't sit still in class, disrupts other students.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 1974 - Jeffrey is sent to the principal's office and given 6 of the best. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 2009 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. Counselled to death. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra funding because Jeffrey has a disability. Drops out of school.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbour's car and his Dad gives him the slipper.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 1974 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 2009 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. Psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mum has an affair with the psychologist. Psychologist gets a promotion.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) Scenario: Mohammed fails high school English.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 1974 - Mohammed retakes his exam, passes and goes to college..<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 2009 - Mohammed's cause is taken up by local human rights group. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that making English a requirement for graduation is racist.. Civil Liberties Association files class action lawsuit against state school system and his English teacher. English is banned from core curriculum. Mohammed is given his qualification anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers, puts them in a model plane and blows up an anthill.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 1974 - Ants die.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 2009 - MI5 and police are called and Johnny is charged with perpetrating acts of terrorism. Teams investigate parents, siblings are removed from the home, computers are confiscated, and Johnny's dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) Scenario: Mark falls during break and scrapes his knee. His teacher, Mary, finds him crying, and gives him a hug to comfort him.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 1974 - Johnny soon feels better and goes back to playing.<br>   7:51a    (~gjinn[a]lappy) 2009 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy. Becomes gay. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/01/gotta-love-irc-7078316/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/10/01/gotta-love-irc-7078316/Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:32:07 +0200 <p>Someone sent me a link to this site recently and I've been enjoying it ever since. Basically, it's a bunch of short interviews with leading living philosophers (as distinct from recordings of dead ones, for instance) that you can download as mp3 files. Or 'podcasts', as I suppose they are called nowadays...eeeh, when I were a lad...</p> <p>Even their art for the files you download is clever; they've used Wittgenstein's duck-rabbit, which if you don't know it is one of those pictures that can be seen as either of two things but not both at once, depending on the attitude you choose to adopt to it. It's a simple line drawing that looks like either a duck or a rabbit, as the name suggests (like the one that is either an old woman with a hooked nose or a beautiful young woman turned away in profile). But the really clever thing is that the name "philosophy bites" also has a double meaning; the interviews are of course 'soundbites', short talks, but - at least I think this is the intention - they also want to suggest that 'philosophy bites' in the sense that it has bite, i.e. it has some connection to the real world and that it can be efficacious in one way or another. </p> <p>And listening to the talks, this is certainly philosophy with bite. They are all in the form of interviews and are very much non-technical, so you don't really need to know anything about philosophy to enjoy them, although those who do will certainly appreciate being able to get an overview of the discipline. There are some real gems. Check out Alexander Nehemas on friendship; Antony Appiah on cosmopolitanism; Anthony Grayling on atheism; Mary Warnock on the right to have a baby; Raymond Geuss on politics; and many more, with new ones being added regularly. After listening to a dozen or so of them I'm filled with new enthusiasm for modern Anglo-American philosophy and the sharpness of mind on display. </p> <p>So, I can only urge you to go to:</p> <p><a href="http://philosophybites.libsyn.com/">http://philosophybites.libsyn.com/</a> </p> <p>and check them out for yourself. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/09/18/the-very-wonderful-philosophy-bites-6987731/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/09/18/the-very-wonderful-philosophy-bites-6987731/Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:35:55 +0200 <p>I was actually thinking of buying tickets for the Singapore Grand Prix, but have been put off, first by the outrageous prices they want to charge just for watching cars go by very very fast, and second by the disgraceful remarks by Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone, the F1 rights holder, has just been quoted as saying that Hitler was alright really because he got things done, or words to that effect [see <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/04/bernie-ecclestone-interview-hitler-saddam].">http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/04/bernie-ecclestone-interview-hitler-saddam].</a> Never mind genocide and world war, Hitler got the autobahns moving for sure. Mr Ecclestone, you are clearly a complete political fool. When you put the delightful Ecclestone next to the F1 President Max Mosley (son of fomer leader of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Mosley, no less), it seems that this particular branch of motorsport is actually in the hands of crypto-fascist perverts; I still haven't forgotten Mosley junior's romp with a bunch of hookers dressed up in Nazi uniforms. Mind you, the British upper class in general seem to have issues on that front - step forward, Prince Harry. It's enough to make me a republican if I start thinking about it. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/05/formunazi-6452727/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/05/formunazi-6452727/Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:55:18 +0200 <p>Anyone who plays videogames knows what I'm talking about; when you hit that stage of the game where skill doesn't matter because the game design is so poor. Wonky camera angles (or worse, a camera that you suddenly have no control over), inconsistent environmental behaviours (surfaces cause damage that didn't before), unresponsive controls that previously worked fine, introduction of a new vehicle or weapon that performs in a way that is inconsistent with the 'feel' of the rest of the game, and so on. You've invested many hours, perhaps days or even weeks (months?) of time to get to this point, and now the game designers have screwed it up for you. The frustration is enormous.</p> <p>Anyhow, this is where I detail some of my pet hates, most recent first. </p> <p>1. Prince of Persia Rival Swords [PSP]. The second stage of the final boss battle is a mess. It suffers from virtually all of the faults above. All of a sudden you can't control the camera independently, so you are being hit by moving objects coming from off screen that you have no way of seeing in advance. You can't line up your jumps correctly either; you run along walls instead of up them. Pressing the attack button if you do manage to run up the wall to jump towards the boss doesn't trigger the attack sequence, and when you land it is usually in the path of one of the moving objects you can't avoid. Now a boss fight at the end of any game should be a challenge, and you don't expect to win at the first attempt. But when you've had a couple of dozen attempts and you still can't manage it, the problem is clearly not you but the game. After all, if you can make it all the way to the end, you should really have enough skill to finish the game. But this is a disgraceful mess, made worse by the fact that if you die you have to complete the first stage of the fight again (which I can do no problem, taking virtually no damage, but it's utterly tiresome to be forced to repeat myself). I don't know if I'll bother to finish this now as it's getting so annoying. Caning across the bare buttocks is too good for the developers who coded this crappy sequence. </p> <p>2. Marvel Ultimate Alliance [PSP]. The sequence in Murderworld where you have to play an emulated 8-bit videogame to escape. I was playing this on the plane and the controls were so poor that I actually bit my PSP in frustration. The tooth marks are still on the screen protector. Normally I'd scream and swear but I didn't want to alarm the other 200 people in economy with my gaming rage. I did manage to complete the game but I still have nightmares about trying to jump over crocodiles and repeatedly falling into the pool and drowing. Whoever programmed this sequence should be made to play it all day, every day for a year.</p> <p>3. Drake's Fortune [PS3]. The sequence where you have to drive a jetski upstream through rocks while being shot at. Being shot at I can cope with; trying to drive a jetski with controls so leaden that a hibernating squirrel would be more responsive was harder. I wanted to throw the controller at the screen, and only the fact that I'd spent a four-figure sum on the TV restrained me. My wife was appalled at the howls of frustration that this produced and it was only the thought of divorce that made me reign in my anger. I did complete the game in the end but this part lingers in my memory as an utterly terrible effort. Once again, the developers should be made to eat their own dog food for at least 12 months. </p> <p>4. Mafia [PC]. The racing sequence where you drive an old-fashioned racing car. I had to get through it on easy level in the end. Other than that, this is one of the best PC games ever, and I finished the whole thing, but I still remember the misery this inflicted.</p> <p>5. GTA III: San Andreas [PC]. The wretched remote control planes. These were so hard to fly that I more or less lost interest in the game after that point despite being around 2/3 of the way through it. </p> <p>I'm sure others will spring to mind, so do feel free to contribute your own suggestions. And if you think I'm exaggerating about any of the ones I've mentioned, have a look on the net; you'll find I'm only one of many who have suffered the irritations described above. Gaming is meant to be fun and a challenge; it isn't meant to be a frustrating and repetitive chore that means you give up trying to finish the story. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/06/10/most-hated-moments-in-gaming-6277567/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/06/10/most-hated-moments-in-gaming-6277567/Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:12:53 +0200 <p>I've been running it now for about 3 months and after getting over the initial 'where did they put that?' phase in which you can't find things in the places you're used to (the Start menu shortcuts were a particular pain for a while as they are save in two different locations), I actually prefer it to XP. It looks nicer (admittedly a subjective judgment), boots faster (totally objective), and doesn't suffer from the same hardware limitations (if you run the 64-bit version). It may have been a dog when it came out but I learnt my lesson years ago and never upgrade to a new Microsoft operating system until there has been at least one service pack. I didn't get onto XP until service pack 2, by which time all was peachy, and moving to Vista 64 has been about as painless as it could have been. You can't blame Microsoft for the limitations of 32-bit operating systems, after all; I am actually rather impressed how much 32-bit stuff will run seamlessly in a 64-bit environment.</p> <p>Only a handful of applications have misbehaved. Winamp was the one I miss most, but it's not like there are no other free mp3 players out there. Google desktop I also miss; I'm very surprised an organization of Google's size can't muster 64-bit support for a popular application like that. And I don't think Zone Alarm firewall yet exists in 64-bit form. Otherwise, I could transfer everything from my old XP installation. Virtually all my hardware (printer, scanner, joypad, USB phone, card reader etc.) also worked flawlessly; the only thing I had to retire was a webcam and it was some Taiwanese OEM product. Gaming is also generally not a problem; I have had issues with the new Riddick game and Galactic Civilizations, but I am not at all sure these are due to Vista itself. The most annoying thing has been the well-documented issues with user access control, which is best left turned off if you feel confident with your computing. </p> <p>Windows 7 is well on the way but I see no need to change my current policy of waiting for at least one service pack before upgrading. I'm now very happy on Vista. I don't know what it was like when it first came out (though I can imagine; I did try the XP beta, one of the reasons I decided to leave it alone for a long time afterward), but now it's very usable, and it's almost a shame that it's acquired such a bad reputation. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/12/windows-vista-actually-rather-good-these-days-5930335/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/12/windows-vista-actually-rather-good-these-days-5930335/Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:01:22 +0200 <p>Apparently a 32-year old German woman has jumped into a polar bear's enclosure at a zoo and swum towards them during feeding time. I am both intrigued and bemused by the state of mind that this act suggests. Does she find them so cuddly and adorable that she positively has to get next to these charming aquatic predators? But in this case, does she not know that feeding time is a signal that the bears are likely to be hungry and may not appreciate the distraction? Or perhaps she was feeling tired of life and felt that death by ursus maritimus would be a merciful release? Either way, the results were predictable; one of the bears decided to sample this unaccustomed dietary supplement and the woman in question is very lucky to now be recovering in hospital. </p> <p>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/apr/12/animals-germany?picture=345847068] </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/12/swimming-with-polar-bears-5930202/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/12/swimming-with-polar-bears-5930202/Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:28:48 +0200 <p>Another triumph of the rule of law that I cannot forbear to report: a 75-year old woman has been sentenced to 40 lashes because two unrelated men were found in her house.</p> <p>[See <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/09/Elderly-Saudi-woman-sentenced-to-lashings/UPI-39751236597845/]">http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/09/Elderly-Saudi-woman-sentenced-to-lashings/UPI-39751236597845/]</a></p> <p>Finally someone is taking a stand against these lustful old harlots. I have always been appalled by their wanton and licentious behaviour, and my hair positively stands on end at the thought of this wicked, wicked woman being in the same room with two males who are not members of her family. I am quite sure that the Almighty will be delighted at the prospect of seeing her punished in this manner, which will probably be the death of her. After all, she thoroughly deserves it. Hurrah for Saudi justice, the last beacon of decent moral order in a corrupt world. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/12/saudi-justice-2-in-an-occasional-series-5930130/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/12/saudi-justice-2-in-an-occasional-series-5930130/Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:10:04 +0200 <p>First product review for a while. In the last few months I've developed a liking for swimming, and I've had an ipod for listening to mp3s on for years. But until recently I didn't know you could put the two together; after all, if I got into the pool with my ipod in its usual condition, my enjoyment of the music would be short-lived, water and electronics not being a great mix and all that. But there is a company (and they may well not be the only ones that make them) that sell waterproof armbands and headphones which allow you to do just this. </p> <p>But does it work? When I told someone I'd bought the H20 Audio Amphibex Armband and the H3 headphones, they grinned and said 'Are you going to trust that?' I must confess I gulped and said, after a slight pause, 'Er...yeah?' in a rather uncertain tone. Well, I did ten lengths of the condo pool yesterday, and I have to report that my ipod is still fully functional. H20 Audio guarantee usability down to ten feet, so you could conceivably do a little light scuba diving with it even. You could certainly surf, waterski, play water polo, go canoeing, or whatever with it. </p> <p>The one major downside (based on this single initial test) is that if you don't get an absolutely watertight seal between your ear and the headphones, when the water gets into your ears the sound becomes muffled and is sometimes even (literally) drowned out altogether. But maybe it's possible to get the very pointy rubber earbuds that they supply deeper into your ear canal than I managed to do when I first tried to use them. Still, even hearing a muffled sound in your ears is an amazing thing when you are swimming underwater; it definitely transforms the experience for the better. I swam for longer than I normally would but noticed the effort less, though this may be down to the novelty factor. </p> <p>The only other gripe is that the cord from the armband to the headphones is a trifle short, and I'm not the tallest of people either, so you may find there's a slightly irritating pulling between them from time to time unless you keep the armband very high on your arm. But it has a strap with very strong velcro that does keep it in place pretty effectively (though I was only swimming a steady breast stroke and not really making any violent movements), and I have to say you don't really notice it when you're actually swimming; it feels a bit bulky out of the pool but once you're in, you hardly feel it. Certainly worth considering if you like music and water but have never been able to bring the two together before. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/19/ipodding-underwater-5787756/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/19/ipodding-underwater-5787756/Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:31:33 +0100 <p>For a course I've designed on 'politics and visual culture' I've been trying to catch up on my political movies. I've watched films by Sergei Eisenstein and Leni Riefenstahl, and the latest was by Oliver Stone. JFK left me absolutely convinced that there was a conspiracy to kill the President and that Lee Harvey Oswald (played very well by Gary Oldman) was a 'patsy', as he put it. </p> <p>If even a fraction of Stone's narrative is correct then it is very worrying indeed. Here are some, though by no means all, of the claims it contains. With regard to Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) himself, he was an army officer who had visited Russia, defected, then returned to the USA with a Russian wife. It was, to say the least, hard to arrange this during the cold war era of the 1960s unless one had official connections. </p> <p>Nitrate tests on LHO suggested he had not fired a rifle on the day of the assassination, and testing on the supposed assassination weapon (the rifle left in the book depository on the 6th floor) was not carried out on the day of the shooting. Stone's narrative suggests that there were 3 separate teams of gunmen so that a triangular crossfire could be constructed around the motorcade, and that LHO did not belong to them; in fact, he had tried to warn of the plot and was deliberately ignored.</p> <p>Witnesses to the Warren commission that officially endorsed the theory LHO had been acting alone and had fired only 3 shots claimed their statements had been altered. The actual shot LHO was supposed to have made was almost impossible to achieve and he would have had to fire 3 times in less than 6 seconds, a rate which made accuracy almost superhuman. A far easier shot was available from another window looking onto the street the motorcade came down before turning into Elm St but Elm St allowed a crossfire to be set up. </p> <p>Several witnesses in otherwise good health died suddenly in the course of Garrison's investigation. Garrison was told by a former chief of special ops that he was posted to the South Pole with no warning while working on JFK's plan to withdraw from Vietnam by the end of 1965. He was on the way back in New Zealand when he heard of the killing but newspapers there already had full details of LHO's role before he had even been charged in Dallas. Had he been in the USA he would have had charge of JFK's security, which was inexplicably absent from the scene on the day of the shooting. The entire USA cabinet was also abroad and phones in Washington went down for about an hour at the time of the assassination.</p> <p>JFK's body was then illegally moved from Texas to Washington for an autopsy attended by senior military officers who would not normally be present and who intimidated the medical personnel. The autopsy did not dissect the track of the bullet that would indicate the direction from which he had been shot, and his brain also later disappeared. Johnson ordered the limo in which he had been travelling to be washed and the clothes of others in the car to be sent to the cleaners. Untraced alleged secret service agents and railroad hobos were spotted and photographed at the scene but never subsequently identifiedl; the hobos were arrested but released without charge and no notes were kept. </p> <p>Nor were any notes kept of the interviews with LHO himself after his arrest. No-one saw LHO on the 6th floor (though he was seen on the second), and he was in no hurry when he left presumably after he heard of the shooting. The circumstances of his arrest at a movie theatre were also suspicious; his behaviour suggests he was attending a pre-arranged meeting and that the authorities thus knew where he would be.</p> <p>Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw failed, but it did emerge in 1979 that he had in fact been a CIA agent. In 1979 a Congressional investigation did find a probably conspiracy and recommended that the Justice Department pursue the findings but nothing was ever done. Stone's film, however, did pesuade Congress to order a review of the files in 1992. Stone's ultimate suggestion is that the financial losses that would have resulted from JFK's decision to end the war were the ultimate reason for his death. That is, the military, the intelligence community, and the arms industry colluded to have him killed in the knowledge that Johnson, who took over, was far more receptive to the idea of continuing the war. So far, no-one has disproved this theory.</p> <p>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p> <p>Apparently, there is a documentary on the theme of 'What's Wrong With JFK' which is a three-hour deconstruction of the theories about the assassination put forward in Stone's film. For anyone as impressed with the movie as I was, this should also be a must-see. I'm told it's repeated on the History Channel or similar sometimes...</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/21/oswald-didn-t-do-it-5255702/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/21/oswald-didn-t-do-it-5255702/Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:44:05 +0100 <p>Clearly I'm going through a lists phase. What prompts this one is that whenever I heard questions like 'who do you most admire' or 'who's your hero?' I always found them impossible to answer. There are so many amazing human beings to choose from, after all. But if I had to compose a list from the twentieth century that reflected personal prejudice it might look something like this. Entries are in no particular order; just as they occurred to me. My historical list would probably be completely different, but that's another story.</p> <p>1. Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist, for writing The Master and Margarita.</p> <p>2. Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, for founding the art of aikido.</p> <p>3. Nick Cave, Australian musician, for taking rock in directions no-one else has.</p> <p>4. Philippe Petit, French wire-walker, for performing on a wire 450m up between the twin towers with no safety gear.</p> <p>5. Joern Utzon, Danish architect, for designing the Sydney Opera House without knowing if it could be built.</p> <p>6. George Lucas, American film director, for the first Star Wars movie. Shame about the new ones.</p> <p>7. Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist, for (repeatedly) revolutionizing painting. </p> <p>8. Stan Lee, American comic-book writer, for creating the Amazing Spider-man.</p> <p>9. Eric Cantona, French footballer, for that first title win in 26 years.</p> <p>10. Michael Oakeshott, English philosopher, for writing that spurs you to think for yourself. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/19/personal-heroes-5246894/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/19/personal-heroes-5246894/Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:42:37 +0100 <p>There are loads of these types of posts on the net, but what the hell, here's mine. It's not particularly technical; if you run Linux or OSX or whatever, bully for you. These are just some suggestions for the average user who would like to make Windows (in particular XP) more liveable. In its favour, it is based on many years (c.10) of living with Windows, from when I was still on 3.1 at work and Win98 at home. I've tried them all and they all work well for me.</p> <p>If you're interested in trying any of the apps I mention below, Google, as they say, is your friend when it comes to download links; I may fill them in later if I get time. Many of these apps also have pro versions that are paid-for, but the basic versions have all the essential functionality you need. Of course, there are also plenty of alternatives; these are just the ones that work for me. Again, if you're happier with something else, lovely; this is for anyone who might not know about the options.</p> <p>1. Open Office. If you haven't tried this, and for any reason you want an alternative to Microsoft Office, you really should. It's a complete Office suite (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and more) and it's totally free. It's just reached version 3.0 so it's increasingly mature, and although it isn't as slick as Office 2007 (which tempted me back to Microsoft after a couple of quite happy years as an Oo user), it's the next best thing, and will save all your documents in Microsoft-compatible formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.)</p> <p>2. VLC. Video Lan Client is a very flexible free media player that can work over networks or just on your PC. </p> <p>3. TVersity. A media server that will send your music and video files over your home network to a variety of devices including your Playstation 3 and your Xbox 360, but will also work with mobile devices for remote access.</p> <p>4. Logmein. Remote access to your PC over the web from anywhere. </p> <p>5. Winamp. A very full-featured audio player that will deal with your iPod or other mp3 player, rip CDs to mp3, and can also do video, internet radio, is fully skinnable, etc.</p> <p>6. Zone Alarm. A software firewall that gives you much more control over what applications are connecting in from and out to the internet than the default Windows option.</p> <p>7. AVG anti-virus. Not the only free AV client out there, and it has returned a few false positives in the last 12 months, but they get fixed extremely quickly (< 24 hours) and it is updated more or less daily.</p> <p>8. Free Commander. A replacement for Windows Explorer as a file manager. I really couldn't live without it. </p> <p>9. Alt-tab replacement. If you use this key combo to switch between open applications (as you should, as it's really far quicker than reaching for the mouse and clicking) this makes the experience far more enlightening; you get a thumbnail of the window you're switching to. Actually one of Microsoft's powertoys.</p> <p>10. FastStone image viewer. A great free image manager if you have lots of digital photographs etc. It has basic editing functionality as well, though if you want something more fully featured, try The Gimp, a good imitation of photoshop and also free. </p> <p>11. Bulk Rename Utility. If you manage lots of files and want to change default names, extensions, etc., this is a godsend; it can save you literally hours of work. </p> <p>12. Firefox. A great replacement for Internet Explorer as your web browser from the Mozilla foundation. Hard to believe anyone doesn't already know about it as like Oo it also at 3.0 but if you haven't heard of it, give it a try; there are lots of free extensions for it. It's what I'm typing in right now.</p> <p>13. Thunderbird. The email client from the Mozilla foundation and a good replacement for Windows Mail/Outlook Express. I've been on it for about 5 years and I'm still going strong.</p> <p>14. MozBackup. As the name suggests, a backup tool for your web and email settings. Save them somewhere save and never lose your crucial stuff again. </p> <p>15. CCleaner. A system maintenance utility that will safely delete unused files and keep the Windows registry in good order, as well as much else besides. </p> <p>16. SharpReader. An aggregator for RSS news feeds. Subscribe to feeds from different sites and centralise your news reading. </p> <p>17. µTorrent. A bittorrent client. There are many, but this one seems to support the most features.</p> <p>18. Google Earth. Google make a lot of great software in addition to their search engine - their desktop search is very handy, and Chrome is also a neat browser - but if I had to pick one thing that they do, it would be this satellite-image based mapping software. </p> <p>19. Skype. Not exactly free if you want to make calls to landlines, but PC to PC is free, plus it's a good chat client. I actually do use it for calls overseas as its so cheap - and the call quality seems to be improving.</p> <p>20. mp3tag. Very useful if you have a collection of mp3 audio files that you are struggling to keep in order. </p> <p>21. CD art display. An add-on for winamp that will show the cover art of the CD you are now playing if you have it saved on your computer, or will search for it if you don't. </p> <p>22. AT Notes. Now no longer in development, but a nice free yellow sticky notes application nevertheless.</p> <p>23. Winkey. Ditto - was made by Copernic, and makes the Windows key on your keyboard actually useful (I set Winkey + X for my file manager ['explorer'], Winkey + W for Word, etc.]</p> <p>24. TClockX. Again, maybe now a bit hard to find, but a very good clock extension with popup calendar for WinXp. Works best if you use the Win98 style gui, which I do. </p> <p>25. FLV player. For viewing flash videos downloaded from the web and stored locally on your PC.</p> <p>26. Daemon tools. The best emulator for CD and DVD rom drives; allows you to mount images and for your computer to think you've inserted physical media.</p> <p>27. Teracopy. A far superior tool for file copying to the one built in to Windows.</p> <p>28. Unlocker. For when Windows explorer won't let go even when you've told it to.</p> <p>29. Quick SFV. A tool for verifying the integrity of downloaded files that include an .sfv file.</p> <p>30. CD Display. Not to be confused with CD art display. This is for reading comic books (in .cbz or .cbr format) on your PC.</p> <p>31. Secunia PSI. A 'personal software inspector' that makes sure all your applications are up to date and gives you download links to any needed updates. A very handy security tool that forms an essential complete to Windows/Microsoft updates.</p> <p>Now go and try some of them out. You might only be interested in a few of them but they are all good! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/18/30-great-free-windows-tools-5241975/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/18/30-great-free-windows-tools-5241975/Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:53:41 +0100 <p>I can't take any credit for the following: it was forwarded to me by a colleague at work. But I thought it was so good that I just had to post it and give it more permanent form.</p> <p>"The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term.</p> <p>The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:</p> <p>Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?</p> <p>Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.</p> <p>One student, however, wrote the following:</p> <p>First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.</p> <p>As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.</p> <p>With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.</p> <p>This gives two possibilities:</p> <p> 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.</p> <p> 2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.</p> <p> So which is it?</p> <p> If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.</p> <p>The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."</p> <p>THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY 'A'" </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/17/hell-explained-5235457/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/12/17/hell-explained-5235457/Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:05:25 +0100 <p>Finally the Americans did the right thing. Obama may not be able to do very much when he gets into power - he may even be more protectionist than Bush was, thanks to the economic crisis that has now overtaken us - but at least his election is a symbolic repudiation of the last eight disastrous years, and a sign that America is finally beginning to put the legacy of slavery behind it. Beginning, because one president with a mixed ethnic background doesn't meant that racism is suddenly abolished. </p> <p>Nevertheless, even in my lifetime, his election would have been unthinkable - even though he may not be simply 'black' (if there is such a thing, which reflection leads one to doubt) he certainly doesn't look 'white', and in the 1970s the declaration that thirty years later someone of his appearance would be in the Oval Office would have produced responses on a scale that ran from incredulity to hysteria. A lot has changed in just a generation. </p> <p>And who knows, he may be able at least to repair the disastrous foreign policy of the Bush administration, even if he can't fix the health system in the US. He is certainly a very impressive speaker. Watching his victory speech was a reminder of the enduring power of political oratory, but he was in no way triumphalist, nor was he behaving like a rabble rouser. Indeed, he was remarkably measured and gracious, and did his best to prepare his supporters for the tough times that undeniably lie ahead. So, well done, and fingers crossed. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/11/15/bye-bye-george-5038248/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/11/15/bye-bye-george-5038248/Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:06:21 +0100 <p>The idea that the account given of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis is literally true can only be embraced by the genuinely ignorant or by those who have auto-lobotomised themselves. If one insists on taking seriously the theological problem raised by interpreting Genesis in a modern context, finding a respectable solution is not hard. </p> <p>Bearing in mind that for many centuries Christian biblical interpretation began from the position that the meaning of the Bible was allegorical and not literal, it is easy enough simply to claim that the account in which God made the world in six days was never intended to be taken at face value; it is simply a poetic manner of expressing the literally incomprehensible power of the Almightly. </p> <p>For those who prefer a more 'scientific' approach, one can argue (in a way that is in no sense incompatible with the first view) that modern cosmology and evolutionary theory have only increased our appreciation of the majesty of creation with respect to its subtlety and complexity. Our mathematics, physics, and biology bring us closer to the 'mind of God' and should humble us in proportion as they do so. </p> <p>There is no need, in other words, for there to be any conflict whatsoever between science and religion if the nature of both is correctly appreciated. What is pathetic, hilarious, tragic, and dangerous all at once is the effort to pretend that they represent mutually exclusive alternatives. It is pathetic, because it involves a refusal to engage with the evidence; hilarious, because of the weakness of the reasons put forward in its defence; tragic, because it will always suffer defeat in a serious intellectual contest; and dangerous, because it holds out the possibility that serious intellectual contests may be eradicated. </p> <p>Of course, militant atheists also make this mistake; Richards Dawkins is a example here. Even if one does not believe in the truth of religion, one should nevertheless judge it not only by its content but its effects; if it helps people lead lives that are more subjectively meaningful for them, and provides them with a positive and constructive outlet for their energies in the world, then well and good. </p> <p>In other words, one can accept that the assertions may be literal nonsense and still see some value in the practice itself. One may certainly regard the majority of such individuals as trapped at the level of picture-thinking, but on pragmatic grounds one might as well also leave them be - it is rather mean to disturb them when they do no harm and may even do some good as a result of their beliefs.</p> <p>But for the creationist, the preservation of subjective meaning within its own sphere is insufficient. They will insist that if there is an apparent conflict between the Bible and the results of scientific inquiry, the former must prevail. Again, this presents a challenge for liberalism, because there is generally no persuading such people of their errors, theological or scientific. It does not matter to them that they are in defiance of all the known findings of cosmology regarding the age of the universe, or that all the ever-increasing fossil evidence in favour of the evolutionary hypothesis counts against them, or that all we know about genetic transmission and the structure of DNA shows their claims to be literally false. </p> <p>Creationists are not, in other words, analogous to Eritrean tribespeople persisting in immemorial customs; this form of irrationality is actually distinctively modern and Western. It is wilful; it cannot be excused by inherited purity taboos that have come down to them from time immemorial. It is a much more recent development. Unfortunately, in dealing with them, Western governments have not taken the sensible position adopted by the Eritrean government in addressing their own peasants; instead, they have sought to propitiate them. Admittedly, we are faced here with a mutilation of the mind, not of the body; but it is a mutilation nonetheless, a deliberate and self-inflicted wound to the reason. </p> <p>Apparently Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-Presidential candidate, is on record as believing in the literal truth of creationism. If so, this is yet further evidence of intellectual corruption at the highest levels of American politics and society. Not, it must be said, that any was needed after the cretinous and mendacious tenure of George Bush, who by any account must be the worst American President ever to hold the office. One can only hope that the Americans, who currently suffer more than any other Western society from this insidious sickness at odds with both true piety and true science, have the internal resources to overcome it. Otherwise we may face a return to the very worst aspects of the medieval era (the desperate and futile Catholic defence of geocentrism is the obvious analogy). Indeed, we potentially face a condition of which many of the best minds in the medieval world (such as Aquinas, whose commitment to rationality and logic was exemplary) would rightly have been ashamed. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/29/creationism-is-for-fools-4797585/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/29/creationism-is-for-fools-4797585/Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:23:13 +0200 <p>The BBC showed a most enlightening documentary the other day on certain tribal practices in Eritrea (formerly part of Ethiopia in Africa). Apparently it is the custom in some rural areas for women to have their labia stitched (I know) so that the entrance to the vagina is far smaller than normal. It is impossible to give birth in this condition, so the stitching must be cut to allow the baby to pass out of the birth canal. Those who perform this procedure are not trained medical professionals, and the instruments used are not sterile. Once a woman has given birth she is restitched in the same manner by the same individuals. </p> <p>Moreover, though the custom of female circumcision has been formally illegal for some time, it still prevails. Once more, though this is a highly dangerous operation to perform on an infant female, it is not carried out with sterile instruments, nor is it done by qualified medics. Those who perform it are apparently frequently elderly and often even incapable of identifying the correct part of the anatomy with any accuracy. It goes without saying that there is a considerable risk of mortality to the baby due to shock, blood loss, subsequent infection, or some combination of these.</p> <p>One must ask why it is that these practices of stitching and circumcision survive. Their origins are unknown even to those who keep them, so though one might intuit that they result from a male fear of female sexuality and an effort to exert control over it, this remains psychological speculation. Essentially, they seem to take the form of purity taboos, and significantly, it is the women themselves who are most closely wedded, if that is the right word, to them. They are worried, for example, that if they do not have their labia restitched after giving birth (with all the associated risk of infection, etc.), they will not be able to buried with the other women of the tribe when they die, or be allowed to associate with them in their daily lives. This fear persists even when they are taken around a medical clinic, offered a birth in a clean environment attended by qualified medical staff, and told of the risks of continuing in their traditional ways. </p> <p>The Eritrean government is working hard, it seems, to persuade them otherwise, and in urban areas these efforts have met with some success. The senior minister interviewed had the intelligence to realise that there was no point in simply berating the rural people for their ignorance, that any change would inevitably be gradual, and that the most successful long-term strategy would likely be based on education and persuasion. The government is holding workshops at which the peasants are effectively made to confront the grounds of their own beliefs, and during which blatantly false claims - such as the belief that the Koran requires female circumcision - can be politely but firmly corrected. It was refreshing to see a government appreciate that minds cannot be changed by force on such matters. </p> <p>Nevertheless, the survival of these customs raises significant issues for liberals who want to respect cultural difference and tolerate the practices of others - as indeed do the remarks of our delightful Saudi judge who wants to kill the owners of cable TV channels (see below). What is the positive benefit of continuing to respect irrational and superstitious beliefs about spiritual pollution when their preservation requires bodily mutilation that all the medical evidence suggests only endangers the lives of pregnant mothers and causes lifelong damage to infant females? Cui bono? To whom is the good? Who could possibly be served by this? To pretend that this is a case where the kind of simplistic cultural relativism of 'I say toma<em>y</em>to, you say toma<em>r</em>to' could possibly apply seems simply to trivialise what is at stake here. It is to the great credit of the Eritrean government, so far as I can see, that it it is doing its best to stamp out practices that are, in the most literal sense of the terms, primitive and worthless. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/29/stitched-up-in-eritrea-4797392/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/29/stitched-up-in-eritrea-4797392/Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:44:28 +0200 <p>A former colleague of mine just did, apparently. I hadn't seen him for several years, and he wasn't a friend, but he was a decent man who when I knew him was to all appearances happily married with three young children. He didn't seem to have more than the ordinary share of misery, in other words. He was also the same age as me, and appointed at the same time. I knew him for seven years, and remember him well. So while I can't pretend I'm devastated by the loss, as we weren't friends, I'm sure that many people are distraught as a result, and it has forced me to reflect. </p> <p>I don't know why he did it, but in a culture like ours, there seem to be only a limited number of possibilities. One doesn't, any longer, kill oneself for honour or out of shame (even in Japan, my impression is that this is now regarded as eccentric). One might, however, do it because one's marriage had broken down, or because one was facing what seemed like insuperable financial difficulties, or because one was terminally ill anyway, or simply, finally, because one was miserable. </p> <p>The only one of these reasons that I can regard as a good one relates to terminal illness, in which case suicide can be a positive expression of a refusal to let nature take its course; it is a final act of self-affirmation (as distinct from mere self-assertion, which suicide always presumably is). In the case of severe depression, there are mitigating circumstances; one might be suffering from some sort of physiological disturbance in one's brain chemistry that entailed a temporary loss of rationality, and take tragic action as a result. I can't regard this as having a good reason, but it equally isn't something one could make someone responsible for.</p> <p>But if suicide is the result of relationship breakdown or financial disaster, I'm afraid I don't approve, not that I'm under any illusion that it makes any difference as to whether I do or I don't. As a couple of rules of thumb, one should never take oneself too seriously or lose one's sense of humour; suicide in these circumstances usually suggests one has committed both errors. The pain of a broken heart can seem unbearable, and money worries can cause enormous stress, but one owes it to others, if not to oneself, to weather the storm. </p> <p>Assuming my colleague didn't do it because his marriage had failed, he has left his wife and three kids exposed to fortune when they were depending on him; and if he did do it for that reason, he has still deprived his children of their father even though he was estranged from his wife. If he did it over money, there is always the option of bankruptcy; and as an intelligent and educated man who was only in his late thirties, there was still time for him to rebuild his finances. These reasons strike me, in the end, as weak and selfish, and my former colleague didn't seem, when I knew him, to be either of these things. I'd prefer to think that he either knew he was dying anyway, or was temporarily insane. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/13/reasons-to-kill-yourself-4720528/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/13/reasons-to-kill-yourself-4720528/Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:14:29 +0200 <p>According to the BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7613575.stm], the most senior judge in Saudi Arabia has said that the shows on cable TV are evil, and that it is OK to kill the owners of the channels if they can't be stopped by other means. Finally, someone with some balls. I reckon we should take out Murdoch first, and then go after whoever owns HBO next (if that's not Rupert as well). I mean, that is some immoral filth. Nice going, Sheiky baby. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/13/sheik-salih-ibn-al-luhaydan-hates-tv-4720508/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/09/13/sheik-salih-ibn-al-luhaydan-hates-tv-4720508/Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:44:09 +0200 <p>I've finished several titles on my PSP now, and am still loving it; don't understand those who say there are no good games for it, there are dozens. OK, it's not like the PC where there are hundreds or even thousands of good titles, but then PSP hasn't been around as long and isn't nearly as ubiquitous. For what it is, there's plenty of decent entertainment. </p> <p>I am currently playing Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles which is a Konami game originally released in the 1980s. And boy is it hard. I am only just over half-way through it and it must have kept me occupied for about a month on my bus ride home from work and at other odd times too (PSP makes number twos so much more productive). </p> <p>The game is very unforgiving. You have to score very highly to earn an extra life; you only start with three and usually don't amass enough points to get another. There's no health regeneration, and health pickups are few and far between in the levels, as well as being hidden. Plus, you can't save wherever you want; there is a quicksave function, but once you reload the game the quicksave is deleted. Dying frequently means being kicked back a long way and losing your progress. </p> <p>I guess, in the days of coin-op, that it was in the interests of companies to make their games so hard, to maximize the amount of cash people fed in. Now that PC and console means we can all play at home (though there is still an arcade gaming sub-culture that's still very much alive), people demand a different approach to game design. But this is a real blast from the past. There I was thinking to myself, oh, it'll be fun to play some old-style platform scroller, but in fact, while it is fun, it's also damn tough. </p> <p>Indeed, Castlevania has to be a candidate for the hardest video game I've ever played, because you have to be more or less perfect throughout. If you make more than a couple of mistakes you might as well just reload the level, because you're not going to make it through. Now that I'm just over half-way I think I'll go on and finish it, but it's as much the challenge as the enjoyment that's driving me on at this point. </p> <p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p> <p>Finally beat the thing! Woo-hoo! Except that after the credits rolled the last level, although unlocked, doesn't register as completed, so I don't have the proof. Still, who needs external validation eh? </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/08/23/life-in-the-old-school-not-skool-4625391/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/08/23/life-in-the-old-school-not-skool-4625391/Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:53:27 +0200 <p>As all my readers know, or would know if I had any readers , I play video games. But I've never really regarded myself as anything more than an average player, and certainly not particularly 'hardcore'. So the following incident bears relating, especially since I've never won anything like this in my adult life before.</p> <p>Down the road from where I live there's an IT mall, and Hewlett Packard were having a promotion which involved a competition. They had a three-screen display set up, and a mini-racing car chassis with motion chassis; a good driving simulator, in other words. Now, bearing in mind that I don't drive, and haven't really played any driving games for a year or so now (never got my steering wheel set up in the current flat, sad to say), I didn't really give myself a hope, but it looked like fun.</p> <p>Actually, I wasn't even really planning to have a go. I encouraged my stepson to go and try it out, and he enjoyed it, but I was rather hungry and the main thing on my mind was getting to the food court upstairs. But my wife persuaded me to jump in and try it, and to my surprise I was only a second or so off the best lap time. If you set the fastest lap, I should add, you won 50% off the price of a colour laser printer, something I'd kind of wanted for a while but thought of as too expensive to really justify it.</p> <p>Seeing my prowess, my spouse suggested we return the next day. Which, after completing all our chores, we duly did. But when we got there, we found the best time was four seconds quicker than yesterdays. So I had to improve by over five seconds now. You had two laps to set the fastest time, and at the end of lap 1 I was only slightly slower. Then, throwing caution to the winds and staying off the brakes altogether, I shaved half a second off the fastest time on my final lap. </p> <p>Only cliche will do here; you could have knocked me down with a feather. My wife was delighted and my stepson well impressed at my gaming prowess. And of course I had to buy the printer after that, so I guess HP got the better of the deal in the end after all. Still, I'll be dining out on that one for a long time. I am clearly far more hardcore than I thought! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/08/23/ultimate-gaming-achievement-4625387/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/08/23/ultimate-gaming-achievement-4625387/Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:41:29 +0200 <p>Apparently George Bush has just told Russia that in the twenty-first century invading a sovereign state is unacceptable. The mind boggles. Does he altogether lack the ability to hear what he's saying? As far as I can see the Russia-Georgia conflict, tragic though it is, is a genuine old-fashioned war over territorial control relating to South Ossetia, and no-one is pretending otherwise. </p> <p>Now, shall we talk about the invasion of a sovereign state called Iraq for a moment? Who invaded them? Oh my, George, was it you? Surely not? And why was that, you say? They had 'weapons of mass destruction'? Er, are you *sure*? Oh well, never mind then. It wasn't the fact that they had lots of oil and you saw an opportunity to enhance your strategic position in the Middle East? No really? Well that's alright after all. I'm clearly deluding myself, and you're not a mendacious hypocritical fool by any means. It must be the world that is wrong, not you. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/08/12/oh-george-4574693/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/08/12/oh-george-4574693/Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:01:28 +0200 <p>So what is this pelvic neutral thing, exactly, and why are we interested in looking for it? Well, it's more of a where. I've had back trouble for far too long and was looking to do something about it when my dear mum, bless her, put me onto Pilates. If you've never heard of it, it's an exercise system, so called because it was developed by a man of that name. </p> <p>The focus is on your abdominal muscles, and most of the exercises are done lying flat on your back. To perform them correctly, your pelvis has to be in the neutral position, i.e. neither tilted forwards nor backwards, and it has to stay in that position as you make the movements. This is co-ordinated with breathing exercises in which you think of trying to put your navel on your spine and keep it there as you breath in and out. </p> <p>I've found that if done properly these exercises are very hard work and really deliver the results. After a month or so of doing about 20-30 minutes a day, my back is much less sore than it was, and my stomach muscles are much stronger. It's all the more impressive because the movements are done slowly and gently; there's no jerking, no force, and you don't do a lot of repetitions - maybe ten in a set, maximum.</p> <p>Plus, it also works well with aikido. You are focussing, in effect, on what martial arts and meditation call the 'centre', and constantly concentrating on that point helps you do the same thing when you're on the mat. Before, I was just treating my centre as a matter of focussing on where my weight was, but now if I try to keep my stomach muscles tightened in the same way as I do when I perform the Pilates exercises, I feel much more stable in techniques and I can maintain my centre the whole way through, at least some of the time. And that's a real breakthrough. </p> <p>This rather begs the question of why no-one in aikido ever explicitly told me to do this, because I'm now convinced that anyone who is any good must be doing it that way in order to generate the power that they do. Or maybe someone did tell me and it just went in one ear and out the other because I didn't understand what they were saying. Either way, now I've found it out for myself I won't forget it in a hurry.</p> <p>But even if you're not interested in anything sporty (and I'm sure this would help with all sport; dancers love Pilates, apparently), Pilates is well worth a go for its own sake. It's great because you don't even have to be fit, and you don't need any equipment, other than maybe a rug or blanket (if you don't have a proper stretching mat). All you have to do is lie there, and even if you can only make tiny movements at first, you'll still be working hard. Highly recommended. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/07/03/finding-pelvic-neutral-4398016/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/07/03/finding-pelvic-neutral-4398016/Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:58:24 +0200 <p>I know I'm not the only one to have commented on this:</p> <p>Members of the Russian Communist party have called for the new Indiana Jones film to be banned in the country because they say it distorts history. St Petersburg Communist Party chief Sergei Malinkovich told the Reuters news agency it was "rubbish". "Why should we agree to that sort of lie and let the West trick our youth?" He said many Russian cinemagoers were teenagers who would be "completely unaware of what happened in 1957", when the film is set. "They will go to the cinema and will be sure that in 1957 we made trouble for the United States and almost started a nuclear war. "It's rubbish... In 1957 the communists did not run with crystal skulls throughout the US."<br> [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7418727.stm]</p> <p>But I still couldn't resist some fun at their expense. I'm just going to pass right over the irony of the Russian Communist party complaining about distortions of history as too huge to treat properly here, and deal with the issue at hand. First, I should point out here that my wife is Russian and I saw this film at the movies with her. She did actually express some unease that the movie caricatured Russians, but I pointed out to her that (i) the movie caricatures everyone, because it is a cartoon after all, not realism and (ii) in the earlier films it is the Germans who are singled out as the cartoon baddies, but since WWII was long over they had to pick on someone else, and given that this was the period of the cold war, the Russians were the obvious choice. </p> <p>I also remarked that as an Englishman, I could have taken offence at the fact that the only English character in the film was a fat, treacherous, double-dealing, dishonourable rat (take a bow, Ray, for a great supporting turn); but since I in no way assumed the film was intended to be a true depiction of our national character, I couldn't really find any grounds to. These observations were sufficient to mollify my spouse, but I'm not sure they would do much to calm the head of the St. Petersburg branch of the CP, whose sense of historical reason appears to have completely abandoned him. </p> <p>How anyone could assume that a film [warning: spoiler ahead] that culminates with a flying saucer lifting off from the South American jungle could be in any way historically representational beats the pants off me. Indy IV was only so-so (Iron Man was much better, well done Robert, you have hit the franchise jackpot there), but it was decent entertainment so long as you didn't treat it as anything more or other than that. Some people, however, clearly got their genres mangled. Earthquakes and cyclones cause inestimable tragedies for humanity, but it's this sort of petty rubbish that could really make me despair of the human spirt - if it weren't so funny. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/06/09/indiana-jones-distorts-history-no-shit-4293264/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/06/09/indiana-jones-distorts-history-no-shit-4293264/Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:47:23 +0200 <p>Time for a another product review. I bought myself a Sony Playstation Portable Slim'n Light , to give the thing its full name (intended to distinguish it from the older larger heavier model that is no longer being sold at retail), for Christmas and I have to say I've been thoroughly enjoying it ever since. It's become a constant companion on the journey to work.</p> <p>What's so great about it? Well, of course there are the games; you can find pretty much every kind of title you'll find on the bigger consoles or the PC, plus some unique games that are only available on the PSP. Daxter (platform action) and Jeanne D'Arc (turn based strategy) are two good examples of PSP-only titles that are great fun for anyone who loves gaming. I finished Jeanne D'Arc and I'm about half-way through Daxter, and I haven't regretted the cash I laid out on either title.</p> <p>But if you're not keen on computer games, that doesn't mean you wouldn't be interested in this particular gadget, because it's also an excellent portable media player. In particular, it's great for video. Admittedly there's the hassle of format conversion which requires a PC (it only supports .mp4 at the moment though that may be about to change; there have been rumours of native divx/avi support for a while), but if you can live with that, then once you've plugged in a decent sized memory card (8 gigs is perfect), you can store films, TV, music videos, or whatever else you want to watch. </p> <p>Transferring files is just a matter of dragging and dropping (in Windows; I have to say I'm not sure about Mac or Linux support, although there's a pretty thriving hacker scene around the PSP so even if it's not officially catered for you'd probably be able to get it going with little difficulty). Once the files are on your PSP, it will do scene search, pause, fast forward, etc.; basically a full featured video player, and the widescreen format is capable of an excellent picture that draws you in so you forget about the small size of the device you're watching on. And of course it supports mp3 as well, so it's also good for audio. The external speakers are poor, but through headphones the sound quality is more than acceptable. Sony have also added support for a number of internet radio stations in a recent update, so you can go online if you have a wi-fi connection available and listen that way instead. It's a shame the wi-fi is only 802.11b - if it were the 54 mb g standard it would be even better, but it's fast enough for streaming audio most of the time.</p> <p>The other good thing is the continued support from Sony, who are regularly updating the system software to add new features. Support for internet telephony via Skype (although you need to buy a headset with a mike separately) was one major recent addition; hopefully there will be some more major changes as the firmware reaches version 4.0, which is due to happen pretty shortly. </p> <p>This isn't a fanboy rant, so I have to say the device isn't perfect. It lacks a built-in camera, and the only available plug-in one is a poor-quality toy rather than a serious camera of the sort that top-end mobile phones are increasingly carrying. I haven't bothered with it. Plus, it lacks a touchscreen or a numeric keypad, so there is no easy way of giving text input, though there again there are rumours that a plug-in mini-keyboard is in the works. </p> <p>Nevertheless, I have to say that as an all-round portable entertainment device, it can't be beaten; there are gadgets on the market that can perform better than the PSP at any given function (apart from games, at any rate), but there's nothing else that I know that can do it all like this one.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/05/03/psp-slim-is-the-win-4124843/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/05/03/psp-slim-is-the-win-4124843/Sat, 03 May 2008 06:34:25 +0200 <p>Liar, liar, pants on fire. As the political economist Joseph Schumpeter once remarked, ‘the first thing man will do for his ideal or his interest is to lie’. Hilary has nicely illustrated the truth of this observation. I had been saying privately to friends that her desire to get herself into the Oval office was so great that she'd do or say anything that she thought would help her get there; her pork pie about running across the airfield tarmac under fire in Bosnia is the proof. </p> <p>The 'I misspoke' thing is ludicrous, embarassing, and, well, shameless. You didn't 'misspeak'; you bloody well made it up, you deceitful woman. One thing that I am quite sure I would never, ever forget would be being shot at; the time and place would be indelibly imprinted on my mind. You can't get "confused" about someone trying to kill you by firing bullets into your flesh. It either happened or it didn't, and you can't get it muddled up with some other time you went to Bosnia (unless perhaps you actually happen to be in the armed forces and therefore do get shot at all the time). </p> <p>Anyhow, this little episode shows the positive side of our ubiquitous media society; it can act as proof of the historical record in a way that exposes dishonest politicians in a very public fashion, and therefore (hopefully) creates an incentive on the part of others not to try the same trick, if only on pragmatic grounds. As for Hilary personally, I hope her candidacy has been seriously damaged by this. Of course you have to be very ambitious to want to be President, but in order to actually do the job properly you have to be other things as well, and I think that in her case she's mostly just very ambitious. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/03/27/hilary-shameless-clinton-3947631/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://itsjustmy.blog.co.uk/2008/03/27/hilary-shameless-clinton-3947631/Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:45:28 +0100