The Economist has pretty much endorsed Barack Obama, which usually means something bad will happen. Heh. I’m for Barack Obama myself, mostly because he is certain he doesn’t have all the answers and will try to find the best compromise among competing solutions. John McCain (well, his backers) and Sarah Palin should not get to the White House because they’re certain they’re right.
Um, thanks for the nomination, but I live in Scotland now. Have been for over two years.
Dear Richard Dawkins,
I enjoyed The God Delusion, although, ironically, you’re a little bit too preachy.
Please stop interfering with developing children’s imaginations by positing the hypothesis that reading fantasy fiction has a negative effect on children.
There are always going to be overly impressionable people — not just kids — who believe exactly what they read in what is clearly marked fiction. If we were to only read fiction that bases itself on (currently) established scientific fact, how in Deity’s name (see what I did there) are we going to be able to think beyond what is possible and innovate in the name of science?
Trying to attack fairy tales and myth (the genres are pretty explicit in that they are not attempting to pass themselves off as fact or history) as anti-science makes you seem like kind of a paranoid nutter. Please stop.
Yours in hope,
Andrea
Actually, I do have a story about children. We were babysitting my cousin’s kids one night in the summer. Neil was getting the older kids ready for bed and I was changing the baby’s nappy, when I heard Neil say, “There’s a naked kid out here!” Then said naked kid — who was wearing only his pyjama top — corrected him, saying, “That’s not naked! This is naked!”, and proceeded to fling his pyjama top off and then run around the hallway.
And here’s another story. Same kid made us pause a cartoon on Sky+ because, he announced, he had to go to the toilet. He then proceeded to report his every (bowel) movement, “I’m not done yet… No, I’m not done yet… Wait… Not done… Almost done… *flush*… Okay I’m done, wait for me to come back!”
Unlike other bloggers who have stories about children or pets with which to entertain the Ingterneck masses, the most exciting thing to happen to us this week is the exhaust falling off the car. It’s a good thing it didn’t happen when I was driving, because I think I would’ve shit myself. Instead, dear old Neil — who is experienced with vehicular issues — took it very calmly indeed.
Of course the weather was also absolutely horrible last night, and when we went back to get the car, Neil had to lie down on the wet ground to completely remove the exhaust, but I guess he was protected from the wind. Then I had to drive the car back without an exhaust or muffler.
I did not know that driving without a muffler would make me feel as though I was going at 80 when I was only going 40. And that it would be so damn loud I think I’ve sustained some hearing damage. But we got the car back home and Neil’s taking it to get a new muffler on the weekend.
And this is why I don’t write much about home life, because nothing. ever. freakin’. happens.
Just heard the new GNR single, Chinese Democracy (the Chinese characters make sense, by the way). Um, it’s okay I guess, which is a vast improvement over what I’d anticipated.
Thank the good Deity someone’s said it on a big weblog: weblogs are so, like, over. It’s not the place for ego-boosting and ad revenue it once was, and for that I am grateful. In the long run, weblogs and weblog networks will not pay if they are written solely for advertising revenue or Google pagerank.
Our broth is pretty much spoiled, so maybe the aspiring cooks will now leave the food preparation to the chefs who are truly dedicated to the kitchen, and how many more ways can I mutilate that saying so that it can only be identified by its DNA?
I say to the fame-seekers: take to Web 3.0, embrace the explosion of multimedia conversations on the Web and leave the tedious task of HTML-based journalling to us, the real navel-gazers.
A discussion that spilled over from late evening to early morning (a sign we’re not exactly the most romantic of couples) was about that young rugby player who allegedly offed himself with the help of a Swiss suicide clinic, Dan James. Neil and I didn’t exactly disagree, but we definitely had slightly different views on whether he should or shouldn’t have done it.
My view is that he had the right to do what he wanted with his body, but he chose an option (assisted suicide) that I would normally view as acceptable for patients who are terminally ill. He was too young and maybe too depressed to realise that he could still do some things with his life (although I would never claim being a quadriplegic is easy). And he most definitely should not have got his parents involved because they are now under scrutiny. Even if charges are never laid against them, they are going to have to live in a community where their neighbours may consider them morally reprehensible.
It’s a toughie, and I am in no way claiming that my opinion is the right one (although Neil will disagree — read into that what you may, HA). But I think issues of life and death really need to be looked at on an individual basis and one size fits all laws with no room to manoeuvre aren’t going to help anyone.
The comments on this post comparing the actors in the new Star Trek movie are priceless. They are aware that the cast from the original series are actors playing roles, right? And it’s cheesy science fiction? Heehee.
*squee*
He had complimentary things to say about my extremely old and spotty copy of Cryptonomicon, although I suspect he really thought it was manky as hell.
St Andrew’s Hospice, a charity in Lanarkshire, is organising a 6K fun run on 30 November (St. Andrew’s Day). According to the signup form, you can run, jog, or walk it.
While I am not Scottish (although I am encouraged to be proud to be Scottish on the form), the hospice does good work. So Neil and I try to donate and be involved when we can.
Does anyone else want to join in? I promise I will jog, although I am seriously out of practice.
Rumour has it that PopCo, first published in the UK by Fourth Estate, did not get the attention it deserved. After the commercial and critical success of The End of Mr. Y, PopCo is being repackaged and rereleased by Canongate (my employer).
The story follows Alice Butler, a young woman (about Scarlett Thomas’ age) who works for PopCo, the world’s third largest toy company (the other two being Mattel and Hasbro). She is at a PopCo retreat when she begins receiving strange coded messages. Her mysterious sender seems to know about her childhood spent solving puzzles, ciphers and codes.
This is a surprise to Alice, as she has kept pretty quiet about her childhood. The novel intersperses her life with her grandparents (her father disappeared when she was nine) and her adult self in the present day. We learn that her grandfather gave her a locket with a strange code engraved on its surface, and asked her to never take it off. We learn that she helped her grandfather in research projects in cryptanalysis, especially in efforts to decode the Voynich manuscript.
Spoilers after the jump.
Horse porn on fake DVD/CDs, anyone?
Well, a non-practising smoker, that is. My mum does decoupage as a hobby, and has been crafting things for charity sales (plus every available smooth surface in her flat).
Mum: I’ve been decoupaging on candles.
Me: How d’you do that? Don’t they burn up when you light the candle?
Mum: You use printed paper serviettes and pick out two layers instead of three, then heat the back of a spoon with a candle flame and press it into the candle and the serviette kind of melts into the candle and it looks super-fab.
(She didn’t really say it like that but I can’t remember the exact technique she described so I’m, er, being creative. My mum would never say super-fab.)
… Some more stuff about where she took a class with my aunt and how they are both into it now…
Mum: The problem is the candle flame is very sooty and it can dirty the candle. I’m trying to find a way of getting a different type of flame that won’t have as much soot.
Me: Try a lighter. Get a Zippo, or a fake Zippo.
Mum: I need something that can stand on its own.
Me: Get a Zippo, you just flip the lid open and light it and it’ll stand on the table or wherever.
Mum: Zippo, so that’s Zed-Aye-Pee—
Me: —Pee-Oh. You might want to buy a cheap plastic lighter first to see if the lighter thing works for you before you buy a Zippo.
Mum: Where do I buy a lighter?
Me: Um, a shop. Any provision shop will sell lighters.
Mum: Oh, I don’t know about these things.
(My mother has never ever smoked in her life.)
Me: You can refill Zippos with lighter fluid as well.
Mum: That’s quite good.
Me: See, eight years of being a smoker has its advantages. (Heeheehee!)
Mum: …
Pope says world financial system ‘built on sand’ and only God’s words are real. He’s also doing an Italian teevee Bible read along. How weird.
In other news, I was having lunch at the Christian Centre (subsidised by Jesus™) the other day and couldn’t help overhearing an elderly vicar / pastor / priest (I dunno if priests wear the dresses and not the clerical collars here) telling his lunch companion, a young Chinese girl, that young people these days were too materialistic, they didn’t believe in anything that couldn’t be scientifically proven, and spirituality was real (or words to that effect).
Um. No, it’s a matter of opinion. You can’t compare spirituality with empirical observations. I think spirituality (not religion) is important to a person’s psychological well-being, but it’s as different from science as Chris Cornell is from Paris Hilton.
I’m quoted in an article about social networking in publishing: Socially acceptable. I accept money for product endorsements, you know. I’m thinking advertisements like the Gillette Mach 3 -> Fusion campaign, but I’ll throw keyboards at people who call weblog posts ‘blogs’.