Feb 23 The world's greatest cartoonist, Chuck Jones, passes away of heart failure. Meep meep.
Link-o-rama The sexuality class that turned into an orgy. I never knew Vic was a college lecturer...
Turning number into art.
Saudi kids run wild through boredom (NYT, registration, paid link in time?)
Play Uno on your computer.
The site the Texas Republicans want to shut down. (See also last year's holder.
A blog about mozilla
Tellywatch The Frank Sinatra Story Charting his career up to the Hollywood years, but in such a slow and plodding way, it's hardly worth watching. (Performance)
People In The News: Bono New profile of the U2 singer, concentrating as much on his current success and political career as his role as a rock star. (CNN)
Stacey Stone Funky little show, notionally about a school paper's agony aunt, but really that's just a hook to hang an Incredible Stories drama. Strong references back to CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, where the titular character wanted to become ... a journalist. (CBBC)
Sport There's yet another loud bleating match about the judging in the ice skating at the Olympics. Last week, a Canadian pair got a second gold alongside some Russian duo. This week, the Ruskies are moaning because a US chick beat their lass. The whole problem is that ice skating is totally judged, without any transparent objective criteria at all. What can we do to add some objectivity? Look to the curlers. Let them curl their stones at the gallivanting gazelles, and see if anyone can still land a double axel. Either that, or cast ice dance and figure skating out of the Olympics. Along with such other artistic endeavours as the half pipe, aerials, gymnastics, and diving.
Feb 22 Tony Blair delivers a short speech to The Party activists in Perth. He advocates "invest and reform." "The alternative, paying for your schools or health, the Tory way, is not just unfair, keeping opportunity to the privileged few," declaimed the World President in a sentence notable for the absence of verbs. It's also noticeable for being a Blatant Fib, as The Party's reforms all seem to revolve around the taxpayer shelling out huge sums to big business, rather than individuals making a choice that's good for them.
El Presidente confirmed he's out of touch with the real world with his hopelessly idealistic declaration: "I'm in no doubt that the basic principle is as right for today as it was for the 1940s. The NHS is not wrong in principle." Communist ideologies have been comprehensively rejected throughout the civilised world. Why should Britain's health care be any different?
Feb 21 Late night watching the curling. It all comes down to the final stone...
Buffy 6.08 - really, really funny, with old lines of dialogue turning up for no adequately explored reason. Except it is.
Friends 8.07 - whose flat is it anyway? Should Ross encourage Rachel to move in his building? Or will the current living arrangements suffice?
The Tourist Visits... Tucson Aussie bloke takes camera around the 8th worst city for bad hair days. He's right in one thing, though: it *is* insanely sunny there.
Quotable
byron: trading equity and index options like I used to. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but dammit, I'm trained at it so why not? Besides, the current market conditions favor options (properly done) over straight equities. Angela: I know that was written in English but I have no idea what any of it meant... weaver: Well, it's all very simple. byron reckons that hedge-options are preferable to forward equities, even negatively traded forward equities and positively traded backwards open inequalities. Clearly the prevailing staggish sentiment would be advantageous for chartable cashflow liquidity gearings, allowing the incautious investor to speculate to accumulate and gain positive cashflow eventualities. (Re-reads the above) Nope, got me there. Look, I only watch CNBC for week-old repeats of Leno and O'Brien. And the funky music they play during the "Hot Boreds".
Feb 20 Good day at the Olympics. British woman wins bronze for sliding down a hill on a tea tray. This overshadows the Irishman who finished fourth in the same event. Sliding down a hill on a tea tray. Madness. Don't try this at home, kids.
Then cut to the curling, where the GB ladies came through yesterday to beat Sweden and Germany in a play-off. The dubious reward is a match against #1 seeds Canada. It all comes down to the final end... then who is more accurate with the final two stones. Canada makes the inside edge of the outer ring, but GB lands in the middle ring, wins the point and the game. A silver is guaranteed. This after three must-win games. Hurrah!
File: Blatantly Obvious A train operating company has been told it cannot claim to operate an "efficient" service in its advertising. The advertising standards authority has banned a recruitment ad in which Arriva Trains Northern said it "provided efficient passenger rail services across the North of England". Next: ASA censures MI5 for calling itself "military intelligence", and tells Charles de Gaulle airport to rename itself Overgrown hole in the ground near Paris. Campaign for Virgin Grilled Cheese by Britney Spears allowed to run, though Virgin Trains ads with Jim Davidson ruled offside.
File: Pointless Link http://www.waferbaby.com/hummer/teenlog/. Does exactly what it says on the URL. [mefi]
File: Worst Week Of The Week Award (Awarded Weekly On A Week By Week Basis) This is a transcript of the most bizarre email conversation. The names have been changed for obvious reasons.
From: Clueless
Sent: 20 February 2002 09:21
To: [a huge bunch of people, including all our regional offices]
Subject: Remove [address deleted] from your records
Remove [address deleted] from your records
Ye Shall Have Honest Weights and Measures and Respect Limits!
It's Your Responsibility - C'est Votre Responsabilite - Es ist Deine Verantwortung - Es Su Responsabilidad
HOW THE SWISS BANKS RAPE/CORRUPT/ENSLAVE THE WORLD
[15K tedious spam snipped]
From: Weaver
To: Clueless
Sent: 20/02/2002 11:55:42
Dear Clueless,
A number of emails have been sent from your address to our regional offices today containing the message below.
Could you please explain what connection you believe our organisation has with the content of the email, and how you obtained these addresses.
From: Clueless
To: Weaver
Sent: Wed February 20, 2002 12:08
Sorry for sending this to you, but I am also trying to get off the list!! The only way I can think of is to return the message to all recipients!!
Apologies.
Clueless
From: Weaver
To: Clueless
Sent: Wed February 20, 2002 12:09
Dear Clueless,
Thanks for the response.
I think it might be best for you to discuss this matter with your network administrators. Responding to all recipients will only ever annoy other people further, and won't get the message back to the original senders.
Quite what the spammers were doing sending the message to a mass TO field is beyond me.
Feb 19 A "quick" re-write of the CSS behind this page turns into the best part of a full hour hacking at it. Slowly the design improves. For the technically minded, the graphics at the top and the left are now part of the background, not the foreground. There's a funky effect in Mozilla builds, one that those of you using IE won't see. I'm not going to spoil it...
File: Confusing "Earth observers are probably no more than 20 years away from identifying distant planets on which life exists,"said Dr Roger Angel of the University of Arizona in Texas in Boston, Massachusetts.
A memo comes around asking if anyone wants some secure shredding done. This conjures up an image of men in dark uniforms and sunglasses, muttering into their walkie-talkies to ensure that some slips of paper don't slip from the pile. What is secure shredding? Would insecure shredding be when someone reads all the documents aloud before casually ripping a corner off and posting them to Benji the Bin Hunter? We should be told.
Another winning line from our all-singing all-dancing all-most useless Personnel Ossifer. She's decided to convert the kitchen to an office, and install vending machines. One of the machines is to be installed slap bang next to the colour printer. This is a machine that jams often, and requires that we keep its width clear on both sides to take bits out. Sadly, our PO has neglected to consult with the machine's owners and decreed that the vending machine Shall Go There, without regard for clearance. This will be a disaster.
Feb 18 The #3 decides that she *can't* have me do her much vaunted database for a week, and asks our contractor guy to quote. I reckon she'll jump if he can quote less than twice my salary. No skin off my nose, I'll just have to learn to do these things some other time.
File: Bizarre Ever noticed that the good guys on 24 use one sort of computer, and the baddies another? Well, no, but that's because the BBC won't pick the show up till next month. Wired has. [tvbarn]
The A-Z of Britney Spears. Z is for zits, caused by her addiction to grilled cheese. Result!
Feb 16 Back at the parents for the weekend. Mother is directly asking if I've lost weight. I *so* don't need to hear this. I could have stayed home, stayed happy; instead, back to the frying pan and burned again.
Into Wolverhampton, where there are choices for lampshades. The ones I've got at the moment aren't compatible with low-energy light bulbs, and will Have To Go. Replaced by semi-transparent cubes that are open at the bottom. No danger of not being able to fit the dangly bulb there.
Also pick up discounted copies of Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years and Stark / Gridlock. Trashy but good.