Just a random note, and also I'm introducing myself to this group
CG xxx
]]>It is easy to be bombarded by the media 7/24 on the other hand it is difficult to sit in a dingy room with half a lightbulb on for company.
Of course that could just be the Sake talking.
]]>I'm about two hours early for posting in this group this evening, but it feels like a somewhat unreal day today. Not only is it a Bank Holiday but I only had one thing scheduled and that seems to have been passively cancelled on me. Still, a good chance to catch up with films stored on PVR which were beginning to grow out of hand.
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CG xxx
]]>I drank it this evening, and mused about how, like so many German tipples it has such a 1970s image in the UK, being the avocado bath-room suite of wines.
I have to admit that I quite enjoyed it.
]]>This should not be a problem for Charles Simonyi, who will get an extra day in orbit for the $35 million he paid for his flight to the International Space Station. The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-13 will however go round again after reconnaissance checks discovered that the official landing site picked for 7 April turned out to be a swamp.
Russian space officials, haven't commented on the exact time and location for landing on the 8th. “The preliminary time of landing is 11:24 Moscow time. The time is not final. The calculations are not over,” said Aleksandr Vorobyev of Roskosmos. I hope that they aren't 3.4% out this time.
To track where the space station is right now click here.
]]>Can anybody think of a way I can work out if my cat actually knows my name? I think she knows hers. There must be some way to test this out.
]]>Vesey is the chairman of the British Free Range Producers' Association, who says that if you want to be kind to hens, you should eat medium, not large or very large, eggs.
Christine Nicol, Professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Bristol, said: “There is no strong published evidence of pain in egg-laying hens but it's not unreasonable to think there may be a mismatch in the size of birds and the eggs they produce. We do often spot bloodstains on large eggs. As a personal decision I would never buy jumbo eggs.”
Mark Williams, head of the British Egg Industry Council, said shoppers mostly opted for large eggs, thinking they offered better value for money. Alan Pearson, spokesman for the British Poultry Veterinary Association, said that there are bigger welfare issues that people have in their minds, such as hens in cages. "The size of an egg rarely causes problems for the bird.”
What all of these people are not discussing is the obvious fact that any method of keeping chickens for laying purposes causes distress. This is not because of the size of the cages, the number of dandylions and insects they get to scratch up in their free range field, or the relative size of egg to oriface. The distress comes from the fact that chickens have been bred to have such very very strong mothering instincts to regularly lay eggs and sit on them. Taking their eggs away every time they lay the things has to be deeply distressing.
Whenever I find myself being talked to in that patronising way that only a preachy, self-righteous vegetarian can have I ask them whether they eat eggs. When they invariably tell me they do, but only free range ones I always remark - 'Ah, so its not a moral choice then.' I am not a hypocrite - I eat eggs. My wife and I have a smallholding where we keep some chickens: they are as free range as it is possible to be if you also want to grow things on the land. But I don't pretend that what I do is kind to chickens, no matter what it says on the box.
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]]>A stranger joins you, and you have to decide whether to give them a peanut or an E. Which is safest?
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Answer:
According to the New Scientist, you should give them the ecstasy.
A much larger percentage of people suffer a fatal acute reaction to peanuts than to MDMA.
]]>http://video.sina.com.cn/news/s/v/2009-02-06/091530409.shtml
]]>As someone who tends to bite my own nails in times of troubles, I wonder how all those nail extension places are doing.
]]>It turns out, the apparently flawless performance by the musicians was just that - a performance. They were only pretending to be playing the music, having in fact recorded the piece two days earlier.
The question arises as to how much else was faked. The oath itself, we know, was fluffed and had to be retaken the next day. The question for conspiracy theorists has been why?
That was actually Obama standing up there, wasn't it?
]]>An auger is used in some rubbish compactors to push the rubbish into a lowered plate at one end for compaction.
To Auger, verb: to drill
In aviation, the term augering in refers to the usual result of an unrecoverable spin (flight), in which the airplane hits the ground rotating like an auger. It typically digs a hole into the ground.
Augur: noun, The derivation of the word augur is uncertain; ancient authors believed that it contained the words avi and gero --Latin for "directing the birds". The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of the birds.
Augury: noun, plural -ries.
1. the art or practice of an augur; divination.
2. the rite or ceremony of an augur.
3. an omen, token, or indication.
Auguration: noun, the practice of augury.
Inauguration: noun: a formal ceremony to mark the beginning of something such as a president's term of office and a ceremony in which the president officially takes the oath of office. Often involving a fly-past.
]]>The kind of boy who wore these eventually went on to study engineering or something similar and probably has done very well for himself, eventually making sure never to wear the kind of clothes which which will single himself out for ridicule. He has taken refuge in large organisations, where he will be accepted, and where safe work, contracted to the government, is the life blood of the company. He is a company man. As he has progressed in his career, he has learned to seek out opportunities for the firm, scaring various administrations into spending money on large and slightly ugly concrete structures in case something frightnening should happen. Safety, the precautionary principle, is the purpose of his being.
His life is surrounded by hard hats, flourescent jackets and moveable roadside barriers to tell people to be very careful and not upset the cosy and important work that is going on. Work for which he should be admired.
But at the back of his mind, no matter how hard he works to make the world a safe and less interesting place, burned deep into his psyche, there is a niggle, a word which terrifies him. A word that causes him to lose all reason, to exagerate all risks, overcome all objections, a word that needs more money spent, more contracts signed, more concrete poured than any other. It is a word he never likes to hear. Flood.
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