Let's get political...

BBC news...

On Tuesday, the second day of a swing through Florida, Mr Obama accused Mr McCain of making "stuff" up in the last weeks of the campaign.

My preferences in the US Presidential Election are irrelevant, but I have to say to Senator Obama that Stuff really does exist... unless of course he was implying that McCain had a bag of ready-mix Stuff and was merely adding the other ingredients (water, egg, etc.) for e.g. some Republican roly-poly.

However, since we are here and thinking internationally, it would seem that a couple of apologies are in order:

To Iceland and Icelanders, for the gratuitous and inappropriate application of "anti-terror" legislation to matters arising from the ubiquitous financial crises. I would just say though, by way of mitigation, please don't take it personally - the UK government does or permits the same sort of thing to be done to its own citizens; whenever some expresses concern that the executive is garnering too much power and it might be used in appropriately we are always reassured that such will never happen.... there will be safeguards... etc. etc. I can only hope that criticising the application of anti-terrorism legislation is not itself a terrorist offence... otherwise it could be no more blogging for 28 days (and the government still wants 42 days' detention without charge, despite, as far as I can tell, neither the police nor the security services supporting the idea!)

To the Chagos Islanders: I was really angry to read of the Law Lords overturning the previous decision that they had a right to return home - mostly because the potential cost was considered as a factor in determining an entitlement whose justice seems to me completely independent of the issues that might entail cost. The only heartening aspect of the report was that it was a 3:2 decision - at least two Law Lords leaned the right way. Good luck in Europe.

Mixed Stuff

(...bake at gas mark 7 for 35 minutes and leave to stand)

Scribble, scribble, scribble...

17th October, 230,000 words (admittedly we've slowed down... only 555 words per day since the last announcement).

Yesterday was a bit of a wipeout on account of Patch Tuesday's various Windows (in my case Vista HP) and other updates (Office etc.) being applied Wednesday night - leading to catastrophic failure of special goodies I've written to add functionality to Word to help me with navigating it...

To be specific, the ActiveX killbits patch not only prevents vulnerable ActiveX controls from being used by Internet Explorer it does so (via the "killbit") by stopping anything from running them... in my case MS Word - the Office XP Web Component I had on a userform simple wasn't there, which also meant the VBA code fell over "Cannot compile module" because the code referenced a now non-existent object.

However, lest you think it has been all work and no play (oh what fun to have to rebuild and restore one's work PC?) maybe I should share the news that traversable intra-universe wormhole mouths can not be charged! Took me a while to work it out (think: Gauss/divergence theorem + lack of horizon = lack of inside/outside distinction for a surface surrounding a wormhole mouth: think of the two types of circles that go around or though the hole in the middle of a torus/doughnut - they don't divide the surface)... but then I found confirmation in a footnote on p1200 of Misner, Thorne, Wheeler's Gravitation, which was nice. Still don't see how they can have mass either, I mean, come on...

Also worth mentioning, just in passing, something that occurred to me over a nice Lamb Madras at Indigo last night (a line of thought prompted by discussion of a recent New Scientist article on why the mind encourages superstition) which is that according to Your's Truly's theory of mind two contrasting styles of meditation (defocussing (e.g Zen ) vs. e.g. focussing (e.g. Tibetan though e.g. chanting)) lead to two different (but of course, the same) states of non-being, which we may summarise as:











If you know what I'm taking about, you know what I mean; if you know what I mean, why aren't you laughing?

We are in a jolly mood, aren't we?

Enlightening Stuff, eh?

Woah! IT

14th August 2008 - 200,000 words
24th September 2008 - 220,000 (the 220,000th was, by the way, "pleas")

33 writing days, 20,000 words = ~606 a day. Not bad.

Still haven't budged from the 86% of the way through the marked up copy - this is all new, extra, but important stuff... the current chapter (Arcturus) is already ~41,000 words (that's almost half an average paperback) on its own, so I suppose I (and eventually you) should be glad that they are not all that long, otherwise IT would be about half-a-million words and I'd probably be 2.5 years away from completion (that's working 11-6, Mon-Fri, every week... we don't do holidays when we're not earning) even if I could maintain the recent furious rate of scribbling - which I doubt I could.

Fortunately though the dénouement of this chapter is approaching... should be all done in another couple of weeks LOL!

Finally, for no reason other than the fact that my fingers are still on the keyboard here's a little bit more about IT, though I shall try to make it sound much duller than it really is ["A real page turner" (to quote my sister)]

It is, almost correctly speaking, an epic in prose poetry, intertwining narrative action, philosophy and mythology (world-spanning astronomical mythology and much, much, more!) in a timeless, placeless world. The questions are: what is it to be human, what is humanity, what are "human rights" (sort of), what is right, what is choice, the role of law, the administration of justice, social organisation, and probably quite a few other things I've already forgotten.

It's a journey - two journeys - traversing the ages of man, tales of love and tragedy, valour and cowardice, illusions and dreams, of seeking and finding and losing.... and so on.

The answers are... in there somewhere. I think. You may have to look for them.

It began a long time ago... soon it will be at and end.

IT. The Book. MY STUFF

Runaware? Runasleep!

6th August 2008. For some reason I was thinking about trying another online trial of Microsoft Office 2007 and found myself here at a site apparently belonging to "Runaware" - except that it looks like Microsoft. It looks good... maybe I should trust it. Ha! I wasn't born yesterday. We shall check the site identity...

Except that "This website does not provide any identity information" according to Firefox, and when I think about downloading I am offered "TestDriveWizard-v1.4.4.exe" from http://a4156g.akamai.net.

So... someone who can't establish who they are thinks that because they have "Microsoft" slapped all over their webpage I am going to allow some random download (from yet another site)? (Yes, I know who akamai are but so what?)

No thanks... but feeling decidedly suspicious, I think... phishy people are sloppy people... let's see what else there is to reassure or raise further doubts.

Checked the "Privacy" link... where I find such beauties as...

Control of Your Personal Information
Except as otherwise described in this statement, personal information you provide on the Site will not be shared outside of Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates without your permission

Insert description of any mechanism available for users to excercise [sic] choices regarding secondary uses of personal information. These include contact preference questions, the inclusion of unsubscribe language in promotional e-mail, etc.

and

Changes to This Privacy Statement
We may occasionally update this privacy statement. When we do, we will also revise the "last updated" date at the top of the privacy statement.

...of course there is no "last updated" date at the top...









and

"Microsoft" may also "collect information about" "the pages that you access while at the Site"

Notice not "pages on this site" that you access, but "pages you access while at the site" - which is carte blanche to go snooping around my browsing. No thank you. I Object - none of your damn business! Keep out of my browser except for the purposes of the "testdrive".

So, like a decent chap, I do send an email to the offered email address in a suitable tone (suitable for dealing with an idiot or a phisher - or both) saying basically...

Insert statement of deep suspicion about data collection and the need to run an executable from a site that does not provide any identity information (and hence cannot be verified) and hence decision to completely ignore the test drive. So, Runaware is an (unsubstantiatable) "Microsoft Vendor" - what does that mean? All very phishy…

Insert statement of intention to publicly humiliate by any means including but not limited to blog, email etc. whoever Runaware may be unless appropriate action taken immediately

And guess what - 6 weeks later absolutely nothing has changed (and there was no reply either)

See? They really are well organised, efficient, professional, caring Microsoft affiliates/providers/whatever after all!

If after 6 weeks you can't correct your mistakes once they have been pointed out for you, you don't deserve to be in business.

And if having incompetence, stupidity, negligence implied is not enough to send you shame-faced to your website, then just wait till either Microsoft notice and choose another partner or your own shareholders take notice and bring a class action suit for the all business you have thrown away.

Mind you, don't know why I bother... look at these shoes, only had them three weeks and already they're falling apart...

Pointless Stuff

A Big Apple

Friday the 22nd August. We notice that the street parking on Revay utca has been taped off - but the tapes don't look terribly official... nonetheless, something is clearly afoot. We wonder what it will be.

Saturday morning it's a bit noisy a bit too early. Music and a strange tinnily nasal Hungarian voice fill the street. Roused unnecessarily early from slumber I take a peek outside and discover that they are making a film. Closer inspection reveals that Revay has become W45th St in New York and in the middle of the street, in front of the stationary yellow cabs, the flatbed truck with a grand piano on the back (how does that fit into the story?), the NYPD police car and behind NYPD barriers a man is dancing to the aforementioned music... in the spray of what is obviously supposed to be a high pressure water leak (but in best Hollywood style is merely a fire-engine powered fountain).

	The pneumatic drill has no hose and the man with the pickaxe is being very careful not to dig up the road - and the dancer really seems to be enjoying himself; it's clearly refreshing in the spray - or it would have been had they been shooting on one of those days when it was 38C here. Today it's a bit chilly and I suspect that there is more acting going on than there might have been.
	But the man with the comic-book hero face just keeps on dancing. I wonder what sort of film it is - obviously some sort of feel-good flick. Except that I doubt he does. In and out of the cold water he goes. Action. Happy dancing. Cut. Cold shivering and a vigorous towelling down and maybe a shudder of relief as he steps into the warmth of the hot-air blower specially provided. Over and over and over again. Art hurts.
	By early evening the poor chap has been done in long shot, tracking shot, and close up from so many angles they finally have whatever they want. What do they want? What is this "feel-good movie" going to be about? The presence of the green-screen and through-the-windshield camera work suggests some gritty dialogue and tense action in and around the police car. Perhaps dancing-man was a water-terrorist who deliberately sabotaged the water supply and was only dancing in celebration at his success and New York's finest have nabbed him at last.
	I'm dying to know what this is all about and grab the big camera and very long lens to take a peek at the shooting script. The grand piano clearly plays a significant role in the story but I am none the wiser.
	At long last I spot another copy of the script on a table about50m away... a tricky shot this but there it is. It's an ad, a Diet Coke ad. I still have no idea what the piano's about, but the rest of it makes sense now. In the sweltering heat (of about 20C) Coke refreshes, although side effects may include St Vitus' dance...

Fermi/GLAST First Light All Sky Map

If you are having trouble finding the images (and the animations that belong with them) that many sites have reproduced they are here.

If there are links buried at the NASA GLAST portal or at Stanford I couldn't find them...

Gamma Rays - Cool Hot (Obscure) Stuff

A Man, A Plan, A Camera

Yes, it's time for an update on that serious event on the Budapest calendar... Sziget!

This year I shall be mostly not going to Sziget (if it's not already over it will be shortly) - at least compared to other years when Sziget was a week-long festival: this year it is only 5 days and we only went for two... but it was 14 hours the first day and ~11 hours the second. We get our money's worth!

So, off we go... first the natty sunglasses courtesy of Iguana...














Then a nod to the strong European influence everywhere these days... the "European Urban Art Centre..."




















But, what I really came for was the music. Thank you Dylan for observing - indirectly - that I have the musical tastes of a paleontologist as the bands I wanted to see - the Sex Pistols and R.E.M. - were "dinosaurs".

A well preserved fossil is shown below, a specimen of Rottenus Johannii, if I am not mistaken

Way back when Mr Rotten was vociferous in his belief that there was "No future" - 30 years on the failure of his initial prediction does not deter him from its endless repetition. Is it perhaps post-ironic nihilism - with a twist? Are we still vacant? Did god only save The Queen because the Pistols asked him to? We shall never know. It's been a fun 30 years... punk, war, new romantic, war, retro, war, other stuff, and more war. And through it all, Johnny Rotten - a veritable icon of stability and the establishment.














And then, a propos of nothing much, there is the strange, but so typically French attitude to dogs to report... "If your dog is lost..." it says beneath the "Found-again Dogs" headline [Query: if "lost and found" is "objets trouves", why do dogs get to be retrouve'd? eh?]

But that's a side issue. Note the phrasing beneath the headline. Not, you notice, "If you have lost your dog" but if your dog "is lost"... as in "temporarily uncertain of position" to use the aviator's euphemism, or bewildered by the absurdity of a world in which people stand on sticks (see below) instead of fetching them. If either of these apply to your dog - or other companion animal - I suggest you buy it a satnav and/or discourage it from reading Sartre and Camus.

This next snap sequence began with "Does the moon look odd to you...?" (and went on, obviously, to "Ooh! Look! Something is eating the moon! Maybe Ragnarok is coming!"


But it's not all linguistic and astronomical fun here at Sziget; when walking on the ground is just too easy why not stick yourself three feet above the ground (~1m). Takes some getting used to but there is more than a little satisfaction in this generally pointless exercise... it's just fun! Must think about a unicycle sometime.

But now, back to the music...

The REM main-event on the main stage - enhanced by the coincidental partial eclipse of the moon - was somewhat diminished for me by the cold. Friday it had been scorchingly hot (38C) and so on Saturday (despite 60% chance of rain... which never materialised) I went again in shorts and short-sleeved shirt in expectation of hot-wet and occasional sheltering in marquees and other beer dispensing locations; as it happened it was cold-dry, and by 22:30 my teeth were chattering.

Still, got to sing "Losing my religion" with 20-30 thousand others.












We did branch out into other musical genres. Apocalyptica is a fine upstanding Finnish, er, band of some description - three long-haired, Finnish rock-gods playing cover versions of Metallica (and Grieg) on cellos. Damn good actually - go and see them if you get a chance. And then Punish Yourself a fine upstanding French group with bare-breasted fire dancer cum angle-grinder workbench. Then there was Mass Hysteria - also French (Ah! Que les francais adorent Le Rock!) - with lots of energy and a willingess to take on all comers... Bush, Sarkozy, the EU etc. etc. etc.











What else?

Oh yes - bungee-cord ballet courtesy of a rather spectacular show called Carillon 3. It begins with a bungee-monolith...













Dancers arrive dangling from the large crane I had noticed parked suspiciously nearby and then proceeded to do all sorts of contortions on, in and around the monolith...
























occasionally with umbrellas.




















And that as they say, is nearly all there is to say apart from the fun to be had on the rock-your-own-boat thingie (no pics yet)... the Vietnamese water-puppet-theatre... the outsize table & charis and crib (thanks to the anonymous Frenchman for the show...), hats (of course), and last, but not least, the kinetic sculptures near the Luminarium (which we've seen before so didn't bother to endure the enormous queue for this year - but if you get a chance, go see it...)