electricinca.com

My dog Caleb chewing a stick.

Labels: My life

I've never been to Crouch End but I can say for sure that it doesn't look anything the hell like it is depicted in the television adaptation of the Stephen King story of the same name.

It was a decent enough Lovecraftian horror story but the location made it nigh on unwatchable as it was so obviously an American town with a few added details like a red phone box (can't recall the last time I saw one of those outside of a US movie or television show lamely trying to make somewhere look like Britain).

For a better view of the real Crouch End I'd recommend watching Shaun of the Dead, a great movie and apparently it was filmed in Crouch End. Alternatively you could go on a virtual tour of Crouch End with views from the base of the real clock tower there.

Labels: TV

I think I want to be like ZenArcher when I grow up, saying that I probably don't have a choice the way I'm going I almost certainly will end up like him.

He sits half naked pontificating about stuff and he makes a lot of sense like when he talks about YouTube and users free speech.


I like women most of the time too.

Labels: YouTube

Blimey what some BBC reporters are willing to put themselves through for the edification of their viewers. I'm glad to see that my licence fee is being spent on stuff like this, no really I am. Found via.

Labels: YouTube

I'm quite sorry to learn that I missed out on World Jump Day which was yesterday July 20th.

It seems that they managed to get the required 600 million jumpers with several hundred thousand to spare, quite an achievement given that the last time I looked they were still a few hundred million shy of that figure.

Labels: humour

This is a damn good parody. I hope they make further episodes.

Labels: humour, YouTube

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - COMPLY

It's one of my favourite webcomics and even better it's Creative Commons licensed.



Permalink for the above comic page is http://xkcd.com/c128.html

Edit: The latest one is quite appropriate given the current heatwave in Britain.

Labels: comics, humour

A sick but very funny response by the guys at the linkbunnies.org blog to the news that a Dutch court has turned down a request to ban a Paedophile Political Party.

Labels: humour

The lead item on today's Channel 4 lunchtime news was that the in the case of the mistaken shooting of the Brazilian born electrician Jean Carles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube Station no individual officers of the Metropolitan Police would be prosecuted.

Instead the Office of the Commissioner of Police is to be prosecuted under Health and Safety legislation and therefore will at most receive a fine.

The Criminal Prosecution Service believe that there is not sufficient evidence to give a realistic prospect of conviction of any individual if they were to be prosecuted.

But from my perspective the officers involved do not seem to have followed the guidelines drawn up for Operation Kratos.

"The guidance states that in extreme circumstances an armed officer can shoot a suspect in the head if the intelligence suggests that he is a suicide bomber who poses an imminent danger to the public or police. This is to avoid setting off any explosives that might be attached to his body. Five shots are deemed necessary to render a terrorist incapable of detonating his bomb."

Imminent danger is the key they cannot shoot someone they simply suspect is a suicide bomber. They must believe that individual is actually in the process of setting off a bomb.

Maybe it is a judgement call but clearly they judged wrong and the witness statements would seem to indicate there was nothing unusual about the behaviour of Jean Charles de Menezes prior to his being shot in the head.

Also this from the Channel 4 news site. http://www.channel4.com/news/content/news-storypage.jsp?id=615040

He was only intercepted when he was actually sat on the train, when he was suddenly grabbed from behind, had his arms pinned to his side and was shot seven times in the head at point blank range, according to reports.

The purpose of the shooting to the head under the guidelines of Operation Kratos is to render a terrorist incapable of detonating his bomb. Would not the grabbing and pinning of his arms be sufficient in this case?

I saw Thank You For Smoking yesterday.

A satirical comedy on the machinations of the tobacco industry it stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor a spin doctor and spokesman for the The Academy of Tobacco Studies.

Aaron Eckhart's character is brilliant he almost had me convinced that I should buy a pack of cigarettes when I left the cinema.

The great state of Vermont will not apologise for its cheese!

Brilliantly black comedy. I love the way that you never actually see anyone smoke in the movie as well.

I also watched Russian Ark yesterday, well about half of it. Jeez that's a fucking boring piece of pretentious bollocks. I think my major problem with it was the character of the French diplomat, he was incredibly annoying and sapped any enjoyment I may have had.

Labels: cinema, movies

There has been much condemnation of an Italian magazine's publishing of a photograph of a dying Princess Diana amongst the wreckage of the car crash that killed her.

Including The Sun who have published a picture with Diana blanked out of it. The Sun describes it as

a devastating blow to Princes William and Harry

This is the same Sun that saw no problem in putting on their front page a few days before the story of a cameraman's quickie with Diana which is surely as devastating to Princes William and Harry.

I cannot see how this photo is in any different to the many other photos we've seen published in recent days of the dead and injured in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip or Iraq. I have no interest in seeing it myself and can see no reason why it is in the public interest for it to be published now several years after the event.

There's no reason to publish other than purely financial and I suspect many of the people who are appalled and outraged are the same people who'd buy the magazine or a newspaper that published the photo.

Labels: tabloid

It really was a golden age that era when US army manuals could be uncompromisingly racist all in the name of killing the right kind of oriental.

Labels: humour

According to BBC News the Home Secretary John Reid has announced that Britain is to get a Terror Threat Level system similar to that used in the US published by the Department of Homeland Security.

A new warning system is to alert the public to the threat of attacks by al-Qaeda and other terror groups.

From 1 August, details of current threat levels will be published on the websites of the Home Office and MI5, Home Secretary John Reid announced.

Great! Just what we really need, yet another channel for the government to terrify the public with.

Any alert system is useless unless those people that are being alerted have corresponding duties or actions to perform upon receiving such an alert for example on a warship. A threat level indicator for the general public can therefore have no value as there is no corresponding action that the public can perform.

Labels: Security, Terrorism

The head of Zinedine Zidane could have brought a sense of triumph to France in the final of the World Cup yesterday instead it brought a sense of disbelief and despair.

It could have been the perfect finish to the career of the greatest European footballer of his generation and after France had taken the lead from Zidane's penalty it looked as if it would hold true.

But Italy's Materazzi soon equalised and the two teams were deadlocked and neither seemed likely to score until the perfect chance fell to the head of Zidane but a heroic save by the Italian goalkeeper Buffon denied him.

Then in the second period of extra time came incident that will be forever remembered as the defining moment of this World Cup, Zidane seemed to lose his head and headbutted Materazzi in the chest, which after the intervention of the fourth offical caused the French captain to be sent off.

Who can say whether losing their talismanic leader cost France the match? I don't think it's true, the Italian penalty takers were flawless and France seemed fairly composed and unaffected, so I think it just simply came down to the awful nature that is the lottery of the penalty shootout.

Interestingly Zidane will be the only French player to leave the tournament with a trophy. He was awarded the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament, an award that was voted on by the press during halftime of the final. It's likely that had the voting taken place after the match then he probably would not have won this award.

Labels: Sport

Sunday Times - ID cards doomed, say officials

TONY BLAIR’S flagship identity cards scheme is set to fail and may not be introduced for a generation, according to leaked Whitehall e-mails from the senior officials responsible for the multi-billion-pound project.

The problems are so serious that ministers have been forced to draw up plans for a scaled-down “face-saving” version to meet their pledge of phasing in the cards from 2008.

However, civil servants say there is no evidence that even this compromise is “remotely feasible” and accuse ministers of “ignoring reality” by pressing ahead.

The government seems to want to push through their Identity Card scheme through by any means possible even if it means by way of a much reduced version. They will probably phase it in through the backdoor by way of renewals of passports and ease back on the introduction of ID cards for non-passport holders.

Give this it might be wise for people to renew their passports now even if they have many years before they expire. Renew for freedom from the Identity Register.

Labels: ID Cards, politics

Excellent bloody excellent.

Labels: humour, YouTube

The Queen of Punk Vivienne Westwood has apparently been awarded a damehood by the Queen of England.

Not really news but it was news to me and I only found out because the fashion designer was appearing on the BBC's Sunday AM programme to talk about the British human rights and civil liberties organisation Liberty.

It does seem odd to me that a prime exponent of the punk movement should accept such an award from the Queen. It's not even justifiable in the same way that many people who are considered republicans have accepted similar awards saying that although the award comes from the monarch it is effectively being awarded by the state. Surely as a punk Westwood would be opposed to the Establishment which includes both the monarch and state.

But then she has been to the palace previously to accept her OBE back in 1992 and caused a bit of a stir by not wearing knickers. Is it possible to be an anti-establishment member of the establishment? I think Dame Vivienne Westwood might just be able to pull that paradox off.

Edit: According to the Yahoo News Italia she was made a Dame by the Prince of Wales, oddly it seems to be the only news source that mentions the Prince of Wales other than The Daily Mail and there is no way that I'm linking to that fucking publication especially as they seem obsessed with her lack of knickers.

Labels: cool

Famous Party Trick

David Blaine wins for some Hotties

Coins

Labels: cool

Kyle MacDonald has succeeded in his quest to exchnage via a series of trades one red paperclip for a house. [via]

It's "official." I'm going to trade one movie role for one house with the town of Kipling Saskatchewan. But nothing's official until Dom and I go to Kipling and shake hands with the Mayor. Dom and I will be in Kipling on Wednesday July 12th to shake hands with the mayor of Kipling, Pat Jackson, and Bert Roach, Kipling's community development officer...and probably a whole bunch of other people as well. Then it'll be official - without the quotation marks. (Funny enough, I actually held my hands over my head and did those "quotation mark" thingy's when I typed out the word "official" the first time. Please don't ask me how I managed to type the word "official" with my hands over my head. Unlike trading one red paperclip for a house, I still have no idea how I did it.) Anyhow, this is gonna be so much fun. We're going to seal the deal on July 12th - exactly one year to the day I put a picture of one red paperclip on this site.

One of those crazy schemes that the power of the internet enables to become a reality. Even more remarkable is that he has done it in a single year mostly due to the fact that his last two trades have been amazingly fortuitous.

The town of Kipling will give him the house in exchange for a role in the latest Corbin Bernsen movie. There must be some smart cookies on that town council because they are actually getting a great deal in their exchange as they are determined to market this phenomenon to the full extent and the whole town seems to have embraced the idea. They are even going to have an annual Red Paperclip holiday.

Labels: cool

BBC News:
Whitehall fights ID costs demand

The government is battling to ensure that estimates of the benefits and risks of identity cards remain secret.

The freedom of information watchdog ordered the Department of Work and Pensions to publish its findings about how the cards could fight ID fraud.

Now the department has decided to appeal against the information commissioner's ruling.

What have they got to hide?

How can we have faith in a government that refuses to be open and transparent about one of the most significant changes to happen to this country's citizens in centuries?

Labels: ID Cards

From a children's classic that I loved as a child to a classic piece of literature and one of my favourite novels as an adult The Count of Monte Cristo.

Jay Pinkerton has reimagined the tale of a man wronged who then takes his revenge into a tale of delicious black humour in his Classics Desecrated online comic series.

Labels: humour

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was one of my favourite books as a young child if not my very favourite.

I readily identified with Max and his wolf costume, and the wild things themselves were fascinating and a little scary.

"And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws".

I've discovered that this children's classic is to be made into a motion picture and will be directed by Spike Jonze. Perfect.

Labels: books

Teen burns down house over test grades

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test.

The 16-year-old, whose name has not been released, is thought to have set fire to the house in Nara, western Japan, and left his stepmother to die along with his 7-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister, domestic media reports said on Saturday.

The boy's parents had been due to attend a meeting with teachers about his exam results that same day, reports said. The teen-ager told police his father, a doctor, had put him under extreme pressure over his academic performance, Kyodo news agency said.

Mark my words this will be Britain in less than a decade from now.

The pressure to succeed in school and pass tests is ever increasing now that league tables of test results is the be all and end all of the British education system.

The bane of the England football team in major tournaments the penalty shootout did for us yet again and we lost to Portugal. Was the loss of Rooney who got sent off for what seemed a quite vicious stamp on an opponents groin the deciding factor in the match?

Who can really say but I'm sure it will be much discussed in the days to come. Down to ten men England upped their performance and held Portugal at bay and though the real chances were few both teams looked like they could score. But it was not to be and the Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo repeated his performance from two years agao and made the crucial saves in the penalty shootout.

I hope Portugal go on to win as it is slightly less crushing in retrospect to go out to the eventual winners but I think that the winner might just prove to be the resurgent force that is France.

A great match, much better than the England-Portugal one, saw the favourites Brazil put out by a French team that most people thought were over the hill. Perhaps they have secretly discovered the fountain of youth because they were back to their best form in their previous match against Spain after spending years in a state of relative mediocrity and they kept that form up here against Brazil.

It's not as if they have replaced their aging stars with new young talent like Argentina, this team still features the players such as Zidane and Barthez the world champions of 1998 and the laughing stock of 2002.

This will be the first time since 1982 that we've had all European semi-finals with neither Brazil nor Argentina making it to that stage here. I think that we will probably see a final between the hosts Germany and the comeback kings of France.

Labels: Sport

They are a rare sight but when hunting deer you might just stumble across a unicorn.

Should you wish to bag such a beast then this handy guide will instruct you on the proper way to kill and field dress a unicorn. It's fully of hints such as:-

When you find a unicorn you've shot, don't get all excited and run over to touch. The first rule is that unicorns are tricky bitches and often fake death just to lure you within impaling range.

Careful! Fish and Game wardens won't be thrilled if they see you dragging a unicorn home so conceal your kill as best you can (flat-bed camoflauge pick-ups work best).

Don't drape your unicorn over the hood of your vehicle though - the heat from the motor will spoil the meat.

I'm sure you'll find this guide as indispensable as I have.

Labels: humour