The Labour party were given a bit of a bloody nose in this election but it wasn’t enough for them to get rid of the liability that is Blair. Sad to see that the voters swung the way of the Tories instead of the other way towards the Liberals or Green.
That bullying venal fat fuck Charles Clarke is out of a job though which is great news.
Well there’s only a couple of days to go now and the man known as Blair is still the Prime Minister so the only choice now is protest against the Labour party and show them we mean it when we say that Blair has stayed in office long after he should have been ousted.
As I have no local elections this Thursday (ours happened at the same time as the general election last year) I can’t make the protest myself so I’m calling on my readers to do so on my behalf, I know some of you exist and reside somewhere in the UK. My visitors can’t all be searching for information on Admiral Isoruko Yamamoto surely.
I was a huge fan of pinball machines back in the mid-nineties when I was a university student. I even had a rivalry with a guy I never ever met as we would hold the top spots on the high score tables of the various tables in the university bar and try to best the other’s scores.
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But it was not to last. The machines were played less and less often and eventually started to disappear from the bars and pubs that I used to frequent until they were no more.
The documentary The Future of Pinball explores the demise of the pinball machine and how the management of manufacturer Williams Electronic Games instructed their pinball designers to come up with something new in order to save the company.
Management said, “we need to make pinball profitable. The world has changed; nobody wants what you guys are doing. Invent something new. We’ve put layer upon layer of ramps, we have convoluted rule sets, we have video modes, we have all this stuff, and guess what? It’s not making a difference!” And management says we’ve got to come up with something or pinball is done.
— George Gomez, Pinball Designer, Williams Electronic Games
This resulted in a startling innovation that was controversial amongst pinball purists but was a hit until the plug was pulled on production of the machines. A trailer for the documentary is available here.
Your Thoughts Are Your Password
What if you could one day unlock your door or access your bank account by simply “thinking” your password? Too far out? Perhaps not.
Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, are exploring the possibility of a biometric security device that will use a person’s thoughts to authenticate her or his identity.
This is a remarkable and very interesting method of authentication although it is clearly in the very early stages and may never become a real world solution to this problem.
BBC Sport: Luiz Felipe Scolari will not be next England manager.
His decision, which he said stemmed from media pressure, has led to severe criticism of the Football Association’s handling of the search for a new coach.
Scolari said: “The English FA is going to choose a name. My name isn’t one of them because I’m closing this matter.”
The Brazilian, the coach of Portugal, said he had been shocked by intrusion into his life by the English media.
“There are 20 reporters outside my house now,” said Scolari, who had been strongly tipped in this week’s media to become Sven-Goran Eriksson’s successor.
Looks like the FA have dropped the ball on this one and fucked the whole process up completly. I thought that it was almost definitely going to be Scolari that would take over after Sven-Goran Eriksson. But it is not to be.
Can’t say that I’m too disappointed though, I’ve had my doubts that he was really suited for the job. Not that his nationality is a problem for me, Sven being Swedish was never an issue for me, but the style of play of his previous jobs with Brazil and Portugal is very different to that of England.
It might have worked out but it really seems now that it won’t be happening.
Just finished watching the third episode of The Street on BBC One that I’d recorded from earlier. This was a truly gut-wrenchingly powerful piece of drama.
The tension was built so well that I was having my emotional insides being ripped raw along with the characters to the point near the end where I felt that Neil Dudgeon’s character Brian was on the point of topping himself only to be saved by the call on his mobile from his wife with the news that the truth had come out.
Brian has returned home having left becuase his wife Ann (Lindsey Coulson) didn’t believe him, but these events will have altered things between he and his wife. There’s no going back now they only can move on from here and hope to build a new trust.
I’m annoyed I missed last week’s episode because on the evidence of tonight’s and the first episode which starred Jane Horrocks this series is shaping up to be the best drama of the year.
Sydney Morning Herald: New penicillin found in wallaby milk
Scientists have discovered a bacteria-fighting compound 100 times more effective than penicillin – in wallaby milk.
Researchers found the highly-potent compound, tagged AGG01, was active against a wide variety of fungi and bacteria including antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
Research team leader Dr Ben Cocks said the discovery could have a profound impact on both human and animal health.
“This compound has the potential to be commercially synthesised and may prove vital in the war against increasingly resistant human and animal diseases,” Dr Cocks said.
It’s great news to hear that new antibiotic compounds like this are being discovered. Lets hope that society has reached the point where we can use it correctly and not give it out like candy for any old illness or we’ll have just yet another antibiotic that superbugs have become resistant to.
Still there are always Bacteriophages should we run out of effective antibiotics. Research into the therapeutic use of phages is really in it’s infancy even though some research has been carried out for decades it was far more practical to use antibiotic compounds.
I posted a short animation a while ago by Paul Robertson, but now a full short film by him is available titled Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006.
It can be downloaded from http://www.selectparks.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=442 and is 112mb of pure fried gold.
I just bought the book Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book by Robert Hamburger.
Book Description
Dear Stupid Idiots,A lot of you have been saying that I don’t know anything about REAL ninjas. But that’s a bunch of bull crap! You dummies don’t know anything. And maybe YOU should get a life. I bet a lot of you have never even seen a girl naked! You idiots believe that ninjas had some “code of honor.” Yeah right! If by “code of honor,” you mean “code to flip out and go nuts for absolutely no reason at all even if it means that people might think you are totally insane or sweet,” then you are right. But if you mean a “code to be nice and speak nicely while sharing and not cutting off heads,” then you’re the biggest idiot ever!!!!!! So if you have any brains, you will shut up and get a life. So go shut up, you stupid idiot.
No thank you,
Robert Hamburger
Anyone who knows anything about ninjas knows that this book is totally sweet. And by sweet I mean awesome. I shall read it immediately.
Edit: 20:43:37 22/04/06 I have read it and it is indeed sweet.
Watched Romance and Cigarettes this afternoon.
Odd film, a comedy musical starring James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi and Christopher Walken amongst others. It didn’t completely work but the acting and characterisations were great. Some laugh out loud moments particularly some of Buscemi’s and Walken’s lines.
I’d recommend people see if they get the chance but I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it, particularly if like me you have a crush on Mary-Louise Parker she’s dead sexy in it.