ugly rumours, indeed...

Now that records can make the chart purely by digital sales alone (saving the likes of me the embarrassment of actually walking into shops and revealing my poor taste in music), I'd love this to make number one! So much that I've purchased it once and may do so again. Problem is it needs more media coverage to reach beyond the demographic of peeps like me who check the stop the war website regularly.

hmmm peace marches

Well I didn't go to the peace march in Glasgow yesterday, but the BBC's reporting is curious - 'Unlikely allies unite on Trident'.

Anarcho-syndicalists. Communists. Scottish Nationalists. Anti-racism campaigners. Trades unionists.

It was an eclectic mix which wound its merry way from Cowcaddens to Glasgow's George Square.

Why are they 'unlikely allies'? It sounds like just the sort of random left-of-centre groups that normally attend marches of this kind. If the Guild of City Bankers or the Countryside Alliance had been there too, then one might say that unlikely allies would have been uniting. As it is, it is just typical slapdash BBC reporting. But then I'm bitter that the beeb never gave me a job!

I have written to my local MP about the Trident, and have now been waiting nearly two months for my response. I'm sure it's in the post, but I wonder how much longer I should wait.

Wet weekend

Well, it continues to rain so I have resorted to my wet sunday routine of booting up a computer model of the troposphere is SE Asia and setting it running (on a remote server). Every 90 minutes, I download the results and issue fresh instructions. I only feel safe running it for 90 minutes unsupervised because there is a good chance my connection will crash after this time. Each 90 minute window gives me just enough time to do the other type of running, outside (should the rain stops, which it might do later on), visit Sainsbury's or make some phone calls. Yes - a sheltered life, but my own...

Arthur's Seat Watch

... and yes, it's a very wet, overcast Sunday in prospect. Maybe I should rename this website SeatCam.com and be down with it. There must be a tidy demographic of people who would like to see regularly updated pictures of dormant volcanoes from the same viewpoint, but under different climatic conditions.

A milestone

Yesterday, I experienced my first ever Salsa lesson.

I don't think I'm sure yet what this act represents.

Big in China

Well, well... according to my webstats most visits to this blog originate from China. I'm flattered, and I'm glad there is one corner of the world where my ersatz brand of humour strikes gold! This week I have abandoned my usual mainstay of the Guardian newspaper and have been trying to learn Mandarin in The Times. Unfortunately 'the US State Department estimates that it will take an Englishspeaker 2200 hours to reach anything resembling proficiency in Mandarin'. Since I was never any good at languages, that'll be more like 4400 hours for me. Nevertheless, if it turns out I really am more popular in China than anywhere else, I shall move there.

In the meantime, I will try and stay on the right side of the Chinese internet censors and not talk about anything too controversial. I certainly don't want to lose all my readers!

red sky at morning

someday I will leave the house to take pictures... when I have a less bulky camera maybe. Shame the sun doesn't rise behind arthur's seat though.

Support global warming

I just received an email about a cycle ride 'in support of global warming'. They must be hoping for more bright and warm february days like today!

Oh great, not again...

Since government policy-making is normally based around whatever happens to be the top headline on BBC News, I'm getting increasingly worried that I will have to start going on (ugh) peace marches again. Here's hoping George Bush doesn't also have BBC News in his bookmarks.

Virtual running

Well today I was planning to scout out the route for the race that I am doing next weekend, but the weather outside just doesn't look that inviting for a brisk pedal out to the Pentlands. At least I can still check out the route virtually, from the comfort of my own computer:


Despite the closely packed contour lines, it looks a lot more straightforward in Multimap than what it plainly is in real life. My psychological preparation is complete!

Arthur's Seat

In the throes of the massive WHITEOUT this morning... it all melted within 2 hours!

The post office tower

I've finally got round to posting these pictures! This is what North London looks like from the top of the BT Post Office Tower. That's Regent's Park, with the zoo in the foreground. Depending on how much blogger.com has compressed this image, it should be possible to make out the Wembley Arch in the top left.

I'm don't think I will explain exactly what I was doing up there, since I'm not sure if I was meant to be taking photos... The high speed lifts are ear-poppingly impressive (they travel at 6 m/s) and the journey to the floor and room of your choice is very closely supervised by friendly but competent security guards.


The tower is no longer used as a telephone exchange, and I don't think that many of the impressive looking satellite dishes dotted around the exterior are operational either. However, there is a large video switching centre for receiving and relaying broadcast quality video from the local region. It is used to co-ordinate outside broadcasts in the Royal Parks, as well as London based football matches and the output from Soho movie editing firms. There are BT offices at the base of the tower, and the famous revolving restaurant is used for corporate clients only.


It's a shame that the tower is shut to the public, for security reasons. It's no longer the tallest building in London, or even the most iconic, but would make an ideal tourist attraction in a similar way to the AMP Centrepoint tower in Sydney. BT just need to shove in a shopping mall at the base and find a famous chef to design the restaurant menus, and they would have a handy boost to their revenues.

stratus

This weekend I learned that it isn't always cloudy and wet in edders - just about 90% of the time ;-)

deal or no deal

... is probably what counts for my favourite TV programme of the past year (outside of the old staples of Newsnight, This Week etc, obviously). Whilst working part time last year I relished being able to get home in time to see Edmonds back where he belongs - on the TV. The wilderness years for him must have been like Alan Partridge come true. I think that there are several factors that contribute to the show's success:

1. Noel appears to take the whole business very seriously indeed. And that's before you consider his later revelations on the subject of cosmic ordering and whatnot
2. Because the same contestants are on day after day, you start to care for their prospects and begin to tune in regularly just to find out how they get on. If you happen to work part time hours, and are therefore in a position to do so, that is. Which I am not, any more - just thought I should make that clear. But it's a pity, as I do miss being able to tune in.
3. There's something about the cult like faith in whichever complicated selection procedure the contestant has chosen that makes compelling viewing. In one episode the player simply chose his boxes from side of the studio to the other. This was as statistically valid as any other approach but regarded by Noel and all the participants as very much 'the wrong thing to do'. And so it happened to prove as he left with a paltry sum. I think there could be an analogy to make with the great equation of life - i.e. luck plays more of a factor than anything else, but that this doesn't stop people reading in all kinds of other variables. And when it works out particularly well or badly, suddenly the role of random chance is downplayed in favour of all kinds of other things such as 'courage' and 'how you play the game'. Just like life...
   

The big problem I have it that I find it difficult to articulate these arguments on the spot to people who are baffled by my fascination with a gameshow which does not depend on any kind of skill or aptitude at all. So I'm glad that Simon Singh (the popular science writer) had waded in with some lines for me to plagerise about game theory, probability and the 'psychology which leads to players making sub-optimal decisions'.