Nineteenth Century Images of Albinism

Is this worth looking at?

TV Tome - guide to the television shows you love

This looks to be interesting, it claims to have over 2100 episode guides for popular tv series

Health & Efficiency (an Episode Guide)

This was spooky, I just googled my name and discovered it listed for an episode of Health & Efficiency, a BBC sitcom I once appeared in. I don't remeber it being particularly good, but nice to know that proof of my few acting jobs are still floating around in cyberspace

Online Annual Reports

I quite often have to find logos for companies and finding a pdf makes the job much easier as they usually contain a hi res version to extract - the FT have a really useful service for searching for them

The weird things I have to do for work

Today, I've been asked to go to the Hollister website for work - they specialise in making ostomy products. I love the way they leave the col from that so that one doesn't have to think about what's contained in the ostomy product. There's a full range of info here, on what size colostomy bag to get. I didn't read it all, but I guess it depends on how much one intends eating.

My favourite part though is the virtual centre which

is designed to complement our Resource Centre by providing features, tools and activities that are useful and fun!

Send your friends ecards or download a nice screensaver for your PC to make sure that everyone knows what your new mystery aroma is.

On a PC bashing front, does the fact they only do screensavers for PCs mean that Hollister thinks Windows is shit???

My eyes, my eyes!

Apple Releases 9/11 Commission Hearings At iTMS

Want to hear what was said at the 9/11 Commission Hearings, now you can, thanks to Audible and Apple. They're available free too, you just need iTunes to download them

pointless but fun : bring me sunshine

Bizarre little monkeys ...

Is Fabulous President George W. Bush a Fabulous Homosexual?

Is Fabulous President George W. Bush a Fabulous Homosexual? Baptists Are Saving Homosexuals asks what conservative Christians demand to know

HULK'S DIARY

vaguely amusing

DVR and PVR News, products and upgrades for the UK

I would like to get more television channels as well as the ability to save it all to hard disk - finding one device that does all I want though is proving elusive

How to Make a Guerrilla Documentary

From the New York Times (subscription required) a profile of Robert Greenwald, guerrilla domentary filmmaker and producer of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Eschaton

Why Does Fox Hate America?

Posted by Holden
Robert S. Boynton wrote a lengthy review of Outfoxed for the Times.

This pisses me off:


One memo, thought to have been circulated at Fox in April, instructs employees how to report on the increasing number of American fatalities in Iraq: ''Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of U.S. lives,'' it reads.


Fucking bastards.

Perhaps someone should ask Uncle Rupert!!

Fahrenheit 9/11 still burning up box office

Ha ha ha Disney made a boo boo - Fahrenheit 9/11 has so far grossed over $80m in just three weeks of release. That's bigger earnings than any other Disney movie this year and the highest earings ever for a documentary film.

Add to this equation that Disney's biggest film of the year is bound to be the Incredibles, which is the penultimate film in Disney's contract with Pixar and I reckon there'll be increased baying for Michael Eisener's blood

Mary Beth Cahill to Ken Mehlman: Release the Bush Records

Washington, DC – Kerry-Edwards campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill today sent the following letter to Bush Cheney ’04 Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman in response to a letter Mehlman sent yesterday:

July 13, 2004
Ken Mehlman
Campaign Manager
BUSH-CHENEY '04, Inc.




Dear Ken:


Over the past several months, allies of the President have questioned John Kerry’s patriotism while your staff has criticized his service in Vietnam. Republicans and their allies have gone so far as to launch attacks against his wife and your campaign has run $80 million in negative ads that have been called baseless, misleading and unfair by several independent observers.

Considering that the President has failed to even come close to keeping his promise to change the tone in Washington, we find your outrage over and paparazzi-like obsession with a fund-raising event to be misplaced. The fact is that the nation has a greater interest in seeing several documents made public relating to the President’s performance in office and personal veracity that the White House has steadfastly refused to release. As such, we will not consider your request until the Bush campaign and White House make public the documents/materials listed below:


● Military records: Any copies of the President’s military records that would actually prove he fulfilled the terms of his military service. For that matter, it would be comforting to the American people if the campaign or the White House could produce more than just a single person to verify that the President was in Alabama when said he was there. Many Americans find it odd that only one person out of an entire squadron can recall seeing Mr. Bush.


● Halliburton: All correspondence between the Defense Department and the White House regarding the no-bid contracts that have gone to the Vice-President’s former company. Some material has already been made public. Why not take a campaign issue off the table by making all of these materials public so the voters can see how Halliburton has benefited from Mr. Cheney serving as Vice-President?


● The Cheney Energy Task Force: For an Administration that claims to hate lawsuits, it’s ironic that the Bush White House is taking up the Courts’ time to keep the fact that Ken Lay and Enron wrote its energy policy in secret behind closed doors. Please release the documents so that the country can learn what lobbyists and special interests wrote the White House energy policy.


● Medicare Bill: Please release all White House correspondence between the pharmaceutical industry and the Administration regarding the Medicare Bill, which gave billions to some of the President’s biggest donors. In addition, please provide all written materials that directed the Medicare actuary to withhold information from Congress about the actual cost of the bill.


● Prison Abuse Documents: A few weeks ago, the White House released a selected number of documents regarding the White House’s involvement in laying the legal foundation for the interrogation methods that were used in Iraq. Please release the remaining documents.


We also wanted to wish you a happy anniversary. As we are sure you and the attorneys representing the President, Vice-President and other White House officials are aware, today marks one year since Administration sources leaked the identity of a covert CIA agent to Bob Novak in an effort to retaliate against a critic of the Administration.


In light of the fact that the Administration began gutting the laws protecting the nation’s forests yesterday, we hope you will accept the paper on which this letter is written as an anniversary gift. (The one year anniversary is known as the “paper anniversary.”)

Sincerely,

Mary Beth Cahill

Campaign Manager

The second browser war

Is the Phantom Menace of Internet Explorer about to get ousted by the raft of standards compliant alternative browsers which don't leave the user open to attacks from hackers and pornographers??

Interesting article from the Guardian

Converting a Flash file to an eps or other vector file format

My latest work assignment is to UBS, recreating stacks and stacks of logos for use in pitch documents and presentations. Most places have abandoned this practice as it's time consuming, contravenes copyright and is really annoying.

Anyway, that's what I have to do. Add to the mix that the only tools I've got are the dreaded Corel Graphics suite and it's even more of a tedious job.

Today I've got quite a few that are in Flash format so it's a case of finding a way to convert swf to eps to save having to trace the buggers in Corel

myRSS: Build your own custom RSS channel

I've been using Bloglines to access loads of Newsfeeds for the last couple of weeks - it has the great advantage of giving me access wherever I'm working. I tend to do most of my blogging whilst slacking (oh the joys of being freelance!) and very rarely from home so it's perfect.

One annoying thing though is when I find a site I'd like to track that doesn't offer RSS (shame on them!) myRSS though seems to be able to help out

Share Your Movies with the World at iMovieFest.com!

iMovieFest is a site for sharing movies made with iMovie

Fahrenheit 911

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks Michael Moore was a lot less forceful in Fahrenheit 9/11 than I was expecting - I guess he had to keep the arguements focussed - after all cataloguing all the lies would have taken a mini series

Fahrenheit 911: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal

Hear hear again

Hear hear!!

Comment on some of the horrific stuff in Fahrenheit 9/11

There were a surprisingly large number of film clips in "Fahrenheit 911" that I had never seen before. For example:

George W. Bush: "This is an impressive crowd: the haves--and the have-mores. Some people call you 'the elite'. I call you 'My Base'."

Now how do all those Moore detractors explain this, did Bush or did Bush not say those words, if it was intended as a joke, it is one of the sickest jokes I've ever seen.

How convenient!

The records that would prove once and for all whether or not Bush went AWOL in 1972 and 1973 from the Air National Guard - where he was avoiding service in Vietnam - have conveniently been diestroyed, apparently as a result of a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. Hmmmmmmm

A well George, sure everyone believes you did your duty

Little did they think ... (Sunday Times - insight - 19 Nov 2000)

That it might actually apply to the US

"Brace yourself for postponed elections, rigged elections and minority rule, all of it justified with a sarcastic swipe at the mother of all democracies. "

And they say we have nothing to worry about!

What is worse, a terrorist attack or the fact that Bush and his cronies are trying to change electoral law in the States to enable them to postpone the election.

Obviously the coup in 2000 wasn't enough, now they want to hold on to power by any means possible. What a tip-pot dictatorship they are.

Has Bush been taking lessons from Robert Mugabe??

Project Unseat Bush

Go read - most important

Enough already

My eyes!

How disorientating!

CNN.com - NAACP chairman calls for Bush's ouster - Jul 12, 2004

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond called on members of the nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization to boost voter turnout to help oust President Bush. I don't think I can remember when there has been such a sustained campaign to oust any government. Now all that matters is that people are motivated to register themselves to vote and vote to get the bugger out. That is of course provided he and his cronies don't just change the law regarding the election or arrange another terrorist atrocity

Neruda centenary marked in Chile

It is the centenary of Chile's greatest poet, Pablo Neruda, who died in 1973 shortly after General Pinochet's coup.

My favourite Neruda poem is here

Who hasn't thought this at some time???

The World Wide Panorama - QuickTime VR Panoramas

On solstice Weekend, June 19-21, more than 110 photographers in 32 countries around the world created QuickTime VR panoramas with a common theme of world heritage. Go take a look at the results

The war of the commas

Louis Menand, a critic on the New Yorker has had plenty of criticism for 'Eats, shoots & Leaves' sounds like a humourless anal retentive with no sens of humour to me

The Bushiad and The Idyossey

A satire on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey - guess what shaved, corrupt monkey this one's about (to be fair, that's rather unkind to monkeys, as I can't think of any that have endangered the world!)

Lila Lipscomb speaks out

I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Friday night, the night it opened over here. Lila Lipscomb, mother of Michael, a soldier who was killed in Iraq is interviewed in the Guardian.

Ignore all the rubbish printed in the Right-Wing press damning the accuracy of the movie. Go and see it for yourself, don't be told what to think. If, after you've seen the movie for yourself, you think the war in Iraq was justified, fair enough, but at least go and see the film rather than being told what to think!

A girdle round about the earth

The Guardian is currently the UK's second most read news site after the BBC on a global scale - good job too, glad to see that so many people are fed up with the Right-Wing agenda of most of the press

An interview with Carmen Bin Ladin

Sounds like a twisted comic opera, but instead is an interview with a woman who was married to one of Osama Bin Laden's many brothers

Graphics Department on creativepro.com

Some good articles to be found here

Famous Trials

A resource page for many famous trials, including Charles Manson, The Nuremburg Trials and the Salem Witch Trials

More Indian recipes

More recipes to look at

Chana Dal

So here I am at work, googling a company called Chana and all I get are recipes for Chana Dal (Yellow Split Peas) . So I thought I'd blog a few so I can peruse them later

More on teh Stockwell Festival

Surely there must be something for everyone

Yes, Microsoft Did Steal Apple's Interface (Under License)

A piece looking at the history of how Microsoft hoodwinked Apple into licensing their technology

Stockwell Festival

Oh well it's my new Manor, as someone in a Guy Richie movie might say, so I guess I should take in the local cultural events

My horoscope from Dogpile

This morning I finally signed the contract for my new home in Oval. So glad it's finally time to move and I can't wait till the weekend's over and all the moving is done.

Interesting to see what my horoscope for today had to say

This a day of cleansing and renewal. Any discomfort about starting over will quickly fade as the benefits become obvious. You may be too absorbed in your projects to deal with others, but try to keep your heavy baggage on your lap. Keep to yourself for the most part, and attempt to clean up the cluttered areas around you that you must see every day. If you like, stay in your pajamas all day and sort through piles and cabinets you've been neglecting. Money issues may require your attention, so you'd better look their way.

Tourist got lost following 1914 guide book

What a weird story:

An elderly American tourist had to be rescued in Germany after he got lost while using a 90-year-old guide book.

Hank Edwards, 79, ended up stuck in a German forest for two days after finding his way with a book bought by his father in 1914.

Throughout the years he kept the book, practising the German words and studying the places mentioned in the copy of Beautiful Bayreuth.

When he was finally able to make the trip, he got lost trying to find attractions that had long since disappeared.

The alarm was raised when he failed to return to his hotel and he was eventually found by local rescuers sitting in his car that was stuck in mud on a dirt track.

"He told us he had read it over and over as a boy and had always wanted to visit the places listed in it," said a police spokesman in Bad Berneck.

"But owing to the Great Depression and the war and raising a family and working all his life, he said he never got around to actually travelling abroad until now."

The officer added that unfortunately, two world wars and a massive reforestation programme in the region meant most of the Bayreuth in the book no longer existed.

But he added: "It's still very beautiful here even if it's not what he expected."

Woman Parties After Giving Birth in Bar

Oh how nice, a woman in America gives birth in a Sports Bar, dumps the baby in the bin and goes back to partying - that's probably the most horrific thing I've ever heard

More toys for boys

We'll soon be able to have laser powered video projectors - cool

Toys for Boys

How very Minority Report

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have devised a videoconferencing system that comes a step closer. Facetop superimposes transparent images of a computer's desktop over video images of the user to allow the user to look at the video and desktop at the same time.

The video shows a ghostly mirror image of the user so that when he points, his video reflection appears to touch objects on the screen. The system tracks fingertip position in the video to allow the user to control the mouse pointer.

As it turns out, the human visual/brain system "seems to be quite good at paying attention to one and ignoring the other, depending on whether you want to see the user or the desktop information," said David Stotts, an associate professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Clive Sinclair peddles world's smallest folding bike

Strangely enough, I was only reading about Sir Clive's thoughts on the Segway the other day and here I find his response. Poor man is obviously mad, si mauch for being a member of mensa

Abuse of Iraqui children in prisons

German TV have shown a report detailing the incarceration and abuse of Iraqui children by American forces.

Florida, Florida, Florida

Nice to see that those bunch of cheats in Florida are aiming to steal the election for Bush once again. This time they're trying to make sure that no one can ask for a recount if the election result is dubious. Wonder just how many people's votes they'll disallow this time.
To reiterate. Jeb Bush and his cronies are cheating cheaters

Get it Write Online

Handy online reference site offering style and grammar tips

Help, a dingo's got my baby

Well, who'd have thought it - so old geezer claims he shot the dingo carrying Lindy chamberlain's baby and he knows what became of the body. Sounds rather far-fetched to me. He says the reason he didn't come forward before was that he was hunting near Uluru and didn't want to get in trouble. Nice to know that he didn't mind Lindy Chamberlain spending four years in prison for nothing tho. I guess that's part of the huntin' shootin' fishin' mindset, then

The story that refuses to die

No 10 might think they got away with the whitewash that was the Hutton report, but Gavyn Davies, ex chairman of the board of BBC Governors, shows no sign of letting the episode recede into the past. Good on him

The story that refuses to die

No 10 might think they got away with the whitewash that was the Hutton report, but Gavyn Davies, ex chairman of the board of BBC Governors, shows no sign of letting the episode recede into the past

Jasper - ZX Spectrum Emulator

Have fun playing classic Sinclair Spectrum games online - a real blast form the past. Also there, one of my all-time favourites Ant Attack - one of the only games I'v ever finished.
And how could you forget the Hobbit - "Thorin, bloody well pick me up and climb through the window ... No, you stupid bloody dwarf, don't walk straight into the Goblin again!!"
And of course, probably one of the best games ever, Jet Set Willy OK, get ready to perform a querkafleeg

Origami Underground

Porno origami for people with too much tme on their hands

toaster

Cool image of a Toaster made from 2.500 pieces of toast

HOW BUSH FAILED TO FULFILL HIS DUTY

Was George Bush regarded as a deserter from the USAF??

An examination of the Bush military files within the context of US Statutory Law, Department of Defense regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures of that era lead to a single conclusion:  George W. Bush was considered a deserter by the United States Air Force.
After Bush quit TXANG, he still had nine months of his six-year military commitment left to serve.   As a result, Bush became a member of the Air Force Reserves and was transferred to the authority of the Air Reserve Personnel Center (ARPC) in Denver, Colorado.   Because this was supposed to be a temporary assignment, ARPC had to review Bush’s records to determine where he should ultimately be assigned.  That examination would have led to three conclusions: That Bush had “failed to satisfactorily participate” as defined by United States law and Air Force policy, that TXANG could not account for Bush’s actions for an entire year, and that Bush’s medical records were not up to date.  Regardless of what actions ARPC contemplated when reviewing Bush’s records, all options required that Bush be certified as physically fit to serve, or as unfit to serve.   ARPC thus had to order Bush to get a physical examination, for which Bush did not show up.  ARPC then designated Bush as AWOL and a “non-locatee” (i.e. a deserter) who had failed to satisfactorily participate in TXANG, and certified him for immediate induction through his local draft board.  Once the Houston draft board got wind of the situation, strings were pulled; and documents were generated which directly contradict Air Force policy, and which were inconsistent with the rest of the records released by the White House.

Frozen body to reveal old American mysteries

scientists are about to reveal details of the last journey of the only well preserved ancient body found in North America.

Hunters discovered the frozen body of Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi (Long Ago Person Found) in August 1999 while crossing a glacier high in the mountains of north-west British Columbia, Canada, about 60 miles from southern Alaska.
The body, which had become partly exposed as the glacier melted, was dressed in a cloak made from the pelts of Arctic ground squirrels.
The hunter's apparent belongings – including a walking stick, a wooden spear, a bone knife, a leather pouch containing edible leaves and the remains of a fish, and a broad-rimmed hat of surprisingly fine weave – were scattered nearby.
Experts initially believed the design of the tools indicated that the body was that of an aboriginal hunter who lived in so-called pre-contact times, before a group of Russian traders became the first outsiders to visit the region 250 years ago.
It has since been established that the man was probably aged about 20 and that he probably lived as much as 550 to 660 years ago.
At the time the hunter was found there was speculation that he had fallen, wedged upright in a crevasse.
The body was dug out and packed in blocks of ice cut from the glacier to preserve it during a flight by helicopter to cold storage in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.
A team of scientists from both sides of the Atlantic became involved in discovering the body's secrets.
It is now led by Professor James Dickson, of the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, who is also involved in research of an "iceman" found in the Italian side of the Alps in 1991 by two German climbers. The iceman, nicknamed Otzi, is believed to have drawn his last breath some 5200 years ago.
Professor Dickson said an examination of the North American man's DNA, clothes and stomach contents revealed that he moved inland from the coast shortly before his death.
Tests on his cloak revealed that it contained the remains of two plants normally found in coastal areas.
But they showed the man had not eaten his usual diet of seafood in the last few months before his death.
A North American Indian tribe – known as the Champagne and Aishihik – has claimed Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi as its own. Professor Dickson said the tribe had been kept informed of the research as it progressed.
He said a six-page report – The Holocene – detailing the results of the research to date would be published today.
Professor Dickson said: "This is the first ancient body that has been melted out of anywhere in the Americas. It is the first time that such work has been done in the area.
"On the basis of the carbon dating on his clothing there is no doubt he lived about 550 years ago."

HIS body was entombed under the ice for almost 700 years.
Now, some of the mysteries of ancient civilisation in North America are about to be revealed when scientists unveil some of the details of the last journey of the only well preserved ancient human body ever recovered in the region.
Hunters discovered the frozen body of Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi (Long Ago Person Found) in August 1999 while crossing a glacier high in the mountains of north-west British Columbia, Canada, about 60 miles from southern Alaska.
The body, which had become partly exposed as the glacier melted, was dressed in a cloak made from the pelts of Arctic ground squirrels.
The hunter's apparent belongings – including a walking stick, a wooden spear, a bone knife, a leather pouch containing edible leaves and the remains of a fish, and a broad-rimmed hat of surprisingly fine weave – were scattered nearby.
Experts initially believed the design of the tools indicated that the body was that of an aboriginal hunter who lived in so-called pre-contact times, before a group of Russian traders became the first outsiders to visit the region 250 years ago.
It has since been established that the man was probably aged about 20 and that he probably lived as much as 550 to 660 years ago.
At the time the hunter was found there was speculation that he had fallen, wedged upright in a crevasse.
The body was dug out and packed in blocks of ice cut from the glacier to preserve it during a flight by helicopter to cold storage in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.
A team of scientists from both sides of the Atlantic became involved in discovering the body's secrets.
It is now led by Professor James Dickson, of the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, who is also involved in research of an "iceman" found in the Italian side of the Alps in 1991 by two German climbers. The iceman, nicknamed Otzi, is believed to have drawn his last breath some 5200 years ago.
Professor Dickson said an examination of the North American man's DNA, clothes and stomach contents revealed that he moved inland from the coast shortly before his death.
Tests on his cloak revealed that it contained the remains of two plants normally found in coastal areas.
But they showed the man had not eaten his usual diet of seafood in the last few months before his death.
A North American Indian tribe – known as the Champagne and Aishihik – has claimed Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi as its own. Professor Dickson said the tribe had been kept informed of the research as it progressed.
He said a six-page report – The Holocene – detailing the results of the research to date would be published today.
Professor Dickson said: "This is the first ancient body that has been melted out of anywhere in the Americas. It is the first time that such work has been done in the area.
"On the basis of the carbon dating on his clothing there is no doubt he lived about 550 years ago."

HIS body was entombed under the ice for almost 700 years.
Now, some of the mysteries of ancient civilisation in North America are about to be revealed when scientists unveil some of the details of the last journey of the only well preserved ancient human body ever recovered in the region.
Hunters discovered the frozen body of Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi (Long Ago Person Found) in August 1999 while crossing a glacier high in the mountains of north-west British Columbia, Canada, about 60 miles from southern Alaska.
The body, which had become partly exposed as the glacier melted, was dressed in a cloak made from the pelts of Arctic ground squirrels.
The hunter's apparent belongings – including a walking stick, a wooden spear, a bone knife, a leather pouch containing edible leaves and the remains of a fish, and a broad-rimmed hat of surprisingly fine weave – were scattered nearby.
Experts initially believed the design of the tools indicated that the body was that of an aboriginal hunter who lived in so-called pre-contact times, before a group of Russian traders became the first outsiders to visit the region 250 years ago.
It has since been established that the man was probably aged about 20 and that he probably lived as much as 550 to 660 years ago.