It’s coming up to 60 years since the atrocities were carried out in the name of freedom. This 6th of August will mark the day that, 60 years ago, the populations of two cities were subjected to almost total obliteration. I’m not sure where I stand on the “nuclear-free world” question; I do believe that nuclear power is a source of energy that we cannot afford to overlook. That would be tantamount to killing a snake simply because we fear it. However, wouldn’t it be better not to have a loaded gun in the house at all, rather than take the chance that the little kid (or jilted lover) will find and use it? I know, very simplistic illustrations to a complex problem, but it shows how ambiguous I can be 🙂
Surely we should be able to trust humankind to make the right decisions? Well…. look at this.

UN researchers predicted the current food crisis in Niger months ago. But only now, as millions face starvation and images of dying children sweep the news media, has the international community begun to respond with food aid, they say.

?It was very clear from October last year. We monitor this region very closely due to its vulnerability. The warnings were given very early,? says Jean Senahoun, of Global Information and Early Warning System in Rome, a part of the UN?s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Senahoun was among the researchers involved in the December 2004 special report on the Niger food forecast, which predicted the country would fall short of nearly 300,000 tonnes of food ? about 7% of the country?s total need ? before the next harvest in October 2005. The devastating failure of the October 2004 harvest was two-thirds due to severe droughts and one-third due to the locust infestation that swept through West Africa.

Despite the report?s firm recommendations, the spur for aid only came after BBC news footage in Niger was broadcast last week.

In the days of the first appeal, just $1 per day per individual could have offset crisis. But now it will take $80 to save each starving person.

Taken from New Scientist 26/07/05.

I watched Reservoir Dogs again t’other day. I remember how terrified I was of Mr.Blonde when I first saw it, because of his callousness in the scene where he chops the cop’s ear off. But this time I was laughing at his dance steps!!

I heard about this website, yeah? So I went to see it, yeah? Doesn’t work. Apparently you enter your domain url, the application takes a look at your code, and then makes a graphical representation of it, that looks like a tree. Poor Brazilian got shot in London, we don’t want to end-up like America! But as Tinks just said, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody’s way; bicycle sales have gone up!!

I saw a great film on BBC Four, a French one called “Nothing about Robert”. There was this crazy girl, as is quite the norm in all French films, and she basically lures this middle-aged intellectual away from his girlfriend, who’s another loon, because she walks up a stranger in the park and asks him for a shag, and then proceeds to describe the affair to her boyfriend. In all this, there was the mention of Kundera, which reminded me that I had bought ‘Immortality’ and hadn’t finished reading it; another book that I kept on-the-go and then forgot about. So I dug it up. A quote from this book is appropriate right about here..

It is part of the definition of feeling that it is born in us without our will, often against our will. As soon as we want to feel (decide to feel, just as Don Quixote decided to love Dulcinea), feeling is no longer feeling but an imitation of feeling, a show of feeling. This is commonly called hysteria. That’s why homo sentimentalis (a person who has raised feeling to a value) is in reality identical to homo hystericus.

By the way, is there a French film that doesn’t have a scene where a group of people sit around a dinner table discussing art and/or literature. And the words existentialist and/or post-idealist are used?

Well first off, I’ve now got a digital camera! Kodak C340. Half-price at Dixon’s. 5 megapixels, 5x optical, 3x digital zoom, and even a little string-loopy thingy to put your hand through. Went with IT Support and SteveO around Manchester, giving them a bit of training in how to take photos and stuff, you know, technical stuff like composition, etc 😉 We saw the start of Manchester Festival, Kwanzaa party and it was highly disorganised at the start. Then we went to Arndale, got my camera, and went looking for things to shoot. Saw a man on a bike with two watches, engrossed in the street drummers. Mike from Punana was there drumming. I caught up with the Kwanzaa party outside my house in Alexandra Park, got a nice photo of a dancer getting a leg up on a cop!

Last night was a DVD fiesta, managed to work through all the 3 Lord of the Rings films, thanks to Peetey (although I’m not sure he knows much about it). I was up till 4am, and had 4 dinner breaks. You filthy pig! The unfortunate thing about LOTR is that there’s too much of Gayboy Frodo and his ‘mate’ Sam Gamgee on screen.

Frodo: Oh Sam!
Sam: Oh Frodo!
(nb. not actual quotes)

And so on and on and on.

The good thing is that there’s big battle scenes, and when they do divert from the original story (which is every other frame, mind you) they’re good enough to include gigantic wolves and suchlike. I personally am quite happy with CGI, and will readily swap plot for action (my Swedish collection bears testimony 🙂 when the fancy takes me.
Anyhow (YAWN) going to see Ioannis soon, perhaps bump around Antonia/Maria’s tonight if there’s plans to go out.

1) Yes my dear readers, once again it’s UKTV History time, and yesterday I sat through Adam Hart-Davis explaining to mw what the Chinese have bequeathed us. Firstly, fast food and restaurants were Chinese ideas, with some of them getting so good at it that the Palace used to order takeaways from them. Marco Polo imported the Chinese noodles, that were re-born as… pasta! And apart from the obvious gunpowder/fireworks that everyone is aware of, the Chinese also invented the concept of paper money, that traders used to protect their assets from highway robbery.

2) On an entirely different note, this post also celebrates the institution of the David Beckham Public Recognition Awards for no discernable Talent (David Beckham PRAT). Nominees so far are

Suggestions welcome, nay, indeed solicited.

3) I’m currently reading ‘The spy who came in from the cold’ by John le Carre. It seems to be the only spy novel that can be termed a ‘classic’. The author was working for the British Foreign Service, and seems not only to know the tricks of the trade, but also understands the psychological state of the spy.

4) Another 2 hours of driving at 1pm today. On Monday I was equally commended for my control of the car and reprimanded for my bad habits. Today should be fun; Roundabouts, and Pedestrians: How not to run them over.

(later on in the day…)

Driving went well, but I’m getting anxious that the bloody instructor is trying to squeeze as many lessons as he can out of me. Since I’ve pre-paid for ten hours, he’s counting on them in the bag and testing to see if he can force more dough out of me! Whereas my plan was to finish in ten hours. That doesn’t seem likely, as he’s just pulling me up for silly inconsequential things, like not looking at the road when driving, and forgetting to brake when someone’s crossing the road. Haha, just a bit of humour there. Yesss, I’ve still got it!