My Weekend

I'm not feeling so hot this fine Monday morning Dear Reader, I have the flu. I spent the whole weekend lying on the sofa feeling like like death warmed up, wishing someone would come and put me out of my misery. No one did, but Mr. Blogs was very nice, and bought me cough sweets, painkillers etc, and made lots of cups of tea. It was the least he could do really, considering he gave me the bug in the first place.

One good thing was that I did at least get the chance to watch Captain Corelli's Mandolin on Saturday evening. It's one of those films I never got around to seeing, and I wasn't disappointed. I still feel really blurgh, so I won't write a full review, but suffice it to say, it's jolly good. Be warned, you'll need a box of hankies!

I also discovered that Britain has been voted the best country in the world. I'm not sure if any of the people who voted have actually been here, or whether they have been taken in by the stereotype of what Britain is like. There is always the chance that they believe we all live in thatched cottages, know the Queen personally and dress for dinner. They also voted the British people the most boring in the world. That's a little unfair if you ask me, this is the country that gave the world Monty Python and the Sex Pistols. Boring? Naah! OK the locals may be a little understated, but I can't tell you how much fun it is enjoying a cream tea with the vicar while watching cricket on the village green.

Tags:

• Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Email Tax Update

I have just set up a petition which will be sent to the AOL CEO . . . yes, I was that cross about the whole idea.

Let AOL know you are unhappy with any scheme which threatens your ability to freely communicate online. Register your disapproval for an email tax which hinders free speech online.

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. Please sign here

AOL and Yahoo Email Tax

I just received an email about this which I initially thought must be a hoax. Apparently not. It seems that Yahoo and AOL are planning to charge for sending emails. The plan goes, you pay 25 cents per email with a guarantee of delivery, the idea is that spammers won't want to pay per email so won't bother sending spam.

In theory this is a good idea, but it's not going to work in practice. OK, large companies (and you can include some of the most prolific spammers in that category) will be easily able to afford the cost. But what about smaller, less well off internet users? That charity you support, the hobby group you are a member of, or your family and friends. Are they really going to be able to pay, each and every time they want to contact you by email? Of course not. One of the wonderful things about the internet is the way it allows people from all over the world to meet and get to know each other. Should an email tax become the norm this will no longer be the case. The majority of the email we receive will be from large companies who are trying to sell us stuff. Personal emails, newsletters from hobby and special interest groups etc will end up being labelled spam, and you will never receive them.

(The irony of this situation is that a huge amount of the spam I receive comes from Yahoo email accounts. Maybe I should follow their lead and charge them each time I receive such a message.)

So far, the plan hasn't come into being and there is a campaign to stop it ever doing so. At the moment, it seems to be a US based problem and the campaign reflects this, but it can only be a matter of time before this scheme is rolled out elsewhere in the world. So, now is the time to act. If you live in the US visit http://civic.moveon.org/.../Stop_AOL_email_scheme.html to read more and sign the petition. If you live elsewhere, contact your local branch of these companies and express your unhappiness with their plans.

Thornborough Quarry Application Rejected

Good news on the Thornborough Henges situation. The application by Tarmac to quarry the site has been rejected which is extremely good news. Tarmac do intend to appeal the decision, so it is still important to maintain the campaign to protect this outstandingly important and beautiful area. However, for now, they have to keep their grubby mits off. For more information about the ruling, go here and here.

If you would like to know more about Thornborough and the campaign to save it, you can find a link in the Go Visit section on the right.

Well,that didn't work

The new look I was hoping to unveil yesterday, didn't work out as well as I had hoped, poo! So, it's back to the old template for a while longer. Luckily, I have found a solution, but it is going to mean some twiddling to get it all right. As you may know not all browsers interpret style sheets in the same way, so a page can look very different in IE, compared to Firefox for example. This is extremely annoying, and I do think that the sooner the manufacturers of browsers develop a standard way of doing things the better. I mean, when you buy a car you don't have to get an extra set of wheels to make sure you can drive on all roads. However, when you are designing web pages, you have to use all sorts of workarounds to make sure pages have a uniform appearance. Which brings me to the point I am (rather laboriously) trying to make. There are workarounds you can use. One of the most simple is to use more than one style sheet, then add a little bit of javascript to the <.head><./head>of your page which will point a given browser in the direction of the correct style sheet. You can read more about this here. It is still a faff, to have to edit more than one style sheet, but at least you know your site looks the way you want it to in all, or at least most browsers.

Oh, and here is my result for my latest venture into the world of online quizzes:


You have Sirens blood: The beauty of a siren comes
in many forms. But yours is by far the most
pure. You are mysterious, clever, kind,
compassionate, beautiful, amazing, wonderful
and so much more. You are the kind of person
that makes this world a better place just by
waking up every morning. Dont let the sins of
others bring you down, you are a beautiful
person both inside and without.


What ancient bloodline do you have?
brought to you by Quizilla

New Look and Have You Read

I've been tinkering with the blog style again. Unfortunately, it's not quite the way I wanted, I designed a great 3 column site using divs rather then tables, but it just wouldn't work as a blog. I'll keep it because it looks great as a standard site, and it will be useful for any extra pages I add to this blog. Anyhow, I had to go back to tables to get it work, and that was rather odd, because it's at least two years since I last used tables. It was a bit like stepping back in time, so this is now kind of a retro blog.

I've just finished reading The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry. It came out in 1995, but relying on second hand book shops as I do (I live in the land that literature forgot) I only found a copy recently. It took me a while to get into it, I wasn't keen on the main character at first, but he grew on me as the story unfolded. After that, it was quite an enjoyable read, with some interesting, if exceedingly posh characters . . . to be expected considering the author, a man so posh QE2 probably feels common in his company. Be warned, it does contain some strong language, and a few scenes of a sexual nature, including one that could be construed as offensive. ( I had to pop that in, I would hate to be accused of corrupting anyones' morals. LOL ) Overall, it's an entertaining novel, very funny, with well defined characters and a sub plot which questions whether we should always believe what we see.

Make Thornborough Henges a National Icon

Hello Dear Reader, I hope you are having a pleasant Saturday. It's nice to see you have ventured back after the rants in my last two posts. No ranting today, I promise :-) Instead I have a request.

If you have a spare minute, could you pop along to icons.org.uk and vote for Thornborough Henges, an incredibly beautiful and archeologically important site in North Yorkshire which currently faces the threat of being turned into a gravel quarry. You can read more about Thornbrough here, but basically the site is extremely significant, ranking along with Stonehenge in terms of importance. The plan to quarry Thornborough has fortunately met with set backs recently, but the site is not completely out of danger yet.

BTW, I've been at those online quizzes again. This time I discovered which fairytale princess I was. I must say, I was surprised to find I was princess material at all LOL


Princess Belle, from Beauty and the Beast.

She quickly fetched some water and poured it over him without stopping. Then he jumped up and was instantly transformed into a handsome prince. They got married, and the musicians began to play again, and the summer side of the garden appeared in its splendor, and the black cloth was all ripped down, and together they lived happily ever after.


Which FAIRY TALE PRINCESS are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

PMQs aka The Tony Blair Show

It's Wednesday, it's midday, it's time for another instalment of the hilarious Tony Blair Show. Oh no, sorry, got that wrong, it's Prime Minister's Question Time. It's easy to make that mistake when you consider that week in week out, we are treated to dazzling displays of wit from our PM, but little in the way of political debate. We watch as Big Tone confounds his opponents with a nifty turn of phrase and an amusing dig at their own governmental past. Unfortunately, the leaders of the opposition parties will insist on labouring (no pun intended) under the misapprehension that PMQs is a serious forum for debating the important matters of the day. Not so. This is an outdated concept. The whole point of PMQs is to make our (not so ) beloved leader look good. Lets face it, his days as PM are numbered, he needs a new career, and this is an ideal opportunity to display his suitability as a chat show guest/host and quiz show panel member.

And he's not a one man show. Oh no, he has a supporting cast of New Labour lovies, oops sorry loyalists, who are only to happy to furnish him with hard hitting questions about the governments' track record. So, an assortment of Jemima and Jeremy Upandcomings ( backbenchers now, but not for much longer) will tax his debating skills with comments about how great it is that buses have ( mostly) run on time since 1997. Big Tone will answer with his usual sincerity and smarm, oops, I mean charm, welcoming the chance to display his softer side. Hey, he's not all about gags.

To be serious for a moment, I do think the dumbing down of PMQs is just another indication of the way in which the line between politicians and celebrities is becoming blurred. In the past we were treated to heated and highly charged debates between Neil Kinnock and Margaret Thatcher, two highly intelligent individuals with radically differing ideals. Both were serious politicians, with a respect for the political process and the traditions of parliament. Over recent years, there has a been a growing sense of apathy amongst the electorate, and this is, in part, due to the way modern politicians conduct themselves. They no longer hold strong opinions, they no longer do what they think is right. Instead they do what they think will be most popular, they attempt to interact with the public by adopting a celebrity-like persona and seeking the input of bona fide celebrities. Rock stars, actors and comedians are all entitled to hold an opinion, but we didn't elect these people, at the end of the day their input is not valid. They live in a world removed from the reality of everyday life for normal people. Until politicians take politics more seriously and begin to build a new relationship with the public, I fear the apathy will become more prevalent.

The Saga of the Bonsai Kitten Continues

It's been a while but it seems the Bonsai Kitten is back. Or at least those people who for some reason can't see that the site is a joke, and who fervently forward emails demanding that 'something' is done about the 'cruelty' What cruelty, it's not real! I hate to cast doubt on the intelligence of another person, but how can anyone not see that this is a work of satire? I could understand if people were complaining that the joke was in poor taste, but to take it literally! I admit, I am a cat lover, I have always owned cats, and I would be the first to stand up and complain if I thought cats were actually being harmed, but they aren't.

Anyhow, after discovering that this was still a hot topic, I gave some thought to the motivation behind the protesters. Firstly, I noticed that the 'blame' is laid at the door of a Japanese person, which makes me wonder whether there are elements of xenophobia about the complaints. Sadly, there are still people who believe that foreigners are capable of anything and can't be trusted. Maybe that is a motivation, maybe not, but, even amongst people who understand that the Bonsai Kitten is a joke, there is still the belief that this could influence unsuspecting web users into trying to create their very own bottled cats. How dumb do they think we are? This 'we know what's good for you' attitude was very common in Britain in the 1980s - early 90s and led to a great degree of censorship of film and televisual media. Fortunately, it no longer exists, and surprise, surprise, we haven't turned into a nation of violent, devil worshipping nymphomaniacs. Who'd have guessed?

I find it rather worrying, although not surprising that this vocal minority group have now found their way onto the internet. Having failed to convince us that we don't have the sense or self control to choose our own entertainment offline, they have turned to unchartered territory, where they seek to convince a global audience that deep down, they need someone to guard their moral welfare. Ironically, what they actually do, is give the objects of their protests a kind of glamour, and a level of publicity that is often out of proportion.

Oh well, that's my opinion on the matter, I'll get off my soapbox now.

UK Wildlife and Conservation Sites

I've discovered a couple of really great nature and conservation sites in the last couple of days. Habitat is an online wildlife and ecology news service which features headlines from all over the UK and Ireland. There is also a load of useful links to other great sites. Well worth a visit, I liked it so much, I made it my home page. Naturenet is full of really useful information about all sorts of wildlife, conservation and countryside issues and topics, but my favourite section is the 'ask the ranger' page. This is where you can submit questions to be answered by the site owner. There is also an informative newsletter which offers a round up of recent questions.

Finally, if you are interested in helping to research and protect UK fauna and flora, pop along to phenology.org where you can take part in the latest springwatch survey.