daily muses

Still counting down

2011-05-19T21:29:00.002Z

Not long till the rapture, oh crumbs I hope I remember to put the cat out and do the washing....

Test Card....

2011-05-19T16:57:00.004Z

Blimey what a trial by fire getting my first video up on the site. Well the webcam turned up, shame the software didn't work, none of the updates worked and finally resorted to a free fairly basic freebie download just to record anything, damn you Microsoft!

Ok so a short intro video made just to test camera (apologies for my vacant ramble I was a bit short tempered having spent a few hours cursing....) to find the file was too big for blogspot. No probs I'll use You tube me thinks. Curses I have had my you tube account suspended so after lots of fiddling with different e-mails finally got it hosted there. If I'd known it was going to be this much trouble I may have been put off but at least I can make porn videos or something to pay for the webcam sometime.....

Enjoy and hopefully I'll ramble at length about interesting stuff soon now I have it working...

End of the world?

2011-05-18T17:30:00.007Z

Apparently May 21st is the date for some Rapture believer's to get all worked up about. As far as I am aware it is due to begin with a big Earthquake on the pacific rim followed by around 2 million Christians getting 'raptured' off the planet to whatever version of heaven they think they'll find while the rest of us ( I include myself here being totally confused by most of the bible, but hey God works in mysterious ways apparently...) suffer 153 days of nasty stuff before we all get wiped out as life the universe and everything ceases to exist, bummer....

Well I always fancied a nice tune before I go but probably won't buy a lottery ticket this weekend...

If I'm honest though I'd be probably be more likely to listen to this...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

2011-05-18T11:33:00.004Z

Very strange news regarding the arrest of Mr Strauss. My initial thoughts are that this whole scenario is very suspect and reeks of 'set up'. The allegations of sexual assault are serious and any potential suspect accused of this should be detained but the amount of information being leaked to the media seems like both a 'smear campaign' and with his detainment in a pretty notorious prison complex without bail 'punishment before conviction'.

I was wondering how easy it would be to abscond being so well known and with the media glare focused on you if accused of such crimes, this being the reason for bail refusal?. Highly unlikely I imagine, certainly the first thing to be seized by the authorities would be a passport and perhaps putting him under house arrest pending trial would be the more humane option until proven guilty or otherwise being a foreign national?

Regardless of the accusations the timing is what has rung alarm bells for me. Minutes before leaving a hotel for meetings in Europe that include the possible 'de-valuing' of the Dollar and the Euro being placed as 'first choice' currency seems a good enough reason for me that the American authorities may be miffed and want to disrupt this. Secondly in France he is viewed as the next Premier running high in the polls ahead of an unpopular incumbent Sarkozy. Perhaps the shady NWO would rather have the French midget stay another term? Or maybe realising that Sarkozy is never going to win want the way clear for 'their' choice which could even be the extreme 'right wing' candidate (might be Le Pen's daughter Mariane Le Pen or something....)

As a coincedental aside my mother happens to live in an apartment next door to what used to be Le Pen's office's in Nice, they have been empty since the previous close election but do sport a couple of bullet holes in the window such was the displeasure of the local populace to his possible election! Nice residential area too so French passions must run high.....

Finally who is the mystery maid making the allegations? Seems dubious the media can get all the coverage they want of the accused but not the accuser/victim. Surely they would want to at least release a statement.

How long before Strauss has an 'accident' awaiting trial and the maid 'disappears'.......

AV vote

2011-05-09T09:03:00.005Z

'If voting changed anything they would vote it illegal'

As you probably are aware us UK peeps got to vote for a change to the voting system recently. The 'Alternative Vote' was a way of making the voting system more 'representitive' of peoples views of who they have in government as oppossed to our 'First past the post' system.
The vote itself being a pre condition of the liberal party forming a coalition government with the Conseratives but lets be honest, what a complete sham and shambles this has been.

Firstly let me make it clear I have always voted Liberal for a couple of reasons. The first was they were the only mainstream political party that wanted a change to the voting system in the form of proportional representation. I don't believe that PR will make a huge difference to the system but at least it could be a small step to 'Democracy' which is sadly lacking in any voting system that favours two mainstream parties. AV was never going to benefit anything as a 'watered down' version of PR and after the fear mongering propaganda regarding it in the media and a large, fully justified backlash against the Liberal party for abanding all thier manifesto and policies (unsurprising in the least....) it was voted against by two thirds of the british public (well those that bothered to get themselves to a voting booth ....).

Secondly despite being fully aware regardless who I vote for the same agenda will run it's course in government regardless of which colour happens to be be at number 10 it's a case of 'use it or lose it' in my view regarding the right to vote. If there comes a point when turnout is so low we well may find ourselves being told who is running the country without a say, even though we could well have been sleepwalking into that situation already.

So how do we move forward when the public now are probably perceiving any change in the voting system as akin to Hitler getting into power through the back door or the Taliban in local councils.... I suggest we push more for the 'none of the above' campaigns which although have had limited sucess in the past seem the only logical way of showing disapproval but not being one of the silent masses next time any of us have to vote on anything.

Lights, Camera, Action

2011-05-05T19:35:00.002Z

Having spent the past couple of days pondering some of the most recent topics in the media that have drawn my attention I have found it really difficult to get back into musing about stuff and nonsense.

What I have realised is that for the past 5 or more years I have barely watched any television nonsense and when I have it's the odd film. Trying to sit and watch breakfast news or 24 Hr news channels I feel like I'm being slowly strangled. It's even worse if I channel hop and see shopping channels and soap opera's I start entering a zombie like state and have to lurch for the off switch. Sort of like a reformed addict being shown a drugs stash and having to flush it down the loo before you fall back into your old ways.

To combat this TV paranoia I have met over the past few years various folks that have experience of or still work within TV and Film industry. They have sort of inspired me to have a go at recording using that wonderful You Tube gizmo my mysterious musings. This is sort of scary being as I have a phobia of having my picture taken let alone being filmed but I'm sure it could be a giggle.

To that end I have ordered some snazzy web cam (it does all sorts of wide angle auto focus shenanigans apparently) and shall shortly be producing a few short films that I can post here.
Please do not be alarmed or adjust your monitor when you see my mortal form. It's not my fault I'm that scruffy it's something genetic apparently.....

Suffice to say I will look forward to any feedback especially when it comes to the topics discussed but if you poke fun at my haircut or nostril hair if the camera is positioned oddly I will not be amused.

As they say in TV land to be continued.......

Dusty corners of the web

2011-05-04T08:58:00.007Z

Greetings and salutations my little munchkins, it's been a while since I brushed off the cobwebs of my keyboard around this neck of the woods and would be sort of shocked if anybody realised I was back to give my unique perspective on all things bizzare in the big round orb we float around on.

If I'm totally honest I would be glad if most of the people that logged on here have buggered off to harass somebody else and got on with their mundane hubdrub lives so I can get down to the nitty gritty of what I've been doing the past couple of years away from typing away my meanderings here.

Firstly a few shouts out to the cyber folks that have enlightened, instructed, amused, and fed me with banter you may be faceless and remain nameless but many thanks. As for topics to start discussing here jezz there is soooooo much after a long break. I'll try over the next few weeks to look at politics, religion, breaking science, skepticism and rational discourse with a healthy dose of cynical humour.

Hugs to all but before I depart did I mention that Osama Bin Lama has been 'taken out' and there was I under the impression he died years ago and had stunt doubles.

Taking the 'sheen' off.....

2009-09-13T00:39:00.005Z

Best 'story' of the past week has been Charlie Sheen and his open letter to Obama. It always makes me roll my eyes to see what 'mainstream media' does to denounce anyone standing up and drawing attention to what the masses are slowly but surely waking up to. 911 is a fantastic example of deception at the highest level regarding the 'true' events and we 'as the public' may never know the true extent of the 'conspiracy to deceive'. The more the rich and famous break out of sleep mode and bite the hand that feeds them as they have all the cash they need, the easier it gets for the more 'asleep' amongst us to pay attention to the facts that don't add up and start asking questions too.

Charlie's questions to the president in can be found here:-

http://www.infowars.com/twenty-minutes-with-the-president/

He does seem to be making global mainstream press so thats a good sign but how long before he is totally denounced as a crackpot and some fake stories come out about him in a smear campaign.....

As a rallying cry I think this fits for us all, enjoy ;)

Those swines.....

2009-09-02T10:03:00.003Z

In my absence over the past months we have had lots of 'interesting' news but one of the main ones that perked my interest was the emergence of a new strain of 'swine flu'.

Having a background in microbiology I watched the media outlets devote huge swathes of air time to this emerging pandemic from Mexico and it's rapid spread across the globe with infection counts, death counts and all the pandemonium and panic from governments.

Personally I found this story all a little odd. Firstly the resulting strain has genetic elements of swine flu, avian flu and human flu's. The explanation that this little concoction developed in a pig exposed to them and then mutated into the form we see now seems a little bit of a leap of faith. Now there are various conspiracies of this virus being deliberately released, I cannot say but it would seem far more likely this strain was developed in a lab than a 'natural' evolution of the virus.

The second odd thing was the death counts/infection rates and who was being infected (age groups etc). Figures were incredibly inaccurate and still are as some countries were better at record keeping and initial diagnosis. Despite the world wide panic (aided both by the media and WHO) it was occurring to me that the deaths although not in the normal categories of the elderly the deaths primarily were in people with weak or compromised immune systems. Also the deaths compared to infections were far less than seasonal flu which was perhaps due to less elderly catching this 'swine flu'. Actual deaths compared with seasonal flu are far, far less in the case of swine flu.

Thirdly I was shocked at the global response to this emerging pandemic regarding containment, and public health. Specifically the widespread use of anti viral drugs such as tamiflu. All good medical professionals and biologists know that virus's can mutate rapidly and over use of any drug will stimulate the virus to mutate quicker to overcome and develop an immunity to whatever agent you are using to destroy it. It was almost as if this widespread use of tamiflu was designed to fail and cause the virus to develop immunity. The blanket use of this drug in the UK was frightening to me.

In the UK we also had our NHS use call centres and hot lines to 'self diagnose' swine flu. Now I am aware doctors surgeries could be have been overwhelmed in the initial mass hysteria/panic but proper diagnosis will aid appropriate treatment, quarantine was at that stage ineffective so therefore pointless. This again was another mass tamiflu prescribed to the masses example after their initial phone call and 'do you have a cough, sore head, oh must be swine flu questionnaire...'.

Now we have reached a point where we are being warned in the UK of the 'second wave' and people are being on alert for mass vaccinations. This is where I get really scared. To have a properly tested, safe and effective vaccine in the time frame from the first outbreak is highly unlikely. Vaccines take time to test and trial over years not months. This flu is not killing people by the score therefore why should we all be exposed to something that could very well harm our health (and if you are allergic to things such as eggs potentially fatal) over the short and long term. Also in my opinion every single person that has been exposed to or contracted swine flu should not be vaccinated as thier immune system should now be able to respond if exposed again. People would be better off self quarantining whilst they have 'swine flu' and only seeking medical advice should they develop symptoms such as heavy fever and muscle pains beyond what would be expected of seasonal flu (or if they may be high risk such as pregnant woman or those with weak immune systems).

All this adds up to a poorly managed assault on our public health by the very people there to protect it. Conspiracy or not it is shameful that the people that should know better aren't shouting more about this. At least the UK doctors are refusing the vaccinations which is at least a start. If your GP who you trust to know whats in your best interests refuses to take a jab doesn't that tell you something?.

Dusty round here.....

2009-08-29T12:18:00.002Z

Time to refresh the old blog. For those that worried or missed me, have no fear and please do not consider any outlandish conspiracies of my self imposed absence for almost a year....

I should say I have been busy but although not strictly true. I have been musing away on many missions but primarily combining my love of science with the esoteric in chaos theory and magick.
This did/does involve a little bit of isolation like all the great shaman and a good deal of reading, practice and searching the inner consciousness. I am certainly not much of a practicing magician but have a better understanding of the principles and can say 'magick works boyz'

I have carried on my use of rune magick and have a better understand of simple glyph work. Gnosis has been fun (with and without stimulants).

For those interested a quick book list of some of my reference material I ploughed my way through...

Condensed Chaos (Phil Hine)
Quarks, leptons and the big bang (Jonathan allday)
The Apophenion (P J Carroll)
Runcasters handbook (Thorsson)
Basics of sigil magic (P Cooper)
Liber kaos (P J Carroll)
Liber null and psychonaut (P J Carroll)
Psychedelics handbook (Peter Stafford)
The book of results (Ray Sherwin)
Magick (A Crowley)

For a bit of light entertainment away from all that lot Max brooks and his World war Z and zombie survival guides were excellent reads though not to be mixed with 'Lord of the flies' at the same time as it gets all a little insane reading too much weirdness......

Back soon with more interesting weirdness from this messed up globe we live on. And don't mention global meltdowns, swine flu, Obhama wazzisface or mass vaccinations just yet please.....

Zombified

2008-11-03T14:58:00.002Z

Well Halloween has been and gone. I didn't get up too as many high jinks as previous years as I had a stinky cold and felt like 'death warmed up'. Appropriate I suppose for this time of the year...

I did however watch scary movies and was super impressed with the E4 short telly series/film 'Dead set', Charlie Brooker is a genius with this one and his interview about it can be found here:-

http://www.e4.com/deadset/charlie-brooker.html

I love zombie flicks but this one has really had an impact. Anyone who has had the displeasure of being inflicted with the generation of 'reality TV' will love seeing the Big Brother housemates fending off a hoard of zombies. The characterisation of the 'typical' housemates and Producer were classic. Well recommended viewing which can be streamed from the E4 website globally as far as I am aware. Though it will definitely appeal more to the UK audience with the UK Big Brother and set. Oh and not forgetting the Lovely Davina! more make up than normal love.....

' ch ch ch changes'

2008-10-30T11:07:00.004Z

Well as the American presidential 'race' draws to a close (with a record breaking length of prime time advert by Mr Obama...) I was drawn to an Article by my favourite Journalist and modern day Hero Mr Pilger.

You can read it here:-

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=508

Advertising re run

2008-10-28T12:08:00.003Z

WASSSUP Homies?. I really dislike advertising, especially political advertising, at least here in the UK it's limited by law on telly during an election but in America anything goes... This though is absolutly priceless.....
It's a shame change is about as likely as a quick recovery of the global economy!

Painting over the cracks

2008-10-24T11:35:00.003Z

Bah, westminster council is ordering the removal of a piece of the infamous 'Banksey's' works of art. Blimey it would probably be worth a fortune but has maybe too political a message for them to allow in public view (oh and camera view too!). Lets just hope the owner of the wall tells them to naff off and then they are really scuppered!

The story goes that banksy had to raise 3 stories of scaffolding, and had a cctv just out of shot of this photo as well as limbering over a security barrier to paint this baby!

Sneinton

2008-10-22T08:34:00.004Z

I live here, it's sorta nice, green bits, smelly bits, nice buildings, crumbling old bits. Nice people, horrid old busybody people. Buts it feels like home but it is amusing to realise I've been slumming it all these years!. Oh look there's my house, that non descript red brick terrace built in row upon row at the turn of the century by some wealthy landowner type. Amazing how things never really move on with the whole regeneration thing.

TV drug of the nation?

2008-10-20T14:01:00.002Z

I found a very interesting article here:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/17/scidream117.xml

I don't watch anywhere near as much of the goggle box as I used too though my dreams are maybe say 50/50 between colour and B/W. My early childhood was primarily B/W television until maybe 5 or 6 when it was mainly colour with a B/W telly still for most of my childhood viewing in the study/kitchen rather than watching what my parents wanted to see.

It is very astounding to see proof of television affecting our subconscious at this level in a very profound way and tie this in with subliminal marketing/advertising and it becomes a little alarming in my opinion.

Scapegoat?

2008-10-15T08:37:00.002Z

Oh Dear, poor old Gary McKinnon is probably going to be shipped off to the USA for trial fairly shortly. Personally I think this is all a bit of a whitewash by American military. They claim huge amounts of damage was done but Gary denies doing anything malicious to files, if any cost was incurred I suspect it was money spent improving their security which had been exposed as a bit lame and the obvious loss of face.

The latest developments can be seen here:-

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/10/13/232645/hacker-gary-mckinnon-to-be-extradited-to-us-within-days.htm

I also thinks it's a little scary that the length of sentence he could be facing is in any way justified, Jesus 70 years or so for what?. We have muggers over here that don't get so much as a day in prison.....

I don't know if there is any way for public pressure to be put on 'the powers that be' to let him have trial or at least serve his sentence in the UK but this seems a real miscarriage of justice in the making if there was ever a case.

Old Icke, same message

2008-09-18T19:10:00.001Z

Funny how it all ended up making sense, I'm not bloomin laughing along with Wogan now!!!

Shown the door....

2008-09-17T11:37:00.000Z

Way to go Royal society!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7619670.stm

Polly tics

2008-09-16T19:13:00.003Z

I have been very quiet on my views on the current presidential 'race' in USA. This isn't due to ignorance or not caring, far from it but politics especially in America seem very much 'closed shop'. I have said before on posts here many times that 'If voting changed anything they would vote it illegal'. This seems particularly true with the present American two party system of 'democracy' and the shameful charade of the candidates promising 'change, change, change......'

I try very much to avoid too much television these days, I read as much as I can and try to source information from as many alternative sources as possible to get some idea of the 'real deal'. Now try as I might both candidates and their running mates' seem as dishonest, potentially corrupt, deceitful, racist, warmongering and generally as awful as the last lot. Hardly surprising really because if those that can't see their is a political agenda that doesn't serve the people, or America as a whole but purely benefits the elite by now really needs to get their head examined.

Now I could go on and state all the examples of doublespeak, lies and propaganda being spouted by both parties in this election campaign but it's hardly worth it, just open your eyes folks. So where does this leave us?. Well pretty feced in my humble opinion, if Bush was never impeached despite overwhelming evidence to suggest it should have happened I seriously doubt the American public have got the will or power to do much about it. Third party politics is something they have never had the privilege of, so much for a country that prides itself on 'Democracy' but is happy to install puppet governments in countries after they have had their war machine pound all over it.

Are we any better off in the UK?. No way, we are up the river without a paddle if America says jump, we say how high. Such is our 'special relationship' , talk about sleeping with the enemy....
The big difference is in the UK our political system hasn't reached the twisted corruption of the USA just yet, but is pretty damn close. We, just as the American population can do is choose to protest, but for how long?. We can refuse to vote. In the UK this may just work as the ballot boxes are opened and counted live, by many, many people. In America computerised balloting has meant an already corrupt system could just 'hide' the fact nobody voted. Slightly harder in the UK but it would take a huge mass action protest such as the 'ORANGE REVOLUTION' in the Ukraine but may still be possible. We also have despite the ridicule the 3rd party, liberal loonies perhaps but it does act as a balance and can get some laws watered down or stopped such as the raft of infringements on our civil liberties. We have a choice people and if public figures can issue a call to not vote to force action (ok ok Noel Edmond's is hardly much of a public figure!!!) but we COULD. America unfortunately CAN'T.

unspoken soundtrack

2008-09-01T22:01:00.002Z

October 20th is going to be a blast from the past, AC/DC are set to launch the first new material in whats seems like eons with a new album. Awesome, these guys where my introduction to 'metal', I remember to this day being passed a copy of 'fly on the wall' under the desks in a french class within the first week of 'big school' in my ill fitting blazer, wonky tie in a 'wet behind the ears way'. A band that I will always love regardless for the simple roooooooooock of it all!

Long time, no see

2008-08-26T09:21:00.004Z

Ohh it's been a right 'ol while since I updated the masses to what I've been up to, so here goes to the best of my ability whilst the poor frazzled braincells can still remember.

Well being the annual school holidays I've had a good amount of time away from college life and been 'letting my hair down' to a certain extent (actually I chopped off most of it as I was beginning to become blinded in strong winds...).

I have had a little excursion to Cornwall/Devon camping which was most relaxing and very lucky with the weather, I actually got sunburn which is amazing considering British summer weather. I caught up with the relatives too over my extended break from working life which has been most fun and finally to finish with a bang went to Creamfields to re-live some of my 'raving' youth, truly awesome fun (I forgot how ace rave chicks with glow sticks are!!!). I can remember most of the acts I saw to some extent but being reminded of some that I can't remember at all so I must have had a good time.....

I spent some time doing all the niggling little things around the 'chalet Chris' that had been left until I had some 'spare' time so feel all feng shui or something with my living environment which is turning into some sort of contemporary home without me realising ( the arty farty type I am....).

I have avoided all the madness of the world as much as possible to recharge my batteries but have been keeping an eye on the steady stream of crazy wars, politics and mass media nonsense as ever. 'Normal service to be resumed as soon as possible'. Oh but I may throw the odd whistle and glow stick about for a week or two yet!!!

Bit of a wash out....

2008-07-07T11:01:00.002Z

After enjoying a balmy Friday afternoon in the sunny shine I was quite looking forward to the regular 'Sneinton festival'. Quite a fun giggle in previous years and nice local community event. Unfortunatly this year it was a bit of a poor turnout compared to previous years and heavy raining bits which forced me to seek shelter in some freinds houses nearby and sort of missed the festival... ooops. I did however drink some fine wines and have an impromptu house party which resulted in me getting back to 'Chalais Chris' around 4.00am (soz neighbours for the load musak....)

Still have a hangover today so think I'm getting too old for all nighters........

Fight Club

2008-07-03T13:56:00.002Z

Well after my last little encounter with knife weilding muggers I got the opportunity to take my nasty side out in a 'sparring competition' in my online persona on LOTRO. Was very funny as some sneaky hobbits decided to get themselves the sniffles and pass this onto to all and sundry throughout the land, pesky hobbits....

The footage can be seen here:-

http://www.youtube.com/v/fdm8crzW58I

Apologies about the quality it is best viewed not 'scaled up'. I'm the gold armour clad woman getting run around in circles with some silly bowman btw, never fight fair with close quarters fisticuffs those sorts.....

Maybe I should consider getting a big halberd in real life to chase muggers around too, bit hard to hide under my jacket tho.....

Crime fighting the 'cool' way.....

2008-06-30T09:56:00.002Z

Despite living in Nottingham which the media has portrayed as gun capital of the UK with loads of burglaries and muggings I have in my 12 year residence of this fair city had no probs to mention. A couple of break in's but nothing too serious but this morning I had what can only be described as the Laurel and Hardy of muggings happen to me.

Two little toerags threatened me with a knife on my way to work. Unfortunately they must have forget some of the basics of mugging in their bravado. Firstly mug someone with money, I'm skint the sum total of my ready cash might buy you a cup of tea and sarnie but not a lot else. Second mug someone with stuff worth nicking again not me. My mobile spends more time at home than being mobile.... I don't wear bling or anything, if I wanted to look like Jay Z or P daddy I wouldn't be wearing ripped jeans and T-Shirt!.

Thirdly might help being a mugger if you looked sort of scary, yes threatening me with a knife is sorta scary but being covered in acne and looking younger than the students in my college is hardly instilling me with fear.....

Fourthly when going about a mugging don't choose a street that is busy, passers by tend to notice the victim 'namely me' swearing rather loudly at the 'fecing tossers' and wonder whats happening.

And perhaps finally again related to location do not under any circumstances try and rob someone within spitting distance of the local police station, it sort of makes the targets escape route obvious and at 8.00am in the morning you tend to have a steady flow of police going to work....

Suffice to say they didn't actually manage to rob anything, got very confused at my attitude 'um isn't he supposed to be like scared or something?' and got caught within 5 min due to the fact I could walk into the local nick and give a description straight away (despite having an aversion to all places of authority!)

Lucky I did as well, some poor women had been frogmarched to a cashpoint at knife point by them earlier and was giving a statement as I arrived, coincidence but led to them being caught as the 'viper squad' were already after them. I didn't even know we had a 'viper squad', apparently it's a group of detectives and police types who concentrate on knife/gun crime in Nottingham and presumably are pretty rapid response. They had a lucky break with me today or the fact they are dealing with stupid muggers but I would like to think it was my cool crime fighting skill!

Unfortunately I will now have to do all the photo id line up thingy and court appearance etc but hey if I'm going to be like spider man I need to make sure some 'punks go down'........

My new hero

2008-06-24T12:20:00.002Z

I've been having a look at a Microbiologist and his work a chap called Richard Lenski that works in the Michigan state university. He has been running a long term experiment exploring the evolution of E-coli and a wiki entry below will give you all the linkes for reading about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_experiment

The reason I am mentioning him is the experiment has pretty much run it's course having been started in 1988 and the results very much go to 'prove' the theory/ies of evolution despite the 'creationist' bandwagon trying to 'spin' the results.

This is also the experiment I dreamed of doing whilst studying at University but was 10 years too late:(. Well at least what I expected has happened and adapatation to environment does occur and random genetic 'drift' does act as a precursor to other fundamental genetic adapatation.

Now I wonder if we can re-run it to look at possibility of working out rate of genetic mutations....... I'm free for the next 20 years of my career!

Memory lane

2008-06-20T10:21:00.002Z

I had a little 'jolt' from the past on hearing the band 'The Police' are due to play at Stormont in Northern Ireland. For those a little unfamiliar Strormont is the home of the NI political assembly and has quite big grounds but even so there are still concerns this may be too small for the crowds.
Hopefully most people will be well aware of the political history and the sectarian violence in the province over the years but my reason for posting this is a particular song that 'The Police' will be playing that was banned on the airwaves during the troubles along with it's accompanying video (see below). It was eerie watching this as any one of the children could have been me on those streets, how times change for the better. In no way though would I wish for a different upbringing sometimes the experiences of some mean streets with the naivety of childhood make us what we are and a population what it is.

Hidden in 'plane' sight...

2008-06-20T08:56:00.002Z

Shocked at the scale of whatever is going on from this video from Japan.... Chemtrails everywhere....

Quote of the day

2008-06-18T09:52:00.002Z

"There are no limits to creativity.There is no end to subversion."- Raoul Vaneigem, 1967

2008-06-13T14:32:00.000Z

Well at least the Irish who got a vote spoke sense.......

Protest vote?

2008-06-12T14:06:00.002Z

Exciting piece of news here:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7450627.stm

At last some politician with a degree of moral fibre and courage to make a stand against policies driven through Parliament with little justification and against the wishes of the voting majority.

I wish David Davies all the best in hopefully securing his seat and in another breath of fresh air in politics several parties will not be fielding candidates in his constituency as they also disapprove of the '42 day policy', good for them!.

In a further 'twist' we have the bloomin brainwashing mass media attempt to derail David Davis's stand... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7452264.stm

Euro 08

2008-06-09T11:12:00.002Z

Football is back again some I'm going to be snowed under with TV watching for a change. Shame England or Ireland didn't qualify so the nation seems to be very disinterested this time around.

I shall as always be the closet German supporter (despite the fact they have been rubbish for years....).

First opening game 2-0 vs Poland so maybe things are looking up for a change but I won't be rushing to place a bet as I suspect Spain or Portugal to lift the trophy this time around.

Friday Thought

2008-06-06T11:58:00.004Z

'In A time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.' George Orwell

Trauma

2008-06-02T11:00:00.003Z

Found an article that interested me here:- http://www.physorg.com/news131514434.html

Having had the whole 'It's good to talk ' over the years and being a fairly quiet contemplative individual never really felt comfortable with expressing emotional discourse to the masses in some collective 'healing' process. I always thought my personal psychological make up was more suited to just dealing with it and moving on. Seems I may have been right....

'If the assumption about the necessity of expression is correct -- that failing to express one's feelings indicates some harmful repression or other pathology -- then people who chose not to express should have been more likely to experience negative mental and physical health symptoms over time, the researchers point out. "However, we found exactly the opposite: people who chose not to express were better off than people who did choose to express," Seery says. Moreover, when the researchers looked only at people who chose to express their thoughts and feelings, and tested the length of their responses, they found a similar pattern. People who expressed more were worse off than people who expressed less. "We assessed various alternative explanations in secondary analyses, but nothing else accounts for this effect," Seery says. '

Jingoistic?

2008-05-22T08:45:00.003Z

Having a growl today. After the joys of physics practical exams and the subsequent removal of posters from the lab during this I thought it was time to ditch some of the grotty old ones and 'wallpaper' with some of the new ones sent through to us in the form of freebies throughout the year.

Unfortunatly we seem to have aquired a hundredweight of posters from the RAF promoting physics and different careers within the RAF using them. Personally I am all for giving A level students career advice and many posters to such effect will be going up but I draw the line at the armed forces recruiting in schools. I have therefore taken my stand by putting up careers such as medical physics, quantum physics, computer technology, design technologies, engineering, astronomy, and so forth and the RAF was removed to the nearest waste paper bin much to the annoyance of the other technician.....

Propaganda has no place in an educational establishment....

Exams

2008-05-19T14:23:00.003Z

No I haven't died, no I haven't been abducted by aliens, no the 'men in black' didn't catch me, no I haven't been fired, no Kiera Knightly still refuses to answer my calls, no I'm not in a padded cell, no I didn't attempt a JFK style assination of my footy teams rubbish manager after relegation and finally no I haven't been locked in an Austrian cellar for, um several weeks......

I'm back! ish. Well its exam time and exams mean I have to do a bit of stress and work for all our lovely staff and pupils which gets in the way of my 'real' mission out there in the webbyverse. No real updates but the recent UFO files released by the British Government was amusing, no 'real' surprises but a step in the right direction I suppose.

I have had a few 'interesting' stories of note I will be updating you with over the next few weeks, so like a bad soap opera, stay tuned for the next installment. Oh and a confession of sorts I got all 'fakebooked' at and got all these peeps I haven't seen in ages out there how strange. Could do with 'new' strange people but that's life.

Orbituary

2008-05-02T10:05:00.000Z

Props in Passing on the Ascendance of Dr. Albert Hoffmanby chris23 on 2008-04-30 12:53:57tags: albert hoffman, lsd

Unwittingly unleashing one of the most transformative substances ever discovered, Dr. Hoffman brought to the world in perfect synchro the stroboscopic antidote to nuclear annihilation. Modern music, art and advertising. The anti-war movement. The civil rights movement. The personal computer revolution. All owe a great debt to his "problem child", still trying to fit in to a neglectful and judgmental society of fear. The patterns of light and color thrown off by this discovery continue to ripple and refract across our world in kaleidoscopic wonder, gradually and steadily recasting our world in the images of reunion. Rewarded with a long life and a glowing historical legacy, Dr. Hoffman has lain to rest in the halls of eternity, ever-present in the world of things, speaking to all who dare ingest his most potent discovery. May the angels bear you well to the great beyond.

From the Vault at Erowid:

Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland in 1906. He graduated from the University of Zürich with a degree in chemistry in 1929 and went to work for Sandoz Pharmaceutical in Basel, Switzerland. With the laboratory goal of working towards isolation of the active principles of known medicinal plants, Hofmann worked with Mediterranean squill (Scilla maritima) for several years, before moving on to the study of Claviceps purpurea (ergot) and ergot alkaloids. Over the next few years, he worked his way through the lysergic acid derivatives, eventually synthesizing LSD-25 for the first time in 1938. After minimal testing, LSD-25 was set aside as he continued with other derivatives. Four years later, on April 16, 1943, he re-synthesized LSD-25 because he felt he might have missed something the first time around. That day, he became the first human to experience the effects of LSD after accidentally ingesting a minute amount. Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting 250 ug of LSD. This day has become known as "Bicycle Day" as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab. In addition to his discovery of LSD, he was also the first to synthesize psilocybin (the active constituent of 'magic mushrooms') in 1958. Albert Hofmann, known as the 'father of LSD', continued to work at Sandoz until 1971 when he retired as Director of Research for the Department of Natural Products. He continued to write, lecture, and play a leading role as an elder in the psychedelic community until his quick and relatively painless death from a heart attack at the age of 102.

The King is dead, long live the king....

2008-05-01T10:11:00.002Z

Sad news that Albert Hofmann has died at the ripe old age of 102. For the uninitiated (where have you been a freakin cave numpty!) my 'anti-hero' scientist was Dr Hofmann creator (albeit by accident) of LSD. His sad passing (though he had a good innings especially considering some of the dosages of hallucinogenics over the years) got me thinking of of my teenage experimentation (though some say I still haven't grown up yet...) and remembering 'borrowing' a child's bike and riding about three miles including an incredibly steep hill. Knowing nothing about it until finding the bike the following day in my front room when I recovered, oh and several bottles of whiskey....

Oh and the odd episode of overcoming my inherent fear of heights and spending an afternoon climbing trees and any inanimate object more than 6 feet of the ground. I reckon Dr Hofmann may have been onto something when he reckoned LSD could be used to 'cure' mental illness and ailments such as alcoholism. Certainly made me loose some phobias over the years.

I do like the way he always viewed LSD as his 'Problem child'. I always viewed myself as the states 'problem child' too he he.

Well RIP Dr Hofmann I'm sure your legacy will carry on being a source of fascination for enlightening minds in many generations to come.

Football is a funny old game

2008-04-25T09:54:00.004Z

I've been a football supporter for years. I started following 'my club' when I first moved over to England when I was a young whipper snapper of 12 years. Unfortunately for me my first game to go and see of 'proper football' as we had rubbish teams in Northern Ireland.... was Leicester City. Why my parents couldn't have moved to Manchester, Liverpool or London is beyond me!.

Either which way I became a LCFC fan and will be ever more. Over the years the club has had up's and downs. When I first watched them the dreaded threat of relegation loomed to the lower leagues was on the cards and it was only a thrilling game against Oxford that saved us.

After twenty odd years of following the team (blimey I should get a medal) we are almost back to the same position of perilously close to relegation obscurity again. Strange how things have come full circle. Hopefully we will do enough to survive but maybe Rudyard Kipling, that famous of all Leicester fans, summed it up best with his poem 'IF'. I believe these were the original words:

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on Ollie,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance and make them sorry,

If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,Or being lied about, don’t read the tabs

Or being hated, don’t listen to rivals

And yet don’t look too good, nor feel too fab.

If you can dream – and not make success your master;

If you can think – and not make intellect your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd still support Leicester all the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you have spoken Twisted by the press to make traps for hoots,

Or watch the games you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build’em up with worn out boots:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one shot at goal

And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your aching soul;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve our club long after the unfaithful have gone

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says - Carry on!If you can sing with crowds and keep your chin up

And at the Walkers keep the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can console you,When Leicester are not up to much;

If you can fill each forgiving match day With 90 minutes worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Leicester fan my son.

Mirror of real life

2008-04-22T14:00:00.003Z

I had a little discussion today regarding the whole mmorpg thing and how people are using 'second life' and suchlike to have 'alternative lives'. It was during this that I accidentally came out with one of the classic Chris quotes which shall now live on printed on coffee mugs or suchlike...

'Mmorg's are just like real life because I drink too much beer while playing and make the odd erratic pull'

Maybe I should have been in comedy after all....

It's one big headache

2008-04-21T13:57:00.003Z

Ouchy ouch. Had a lack of Internet surfing and posting on muses over the past week due in part to laziness and being busy with other things but mainly suffering nasty migraines.

Never really tending to get them but they bloomin hurt......

There was a big suspicion over the work areas and labs being poorly ventilated with several students suffering a similar fate but all seems fine today. Also been desperately getting back into the writing thing and can only do so much in front a computer screen before getting brain ache anyway.

New mission in pipeline being a few children's short stories based on a puppy growing up. First time I've tried to write children's stories and difficult judging humour but very fun to write.

Jobs for the boys?

2008-04-07T12:23:00.003Z

Grrr, had a very growly day today. Turned up at work to be informed that one of our Chemistry teaching staff 'would not be returning'. After digging deeper it seems there had been a few complaints by students regarding her teaching. No offense to anybody but most of our teaching staff get complained about for one reason or another throughout the year and having been present whilst this chemist was teaching found her lessons in no way more disrupted than any other member of staff and as far as curriculum she may not have been totally 'au fait' with the syllabus being brought in at short notice earlier in the year but was a very experienced and knowledgeable chemist. Very often students that have 2 separate teachers for one subject will express a preference for one or another's teaching and other than this I certainly didn't see any other student rumblings other than what could be considered normal in an educational environment.

It seems to me that as part of the 'process of complaint' the Head of Chemistry sat in on some of her lessons to see if the student concerns were warranted. This came under the guise of 'classroom observations' which all staff throughout the year are involved in. One of the points of concern was 'using power point presentations is poor practice'. Excuse me but having been well briefed on ofsted inspections the integration and use of IT applications within all teaching is a must and to obtain the 'holy grail' of grading,a miraculous 1 grade without IT you have no hope. This seems very much an individual judgement that has cost someone their job purely because one member of staff dislikes the teaching style of another based on perhaps malicious but certainly inaccurate student complaints.

I find it also slightly strange that the Head of Chemistry who never uses IT and gets us lowly technicians to do all her word processing is trying to defend her non-use of IT within the classroom as 'Good practice' and within 24hrs of our ex chemist leaving our old PT chemist that the Head of Chemistry knows well had miraculously returned just in time for the revision classes to 'Save the day'......

I think I might just mention my Union rep position to the Head of Chemistry this afternoon and watch the fireworks.....

Shrooms and Fairies...

2008-04-01T18:02:00.004Z

Well gain slight apologies for the slight gap in my normally irregular postings but a well deserved Easter break and wedding with b4/after episodes have taken priority in my hectic life schedule....

Firstly big congrats to Mr and Mrs ball, about time too mind but I'm sure the day was everything you wanted and more. Much fun was had by all and I have to apologise on my slackness in photo stuff but wearing Al Capone's outfit minus the violin case meant a distinct lack of pockets to carry much more than a speech and cigars (all the essentials).

I don't think Ive seen quite so big shrooms and as many fairies in one place all most fun including seeing all those people I haven't seen in eons. Next time warn me about the ex you buggers tho, (My speech had to have a little rethink/write pretty sharpish.....) .

I think we all got a little spannered by morning so mission success in my books. I did have a weirdy moment tho having some sort of flashback set to some 'bastardised' version of several u2 songs in my head. Must have been the bucks fizz.

Expelled

2008-04-01T13:06:00.002Z

The release of 'Creationist/Intelligent design' communities docu-drama 'Expelled' is just around the corner and the Hollywood hype engine is kicking into gear. For all those rational, common sense and intelligent people who happen to stop off on these pages please avoid this film like the plague. It is a bias propaganda slur on the mainstream scientific community and in my opinion deserves no attention whatsoever full of lies and distortions.

For some background information on the skulduggery and manipulation that took place during it's creation and subsequent filming please check out this excellent blog entry:-

http://angryastronomer.blogspot.com/2007/08/expelled-movie.html

Let us all hope this film sinks within it's opening week and those responsible for it's production evolve into more rational human beings in the near future.....

3.14

2008-03-14T14:04:00.002Z

It's global Pi day. Pi being 3.14 in it's simplest form but a mindbogglingly large number in reality that has never been determined despite lots of supercomputers having a go at it. It is also Einsteins birthday today who had a passing interest in Pi no doubt. To celebrate this auspicious occasion I have been eating lots of Pie, lots and lots of pie especially blueberry which I am developing an addiction too.....

At approx 3.14pm today I shall share some of my pie in the staffroom by dividing the circumference of my pie by the average diameter of waistlines of members of staff present but only allowing them to eat it if they can give me the value of Pi to at least 6 significant figures otherwise the Pie remains mine!

Ah it's a wonderful life being a silly science type.........

V for Virus's

2008-03-13T15:06:00.002Z

Bah, after having a relatively fine time without getting myself infected with nasty Trojans and virus's I got 'lurgied' on the work computer. This was hugely embarrassing as the work anti-virus software chugged into overdrive stopping a whole variety of automatic downloads with files like 'teen3' and young8. I work in a college this sorta stuff is gonna get mightily frowned upon......

No idea what happened, one minute I was happily reading some article on esoteric dream patterns and the next minute a whole host of alarm bells started going off.....

At least the anti-virus software was doing it's job but I now have these automatic download files in quarantine complete with embarrassing titles...... Strange as I have used the sites in the past with no problems and haven't been downloading anything. Just heading to the site seemed to cause the flood of goodness knows what oooerr.

Fargoe, far gone:(

2008-03-11T14:18:00.002Z

Bummer one of my pet cats has finally given up the ghost and gone to the great scratching post in the sky. He was a poorly little mite and quite old in cat years so not unexpected. In fact it was amazing how long he kept going after all his illnesses. He was a funny old specimen of a rescue cat when my ex brought him home, having been through the wars with wonky teeth and wonky claws.

Anyway sad to hear of his passing on and don't have many pics of him unfortunately but found one on the net of a cat looking similar to his stunningly good catlooks. Well if you didn't look too closely anyway.....

Also which I thought was very fitting and extremely nice of peeps when they found out on that silly mmorpg I play 'lord of the rings' people who had pet Lynx's on their characters changed their names to Fargoe for a short time. A section of Middle Earth filled with purring and snarling Fargoe's he he. It was slightly confusing which one was mine at times but a fitting tribute to the worlds wonkiest puddy cat.

Dam n Blast

2008-03-04T13:45:00.002Z

Oh back from the Amsterdam trip and much frolics were had. Copious amounts of all things hedonistic that the world capitol in sex and drugs can offer a stag party were witnessed and sampled by many. There are a few funny stories but I shouldn't really reveal too much being 'the law of stag weekends' what goes on remains never talked about again.

I do reckon if I mention luminous yellow ribbon at any occasion to my brother I may get free beer off him to keep quiet in a sibling blackmail type way......

I experienced how ill you can get mixing your fungal varieties and beer. I also realised I'm not half bad at finding ace hotels in the middle of red light districts. It was called the St Christopher tho and was no. 123 which was purely to aid in finding it when drunken....

Got some prime speech material too, so not a bad result all in:)

Shaken not stirred

2008-02-27T11:22:00.002Z

Oh we had an earthquake last week here in the UK. It was a little noisy, and a bit shaky my neck of the woods but the house is still standing with only a few cracks in the plaster and I didn't fall down the stairs as I was bizarrely awake at the time haven woken from a bit of a slumber five minutes before it struck. I must have some weird sixth sense for natural disasters.

Unfortunately I was still half asleep so thought the neighbours were having an argument or a plane had crashed into my house, or worse yet the police were hammering down my front door with a big metal battering ram or something. It wasn't until the shaking subsided that I realised it was probably an earthquake and it might have been an Idea to get out of the shaking house.....

Best man duties.....

2008-02-22T11:11:00.003Z

Bummer, I have to be a best man and do best man type duties soon. First duty is supposed to be the 'Stag weekend'. Well this is all seems a bit of a non-starter due to the fact the groom and bride to be want a combined weekend with friends in Amsterdam. General consensus seems to be this sort of defeats the object of your last night of 'freedom' but whatever they want to do is fine by me. What it does mean is that although 'The dam' is pretty easy for getting up to no good on a stag weekend and doesn't take a lot of best man organising, it means 90% of what the groom should do won't happen..... Oh well it's the closest weekend to my birthday and my brother is over too so I'll celebrate something even if it isn't the groom's impending life sentence.

Secondly I have to write a speech as part of all this. Unfortunately my cutting wit and humour has been deemed too harsh by everyone that's looked at my drafts. Not my fault that the groom has far too many stories that could be potentially brought up in front of friends and family to cause maximum embarrassment.... I also quite like the groom's family so don't really want to be disowned by them, does that mean that taking the micky out of the bride is fair game tho?.

Finally I'm supposed to do duties on the day, not 100% sure what these entail but probably reading out cards and sticking presents in a cab and silly stuff like that. Providing cigars at an appropriate moment and perving over any nice single bridesmaids I reckon....

Rubbish!

2008-02-18T10:56:00.005Z

Well after a weekend of concocting and consuming strange brews and total Kitchen chemistry chaos I can safely say, yes I am relativly competent at extracting various active ingredients from strange plant life but consumption and effects of said Amazonian plants was highly dubious.

I certainly didn't have any spiritual enlightenment and wasn't ill. I did feel a bit woozy and light headed/sleepy before realising that after several hours it was acting like a stimulant rather than anything else and it took untill about 8 hours passing before I could sleep.

I did edge on the side of caution with quantities but using dried samples rather than fresh I think must make a lot of difference. I also may attempt to keep the samples stewing longer than the 4 hours I did to see if there is anymore sucess.

On the plus side it tasted rank but not complelty horrid. The smell was actually quite aromatic coupled with the the freebie incence I was sent, my house ended up smelling like an arabian smoking parlour.

I may have to carry on the exploration of making herbal smokes too in this age of us all giving up nicotine. I'm sure theses amazonian tribes had alternatives to tobbacco.

Game Over

2008-02-15T15:20:00.002Z

I finally got around to watching 'End Game', the docufilm by Alex Jones into Bildeberg, New World Order and other conspiracy based investigation.

I think I would have watched it before now if it hadn't been for a complete aversion to television and I couldn't be spending cash on dvd's when I have so many other uses for my hard earned pennies. I found the video on Google videos (thanks for the heads up Nervous Teeth peeps) and although not the best quality was watchable.

Unfortunatly I wasn't terribly impressed, informed or even amused. I think the main reason is I have heard, seen or read it all before. True I am one of the population that actually doesn't walk around in blinkered denial but mainly it's because it seemed a great proportion of this particular film is a rehash of old Alex Jones material evidence and to some extent 'rants'. Don't get me wrong I admire Alex Jones for being so outspoken and getting the 'evidence' out to the masses but on the other hand the evidence doesn't need to be constantly reused. 'If you tell enough people a false statement it eventually becomes the truth'. This principle seems to be a New World Order agendga and it doesn't sit easy with Alex Jones repeating the same spiel.

Despite that though if you haven't had the pleasure of viewing any of Alex Jones's work be it websites, radio or film it is well worth viewing as a 'potted' discussion on the NWO agenda. Scary as that is so if of a frail, meek. or in self denial disposition, maybe watching 'Question time' might be more up your political street.

'D'oing 'M'y 'T'est

2008-02-15T11:52:00.005Z

Well carrying on from my previous post regarding psychotropic amazonian plants a little update.

Firstly I have been a little cowardly/sensible and have yet to consume a brew of potentially dangerous narcotic substances just yet. Several reasons, firstly the package arrived a litle late with the ingredients and the preparation/consumption is a full 24hrs and leaving that aside for recovery time it's a weekend mission. Working life gets in the way of my true scienctific/psychonaut exploration....

Secondly I really wanted to be 100% sure of the extraction method/preperation using the ingredients I have obtained. This was proving a little tricky as there are many 'options'. Basically you are taking a plant containing DMT and another containing an MAOI which will inhibit your bodies enzyme defence to breaking down the DMT in the gut to allow it to enter the bloodstream and have it's effect. Consequently with your bodies 'poison defence' comprimised you need to be very careful of what is in your body before this and some very specific chemicals need to be avoided for some time beforehand. Caffeine is one of these and as a caffeine addict a 48hr downtime from my favourite addiction has caused me endless turmoil. I have resorted to drinking de-caf, so embarrassing for a coffee junkie... This also put timings out a little.

Thirdly although I have had many a moment of illness resulting in grasping on to a toilet chundering I really don't enjoy it like most normal people and so wanted to see how I can minimise 'the purge'. Again this is a bit of a 12-24 hr 'fast' and a case of individual response. I will just have to brace for that one but have found a few ways to make the brew 'taste nicer'.

Finally as all good researchers should I had to look at the forerunners and peers of DMT usage and had a look at many accounts from Terrence Mckenna http://deoxy.org/mckenna.htm. A true pioneer of plant/human synergy. Having read accounts and effects I am a bit better informed as to likely hallucengenic outcomes. All seems a little different to other psychotopic plants such as fungi due to the strength of DMT. http://deoxy.org/dmtpro.htm

When time stood still

2008-02-07T12:26:00.000Z

I have just viewed quite a funny video

It's a shame if they tried this in the UK at maybe Kings Cross they would all get arrested as potential terrorists unless they had warned the police and powers that be weeks in advance and been given written permission to do so.......

Spiritual journey

2008-02-06T10:17:00.000Z

Carrying on my continuing quest for spiritual enlightenment and all things esoteric I have been looking at the use of Ayahuasca vine and chakruna leaves by peruvian and brazilian tribes since aztec times as both a spiritual tool and initiation tribal process.

The use of these plants is completely legal in most parts of the world unlike a large amount of psychtropic plants and has consquently developed quite a following. It is said to be more like a medicine and many practitioners say it acts to redress forms of mental illness such as depression and stress and make the user more in tune with the 'gaia' like whole earth theory.

I have watched documentaries with people taking the 'tealike' infussion and by all accounts it is stomach churning tasting like 'The whole jungle powdered and mixed with bile' , mmm nice.....

Anyway I found a european supplier http://maya-ethnobotanicals.com/ and have a batch on the way for a little look at along with some researched instructions on it's preperation which is quite lengthy but relativly simple even for an accident prone lab techie like me.

Well hopefully I'll get to play with the jungle pixies and understand how the world works that little bit more afterwards and will inform all in due course of how much vomiting took place....

Burning the candle at both ends

2008-02-04T13:42:00.000Z

Oh deary been a little while since my last update peeps. Firstly some of my down time has been chasing around for a new phone and then working out how to use it after realising all my old numbers where on my old handset and not the simcard. Unfortunatly my old handset was destined for a landfill somewhere near Glasgow so I had to have a frantic chase around before getting it back.... Anyway now have new phone and stuff so all good.

Secondly I have been exploring the wonderful world of skype and ventrillo and been nattering to all and sundry across the net which has been a bit weirdy but fun anyways. I still can't get to grips with voice activation tho, everything sounds a bit weirdy echoey all the time.

I have also been well and truely burning out so luckily half term looms and a little bit of downtime. Several reasons for this being overwork with coursework time in the college so lots of helping students with thier wonderfully wierd ideas for biology investigations. I have also had a job evaluation benchmark interview and questionaire to do which hopefully will result in all techies from now on being employed having to be as excellent as me, now bring on the payrise!.

I have also being bringing a little bit of 'work home' by mucking about with plants foods, fertilisers and lighting for some little hobby projects. Being all organic hippy now 'worm casts' seem the best 'green' fertiliser out there for your house plants so having a play with that at the minute.

I have also been ploughing through my Christmas book prezzies, all mainly science related and very interesting historical slants on great discoveries and a very good look at peoples views in the 1960's of how the advances in biology would impact on daily life. Amazing how accuratly they predicted things there too....

Anyways, more wierdness and updates as soon as I get a bit of downtime from coursework and preparing vast quantities of yeast, agar and sugar solutions.....

Phone Home....

2008-01-17T13:32:00.000Z

I am a bit lost at the mo due to 'accidentally' breaking my mobile phone. I say accidentally because I didn't actually do anything to break it. Unfortunately in the space of 12hrs being switched off and then on somehow the display had died so being on a contract took it off for repair/replacement.

Bummer after several days without a phone, especially as at work I am generally nowhere near a land line, nobody ever uses my home land line as they have my mobile and all my numbers being in my mobile I sort of became uncontactable. It's amazing how reliant I had become on a mundane piece of technology that I spent years avoiding owning....

The big downer tho is it isn't going to get repaired without me paying a wad of cash. And as I have no idea why it died I don't relish the idea of it breaking again and having to pay again so I'm now hunting for a new phone.....

Being on a contract and hunting new phone is arse too. I have to make sure the handset is compatible with my network and not cost a fortune. I am however tempted by one of these 'skype' compatible mobiles. Being as my home computer always has probs with skype generally as I'm totally incompetent in installing/using the software correctly.....

If I do have a skype handset free phone calls to all the people across the world that I should get around to speaking to for a giggle. Could be great fun.

I am however avoiding the whole Internet 'socialising' madness. I have used my Space mainly for music but this Face book rubbish (or FakeBook as I refer to it) is beyond the pale. It is in my humble opinion the most stupidly pointless time wasting software to be overused by a bunch of idiotic twenty somethings reliving their teenage years. FFS people I don't care that someone I went to school with twenty years ago now wants me as a freind on Facebook, I'll never call you or meet you so why do I want to know what you are doing with your life and why do you want to know about me. Purely to appear 'more popular'? And WTF is up with people that have my phone number, probably live less than a mile from me deem it a social faux pas not to be on Facebook?. Um guys ring me (when I have a phone) or pop around sometime, maybe even go to the pub for some 'Face to Face' chat and then I'll know what you have been upto. If I hear 'well you would have known if you had been on Facebook' one more time I'm starting a 'ban Fakebook' pressure group......

Rant over, back to choosing my new phone.............

I'm blind to Irony

2008-01-15T13:33:00.000Z

I came across this photo on 'Wired' recently and it made me giggle. Am I the only person in the world that thinks a braille edition of the popular 'male culture' magazine playboy sort of defeats the objective of why people buy Playboy in the first place?

I am pretty sure the pictures of which a blind person won't unfortunatly have the pleasure of viewing are more interesting than the articles. Do they do a braille version of 'Linda on Page 3' It could be a bit 'bumpy' that page.....

Virtual cash

2008-01-08T15:21:00.001Z

Being the experimental sort, or maybe just a bit mental at times I was at a bit of a loose end over the new year due to the horrible illness lurgy I had somehow contracted. During my bouts of vomiting and self imposed quarantine as was suggested by the NHS direct phone line people, I got to wondering how to make money if I was ever stuck unable to go to that lovely college I call my workplace.

Well due to an unhealthy obsession with computers and particularly online games I found something remarkable if you have time on your hands. Actually it would probably take lots and lots of time but I had heard the stories of Chinese people stuck in little rooms playing these games to make virtual money to sell for hard real life cash.

Well how hard can it be?. So off I tootled and turned my sicky illness into a 24hr marathon of seeing how to generate money and what it would be worth in real currency. A little research on e-bay and contacting some of these in game 'gold sellers' as they are referred too got me a 'going rate' . It looked an insurmountable task to actually make it worthwhile but not put off I killed virtual monsters by the hundreds, scavenged loot by the truckload and finally turned my attention to 'crafting' making virtual stuff out of virtual junk.

Well 24 hrs later I can safely say I'm glad I'm not Chinese, I probably would spend all I earned and more in a day in China on coffee and cigs to keep going.... But you CAN make money and the only real way with any success sort of mirrors real life. You have to be a successful entrepreneur, keeping an eye on the market, buy cheap, sell for more and actually make the stuff people want but nobody is making. I made a huge amount in 'virtual' terms but convert that into 'real money' and it was about $40, or £20 for us with a more successful economy over in the UK. I get that for a couple of hours drinking tea in my present role. So I shall not be becoming a gold selling Chinese robot for a living then but I suppose $40 a day is a lot in China and they probably do it better than me.

2008, New Year New stuff

2008-01-07T11:24:00.000Z

Well after my well deserved Christmas break and slightly less than fun new year being struck down with some norovirus bug thing I am back alive and kicking and unfortunately back at work.....

Well to celebrate the new year I thought a look at some of what to expect in the world of science in the forthcoming year was in order and a good lowdown can be found at the popular science list here:-

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/whatsnew/72928694d0c17110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Also Santa was especially thoughtful this year and I am now armed with an even better coffee machine to keep me awake after work so expect slightly more regular posts and also armed me with snazzy photo/video capture device aka 'a camera' so expect some 'moving' footage to be uploaded of my wonderful mug and exploits in the world.

I also managed to spend what felt like an eternity in airports over the winter break and have to say what a completely messed up system we now have due to fear of terrorism in the UK. I had my eyes opened to the complete lack of security hidden under a veil of 'intense' security. There is a whole list of things you can't take on board unless in some clear jiffy bag type thing but on the other hand I wasn't stopped at all to have a pat down body check type thing, OK I shoved my coat and stuff through the x-ray jobby but could have quite easily smuggled through absolutely anything nonmetal such as perhaps explosives, napalm or one of those ceramic rocket launcher things you see the Taliban in their Toyota pick up trucks waving about. In fact I probably took through a whole host of stuff that I shouldn't do but that's by the by. There where some police about waving big guns tho just before I boarded the plane, that was probably enough to deter any would be terrorists, I feel so much safer now.......

Other 'fun' was had wondering what people do in airports for fun when you are stuck there for hours. My resulting findings where pretty much nothing but drink coffee and read books. Airports are inherently designed in these days of budget airlines to get you through the airport asap. Not have you hang around shopping for duty free or whatever. Even the seats are rare and uncomfortable these days. You can't smoke anywhere which drove me sort of insane which is why I ended up playing on one of the few arcade machines in the place that had a big gun on the front of the machine, stress relief!!!! Die Mr smoking ban enforcer......

That aside Christmas with family was as fun as ever and much drinking and merriment was had. 'Must do it again sometime, say a year from now, great that's a date then'

Wind farms

2007-12-10T13:06:00.001Z

Have I just seen the recent UK government announcement and draft paper on our proposed solution to our self sufficiency in future energy needs and tackling climate change. Article below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7135930.stm

Mixed messages really from our government, yes I'm all for wind farms, no I don't want nuclear power stations but we do require more than just a bunch of modern windmills to rely on for our energy needs but building new nuclear plants is just changing one future problem for another and I think we should look at alternatives.

It is good news that the government has finally announced the scale of the 'build' that is needed and hopefully the 'Not in my backyard' groups will finally realise it will be in ever one's back yard if we are going to make use out of wind farms. There is of course the huge risk of consequential damage and disruption to wildlife. I hope the time it has taken in studies and small scale introduction of these things that they will be sited in the least harmful way but we are reaching the point now in my humble opinion of the slippery slope. The damage was wrought years ago on our environment and if we stop all carbon emissions globally we still won't see the effect of previous emissions 'max out' for many years. It's 'the birds and fish's that may get killed by wind farms or us not having them and hate to say it but being a selfish human 'I would rather still be here thanks very much than you critters'

I still hear the ongoing 'it's all a scam' 'there is no global warming' arguments, it's an earth global climate cycle and being used as a conspiracy theory by governments to push us away from using oil. Well firstly I don't walk around with my eyes closed and certainly can see climate change happening. If this is entirely natural fine but scientifically we do know that human influence with carbon emissions isn't helping and probably accelerating this process. The effects will be potentially catastrophic for us so you need to be pretty foolhardy not to try and minimise your effect as an individual on this warming process. If it is all to get us to stop buying petrol, fine I don't drive, don't care. Those of you that do through choice or necessity you should start looking at bio fuels or alternative fuels if you must have your metal isolation booth on wheels to travel around in or seek alternative transport that is 'greener' perhaps a bike or train even a bus.....

Them Bones

2007-12-07T11:59:00.000Z

I have just read an interesting article here, that many tech's out there might find interesting regarding anatomical skeletons for teaching purposes.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/15-12/ff_bones

It was actually quite disgusting to learn where my two complete skels originated from. Actually one is of Chinese origin and the other is probably from India, both very old, I would say 50's-60's since they have been owned by the college and other than a few missing finger bones are in relatively good state.

We rarely use them now, they just 'hang' inside a metal cabinet gathering dust, maybe considering their potential value we should sell them and buy something useful like a new computer in the prep room!. I reckon I would like to donate my body to science and end up like that so I could haunt educational establishments for eternity....

I want to bite your neck....

2007-11-29T11:33:00.001Z

I thought I would post a little on the subject of vampires, not that I'm a little behind with Halloween or anything it was purely a weird bit of coincidence that happened. I happen to listen to a podcast (yes far too many I know...) from Nervous Teeth and the latest episode mentioned the Highgate vampire and one of the presenters (Gareth) happened to have devoted a fair amount of time looking into the story.

This sort of weirded me out as 'back in the day' I got quite immersed in the odd story and the strange characters that called themselves 'vampire hunters' involved in the investigation. Sean Manchester really was a freaky character, and from memory I think he proclaimed to be a self ordained priest or something. The Highgate 'vampire' episode occurred in the seventies from memory and I got drawn into the story as my mother happened to live in London a short hop from the very imposing old Gothic cemetery and on a day trip to London took me past it and told me all the spooky stories she remembered from her late teens/early twenties from living in the area. That was it, I was hooked, 'it must be true if my mum thinks it's true surely....' Unfortunately back then the cemetery was closed to the public and was very overgrown which just added to my curiosity.

From that point on I read Dracula and watched every 'Hammer horror' with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing hunting the notorious creature of the night. I also remember many interviews with the crazy Sean Manchester and his vampire hunting. For those interested it is a terribly compelling episode but in all likely hood complete rubbish but was headline news in the tabloids years ago.

Anyway I think this whole episode spurred me into looking into weirdness which continues to this day and I always harboured this idea of becoming some sort of 'weird stuff' investigator. I actually did correspond with Andrew Collins after his book 'The Black Alchemist' which although out of print for some time is about to be re-released. That then spurred the idea of 'magick', spiritualism and psychic connections all heavily influenced by paganism.

Anyway weird how similar things spur people on to 'seek the truth', a case of synchronicity.....

As a little update to this post I had to 'change' the photo of Mr Bishop Manchester. It seems he didn't like the use of his oil painting portrait like fuzzy pic I had used from his 'online' biography. Copyright infringement apparently but I suppose he can't complain about his book now can he?. Though I suppose he could censor anybody from reading it by removing all traces of it from existence....

Philly fun.

2007-11-27T13:41:00.000Z

Following on the trail of weird science I have taken another look at a subject that has fascinated me since my pre-teens, namely the so called 'Philadelphia experiment'. My reason for taking another look at a story that seemed so sci-fi I was convinced for years it never really happened and was more sci-fi than based in reality.

My reason for having a re-look was due to recent interview I heard by a long time researcher into the subject. He had taken a very rational sceptical view but as luck would have it over the years managed to be meet people with first hand recounts of the events. The most recent interview was on 'Night watch radio' podcast.

For those unfamiliar the experiment was supposedly a 'de-gaussing' experiment to demagnetise ships hulls on the American navy fleet to render them safe from a new form of seaborne mine that would explode when destroyers magnetised hulls came within proximity of them. Whether this was a cover for other more elaborate experiments I am unconvinced either way as yet but as 'the story' goes a bit of a mishap resulted in shipmen fused into the hull, survivors 'fading' in and out of view and the apparent 'time travel' and relocation of the ship. All very far fetched but when people involved and eyewitness's recount some of the events of the record it is an absolutely staggering story with many of the top minds of the day such as Einstein and Tesla involved with different wave frequencies and the resulting effects being flabbergasting.

My particular favourite account is of an American aircraft pilot from the late sixties where the same 'technology' was used on an aircraft that 'time slipped' into the eighties and to a different location, on trying to land they had the wrong clearance and were shot at resulting in a fatality that I assume fell from the bay doors of the aircraft and ended up with a death certificate signed in 1980 odd despite being 'killed' officially in 1966 or something.

Interesting topic with many possible answers and cover ups but certainly bizarre........

Weird science

2007-11-14T14:04:00.000Z

I have been doing a bit more pondering on all things scientific and how my 'rational scientific facts' just don't seem to add up in my head anymore. Seeking alternative scientific views to many of lifes eternal mysteries I stumbled upon this site

http://www.tillerfoundation.com/index.htm

Well worth reading some of Tiller's papers and books for an alternative view to some of the core scientific principles.

Techie forums

2007-11-13T13:44:00.000Z

Some of you may know that I am subscribed to a very good technician forum for school/college lab techs called SCITECH hosted by UCLAN and managed by the lovely Val. I actually met Val a few years ago at some suppliers trade show thing I think but it was her bright idea a few years ago to set up an e-mail forum so techies across the land can pass on advise and generally pick each others brains for help and assistance.

Well the forum has grown and grown and several of the subscribers have taken it a step further and the brill Techknow forum started off from this forum and is an invaluable free site as is the free forum for new and experienced techies alike.

Now just recently a bit of a debate has sprung up regarding a new website 'for technicians, made by technicians' I think the blurb goes and it is a bit of an amalgamation of the two former sites. The big difference is it has a subscription fee annually. Mmm copying is a form of flattery but paying for this new website when people have put a lot of effort and time into providing an invaluable free service, I don't think I'll be using 'preproom.org' or whatever it is, well especially with my lack of pay rise......

Techie stuff n nonsense

2007-11-13T13:23:00.000Z

Yet again my busy work at the minute and my easily distracted nature has meant a lack of updating the masses. I will be a bit more frequent given half a chance but as I normally blog from work (time permitting) things here in the busy world of a 6th form FE college have taken over my time, and I get paid here to do a job and being the consummate professional.....

Anyway a few bits of techie stuff to divulge of working in the prep room of life. Firstly I have a new technician colleague. Horah about time too, I was beginning to get a little burnt out and snowed under. Unfortunately new techie isn't terribly experienced of the ways of educational establishments and although she has a good biology background at the mo it's all Chemistry and Physics business. Steep learning curve for her but she's better than the last one who was a bit ' I do Chemistry and nowt else.....'. This sort of caused a few problems, especially her uncanny ability to hide everything in a organisation process only decipherable by an enigma machine or herself!

Unfortunately my pay rise with the boss talk with my new supervisory bit went down like a lead balloon. So typical me, I threw a strop, sulked and stomped feet and refused to supervise and this has resulted in new techie having loads of stand in Line manger/boss types till they sort something. This is quite amusing, especially the 'announcement' of new manger responsibilities meeting we had, 'The does anyone have any comments' bit at the end resulted in me stating that 'some leadership is better than no leadership' to the deputy head, much to all's amusement but possibly a P45 for me in the post....

Blood sugar levels?

2007-11-07T11:19:00.000Z

Ohh Gurgle, another momentary pause over the Halloween/Nov5th party season as regards keeping all the happy reader/s of 'Muses' informed of my life meanderings.

Well all has been sorta good despite over indulgence in all things alcohfrolic. Despite having several parties to attend over the past few days it was 'game over' after the first one which could well have been the vodka that finished me off.

In typical Halloween fashion 'Fancy dress' was order of the day and it was easy to decide that 'V' from 'V from Vendetta' was the costume of choice for me after a scour of the web, scary mask, political poignancy, perfect time of year to wear it and lots of plastic knives to wave about perfect!

Unfortunately the Internet fancy dress firm were possibly the most inept company I have had the experience of purchasing anything from. Firstly they sent the wrong costume, Wilma Flintstone looks nothing like 'V' and with my hairy legs you've gotta be joking.... After frantic only 48hrs before party phone calls a rescheduled delivery resulted in the new dispatch ending up at the wrong address!. It was a matter of hours before the party I finally was holding a box in a darkened parcel pick up miles from Nottingham. The things I have to put up with!. Anyway it looks cool, and has even had an outing past the talky camera's the police use with a big black ink pen scrawling V on everything. I was drunk.......... Surprisingly the talky camera didn't shout back, so the 'scare' factor of my vigilante costume must be working, 'power to the people', Muhahahaha.......

Bottoms up....

2007-10-31T11:13:00.000Z

Oh dear, had 'possibly' the first student lab accident yesterday of the year. Well I'm still not entirely sure it was an accident or just sort of weird but.....

Apparently whilst I was in my scary 'beg for pay rise get laughed out of room' meeting we had a student apparently 'burn' her bottom whilst in a chemistry lesson. Well the hospital say it's a burn so who are we to argue but how she burnt her posterior I haven't got a clue.

By all accounts the student complained of umm 'a burning sensation'. As they had conc Hydrochloric acid in the lesson the Lecturer wiped her seat and around the bench, all the other chemicals were non hazardous bar one which was possibly an irritant but in powder form and white so not likely to get near her rear.... She was wearing a lab coat which would have probably absorbed any acid spill and in all likely hood she would have had holes in her jeans or whatever before hitting the fleshy areas.

Anyway completely confused but thinking maybe she has got a skin rash and not a burn from something else but not being a doctor can't really comment but fecing weird. I may have to check lab coats and we also have the cloth used to wipe the bench which if it goes brown probably did wipe up some acid spills along the way.

I reckon she probably just had new washing powder or something that didn't agree with her, other possibilities are just too mind boggling to go into here......

Black and White

2007-10-30T10:55:00.000Z

I've been hit with the creative stick again. Following my steady (if somewhat slow..) house renovation project. I have still been left with a few empty walls and the pictures I have just don't seem to suit my environment anymore. Out with the old in with the new and being into my self sufficiency too I'm trying to tick as many boxes as possible with my new creative streak and doing a lot of my own abstract art. I think I've hit on some hidden latent arty gene that has been left unexplored for many years. Drawing inspiration from the conceptual movement and abstract surrealism I have been starting to creative works that are always in black and white.

My reasoning of 'two tone' is I am hanging these in white rooms and therefore they fit but also I've always found black and white art sort of visually striking regardless of the medium or subject. Also as I'm a bit of a writer (though the novel is some way off....) I've been combining creative outlets too on occasionwith the odd word of wisdom/muse daubed in black block capitals on canvas. Looking pretty good too, maybe one day my quotes will be used in the same ways as Benjamin Franklin's or something.... This all came from some inspiration of a random artist that I've totally forgotton but she wrote some cool stuff on canvas too. I'm sure it wasn't that Tracy Emin type but coulda been always been rubbish with names!. Though she did write all the names of her ex's inside a tent which was sorta weird.......

Fuming...

2007-10-23T11:12:00.000Z

Oopsy daisy, Half term at college so in for a few days to do the jobs that can only be tackled with whole days to spare and no distractions. Today was the dreaded chemical store. Unfortunately despite the store being quite new the previous chemistry tech had a strange habit of accumulating hundreds on nearly empty bottles so was a bit of a sort out.

Now cleaning was a little scary, it was very apparent acid fumes where leaking and a nice white residue was forming on everything and the cabinets were well turning to rust... During the 'exploration' to find the cause a mystery bottle covered in yellow residue was found with an unreadable label. 'No bother' thinks techie chris quick wipe over with a damp cloth and.....

Boom, it was like mount Vesuvius erupting with clouds of vapours that were none too good for my health throwing themselves to the sky. Hurling the bottle at top speed into the fume cupboard whilst holding my breath quickly evacuated the area and had a quick look through my notes to see if I could identify the mysterious and nasty substance.

Result Sebacyl Chloride, everyone take note this stuffs residue doesn't like water!!!. Now how the devil do I get rid of the stuff. Oh and I still feel queasy, I'm sure I must of inhaled like Bill Clinton.

split decisions...

2007-10-19T14:16:00.000Z

Been reading a selection of articles regarding parallel universes and quantum mechanics over the past week. Quantum theory has been a bit of a pastime read for me over the years and what physicists have always been led to believe is now being 'proven' to a certain extent.

A cool interview on the earthfiles site can be found here:-

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1332&category=Science

I love the idea of every action causing a split in universes and different branches and 'multiple worlds' theory. I wonder on all the major decisions I've taken over the years and how different worlds would be with me in them. It sort of makes me want to kick myself sometimes, and smile smugly at others. I really dread to think what would have happened if I'd actually followed my heart and not my head sometimes. Suffice to say though things have worked out pretty ok in my timeline/universe so far but I constantly have some weird nagging voice as if there is 'one big thing' I need to do before my reason for being here is made clear to me. Almost in a spiritual context but also in a superiority complex sort of way too!

Just think if I hadn't started writing on a blog some of you wouldn't know me, many of you wouldn't be directed to other sites on interest and visa versa and ultimatly the bandwidth I use would have been somebody elses home recipe blog or something. And what would we all rather have?. A recipe for pumpkin pie or a rant about global affairs......

'You can take a pill for that you know...'

2007-10-10T12:06:00.000Z

Just finished reading several articles regarding drugs companies and mental disorders:-

http://www.physorg.com/news111222013.html

It has been my pet hate for years the ever expanding Pharma companies and their readiness to create masses of chemical cocktails to curtail rather than 'cure' many ailments of the human body. I have very much avoided even so much as an aspirin if ever needed since my late teens having switched on to the problem back then whilst getting to grips with 'A' level Biology.

I have also become acutely aware of peoples differing personalities and psyches over the past few years and how fundamentally different they are to my own and how different each individual is to the next. I have quite a few friends and associates that a Psychiatrist would label with all sorts of wonderful ailments but seem to function perfectly well. I also notice though that one person who may be potentially suffering from one ailment may consider another ailment a terrible illness because they haven't experienced it. I suppose it's like the alcoholic saying the manic depressive is 'mad' and somehow worse off than them when in reality they are both just displaying personality quirks which if they are debilitating need addressing but otherwise 'where's the problem?'.

I consider my personality pretty much off the radar as far as analysis goes, far too many walls went up to shelter my fragile mind from the harshness of reality years ago and I am very introverted and generally quiet. That's me , my personality, nothing wrong with it, I am not shy as such I'm very happy to say what I want ,when I want and to whom I please. Under textbook conditions though am I suffering from 'SAD' well Big Pharma would want me to think so..... But then probably half the people I meet in any given day that could be said of and I don't think they would like to be told that or even consider it an option in their own mental make up.

'Money don't grow on trees you know.....'

2007-10-02T12:11:00.000Z

I've always generally been a bit rubbish with finances, I think generally it is never having enough to enjoy myself and pay all the bills too. This should mean either don't spend so much enjoying yourself or earn more money. Neither of which I ever seem to have the rub of the green to do lately.

Having finally solved the financial crisis known as divorce (eventually) it is sort of cool to be a bit more in charge of my financial concerns rather than waiting for banks or solicitors to sort it out. Now all that's out of the way I'm pondering on cash flow and all looking at a few scams when I came across this article:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7017877.stm

It was all fairly 'run of the mill' excuse the pun until the last paragraph when as stated one of those arrested had been released early to carry out this fraud due to a 'printing' error on the original arrest warrant, you couldn't make this up it was so funny, had me howling for at least 5 min.

'Green' Pipes

2007-09-27T13:57:00.000Z

A recent article here:- http://physorg.com/news110036505.html regarding two British scientists and their unique concept to combat global warming seems very promising. Like all good inventions simple, effective and relatively cheap to mass produce.

Coincidentally I am growing algae at the minute as a growth medium for water fleas. Seems to work the best to keep the little critters happy and breeding.

I do think though that these pipes are going to annoy surfers, fishermen and perhaps look a little unsightly but then big algae blankets covering the ocean isn't going to look too pretty either. But I'd rather not have a scorched earth or nuclear power stations everywhere so lets hope it gets given the 'green' light. May have to buy shares in Virgin, aluminium pipe manufacturers and oceanic construction companies now..... It's going to take a lot of pipes.

'Saffron Revolution'

2007-09-26T12:41:00.000Z

Like many others I suspect I have been keeping what tabs I can on the protests of the last 10 days or so by the monks in Burma in reaction to the recent huge fuel price rises imposed by the military Junta that presently rules Burma.

There have been many protests in the past aimed by the population in the main trying to restore 'democracy' in Burma and I am heartened that the monks will achieve more recognition than the students in the past and may achieve more but suspect despite the monks being peaceful and nonviolent in all aspects they will end up getting brutally suppressed as those before them. However wouldn't a 'comprise' be, just for the Junta to lower fuel costs again and still remain in power or has the point of no return been reached and all the population tolerate be their total removal from power?

I was interested in Bush's speech regarding Burma yesterday. Very commendable statements but how much of it was 'China' baiting and how much of it was an opinion without agenda by a superpower leader?. We must all be aware of the trade route of Burma and how much of a necessity it is to China to have a stable country there as a neighbour.

Hopefully despite the harsh reporting restrictions and censorship laws within Burma some brave souls are getting footage out as the troops move in.....

Little green men

2007-09-24T08:35:00.000Z

Following on from the French and UK amongst other countries the Irish Government have realised their UFO files from the past 37 years. The Irish times article can be found here:-

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0920/1190238990654.html

I wonder if the Americans, Russians and Chinese will do the same soon?

It's life Jim but not as it should be....

2007-09-21T12:09:00.000Z

Well after much annoyed person me spending a good many months fed up with all the pants that has been hurled from every which way but up I am finally having a fecing ace time realising as always I'm always right about everything!. Well maybe not as I don't seem to win much when I bet on the footy but that aside I have been getting that smug warm glow of self satisfaction these days.

Ok I've had to do a few life changing things to realign myself on the path of tranquility but I have had some pretty disturbing discoveries of peoples differing opinions on my actions over the past months. Ok some people don't really understand the meaning of space, freedom and self expression. Others can't seem to grasp the concept of truth and justice. And worst of all some people seem to revel in other peoples misfortune to somehow hide the inadequacies in their own lives and relationships. The most annoying human trait I have found though is being judgemental as if and individual can instantly know why someone acts the way they do because they somehow think they should act in a particular way in any given circumstance.

It just makes my laugh now. How sad and fruitless peoples lives must be if they cannot step outside of the box of their conformity to societies whims and take the alternative route, one that will always elude them because they are too scared or controlled to tread it. So instead they condemn the individual that tries just that because that individual has become free to do so. It must be how people end up getting labelled as insane or conspiracy nuts or something even more demeaning for they have the courage to do so or the intelligence to challenge the normality of the mundane and realise it isn't how it should be. We are not programmed to watch TV all day, eat vast swathes of food easily purchased from our local stores, get married and have 2.8 kids, work 9-5 routines to pay the bills and we certainly aren't programmed to profit in our success at the expense of others. We are a morally corrupt society, socially engineered and kept 'happy' by the 'normality' of it all.

"How fortunate for leaders, that the masses do not think"-Adolf Hitler

If the analogy of the 'matrix' is to be used I never needed to eat the red pill, I always knew but couldn't prove what was happening to us. And as an orthodox trained scientific mind needed to prove everything. I don't think people need to know now, we just aren't ready. All of this will change at some point. We are but a speck of sand in the multitude of planets that will contain intelligent life. Our planets lifetime in which we have evolved is small in comparison to many others. If we accept that all life evolves on all planets at the same rate then there are billions of intelligent lifeform harbouring planets billions of years ahead of us in technological and sociological terms. Our astronomers lay dumbfounded at discovering planets 'older' than the known universe, could this be because our perception of time and dimensions is but in it's infancy?

We see numerous 'ufo's' reported that increases rapidly as days go by. In the law of averages then this would surely be the case anyway and if any intentions were hostile by any of the numerous 'alien' races then we would have been fried centuries ago. This leads me to the conclusion we are nothing but a zoo, being observed until we evolve to a level that we can accept the truth and desist our petty squabbling here on earth. Though the alternative route is far more alarming, should we develop the technology to 'hurt' these 'aliens' then as a perceived threat would they take a 'human like' action and fry us there and then?. Maybe when we reach the point of almost self destruction the zookeeper might step in and separate the lions from the tigers or whatever.

As a biologist I look at evolution and the DNA strand discoveries and it doesn't fit, it isn't like creationism but we have 'bits' of DNA that seem to serve no purpose (as yet). We also have a brain that is far beyond what we utilise, why?.

My one hope is that by the end of my lifetime we will have made that step in establishing contact on a global level but we sure as hell got a lot of growing up to do first.

Party Food?

2007-09-20T14:04:00.000Z

For the first time in ages I'm having a bit of a shindig at 'Cafe Chris', I suppose to celebrate my new found solvency and a chance to wreck the joint before the decorators move in. Now I've never been too bad at cooking (my Gran and Mother dearest being pretty good teachers) but have generally been a bit lazy unless catering for a largish number. I also like trying new stuff so was sort of thinking sushi as good party food and with parties the odd aphrodisiac food like oysters or something is always good for a giggle. Anyway I came across this article whilst looking for ideas...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5371500.stm

The mind boggles, byjezus I think the guests might scarper if I served anything like that but I must admit I'm incredibly intrigued about trying some, even though the thought of it seems revolting in the same way as sheep's eyeballs or monkey brains.... I may have to enquire at the local Chinese supermarket!

I 'see' what you are thinking....

2007-09-20T12:29:00.000Z

I must 'have one on me' at the minute with all these military weaponry posts and stuff but saw another 'interesting article today regarding 'mind control' and it's use in the 'war against terror'.

The article in question is here:- http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/09/mind_reading

I was reminded of a book I have read recently called 'The men who stare at goats' which looked at Psychic spying within the Military community and the weird PSYOP's units and what they have been up to and carry on doing to this day. One of the interesting points in this book was the use of mind reading and subliminal messaging in music used against 'Enemy combatants' in a certain Cuban prison. People may remember the headlines some years ago about 'Barney the Purple dinosaur' theme tune being played on loop to prisoners as some form of 'lighthearted' torture in some way making the western public think torture was fine, it can't be that bad if the poor 'terrorist' is only being subjected to 'Barney'. Actually the truth was far more sinister and many ideas for subliminal messaging and torture that had been devised where given their testing ground in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. This article is just giving the public the first hint of what those military bods have been up to for years. I suggest those interested look up 'The First Earth Battalion' concept, it's ideas have been implemented by the American military for decades. But then it's concepts can be used by anyone given a little 'training'.......

First Earth Battalion field guide text:- AKA 'Bring forth the Jedi....'

http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_channon_0200.htm

Thats smart lets just call them Dumb....

2007-09-18T08:59:00.000Z

Following on from my last post regarding the funny old world of weaponry sales the UK MOD has decided due to the forthcoming proposed ban on 'cluster' bombs they will reclassify them as 'Smart' cluster bombs to get around the ban and carry on flogging them to all and sundry because we have quite a few to get rid of. The full article is below:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7000083.stm

WTF. This is completely bonkers, its a bit like deciding a nuclear bomb isn't a nuclear bomb if it doesn't leave radiation behind, or a bullet isn't a bullet if it misses?. This reminds me of the whole DUP (depleted uranium projectiles) thing. A large amount of nations that produce nuclear waste and therefore have to 'safely' dispose of said waste are finding this a hugely costly and difficult exercise so to cut corners they are converting the 'free' waste into munitions to fire at their enemies and contaminate the battlefields of many countries for generations. But it's ok because they aren't nuclear weapons really in the conventional sense.....

Peaceful protest with a tank!

2007-09-17T12:35:00.000Z

I like protests, protesting about things that are blatantly wrong is our right (for the time being) in our country of (limited) democracy. Now hopefully some of my immense readership of 2.8 people will be aware of last weeks large arms fair in London. A lovely little get together of weapon manufacturers and countries leaders wishing to purchase said weapons to, well um kill people I guess, that being what weapons are for....

Now after much complaining and protest over the years (not least of which by the deceased Lady Diana against landmines) the various manufacturers decided that in the more recent fairs not to openly display things such as landmines and torture devices (but if you ask the nice man at the trade stall he will show you piccies from the brochure and you can place your order as normal!)

Now as is regular now at this big 'trade fair' there is always a protest and this gets bigger every year as most people are now coming to the opinion that maybe this whole thing is a tad immoral at the very least and hence we get more police and more cost to the taxpayer every year to host it. But then the British government has a vested interest being as most of the big weapon making companies are either British or our politicians have shares in the companies or even (god forbid) the owners of the companies pass a considerable amount of dosh to the political parties here, (I wonder if they get a peerage for their trouble or is that another kettle of fish?)

Well the protests of the last week were pretty excellent despite virtually zero press coverage (surprise). Though these protests didn't just go on for a week they have been pretty much gathering pace over several months but my favourites have been the 'auction off a tank' protest

here:- http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/ and also the steady stream of anti-war and anti-weapon protests on army recruitment posters (see above pics).

I actually found the poster defacement especially funny being as the ex father in-law was an Army recruitment head blokey. I bet he wouldn't of been impressed with those shenanigans but his views on the whole war in Iraq were slightly different to the majority of free thinking people too, but all are entitled to their views in what we have left of a democracy so roll on the protests and I expect all the purchases at the said fair will end up in the next uncalled for war in perhaps, Iran.......

This sanity isn't all it's 'cracked up' to be....

2007-09-12T22:06:00.000Z

Well finally decided it was time to post about the 'follow up' to my 'weirdness'. As before mentioned I was getting a little confused as to why I have been completely forgetful, distracted and a little unable to stick with even the most simple of tasks. Oh and did I mention I was fecing bored.....
Probably did actually it's just that I've forgotten about it, bit regular this forgetting stuff!.

Anyway, RESULT. Well not exactly but having sort of thought being the biologist around here I assumed I was relatively good at self examination of symptoms, oh and I don't mean checking for lumps and things, though we all should do that (and I've got this one on my head that has been there since I cracked my head open at about 5 but it's probably not cancer). Anyway I digress being the easily distracted type. I have been to the doctor shrink. It was sort of annoying I am completely and utterly sane, no AD/HD, no depression, no BI-polar whatsit, no schizophrenia no fecing anything, what a let down.... In fact I even fidgeted a lot just for fun but she wasn't buying it. Was funny though when she realised I was joking. I was a little alarmed when she asked if I had any accidents recently such as burning down my house. I do quite enjoy fireworks and explosions but I'm no pyromaniac which would have been cool too...

I have been diagnosed with attention problems though, albeit fairly mild. This has two possible causes. Firstly the whole being single thing again has meant I'm in a stabilisation pattern of some description which makes sense but the most likely culprit is my sort of over indulgence over many years of stuff that I shouldn't smoke. Oh well there goes one of my few pleasures in life. She didn't buy the 'self medication' argument either, cow!. But not one to argue with clever doctor types time for a change of lifestyle again. I'm sure I'll just be more bored now but we shall see. I wonder if I should watch 'reefer madness' one more time?

OOH shiny, are you sure it's ours?

2007-09-12T12:40:00.000Z

Having a bizarre moment. At the beginning of last week our Principal emerged from his Ivory tower office on the 'site with no name' and did a meet/greet new staff and check out the building before the waves of students. I got the obligatory handshake thingy whilst in the Physics lab setting up our demonstrations of forces and momentum with the air track and archaic BBC computer. Remember BBC computers? blimey don't make em like that anymore... Well the principal just laughed at the fact we were still using things that old. I refrained from mentioning he held the purse strings and we hadn't seen a capital budget spend since 1900 or so but my under the breath grumbling must have been picked up on.

Today had a surprise that 20 shiny new MAC laptops of the 120gb pro shiny variety and 5 'tablet PC's' are to be delivered with 2 laptop safes to me, myself and I, WOOT. I have of course checked and there is no mistake they are bought, paid for and on their way. It may mean of course we have no money to buy books, chemicals or anything else we might need but we'll be too busy downloading music and playing with nice MAC graphics to care........

Mostly Mayan

2007-09-12T07:36:00.000Z

Continuing my strange compulsion to explore all things esoteric I have been studying the Mayan calender and the associated astrology surrounding it based on glyphs and birth signs similar to our western orthodox calender. Most people are only aware of the Mayan calender through the 2012 'end date'. The Mayans certainly seemed to be a very advanced culture and a good site below will give you all the information you need to explore the associated astrology and history:-

http://www.mayantimes.com/index.html

According to my research I have the birth 'date' of 160 (the Mayan year is a 260 day cycle). My glyph sign for want of a better term is Ahau (Yellow Sun) Enlightenment, Universal Fire. Wooo big yellow sun sort of makes sense tagging myself 'firechild', I always sort of wondered why that popped into my head and has been used since the dawn of computers to maintain some degree of anonymity...

As you can see by looking at the birth chart section of the site your 'sign' is arranged in a typical rune/tarot spread with four 'influences'. Challenge, guide, like minded and occult. In the case of those born under the yellow sun glyph only the 'guide' changes the others are always the same glyphs. In this case 'white dog' being the challenge, 'blue storm' being the like minded and 'red dragon' being the occult. My particular date gives me 'yellow warrior' as my 'guide'.

So what does all this mean?. Well not sure but my full reading is below:-

The Yellow Sun is the last glyph in the Tzolkin and key words associated with it are `enlightenment and universal fire`. People born on Yellow Sun days shine like the sun and they are very bright. Be careful that you don`t cast too many shadows with your brilliance or people you love will be destined to live in darkness. The Maya worshipped the sun as so many cultures have and people born on the days that are given in honour of the sun should also respect the source of our energy. It gives us warmth and enables our food to grow. It is also capable of burning our skin and scorching the land. Respect your own inner fire and ensure you always use your power for good and not for personal gratification. Hold tightly the reins of your ego and those who admire your brilliance will also respect you.The Maya referred to the sun as `kin`, they also called a person `kin`, as well they called a day `kin`. They saw that the sun and the daytime as the same thing and a person was called a kin because they were born of the sun. We are in a sense the day we were born. This is why in the Mayan calendar the characteristics of the day your were born is important. You are in sense the essence of the day you were born.

All people born on Yellow Sun days will have in common the same challenge, occult and like-minded glyphs. The only aspect that changes is the guide and that is because the guide is allocated according to your birth number (see chart below).

The Challenge of the Yellow Sun is the White dog.The White Dog represents `love, loyalty and heart`. White Dogs are very playful like puppies but can also be fierce like guard dogs, when something or someone they love needs protecting. Dogs have a valuable lesson to teach us. Not only do they set an example by their impressive loyalty but they can also show that life doesn’t have to be complicated to be enjoyed. If you have ever watched a puppy playing with it’s tail, you will understand this. Dog says to us that sometimes we need to be playful and not take ourselves or life too seriously. To have this glyph as a challenge implies that issues of love and loyalty need resolving. Either you are too busy with your search for enlightenment to remember to love or love has let you down. Either way it seems that the search for enlightenment and the challenge of love are intrinsically linked.

The Occult glyph for the Yellow Sun is the Red Dragon. This glyph represents `nurturing and birth`. The occult glyph always symbolises the magical power that you have hidden within you, the ace up your sleeve. To have Red Dragon as an occult suggests that you have a magical ability to nurture. You can retreat into your dragon`s cave and there rest and recover. You then emerge reborn. In a sense, when the sun sinks beyond the horizon and rises again the next day it seems to mimic the birth cycle.. It is a very handy thing to be able to nurture yourself in this way and on a magical level it keeps you strong.

The like-minded glyph for the Yellow Sun is the Blue Storm. This glyph symbolises `self-generation and changes`. It is a natural ally and when ever you meet these people you will feel the connection and something between you clicks.

If you are born on a number four (self-Existing) or a number nine (solar) then you are guided by the Yellow Warrior. This glyph represents `questing and intelligence`. To have this as a guiding influence means that you are always on a quest always asking questions. For Yellow Sun guided by Yellow Warriors life a quest for enlightenment.

Well in my funny old world it sort of makes sense of exploring the esoteric and never really being content with love. This Mayans were a clever bunch methinks. Now all I have to do is get that magic wand working again......

No Comment

2007-09-10T12:29:00.000Z

My quote for today and by a bizzare coincidence I nearly ended up with Wolfgang instead of Chris as a name. Thank goodness my mum had some sense......

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstands others.

'You at the back, Pay attention'

2007-09-10T09:01:00.000Z

Well today is official start day of the new academic year and college has started in typical chaos.

For all those in the education profession that happen to read my irregular rants I am sure you can sympathise with events of today....

1) Chris arrives promptly in building at 8.00am to be handed a list of 'jobs' by Head of Chemistry. Chris looks at list and inquires why we need OHP bulbs when we now have overhead data projectors to be informed the IT dept over the weekend 'fixed' them and some of them don't work... A pile of photocopying but I have no new card for the machines as they haven't been produced. And all the posters need collecting from reprographics who haven't done them, great start.

2) Drink cup of tea while ordering OHP bulbs in 5min flat before I have to help hand out student timetables...

3) Students arrive en masse find that approx 50% of students have no timetable or an incomplete one and this is after our admin dept being in all weekend. Also no set lists for classes produced...

4) Decide to have a proper breakfast as I think I'm going to be doing a lot of running around today.......

5) Discover after first class data projectors in all rooms no longer working after the IT dept installed 'screen splitters', this is getting silly now, especially as we can't even resort to good old fashioned blackboards as we no longer have them.....

6) Drink coffee, listening to mass of teacher complaints and retire to the prep room to sort next weeks lessons....

7) gurgle, sneaky proper breakfast now repeating on me, I think the canteen staff were rushing too, thought my sausages looked a little undercooked.....

8) Ah respite, or so I thought lunch break turns into frantic explain the book issue lists to all staff members. And they pay these people to educate young minds how difficult is it to understand a list consisting of name, book number, tutor group and signature?.

9) Ah the afternoon, the absence of chemistry paperwork I 'blame' on the new chemistry lecturer. This is a slight untruth but all the paperwork is copied and on a clearly marked shelf in the prep room adjacent to the lab, is it too much to ask a lecturer to lift a box occasionally if they need the paperwork for their class?. Anymore moaning about paperwork and I will 'helpfully point out I am a science tech not the photocopy/tea boy.....

10) Slowly getting to grips with the now retired chem techs's storage and filing system. I really dread to think why all the biology 'chemicals' where stored in an area where it's apparent conc Hydrochloric fumes are escaping and effecting all and sundry and careful examination of some of the labels clearly state to be stored in fridge. Oh well loads of new chemicals to order, should have checked this in the summer....... But was assured all chemicals needed had been ordered. I just sort of assumed they would be stored correctly!.

11) Daydreaming about life as cryptozoologist. Coming to think of it I'm sure some of the new student intake could be considered 'unique so far undiscovered wildlife'.... Though I'll let the punk girl in the 2nd year physics group off as I had spiky red hair worse than that in my youth....

12) Fiddle, had to re-design an experiment for diffusion as all the 'rolls' of indicator paper of which I had 4 where all nearly empty. I wish the previous tech had finished rolls before starting another.... Oh well plenty of strips so lots of sticky tape and a glass rod in the tube should do the trick....

Prognosis Jim?

2007-09-07T07:26:00.000Z

Ho hum, well following on from the 'I wonder if it's ADHD' I have done a lot of reading of personal testimonies of sufferers and carried out various online symptom testing to rule out things like dyslexia and so forth.

Results:-

Reference Number - REI118911699788C

TEST RESULTS FOR CHRIS REINERT

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO COMPLETE THE ON-LINE AD/HD SCREENING QUESTIONNAIRE.

From the answers you have supplied, we have assessed the probability for attention and hyperactivity/impulsivity tendencies as follows:

ATTENTION

You have scored 2.1 which indicates that there is a HIGH PROBABILITY of an attention disorder

HYPERACTIVITY/IMPULSIVITY

You have scored 1.2 which indicates that there is a SLIGHT PROBABILITY of a hyperactivity/impulsivity disorder

*YOU HAVE A COMBINED TYPE AD/HD WHERE BOTH ATTENTION AND HYPERACTIVITY/IMPULSIVITY SYMPTOMS ARE PRESENT

Mmm, well that sort of is enlightening so appointment made to see a 'real' doctor now to get some more tests done I suppose. This is all quite alarming but certainly explains the weirdness of me. Well as it can't exactly be cured at least it can to an extent be controlled but I don't relish having a cocktail of drugs to take. I do know why now I'm constantly laughing at the crazy forgetfulness of me and why I always butt into conversations or am stony quiet during others........ Oh well it's my personality dude.....

Keep eating blue smarties....

2007-09-06T10:37:00.000Z

Most people have been well aware for many years of the potential of various food additives and preservatives that can potentially increase hyperactivity in children. Below is an article regarding one of the first clinical studies.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0906/foodadditives.html

Now what drew me to this article is why haven't these additives been banned for years?. Admittedly it has been notoriously difficult to carry out a rigorous validated test procedure. And in defence of much of the food industry they have made moves to seek alternatives mainly based on consumer demand.

I also over the past couple of years come to realise that I may actually have some sort of 'adult' version of ADH. Looking back at the evidence from childhood and the studies on children's background, diet and upbringing I am very much what one would have called a child who may suffer or develop ADH from excess sweets and their nasty ingredients, glucose, TV watching habits etc etc. As a child however I never really displayed too many outward symptoms of this and it was certainly not as if I was poor educationally so teachers and parents never really had cause for concern. Later in life though I have taken notice of some peculiar things. This first manifested after a predominately vegetarian diet for around a year in where towards the end of the year had developed a food allergy to soya based on excess consumption (that Linda McCartney and her fake bacon has a lot to answer for...).

After this occurrence I realised it was pretty hard to avoid soya or for that matter many 'additives' in food. I also went straight back to eating all the 'junk' I had missed out on and rapidly became lethargic at parts then hyperactive in others during the day. This happens to this day and it was back then I developed a bit of a coffee habit to keep going in the 'burnt out' moments. I thought for many years my caffeine addiction was the root cause of sleeplessness or poor attention (so much so I quit jobs that became easily monotonous as my sanity was suffering despite them being perfectly non mundane to colleagues). Well experimenting with caffeine found that regardless of absence or overdose on the stuff my bodies behaviour was roughly the same. So clutching at straws looked into ADH and seem to tick most of the boxes except I'm not 6 years old anymore and don't watch TV much these days but could some aspects of my behaviour been moulded through childhood eating habits and so forth?.

Sort of scary stuff but I have had a very junk diet over the past few months being a bit lazy and I'm seriously thinking of cutting as many additives out as possible to see the effect it has.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/adhd_adult_qa.shtml

Talking of surveilance...

2007-09-05T14:06:00.000Z

This recent article struck a chord with me and the constant observation of the public by the police. I suppose this stems from having been at a music festival and observing and remembering that they are generally very peaceful affairs with the odd theft of tents but other than some individuals penchant for drug taking which has been the same since these things began back in the 60's crime free. So why this at a concert?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2381368.ece?openComment=true

Got to say I probably wouldn't notice a flying elephant whilst at some music festivals and that could be what the police think as well.....

You can stick that swab matey....

2007-09-05T09:00:00.000Z

Wake up and smell the coffee Britain we are on a roller coaster ride of state observation and control with the latest 'oh so well thought out' plan to DNA profile everyone resident and visitor to the UK and store the DNA profile on a permanent database.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6979138.stm

Well we all knew it was coming, schoolkids, new born children, dropping litter, failure to pay your TV licence or parking ticket, random stop and search. All 'legitimate' reasons to obtain your DNA at present but obviously we need to have everyone's to make crime easier to fight and 'prevent'. Luckily up to present I have avoided the DNA sample police similar I suspect to the 'THOUGHT POLICE' of the Orwellian society that we appear to have found ourselves not heading towards but already in and sinking fast.

The reasons for not profiling every person should be apparent to everyone. Not matter how secure this information could be used for many misuses and once on file it's there forever. If we are to fight crime fine, sample everyone CONVICTED of crime and leave it at that. OK once a criminal always a criminal mentality will creep in but surely that is preferable to the possibility of mistakes (however minimal). I foresee I terrible state of affairs where as a bastion of 'democracy' the UK pushes ahead with this giving the green light for other countries to do the same and maybe 'ethnic cleansing' will take a horrifying Nazi Germany style twist in say Darfor or Rwanda. Mind in this country will we end up with star badges like the Jews if we have a 'certain' DNA profile?. Will certain DNA profiles mean we are more likely to be 'criminal' in our behaviour and the government will use this in 'crime prevention'?. With the announcement today of the green light in the UK for human/animal crossbreed cloning of cellular material will our DNA be 'sold' or 'exploited' for other purposes.

All very alarming but altogether unsurprising, the Pandora's box was opened a while ago but it is down to the ethics of Genetics pioneers and the population as a whole as opposed to the government to dictate where we shall head with this and for what purpose. When they come knocking at my door swab in hand I'm leaving for a country that doesn't distrust or fear it's population and see them as individual potentially criminal profiles but rather unique individuals that can contribute in many ways to their country and society as a whole regardless of size, shape, colour or creed.

Mmmm Creamy

2007-08-31T12:08:00.000Z

Oh update was at Creamfields music festival over last weekend. Younger brother and pal came over and much fun and frolics in a decidedly dancing environment was had. Now 'back in the day' I would have had no bother with the excess's that go with 'dance culture' but really have to question some of the madness. My point in question is 'poppers' or Amyl Nitrate for those that read the labels on everything.....

Now on entering the first of several heavily police patrolled entrances the stench of this stuff was intense, I was getting very lightheaded in the open air and even though it's legal and all it really is akin to glue sniffing in it's image to me. Why then is it so popular?. Blimey can't peeps develop an old fashioned solid cocaine habit or something!

Anyway being the soul I am I contented myself with getting my kicks from alcohol and a strange variety of fungi that grows out of my bathroom walls.... It made the super huge video screen made up of rows of LED's look truly awe inspiring and very pretty..... Though everything wobbled a little more than it should I think. I blame it on Stella, that stuff is designed to strip away braincells even quicker than 'poppers'.

I also keep finding stuff around my house now that disposing of has led to all sorts of temptations. Strange white unmarked tablets, coloured powders at the bottom of tiny resealable bags and god knows where and why I ended up with 3 tubes of 'vics' inhalers in my jeans, I thought I was coherent for most of it!.

I will at some point post photos and vids as despite my incapability's in this field my bro and his mate Ritchy where a dab hand so hats off to them. Oh and a super huge thank you to the cool DJ in the ' My Space' double decker pics being above. Truly awesome bus and your choice of tunes and waving a mic at my warbling was funny as..... Unfortunately my bro is now on a mission to buy a doubledecker which is going to cost a fecing fortune no doubt.

'The war on democracy'

2007-08-22T18:49:00.000Z

Oh apols, been distracted of late with my hols and been keeping slightly odd hours to say the least but was lucky enough to catch John Pilgers film 'The war on democracy'. I've included a link below:

http://www.warondemocracy.net/

For those that haven't seen this yet it is in my humble opinion one of the best docufilms regarding the foreign policy of America and how countries have fought back through their peoples united front against puppet dictators, bank monopolisation and wholesale privatisation for profit. It details horrendous human rights abuse by leaders not least of which being the USA which carries on to this day not only wittingly on foreign nationals but their own citizens, truly frightening.

There is a face to face interview by John Pilger with an ex CIA director which is again very disturbing to hear someone that once held such power ultimately saying the USA is a bully boy country and I quote 'if you don't like it, tough get used to it' The arrogance and self belief that anything that is 'perceived' as not in the interests of USA national security will be dealt with and that 'dealing' with has led to thousands of deaths and torturings. To see this bloke deny the deaths of thousands in Chile under General Pinochet was truly galling akin to a Nazi Holocaust denier.... has he not seen the memorials to the dead and missing victims? but at least he did accept it was down to America that Pinochet came into power.

If any of us where unaware of the extent to which we are controlled and manipulated into a state of submission and 'sleep' by our governments then this surely will make you open your eyes to the lies, deceit and moneymaking that is going on by those that wield the power. It also gives hope that people when focused can and will throw of the yoke to make a difference regardless of how many deaths it takes to bring about change.

I wonder if a 'chad' count is on the cards...

2007-08-11T07:03:00.000Z

I really hope this guy wins the popular vote even if the result is shall we say skewed.....

People are strange?

2007-08-11T00:02:00.000Z

Thought finally I should post something I thought was quite enlightening regarding all these people (myself included) who seem to have been a bit sucked into all these MMORPG things on the fabulous Internet. The strange thing called community spirit.

Now I have to admit to being fairly antisocial on these sorts of games as in all honesty I thought most are sort of weird dedicating chunks of their daily lives to the endless pursuit of killing orcs and goblins in a never ending stream of ultimately fruitless behaviour. Now my excuse is I can't bear to watch TV and have the attention span of a newt these days so hence I try to find new and supposedly interesting things to do. Unfortunately my whole mental set up has been to generally get pleasure and satisfaction out of helping others rather than bothering too much about anything else.

Therefore that's sort of how my career (of sorts) is and possibly why I don't really get much satisfaction out of hobbies in general because they generally are self indulgent things. Now I have come across all these people who just have fun helping people through the game without much regard to anything else. It's a bit like being someone constantly helping old folks cross the road/counsellor/agony aunt/big brother and now I realise the addictiveness isn't the game as sorts it's the community.

And what a nice bunch of people that are out there and for some reason I get more thanks and appreciation from a complete bunch of strangers who have never met me and are unlikely too than I do from most of the random strangers I meet in day to day life. This has struck me as somewhat twisted. Are people more reserved in real life or just confused as to why someone is willing to offer assistance without regard and are somehow cynical through the harshness of society or are people who play these games just 'nicer'.

An example that spurred me to comment on this was being called the most eloquent,intelligent and helpful person the individual in question had the pleasure to meet through a game. I can't remember ever being called intelligent and eloquent in the same sentence before then, and certainly not after helping the last person across the road in real life, all they did was grunt at me. They were blind though and might have thought I was really a mugger in our scary mixed up world. I had a good mind to nick his white stick though but my good nature means the most I could do was mumble back 'no problem' the ungrateful sod....

So to conclude we need to sort out our community spirit and take a reality check on the world. Remove our cynical ways and have faith in society again, nice people exist, do not be scared of accepting help, there are no motives other than feeling good about helping. Life isn't about clawing your way to the top it's about being the foundation of our society giving those a leg up who need it. Take away the kind souls and you will have nobody to support you and ultimately you'll fall flat on your face with nobody to either catch you or help put the pieces back together when you need it most.

I always remember the saying 'money is the root of all evil' and perhaps it's the capitalist consumer society that has meant we are loosing the way a bit in the false assumption that we are somehow going to have a happier life with more money and more stuff. Well money is nice it makes life easier the bills get paid and all that but in all honesty it's easier to become self sufficient and drop out from this existence that we are in as 'wage slaves' than to ever reach 'the top'. 'The top' keeps getting higher but the bottom will always be at the same point and it's down there that life really is life and without people at the bottom propping the rest of society up we haven't got a society.

Oh dear I think I'm back to ranting again......

To Poi or not to Poi that is the question....

2007-08-09T11:43:00.000Z

Whoops apocalypse, despite rumours to the contrary I have not been whisked off to the authorities after complaining about free speech I actually have been enjoying some well deserved time out and avoiding ranting to the masses.

Like each and every one of us 'down time' is essential to allow our continued intellect to flourish without distraction. I have maintained my strange compulsion to view the world as my plaything in much the same way as our global leaders though and hence I have a new 'toy'. Unfortunately it's not a small 'un-democratic' country or new 'Star Wars' weapon but one of these crazy hippie ball on string things called 'poi poi' or rather just poi I suppose.

For someone as completely uncoordinated as me it's a bit of a challenge but a very useful aid to improve my dexterity and keep me in some way fitter than the unhealthy specimen I am. It originates from Maori folk down there in New Zealand who used it as a an aid for warriors to train and their good lady folk developed a tribal dance using them. I reckon it's more like some lethal ninja weapon as you can 'with practice' use flaming ones for fun and insurance claims....

I do need to practice though, so far I have nicely trimmed the neighbours hedge with them including his roses, given myself multiple bruises, taken out my own washing line, smashed a small child round the head and almost removed the tail from a local cat all in the space of a few weeks. My one momentous eureka moment was realising that trying poi whilst trampolining doesn't work and was never intended too....

While I'm talking free speech.....

2007-07-27T10:46:00.000Z

Well as my cage is rattled I thought it might be an idea to mention John Pilger. In some ways this guy is my hero. An established and well respected journalist and author. In these sort of 'interesting times' it is a ray of light to see some individuals express their views and highlight the government and mass media distortions and spin and to get to the 'Truth' in a proper journalistic fashion.

A recent article of his can be found here:

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=6919

I would recommend looking up some of his books 'Tell me no lies' is particularly good. I think the moral is we all need to look up individual reporters for the 'real' news and not rely on any mass media outlets or even to some extent the 'underground' news outlets. We are blessed in these times with the Internet to allow us to search for the information and not have it blocked and sterilised and pumped out to us in a controlled fashion through the papers and TV.

blogging free speech?

2007-07-27T09:49:00.000Z

Just read an article on the latest country to get a little 'worked up' by the fact that bloggers can say what they want and they don't like it.

Malaysia has been now added to the list of countries looking at Internet or more specifically Blog censorship. The full article can be found here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6915002.stm

This sort of thing is my pet hate, of all the freedoms in life the ability to express your views however extreme or bigoted they may be is an individuals right. To be heard though not necessarily agreed with. I have no time of day for religious fundamentalists, racists or extreme political views but I wouldn't want to live in a world where people cannot discuss these things. How else would I get to have an argument?.

What is riling is the Blogger= Terrorist notion. This is rubbish. A terrorist terrorises people. You can turn off a computer, not read a blog etc etc to avoid Blogger 'terrorism'. However a 'real' terrorist will use the 'normal' terrorist tools of the trade such as bombs and guns to intimidate you that aren't avoidable hence you then feel terrorised as you cannot run away from it even in your own home.

I get the feeling any person that a government sees as a dissenter now is labelled 'Terrorist' so laws can be passed to 'round them up' and the mass public think it's all good and they are somehow now 'safer' the 'Terrorist' has been locked up or whatever. This crazy world is heading towards some scary sort of Nazi state in a roundabout way on a global level.

Reading the Tarot is trickier than these runestone fellas...

2007-07-26T12:24:00.000Z

I have been having a look today at trying yet another new toy, learning to read the Tarot as I have been pretty much exclusively using runestones for years and they are very similar. So to learn I have to have a reading and interpret in the same way as the stones using the same 'celtic cross' spread. Well it's trickier than it looks having more cards than stones and learning their meanings. Some have corresponding runestones, others don't. Anyway just for a giggle here is 'today's' reading on a general life/love level. Not toooo bad, in fact as per it's pretty accurate but these things can be very generalised if it isn't the individual concerned doing their own reading..... Thing is though I can sit outside in the rain with stones, these tarot jobbies get a bit damp.....

Nine of Chalices

Your present position.

NINE OF CHALICES - Generosity

This card signifies open-heartedness. Your ability to accept others as they are, without judgement and with no expectations of them, gives you an endearing quality that draws people to you. Because you are able to function from your heart energy, the universe responds by enabling you to accept its gifts while you offer your own gifts of love and compassion to others.

This is a time of abundance, a time when your dreams are about to be realised, filling you with a sense of blessedness. Allow yourself to enjoy what is being offered to you, without questioning it, because it is your own positive energy that is finding its way back to you. A healing is taking place on many levels, so allow yourself to celebrate the bounty of life.

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Four of Chalices

What crosses you.

FOUR OF CHALICES - Emotion

The Four of Chalices shows that you have the support of others around you, which enables you to feel nourished and cherished. You give a great deal of yourself to those whom you care for, and are able to receive love in return. There is a childlike quality in this card, a sense of open-ness and innocence.

It is important that you enjoy the support of others, without allowing yourself to rely on it. It is good to have, but there is also a need for you to be able to stand alone and know that your strength truly comes from within yourself, and not from those around you. By realising this, you are able to resist any temptation to lean on others, or to allow them to lean too heavily on you. Through this, a healthy balance of energy can be obtained. E-motion stands for 'energy in motion'. In the midst of a time of change, it is important to maintain your centre, and your sense of self.

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The Magician

What is above you
- The Future.

THE MAGICIAN

The Magician represents the power of the will to manifest the energy needed for your purposes. It shows that you have all the tools you need at your disposal, and that you only need to have confidence in order to attain what you desire. The Magician shows that you have a particular direction that you need to follow, and that this has deep meaning for you. It can be accomplished, with the correct focus.

In the image, Merlin does not need to do anything - he simply is himself, with a strong awareness of his ability to manifest his wants and ideas. He receives the power needed through the chalice and vesica, and directs it through the staff and the sword. Whereas the Fool card is the beginning, the Magician represents the first steps actually taken to begin a new and exciting phase of your life. It is the sense of empowerment that you feel when you realise that you are in control of your life.

The Magician shows that you are able to accomplish what you want through being focused on your goal. It shows strength of will and determination, and reminds you that you have all you need at your disposal. It can also indicate someone in your life who bears these qualities.

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The Emperor

What is beneath you
- Passing out of your life.

THE EMPEROR

The Emperor signifies stability and authority. There is the need, and the ability, to maintain the status quo, and to act as an anchor. The Emperor is the father figure, who is able to lay the groundwork for creativity to spring from.

This card advises you to lay foundations, create firm boundaries along with stability and order, and to explore where discipline is needed in your life. In the card, the Emperor holds his sceptre across his lap, indicating that you can tap into your qualities of wise leadership. His sword rests by his side. He does not need to wield his sword to prove his power - just showing it is enough.

This is a time when you can take the helm, and feel in control of your life. Yet, too strong a need for rules and structure can be stifling. Finding the balance between stability and rigidity is called for in your situation.

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Three of Vesicas

What is behind you
- The Past.

THREE OF VESICAS - Creativity

The Three of Vesicas indicates rewards for hard work. This is a time of growth and steady progress. The expansion of your abilities and ideas leads to success because you are prepared to put effort into what you are doing.

The key to working with this card is the ability to see the outcome you desire, and to keep that focus and intention at all times. Just as a house sprung first from an idea in the mind of an architect, then was brought into form through drawing up plans, then built and lived in, so your ideas can be brought into tangible form. Creativity arises through openness to possibilities, and the ability to see potential and make connections.

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Strength

What is before you
- The Future

STRENGTH

The Strength card shows an influx of confidence, and the ability to deal with obstacles in a positive, even joyous, way. It indicates a time of feeling passionate about your life, filled with hope for the future and the knowledge that you are strong enough to overcome any challenges which may stand in your way.

Fears can be swept aside, and you feel less need for the approval of others. This could be a time of great creativity for you. You can now accept yourself as you are, which enables you to give free rein to your energies.

You are likely to feel supported and nurtured in your undertakings, because your instincts about what you want and need are strong and reliable. This is the time to make decisions consciously and with clarity.

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Four of Vesicas

Where you will find yourself.

FOUR OF VESICAS - Integrity

The Four of Vesicas indicates the need to deal with power issues in a constructive way. There is stability and deep integrity in your dealings with others. You expect people to be as you are yourself, and are disappointed if they let you down. Either there is a need for more boundaries, or you are putting up too many barriers between yourself and others.

The position of the vesica symbols on the figure in the card reveal the way forward. The first vesica is on the solar plexus chakra, the seat of the will, indicating the need to push for what you want. The next vesica is positioned at the heart chakra, signalling you to follow your feelings. The last two vesicas are on the shoulders, the area where you carry responsibility, and remind you to be willing to take responsibility for your actions.

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The Hermit

Your surroundings and
- or how others see you.

THE HERMIT

The Hermit is the spiritual guide. It shows that you need to make some space in your life, in which you can reflect on your needs, and meet them. It is time for a period of withdrawal from worldly considerations, whether this takes the form of a holiday, a weekend break, or a day spent alone or with nature. This space will allow you to perceive your inner light, that which inspires you, and to nurture it.

The Hermit card does not mean that you deprive yourself of relationships with others, however. Its rulership of Virgo does indicate that you need to be discriminating about who shares your life, and that you are attracted to those with whom you have shared ideas and ideals. Someone could be entering your life whom you respect, and can learn a great deal from.

Perhaps you have been hiding your light under a bushel. If so, now is the time to let the beauty of your true self radiate outwards so that it can be recognised by others. Kindred sprits can then be drawn to you, who will accompany you on the next stage of your spiritual journey.

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The Fool

Your hopes - or fears

THE FOOL

The Fool card is a time of new beginnings, the first step on the journey of self-discovery. It denotes an attitude of trust and innocence, even naivete and also a sense of wonder. The Fool dares to take risks that others would not consider, because he is fully immersed in the moment, and has no concern for consequences.

This card shows the demeanour of one who is able to step blindly into the future, in a state of perfect, and blessed, trust. The Fool shows that you need to trust, to take a risk, to have a fresh start and leave behind past patterns of thinking or being that have held you back. It encourages you to take a leap of faith and jump joyously into the unknown.

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Queen of Chalices

The Outcome.

QUEEN OF CHALICES

This card signifies that you are now ready and willing to give of yourself in an unconditional way. You have the ability to relate to your deepest feelings, and to express them through your creative and imaginative faculties. There is a need to both give and receive love, as it is a cornerstone of your existence.

You know what you want, and how to go about getting it. The Queen of Chalices represents the ideal of womanhood and motherhood, and this card shows that you are learning the lesson of how to integrate passion with unconditional love.

Music of the day

2007-07-25T12:36:00.000Z

Just been browsing and this just stuck out as most appropriate on so many levels for today....