Volume 43
12 Apr 2003
There will be nothing to see here for two weeks, so move along quickly and quietly.
11 Apr 2003
Anyone know if you can hire surf boards anywhere on Gran Canaria? (No information on the web that I can find)
Oh, and one thing about Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf that I haven't seen mentioned - notice that he can do it in English as well as Arabic. I don't notice the pentagon spinmeisters being exactly fluent in anything other than that strange thing they use that they seem to think is English. (Attrit is not a verb|!!!)
I asked an Arabic speaker - Ba'ath means something like "national reconstruction"
One question I have not seen asked (or answered) is "what does Baath mean?". There are Baath parties in several countries. I wonder if it translates as "republican"?
Neti - I suspect this is really good for you, but I cannot stand having water in my nose. Ugh.
I juat got the most fantastic Bifurcated Rivets catalogue from ebay. It dates to about 1910 and is in fact in French - Rivets Bifurque. There are pictures of French rivets tins! I don't have any of those. There also pictures of Rivets Tubulaires - I have never seen tins for those in English let along French.
7 Apr 2003
Has anyone seen PX yet? It now says "early april" rather than "n days" - I wonder when it will change to "late april"?
4 Apr 2003
What a strange bunch the US military spokespeople are. There is the woman with weird dress sense who nevers answers a question. There is the one who looks as though he has seen a ghost and shows the "war is just a video game" films, and also doesn't answer questions. Then there is the tall thin one in Quatar who looks like GI Joe and clearly has no sense of humour, oh and he doesn't answer questions either. (Not that any of them are actually paid to answer questions of course!) And, of course, not forgetting Ari Fleischer who is much the best of all of them at the job, because he appears to answer questions. He even does banter. The trouble is he reminds me of the guy who did the press meetings in Spin City.
Can I calibrate you on something? "attrit" is not a word.
Discount (??) shopping - please note that I am not in anyway condoning the activity described herein.
The GAEA BOYZ?!?!?! I can't work out whether this is serious, real but satirical or just a joke.
3 Apr 2003
The dullest weblog in the world - he/she wishes! This is a mine of fascinating information and inspiration compared with some of them out there. It's great. The cartoons are strange as well.
2 Apr 2003
I'm sure you all use these every day, but this morning I saw for the first time a self-drive refigerated van. Remember to wash the blood stains out.
1 Apr 2003
I was also much taken last night with the White Stripes song Ball and Biscuit (names after a type of microphone) - everyone has been raving about them for ages of course but I had never really heard them before. I may have to investigate the album.
I heard a song on teh wireless last night (by DJ Format if my memory is correct) which featured the line "more hits than a German surfer fetish website" so of course I went and looked, but I couldn't find any German surfer fetish websites (however you parse it), though I did come across mensfeet.com which is exactly what you think it is and so you probably don't want to go there.
Melinda tells me that the dog island is not really sadly. Oh well.
31 Mar 2003
Holy cards, religious prints, and posters - I Love religious postcards, particularly the 3-D effect ones.
30 Mar 2003
I saw a cartoon yesterday on a sign that said "You're a librarian? Fascinating! Which part of Libraria are you from?". Well, I laughed a lot, and so did Penny and so did my father.
29 Mar 2003
28 Mar 2003
I went to the car breakers this morning to try and get replace the wing mirror for my car that someone snapped off. It is a very odd sensation trying to take things off a car - one is so attuned to not scratching the paintwork etc. that one tends to approach it with too much delicacy. Mind you I did end up crowbarring the inside off the door.....
27 Mar 2003
You've probably noticed by now that I too subscribe to Popbitch, but those were all too good to miss.
26 Mar 2003
Damn it, why won't winamp talk to my sound card!
Eric's History of Perpetual Motion and Free Energy Machines - I mentioned this one in Volume 36 but the link was missing so here it is now.
25 Mar 2003
Some good photos at Quirky Japan (But their page impression allocation ran out when I was looking at them so don't bombard them)
John Thelwall - a man who spent his life questioning everything, and upsetting lots of people in the process.
Ah, Chris reminds me that it was Tripping the Rift that I was thinking of. The second part seems not to have a made it from virtual reality into real reality yet.
Inviting God to your Wedding - what happens if she has another appointment? (From the site name I assume that "touched" does not have the same colloquial meaning in the USA as it does in the UK, even though it is clearly appropriate)
Interesting article in the Guardian yesterday about how inaccurate all those "precision" weapons really are. Haven't found a link yet though.
Isn't a hassle when you can't find a site that you know is there, but just can't quite get the hook on its name! I've been poring through old volumes trying to find it and I can't. It's an entirely computer animated spoof on Star Wars. Grrrr (Searching through back issues has shown me that I say this a lot. Sorry)
"Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. Your wealth has been stripped of you by unjust men ... The people of Baghdad shall flourish under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws." Said in 1917 by General F S Maude, commander of British forces in Iraq.
Why can't I get Winamp to talk to one of the CD lookup databases? it just wont do it for me. Most annoying. Their website is singularly useless.
24 Mar 2003
I finally managed to load Where is Raed tonight - the underscore in the domain name was causing me DNS problems and I hadn't heard about the link without the underscore. Interesting. I see that there is a link to here in the section "Secretly Stalking". What does that mean I wonder?
Why are people surprised that there are casualties in a war? (Even if a lot of them have been inflicted by their own side)
22 Mar 2003
21 Mar 2003
Watching Ari Fleischer at the White House - why is the US press obsessed with whether or not Bush watches Television? I'm glad to hear that he doesn't watch it much - the only positive thing I have ever heard about him.
"Giant B52 bombers take off from UK airbase" - there are some midget B52s then? Or normal (sorry regular) sized ones?
You are of course all preapring for Planet X to appear in 6 days. I had a look at the "Earth Changes" page on the pole shift site and must aqdmit to being underwhelmed - Snow in February!!! 4.7 million chickens quarantined!! And what possible connection is there between planet X and a mystery beast in Malawi? Maybe it's Nancy the alien roaming around. Of course when Planet X does become visible to the naked eye I'll have to eat my words, but if it becomes visible to the naked eye in 6 days why can't people with telescopes see it now? Is it playing planet peek-a-boo and will suddenly jump out from behind the sun and go "tols you so"?
20 Mar 2003
Saddam rocks - I linked to this site before, but here are some more images. Some excellent examples of photoshop work.
19 Mar 2003
18 Mar 2003
I was listening the Lemonhead's It's a shame about Ray this morning on the bus - what an excellent album. the reviews of the new Evan Dando album seem rather good so i may have to check that one out.
17 Mar 2003
I tried the IBM Speech to text demo with the sentence "I walked to milnegalvie via auchtermuchty, beaulieu, ovingham, bellingham and beauvoir". Of course it fails miserably.
Hmm, I hadn't come acorss gizmodo before - how come I missed that one? Add this one to the daily rotation.
15 Mar 2003
14 Mar 2003
Bizarre piece of information from a shopkeeper : if you stock astrological goods, there are some signs that don't sell. How weird is that?
Queer Love quest - is it just me or is "Get shifted in the Company of queers" a rather poor slogan?
13 Mar 2003
A digital library of eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century local and trade directories from England and Wales. I love old trade directories.
12 Mar 2003
And don't forget to check out Carolina Cotton - yodelling and accordions. What else could you want? The Bob Wills video sounds good too.
Hezzie "The shopping center for music, movies, muppets and signs" "Did you know here at the world's most unique shopping center we have EVERY BREED of DOG on an aluminum sign" Too good to miss, clearly. Especially being most unique. (However, they do sell washboards which are pretty hard to get these days)
Talking of "I like bananas 'cos they've got no bones", I've been listening to the Hoosier Hotshots. Excellent stuff and what a great swanee whistle player. Spend some time exploring the site and in particular listening to their music - too much good stuff to list.
Froggy's novelty song lyric collection - it doesn't have "I like bananas 'cos they've got no bones"
I got a fantastic new Bifurcated Rivets tin yesterday - quite unlike any of the others that I have. Remember if you ever see a bifrucated rivets tin anywhere do let me know!
11 Mar 2003
Zeta Talk "ZetaTalk leads you through the vast amount of information being relayed by the Zetas in answer to questions posed to their emissary, Nancy." Nancy? What sort of alien name is Nancy? Hyxprqt I would believe but Nancy? (And if you want a good example of over linking on a page try this one).
Pole Shift Prepare!! "Only 65 days left until the pole shift 16 days until PX visible to naked eye"
10 Mar 2003
RIP Barry Sheene
The character for strawberry is not in my kanji dictionary. (Well, as far as i can see anyway)
7 Mar 2003
6 Mar 2003
I know this Radebaugh site was on /., but it is still excellent. Interesting that all the people in the pictures are wearing 30/40/50s style clothes - in particular the men have hats on. (Though to be fair, the "youth of today" seem to wear hats a lot too, thoug very different hats) I still wany my presonal jetpack
5 Mar 2003
4 Mar 2003
My pond is, as usual at this time, full of frogs doing what frogs do at this time of the year.
P U L P - I T: modernized pulp fiction art - a most excellent website! Original and brilliant. I'm adding this to my daily round.
I was given this album and am now totally addicted to it. It is just such excellent pop music - I wonder why the Japanese are so good at international pop music when other nations (and the Fench spring to mind) really can't do it. I'm trying to work out what the lyrics mean but can only get glimmers of meaning from them - presumably the language is rather too colloquial to be eassy to translate with a dictionary and a grammar!
Someone loaned me a Creative Labs Extigy USB sound device and not only can I not get it to work, it has stopped my ordinary sound card from working. Grrrr.
3 Mar 2003
Uniysso - Johnny, I'm not sure that golf shirts send out quite the right message though! :-)
Word Bursts - been mentioned a bit lately. An interesting idea, though it is based on the assumption that what webloggers talk about is actually interesting or relevant!
Hogerhand "The Hogerhand People's Front is a civil defense militia. Its function is the pre-emptive defense of the Dutch coast against a possible invasion by Armed Forces of the United States. Notice of this invasion was given in the so-called 'Hague Invasion Act' which president Bush signed on August 2nd 2002."
2 Mar 2003
RIP Roger Needham
1 Mar 2003
28 Feb 2003
I hadn't realised that Barry Bucknell designed the Mirror dinghy, nor that it was named eponymously for the newspaper.
I just looked at the "Maggots in the brain" picture that is currently doing the rounds. (No I am not going to link to it, and yes, it does seem to be genuine) How could anyone let themselves get to that state?
27 Feb 2003
I watched that new (in the UK) Larry David program "Curb Your Enthusiasm" last night. I can't make up my mind if it was funny or not. I laughed at bits, and some of it is comedy of embarassment which I just don't enjoy. I can't quite work out the frame of reference for it.
Cows with Guns, check out the song and also the song "I'd go anywhere to fight for oil to lubricate the red white & blue". Excellent stuff
26 Feb 2003
No 4 in a series of books.... The Minnipins 
by Carol Kendal. A children's book. I had no idea that there were other Minnipins books though - I will have to go out and find them.
Went to see Huw Warren last night - excellent stuff. If he plays near you and you like slightly avant-garde, jazz piano then he's your man. His album "Infinite Riches in a little room" is well worth getting.
25 Feb 2003
24 Feb 2003
comong to mu office tonight, I pressed hte lift call button and the lift came down and the doors opened. I wasn't expecting anyone in the lift and the doors opened and stepping out was a woman dressed in a dazzlingly white burka. It was a very weird experience. The way the material floated was exactly like a canonical cartoon ghost.
I never did think that Ali G. was particularly funny, but I don't understand the reaction of "let's sue" to his 7/11 joke! Sue for what reason? I suppose black humour may be more of a Yurpeen thing.
Damn Windows. I managed to delete a whole load of precious files becuase it doesn't understand about symbolic links. This includes all the back numbers of the weblog! I hope the backup has been working. Googlew had them all cached except 1, 2, and 3 so I pulled all of those back just in case. *sigh*
RIP Barry Bucknell
19 Feb 2003
17 Feb 2003
14 Feb 2003
Hmm, access to volumes before 36 was broken but is now OK. (Thanks Chris)
Backmasking Insanity (via Sharpeworld) It always amazes me that people actually believe this nonsense. I mean if I were Satan I would make damn sure that my disciples made my words came out a bit more clearly than that. I wonder if you get backmasking in languages other than English? Does Satan (or his followers) only speak English? Or does mean that only English speakers are stupid enough to go looking for hidden messages?
Why do Steinberg have such a crappy site? You can't find out anything useful on it at all, let alone actually buy anything. It's all shiny and corporate and entirely useless.
British Pathe is more functional than it was, but it is a total pain getting to view anything. They make it really hard to watch a preview, and of course this just encourages you to fill in crap into all the boxes they provide.
13 Feb 2003
AH, it does seem to be gaffer tape. Masking tape must be mis-reporting. Whew. i would have been really worried if people hadn't had the protection of gaffer tape. (The high thread count stuff of course). I was thinking about how to build a shelter using gaffer tape - invert a table and carefully wrap it round and round the legs and then build a roof out of strips. A bit stcky on the inside I suppose. I wonder how many rolls you would need?
I guess that the masking tape and plastic sheeting makers ponied up to Dubya. (Masking tape????? Surely it would have to be gaffer tape. I wonder of WD40 protects against airborne bacteria?)
Test - I still don't understand the question about the outs in an inning even when I know the answer. Got all the others right though.
12 Feb 2003
I am trying to go from tape to CD and am taking the tape machines output directly into the line socket on my soundcard. It seems to be rather distorted though and I wonder if I need an extra stage in there somewhere. Any audio experts out there?
Bible gateway - I can't think of any possible use I would have for this except possibly solving crossword puzzles.
11 Feb 2003
The same people do The Friday Thing which might even be worth paying for, though I shall hold judgement on that till I have seen some of what they produce...
Popped Clogs And to think I was one of the first to do deaths on the web. What an industry it has turned out to be.
I wish Working for Change would work on getting their website to work properly so taht I can read Tom Tomorrow! That's a change I would certainly like to see.
I really must get round to loading this site down with sidebars and broken javascript that causes browsers to freeze and pop-up error dialogues. It seems to be the thing to do these days.
10 Feb 2003
Pattern Recognition 
- the new William Gibson. Excellent. A great read.
Starma.com "contains explicit content & ramblings of a dirty teen" Check out some of the links to other logs/journals - some excellent domain names (don't know about the content!)
8 Feb 2003
I now have a clue about buididipi! (Thanks Ray)
No 2 in a series of books etc. : The Gamekeeper at Home by Richard Jeffries (not forgetting Bevis and Wildlife of the Southern Counties by the same author)
No 1 in a series of books you should know about, but probably don't : All About H. Hatter by G.V. Desani (No useful links and it's probably out of print)
7 Feb 2003
Gibson's weblog - I just got Pattern recognition but haven't had a chance to start on it yet. Probably this weekend.
Talking of dances, I was watching the Ketchup song video the other day and reading the lyrics. What on earth is "buididipi"?
6 Feb 2003
Well Kevin L. Donihe also mailed me (probably not spam, but verging on processed meat of some kind...) to tell me about his novel about circus midgets. So I thought I'd better tell you just in case.
The journal of battlefield technology - these people spammed me! Perhpas we ought to organise for them to be flooded with spurious papers. "An empirical analysis of the effectiveness of Dihydrogen Monoxide projecting arms"
Time for a new volume methinks.