Very very nice link



http://www.mp3it.com/browse.php?name=Misc

In between the pages and pages of tributes to the Queen mother in the News of the World today there was a full page tutorial in cartoon form entitled “Gospel truth about Easter” teaching us in a series of cartoons what Easter is all about. My first reaction was to laugh, typical of the news of the world …….but after a little thought it struck me that this is true indication of popular culture, we don’t care what our religious festivals are all about, all we are concerned about is the time off work, trips away or a chance to do some more shopping. Bank holiday’s are just that, a holiday, a break from the norm’ it doesn’t matter what’s behind it. If the news of the world has signalled the end of organised religion then it can’t be all bad, it may be worth reading after all.

At the moment big business drives technology, this includes the military, for the benefit of shareholders. There are a few failures especially in the dot com sector and everyone knows about Enron, but on the whole large corporations look after themselves very well, usually to the detriment of humanity or the environment. For this reason alone I cannot see computers being given control over their own development, they wouldn't be concerned with profit margins or shareholder returns. There is an argument that you could pre-program specific values into the system, but that defeats the object of giving these computers free will. I think common sense suggests that computers will advance a great deal and probably at an alarming rate, but I do think it will be controlled by corporations who have a vested interest.

Verner Vinge, the sci-fi writer and self styled profit, has foreseen a future (actually 2035) when computers have control over their own development. Apparently this development will accelerate at such a rate that it will become instantaneous, or as Vinge put's it "a singularity". A scary idea, and one which requires some deep thought. Let me know what you think, I'm sure there will be more posts on this subject.

Ok, I promised a happy post and here it is, we are still five points clear at the top and if we beat Wolves on Monday whilst the baggies lose we are promoted. It’s never that easy though, I can see it going to the wire and Keegan losing it on Sky sports yet again.


More reasons to be cheerful:


1. Not back in work until next Thursday night.

2. The weather has been lovely while I have been off.

3. The return of the prodigal son from uni’ next week.

4. Having a curry later, with plenty of beer. Mmmmmm curry !



Probably post again later, not much on telly……………..can’t think why.

I'm not going to add my opinion on the death of the queen mother, enough will be said on that subject over the next few days. Instead I think it needs to be reported more that Balfore Beaty have pulled out of the Ilisu dam project in southern Turkey, this story is more than a few days old but I had to go searching for it on the net. This is a fantastic result for a small group of protesters against a massive multi-national corporation who have shown a complete disregard for human life. The campaign was brought to my attention by Mark Thomas on his channel 4 show, and one of the most disappointing aspects of the whole affair is the British governments support for the project, both through the ECGD, and ministers like Richard Caborn who supported the project openly, even the World Bank refused to support the project on environmental grounds, and with their track record it makes our governments support even harder to swallow. The most encouraging thing about the withdrawal is it proves that if people stick together and exert as much pressure as they can, even multi-national corporations take notice and eventually bend to the will of those who are in the right.

mmmmmm.................chocolate eclairs !

What a beautifull day ! I sorted things with mapplanet, it really is a good idea......anyway it's far too nice a day to be sat in front of this screen, so I'm off out. Happy posts later if we beat Forest, I'm not even going to consider how I will feel if we lose.

Just spent nearly an hour trying to register with a website, thing is it's a really nice idea.........well you have a look and make your own mind up
http://www.mapplanet.com/ The annoying thing is, apart from freeserve booting me off after half an hour, that the applet gets confused easily resulting in multiple attempts to input information and me getting more and more frustrated. I still haven't managed to to complete the process so I've just e-mailed them, maybe they can sort it !

I've been fine tuning the look of this page for a good twenty four hours now, and I think I've finally got it just how I want it, although I'll probably change my mind later. Now I might find some time to update my web site ( - Pravda88 - ) which I have neglected recently, anyway things always look a little better through the cloudy haze that descends after several German beers.

Today is good Friday, as if you didn’t know, another stolen festival…..does Passover ring any bells ? I think it’s time to invent a new religion and nick all our festivals from existing faiths, we’ll start with Christmas and rename it the festival of Chillout, we’ll bring a cow into our house and adorn it with pound coins and tin foil. Next is Passover, we’ll rename it Rollover and everyone will put an extra line on and cross their fingers for forty hours. I think Ramadan is a good one, we’ll call it Rollingpin and eat pies every day for a month, on the last day a pie shall be made in the image of our saviour and be filled with tasty things. All good religions, and a few bad ones, have at least four festivals so the last one will be the summer Solstice and we'll call it gridlockday. I think we are long overdue a couple of days off when the weather is warm, this one is a pilgrimage to a field just outside Brighton, we’ll spend all day watching indi groups perform on a large stage whilst consuming copious amounts of alcohol and then sleep in a tent.



Whatever your faith, may your god go with you.

http://www.radiohead.com/



http://www.audiogalaxy.com



http://www.socialcritic.org



http://www.wordsmith.org/~anu/java/spirograph.html

I know I'm probably being cynical but I can't help thinking that Dubya is looking for a patsy, Zacarias Moussaoui is facing the death penalty for "his part" in the attacks on the world trade centres last year. Moussaoui was in jail at the time, but Bush thinks he would have participated if he was free. A conspiracy charge always sounds dodgy, but when you consider that Dubya is gunning for the death penalty it makes it even more worrying. I'm not disputing Moussaoui's innocence or guilt, but I think it would be dangerous and very unfair to pin the whole thing on one man, a man that wasn't even there.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,675896,00.html

Just one last thing, Battlefield earth ! Perhaps it's as well it isn't Christmas or else it would have had a good handful of sage and onion stuffing shoved up it's arse and served on a large platter with seasonal veg', roast potatoes and a generous helping of gravy.

A good cup of coffee really sorts me out, I think David Lynch used to get high on caffeine before he brainstormed his films.......anyway, it works for me as well, although I still can't remember what I was thinking about last night.



As the box at the top of the page say's, this site is a repository for my daily thoughts or the stuff that usually goes unsaid, ideas, images, links, rants and maybe, if things work out, some contributions from others with things to say. What this will not be is a diary, I don't want to feel obliged to post every day, I want to add the things when, and if, they need to be said.


I think that will do for today, I'm off work for a couple of weeks so this will probably update regularly, so for now here is a very nice link.


http://www.yhchang.com

I'm just watching the sun set over the Solway Firth, and desperately trying to remember what was in my head when I finally decided to give this a go last night. Unfortunately I was in Anglesey with no means of committing my thoughts to anything permanent, and now, after a four and a half hour drive back two hours of which were spent on the M6, my brain isn't functioning at it's usual level. Anyway, I may have to go and have a very strong cup of coffee and come and try again later, for now though here is a very nice link



http://www.warprecords.com/