the auroran sunset diary

TypeKey API manual problems

2006-10-08T04:36:38Z

I've just posted this to lj_dev: it is hard to RTFM when the FM contains major errors. I still wonder if I'm missing something: surely with something this widely and successfully used, the manual couldn't possibly be that badly wrong! Surely!!

I shall just have to see if some helpful soul manages to explain why there is no error after all...

I really should go to bed. At least it works now, after a couple of days struggling with the manuals and relearning various algorithms I did at uni, but never used. Must buy algorithms book! Must SLEEP!!

new no2id poster

2006-09-27T22:05:02Z

i tend to agree with abelard that ID cards are empirically unworkable and simply a form of make-work corruption. However, it is not the sort of make-work corruption i like to see. No2ID is doing good work causing Bliar and co. problems implementing this particular pork-barrel project. Here is one of their latest advert posters:

It is a fairly similar idea to this t-shirt, of which i have one. I don't think I'll be getting a t-shirt with the Bliar picture - the other one was acceptable because it had lots of pretty colours, even if i would have preferred it with a black background.

pointed quote from samizdata on belgium and google

2006-09-27T21:30:59Z

What is it about Belgium? Why are they always in the news for something stupid?

The fact Belgian newspapers want it to be harder to find the content they put on the internet is weird (why bother having an on-line presence at all then?), the fact they went to court to force Google to stop driving traffic to their sites is bizarre, the fact a Belgian court found against Google is insane.

--samizdata

This is just another way in which the fossil media are driving themselves out of business.

silly french time three

2006-09-24T00:44:58Z

Anyone who has tried to watch a streaming video on a French computer may have double-taken at the following French:

mise en mémoire tampon

From the context, it obviously means "buffering", but i could swear the literal translation would be "putting into tampon memory". I'm not quite sure what a tampon memory would be - probably quite bloody: "Saddam has a tampon memory, all he can remember is..". No, maybe not.

The French word "tampon" normally means a "wad" or "pad", but it also has a secondary meaning of "buffer".

The French for a bicycle "inner tube" is "une chambre à air", literally that's an "air bedroom". OK then.

Anyone who has done even a very little French is likely to know the word for a bank: "une banque", pronounced like the English word "bonk". What they may not know is that in French a "seat" is a miniature bank: "une banquette". I think the French must use the seats for more than sitting.

That's all the silly for tonight. :-)

the british police are the best in the world...

2006-09-22T14:39:00Z

... i don't believe one of these stories i've heard..

here's another of benjamin franklin's amusing stories that i have little doubt are not true:

Sure some unauspicious cross-grain'd Planet, in Opposition to Venus, resides over the Affairs of Love about this Time. For we hear, that on Tuesday last, a certain C-n-table having made an Agreement with a neighbouring Female, to Watch with her that Night; she promised to leave a Window open for him to come in at; but he going his Rounds in the dark, unluckily mistook the Window, and got into a Room where another Woman was in bed, and her Husband it seems lying on a Couch not far distant. The good Woman perceiving presently by the extraordinary Fondness of her Bedfellow that it could not possibly be her Husband, made so much Disturbance as to wake the good Man; who finding somebody had got into his Place without his Leave, began to lay about him unmercifully; and 'twas thought, that had not our poor mistaken Galant, call'd out manfully for Help (as if he were commanding Assistance in the King's Name) and thereby raised the Family, he would have stood no more Chance for his Life between the Wife and Husband, than a captive L-------- between two Thumb Nails.

-- The Pennsylvania Gazette, June 24, 1731.

any ideas on what the "L----------" at the end is? a louse?

anthony afterwit

2006-09-22T14:27:59Z

amongst other things, i am currently reading ben franklin's collected works (0940450291). in the 1730s he bought a newspaper and press. he then filled the newspaper with silly and often 'moral' tales, which he had obviously just made up. many of the stories are highly amusing. i also love the use of language from that era, especially the amusing ways they use capital letters, the ways they spell and their twee phraseologies.

here is a letter from "anthony afterwit"...

Mr. Gazetteer,
I am an honest Tradesman, who never meant Harm to any Body. My Affairs went on smoothly while a Batchelor; but of late I have met with some Difficulties, of which I take the Freedom to give you an Account.

About the Time I first address'd my present Spouse, her Father gave out in Speeches, that if she married a Man he liked, he would give with her 200l. and in some Measure neglected my Business on that Account: But unluckily it came to pass, that when the old Gentleman saw I was pretty well engag'd, and that the Match was too far gone to be easily broke off; he, without any Reason given, grew very angry, forbid me the House, and told his Daughter that if she married me he would not give her a Farthing. However (as he foresaw) we were not to be disappointed in that Manner; but having stole a Wedding, I took her home to my House; where we were not in quite so poor a Condition as the Couple describ'd in the Scotch Song, who had
Neither Pot nor Pan,
But four bare Legs together;

for I had a House tolerably furnished, for an ordinary Man, before. No thanks to Dad, who I understand was very much pleased with his politick Management. And I have since learn'd that there are old Curmudgeons (so called) besides him, who have this Trick, to marry their Daughters, and yet keep what they might well spare, till they can keep it no longer: But this by way of Digression; A Word to the Wise is enough.

I soon saw that with Care and Industry we might live tolerably easy, and in Credit with our Neighbours: But my Wife had a strong Inclination to be a Gentlewoman. In Consequence of this, my old-fashioned Looking-Glass was one Day broke, as she said, No Mortal could tell which way. However, since we could not be without a Glass in the Room, My Dear, says she, we may as well buy a large fashionable One that Mr. Such-a-one has to sell; it will cost but little more than a common Glass, and will be much handsomer and more creditable. Accordingly the Glass was bought, and hung against the Wall: But in a Week's time, I was made sensible by little and little, that the Table was by no Means sutable to such a Glass. And a more proper Table being procur'd, my Spouse, who was an excellent Contriver, inform'd me where we might have very handsome Chairs in the Way: And thus, by Degrees, I found all my old Furniture stow'd up into the Garrent, and every thing below alter'd for the better.

Had we stopp'd here, we might have done well enough; but my Wife being entertain'd with Tea by the Good Women she visited, we could do no less than the like when they visited us; and so we got a Tea-Table with all its Appurtenances of China and Silver. Then my Spouse unfortunately overwork'd herself in washing the House, so that we could do no longer without a Maid. Besides this, it happened frequently, that when I came home at One, the Dinner was but just put in the Pot; for, My Dear thought really it had been but Eleven: At other Times when I came at the same Hour, She wondered I would stay so long, for Dinner was ready and had waited for me these two Hours. These Irregularities, occasioned by mistaking the Time, convinced me, that it was absolutely necessary to buy a Clock; where my Spouse observ'd, was a great Ornament to the Room! And lastly, to my Grief, she was frequently troubled with some Ailment or other, and nothing did her so much Good as Riding; And these Hackney Horses were such wretched ugly Creatures, that --- I bought a very fine pacing Mare, which cost 20l. And hereabouts Affairs have stood for some Months past.

I could see all along, that this Way of Living was utterly inconsistent with my Circumstances, but had not Resolution enough to help it. Till lately, receiving a very severe Dun, which mention'd the next Court, I began in earnest to project Relief. Last Monday my Dear went over the River, to see a Relation, and stay a Fortnight, because she could not bear the Heat of the Town. In the Interim, I have taken my Turn to make Alterations, viz. I have turn'd away the Maid, Bag and Baggage (for what should we do with a Maid, who (except my Boy) none but our selves.) I have sold the fine Pacing Mare, and bought a good Milch Cow, with 3l. of the Money. I have dispos'd of the Tea-Table, and put a Spinning Wheel in its Place, which methinks looks very pretty: Nine empty Canisters I have stuff'd with Flax; and with some of the Money of the Tea-Furniture, I have bought a Set of Knitting-Needles; for to tell you a Truth, which I would have go no farther, I began to want Stockings. The stately Clock I have transform'd into an Hour-Glass, by which I gain'd a good round Sum; and one of the Pieces of the old Looking-Glass, squar'd and fram'd, supplies the Place of the Great One, which I have convey'd into a Closet, where it may possibly remain some years. In short, the Face of Things is quite changed; and I am mightily pleased when I look at my Hour-Glass, what an Ornament it is to the Room. I have paid my Debts, and find Money in my Pocket. I expect my Dame home next Friday, and as your Paper is taken in at the House where she is, I hope the Reading of this will prepare her Mind for the above surprizing Revolutions. If she can conform to this new Scheme of Living, we shall be the happiest Couple perhaps in the Province, and by the Blessing of God, may soon be in thriving Circumstances. I have reserv'd the great Glass, because I know her Heart is set upon it. I will allow her when she comes in, to be taken suddenly ill with the Headach, the Stomach-ach, Fainting-Fits, or whatever other Disorder she may think more proper; and she may retire to Bed as soon as she pleases: But if I do not find her in perfect Health both of Body and Mind the next Morning, away goes the aforesaid Great Glass, with several other Trinkets I have no Occasion for, to the Vendue that very Day. Which is the irrevocable Resolution of, Sir,

Her loving Husband, and
Your very humble Servant,
ANTHONY AFTERWIT.

Postscript, You know we can return to our former Way of Living, when we please, if Dad will be at the Expence of it.

-- The Pennsylvania Gazette, July 10, 1732.

two weeks later, franklin printed a letter of complaint also written by himself from "Celia Single". this is his common practice and he often writes as a woman. he's a funny guy, and even though i have only read ~200 pages of ~1600, i recommend this book.

silly french

2006-09-22T13:41:45Z

from my tiny ikkle dictionary:

tièdir vi to cool; to grow warmer

it does kind of make sense when you realise that 'tiède' means lukewarm or tepid, but still! ^_^

japanese mistakes you don't want to make

2006-09-04T16:13:30Z

This is from the latest JList newsletter, always amusing, if often inaccurate/misleading:-

I feel bad about these lapses, although I know that I've given as good as I got, providing my Japanese hosts with many hours of amusement thanks to my own language slip-ups over the years, like the time I tried to order some mango juice, and, er, nevermind, it's a long story.

It took me a few seconds to get. Now I don't want to explain... Just remember that foreigners often have problems distinguishing clearly between a syllable with a diacritic and a syllable without. That's all the explanation I'm giving you. :-p

It reminds me of a time when I was out with the other oxbridge grads studying with me up in Fukuoka. It was probably in our first month there. Time came to leave the restaurant/izakaya. One of the others - I know which, but I'm not telling - decided to ask for the bill, something we should all be able to do no problem. She must have been a little the worse for alcohol, because "kanojo wo kudasai" popped out of her mouth - something like "a girlfriend, please", or "give me her, please". She meant kanjou, rather than kanojo - and apparently knew the moment she said it. It was probably deliberate.

Later we sometimes deliberately asked for a 'kanchou', or an enema, to get the staff to laugh. That's our story and we're sticking to it.

The JList guy's error is 'rude'r.

abelard.org update: art gallery

2006-09-02T23:40:06Z

abelard.org now has an art gallery. We will be gradually photographing and displaying more art. We also plan to start selling prints, postcards, christmas cards, t-shirts and the like. Later we will branch out with more high quality and unusual goods.

At the moment you can buy abelard's works - compared to most art this is seriously cheap, but i suspect the prices are out of most of you studentish-types' range. Anyway, like everything else on the site, it's free to look, so have fun looking at some very pretty paintings.

what books i've been reading

2006-08-11T01:39:23Z

I'm ill. That means I'm bored and frustrated. I hate resting. It just makes me think of all the things I'm not getting done: I have nothing else to do. As usual, me resting has only lasted a day or two: have a new page. Now I suppose I should go back to pretending to rest. How booooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^

Must rest, or people will get annoyed and I'll be punished. ;-)

nini.

aoiko design tweek and new page

2006-07-29T00:06:35Z

I decided that my site's front page needed making more user-friendly about two years ago. Today, I finally got around to doing it. It should make it easier for people other than me to find things on the site. It is still very colourful, but there is less: even I thought it was excessive before.

Another thing I have been meaning to do for a very long time is a page of pictures of me and my clothes. It isn't finished yet, but something two years late is better than nothing. My main problem is getting people who are good at taking photos to take photos. I should also take some photos of my tie collection for it is nifty.

That is it. Enjoy.
Comments, suggestions and corrections welcome.

bats in the kitchen

2006-07-27T14:08:46Z

Greetings. Long time, no write. How's tricks? ^_^

Before I start on the meat of today's offering, here's the perennial warning-slash-advertisement: I rarely write in this diary anymore. Most of my productivity is now for abelard.org. What you'll see here is the occasional personal news or silly/interesting thing that doesn't fit the abelard site. If you want to keep following what I'm doing, read the abelard.org news page (my items are marked with a bright blue "t.a.s."). It's not all serious or politics-related - I'm also doing a semi-weekly photo showcase (link goes to the first in the series, all items link back and forward).

Right, now that's done, onto what I wanted to tell you about...

First, I want to tell you about one of the many insane French laws. A few days ago, I drove off to a local town and went and parked on the pavement in front of some other pavement-parked cars. It was a very sleepy town, so I couldn't see anybody caring. We all got out to do what we had to do. One member of our party seemed to be worried by the illegality of my parking spot and the officiousness (really just fine/bribe mania) of the French police.

Silly me made the assumption that the illegality was in parking on the pavement. I wasn't much worried because I wasn't the only one. However, we decided to go for a walk for a bit, so I agreed to move the car to another spot. Quick reverse, quick u-turn, and straight into a real parking spot on the other side of the road. "Are you happy now?".

Apparently not. What do I hear but that my current parking is just as illegal. Huh? I'm in a perfectly legitimate parking spot. No ticket needed. No time restriction signs. I'm told that my second parking spot is in fact illegal in the same way as the first. How is this possible you may ask. I certainly did!

In the France that brought you priority-from-the-right - otherwise known as why the French manage to kill so many people on their roads despite so much space... In the same France that rigged/mined the statistics from safety trials in order to try to make everyone keep their headlights on in the daytime - fortunately the French are far from obedient...

It is in that very same France that I am led to believe there is a law prohibiting the parking of a vehicle such that it faces the oncoming traffic. Anyone who drives around France comes to realise that the French can not cope with corners, roundabouts or turning across traffic. This law is apparently related to this peculiar French weakness.

One of Mr.Frenchman's most endearing tricks is to tailgate you until you get to a nice blind bend, and then overtake. If you are really lucky you'll meet another Frenchman coming the other way, not overtaking, but still well over the centre line and of course going much too fast. The French have issues with corners.

On roundabouts the French have a different problem. [Americans call roundabouts "turning-circles", but I'm told that most of America is so wonderfully empty that they have no need for such contraptions]. Many a time, one of these cheese-eating surrender-monkeys rushes up behind you, does the obligatory mile or three of tail-gating, overtakes you on a nice blind bend, and gets a goodly distance down the road. Then comes a roundabout. Now it is your turn to catch up and wonder what is keeping Mr.Frenchie as you crawl round the roundabout behind him. Once all those horrible bends are behind him, he once more rushes ahead... Only to be caught once more at the next roundabout. This can often be repeated four or five times in a row with the same car.

When it comes to turning across traffic, the government have obviously evaluated the Frenchman's ability to turn his steering wheel while watching the traffic and found it severely wanting. Thus you often find yourself forced to turn right in order to turn left: they take you off on a slip road that turns back to face across the road you were on. Then you wait for the traffic lights before you are allow to cross the road. All because the French don't seem to understand for what either the steering wheel or their eyes were made.

This apparently is the rationale behind the ridiculous parking law above. I am reliably told that you'll get a 50-100 euro fine should you forget that they you are a baby incapable of actually checking the road in two directions before pulling out into traffic. I am even told that there used to be a similar law in Britain. They must think I am seriously gullible!

Next I tell you a tale of very cute, but very stupid bat. I shall call him Jebediah. Two nights ago, Jebediah flew into our kitchen and took up a perch in the corner of the ceiling. There Jebediah sat and posed for this picture.

Jebediah is only about 8cm wide and maybe 12cm long, so I had to use full zoom, hence the picture is not as crisp as should be. Jebediah is so small that I didn't notice the even smaller spider sitting there talking to him. I think her name is Claudette, but don't quote me on that. I am told that Jebediah is sometimes known as a "common brown long-eared bat", a "plecotus auritus" or an "oriellard rouge".

After the photo shoot, it was my duty to shoo Jebediah on his way - it seems some people are worried about catching rabies or something. As I said before, Jebediah is not very bright. Even with his special echo-location sense, he keep shying away from the open window and back to the ceiling. As punishment for this lack of gorms, Jebediah was chased by a butterfly net. He was almost as good at avoiding the butterfly net as he was at avoiding the window.

However, eventually Jebediah made an error and fell into my trap; a trap out of which he was apparently unable to once more fly. Thus it was that Jebediah travelled back out of the window and into the big bad world. Hopefully he didn't drop dead from all the stress a few minutes later. He was after all very cute, and anything that eats all the flies, mosquitoes and other flying nuisances can't be bad.

Finally comes my chance to moan. My hand hurts. And why does my hand hurt, you may ask. Because I move too much in my sleep, cometh the answer.

Every month or two I manage to pull something or sprain something, or otherwise annoy something, in my sleep. Usually it is one of my thumbs, but this time it is the turn of the whole palm area. Maybe I broke my little finger or something. Usually things are all recovered in a day or two.

The strange thing about my hyperactive sleeping is that I very rarely overstep the boundaries of my sleeping area. If my bed is smaller, I don't move so much. If there are others nearby, I don't move so much. I very very rarely fall out of bed, although I apparently did so rather dramatically when much littler: I fell off the top bunk of a bunk bed and continued to sleep while the adult came to see what that great bang was. I don't seem to have problems sleeping, I just efficiently use the space available. :-)

And that's your lot.. Until next time.

david davies

2006-05-23T21:57:49Z

the uk.politics.misc has a wide range of rather colourfully confused characters, our "care-in-the-community" patients. one of the most extreme, and most harmless, is mike corley. he graces the group with regular and extremely long tirades about mi5 and how they are harassing him through his television, or something like that... anyway, here's his latest:

Who is David Davies MP ? This moron has been sending me back multiple copies times forty pages of my MI5 FAQ article which I have been faxing to Parliament. I last faxed a week ago and he is still vindictively filling my mailbox with multiple copies of the article.

I never had these problems with US Congress, they simply didn't acknowledge the faxes.
--
Jealous Gay British Agents Masturbating Outside The Window www.mi5.com/evidence/#britspy
MI5 conspired to kill me in Florida on 17/November/2001 www.mi5.com/evidence/#deathsquad

it seems clear that davies, the conservative party deputy leader, knows who corley is and has a sense of humour about it. the more this sort of thing happens, the more one wonders who serious *isn't* reading upm.

what would jesus do?

2006-05-21T19:24:09Z

another great cartoon from one of my favourite online comics:

[click for the full sized image]

tom cruise: is this a wind-up? has he always been this dippy?

2006-04-18T22:26:50Z

oh yes， and i'll still occasionally post *some* of my usual things here： the ones that are not suitable for an educational site like abelard.org。 at the moment， i think that will mostly mean things that make me laugh， but have no other real significance。 maybe other categories will come to me with time。

this is something that amused me：

Tom Cruise is planning to eat the placenta after fiancèe Katie Holmes gives birth to their child.

The actor, 43, said: 'I thought that would be good. Very nutritious.'

But when it was pointed out it would be a big meal, he added: 'OK. Maybe I won't.'

a couple of years ago i wrote two items about a real cannibal。

not the only fennel in the galaxy

2006-04-17T15:50:32Z

I've been re-reading Asimov's Foundation series the past few weeks. I first read them when I was twelve or thirteen, which may account for me liking them despite them being pretty damn silly in terms of the science/sociology. They are fun nonetheless.

Anyway, here I am almost at the end of the fourth book, Second Foundation, and this:

... he was interviewing Fennel Leemor, Engineer Third Class, volunteer.

0586017135, p202.

I think I must have not noticed when I read the book for the first time thirteen-plus years ago. I've always liked the uniqueness of my first name. There are the people who confuse it with a surname and spell it with two els, or think it's a girl's name like Fennella, but I have never come across someone with precisely the same version: spelt like the herb and used as a male first name.

.. Well actually I have once.. I was told by someone about ten years ago that a friend had told them about someone by that name. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on mood, it turned out to have been me before I added my current surname onto the end of everything.

Now it seems Asimov had the idea almost thirty years before my parents. He used it once and not again, at least not in that book; and I'm pretty sure the parentals haven't read it.. But still, quite a shock to see my name in print like that. At least I'm still the only one kicking around on this here ball of dust. ^_^

back in france

2006-04-14T18:45:17Z

As mentioned before, my normal "news" posts are now being made at the abelard.org news page. The ones by me are helpfully labelled. There are four so far; I'm writing a couple of more substantial pieces at the moment. This diary will remain for more personal items like this entry.

At the beginning of April, I went to visit some friends in northern Italy for a week or so. I've now been to two more never-before-visited-by-me countries: Switzerland and Italy. On the way there, I also visited two new-to-me cathedrals: one at Lyon and one at Lausanne. Lyon has a big old town and lots of nice glass. Lausanne, however, is something special. Both the town and the cathedral are smaller. The cathedral has one impressive rose and some pretty smaller windows, but the main thing for me was building itself, which is absolutely gorgeous out and in; it is just the sort of place that damsels in distress should hang around. Chartres has long been my favourite of these big religious-type places, but I do believe it has now been overtaken. Lausanne is just down the road from Geneva and near the lake. Although I didn't get much chance to wander around it properly, it seemed a pretty little town.

from top to bottom: an interior of the lausanne cathedral, the lausanne rose from the side showing some of the (now very faded) old painted walls, an exterior view of lausanne.

In Italy, I saw things like Mount Blanc from a distance, lots of old castles of various vintages, the Alps up close, a roman viaduct (which I went inside briefly), part of Tuscany and lots of sign posts to famous towns on the Italians' awful excuses for motorways.

I'm now back at base-station middle-of-nowhere-France. I know I'm back in the Europe of smeggy coldness, because there was significant amounts of snow both in Italy and France. Base-station is fortunately not that far gone, although it is probably not as warm and sunny as my previous base-station in southern Japan.

Some of you seem to find it odd that I've moved to France, which I suppose it is. I moved to France because that's where the main abelard.org base is and collaboration can be achieved more efficiently when everyone is within easy reach of each other. I expect to move onwards and upwards in a few years time. I'm still thinking in terms of an ideal of alternating half the year in Japan and the other half in America or Australia.

However, people should realise that I like moving; crossing a border doesn't make much difference to me. I also have plans to learn impressive numbers of languages and here I am sitting in one foreign language that I can learn quickly because I've seen it before, and sitting with a foreign language on either side of me (Spanish and Italian), both of which I want to learn and will be made easier by knowledge of French. In the end, where I live doesn't much matter: I just get on with learning what needs to be learnt and planning and preparing for the next move. I in fact quite like France, it's the French I have a problem with and they'll probably grow on me, if only out of necessity.

France shuts down for any excuse they can find. Their current excuse is Easter: despite having proper separation of church and state, unlike England, the French take their Christianist rave-ups very seriously. Thus I must wait until Tuesday or later to start sorting out things like bank accounts, a mobile phone and then some sort of part-time job. To open a bank account here, I have to make an appointment. 'Nuff said.

I'm gradually relearning my French. I probably already know more grammar than I ever did before. In approximately seven years of lessons, they never taught me the future, if clauses, use of object pronouns or anything else mildly useful. I've ordered the French version of de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America", volume 1, which should help me learn with due speed. I've been intending to read it for ages. If I were to get an English copy of it, I'd have no motivation whatsoever to read the original, so this seemed like a good deal. I'm also listening to hours of some talk radio station when I remember.

More news will appear when I think of it.

News From France 1

2006-03-29T15:12:19Z

The title is not an error: I am no longer living in Japan. Late last November I surprised my bosses by handing in notice that I would not be renewing my contract from this April. After a month or so deciding between earning lots of money doing something boring/exhausting in Japan, doing something political with the US government, or finally going full time with my work on abelard.org (as I've been intending for over five years), I settled on the last.

My last class was on the 17th of March. My last day of 'work' in Japan was on the 23rd. On March 24th I started my trek. Now I'm living somewhere in deepest darkest France. I intend to use this time to work on turning abelard.org's customer base into an income stream and on producing more articles for that site. In other words, I will be doing a mixture of pursuing my political writing ambitions and running a company. This probably means that my writing will less and less appear on my personal diary, but it should also mean that my output will gradually increase.

I will also be working on learning French and of course I'll continue polishing my Japanese. At least in the initial stages, I expect to get some sort of part-time job, either teaching something (English, Japanese, maths, computing,..), or using my Japanese.

I'm going on a holiday slash research trip for a week or three from this weekend, thus the extended quiescence is not quite over yet.

As is my tendency when others are involved, I will be less talkative about details of my circumstances. It is enough to say that I am living in beautiful surroundings with pleasant company - in those terms not a great change from my setup for the last four years. I will certainly miss my mountains, cherry blossoms, Japanese architecture, the lovely sound of the Japanese language and of course the general lack of seriously ugly people and presence of seriously pretty people. However, this place has its own advantages. High on the list must be that here I'm really in the countryside, with all the attendant lizard, insect, bird, deer, clean air, peace, lack of people and prettiness advantages that that brings.

Here are some photos:

The first in an evening sky seen from the front door. Most of what you can see landward might as well be my personal playground.

The second is one of the many snake-like trails of caterpillars you see slowing crossing the roads, or squashed on the roads, as you walk around near here. I have dozens of close up pictures of various kinds of pretty insects taken in this area. Maybe one day they will see the light of internet.

The third is me about three weeks ago, shortly after I started re-growing the face fungus. I've long been loth to make public images of myself with my hair not properly blue. However, I've recently decided that I'm no longer willing to put up with my blue hair being anything less than brilliant all the time, which means I won't be returning to my natural colours until I can easily afford probably weekly re-dyeings at the hands of a professional. That probably means another year of patience, and given that the last new picture I published of myself was over three years ago, I decided enough was enough. The reason for the weird cropping is my wish not to publish the pretty girl (one of them particularly so ^_^) on either arm of me without their permission. The tie is one of my Valentinos; one day I'll also get around to showing you the rest of my lovely ties.

As of my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I had been tee-total for at least five years. When I originally stopped drinking a few weeks before my twenty-first birthday, one of my brothers told me that there was no way I'd be able to keep it up for the five or ten years I claimed as probable. I took that as a challenge. The challenge completed successfully, I now once more drink alcohol. However, I doubt I'll ever again get seriously drunk.

I don't believe there is much else of importance or interest: my life continues to consist mostly of reading, studying, writing and enjoying the pretty things in life.

silence update

2006-03-18T11:14:58Z

apparently i wasn't clear enough before： i'm in the process of moving and posting will likely be non-existent， or at least trivial， until mid-april。 i'm not giving details until everything is settled again。 it's all very positive and 'exciting'， but at the moment i'm too busy to keep up。 i will likely be out of email contact from monday or wednesday for at least a week。

new zealand: leading the world in cryogenics and census dodging

2006-03-08T03:50:52Z

i'm told that these people are the new zealand equivalent of the uk's monster raving loony party， although they are more a local than a national political party：

A sniffly Laird McGillicuddy Graeme Cairns was today recuperating at home after surviving 12 hours of cryogenic freezing in a chilly bid to dodge responsibility for filling out his census forms.

The good Laird was yesterday declared "legally dead" at 11.55am by his medical entourage of Dr Freeze, Dr Snakes, Dr Beere, Dr Weeds and Dr Qualified, who mixed the science of cryogenics with the dark arts of shamanism in Garden Place.[...]

"We have frozen him to minus 175C, or any other number you care to name. He's out cold, as it were. We don't understand all that legal stuff, we just freeze him." [...]

Dr Qualified said cryogenics was a highly complicated procedure, but couldn't help but note credulity is at an all-time high in Hamilton. "Hands up who knows how science works?" he challenged, to blank audience stares. "Yes, you people will believe anyone."

Dr Qualified argued the cryogenic process could lead to an explosion of a future cannibalism industry, in much the same way as frozen shipping allowed sheep farming to take off.

good people act: model photographs cuba

2006-03-08T03:43:43Z

another nice entry from publius。 helena houdová takes on yet another morally-bankrupt socialist government：

Miss Czech Republic 1999 to be exact. She also has a charity for impoverished children that operates in nine different countries. Talk about a heart of gold and the hair to go with it, eh? This woman visited Cuba, the real Cuba, to get a sense of whether or not her charity could help people there. What she found made her squeamish.

Not only did she find tens of thousands of people living in shantytowns, children starving in the streets, and HIV-positive workers forced into psychiatric wards, but that the Cuban secret police didn’t want anyone to know about it. So when they caught her taking photos and tried to sieze her camera, she resisted and was arrested for eleven hours without access to the Czech consulate. Then she did what every revolution babe does and hid the camera chip in her bra!

And unlike other NGO-types and EU bureaucrats, this woman knows the deal. She opened an exhibit featuring the photos she took and used it as a platform to denounce the inhumanity of the Castro regime: “People can’t do what they love. People can’t speak what they want… That’s what’s happening. The fact that the [government] says there is no poverty [only makes it worse].”

the photos are on display at galerie langhans in prague until tomorrow。 so far neither the gallery's website nor anywhere else seem to be showing the images to the connected world。 given that she smuggled out digital photos， i find this oversight very strange。 she's not as ugly as the usual 'babes'。

life update

2006-03-08T03:02:16Z

i had parties on monday and didn't get to bed until three in the morning on tuesday。 i get up at half six on workdays， like tuesday was。 i will probably have another late night on friday。 i'm not quite as tired as i would expect， but that's not saying much。

i finally finished reading keynes' "essays in persuasion"。 it's a thoroughly enjoyable read： he writes very clearly about some pretty complicated subjects and has a lovely way with words。 he also somewhat unwittingly gives fascinating background to the gold standard， the depression， america's rise to world dominance and 1900s british politics - subjects on which nowadays most are ignorant， even while 'knowing' the words。 the stuff at the end about politics and social policy is somewhat less tight than his economics and his economic futurology。 i'm now even more non-plussed by hayek's anti-keynes diatrabe， and his accusation that keynes was a socialist， in "the fatal conceit"。

i'm currently reading goodall's "in the shadow of man" - goodall is another person who writes prettily *and* has something to say - as well as the usual slower reads on the side： herodotus' "histories"， the correspondence between john adams and thomas jefferson， a couple of japanese books about japanese and a french grammar dictionary。

i have lots of domestic busy-nesses at the moment， which should be over by mid-april。 i expect posting to get very light toward the end of the month。 i'll explain after it's all over。

if i was willing to move to aichi (where the expo was recently) for three years， i could probably get a girl who seems perfectly my type in both looks and personality。 unfortuately that would rather interfere with my plans and i don't allow that。 and no this is not the one who i've decided was playing me - this one's even better suited。 i'd post a picture， but that seems a bit rude。

japanese girls are so blatant in their comings on to me， and they always seems to do it together with their friends， that it is very hard to believe that they are serious。 i'm not complaining， however。 :-)

rumsfeld calls the fossil media out

2006-03-08T00:26:28Z

here is a long and interesting transcript from a press conference by rumsfeld (and general pace)。 as ever rumsfeld words himself very carefully and with much humour。 i am very happy to see the us government increasingly openly talking about the fossil media's longstanding work for the enemy。

The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated. The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized in some instances. And I guess that is to say nothing of the apparently inaccurate and harmful reports of U.S. military conduct in connection with a bus filled with passengers in Iraq.

Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq.

And then I notice today that there's been a public opinion poll reporting that the readers of these exaggerations believe Iraq is in a civil war -- a majority do, which I suppose is little wonder that the reports we've seen have had that effect on the American people. [...]

Q Mr. Secretary, I'd like to clear up exactly what you're saying here. Are you saying that this poll and that what you call the rush toward declaring civil war in Iraq, is that the result of intentional misreporting of the situation there?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I can't go into people's minds. All I'm doing is reporting on what we've seen. General Casey pointed out to this group here that he believes -- his data shows that the numbers of mosque attacks and the nature of the attacks and the severity of the attacks have been considerably exaggerated and that the number of civilian Iraqis that have been killed or wounded has been exaggerated.

And -- now, why someone or whoever did this, I have no way to judge. I'm not going to judge them. It's just a fact that he is saying that, and I believe he's correct.

Q But you said, Sir, that -- I believe that the reporting was virtually one-sided. Does that mean --

SEC. RUMSFELD: Yeah, the interesting thing about it is they all seem to be of a kind. All the things that have later been corrected or need to be corrected or that he believes were exaggerated all seem to be on one side of the equation. We don't see the similar thing on the other side, which you normally would get in some kind of a random spread, one would think.

Q Well, do you believe that the media's been duped by the situation or doesn't understand it or what?

SEC. RUMSFELD: All I'm doing is reporting. I'm just reporting the facts. (Laughter.) The facts are as I've stated them.

Q Mr. Secretary?

SEC. RUMSFELD: You'll have to draw your own conclusions about it.

the change in the world even in the last twenty years， let alone since say world war two， is quite incredible。 nowadays when governments go to war， to an unprecedented degree they are expected to be honest - "bush lied about the reason for the war" (not true， but the idea's the thing！) - open - generals doing， and expected to do， daily press conferences to explain their actions - and humane - "guantanamo!!" (you know where the terrorists go to put on weight and pray seven times a day with their us-provided korans)。 meanwhile obvious fifth columnists are no longer summarily jailed， shut down or even shot。

the standards that the society comes to expect as 'normal' are rising all the time； which is yet another reason that the fossil media is taken less and less seriously with each passing day and each passing dishonesty。 all the while the live media continue to expand the range and depth serious reporting。 here publius looks at another "imminent civil war" [copied verbatim]：

Simultaneous bombs exploded in a crowded temple in one of the country’s holiest cities. One of the entire religion’s holiest cities, no less. In a country where rival ethnic and religious groups have frequently clashed for years, the bombing raises the prospect of reprisal sectarian violence. It is holding together for the most part, but nobody knows what could happen next.

Hey, wait a second, this isn’t Iraq? And it isn’t the al-Askariya shrine in Samarra? I’ll give you one guess, but only if you don’t look at the post’s category tags. That’s right. India.

Known as the largest democracy in the world, India may not be as liberal as its Western counterparts, but it flies in the face of all structural theories of democratization. GDP per capita is incredibly low, much lower than the threshold of about $6000 for maintaining a democracy under modernization theory. It is also composed of competing religious groups — Hindus and Muslims — with Hindus comprising the vast majority. There are also different ethnic groups, with the Sikh minority being the target of mob violence for years. Heck, there’s even an enormous conflict with Pakistan over that little disputed territory of Kashmir.

Judging by the past 60 years of independence, India has been on the constant brink of civil war. Hindus and Muslims killing each other, local officials sponsoring the mass killing of the Sikhs, the possibility of nuclear annihilation. The bombing of the Hindu temple in Varanasi is just the latest in a series of conflicts. Yet in reality, the country is a functioning democracy that has held together through it all and is now growing into a powerful and more stable nation.

One day, the same will happen for Iraq. It could be 60 years from now before the Shia and Sunnis draw back on their past experience of co-existence, and before the Kurds decide that living within some arbitrarily drawn country called “Iraq” isn’t so bad. But waiting for history to move in this direction is too long to wait. Men like Gandhi did not wait. They acted. What is happening in Iraq now is action toward building a peaceful and democratic country ahead of schedule so that one day the entire region can draw from its lessons.

pointed description of the arab/muslim world and our fifth column and appeasers

2006-03-03T01:54:22Z

a description that rarely misses a beat - he seems to be somewhat naive vis the us state department - and has even been award four golden yaks：

Why do I put aside Israel and its own immediate neighborhood? Because Israel and any problems related to it, in spite of what you might read or hear in the world media, is not the central issue, and has never been the central issue in the upheaval in the region. Yes, there is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict, but it is not where the main show is. The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilian in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam Hussein did not invade Kuwait, endangered Saudi Arabia and butchered his own people because of Israel. Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60's because of Israel. Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own citizens in one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel. The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. The Libyan blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do with Israel, and I could go on and on and on.

The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if Israel would have joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine would have existed for 100 years. The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 millions, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion. They have a land area larger than either the US or all of Europe. These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone. Within this meager GDP, the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief and too many of the rich made their money not by succeeding in business, but by being corrupt rulers. The social status of women is far below what it was in the Western World 150 years ago. Human rights are below any reasonable standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights commission. According to a report prepared by a committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much smaller than what little Greece alone translates. The total number of scientific publications of 300 million Arabs is less than that of 6 million Israelis. Birth rates in the region are very high, increasing the poverty, the social gaps and the cultural decline. And all of this is happening in a region, which only 30 years ago, was believed to be the next wealthy part of the world, and in a Moslem area, which developed, at some point in history, one of the most advanced cultures in the world. [...]

What is behind the suicide murders? Money, power and cold-blooded murderous incitement, nothing else. It has nothing to do with true fanatic religious beliefs. No Moslem preacher has ever blown himself up. No son of an Arab politician or religious leader has ever blown himself. No relative of anyone influential has done it. Wouldn't you expect some of the religious leaders to do it themselves, or to talk their sons into doing it, if this is truly a supreme act of religious fervor? Aren't they interested in the benefits of going to Heaven? Instead, they send outcast women, naive children, retarded people and young incited hotheads. They promise them the delights, mostly sexual, of the next world, and pay their families handsomely after the supreme act is performed and enough innocent people are dead.

Suicide murders also have nothing to do with poverty and despair. The poorest region in the world, by far, is Africa. It never happens there. There are numerous desperate people in the world, in different cultures, countries and continents. Desperation does not provide anyone with explosives, reconnaissance and transportation. There was certainly more despair in Saddam's Iraq then in Paul Bremmer's Iraq, and no one exploded himself. A suicide murder is simply a horrible, vicious weapon of cruel, inhuman, cynical, well-funded terrorists, with no regard to human life, including the life of their fellow countrymen, but with very high regard to their own affluent well-being and their hunger for power. [...]

The second ingredient is words, more precisely lies. Words can be lethal. They kill people. It is often said that politicians, diplomats and perhaps also lawyers and business people must sometimes lie, as part of their professional life. But the norms of politics and diplomacy are childish, in comparison with the level of incitement and total absolute deliberate fabrications, which have reached new heights in the region we are talking about. An incredible number of people in the Arab world believe that September 11 never happened, or was an American provocation or, even better, a Jewish plot. [...]

But words also work in other ways, more subtle. A demonstration in Berlin, carrying banners supporting Saddam's regime and featuring three-year old babies dressed as suicide murderers, is defined by the press and by political leaders as a "peace demonstration". You may support or oppose the Iraq war, but to refer to fans of Saddam, Arafat or Bin Laden as peace activists is a bit too much. A woman walks into an Israeli restaurant in mid-day, eats, observes families with old people and children eating their lunch in the adjacent tables and pays the bill. She then blows herself up, killing 20 people, including many children, with heads and arms rolling around in the restaurant. She is called "martyr" by several Arab leaders and "activist" by the European press. Dignitaries condemn the act but visit her bereaved family and the money flows.

There is a new game in town: The actual murderer is called "the military wing", the one who pays him, equips him and sends him is now called "the political wing" and the head of the operation is called the "spiritual leader". There are numerous other examples of such Orwellian nomenclature, used every day not only by terror chiefs but also by Western media. These words are much more dangerous than many people realize. They provide an emotional infrastructure for atrocities. It was Joseph Goebbels who said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. He is now being outperformed by his successors. [...]

Do you raid a mosque, which serves as a terrorist ammunition storage? Do you return fire, if you are attacked from a hospital? Do you storm a church taken over by terrorists who took the priests hostages? Do you search every ambulance after a few suicide murderers use ambulances to reach their targets? Do you strip every woman because one pretended to be pregnant and carried a suicide bomb on her belly? Do you shoot back at someone trying to kill you, standing deliberately behind a group of children? Do you raid terrorist headquarters, hidden in a mental hospital? Do you shoot an arch-murderer who deliberately moves from one location to another, always surrounded by children? All of these happen daily in Iraq and in the Palestinian areas. What do you do? Well, you do not want to face the dilemma. But it cannot be avoided.

Suppose, for the sake of discussion, that someone would openly stay in a well-known address in Teheran, hosted by the Iranian Government and financed by it, executing one atrocity after another in Spain or in France, killing hundreds of innocent people, accepting responsibility for the crimes, promising in public TV interviews to do more of the same, while the Government of Iran issues public condemnations of his acts but continues to host him, invite him to official functions and treat him as a great dignitary. I leave it to you as homework to figure out what Spain or France would have done, in such a situation.

The problem is that the civilized world is still having illusions about the rule of law in a totally lawless environment. It is trying to play ice hockey by sending a ballerina ice-skater into the rink or to knock out a heavyweight boxer by a chess player. In the same way that no country has a law against cannibals eating its prime minister, because such an act is unthinkable, international law does not address killers shooting from hospitals, mosques and ambulances, while being protected by their Government or society. International law does not know how to handle someone who sends children to throw stones, stands behind them and shoots with immunity and cannot be arrested because he is sheltered by a Government.

lead from abelard。

new pancaldi designs

2006-03-02T13:53:45Z

"if i were a rich man..."

i have a fairly substantial tie collection， although mostly very cheap ones。 however， since discovering pancaldi， more expensive ones have slowly crept into the collection， including three pancaldis。 this is my current main tie shop - it is a very badly designed site， but has vast quantities of tempting goodies。 unfortunately there is nothing like the tie rack chain in japan， although i somehow doubt tie rack stocks pancaldis。

anyway， there are new pancaldi designs out and they're only (！) $260 a shot [they are usually $135， but these are even more limited editions than usual]。 um， yeah， not today methinks。 to inform in the unlikely event that i have rich friends wanting to give me birthday presents： i'd buy these three (in order) if i wasn't such a scrooge： technicolour， red and black and black and white。

in the last couple of weeks at school， the pointlessness has been getting to me and i've have stopped wearing the boring 'professional' white shirts。 instead i've been wearing all colours of the rainbow - shirts i've had about as long as the ties because i used to wear (lurid) shirt and (lurid) tie as my standard casual clothes。 i haven't been doing it for ages， in part because i've been suited up for work， so didn't feel like the hassle on my off-time too。 i shall probably return in the near future。

anyway， whenever i wear any particularly nice tie or shirt， the japanese students (and sometimes teachers) ask "who choose that？ girlfriend？"。 i think i should be offended。^_^ the assumption over here seems to be that if a guy wears nice clothes then he must have a girlfriend buying them for him。 about a month ago， i again got fed up with shaving， so i am now once more covered in face fungus。 again this change of appearance is taken as a sign that i must have got a girlfriend， as i found out this evening when i bumped into a friend。 apparently japanese men are not given to acting on whims as much as i do， at least not when it comes to their appearance。 it's not all bad though - on a day i wore my bright magenta shirt， my comment of the day was roughly translates to "anything suits you"。 probably not true though： i've realised recently that pale colours don't suit me at all - or at least i don't like them。；-)