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June 3rd, 2009
 | 10:43 pm
So farewell then, Hazel Blears. An amoral, vacuous little apparatchik, and quite the thickest human being with whom I have ever had any substantial political dealings. Ever since she blocked a well-thought-out plan to deal with a significant antisocial behaviour problem in Cambridge, I have watched her rise in government with the sensation of throwing up a little in my mouth. She will not be missed.
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May 13th, 2009
| 12:54 am - Oh, fuck
Belated birthday greetings to the noble ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) temeres and the splendid glitterboy1 .
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| 12:41 am - My lovely wife
It's been a tough few weeks at work, but it came to an end today. We had a review of our work yesterday and today by top people from the research council that pays for all our activities. This was a big deal: formally, it was about assessing how well we were doing half-way through our latest grant, but informally it was a lot about whether we continue to have jobs after this grant comes to an end.
So we've all been pretty busy over the past few weeks. For my part, I've had to produce the Annual Report, write articles for the newsletter, and provide content for the completely new version of our website that we've had to rush into existence for this week. It's been intense.
So the inspection came to an end this afternoon, and I made my weary way home. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a delicious aroma - chicken roasting in the oven on a bed of garlic, potatoes and carrots. When it was done, we just tore into it with bare hands - no finesse, but a very nice Maipo Valley chardonnay gave it a touch of class. Absolutely delicious, and all thanks to my lovely wife. What a wonderful way to end a hard and stressful few weeks.
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April 24th, 2009
| 03:54 pm - European political profiler
nwhyte points to this European Union Political Profiler. It's quite neat. You answer about thirty questions, and it tries to locate you with respect to political parties. What's unusual is that, first, it gives strong emphasis to the parties' views on European issues, and second it allows you to do it for any EU member state.
I did it for the UK and Denmark...
( ...and here are the results. )
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April 20th, 2009
| 11:16 pm - A typo that was much less amusing than I might have expected
When looking for Lib Dem Voice, I just accidentally googled "Lib Dem Vice". To my great disappointment, all the results turned out to be quite dull.
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April 11th, 2009
| 02:27 am - The wisdom of A. Judas Rimmer
When you see this, quote from Red Dwarf in your journal
I just want to say: over the years, I have come to regard you as ... people I met.
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March 31st, 2009
 | 05:51 pm - A couple of must-reads
Moazzam Begg interviews Binyam Mohamed - what Guantanamo Bay is really like, why Bagram is even worse, and the moral failures of the US and UK governments.
Also, US officials state that waterboarding foiled no terrorist plots.
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March 13th, 2009
March 12th, 2009
March 6th, 2009
March 1st, 2009
| 08:25 pm - Restaurant Review: Joanna's Kitchen
So, my lovely wife i_smell_shite has been doing a cooking course at college as part of her university studies. She was keen to try out some of her learning at home, so this evening we had vegetable tempura followed by sweet and sour pork. It was lovely. The tempura batter was light and crispy, the vegetables were delicious, especially the sweet potatoes and carrots, and the sweet and sour pork was fresh and tangy with beautifully tender meat. I will definitely eat at this restaurant again.
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February 28th, 2009
February 24th, 2009
| 02:17 pm - How many times have I watched Alien?
I can't believe I've only just got this.
I Alien, Kane (John Hurt) symbolically gestates and gives birth to the monster.
In Beowulf, the monster Grendel is referred to as "Cain's kin".
I literally cannot count the number of times I've watched Alien or read Beowulf, and yet this has only just clicked for me. God, I feel dumb.
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February 14th, 2009
February 12th, 2009
| 12:48 am - Big list o'books
The genre classics meme, via half my friends list.
Of course, these lists are mainly interesting for the books you are surprised to find out your friends haven't read.
( Read more... )
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February 4th, 2009
 | 10:55 am - Wii Fit
Ever wondered what this "Wii Fit" thing is all about? Well, it's a lot like this.
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January 22nd, 2009
| 12:57 am - The only political survey worth a damn
My results on Chris Lightfoot's political survey:
Why is this the only political survey worth a damn? Because it didn't start from a preconcieved model of political categorisation: left/right, libertarian/authoritarian, and all that. Instead, Lightfoot carried out a principal components analysis on a set of political survey data to find out what were the axes along which the British electorate really arranged themselves. The first, and by far the dominant axis, is what he sometimes referred to as "The Axis of UKIP". This has the Eurosceptic hangers and floggers at one end, and the internationalist rehbilitationists at the other. The second, much less important axis, is broadly similar to traditional ideas of left- and right-wing economics, though it has contributions from attitudes to war as well.
I'm pleased to say I'm very far to the left on the Axis of UKIP, making me an extreme liberal even among Liberal Democrat voters. I come out pretty centrist on the minor economics axis, which seems fair enough.
The analysis is quite sophisticated, showing how you compare to people who vote the same as you, people who read the same newspapers as you, as well as people in the same age group and the same part of the UK. The only downside is that the initial questions are a little dated, having been written in 2005. These are unlikely to be updated, as Lightfoot sadly died, very young, a couple of years ago. I would hope that someone would repeat his analysis on a regular basis, keeping it up to date. Even so, this is still by far the best political survey on the web, and the only one that means a damn thing.
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January 14th, 2009
| 11:53 am - Atheism trounced!
Proofs of the existence of God:
( Read more... )
[From the LaPurr Times]
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January 13th, 2009
January 9th, 2009
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