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May 16th, 2008
edinburgers
[recycled_sales]
 | 02:01 am - A plea
Does anyone have a spare PSU and a graphics card with dual outputs. I'm not fussed on spec, and I'd be happy to pay for them. A friend has a faulty PC and I offered to fix it, but I'd prefer not to pay for postage for just two parts and it seems like shops are only selling decent power supplies now (damn them for caring!).
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May 15th, 2008
redemption_con
[steverogerson]
 | 10:47 pm - Mission Wobblevision
Blake's 7 meet Sherlock Holmes in a Wobblevision production of:
Mission to Destiny
http://www.blakes-7.co.uk/wobblevision/mission/mission.shtml
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james_nicoll
 | 03:48 pm - Huh
Sara Jane Moore, who shot at and missed Gerald Ford on September 22, 1975, was released from prison December 31st last year. She's 78. I wonder what she does with her time?
The set of all would-be Presidential assassins who were then paroled can't be very large.
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james_nicoll
| 03:32 pm - Today's interminable argument
Should new authors be expected to be aware of older works that may bear some superficial similarity to the younger author's novels?
The discussion starts about here, when [Gene] takes exception to this statement by Mary Doria Russell:
"I get this question all the time, because Blish's 1958 story
is about a Spanish Jesuit in space. If I ever read this story,
I guess it didn't make much of an impression on me, because I
don't remember it. I still haven't come across it, but people
have told me that the protagonist is named Ruiz-Sanchez, so
they thought I must have named Emilio Sandoz in homage to
Blish. In fact, Emilio got his name from the pharmaceutical
manufacturer who made my son's cold medicine. Danny got a cold
in 1992 when I started the book, and I noticed the name Sandoz
on the medicine label and thought it sounded good. No symbolism
or homage beyond that, I'm afraid!"
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temeres
 | 08:26 pm
Different people have their sensitivities attuned to particular wavelengths. For some, not necessarily PoC, it's the faintest whiff of racism. For others it might be anything that might just possibly be misogyny or heteronormacy. For me, it's speciesism. I see it everywhere. And hear it, too, since it crops up on Radio 4 from time to time. ( Roll your eyes now while I get it out of my system. )
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james_nicoll
| 03:16 pm - I'm doing it wrong
I appear to have accidentally grated the tip of one finger while cleaning the grater last night.
At least it is better to grate oneself after cooking than before, I guess.
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james_nicoll
| 02:41 pm - Procedural question for the Americans
Is it possible to impeach a president who has already left office?
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james_nicoll
| 02:29 pm - Is there a convenient source
From which I can snag the number of space probes launched by decade?
[Added later]
What might be more interesting is looking at how much information gets returned from each planet by year.
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mckitterick
 | 12:31 pm - nice review in Some Fantastic (plus Astro-Image of the Day)
This review of Visual Journeys made my day:
The included works are equally impressive, especially Miller’s “Jupiter Cloudscapes.” It’s a marvelous piece, and the story attached, “Jupiter Whispers” by Christopher McKitterick, just seems to have melted in to the page. McKitterick is a writer I know little about, but his story is one of the best in the entire collection, and I think the story offers excellent insight into what’s going on beyond our ability to see.
Here's Miller's piece of art:
Click the image to go to Miller's site.
Yay!
Chris
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libdems_news
| 12:00 am - Prime Minister must lose power to fix election dates - Howarth
http://www.libdems.org.uk/news/story.html?id=14340&navPage=news.html On Friday the Liberal Democrats will propose a Bill to
introduce fixed term Parliaments, ending the power of the Prime Minister to
choose the timing of elections.
The Fixed Term Parliaments Bill proposes that General Elections should happen
every four years, regardless of whether the government of the day wants an
election.
Under the present system the Prime Minister can call an election whenever he
wants, up to five years after the previous election.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesperson, David
Howarth, who is tabling the Bill, said:
"The present system gives a totally unfair advantage to the party in power,
by allowing Prime Ministers to take advantage of temporary popularity to keep
their jobs for up to another five years.
"Just imagine that Gordon Brown had called and won an election last year - we
would now be stuck with him until 2012.
"A system that is both unfair and inefficient has to go. Fixed terms work
well in other countries and in local government.
"This is an opportunity for Gordon Brown to prove that he is not the
power-hungry control freak he appears to be."
A link to a copy of the
Bill is below:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmbills/030/08030.i-i.html
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edinburgers
[pitoreskni]
 | 05:58 pm - Laminate floor fitters
Does anyone know of a reliable company/tradesman that can fit laminate flooring? We will be getting it done fairly soon but, as we have a dog, we need them to turn up to do it when they say they will because we'll need to put the dog in the kennels for a few days.
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toddalcott
 | 08:57 am - He's a demon and he's gonna be chasing after someone.
 
Speed Racer update: Sam (7) and Kit (5) made a beeline for their Speed Racer toys this morning and argued over who would get to play with the "big" Mach 5 (we own two), so I know this movie is no flash-in-the-pan. (I doubt they could even identify their Spiderwick Chronicles toys at this point).
In my never-ending quest to provide Hollywood with reliable, first-hand, home-grown responses from real moviegoers, I quizzed both Sam and Kit on their response to the movie.
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daystreet
 | 12:10 pm - Gawd Damned Shame
I'm listening to the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC (dot org, if you are interested in looking this up...)
Gene Hackman is a guest, with his co-author, talking about their book.
Hackman has always been one of my favorite actors. I would see any movie he was in even if the thing was an absolute turkey.
Just a couple of minutes ago, he said he was done with acting, done with making movies, and that he would never be in another one again. He sounded definite, decided, sick of the whole mess, and that he probably would never reconsider.
I hate this. I absolutely hate it. Of course it is his life and he can obviously do whatever he wants with it, but I think it's a gawd damned stinking shame and I'm very, very sad to hear him say this.
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edinburgers
[xgingex]
 | 02:21 pm
I need help finding some tea. It's called chocolate mint and I've only ever seen it in Tchai Ovna in Glasgow, does anybody know where I could buy some in Edinburgh before Saturday? Alternatively, where will I find good tea related gifts?
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communicator
 | 10:35 am - Iron Man
I went to see Iron Man. I know a lot of people really liked this film. I think perhaps I'm just not suited to Super-Hero films, because it didn't do that much for me. Robert Downey Jnr is obviously lovely, but that wasn't enough for me. I was a bit bored and restless. Perhaps just not go to see any more films like this. Except Batman, perhaps I just need to write off the genre.
ETA ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lamentables links to a couple of posts criticising the portrayal of women in the film (see her comment below). I must admit the way women were presented did irritate me at the time. In particular Gwyneth Paltrow could not have been more dreary and miserable. I winced every time I saw how clumsy and painful her gait was in those awful shoes.
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toddalcott
| 12:47 am - He's jamming down the pedal like he's never coming back.
 
Took my son Sam (7), daughter Kit (5) and Guest Child X to see Speed Racer this afternoon.
The headline: Matthew Fox crushes as Racer X. The Editor (from yesterday's post) is correct -- he is by far the most interesting character in the Speed Racer universe, and Fox's performance perfectly captures him. FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT PORTRAYALS OF MYSTERIOUS ANIME RACECAR DRIVERS.
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nhw
 | 09:44 am - Sign of the times
For most of the last twelve years I have been a subscriber to the daily digest of news from Eastern Europe provided by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty from Prague, and before that by the Open Media Research Institute in Munich. While its political leanings (pro-US and NATO, often euro-sceptic) were often visible in its reporting, it never missed a big story or even a medium-sized one in the course of breaking, and was certainly a more reliable tracker of events than any of the mainstream English language media. They cut back much of their Eastern Europe reporting after the EU enlargement of 2004, and last night came a message from Jeff Gedmin, who was head-hunted to run RFE/RL a couple of years back, to say that due to the weakness of the dollar they will no longer produce the daily newsline. It's a shame; I can get pretty much the same information by setting up the relevant Google news alerts (and indeed have done so) but it was nice to have RFE/RL as a backstop reference point. At least the archives will remain on-line.
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nhw
 | 08:04 am - Birthday
Happy birthday, my love! Wish I was there with you!
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May 14th, 2008
edinburgers
[lips_of_tragedy]
 | 11:34 pm - Bottled beer advice.
I want to buy my dad some nice bottles of beer as a birthday gift; can anyone suggest the best places in Edinburgh to look that have a good selection of British bottled beers?
Cheers for your help.
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