The New Sleaze

Observing the Silence

2005-07-14T11:28:00.000Z

Observing the Silence

Fittingly enough, I was on a bus to observe today's two-minute silence in memory of those killed on the bombings that struck London on the 7th of July. Unfortunately, when the clock struck 12 the bus was in the middle of the cross roads at Holborn so I and my fellow passengers couldn't get out to join our fellow Londoners and tourists (Londoners by osmosis) who had stopped whatever they were doing and come out into the streets to mark the events of a week ago. It was actually quite stunning to see. Office workers huddled around the entrance to their place of employment, people who had been walking along stopping to participate. It was as if someone had momentarily replaced London with a still photograph of itself. And when the two minutes passed we all went on our way and got back to work, or whatever it was we were doing. Because this is London, getting on with life and with living.

About the London bombs...

2005-07-11T16:31:00.000Z

About the London bombings.

Not sure what I should say here. Probably worthwhile giving out the standard reply I’ve given to all the emails and phone calls I’ve received recently: Yes, I’m still alive.

Like most Londoners, I was using the tube to get to work on the morning of July 7th. In was waiting for a Piccadilly Line train that had been blown up half a mile or so up the track from where I was standing in wait for it. I made it to work, calling home when I first heard a hint of the explosions from London Underground Staff. I called home to confirm what I was hearing with the all-wise oracle that is BBC News 24. I then got on a bus and made my way onwards to work. I worked, got a bus home, and, perhaps most importantly, went to the pub. With the Police wisely asking for central London drinking establishments to refrain from opening in an attempt to guide Londoners out of the West End and The City, Thursday evening became the night of the local as Londoners first went home to check in with their loved ones and then went to the pub for a much desired drink. I went to the pub across the road with all the housemates and an adopted waif who had been on one of the trains that was hit. We had Pizza and pints. I’m still not sure how appropriate our responses were, but there seemed to be a shared conviction that if we stayed at home and failed to go to the pub, we would have let terrorists win. Fighting terror with hedonism.

London is a tough old city. People have been attacking it for at least 2000 years. It’s been burned and bombed and nothing has stopped it. And neither will a few more bombs.

Hubble trouble

2005-04-26T13:02:00.000Z

Hubble trouble

With The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) celebrating it’s 15th anniversary of capturing stunning images of the cosmos, far in advance of anything possible by earth-bound telescopes, it seems an even greater shame that it could soon be scrapped as part of cost cutting measures. Hopefully, a last minute reprieve might be possible …

Doctor Who

2005-03-28T23:04:00.000Z

Doctor Who is Baaaaaaaaaack!

Whoooooohoooooooo. Not only is that the opening notes of the Doctor Who theme music, it is also the sound I made while watching the first episode. In fact, I was so excited about the return of Doctor Who that I downloaded the leaked version of the first episode two weeks before its first official broadcast. I watched that too, and the programme’s repeat on BBC3 the following day.

It’s as good as we had any right to expect. It isn’t perfect. It isn’t going to please everyone but it was fun and made me want to see the next episode immediately. OK so I wasn’t exactly a hard sell – I loved Doctor Who as a kid, and my interest in it probably peaked at the moment the series was cancelled, thus ensuring that it would always live on in my imagination. But still, I’m glad it is back.

The miracle of art

2005-03-24T01:02:00.000Z

I love film. I love well-made, distinctive films. But somehow film will always be a secondary love in my life compared to comics… Oh yeah, I’m sure people also figure in a list of loves of my life too, but that’s different…

Anyway, film. While watching a documentary on the making of the legendary British horror film The Wicker Man and the various trials and tribulations it faced in the making and more in the post-production, it again occurred to me how miraculous it is that well-made distinctive films ever get made at all. It should be remembered that, although greatly acclaimed today, the management at British Lion, the studio that had produced the film, derided it. It subsequently appears that the self same management were angling to make money by selling British Lion off to EMI rather than by making and distributing films. The Wicker Man was cut to shreds, but was eventually released, albeit as a supporting feature to that other miracle of a film Don’t Look Now…

In more recent years The Wicker Man has finally found the audience it deserves, thanks mainly to TV broadcasts and versions released on video and DVD, but it was so nearly lost and the cut that survives was not the full version the director intended. There are similar stories behind the creation of a wide variety of comics – Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli’s magnificent adaptation of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy remained out of print for nearly a decade before finding a new publisher. It all goes to hammer home the simple fact that the success or failure of a film or comic, the miracle of it all, is not how much money it makes, but that it gets made at all; that it is actually available for the public to discover…

During my research...

2005-03-21T15:48:00.000Z

So, yeah, during my research into various guns for an article I am writing, I came across a banner advert for the military channel bearing the legend 'there are no national monuments to billionaire's apprentices'. The implication supposedly being that billionaire's apprentices do not on the whole commit acts of bravery like members of the armed services. However, I couldn't help but thinking that billionaire's apprentices tend to be quite well off and usually situated many thousands of miles away from the dangers of any armed conflict. But then again the slogan 'millionaire apprentices: better paid and safer than a career in the military' is hardly going to boost recruitment...

2005-03-14T12:56:00.000Z

There are times when I miss smoking. Not many of them, but those moments are there.
Perhaps surprisingly, these moments don’t strike when I am out with friends in the pub, but when I am sat in front of my computer, when I have work or don’t have work , when I need to write and when I can’t. This craving has very little to do with actual smoking, a taste that I have very much lost. It is more of a desire for some kind of idealized calming process that isn’t Tea of Yoga. So yes, when I say I miss smoking, it is a bit of a lie, but I am missing something…

2005-03-10T23:46:00.000Z

Worrying news from NASA… hot on the heels of the news that Hubble is going to be scraped early it looks like funding for the continuing mission of the Voyager probes is under threat.

While the probes’ continuing cost, around $4.2 million per year for the next 15-20 years, seem enormous it must be balanced against the uncharted territory the probes are currently traversing. At some point over the next 15 years it is predicted that these probes will finally exceed the limits of the Sun’s influence and enter the space between the stars, true interstellar space. They will be the first Earth built objects to do so. To simply turn off the probes before they can chart the end of the Sun’s influence to save a little money (and in US budget terms $4.2 million is a not a lot of money) seems somehow… willfully perverse. If the calculations are accurate, it will have taken about 42 years for these probes to get to the fringes of interstellar space, surely they have gone too face, both literally and figuratively, to have the plug pulled on them now.

2005-03-10T14:06:00.000Z

Looking back at the Dot.com bubble

Apparently, this week marks the fifth anniversary of the bursting of the Dot.com bubble. It was a significant moment when venture capitalists around the globe finally woke up and smelled the coffee dragging them out of their dreams of avarice made possible by new technology. The Guardian has a pretty interesting piece on the whole event. I’d link to it, but couldn’t find it on the website. Old media may not win the war ultimately, but it is still winning the battle, it seems.

Upon reading the article two things struck me – firstly how ridiculous overambitious so many of these companies now seem when faced with the stark reality of the comparatively low level of technology most people were using to connect to the web with back in the year 2000. Yes, that flash animation that you’ve been working on all week might look lovely and wizzy and make your website look hipper than your competitors' – but you designed it on the fastest best computers available and tested it on a high-speed DSL line. Meanwhile the best your potential customers are like to have is a 56k modem if they are lucky… Oh yes, and some of them will be using browsers other than Internet Explorer and might even be using *gasp* Apple Macs… Surely a website intent on selling something. Even if it that thing is just eyeballs, it needs to be accessible to a wide a variety of people around the globe as possible – not just your mates in other Hoxton base-offices – that way Nathan Barley lies...

The second thing that struck me was that the people interviewed who ‘lost’ money when the bubble burst seem to be doing quite nicely in new web-based ventures. The bubble also rises.

2005-03-08T01:14:00.000Z

I've started using del.icio.us as a means of collecting links i'm using in my research and turning them into an RSS feed...

One day, I might actually find out what it's really for...

2005-02-28T23:39:00.000Z

A pleasant evening spent out with friends this evening, a direct inversion of the equally pleasant night spent with friends last night, which descended into madness when I forgot to leave the pub after the Rugby. It kind of went downhill from there…

I must go for not-drinks more often…

2005-02-25T00:53:00.000Z

Following on from my recent post, Iranian blogger jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries.

2005-02-24T14:03:00.000Z

And now for something completely different…

Links to websites about demolition robots:

Aqua energy’s Concrete Demolition Robot takes the hard work out of concrete demolition. The robot has an onboard computer that can be programmed, the robot also comes with a remote control enabling an operator to control the robot from a distance.
Brokk is the world's leading supplier of remote controlled demolition robots. Browse our website and find out how Brokk can help you do your job quicker, safer, more economically and a lot more user friendly.
The American TV show Robot Rivals set teams from two universities against each other in a challenge to built competition demolition robots.
Robotic hydrodemolition equipment helps speed the renewal of the A1M

2005-02-23T10:11:00.000Z

Question of the day...

So, why does the cover of O'Reilly's Running Mac OS X Panther have a picture of an Alsatian on the cover? Wouldn't a Panther be more logical?

2005-02-22T23:34:00.000Z

Or to put it another way...

2005-02-22T22:28:00.000Z

OK, in terms of blogging, I'm a pretty bad blogger. My blog is not particularly well designed, seldom updated and occasionally afflicted with spelling and gramatical errors. Yet, however imperfect I might be as a blogger I do want to add my voice to those all around the blogsphere calling for the release of Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, just two of the many Iranian bloggers imprisoned by the Iranian authorities, seemingly because of what they wrote on their blogs.

So, with about 30 minutes left in the day I'd like to celebrate "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"...

2005-02-02T18:43:00.000Z

G.I. Joe captured!

OK, technically speaking this isn't a story about G.I. Joe, but his rather less well known cousin Special Ops Cody, nevertheless, if decapitating action figure becomes a terrorist offense then Guantanamo is going to need an extensive nursery section. And I think a vast tranch of the Western world will also be wanted for similar war crimes...

2005-01-24T15:44:00.000Z

Still very little comment from me the stories I highlighted in my last post... Instead, I give you this: the ultimate in iBook anti-theft devices. So your iBook will be safe from burgulars but considerably less safe from housemates throwing out old pizza boxes...

2005-01-19T02:23:00.000Z

I know, I know - I don't talk, I don't write... Well, I'm here now...

Well, Its been a hectic few months for space news. The two biggest things, both of which I want to write about at some length but may never get round to publishing, are Europe's plan to launch the Galileo satelite navigation system as a rival to the US GPS system and the spectacular results from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Titan.

2004-11-27T11:47:00.000Z

Out of curiosity, I've just been taking a dive through my blog archives. I've been blogging close to five years now and the main reason it doesn't feel that long yet is because of my painfully regular lack of updates. Unfortunately, what is plainly apparent from my past posts is my ‘refreshingly relaxed’ approach to the rules of spelling and grammar…

2004-11-27T11:18:00.000Z

'You're my favourite waste of time'

This week I have been mostly playing Newton's Nightmare, a terribly addictive flash game. Worse, I have tried to justify playing the game to myself on the grounds that its about fruit, and thus healthy. Pathetic, I know, but it feels sooooooo good.

2004-11-09T14:25:00.000Z

Not quite as it appears -

Apparently recorded while G.W. Bush was a govenor – not after his recent second term victory, here is somempg footage of President Bush's one finger victory salute.

First person to film the President wiping his ass with the Bill of Rights wins a prize...

2004-11-07T20:41:00.000Z

Grey November days are with us again... with evenings that start at 4pm. Roll on next spring.

2004-10-31T18:35:00.000Z

One day to go before the US election…

It seems strange when you say it like that – it feels like we’ve been counting down till Tuesday for a very long while, we’ve had a lot of time to imagine what our hopes and fears on what the outcome might bring…

The depth of coverage on various issues, both foreign and domestic from newspapers across the globe has left observers around the world as informed and sometimes even better informed, than many voters actually in the US. And no, I don’t think that this is necessarily a particularly controversial or biased view. It is simply a reflection of the huge interest around the world in this particular election. And although there is likely to be a higher turnout of voters than is usual, there will still be many potential voters who have refused to follow the coverage and will fail to cast their ballot. The fact that I had to add a couple of explanatory sentences there to make plain why I do not see first sentence in this paragraph as particularly controversial underlines just how bitter and divisive this year’s campaign has been.

Families across America are split. But they are split, I think, for a good reason. The stakes are high in this election, perhaps higher than they have ever been before. The reasons this is an important election probably vary depending on your political opinions, but I can tell you this much I’ve been having election-based nightmares for weeks now. Opinion polls are evenly split within their margins of error. It is not even clear if these polls accurately reflect all the newly registered voters who, for whatever reason, do not usually turn up at the polling stations.

I have my own convictions about who must win this election if freedom and liberty are to survive in America and across the globe. It is my fear that should my hopes be crushed (and worse crushed in a clash of lawyers and judges) I will look back on these passed months of campaigning like the frieze on Keat’s Grecian Urn, as a period where is was possible to hope. Remember that old curse? ‘May you live in interesting times’? On Tuesday, and further on in to Wednesday and after we are set to discover just how interesting things can get.

2004-10-22T14:19:00.000Z

The BBC news-ticker announces:

DR Congo accuses Belgian minister of behaving like cartoon character Tintin. story here...

It’s an interesting story about how certain Congolese politicians are claiming that the former colonial power, Belgium is treating the Democratic Republic of the Congo with condescending racist attitude of the type some have claimed is present in the characterization of non-Europeans in the famously Belgian Tintin comics.

But am I really alone in thinking that DR Congo sounds like a brilliant name for an outlandish comic-book villain of the type never seen in Tintin comics.

2004-10-13T22:29:00.000Z

There is a nip in the air. The lack of warmth that usually hits in mid-September has now been superseded with a slight but distinct chill. Soon the harsh cold of winter will kick in and all journeys in the open air will be conducted hurriedly so as to minimise exposure to the freezing temperatures until well into April next year. Meanwhile the intervening months will be filled with gloom that will envelope both the trip to and from work until sunlight is a stranger that is only seen, like an absent parent, at the weekends.

But on the plus side, the X prize has been won, by Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites team. Yay for the first non-government sponsored flight into space. And double Yay for the prospect of space tourism. While I am happy at both of these pieces of news, I hope that other teams that signed up for the X prize will continue to pursue their plans to launch their own space missions. Part of me is still thirsting see all those promises of the prevalence of space travel in the future made in the 1960s finally become a reality…

2004-09-08T22:33:00.000Z

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40049000/jpg/_40049920_mancap_afp_a203.jpg
Another bad day for science

NASA’s $264m Genesis mission has ended in failure, and as seems likely with the Beagle 2 mission it appears to have come down to the parachute. While its difficult to see any real silver lining I suppose its comforting to know that despite all its finances, NASA can loose its probes in just the way we lost Beagle 2.

2004-08-25T23:23:00.000Z

On the heels of the news that that the team behind Britain's failed Mars probe is hoping to send another probe to the red planet, here is a picture of Prospero, the only satelite Britain managed to put in space with the its own rocket system.

I really hope we will see a more investment in Britain's contribution to space exploration in the future.

2004-08-23T21:07:00.000Z

It’s the Olympics.

That 4-yearly sporting circus is upon us again intruding into all spheres of cultural life for a two-week period like a many-tentacled beast. The lucrative rights to broadcast the event are so closely guarded that BBC radio Five-Live has been forced to suspend its webstream for the length of the competition. There are many ways of viewing the Olympics but despite many fine words in praise of the Olympic ideals and sport for all, most people will have their eyes firmly fixed on the bottom line of the medals table. As of the time of writing this post Great Britain (easily the most ostentatiously titled country in the competition) is in tenth place. A minor miracle given the paucity of investment in sports in this country, but for those Britons craving the top spot there are a variety of options open.

Firstly, add all the medals from all the countries that are currently members of the commonwealth for an Ex-British empire team total. Unfortunately this doesn’t yield massively improved results Australia being the only commonwealth country ahead of Britain in the medal stakes. More impressive is the performance of a ‘United Europe’ team with 4 EU member states in the top ten, the combined tally for these countries alone would beat the United States, the current table leader.

So, there we have it, conclusive proof that Europe could whip the asses of the sporting heavyweights like the US and China. And the fun that can be had with the medal table does not end there – we can even map political conflicts such as the current war against terror. A struggle between the coalition of the willing and the axis of evil would end in defeat for the ‘enemies of freedom’™ without a single shot being fired in anger or a single death on any side. It can also throw up some surprising results – using the current Olympic medal table as a guide to famous wars from history the French would win the Franco-Prussian war.

All this can easily waste a good 5 minutes and has to be at least as much fun as watching the heats of the Olympic boxing competition.

2004-08-10T18:27:00.000Z

On the bright side...

I have booked myself a holiday, something that I am terrible at doing. Living the freelance life as I do, I frequently find it incredibly difficult to justify making the choice to spend valuable time and money in an attempt to not make any money. Don't get me wrong, holidays are fun but when you are freelance its often hard to escape the nagging feeling that you are paying for the damn things twice - once paying out the cost of everything you do and a second time with all the work you aren't doing, and thus not getting paid for, while you are away...

Maybe its time to get a job editing a B2B publication - at least there you usually get full-time employment opportunities...

2004-08-10T18:09:00.000Z
A year ago today Britain was dripping with sweat as a result of record breaking temperatures...

A year on, the temperatures are not quite so record breaking, but the sweat that is currently coating every inch of skin I have as a result of more hot and humid weather is just as cloying. I'm fucked off with this weather. This morning the air was filled with beautifully chilly rain - by mid-afternoon you would be hard pressed to find any evidence of any precipitation ever having occurred. The air is now so oppressive it is positively dictatorial which, coupled with another anticlimactic deadline-making day and the usual unpleasantness of public transport in the summer (not even the mighty ipod can quite mitigate its awfulness) has sent me onto a violent swearathon of a bad mood.

*grump*

I'm going to watch television until my brain melts and I can no longer remember my name...

2004-08-02T17:00:00.000Z
I know I really shouldn't find this funny, but...

2004-07-25T01:05:00.000Z
Becoming a pod person

So, I’ve finally succumbed and acquired an ipod. Actually, there wasn’t much resistance on my part – who could turn down the opportunity to take their entire music collection with them wherever they go, at last giving us the opportunity to create our own infinite soundtracks for our lives.

Unlike Tom Coates, I’m not an early adopter, as far as technology goes. The bitter experience being the only kid at school with a Betamax VCR taught me that being behind the curve both helps avoid buying into a doomed platform and allows you to profit from all the little tricks those who did adopt early have learned. Besides, I’m generally opposed to spending money if I can help it. Sure, ipods look great and provide almost all my music needs, but they are still a little expensive in the UK. My heart was won but the wallet was less than willing. I ummed and I ahhhhed and generally procrastinated over the idea of buying my first pod until a friend went to the US and brought me one back – evidently my ummming and ahhhhing worked.

Since then I have been running around like the dictator of a Middle-Eastern country who’s just received all the WMD that he ever wanted from Santa. MP3s from all manner of dubious sources now sit happily on my ipod’s hard drive next to the chunk of my CD collection that I have thus far been bothered to upload. I’m now well on my way to assembling the soundtrack to a fairly decent indie flick on my ipod ready for use on my daily commute.

More, my ipod has inspired me to engage with my music in a variety of new and different ways. Previously, in my podless existence, I left the rating section of itunes empty. Not for me the Nick Hornbyesque anal obsession of rating every piece of music I owned out of five. However, when my itunes gently tempts my with promises of generating playlists that won’t have me reaching for the skip button I find myself filling out all that extra information in preparation for my next commute to work.

On that commute I end up sitting on the train with my eyes newly keen to spot the tell-tale white apple ear-buds that indicate that whatever songs we have all selected for our respective journeys, we have all assembled our own soundtracks for Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Pod people proliferate. As newsweek speculates, we are living in what is increasingly becoming an ipod nation. And soon all of you will be like us…

2004-07-02T09:30:00.000Z
So, Saddam Hussain has finally appeared in an Iraqi court - the first time he's been by the public for around seven months... and reporters manage to capture this image...

'Who loves ya baby?'

2004-07-02T00:09:00.000Z
So HMV have a sale on and Donnie Darko DVD is the prize bargain at £3.99. Which is roughly a quarter of the price I paid for my copy of the DVD just 14 scant months ago when it was first released... And they say cars depreciate quickly...

2004-06-07T19:47:00.000Z
And while we are doing shout outs, big 'Hi there' to Ganesh and Xoc. It's quite nice to find I actually haven't quite alienated all my readers with my refreshingly glacial approach to blogging...

2004-06-07T12:10:00.000Z
Can't stop... Lots I want to talk about that I may or may not get to when my net access normalises, including

* In keeping with my last post, an account of my recent vist to The Crystal Palace
* The impending Transit of Venus
* The experience of watching Cable TV in the UK.

In the mean time I just want to welcome my old flatmate back into the world of blogging (I know I'm not the world's most prolific or regular blogger but what the hey). Anyhoo - welcome back Pointdexter.

2004-05-17T21:18:00.000Z
This week I have been mostly reading about…

The Great Exhibition of 1851.

You'd never guess it was designed by a gardener would you...

2004-05-16T10:30:00.000Z
Yay! After over four years of blogging I have finally managed to gain the technical knowledge to add tags to my blog...

2004-05-16T09:55:00.000Z
Meanwhile, back on earth...

Most commentator agree that The Ansari X-prize will bw won this year. The Prize will be awarded to the first private company to put a craft into space twice in two weeks... The dawn of commercial space travel is almost upon us...

2004-03-28T22:51:00.000Z
Went to see the remake of Dawn of the Dead this weekend and it was much fun. Ok a lot of the commentary of consumerism has been cut out but it was still a lot of fun on a not so warm spring afternoon. go see it...

2004-03-21T16:12:00.000Z
Yesterday saw UK WEBCOMIX THING an event to get people who make comics together with, hopefully, the people that buy them.

As is often the case, there seemed to be more comic creators than buyers there. But fortunately these sort of events aren't just about cold hard profits- they are also about sharing information, inspiration and enthusiasm. Lots of new and interesting stuff being produced and generally the whole event seemed to be a great success. Of course its now going to take me a while to read it all...

2004-03-17T23:36:00.000Z
...meanwhile back in deep space a new planet has been discovered. Maybe. Actually, no. It doesn't seem to be a new planet at all and, come to think of it, Pluto isn't really a planet either...

Confused? Check out this handy diagram.

So basically our 'new' planet is just a larger Kuiper belt object. Maybe its best termed a planetoid. Maybe that just confuses the issue.

2004-03-08T01:13:00.000Z
Officially the best thing ever, at the moment.

I missed Ultraviolet when it was first shown on television. I was living in Canada at the time, so I have an excuse. Fortunately, I recently had the opportunity to watch the whole 6 episode miniseries and have found it to be the best thing ever. Ultraviolet takes the old maxim that less is more and runs with it. This being the case, I will refrain from launching into the 5,000 word analysis that I so dearly want to write about it. I will not explain, in detail, why it bears up so well under repeated viewings. I’ll even attempt to avoid waxing lyrical about the shivers I felt down my spine in appreciation of the quality and daring of the writing. It’s best you all discover that for yourselves.

2004-01-22T12:41:00.000Z
On a non-Martian tip for a moment (and retaining this blog's current space motif) here is a pretty interesting historical overview of the British space program from History Today

2004-01-22T12:31:00.000Z
The Beagle 2 probe to remains errant, (and while all hope is still not yet lost, the likelihood is that the probe will not 'phone home') but it turns out the most cost-effective way to find Mars rock is to go to the Atlas Mountains of southern Morocco.

Of course, interplanetary exploration is about a lot more than analysing rocks, but sometimes it can feel a little gaulling when some important finds turn up in your own back yard.

2004-01-13T15:19:00.000Z
Well looks like Beagle 2 is lost.

And if you are feeling a little down, here is a celibration of the paucity of Britain's space program.

But on the plus side the NASA Mars probe may have already found water.

2003-12-30T11:08:00.000Z
*sigh*

Still no sign of Beagle 2, latest reports suggest it might have even fallen down a crater, which would be quite an achievement if the scientists involved had actually been aiming for it...

But in defiance I remain hopeful and still decidedly upbeat - Mars Express seems to be going great guns and there are two NASA probes set to reach Mars in the next few weeks...

2003-12-25T04:14:00.000Z
Its the early hours of Christmas day - I cannot sleep. Millions of miles away the Beagle 2 probe has, by this time, 'landed' on the surface of Mars. It is, at the time of writing this, still a few hours before we learn if 'landed' is a euphemism for 'crashed' or not.

Historically, the odds are not good. Of the 30 probes designed to land on the Martian surface over the years only 3 have done so successfully.

Beagle 2 also marks the highest profile British contribution to space exploration since the Lovell telescope first recieved transmissions from Sputnik.

As a child, like many people my age, I was fascinated by space exploration (blame a heady mixture of science and science fiction consumed at an early age). Of course the total lack of any kind of British space program with its own means of achieving escape velocity kind of reduced the likelihood of Britain sending a probe, let alone people, anywhere into space. But against the odds British scientists have built a probe that, as part of the European Space Agency Mars Express mission, has reached the Martian surface.

In a few hours we will learn if that probe has survived its journey intact. It's a tense time of waiting and, hey, I didn't even work on the project. But regardless of the success or otherwise of the rest of the mission (and that of the Mars Express satelite, which provided Beagle 2 a lift to the red planet and looks set to provide all manner of interesting data) the mission has succeeded in re-igniting my fascination with space exploration. Which isn't such a bad present to recieve on Christmas day.

2003-12-15T00:25:00.000Z
Christmas shopping on Oxford St.

Just don't do it, OK?

2003-11-19T15:29:00.000Z
Wednesday.
First full visit of president Bush’s State visit.
All week Oxford street has seemed less busy, but today London’s main shopping thoroughfare seems back to its packed, pre-Christmas self. This is odd, since less than 100 yards away the whole of Grovesnor Square, site of the American Embassy, is blocked off with a well-manned police cordon.

Odd fact for the trivia buffs, the nearby Mariott Grovesnor claims a staggering 95% of its clientele are American. It would seem that many American tourists feel safer visiting foreign climbs if they can stay a short dash away from sovereign territory. Unfortunately, its not entirely certain that such tourists would be able to make such a dash under the current security arrangements gripping the city.

2003-11-10T00:25:00.000Z
My head is aching - aching in a way that succeeds in breaking your concentration roughly every 7 seconds. Its not that it hurts as much as the concentration breaks make little things (spelling, punctuation) seemingly impossible. And i keep finding myself halfway doing something without knowing exactly what it was... sorry, where was I?

2003-11-02T23:24:00.000Z
Long time no blog. I think that used to be a bigger problem amongst bloggers in general until people that couldn't or wouldn't submit interesting updates realized that they didn't have to blog if they didn't want to.

But I continue to resist this realization with the bluff obstinancy that is rapidly becoming my trademark.

2003-10-05T16:33:00.000Z
You know half the struggle in posting to this place is logging in in the first place. And once you get here its all to eaasy to post completely meaningless pap...

I'd like to think some kind of net linked PDA would offer the solution, but I have my doubts...

Oh and does *anyone* think the Pope will make it to Christmas?

2003-10-05T16:28:00.000Z
life is unfair, kill yourself or get over it

grrrrr

I am the victim of a pen in pocket exploding ink type incident. Why do these things only happen on light coloured clothes? This is just another incident to underline how i must go shopping for more clothes.

*sigh*

I hate clothes shopping.

2003-09-01T21:06:00.000Z
This weekend I have mostly been drinking cocktails and fretting.

That is all.

2003-08-09T09:37:00.000Z
In a startling piece of self promotion you can now read my review of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis at Ninthart by clicking on this link.

2003-07-20T22:49:00.000Z
Ahhhhhhh summer in London. Foreign lands may have their charms in the hotter months (cheif amongst which must be streets that do not smell even more intensely of piss after a few days of heat) but for those still in the big smoke has a majo benefit - free festivals!

I've just returned from a lovely afternoon in soho square listening to a variety of jazz acts for free - the pimms (jazz+park= pimms, don't argue just accept it) we drank was equally lovely.

And in the musical vein I have to say yay for the proms another staple of London summers (although unfortunately they are not free to see live you can listen to them all online). For the uninitiated, the proms are a series of 73 classical concerts with the lineup of featured composers changing every year. The goal of the proms was to make music accessible - and with its relaxed, jovial atmosphere it certainly does that.

2003-07-15T00:12:00.000Z
In these hyper-real times its all to easy to lose track of reality, after all Baudrillard told us the last Gulf war never happened. Imagine what he'd make of this one...(unfortunately I'm sure he'd just draw the same conclusion only more so)... Which is why it was good for me to see in the the Guardian this weekend an article featuring the anti-war propaganda remixes of Micah Ian Wright. An animator, comic writer and Gulf war vetran (in whichever order you prefer) - Micah's new spins on the classics don't think - just fight posters can seem like just another exercise in rhetoric, but as the hyper-real world more closely reselmble a warmer version of the cold war of the fifties that the posters originate from one is beaten around the head once more. This isn't just hyper-real, this hype is really happening.

2003-07-06T23:06:00.000Z
In true Fast Show style, this week I have been mostly reading Jimmy Corrigan, by Chris Ware... yeah, yeah, I know, a day late and a dollar short, but, you know, life...

Actually I first read some of Jimmy corrigan as it was being serialized in Acme Novelty Library - I was immediately struck by how beautifully it was rendered and constructed, but the story I found a little bleak... Well Ware's appearance at the ICA this week prompted me to buy a copy and give it another shot. (and getting it signed by the man in question certainly didn't hurt)

If anything Jimmy Corrigan is bleaker and more painful than I remember, but it is no less beautiful or finely crafted because of that. If anything I think it is easier to read as a single volume, without an agonising wait between issues to further reinforce the suffering of most of the book's main characters.

This might not sound like much of a recommendation, but it is. Jimmy Corrigan is an agonising painful read, but for all the right reasons following as it does not so little Jimmy's first and only meeting with his long absent father, every awkward silence, or ill chosen phrase, every detail of a lifetime's resentment and regret is exacted for the reader to endure. That the story is based on Ware's mixed feelings towards his own absentee father only serve to add a touch of poignancy into an already emotionally charged story.

While its not an easy read, Jimmy Corrigan certainly deserves all the awards it has won and, more importantly, demands to be read...

2003-07-06T22:44:00.000Z
bleugh... one too many late nights and i feel under the weather, but what i wasn't perpared for was the sudden runny nose and sneezing that seem to have come with it... it could almost be an allergy... but and allergy to what i wonder?

2003-07-02T23:56:00.000Z
Ooooh, not sure if I like the new having-to-sign-in-twice-to-post-once-ness of this new blogger interface, but at least its pretty. I haven't got much to say at the moment being as it is nearly one in the morning and i'm just posting to prove that I am in fact still alive. I will say that things are hectic at them moment and if I spend anymore time at the ICA in the near future they will have to start charging me rent... (I'm sure that will be cheaper than what I am currently spending on talks and books there at the moment)...

2003-06-23T19:10:00.000Z
Today is a sad, sad day, for over the weekend Apple finally announced the end of the original Apple Imac.

Its almost suprizing that this classic of design was only released in 1998, but that's the middle of the ninteenth century in internet time. And yes I do feel more of an emotional attachment to my 2000 Indigo Imac than i have ever felt towards a coputer before. Its beautiful, and even though I recently traded up to an Ibook (on which i now type these lines) I don't think I could ever part with my lovely Imac.

2003-04-16T16:26:00.000Z
A few days before the fall of iraq I considered writing a post on how the panto season was rapidly falling on the theater of war. The Iraqi Information Minister was ignoring the advancing coalition behind him with almost superhuman intransigence even though they were clearly in evidence behind him. I was among the many just willing one of the journalists to shout "its behind you". But somehow I didn't post about it.

Which is a shame because it seems i mist one of the most virulent memes on the interwebnet at the moment as the BBC reveals on its coverage of welovetheiraqiinformationminister. So, I post about it now in blatent bandwagon-jumping fashion. Better late than never eh?

2003-04-07T12:34:00.000Z
I'm glad that it wasn't just me that made the link between the ariel maps of Bagdad and the ariel view of the Thames at the start Eastenders - those boys and girls a b3ta.com thought of it too.

2003-04-03T14:52:00.000Z
Not exactly subtle, (but neither is the rhetoric coming from the white house at the moment) I give you re-mixed propaganda.

2003-04-02T13:43:00.000Z
Ladies and gentlemen, satire is truly dead.

2003-04-02T13:16:00.000Z
A new design, a new name, same gap between posts.

the more things change...

2003-03-25T16:00:00.000Z
A bitter blow to the ego here on a website advertising
Last Chance to See CD ROM. As it helpfully details in the About the authors section...

Douglas Adams' books, notably The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Mostly Harmless, have made him famous around the world. Mark Carwardine is a zoologist.

Don't go into zoology, kids.

2003-03-20T10:28:00.000Z
So, as of 1.30AM this morning George W. Bush too the US and her allies into a shooting war in the middle east. The gulf war II. Sounds like a bad movie. Already the news footage is empty and repetitive. Misinformation mixed with rumor and occasionally a slice of fact. There doesn't seem anything intelligent left to say. And its hard to see a positive side to all this.

2003-03-17T13:44:00.000Z
SAD to admit, but there is no longer any denying it - I am tremendously seasonally affected. Sitting in the sun fills me with such a wonderful feeling of optimism unparalleled with anything that the colder seasons can offer. Pity that new found optimism disappears as soon as a cloud passes over the sun.
War less than 24 hours away?.

2003-03-10T22:10:00.000Z
In these days of the interwebnet, when virulent memes are spread in a matter of hours and become old news just as quickly, it is sometimes easy to forget that cartoons that have become part of the cultural landscape have scarcely been noticed by traditional media. So It came as a bit of a surprize to me to find David Rees excellent lo-fi comic get your war on in the Media Guardian today. The piece didn't say anything terribly new or incisive about Rees' strip (of course you could argue there isn't much to say about a stip that consists of 4 pieces of clip art and a whole lot of anger and bitter cynicism). It doesn't even say anything about that other lo-fi satire comic Tony and Me by Doctor Parsons. But it does reprint a load of the strips - reminding you just why you laughed, albeit with dark an cynical humour, at these strips when you first saw them on the web all those months ago.

My favorite is still this one...

2003-03-03T22:36:00.000Z
I have to admit I am now addicted to radio Five Live

2002-10-26T10:52:00.000Z
Well, yesterday Blogger was hacked into and those nasty old hackers didn't even update my blog for me. Boo I say, and probably fie aswell.

2002-08-07T16:19:00.000Z
Reasons to go yay - big fierce rainstorm here in London at the moment. Reasons not to go yay - i'm at work and still have to get home in this biblical storm.

2002-08-06T17:18:00.000Z
There are days when you look at your life only to discover it has unexpectedly become a Ray Cooney farce. Ladies and gentlemen, today is one of those days. Please go about your business while I sit here and await the entrance of a vicar with his trousers round his ankles.

2002-08-05T23:20:00.000Z
Still hot from co-creating the virulent meme of warchalking, Mr Matt Jones has blogged something even more indispensible in the form of this: a guide to music used in UK TV advertising .

2002-08-05T22:57:00.000Z
Nope, I'm still not dead - what's more i have even survived the terrors of the European eel. And how did i celibrate? I went to see the new Austin Powers film. I was assured that it wasn't as soul-suckingly bad as the last Austin Powers flick and to be fair, it wasn't. There were some genuininely funny things in there, unfortunately these jokes were lost within unfunny stream of obviousnesses - (There is a man with a mole - see how comedic it is to fail to avoid drawing attention to it).

Myers, it seems has lost his taste for his superspy parody, taking every opportunity to slip into any one of the alternative characters he also plays. While The first film had the focus of lovingly parodying the bond films, this new film lacked any sense of purpose, spreading its satiric blunderbuss wide and inevitably missing any target. Its difficult to see where Myers can go to make the next film (and there will surely be a next film) more than just a moribund collection of knob and puke gags.

2002-07-07T13:39:00.000Z
This is the European eel Anguilla anguilla (not to be confused with the American eel that shares the same breeding grounds somewhere in the vicinity of the Sargasso Sea)

I have spent the last week writing about these things and would now be quite happy never to see any such eel again.

2002-06-27T09:19:00.000Z
Back to current affairs and UK & US stockmarkets plunging $24bn yesterday. London's worst free paper, The Metro (they aren't getting a link from me, if you are really that interested - search google yourself!) described the plunge as "the worst trading day since the September 11 attacks".

Interesting. Those 'resposible' for September the 11 (a loaded term since those directly responsible died in the attacks themselves) now face the possibility of a death sentence handed to them by a military tribunal. Somehow I don't think the same brand of 'justice' won't be handed out to those responsible for this current economic crisis.

2002-06-27T09:08:00.000Z
Hmmmm wow i was sure that that last post had been lost in a crash - and it is so old now its probably only of historical interest.

Cutting to the chase... I gave out loads of my minicomics to everyone i could - from the Editor in Chief at Marvel comics to the more important people, average comics readers.

Anyhoo - two days later, my artist collaborator Nelson Evergreen e-mails me to say that a Norwegian publisher wants to use the strip in a dummy for a potential new comic. Sounds like they are really interested - more in his fantastic art than my script, 'tis true, but - it's a start!

2002-06-15T09:23:00.000Z

Back due to popular demand

Yeah, yeah, I know, its been a while - what can I say? Um stuff.
This post is brought to you by Roxy, who wants to know what I got upto in Bristol a couple of weeks ago...

So, Yeah, Bristol - once a throbbing organ of the British Empire forever associated with the magnificent engineering feats of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Bristol is also home to Britain's main comic festival, Comics 2002.

Ostensiblely an event for 'the fans' Comics 2002 is more of an opportunity for freelancers to hang with each other, schmooze editors in the hope of landing a more work and getting completely rat arsed. After attending last year for the first time with nothing to try and promote I felt I had to put in at least a little effort this year. With the help of the multi-talented Nelson Evergreen I put together a little 8 page comic/business card. Check it out on nelson's site if you haven't already - its under colabortions.

The weekend itself started early, as these things tend to, with friday night in the main hotel bar - a bar gloriously unprepared for the hoard of comics related hookers, hustlers, pimps and their johns that had descended upon them. The weekend sort of descends into an alcoholic wasteland from there on in - a bizarre comics related version of the Japanese game show Endurance. Sleep, food and water were all shunned in favour of comics and, more importantly, alcohol. You get the idea.

So, yeah I was hiking my wares about. Left a couple of piles of my minicomic on friends tables

2002-05-10T16:44:00.000Z
Just to quash rumours to the contrary, I am not dead.

Further updates as events and inclination warrent.

2002-04-25T23:33:00.000Z
Ah summertime. Sitting in the office today listing to 'choons that just made me want to jump in a car, music blairing and drive down to a beach. Yay!

All ths good vibe stuff almost makes me for get what a shit time I had at the club at 13 gerrard st. (formerly the clinic) on saturday. The Dj's couldn't mix, the limited space there was taken up by people too stoned to endure public life of people about to cross that Rubicon from late 30s to early 40s whilst dancing in that weird side-to-side shuffle way that you'd do at a school disco before you learned how to dance. The drinks were way too expensive and had the nasty habit of disappearing when you put them down. Basically it was a shit-hole. Like i said, all this summer stylie good vibe almost makes me forget about it... almost.

And while we are on things that make you smile - a big up for my ex-housemate, raye who has just bought a house. Fucking love you.

2002-04-19T10:38:00.000Z
Write to your MP!
Most important link found today is of this brilliant site that allows you to identify and fax your MP. If you are unhappy of the lack of British condemnation for the massacre at Jenin or indeed anything else, write to you MP and let them know. They are there to represent you - so tell them what you want to do today, and remember to be polite.
(Link via Nick at the Barbelith underground.)

2002-04-19T10:17:00.000Z
Pro-Israeli readers of the LA times boycott the magazine as one of its columnist likens war criminal, Ariel Sharon* to war criminal, Slobodan Milosevic...
Meanwhile, evidence that the Israli military participated in a massacre at the Jenin refugee camp is growing.

* quite aside from Sharon's recent policies, the massacres at Sabra and Shatila in 1982 were also conducted under his auspecies.

2002-04-19T09:24:00.000Z
Big hi to Roxy: Mistress of the Universe. She's going to Bristol for Comics 2002, Britains premier comics convention/excuse for a piss up in Devon, are you?

2002-04-16T12:25:00.000Z
Music companies bemoan the rise of piracy on the net

I can just hear the mounting horror in the voice of media analyst, Hank Forsyth as he says
"You have an entire generation of people thinking content should be available for free, and that's just not a sustainable long-term business model for the labels."

Interestingly enough the UK is one of the few countries that shows a continued growth in CD sales... leading one to speculate that perhaps the sales figures might be more closely linked to the economic performance of the countires surveyed rather than any thing else...

Of course this hasn't stopped the US imposing heavy trade tarifs on the Ukraine after accusing it of being "weak" and "ineffective" against the pirates...

2002-04-16T12:11:00.000Z
Tremble in horror for the internet portal known as Yahoo is launching a print magazine- just check out the copy blurb from one of the editors of the internet bookpimps Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Do you, uh, read Yahoo!? Yahoo! Internet Life sports a friendly mix of Wired's high-tech gloss, People's low-tech yet titillating appeal, and USA Today's blurb-centric and easy-to-digest format. Inside you'll find juicy factoids about such things as the top search terms on the Net, short vignettes about nifty products and wacky, cool, or useful sites, as well as a host of other quick picks on arts, entertainment, health, travel, tech law, and more general cyberculture and digital business trends.
--Brooke Gilbert>

2002-04-14T23:49:00.000Z
*PLUG*

I've just taken over the editorial reins for the Barbelith webzine. So check it out and tell me what you think...

2002-04-14T23:47:00.000Z
Yay!
had a fantastically relaxed day today. Watched the Ring 2 (Japaneese horror flick) and then went out with my housemates and sundry other people staying with us for some dim sum. We proceeded from there to buy some videos (Spaced season 2 and the last episode of Blake's7) and drink... finally we returned to the flat to taste Bron's excellent cooking and watched vids whilst we drank our way through some cheap wine... Is there a better way to spend a sunday?

2002-04-08T14:56:00.000Z
Yeah, everyone gets list e-mails of supposedly funny things, but occasionally, just occasionally mind you, they really are quite ammusing. As an example i got a list of bizarre warnings placed on products around the world:

On a Swedish chain saw:
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP CHAIN WITH YOUR HANDS OR GENITALS.

On a child's Superman costume:
WEARING OF THIS GARMENT DOES NOT ENABLE YOU TO FLY.

but my favourite has to be

On a Japanese product used to relieve painful haemorrhoids:
LIE DOWN ON BED AND INSERT POSCOOL SLOWLY UP TO THE PROJECTED
PORTION LIKE A SWORD-GUARD INTO ANAL DUCT. WHILE INSERTING POSCOOL FOR
APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES, KEEP QUIET.

"like a sword-guard into an anal duct" has got to be the best similie i've heard all day...

2002-04-06T15:55:00.000Z
The Barbelith Underground has reopened (sort of) and is currently full of exciting and intellectually stimulating intellectual debates... its is also home to this thread teaching impulsivelad how to talk dirty in french...

Very instructive, but my favourite entry has to be this one:

Posted by Cavatina At 13:44 05.04.2002:

Dunno know how to get the diacritical marks on Barbelith, so this is not going to look correct, but anyway, impulsivelad, here goes (tu es canon - hot stuff - right?):

impulsivelad: Tu es fantastique. Je te desire. (acute over the 'e' in 'desire') Je veux faire l'amour avec toi. Allons au lit.

hir: Tu as un preservatif? (acute over the first 'e')

impulsivelad: Mais oui ... je ne vais pas le faire sans preservatif.

hir: De rien.

Later ...

impulsivelad: Mmm... Tu aimes ca? (cedilla under the 'c').

hir: (sighs) Ah ... oui ... j'aime ca. N'arrete pas. (circumflex over the first 'e' in 'arrete') Mmm. Touche-moi ici.

impulsivelad: j'aime ta bouche ... ton corps ... tes seins ... ton derriere ... (grave over second 'e' in 'derriere').

2002-04-06T15:40:00.000Z
Heard today:
(well actually earlier saturday, but blogger was to fucked to actually let me post about it...*sigh*)
"This is a customer announcement, for customers travelling towards westminster for the lying in state (of the Queen mother). The queue is currently backed up to Waterloo bridge, with an average waiting time of four hours. Customers traveling to the lying in state are advised to alight here and proceed to Waterloo bridge"

So, yes, it seems people really do have nothing better to do with their saturday's than admire the week-dead corpse of a 101 year old woman.

But it get even better than this as noted by the BBC's coverage
Officials had to open Westminster Hall throughout the night on Friday to satisfy the well-wishers, and will do so again on Saturday
.

Good to know they'll be catering for the post-club crowd.

2002-04-02T09:35:00.000Z
In this post-Easter period Dan hopes we have all avoided the robot uprising.

2002-04-02T00:03:00.000Z
Well, this Easter break has been pleasently satisfying. Especially since I have taken the opportunity to do very little for the first time in what I now realise has been the better part of six months. On the one hand I have relished this opportunity to watch films and play computer games and hang with my housemates on the other even these past few days i have felt guilty for not getting more stuff done. And of course tomorrow morning I go back to work still not having managed to get quite enough of the 'nothing' I wanted to do, done. Ah well at least its only a four day week...

2002-03-30T12:27:00.000Z
The situation in the middle east has now officially descended into a crisis as Ariel Sharon seems intent on a game of brinksmanship over whether he will have Yasser Arafat killed or not. Mainstram news sources such as the BBC continue to ask increasingly redundant questions such as "can the peace process survive"

Meanwhile at the grass roots level international activists are travelling to the region to form a human shield around as many palestinians as they can. International citizens can do simnple things that ordinary palestinians would get shot for. Read one account from such an activist here.

2002-03-24T00:49:00.000Z
What do the MP3s on your hard drive say about you?

Personally I'm almost afraid to ask...

2002-03-19T22:25:00.000Z
My other housmate is an actress... which sounds so much more glamourous than her other job as a suply teacher, but there you go... she's played the lead in Romeo and Julliet and has been in the Guardian Guide and everything, so you know she must be famous.

Anyhoo as a fully paid up equity member Bronni regularly gets all sorts of actor job sheets- sort of like personal ads for jobs and today she found the job for me...

Rob, 25, 6' good looking, cool, scruffy, but sexy, thinks he's deep, but really he's shallow.

Ok so i'm a little taller than 6' but other than that, the description is perfect. Honest.

2002-03-19T19:48:00.000Z
*eep* people I don't know are linking to me! Thanks to my kooky l'il housemate who tells me that my blog has been linked to under "blogs of note" over at parallaxview.

Well, I don't quite know what to say. I'd like to thank my parents... I suppose if people are reading this thing I'd better do some more of that content stuff...