Point of View

Lock up the terrorist
we can't forgive
the pain and suffering he inflicted

Nonsense stories of innocent flight
guilty conscience of innocent lives

is there something special on his mind
a nirvana of all time, fighting for what he thinks is right

m15, not 9 to 5
protect the queen, country and way of life

terrorist has a point of view
just a kid like me or you
terrorist just does what he knows
goes the wrong way for western ideals
but he is just doing what he feels is real

Lock up the terrorist
we can't forgive
the pain and suffering he inflicted

voice of reason should come through
is society as closed minded as you
cannot accept there is another point of view
daily mail clouded minds, racial hatred running writhe

he is wrong and I am right
there is nothing he can hide
lock him up, throw away the key
better yet hang the scum!

Voice of reason lost on the world
let liberty speak or we shall all die
world war three a reality!

Lock up the terrorist
we can't forgive
the pain and suffering he inflicted
death to all that don't agree
death to all that aren't like ME

Einstein

One of my heroes is Albert Einstein, a man that is more than just a geniuos and scientific legend contributing to the advancement of mankind in a way not touched by anyway else before or since.

I am reading God's Equation at the moment (Einstein, Relativity and the Expanding Universe) by Amir Aczel and it is helping to make me appreciate just how great a man he actually was - and actually get a grounding in Relativity beyond knowing the letters that make up the famous equation (e=mc²).

This quote by the great wacky haired man himself is also a big help:

"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours that's relativity."
Albert Einstein

When I actually manage to work out for myself what relativity is, what e and m are and why c is squared I will post it on here, unfortunatly that might take a while.

I'm a long way of being a scientist, just an ordinary guy with a passion for/but limited understanding of physics.

As a young child (about 10 or 11) I remember sitting in the bath looking at the bubbles and thinking what if each bubble is a different universe and there is another kid like me sitting in a bath in another bubble thinking what if each bubble is a universe.

And then at about 13 sitting in an English lesson and doodling in my book pictures of infinity, trying to imagine non-linear time.

I've always been a little odd.

Free them

Tutu Optional

I was feeling guilty for not having written in the blog for a couple of days but I try to only write when I have something to say, which is why I might write four times in a morning and then not again for a week.

I sort of had an idea for an entry this morning, the only problem is that it is a little embarrassing.

We just brought my four year old daughter a learn ballet DVD, mat and bar, it's great and put across in a way young kids can learn really easily.

She asked me to do it with her, so there I was looking like an idiot standing next to my four year putting my size tens into all sorts of odd positions (I'm double jointed so it wasn't as painful as it could have been).

After about an hour of doing the 'five main steps' for the feet over and over it was lunchtime and by the time we stopped I have to say I felt incredible, it was a great workout that was actually a lot of fun.

There is a lot to be said for using ballet as a form of exercise, it refreshes, re-energies and tones at the same time, roll over yoga ballet is back in town.

This webpage has the five positions listed

This site gives a bit more background and detail

Come on lads, put it on your wall and have fun, let see if we can start a new international craze.

After practicing ballet at home, if your feeling a little feminine (the jokes to easy) go outside and have a go at Parkour (although probably better to practice this first).

Find out more about Parkour

Multi-Platform essential

I've thought for a long time that for a Public Service Broadcaster to be truly serving the public all of their content should be available to everyone it is supposed to serve however they decide to view it where technically possible, for instance watching the news on a toaster might be a bit silly (reading the weather on the other hand...).

This means a show should be available on dtt, cable, satellite but also on demand through the web so you can watch it when you like and not just when you are told, schedules should be a thing of the past, in my view, given unlimited bandwidth/space, every programme from the archive and new shows added each day/week should be available at any time to anybody.

The main channel would just be a barker for the shows, and then you press red to get a list of programmes, this information could be broken down by type or alphabetically.

This is something that should be available on broadband (without the archive element) within the next two years thanks to the BBC iMP.

Apparently a recent conference of PSB's from around the world have said more-or-less the same thing as me, diversify to survive (be unique in a way the commercials can't afford).

The conference described the BBC’s Building Public Value document - which envisages free-to-air content available on all devices - as a definitive public service manifesto.

Another 10 years of funding

According to a Media Guardian article it looks like the BBC will get its licence fee for another ten years, although it does suggest there will be a review of the level of the licence fee after just five to satisfy commercial/anti-bbc parties who think the BBC will be pointless after analogue switchoff in 2012.

I personally think after analogue switchoff the BBC will be more important than ever, a stallwart of quality television in an ever growing commercially driven market place, but that's just my opinion, and I work for them so I'm biased.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1410263,00.html

You've got to love the 'old gits'

So Charlie is finally going to marry his hors.. um I mean girlfriend Camilla No parking at the Bowling Alley - so bloody what!!

He's old, she's old, they've both been married before, neither of them are particularly interesting so who really cares? I don't and as this is my blog I can say it!

A quick look at Google found about 2,620 articles from around the world (not including blogs) talking about the plant king marrying his horse mistress.

If there was this much interest over two old farts getting married imagine the feeding frenzy from the papparazzi, tabloids and 'womens mag' oiks when Willie or Naz..Harry get married.

Google News: Google Story

BAND NEW: Rantings of EVA

Don't you just love that feeling when you stumble on a 'new' band that are actually pretty good.

I had that feeling when I heard The Rantings of EVA on Garageband.com, they are an Alternative Rock band from Atlanta, Georgia in the USA and have one hell of a 'current' sound.

Awesome melodic guitar mixed with a 'catch all' vocal and crisp backing main song Infrared has all the makings of a modern classic worthy of even the best indie film/tv show.

Log on and listen to Infrared you'll love it.

GarageBand.com : band profile for The Rantings of EVA

Pete and the NOT MUCH NEWSpapers

Looking over the photos on the front of the 'tabloid' papers and seeing Pete Doherty (labelled as just Kate's Junkie Boyfriend) splashed across the front pages, I got thinking about the musicians and those type of papers in general.

Pete Doherty is a genius of our generation, his music is fantastic (not as ground breaking as music from the 60s/70s but nothing will be ever again), his songs have all the elements of indie classics.

Some of his 'Babyshambles stuff' is better than his Libertines stuff but it is all good.

There are a few great artists around at the moment fronting really good bands, but to be stand out as a great frontman you need to have a certain type of personality, unfortunatly often times this can be adictive and lead to things like drugs.

It doesn't change how good his music is, I personally don't read the papers that feel that they have to have 'celebrities' all over their front cover because their sole driving force is to sell newspapers and not bring us news.

I looked at the sun today and they had three things on the front cover "Jordan Joins the Sun", Free prize for every reader (most of the page) and at the bottom out the way an ACTUAL NEWS STORY, I think tabloids should change their name from NEWSpapers to IFWEHAVESPACEFORNEWSpapers.

No women at the Last Supper

One of these places is the odd one out: London, New York, Milan and Paris. They all have a lot in common, for a start they are all major fashion centres where the 'design elite' live, work and play, but now one of them stands out above all others.

The advertising watchdog in Milan has recently decided it would not allow a poster campaign that parodys Da Vinci's Last Supper, showing a nearly all female cast in the same positions as the original painting depicting Christ's last supper with his deciples.

The only male in the photo is in the position of John, the person in the painting believed to actually be Mary Magdalane (the wife of christ?) by the Da Vinci Code writer Dan Brown.

This is a world gone mad, a poster that acts as a testiment to the importance of women in the world (regardless of whether you believe the Dan Brown account) is banned when posters of women in nothing but a G-String and men in tight boxer shorts or 'just a pair of shoes' is allowed.

It is almost as funny as the massive outcry over Jerry Springer the Opera being shown on BBC TWO, except this has more of a valid argument you can't just NOT look at a poster but you can turn off the TV if you don't want to see it.

The basic fundemental fact is that how is a poster of fully clothed, well dressed women making a positive statement worse than near naked people making a statement about being nearly naked?


Original story found: Media Guardian
Requires free registration

Freedom to Censure

According to BBC News Online a poll in America of School students and teachers found that roughly half the students polled wrongly believed the US government had the right to censor the internet.

It also found that only half felt newspapers should be allowed to publish stories that did not have the government's approval, how scary is that - sounds like Saddam has escaped and is now living in the minds of half of American school children.

Although some 83% of students polled felt people should be allowed to express unpopular views, as opposed to 97% of teachers.

All I can say is god help the rest of us when this generation get into power.

Source: BBC News Online

Spam of the Day

Just recieved this from a chinnese canned foods company who have just started canning mushrooms - lovely.

Oh and 'I've never requested any information on canned mushrooms (or mushrooms of any kind for that matter'.

Dear Manager,
Very glad to know you from the internet, also kindly know you are interesting in canned foods, such as lychees、 mushroom and cocktail, here sincerely wish could have a cooperation with you in future.

We ZHANGZHOU LONGWEN XINFA CANNED FOODS CO.,LTD as one of biggest manufacturer and exporter in China, every year we manufacture canned mushrooms and some canned fruits to many countries, now we could export our products directly with lower price to our buyers. Many years of experiences of canned foods make our products very satisfied by all of our customers abroad.

Kindly let you know our factory is producing canned mushroom now. Here we sincerely wish could have a good cooperation with you in future. Your any reply would be very appreciated.

Thanks and Best Regards!
China ZhangZhou Longwen XINFA FOODS　

Exp. Dept Manager: William

PopFactor

With American Idol 4 underway on American TV and X Factor commissioned for another series in the UK this year I starting thinking about how these shows would work if the Singles Chart died.

It's fairly likely that at some point in the not too distant future there will be no singles chart, you can already get to number one by selling less than 20,000 copies of your single, it will die, those sort of numbers are just silly.

What is really needed is a talent contest that would produce an act capable of releasing a debut album, tour and credibility.

A Band Idol type of contest that could find the next Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight or The Strokes, individuality, talent, image, songwriting and performance would be essential elements.

It would be good to see a nationally televised Battle of the Bands with unsigned bands from each region (done regionally by BBC or ITV in say the 7.30 slot on ITV - or where Inside Out goes on BBC) with the top band from each region battling it out in a run of live national finals.

The winning band would get a recording contract for one album and a national university tour that could also act as a follow up documentary.

The show would be based on the bands playing their own materials on instruments, or a solo singer with a backing band and own songs. This would be much more fun to watch than 'Pop Factor'.

MSN Simple

I'm not usually an advocate for Microsoft products but I have to say I'm really impressed by the new MSN homepage, it's clutter free, simple to use and it really does look nice.

The content is relevant to what I'm looking for, it's easy on the eye and there aren't any adverts popping up all over the place.

The new MSN search reinforces this as well, stand-aside google because Microsoft are hot on your tail.

Get off the rock

In a 'bored' moment I decided to conduct an experiment and see how cheaply I could get off Jersey for a week, the only criteria was that the flight needed to be for two Adults, one child one infant. Dates had to be from 9 June to the 16 June but it could be to ANY UK airport.

Where Gatwick was available I selected it by default, where it wasn't I took the first choice offered to me by the airline, the golden rule throughout was 'First Answer Only'.

I started my search on the Jersey Airport Website, selecting their destinations page and going through each of the airlines one at a time, looking for Jersey in their booking menu.

VLM

The first few airlines I tried didn't include Jersey anywhere until I came to VLM, they gave me the option of Flying to London City and the price was incredible £179 for a family of four in June to fly from Jersey to London City return - I nearly booked it, but managed to keep my cool and remember my mission.

Next up BMI was able to take me to Leeds Bradford, unfortunatly they wanted to charge me £490, after being offered four to London City for £179 I was shocked and appalled.

BMI

BMI's budget version BMI Baby gave me an error on their website when I tried to book so I couldn't get a price from them, and if you remember the golden rule 'First Answer Only' I couldn't go back and try again.

I was so disgusted with the price I left immediatly vowing never to return, the next site I was taken to by Jersey Airport was Air Southwest, I used their Cheap Airfare Generator, I was slightly concerned this was cheating at first but decided in the end that it was a grey area and that I could get away with, although my consciounce kept making me feel bad.

Air Southwest, BA and FlyBe

When it gave me a price of £205 to Bristol I felt slightly better, it's amazing how a good price can ease your consciounce.

Next up was the big gun BA, I had a bad feeling about BA, the kind that makes your stomach churn, I just knew they would give me a massive price ... NO ... I was pleasantly suprised when it came up as £260, anything under £300 is good, not £500 like BMI.

I had a good feeling about the next choice on the menu, I have had some very cheap flights from FlyBe before and this was no exception, they beat the brilliant VLM by £3, that's the price of a roll on the airplane, FlyBe wanted me to pay £176, and in return I say - Thank you FlyBe, and it was to Gatwick.

Thomson

My final destination was low cost, low thrills carrier Thomson Fly, part of the TUI group, I knew they would be cheap, I have had flight from them that worked out cheaper than the train ride afterward but not as cheap as it ACTUALLY came out, Thomson quoted me happy at £113, ok this is to Coventry but the train fare from Coventry to my final destination in Hertfordshire is about the same as the trainfare from Gatwick so it was still an incredible price.

I cheated a little bit for Thomson, I checked Doncaster first not Coventry as it was the first option offered to me, Coventry was my preffered option as I know the trains in the area but the Golden Rule states ' First Answer Only' so I have to go with Doncast but, and this is the good bit, Doncaster was CHEAPER at just £108.

Trains

Unfortunatly as this is the cheapest option and I don't know the trains it meant a visit to The Trainline Website to find out how much the train would cost me to get a good idea of the final price and whether it was still cheaper than FlyBe (add £40 to Gatwick price for trains).

But that doesn't matter, the challenge was to find the cheapest price from JERSEY to ENGLAND taking the 'First Answer Only' and I found it, Thomson Fly to Doncaster for £108 return for a family of four.

Oh and just incase your interested the train from Doncaster to my final destination was .. I haven't a clue as the trainline website was down.