27
Feb

Rasen Concerns

I woke last night a little before 1AM and felt the rubble beneath me. The earthquake rippled past and a moment of sleepy conversation erupted over what had just happened. I haven’t felt a quake like that in years and then I experiened the ripple pass beneath me as I worked at my desk. The experts say we have around 200 quakes a year in the UK, but most of those only register on sensitive machinery designed specifically for the purpose. Having that many noticable quakes would certainly take the novelty value out of it.

Oddly, when I heard the quakes originated from near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, one of my first thoughts was whether Jim Broadbent still had family in the area who might be effected. A big fan of radio comedy, the series ‘Saturday Night Fry‘ (which you might just be able to track down on the Internet or BBC7) featured a skit where Stephen Fry probed Jim on his family background, which noted that there had been Broadbents in the Market Rasen area since the 60s (or something like that). The essence of the skit comes down to the fact that Hugh Laurie had spent the last week trying to forget something but he can’t remember what. Only when Stephen takes an interest in Jim’s family history do we discover Hugh had in fact spent the last week trying to forget Jim’s surname - an activity now rendered completely pointless.

Funny how these things come to mind entirely at odds with the sort of things you probably should be thinking about - like whether half your roof has come off during the night.

12
Feb

Fool Me Once

From Fox News Sunday, 10th February:

WALLACE: So, why do you think [Barack Obama has] gotten this far if people don’t know what he stands for?

BUSH: You’re the pundit. I’m just a simple president.

You couldn’t summarise Bush a great deal better than that…

12
Feb

When Spiders Attack!

Apparently, the Steatoda Nobilis, Britain’s only biting spider, has claimed another victim in Devon, where some poor soul disturbed a nest and got a nasty bite on the neck. No… don’t ask me how. Maybe he was in the attic or something and the spider launched a sneak attack. The article, in the Metro, features a picture of the ‘false’ Black Widow (the Steatoda Nobilis is related, distantly one would hope) which defies easy scaling; but, a little research brings relief from confusion. Another article on BBC News online (from September 2001) shows the same sort of spider with a far better judgement of scale. Knowing it’s about the size of my thumbnail makes it all the more comforting to know it lives down south at the moment!

Given this article (on BBC News) is almost seven years old, you’d think people would have had time to prepare for this sort of encounter. It must be the sort of thing that comes up down the pub all the time. As the Steatoda Nobilis first set up home at the beginning of the last century, it isn’t as if this has been some undercover assault on the shores of the UK. No doubt some fanatical collector carried it home from the Canary Islands or it hitched a ride in a shipment of something or other. The fact that it has spread across the whole of south coastal England in a hundred year residence seems like slow progress to me. Fascinating that this arachnid from warmer climes has managed to make the transition to the chilly damp of England in a relatively short space of time. Isn’t the natural world fascinating!

10
Feb

Cthulhu 2008

Well, it wouldn’t be a fair election if he wasn’t running. Honestly, he lost in 2000 and looked what we ended up with come January, 2001. This can’t be allowed to happen again.

Cthulhu fhtagn!

08
Feb

Planely Mad

The Japanese intend to chuck 100 paper planes into orbit. Constructed from silicon treated, heatproof paper and measuring around 20 cm in length, the places will depart from the International Space Station and head earthward. The planes will cover around 300 miles in their journey and most probably land in the sea. However, I’m midly concerned what might happen if they don’t! How much damage can a paper place cause if it has travelled down from orbit and covered about 300 miles to really top up base velocity? Can we expect people to suffer severe injuries from smouldering paper planes travelling at terminal velocity? What about birds? Or planes? Has someone actually taken a moment to really think this through?

05
Feb

Compare and Contrast: 2

Suicide bombs. Unrest in Chad. Public sector pay cuts. And Holly Willoughby’s cleavage. I had to raise them again, because another tabloid did yesterday, with another front page picture and a claimed plethora of complaints. To be honest, Holly wore a nice dress with dropped frontage, but nothing eye-watering… nothing like Jodie Marsh’s number from ‘The Mirror’ last week.

Quite why this poor woman has drawn such ire from the press beggars belief - I mean, these articles question her judgement and highlight the distress she’s causing (to about four people)… while selling more papers with some nice colour photos. The paper noted that Phillip Schofield complimented Holly on her dress as a veiled reference to all the media coverage and that Holly appeared to look down towards her cleavage as if acknowledging what he co-presenter really meant. To me, the picture looked like Holly had decided to refer to her script in a moment of amnesia bought on by embarrassment.

Of course, you know if she comes on next week dressed in a burka, she’ll still get a couple of pages coverage in all the gutter press…

04
Feb

Some Kind of Heresy

In an action that seems to beggar belief, Games Workshop has decided to stop game related publications by the Black Library - meaning an end to Talisman and Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Dark Heresy, amongst others. In an announcement dated 28th January, the fate of these lines was sealed - with a decision to concentrate solely on novels instead. Just three days earlier, ‘Dark Heresy’ saw release through the likes of Amazon, and sold out immediately. So, you can understand the fundamental logic behind the decision.

Talisman only just came out last year after a lengthy absence where the eBay market flourished. You could sell a complete set of Talisman, supplements and all, for £700+, with the basic game 1st edition game going for £30+, with the 2nd or 3rd edition going for more. To have waited this long to have it pulled again…

It feels like a short term decision, taken based solely on current trends and profits. I have more thoughts on this that I’d like to back up with some evidence from a similar decision made a while back - that invariably proved short-sighted as well - but I don’t have it to hand. I’ll update when I have it with me…