dimanche 28 septembre 2003

The famous once-in-a-lifetime dress (Updated: adds link on designer.) The focus here is mainly on what Michelle's wearing. 'MK', as I vaguely recall saying at the time, left the English Desk at the Factory while this site was still but a baby and headed off for a month to California. Where she got married in a very international way. Now it seems that the gown, along with other wedding dresses and kimonos by Munehiro Nomura goes on show in Paris, for a week from Wednesday. Before she disappeared at the end of ... March, she was so full of news about her specially made wedding dress that I promised to show all on the 'blog. Certainly she was also bubbling about Max, the French scientist feller who snagged her, but the juicier bits have evaporated from my retrievable circuits. When I caught up with Michelle again during my visit to AFP, my timing was so brilliant that she gave me a card to photocopy with details about the fashion designer on it. And a website. In the turmoil of some of the rest of the week, I lost this, but Michelle has sent a rescue mail. Nomura came to France in his early 20s in 1993 and founded Fresque Blanche almost two years ago, after working as an assistant costume designer for mainly European opera houses. The coming show, part of a Franco-Japanese programme, is at his central Paris workshop (Fr; attention, pop-ups!). The wedding was in San Diego and I didn't know who anybody else in the pictures was until last week, but now MK has told me where to find them on the Net and given me the key, I'm posting a selection without further ado. Blame the Kid for the choices here (and me for for the tweaking in a bid to bring out the details). It's either her judgement or that of the Wildcat I count on when it's matter of fashion. "Magnificent!" Marianne said, looking at a pre-selection. "It's a wonderful dress. Who's Michelle? Who's Max?" Well, the Kid knows who MK is, being an occasional visitor to the factory herself, but of Max I still know little, apart from the fact that he looks as happy as he does elegant. 9:12:57 PM  link   your views? []

samedi 27 septembre 2003

'Underworld': an impressively disappointing confrontation The arrival of three big movies in a week at the Gaumont Parnasse multiplex made it hard to move inside tonight for people. I doubt many in the queues stretching far out into Odessa Street got seats at all. The Kid and I instead entered the 'Underworld' in the late afternoon, our usual strategy when a lot of publicity heralds such films. Straight off afterwards, she suprised me by giving it it 9/10 (her second "great film" of the year). Not me! Kate Beckinsale (Selene) looks fine in leather and proves as handy with a high-tech automatic pistol and assorted other weapons as Trinity, taking on the Lycans, to whom she's a hardened death dealer, and some of her own vampire kind alike. She's swiftly enamoured of Scott Speedman as Michael Corvin, the surgeon with a secret he knows nothing about, which has him wanted, alive or dead, by both sides in a war between werewolves and vampires dating back to the Middle Ages. Advance hype sold the Gothic action film as a 'Romeo and Juliet' variation in the world of the undead, but 'West Side Story' stuck a darned sight closer to Shakespeare than this violent yarn, which begs the inevitable comparisons with the 'Matrix' suite. Were the likeness to be pursued, Selene has less in common with Trinity than with Neo, not being short on style and self-confidence when needed in the face of hair-raising odds. What 'Underworld' lacks in the sexual charge and currents more or less explicit in Dracula stories, it amply makes up for with a breathless and outrageous plot, blood by the skinful, hypodermic syringes in diabolical close-up, some terrific special effects and as darkly atmospheric a setting, lighting and costumes as any movie made so far this century. Len Wiseman filmed much of his first feature as director in Budapest with many a Hungarian in the crew, particularly in the art direction and make-up departments. His old central European capital remains oppressive, it's raining most of the time and nearly everything happens in strong shades of the post-industrial blues, with lashings of Burgundy or body-bit red. The soundtrack is a phenomenal racket of battles, metal and techno, roars and gore, with no room for urbane chat or indeed any dialogue apart from what's absolutely indispensable to a plot. The main villain may be obvious from the outset -- Shane Brolly in a mediocre performance as an aspiring and unconvincing chief vamp -- but other characters get a chance to introduce enough new slants on the millennial war to jolt the plot into some unpredictable twists. Especially when they get woken up before their time. Kevin Grevioux (iMDB bio), who co-wrote 'Underworld' and appears in one of the more ferocious manifestations of lycanthropy, conceivably takes most of the credit for holding the story together at all. It comes as no surprise to learn that Wiseman has made more than half a dozen music videos, since the all-action set pieces and flashbacks in this venture could be a string of them: an impressive but disappointing failure to make a whole greater than the sum of some of its parts. I enjoyed 'Underworld' well enough, my senses being sufficiently bludgeoned for all two hours of it to stave off boredom, and appreciated Selene's straightforward approach to foes and doors, which she considers best dealt with by a mighty kick or a hail of chemico-magical bullets, sometimes both. But not even an unexpected side to Kate Beckinsale will make this a happily see-it again movie. 'Underworld' leaves the door wide open to a sequel, but it's not one I'd hasten to see unless somebody tells me that if Wiseman makes it, he's bothered much more about character development, which leaves holes in the film as frequent as the ones Selene keeps on having to jump through. While the Kid had no such objection, it would be nice if he also occasionally remembered that average loud to ear-splitting aren't the only volume levels available. Maybe she was more in the mood. She'd spent part of the afternoon telling me about the joys of Gothic metal, dosed here with deadly seriousness. This 'Underworld' is no laughing matter. Except, I fear, when the jokes are unintended. A 6/10 would be pushing it. The photos are pinched from Sony Pictures promotional material, via Allociné (Fr.) 11:50:46 PM  link   your views? []

mercredi 24 septembre 2003

Overload. Off-line. Optimise. Overhaul or 'A short-lived shutdown for maintenance' [The morning brought a rewrite to this long entry, though it's probably of no interest to anybody but close friends. It was a little tricky to write, and certainly needed illustrating...] "When from our better selves we have too long Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop, Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, How gracious, how benign, is Solitude." Wordsworth, in 'Summer Vacation (Bartleby text)' Monday took me north of the Seine for only the second time since May and that month's onset of the Condition. To the factory, no less. While the three-hour visit involved a good deal of paperwork, I enjoyed it very much, particularly the fond welcome I received on the English Desk, where it turns out that I'm not yet forgotten. Something I appreciate about AFP is that since it constantly sees comings and goings, you can walk in after almost five months' absence and many people neither know nor even care where you've been. So I only had to sum up my medical adventures about half a dozen times. And used really foul language just the once, when a techie told me he knew my forgotten log-in code but wasn't authorised to tell me what it was. That outburst showed them I haven't changed all that much. But something I've noticed about life is that, often, when one's feeling gruesome but really prefers not to show it, many people say "You look well!" Jo, the desk chief, was the only one to temper the observation in detail, remarking on the weight loss, the grey pockets under the eyes and other small signs of fatigue. But then Jo and I were face to face for longer. With the first day of Autumn, however, came trouble. Again. I put the computer out of service for more than 24 hours. It was time to optimise the hard disk, which I did more thoroughly than planned. On tackling one partition, Micromat's Drive 10, which I've never quite trusted but used anyway, froze up. After waiting more than an hour, the only way out was to shut down the computer the worst way, by switching it off in mid-process. More than 10 Go of data got hosed. Even DiskWarrior couldn't recover it or rebuild a directory. I guess I could get it back, but have decided that this partition probably deserved wiping anyway and can soon be put to better use. So that's not the problem. Where I really wrote myself deep into one or two bad books was by going off-line myself an hour before the AFP trip and then afterwards. Without warning, once I realised how drained I was. I simply stopped answering the 'phone for almost a day. I know this was uncharitable and mean, but I need the rest. (The rest is elsewhere...) 1:14:45 AM  link   your views? []

dimanche 21 septembre 2003

'Pashazade: The First Arabesk': heat, handled with flair "Lunch was in the qaa, at an oval table cast from marble dust and inlaid along the top with swirling Persian-blue tesserae arranged as a peacock displaying its tail. Matching benches curved down both sides of the table. Only Lady Nafisa had a chair. (...) Food as politics and food as blackmail: both theories had been regurgitated more times than anyone could remember. But food as an elaborate dance, somewhere between etiquette and preening display, that was new to Raf. Though not to Isk, where the conspicuous consumption -- not of rich or rare ingredients, though both were there -- but of time itself was as ancient as the elaborate laws governing hospitality. Time given was what was on display. In Isk, just as in Tunis, Marrakesh or Fez, ceremonial food required preparation: the more preparation, the greater the respect being offered to guests. Tradition also demanded that the ingredients be divided into small portions, wrapped in filo or hidden beneath pastry in pies, rolled in crushed nuts or stuffed into vegetables that had been lovingly hollowed out or cored. Food bought at a stall or fast-food joint was different. Nobody expected Burger King to be anything other than cheap, swift and anodyne. But in the home, it was almost an insult to offer guests food that looked as if preparing it took anything less than total commitment. Served with the roast kid was a silver-edged clay bowl of saffron rice, plus a dish of red couscous, a chicken tajine where the juices had been sweetened with honey and reduced to a sticky syrup, fried red mullet with marjoram and fresh matlou bread, which Lady Nafisa asked Raf to break and portion out in order of precedence. Hani got her chunk last, being both female and a child." Isk. Welcome to El Iskandryia. And watch your back! In a culinary passage which takes a tale of murder, hatred and love, and multi-layered intrigue on apace, Jon Courtenay Grimwood presents but a few facets of the free city on Egypt's Mediterranean shore, built and rebuilt "on the rubble of its own history". "Venerable and elegant, with a taste for fresh blood," the sweltering metropolis in an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire is as vital a character in 'Pashazade: The First Arabesk' as any of the people who inhabit its numerous worlds. Before he's cast into the seething snake-pit of Iskandryian affairs when his Aunt Nafisa springs him from a Seattle prison, ZeeZee has no idea that he was fathered by a man of prominence and power. Awaiting him are a potential wife, a murder riddle, sudden violence -- and a new identity and social standing as Ashraf Bey. The pashazade soon finds that his life depends on his wits, an aptitude for combat and the unravelling of a mystery where the bodies begin to mount up. And the reader gradually learns of the twisted, troubled trail that brings Raf to mid-21st century Isk from the America that brokered a settlement in 1916 between London and Berlin, victorious in the Great World War. Five years after Woodrow Wilson cut the deal, the Prussian empire collapsed, leaving chunks of Europe and the Near East in the hands of the Austro-Hungarians and the Sublime Porte in Stambul. Isk is more than ever a marketplace of cultures, a free port whose relative independence and religious tolerance under Egypt's Khedive and his powerful German advisor, General Saeed Koenig Pasha, is sustained because of its importance to the world's trade in commodities and information. Trouble starts with a corpse and a meticulous, hot but ruinously alcoholic onetime Los Angeles cop, Felix Abrinsky, the city's Chief of Detectives. There are faint echoes of Raymond Chandler in the tale, along with classic 'Casablanca (iMDB)' and, of course, Lawrence Durrell, who made the city such a living, heaving part of his 'Alexandria Quartet'. Some of the critics who showered Grimwood with glory when 'Pashazade' came out in 2001, the first part of an Ashraf Bey trilogy, made much of perceived parallels with Durrell's work. This writer, however, has become very much his own man. His French and his Brits have second-bit parts, mainly as tourists. "File under Science Fiction" the publisher orders on the back of the book, but what on earth for? 'Pashazade' sits just as well on quality crime thriller shelves and is also a strong contribution to mainstream modern literature. The style is sometimes leisurely with evocative detail, sometimes as swift as the bloodshed and betrayal that stain the city's concealed foundations and ZeeZee's life. Ashraf Bey gets little time to dig into his own origins and mature to handle some almost unprecedented emotions -- such as love -- if he and anybody he learns to care about are to survive. Acts of brutality are unsparingly recounted by an author who last month told SF Crowsnest that "I hate sanitised violence. It's morally and intellectually dishonest to have somebody stand back up after getting coshed or shot. Violence hurts, it breaks things and it wrecks families and destroys communities." That's a good interview and Grimwood's an interesting man, with a slick "official site", as deftly constructed as his prose. The cyber-punk label slapped on his pre-trilogy work has gone unmentioned here because while the technology in 'Pashazade' is clever, convincing and essential to the story, it's simply slipped in with the same cunning hand that reveals just enough of the pasts of his cast to flesh them out without treading on the reader's imagination. Hani, the kid, couldn't do without Ali-Din, an unusually gifted puppy who keeps her informed as well as sane, though Aunt Nafisa is much irritated by this pet and the puddles it leaves in the nursery... As to the reader, you get snatches of what existed in the last century and what didn't. Music by Gorecki, the composer who became super-trendy in the 1990s, does passing service as tasteful wallpaper, but the Holocaust that was the seed for his best-selling Third Symphony is not one of the crimes evoked to haunt this parallel future. Grimwood teases and surprises you, stimulating the neurons like a rich dark cup of Arabica with the scent and flavour of the setting steaming off the pages. Satirical? Yes, he can be when he wants to. Sexy too. Isk wouldn't be what it is without plenty of that and the mess it can make for people. [Next off the review shelf here (and for Blogcritics) is not the sequel this time, though I'll undoubtedly get to 'Effendi' and 'Felaheen'. The extract -- this seems to have become a habit, but I like to let writers speak for themselves -- and the comments will be a matter of another near future, but with the focus on hard science again. Like the late Carl Sagan in 'Contact', Gregory Benford takes on astrophysics and what could be "out there". The latter is intelligent and seems rather alarming. I've begun chewing on 'Eater' (HarperCollins/Eos, first published in 2000). So far, so good.] 8:41:04 PM  link   your views? []

vendredi 19 septembre 2003

A gratuitous and offensive billet d'a.... Jacques lives directly above the Canteen. He made this totally clear throughout the week by tearing up the floor in his place and otherwise making one hell of a men-at-work noise at peak eating times (mine, anyway, which are later than most). Underneath, he found another floor. Sadly, these old wooden beams were about it. Nothing of interest like a skeleton or two. Now he's finished and we can talk again, Sam said: "Isn't she gorgeous?" He was talking about a young woman who'd just bought a take-away pizza off him. "I was most struck by the big tattoo on her ankle," I replied, not having very often seen such designs on long black legs. "Me, it was the balcony!" said our Sam, which I attributed to his retarded development, though I'm fond of an attractive balcony myself, so he returned the compliment. Afterwards, I saw bloghero Yang for a routine medical update, but not the Apprentice Dragon, so I have no more to say about legs. But specially for Sam -- and by way of saying thanks for the free lunch -- here's a stirring if scarcely Net-exclusive glimpse over a fine piece of architecture. It belongs, like the angel face above it, to German supermodel (Showcase) Manon von Gerkan. What's that, Sam? "Vertigo??" If Manon can also sing like an angel, or at least like Carla Bruni, what a team they'd make! I'm sure the Wildcat would agree. Do I have your ear now, mon petit chou? But no, I misheard the man. He craves more. OK. What about Amber Valletta of Tucson, Arizona, put on the catwalk by her very own "Mom"? But no, o thief of my heart, it's the towel she's advertising. Isn't that obvious? Don't be obtuse. And up goes my Feedster score by another point, even if I've lost a reader or two. 9:36:47 PM  link   your views? [] RB and the art of making tricky things easy and fun This Apple Expo week's final entry about matters Mac -- unless I get to unpacking the new iPod and find novel things to say -- mainly concerns design, arising from chat over crêpes in Odessa Street with Mr B. The man gave us two useful contributions to Mac OS X, X-Ray (one of the best of the improvements to the 'Get Info' function at the generous shareware price of 10 bucks) and Zingg (a free must for people like me who pack their "contextual menus" with all kinds of shortcut extras). Rainer first came to my notice through enthusiasm about his work at TS, notably from Marcel, whose site in Belgium is ever growing. I hope my friend (about RB) from the mountain city of Belo Horizonte will forgive me for reporting that even such gifted geeks as himself suffer sometimes from what he bluntly described as "writer's block". There's a subject the Wildcat might be interested in: an equally gifted Wildcat, in her own way, to whom I owe an apology for yesterday's filthy mood, provoked in part by a total misunderstanding of something she was saying before my 'phone battery went dead. Rainer is now inspired anew with Panther on the horizon. What I won't do is reveal what the clever chap has in mind, which is a great idea, but his own to divulge. What I will do is give him, as requested, and others the name of the remarkable tool that has made my life with reclassifying large batches of photos so much easier. Though mentioned before, maybe I'd forgotten because Renamer4Mac, by Werner Freytag, was too obvious! Design, I said. Rainer came to Paris with pals from Macmania magazine (Portuguese), where he serves on the editorial board and sometimes writes. Any Mac mag that sometimes puts pretty women on its cover is, of course, bound to catch my eye (and nearly all of those models are happy to do this for free, given the attention it gives them and their portfolios). The contents are a joy to read. Read them I can, to my surprise. My bizarre brain seems to have picked up some grasp of Portuguese through past encounters, though I can't understand it all and wouldn't dare try to speak it. I've scanned some pages from the back issues Rainer brought me because I agree with the scores of "gurus" he enjoyed a Geek Cruise with in May-June last year. This, Macmania was proud to announce, is "the way all Mac magazines should be!" Judge for yourselves. An eye-catching typeface. Pictures everywhere. Clear, concise text. And that's the start of an article on shareware mainly for news-reading of the kind I use a lot! With one or two which are new to me. Rainer's report on the Geek Cruise -- I shall have to stop being cheeky about them now, since spending days on a boat with nearly 200 other maniacs, many of whom Mac addicts know only by name, drove him neither insane nor incomprehensible to ordinary mortals -- was given a more sober presentation. That's Rainer on the right in the picture of "the Battle of the (OS X) Permission Diddlers" (and it's a good job the roll-mouse-over captions I give 'blog pics don't show up in all browsers): "Text! Look at it, so much text, text, text," was RB's reproach for the copy of a French Mac mag I had in my bag. And on the whole, he's right, it makes them hard to digest, though the two main ones have improved in their latest issues. I forgot, though, to speak up in defence of 'AvosMac!', which he's probably never seen and is the nearest thing we have to 'Macmania' -- with puns aplenty and fun writing. Here's a typical page from this home-grown monthly (their own brand of very un-PC female body flaunting is scarcely visible in this scan, bottom left): Finally, like the good French mags but not the English-language ones I've slammed for thin content and irritating ads as intrusive as they are on too much US telly, 'Macmania' packages the necessary advertising in sensible batches that don't interrupt the read. Every month, moreover, it publishes a good idea I've not seen much of elsewhere, a page on Macs in the media (and yes, there have been male models too): You know what I suspect? Maybe it mostly takes a Mediterranean mindset, or at least a regular acquaintance with the sun, the heat, a riot of colour and a certain joie de vivre to come up with such a fiesta of a publication. What's more, like 'AvosMac!', the Brazilian mag is on the ball in its reviews, shining a torch into good developers' corners to write up software many wider-circulation Apple publications often omit to shed light on. I half-heartedly prompted RB for a word or two on the secret workings of a developer's mind, but didn't push it. The fellow was tired and even had he lifted the veil, I'm not sure I would have understood the mystery. I can scarcely wait to take the Wildcat, and maybe the Kid if she wants to come, to Brazil. Once I've paid off the still unopened iPod, we have a treatment for the Condition, and the cash reserves are restored. For a long time I've wanted to visit that country. Rainer's trip here has pushed that dream much higher up the agenda. 1:26:18 PM  link   your views? []

jeudi 18 septembre 2003

A rewarding trip to Apple Expo At the risk of boring at least 1 ½ of the Faithful Four, this year's Apple Expo was the first I really enjoyed visiting -- and well worth it despite the absence of any stunning announcements. (Updated Friday for one bad typo -- a missing link -- and to add more points about Panther.) Late on a quiet afternoon proved a good time to go and by sheer luck I met, in different parts of the vast hall, more than half a dozen people in the French Mac world I've wanted to say "Hallo" to for some time. François introduced me to 'Soif': also a François and "the founder, the administrator, the web designer, the moderator, the sleepless, the sweeper" at MacMusic. 'Soif' omits to add in his little tale about MacMusic that he's an entertaining teacher, with colleagues who make difficult things clear. He reminded me that their help site celebrates its sixth anniversary on September 29. (And TechSurvivors fêted its third yesterday, and is running a particularly clever banner right now.) There are one or two things English-speaking musicians who find the bilingual MacMusic useful may not know. The editor explained that they'd turned the site into "shareware" (I've previously commended the admirable way they did it) with "heavy hearts", but can now hope to cover costs as best may and also, importantly, "remain independent from advertisers". If anybody out there is able and willing to help with French to English translations, the team would be delighted to hear from them, since they currently do most of this themselves, with a handful of volunteers. It's becoming a workload which needs spreading out more. While the software pages are apparently the most popular among anglophones, 'MacMusic' would readily publish many more small ads in English. 'Soif' was surprised "they currently make up only a very tiny percentage of the total", but suspects this may be because people see the ones in French and imagine it's "not for them". On the contrary, those columns are open to all comers. I saw some of a music-making demo at the stand, where 'Soif' played an active keyboard part, and the nice thing was that I even understood what was going on with the computer. Then my buddy and I split up again, and I last saw him clutching a glass of champagne with the 'Musicrun' (Fr) people, where what was going on was well above my head. Apple products? Yes, there were quite a lot of those, which have been so widely covered elsewhere than I've little to add apart from personal impressions. The essence of Steve's keynote address has been on the Apple Hot News site for a day. It was mercifully brief, apparently. Yes, the already famed, very functional looking Power Mac G5, with its 64-bit IBM processor, is one amazing beast to see in action. Its phenomenal performance is really far more than anybody but the greediest home user could want! The Apple-IBM partnership will go places. I know what Maya's for and even have a copy of the Personal Learning Edition' sensibly given away for free with some design magazines, but to watch this highly praised, heavy-duty 3D graphics software producing fine work in the hands of an expert with a G5 was a remarkable sight. I also saw why Rainer said over a most enjoyable dinner last night that after getting his clutches on Panther betas, he returned to Mac OS X 10.2.x Jaguar with some reluctance! (More on that meeting tomorrow.) Panther looks fast, and I've had no major complaints about Jaguar as it is. I kept returning from the various stands round the edges to keep an eye on a 'X 10.3 for Dummies' presentation on the "main square", which only scratched the surface of the new operating system, but sufficiently so to convince me that one of these days, I want that! Novelties I saw the most of were Exposé, a major improvement along with the more user-friendly Finder, and some of the subtle changes that will make the Mail application better. (Update:) The much revised 'Preview' application is also great news, opening very swiftly even with PDF files, faster it would seem than Acrobat. And I learned, from people who've been able to try it, that Panther is worth bringing to older Macs. If you're running at least a G3 with USB ports and don't really fancy upgrading your whole machine or can't afford it, laying down about $150 dollars (euros) for Panther could be a viable proposition. Something, I'd think, to keep an eye on Mac forums and comments for once Apple releases the cat. I asked Rainer about a kind of "secure delete" trashing feature I'd seen illustrated in one of the betas by France's Univers MacWorld, but this came and went and may or may not be in the public release. In any event, there's the new File Vault for security freaks, which is far from proof against hardened hackers, but would still take some cracking. A woman from SVMMac, often mentioned here, took one look at the press badge I'd asked for, since I didn't want to pay to get in, and said: "I thought you were on strike!" "Sorry," I replied. "To be honest, I don't know whether AFP is right now or not, but if they are, then I'm on both sick leave and strike." For which she rewarded me with an attractive big coffee mug. Most of the other people I sought out came from various software companies I've had dealings with on the 'phone. It was good to put faces to the names and to find that I can now give a passable impression of speaking geek and understanding it. I had a quick chat with Yves Cornil (home page), one of the finest French advocates and historians of the Mac and a key player in this country's Apple User Group community. Mainly, I wanted to thank him for an invaluable list of French Mac sites I must have recommended to dozens of people for their bookmarks. A bigwig from the French branch of O'Reilly was free for a chat and gave me some useful tips on where best to read up Unix and Open Source systems, principles and software further. So the sometimes severe unpleasantness of the Condition has had its benefits, allowing me swiftly to make the most of this year's show after a summer of learning. It was the Condition and exhaustion that took me away rather sooner than I would have left, but that was a wise move in another respect since I failed to leave my Visa card at home. I bought two things. I told the French Intego developers that I'd have liked to update their NetBarrier firewall to version 10.3, but the upgrade itself was "too expensive for me", despite the new features. "Not here at the Expo it isn't," I was told, and when they knocked off the cost of a meal at the Canteen, out came the card. And now I confess. The "need" that had returned to "want" status turned into desire at the FNAC stand. I learned that September's special offer to members had been revised to five more gigabytes than announced. It could also be repaid over 10 months -- "or even 20 months if you want!" "No thanks, I do try to avoid credit these days" -- at an interest rate which may explain why people on the Beeb were saying nasty things about the French (and German) economy this morning. The iPod -- oh yeah! -- is still in its sealed box, to be explored and played with tomorrow. I walked away with the 20 GB model and now have no excuse for failing to back up all of my data, not just the essentials. After all, even Wagner's 'Ring' cycle, in high-quality AAC format, would only take up a 10th of the space. And they threw in a free extra or two for the music machine. All in all, a thoroughly profitable three hours or so, without the horrible crowds of previous such visits. Why was spending money so absurdly good for the mood? 11:57:11 PM  link   your views? [] In a foul mood, with thanks Now that Augustine has given me "carte blanche" to pinch whatever I like from Natalie's site, along with a pointer or two, I'm delighted to reproduce a smaller version of 'For a Song Three', mainly, but not entirely, for the benefit of the Wildcat. (That particular feline scratched me last night for no reason I could understand, except that I was the nearest available object for the sharpening of claws. Rather as the cat the Kid has disowned will suddenly turn and draw blood for the fun of it within a nanosecond of purring for the right kind of caress behind the ears. But that's by the by...) This morning begun at 7:00 am with another utterly pointless but long cacaphony of car horns when a delivery lorry jammed the street, then on the dot of eight a man took a phenomenally noisy motor mower to the lawn out the back, and a quarter of an hour later one of the neighbours slammed the door and the other immediately put on her breakfast-time techno. Neither a long soak nor a perfectly good pizza have improved my mood an iota, so if François will put up with it, I plan to accompany him to Apple Expo. Natalie's artwork, generously put up on the Net, seems to have distracted Augustine from her duties of late. If I were able to commission her next interview (which I'm not), instead of sending the cartoon back for another chat with Tony Blair or another of those ailing world leader fellows, I'd be most interested to know what Augustine makes of Hans Blix. On the 'Today' programme, between this morning's combine harvester and the mindless electronic tub-bashing, I could half hear him telling 'Harrumph' Humphrys all about those weapons that weren't. That 13-minute interview (direct link to the RealPlayer clip) has to be my 'Listen Again' choice of the week. Not that it restored my good humour. 4:21:07 PM  link   your views? []

mercredi 17 septembre 2003

Itsy-bitsy pieces. A fine developer on the horizon Well, in the absence of further gripping news from the factory, and because a sudden change in the three-day pattern of the Condition made me decide to steer clear of Apple Expo this afternoon, I'm going to meet an exhausted Rainer. In Odessa Street, where better? Junction of our Métro lines... Perhaps he'll be the witness to my eating of the page where I proved wrong in predicting the release of Mac OS X Panther at the expo. Rainer may well correct me, but I have the impression that nothing really new is on show. Even the G5 Macs have been known about for a while now. The most interesting thing I've seen on the Net so far is an interview with Apple's Ken Bereskin for Your Mac Life (direct link to 17 MB QuickTime video). Far less interesting at that site is a caption competition including one of those photos suggesting that Americans quite erroneously imagine that most French lavatories are the "Turkish" squat-holes you still find in some of the older cafés. Other minor news of the day is that I've done most of the long-planned changes to the blogroll ... and that the Apprentice Dragon, far from slapping me for telling people on four continents more about her legs, put up a good show of being delighted by the attention. 7:11:33 PM  link   your views? [] Deep trouble down at 'the factory' "Selling off the silver?" "Well, that's what most people here seem to be saying," a fellow AFP hack told me from the factory this morning. AFP's Board of Governors is considering a proposal to sell off the news agency's Paris headquarters building -- with the idea that AFP remains in the premises and would buy it back in 12 to 18 years' time. Why? Because AFP, whose board consists of French government representatives, the country's media barons and a couple of people elected by the journalists and other employees, desperately needs the cash. For a four-year development plan, as the current big boss, Bertrand Eveno, presents it. Today's 'Libération' (Fr) tells a part of the story. If I were there, among the other union leaders (though my role now is less prominent than of yore) meeting to decide on the precise response, I'd be expressing strong opposition to such a deal. Update: They did. Along with a "large majority" of the staff at HQ, who have ceased work. A union buddy in the thick of it tells me he hasn't seen such an impressive general meeting on the main news floor of the building in a "long, long while." Time after time, this season of the year has seen the presentation successive "plans to save AFP", which have been thrown out after tough action, sometimes strikes, by the journalists. Yes, the factory is in trouble. It has been for a while. We people who work there are, on the whole, deeply committed to both its survival and its development as one of the world's top three news agencies. The same can't be said of all the members of the board. AFP will survive this crisis as it has many others since it was founded anew after World War II (the official AFP potted history), but the long-term solution has to be a far more imaginative one than staking everything on the concrete assets, leaving us with very little set in stone. I've long reckoned (and argued in many a meeting with management) that the French need to look across the Channel for models as to how it might better be done. 2:04:38 PM  link   your views? []

mardi 16 septembre 2003

Of memory, mice and men ... and those fine Frog's legs Before a 'blogbit about memory, I've another quick private word for the Wildcat. Nobody else needs to know that the Apprentice Dragon is called Ariane, has done very well so far in her psychology exams, and was this afternoon once more showing off two of the prettiest legs I've ever seen. How she's managed to combine her studies with her new job at the surgery round the corner and keep a commendable non-artificial tan, I have yet to ask. But she knows I'm impressed by these limbs, because she now makes a habit of coming out from behind the reception desk to give me a better look. Today's skirt was real leather, but without stripes, glossy boots -- or the unmade bed. (Yes, the pic's quite uncalled for, but my "score" at Feedster took a nosedive after I stopped posting ... well, you know. Unless it goes up again, I'll have to be less PC than ever.) The AD has taken to first names and "tu-toying" me even in front of the Expert Dragon, so I guess I'll know more of her secrets soon enough... She won't have got the tan where she lives, since Ariane has the good taste also to be a resident of the XIVth, with a launch-pad not far away at all, near an excellent market and in the very street where Tony does most of his shopping. During our flirting session fixing up of a medical rendez-vous, she said: "Ooh, could you lend me that when you're done with it?" Ariane was interested -- as Tony certainly will be -- in a find explained in the latest issue of Science & Vie. A young Franco-Swiss team in Zurich has been researching an enzyme called PPI (Protein Phosphatase 1), to learn that it works, in mice anyway, as the "molecule of forgetfulness". This discovery, technically summed up at PubMed, means that where a certain Freud once saw an instinctive unconscious defensive mechanism for forgetting things, PP1 serves as a biological way of doing it, neutralising other enzymes which would normally cause changes in the synapses of our brains... I knew that they were small, those junctions between neurons called synapses (good Georgia Medical College site linked to the Human Brain Project; Neuroinformatics). But a research programme into things which make up 15 nanometres (15 billionths of a metre) still boggles my mind. How the mice felt about it isn't reported. What's most intriguing about the Zurich work is that it's complementary to the great bulk of such research, which concentrates on the mechanisms of learning and remembering rather than forgetting. The team chief, Isabelle Mansuy, tells 'Science & Vie' that to study a phosphatate seemed "'counter-intuitive'. But we chose this path nonetheless, and that's how we discovered the role of PP1." All this may seem far more abstruse than the shortness of the Apprentice Dragon's skirt, but the magazine's special feature contains much of considerable interest and relevance particularly to the many elderly people with pressing memory problems. There's no immediate hope in some other research under way at the University of Southern California. But that's where Theodore Berger, professor of biological engineering, is busy on a programme which could, a decade hence, put some of my regular science fiction food for thought directly on the plates of ethical committees. Professor Berger's own memory research has taken him and his colleagues in the direction of artificial hippocampus implants. 'Science & Vie' reckons it might be difficult to find volunteers. I'm less sure. I'll probably need one myself by then. (No disrespect was intended, in the writing of this entry, to: - the Wildcat's own wonderful legs, which just happen to be too far out of reach right now; - Ariane, who is rocketing her way towards Full Dragon status. If she wants to slap one of her Earl Grey labels on me for describing her as a frog, I'll happily take the 'T'; - the lady who got an earful when she became the fifth caller since la rentrée to try to sell me double-glazing over the 'phone, thus making me forget where I was.) 7:18:22 PM  link   your views? [] How the Wildcat quite ruined my morning Ah lordy-lord!! Là, là, là... The things I will take from the Wildcat. Not once, but twice in recent days, she's dared to 'phone me long before the 'Today' programme's over; that's to say before 10:00 am this side of the Channel, keen to take a trowel to the mental compost when I'm far from compos mentis. Were it anybody else -- and most of them have learned this the hard way -- this would almost be a capital offence, pardoned only in instances such as an inconsiderately ill-timed death, fire in the building, plague or the outbreak of war. But. Because it wasn't anybody else and since she's every bit as lovely as Julia Ormond, quite a wildcat herself in one of my very favourite films, I didn't suggest that she spend the rest of the morning with a mop and bucket. 'Sibirskij tsiryulnik,' O thief of my heart, is one the Kid and I must have seen three times on the big, big screen, all three hours of it. It's far too romantic and unrealistic for some of the critics at the iMBD, which is one of many reasons it's among my top five. The floor-scrubbing scene for the officer cadets in the twilight of imperial Russia is among the funniest I've ever seen. But in 'The Barber of Siberia' (1998) Nikita Mikhailkov "wanted to make a historical drama, an adventure film, a business thriller and a grand love story." So he told 'Studio Magazine' in the booklet the pictures come from. Oh, and the ending, darling: it's every bit as tragic as you could want. Like that best-seller you're living writing to beat even the gloomiest of French novelists! Except that it's Russian... Now I'm not sure I got the idea in the first place. But you said you wanted to pick your own plant. Well. That does make a challenging task easier. Though it's not quite what I had in mind, with a shrug of the shoulders I give you the one from the very top of your list. "Voluptuous," was that the word? This isn't a Russian cabbage, love; it came from Alabama, along with all kinds of educational vegetable information which says nowhere why I'm not supposed to eat such things any more. I hope I got it right, but when you leap into my peaceful morning with another bunch of imponderables of the 2:00 am kind, it almost mashes that pea brain of mine. Stirring the soup, I seem to recall that a "dashing" young lad came into it all somewhere too. And that, sweet hijacker, was what made me think of Mikhailkov in the first place. Something along these lines? Perhaps not as handsome -- who knows? -- but all gallantry as they can be at that age when they want to turn it on. Poor Augustine. Her alter ego must be doing her nut by now, wondering what on earth all this is about. But there's nothing like a little mystery to spice the day, is there, Natalie? And poor Oleg, not quite yet on his knees as Cadet Andrei Tolstoi before Ms Ormond. He comes to an awfully sad end, you know. Trouble is, he knows no better than to mean every word he says. Heart right out there on the sleeve, the unfortunate boy... Even the splendidly soused General Radlov (Aleksei Petrenko) can't get him out of the pickle. Hang on. That picture reminds me. Cabbage was but an adjective. I remember what you wanted now. This one is growing in fine French soil, like me. What's more, it's even got the right message for the day. Like Andrei, I think I'd have picked something more richly red myself. But this variety doesn't appear to come like that. Sometimes, you really have to make do with what you've got, n'est-ce pas? Oh. The Kid sends a kiss. Know what colour she's wearing today? Black. I don't doubt it. It scarcely shows the grease when one jumps the gun. 1:22:06 PM  link   your views? [] What's going down, Doc? 'Twas J.-C. who told me about Geekcruises, a very expensive-looking way for IT wizards to talk their heads off and relax at the same time. Probably jealousy. I'd bet he'd give most of his teeth to be on the Linux Lunacy one. But as Doc Searls tells it, with a picture to illustrate what nearly rolled him out of bed, smooth sailing it isn't. I'm struck by the notion of turning on a telly just to find out what's happening outside. 12:08:33 AM  link   your views? []

lundi 15 septembre 2003

Noisy place, outer space! It's been known for a while that there's a darned great hole in the middle of the Milky Way. But now, it seems there's quite a song and dance about it too: "For the first time, astronomers have detected the infrared cries of hot plasma falling toward the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The observations show that the plasma is not going down peacefully but is putting up a boisterous fight, dispatching a desperate and erratic barrage of infrared signals into space." Almost as hot off the sky-watching press is the revelation that black holes sing. In B-flat: "Well, 'bellow' might be a better term. The tune sounded by a supermassive black hole 250 million light-years away is actually a steady bass note like that of a cosmic fog horn warning surrounding material of the dangers of coming too close" (both from my occasional look-in at Astronomy.com). Not that this is much use to mere mortals. We can't hear a note 57 octaves below middle C. 11:43:59 PM  link   your views? [] Last pre-Apple Expo post Wicked it may be, but just this once I'm stealing today's cartoon (©2003 Geek Culture ®) from the Joy of Tech. After today's exertions, I reluctantly shelved the plan to meet up with Rainer tonight, while tomorrow will be a day to take it easy, but we'll get it together on Wednesday. It would be stupid to miss the Expo altogether, when it's really just down the road. The man from South America is among several developers who've sent mail my way ahead of the event, and this might be the first year I could get to such a thing and know just what I'm seeing... For those who care, there's a new round-up of tomorrow's possible news at MacRumors, while those who really care get a whole batch of pics of what's under guard tonight at 99mac. I won't repeat a certain forecast I risked, since I'd prefer to have to eat my words of August 10 only the once. I'd still put odds on the hot young cat in being somewhere in the "secret" crates pictured on the Swedish site. Harv, at TS, has started what he calls a 'Panther factoids' thread with a list of what he's determined will be in the new OS X and what won't (that odd word "factoid" seems trendy these days in some trans-Atlantic circles). Regardless of whether Steve unveils it, this time round I won't be rushing into an upgrade. The new cat may well outpace the Jaguar, but I've been bitten too many times to be among the first to write up what might go wrong with it. The new system will certainly also require undoing some of the hacks I've been enjoying of late. Whatever, my prediction may be wrong, as MacRumors suggests, but I'll be disappointed -- and surprised -- if Apple doesn't pull something really new out of the bag this week. 11:19:45 PM  link   your views? [] High time for a fresh foray into design Heavens, the long morning of medical exams was arduous! It beat my record to date for the number of tubes filled with blood. But they left me plenty to be able to write about a far more challenging test which took place this year and to return to the long-neglected subject of great graphic artists and animation wizards. Back in May, in a suburb of Paris, France saw its first day-long contest among a small host of designers, in a match sponsored by a web-design community site, Praktica (Fr). Together with Adobe and Iiyama, who offered some highly desirable prizes, and NEO agence, an agency for professionals. Almost 200 competitors took part in the event, which led at around 11:00 in the evening to the final, won by the work illustrated here by freelance Stéphane Tartelin, to be found at the 'boz (BOMB) gallery'. A much better and bigger picture of Stéphane's design, along with the others, all well worth a look, is at the finalists' page on Praktica. The text is in French, far too detailed to translate, but the competition had two particularly interesting features. Jurists for each round included a random one, selected to join the expert team from the public watching the event, while a part of the challenge was for participants to interact -- each using similar machines and tools -- on the basis of designs produced by their fellow competitors. Five other outstanding French sites I've come across in the summer's reading and subsequent browsing are: | | | DQ | | |, a rich online magazine (two issues so far and no problem with language -- there's scarcely no text!); several of the movies featured in the International Animated Film Festival at Annecy. There are links from the home page; the staggering, occasionally enjoyably disturbing, metal outlook -- man and machine -- of David Vinéis at :: sub88 :: (Flash, remarkable site); the wide-ranging work of the independent entertainment UZIK agency (Flash again; warning: noisy gateway); the mainly musical, but again varied, output of self-professed "web alchemists" at the SOLEIL NOIR studio. This is only scratching the surface of discoveries I've made via the design magazines I devour and link to here sometimes and I've focussed, this time, on home ground. If, like me, you're into absurdity and some occasionally pretty black humour, you could do worse than spend an hour jumping off from the Night of Numeric Arts. 1:46:04 PM  link   your views? []

dimanche 14 septembre 2003

Apple bites, frank views and a flower for my favourite feline A "long and winding road of litigation". That's how Forbes.com sees the new Apple vs. Apple twist in a musical saga which has been running for more decades. This time, as Mac news addicts will most likely already know, it's la Pomme selling music via iTunes and the store which has "yet again raised the ire of Apple (Records), the Beatle's label, as this edging into the music industry (...) may be in violation of an early-80's agreement between the two companies which stated that Apple (Computer) would not create products that could be considered particularly music-related," iPodHacks succinctly explains today. As ever, MacRumors is on to it, along with other like-minded sites. The English side of MacBidouille is meanwhile crawling all over tomorrow's niouz from Apple Expo here, the event which has brought Rainer all the way from Brazil to the city of light. I won't be at the "keynote", otherwise known as the High Mass, broadcast or not, since tomorrow sees some lengthy medical goings-on (and even if I could be as rosy-cheeked as Apple top execs first thing in the morning), but look forward -- "God willing," as he put it on the 'phone, to meeting Rainer, the first real-life first time encounter "Made by taliesin's log" with a noble fellow 'blogger ("live from Paris"). MacBidouille says French TV has been on today about Apple and file-sharing, raising the piracy issue where debate has resumed at 'Blogcritics' ('BC') since BHW posted a long and well-argued case to say that the "RIAA is R-I-G-H-T". I seem to have sparked something of a debate myself when I heeded a friend and posted my perspective on "9/11" there. In particular, Al Barger couldn't agree with me less, every inch of the way, which is how it should be. Al's own eloquence has its roots at 'more things', but I can only send you his way for a good read without being able myself, at this particular moment, to conjure up the front door. It won't load. The Forbes entry where I started was pointed out by Eric Olsen, the fellow who does an admirable job of editing BC, where I spent a good part of a quietly very busy weekend, while Marianne did her worst, including hunting down computer desktops so "utterly shocking" that even I would think twice about posting them here. This is in tune with the prolonged heavy-metal, blood-and-guts teenage thing under way, with interruptions for well-behaved meals with Dad. The acquaintance I've begun to make with fellow BC contributors is among things that will this week lead to changes in the blogroll, where I've regretfully already pruned a number of places which seem to have forever faded away. The Wildcat has had an eventful and not so quiet weekend herself, this I know. However, if I told you anything about it, the rest of my life wouldn't be worth living, so discretion must be the better part of adventures of the heart. She certainly deserves a flower, though. We're planting it on dangerous ground here tonight, but she's left me with no choice and deserves a bunch of them: jonquils. I can't credit the photographer (a 404 from Google), but if I credit my ears with correctly hearing something said tonight, which I most certainly do, then -- wow, is this old grey wolf in trouble now! Suffice to add that it's exactly the kind of hot water I'm very happy to be in. Better for the soul even than a "frank exchange of views" at BC. On which note I'll call it a day, because I've got to be bushy-tailed rather too early tomorrow morning for my liking... 11:30:36 PM  link   your views? []

vendredi 12 septembre 2003

Of 'the Two Towers' and some who dared to think different: an essay Today brings yet another regrettable "friendly fire (AFP)" incident involving US troops, more of whom have also lost their lives in the almighty mess that is Iraq. It scarcely took much intelligence, political astuteness or insight into world affairs to know and to say, well before it happened, that sending the world's most powerful army and an ally or two into that country would have appalling long-term consequences. The surprise is that anybody might be genuinely surprised to see the latest thread in the tissue of lies about the war unravelled this week, with the news that Tony B "ignored warnings from British intelligence that a war on Iraq would make it easier for terrorists to get hold of weapons of mass destruction" (again from 'the factory'). AFP calls this a "revelation"! A revelation not to be confused with the others to have come, separately, out of the Hutton Inquiry, which has yet to finish its work. I've laid off on recent variations on the theme of Pandora's Box of late (Lara Croft's absurd adventures apart), not because I've lost interest but mainly out of such disgust as I can still muster and partly because it does nobody any good to join the "I told you so" chorus. In a trip round the blogosphere yesterday, I noticed that a number of like-minded people, including some who are far more regular political animals than I am, thought it best to let pass the second anniversary of the atrocities in the United States in silence. When the attacks came, I was as dismayed and aghast as everybody else in the newsroom, watching the tragedy unfold. Two years on, my admiration for the bravery and self-sacrifice that characterised so much of the disaster response goes undimmed. My feelings for the families of those who died and for everybody whose lives were forever changed through injury and loss are as strong as ever. But the outrages perpetrated since by some of the world's political leaders, in the name of a nebulous "war on terror" where the goalposts move so fast not even Beckham could kick straight -- not to speak of the sometimes self-imposed muzzling of an American mass media once widely admired for its readiness to dig deep and wide in pursuit of the truth -- have coloured my outlook on "9/11" far too profoundly to avoid a complex emotional response. "WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is so used to drawing rhetorical links between the war against Iraq and Sept 11, 2001, that nearly 70 per cent of Americans think Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks, public opinion analysts say. A Washington Post poll last week showed that 69 per cent of Americans thought it at least likely that Saddam was involved, although there was no evidence to support that belief. Professor Pippa Norris, an expert on public opinion at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said this misconception 'comes partly from President George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld drawing these links to justify US intervention in Iraq'. 'Now that there actually is terrorism in Iraq, they can retrospectively justify their action there'," the 'Straits Times' reminds us today. In the face of credulous imbecility which almost beggars belief -- the brainwashing of more than two-thirds of a nation if this figure is to be trusted -- is it any surprise that after more than four months' forced leave of absence from the heat of the newsroom, where such statistics are a routine part of the daily threats to sense and sensibility, my broadening interests have largely been elsewhere? Thus it was that yesterday, while the large majority of bloggers who did anything at all to mark the anniversary mainly did so by an appropriate laying of wreaths, I went in search of the few writers and webmasters who ventured to take a different perspective. At Privilogic, a visual design site, there was a timely reminder, using nothing but pictures, that though "America's friendships throughout the world have been strained to the breaking point" in the past couple of years, "it's important to remember, no matter what has happened since, how the world shared our grief and wept with us on that day." Whoever put up those pictures, and stuck in Capra's famous Iwo Jima flag shot while they were about it, made no mention of the misguided, dangerous policies in Washington that have caused such strains to those friendships and widespread ill-feeling and resentment towards Americans. At 'Scrappleface', Scott Ott (perhaps like me) thought it wisest not to tackle "9/11" head on until today, reserving yesterday's satire for another Mideast politico-military disaster zone -- Palestine -- and the shortcomings of US security screeners: (2003-09-11) -- ABC News will televise an investigative report tonight showing how its reporters smuggled -- from North Carolina to Pennsylvania -- 65 cartons of deadly menthol cigarettes and a 'trunkload' of dangerous bottle rockets and roman candles." That inveterate and ever-entertaining media watcher J.D. Lasica spent most of his day elsewhere, including the Beeb's "lessons for the US media" -- I didn't know the battered Auntie had any right now -- but not without turning up one excellent read: a veritable essay on fears of 'The End of the World'. "Two years later I take a certain grim comfort in some people's disinterest in the war; if you'd told me two years ago that people would be piling on the President and bitching about slow progress in Iraq, I would have known in a second that the nation hadn't suffered another attack. When the precise location of Madonna's tongue is big news, you can bet the hospitals aren't full of smallpox victims. Of course some people are impatient with those who still recall the shock of 9/11; the same people were crowding the message boards of internet sites on the afternoon of the attacks, eager to blame everyone but the hijackers. They hate this nation. In their hearts, they hate humanity," opines James Lilek. James. Apart from the fact that your 'Bleats and Blather' are forthwith on a blogroll where an overhaul's overdue, know that it's not your nation, far less humanity, that many of the rest of us loathe and fear. It's the liars, partners in corporate crime and scoundrels you may or may not have elected into office. As one Dennis Garwitz perhaps exaggerated to 'Pravda' a few days before "9/11", "this man [George Bush] spends more time posing for pictures than Bill Clinton ever did having sex". In a completely different part of the spectrum, W. decided he had "no time to waste on the French", not even to denounce them again, and thought instead of the victims. He'd seen enough 'Merde in France' the previous day in the "newspaper of record" (unreadability, I think they mean) and had already purloined a Plantu cartoon I steal from him in turn: "Let there be no more 9/11s. That would be too unfair!" (OMC: World Trade Organisation) In W's eyes, that discourtesy earned the "intelligentsia's" rag ('Le Monde') the title-for-a-day of "Al-Jazeera on the Seine". In conclusion, I only came across one columnist who took some of the hostility US policies have aroused straight to the White House lawn on the day itself: "The surprise resignation of the forty-third President of the United States, George W. Bush, on the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on America, was hailed by chiefs of state throughout the world. Mr. Bush announced that after, 'two years of bloodshed, economic devastation, and spreading fear in America and abroad,' he saw no choice but to accept that, 'I have held a title which I did not win, and for which I have proven unqualified.'" This article, 'Bush Resignation Hailed by World Leaders,' was by Greg Palast at the 'Common Dreams Newscenter' and came as the most welcome real surprise of the day in my little if-only world (via the observant Chris at 'one good move'). As a rule, the whole bunch of politicians now revolt me so much, whichever country they're in, that I'll happily leave most necessary comment to my good friend, the ever-vigilant Augustine, who can often be relied upon to say almost all that needs saying with commendable brevity. There are, and I hope always will be, exceptions. I've long had time for Tony Benn, one of Britain's most loathed or liked politicians and a man still a scapegoat among the country's so-called left for an unswerving career which they claim helped ruin the Labour Party and open the way for that frightful messiah, Margaret Thatcher. I don't think they'll be there for ever, so catch the two RealPlayer audio extracts from this morning's 'Today' programme, when we were treated to Benn speeches turned into reggae, while you can. For me, this manic discussion -- 'listen again' 1 and here's part two -- was the broadcast gem of the week! 7:06:58 PM  link   your views? []

jeudi 11 septembre 2003

Princess. Dress. Distress. Before this, I checked e-mail to make sure the wrath of MKH won't descend upon me. Quite yet. "Weddings have never been my favorite type of event, but I do like this site: The Cavalcade of Bad Bridal Fashion. It's basically a good collection of photos that show brides who look ridiculous -- but think they're beautiful," we learn at J-Walk Blog. Sheer booty! Via the Net Baron in Brazil (but currently en route this way). I seem to be one of the few in the blogosphere to be unaware of the J-Walk. I'm glad it was back before I knew it had disappeared. (Never mind the reference to MK. She knows what remains to be done...) 10:18:21 PM  link   your views? [] 'Probability Sun': bending the chances for survival Even when it comes to fighting a genocidal enemy making relentless gains in a campaign to destroy humanity, scientists and the armed forces have a hard time seeing eye to eye, let alone working shoulder to shoulder. A conflict of interests between the military and the brains they need to beat back the alien Fallers is among the main themes Nancy Kress develops in 'Probability Sun', the sequel to 'Probability Moon' (Tor Books, 2000; reviewed at Blogcritics and here on September 1). To a prudent reception from the peaceable natives of World, two of the scientists Kress introduces in the first part of her trilogy return three years later to this planet remote in the inhabited space known to humankind, again aboard a vessel of the Solar Alliance navy. The military aim of the mission, once more, is to learn whether an alien artefact left by a vanished race can help win the war against the Fallers. Now the team includes the most brilliant physicist of the day, Dr Tom Capelo, whose scientific gift is matched only by an angry, embittered outlook on life which makes him singularly difficult for anybody else to get along with, apart from his beloved daughters. Other new characters include Lyle Kaufman, the reluctant career soldier tasked with keeping the mission together to fulfil its task, and the gene-modified Marbet Grant, often shunned by ordinary people because as a 'Sensitive', she can read too much from minute facial details and body language for comfort. Marbet's needed to ensure good relations with the locals, given the real purpose of the team's visit to the radioactive Neury Mountains where the artifact lies, which are sacred to Worlders. Or so she thinks. Because once again, the military is playing its cards very close to its chest. While scientists and soldiers have a hard enough time agreeing on anything, the civilians themselves fall out as the tale unfolds. Major Kaufman is forced to resort