2010 — 30 April: Friday

Watching all the extras has taken me well past the witching hour. Yawn. G'night.

Sunlight returns

It's 07:42, and "the Bowl of Night" definitely contains "the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight". In good time for a morning cuppa, in fact. Now, where's that kettle? Oh, and who couldn't be bothered to do the couple of plates from last night's evening mini-feast?1 Come on, own up, you lazy devil!

It must be great being boss of a bank. Not only can you say that "bankers' pay continues to be astonishingly high" but also "if we don't pay our top people they leave very quickly". But weren't "top people" the same sterling chaps and chapesses who broke the bank in the first place? Just a thought, but with "top people" like that, who needs 'em? In fact, why not simply defenestrate2 the whole sorry gang? (Source.)

Our transatlantic cousins, meanwhile, characterise recent nasty events in high finance as basically the result of "unbridled greed" which is probably right on the money. Some of the comments on Mardell's blog show me up as the most amateur of cynics, by the way. (Source.)

Grilling

A bit like UK MPs and their rotten system of expenses, don't you think?

Time for "lemonses"

Shopping safely gathered in; Mike's blue fleece just discovered in the boot of the car; rain so far (11:01) still absent. I await my lunch guest, and must sort out another book for Eileen. I'm fairly sure I have one or two knocking around hereabouts.

The Calculus of Selfishness

A wonderful book title and, indeed, an elegant book cover...

Karl Sigmund

... to which I was "ineluctably" led by the interesting article here. Co-operate or starve, heh?

Paris encapsulated

And how's this for a no-nonsense map of Paris?

Slate map of Paris

Paris is a city I've managed to avoid since July 1969, when I bought (from WH Smith, of all places) a copy of John Updike's Couples largely because it wasn't on sale in the UK at the time. Nor was it an enjoyable read, but that's a different story.

They also serve...

Having just snaffled my brand-new copy of the latest Ubuntu 10.4 LTS server edition (the 32-bit variant, following Len's advice) ISO image I'm predicting a weekend of fun and frustration as I re-install it on my spare little HP MPC and see how I get on.3 But first it's nearly time to snaffle a cuppa over with Roger and Eileen.

Ansible #274...

... is here — a day ahead of itself.

  

Footnotes

1  Rhetorical question.
2  I have Arthur C Clarke and his wonderful 1957 short story The defenestration of Ermintrude Inch to thank for this useful verb.
3  I've had an irritating history of numerous little GRUB booting problems with my 9.10 edition (which was an upgrade-in-situ) so I shall start by completely zapping the existing system. A change is as good as a rest to a blind horse, or some such.