2014 — 17 January: Friday
I wasn't woken by the rain this morning1 — but nor was I surprised by it. A cuppa helps, naturally.
I'm shocked...
... I tell you, shocked, to be told by the BBC radio news this morning that a guvmint minister "repeatedly lied" to me when he falsely claimed (recently, I gather, though I failed to catch many of his sound bites) that the UK had been spending more than ever before on flood defences. I assume either he was ill-advised by his team of civil servants or (perish the thought) perhaps he's just a git who wouldn't recognise the truth if it rained down on him out of a cloudy sky. No doubt the boy Dave will now assure us of his full confidence and support in Owen Paterson. Or perhaps "Flood Recovery Minister" Brandon Lewis will float to the top of that particular scummy pond in due course.
Mind you, if the guvmint is indeed "fully focussed on helping those affected get back on their feet" it doesn't leave much capacity spare for other matters, does it? They could always just assign the blame to an act of their imaginary friend in the sky and move on, I suppose. Wonder how well that would play?
Last night's...
... bursts of pixel-based entertainment included the first of the trio of films I mentioned last Saturday. It was waiting on my doorstep yesterday. It's only the second film I have seen featuring the attractive Australian Susie Porter, though it took me a while to realise what the other one was.
What with me being a "one woman" pair-bonded sort of chap, I've never experienced the dubious-sounding joys of a "one night stand" and so had nothing to relate the story to in my own life. Actually, I felt a bit like an anthropologist2 observing the rites of a somewhat alien tribe. Still, putting on the subtitles and then pushing "fast forward" helped speed things along to the supposedly-unexpected "conclusion". (I refrained from using the more obvious "climax" — you can thank me later.)
I've been sent...
... an email (from Aubree Ritter — who claims to be a total typography freak) inviting me to consider hosting an infographic on parents in the US refusing vaccinations for their children. Having read the material, I found nothing too objectionable. However, I also have little interest in receiving visitors as a "thank you". 'Molehole' is hardly a resource for child health information, after all. And I'm long out of the day-to-day parenting business, thank goodness.
The infographic is here.
Salaried profundity...
... of university professors is a wonderful phrase in its own right. The whole article is even better:
Economic growth, [Adorno] said, "furnishes the conditions for a world of greater justice", but at the same time "allows the technical apparatus and the social groups which administer it a disproportionate superiority to the rest of the population."
Ain't that the truth!
When I'd finished...
... giving Brian a quick demo of the Oppo Blu-ray player, majoring on its SD upscaling and networking skills, he responded by showing me this link on YouTube. I found it simply unbelievable. I shall have to ask Tall Thomas (who's Dutch) to confirm the girl's vocal performance is genuine.
And then, along came...
... an irresistible album offer from Google Play, so I'm no longer an MP3 download virgin from that fine organisation, either. I chose the Wu-Tang Clan's second album — the double disc "Wu-Tang Forever" — and a set of 320kbps MP3 files is now safely tucked away for my further edification and delight. For £1-99. Amazing. I first met their brand of hip-hop / rap music on the soundtrack to that wonderful Jim Jarmusch film "Ghost Dog: the way of the Samurai". [Pause] Not entirely sure why the Google Clan thinks it's a good idea to be able to play the album on my smartphone (which wasn't smart enough to react to its presence until I was within range of a phone mast). Let that pass.
Followed by...
... more rain, just as I was leaving the Waitrose car park (of course). Such a very pleasant time of year.
Having just read...
... what El Reg has to say on the subject, I'm perfectly content to stay as far away from Bitcoins and Bitcoin mining as I can. I shall call in on Roger & Eileen to mine a cuppa and a biccie instead.