2014 — 3 December: Wednesday
The sun is nearly — but not quite — poking above the neighbour's roof. Good. It can get on with raising the temperature above the current +2C out on my front porch.
It's that time of year...
... when thoughts turn, in my case, to the need for another kitchen worktop calendar. I shall walk down to the Central Precinct on the off-chance that one of the decaying shops there still stocks such things. Failing which, there's always the Swan Centre and the stationers next door to what, until it closed a few months ago, was the only bookshop worth visiting in Eastleigh. Who knows? I might even buy myself a copy of the Xmas edition1 of the "Radio Times".
Been here before?
I rather think so:
When he ran INSCOM and was horning in on the NSA's turf, [General Keith] Alexander was fond of building charts that showed how a suspected terrorist was connected to a much broader network of people via his communications or the contacts in
his phone or email account.
"He had all these diagrams showing how this guy was connected to that guy and to that guy," says a former NSA official who heard Alexander give briefings on the floor of the Information Dominance Center. "Some of my colleagues and I were
skeptical. Later, we had a chance to review the information. It turns out that all [that] those guys were connected to were pizza shops."
Nothing quite like a false positive, is there? That "Information Dominance Center" (at Fort Belvoir) was designed to mimic the bridge of the star ship Enterprise...
And that concludes...
... my outdoor adventures for today. The splendour that was Eastleigh continues to implode, but I got my calendar, two new pairs of socks, and four replacement white T-shirts. Of course, it's far too early for Xmas shopping. Besides, it's already 13:13 and I'm a bit peckish. Our local thermonuclear reactor is still shining away up there, but there's a fairly chilly wind. Still, it's a GOOD life, providing you don't weaken, isn't it Mr Bixby?
George Monbiot...
... is claiming wolves "look right through to your soul" on NPR as a guest of Diane Rehm. He's talking about "re-wilding" landscapes, in part by re-introducing various predator species. I shall have to remind myself whether Paul Colinvaux's 1980 book (clever cover artwork, by the way)...
... agrees with Monbiot's thesis that large predators are necessary. Unsurprisingly, some of his North American listeners are keen on the hunting opportunities this might give rise to.
Thanks, Mr Postie
This afternoon's delivery completes my set:
My DVD checking...
... exercise is even having an impact on my books. I'd just dealt with the amiable Dean Martin tosh "The Silencers" that is (very loosely) based on Donald Hamilton's first 'Matt Helm' thriller. Although these books have all long since fled my shelves, it occurred to me to look, once again, for a copy of a pre-Matt Helm title: "Line of Fire". Exactly to whom I lent my copy over 40 years ago is, of course, an insoluble mystery in this brave new millennium. But AbeBooks to the rescue. A second-hand copy is even now on its way to me for rather more than the 3/6 of my original Coronet? Fawcett? Hodder? paperback from the late 1960s.
Tonight's round tuit...
... suggests that Edward Burns could easily give Woody "Manhattan Angst" Allen a run for his money. It's a modern day variant of Schnitzler's "La Ronde":
Next? Well, I don't have a copy of "The Brothers McMullen" and it's only three months since I saw "Purple Violets" so I think I shall now revisit "She's the One".
Good call. I'd forgotten that Amanda Peet appears in it. And Maxine Bahns is delectable. (She, I remembered.)