Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

Over the last week or so in the run-up to publication of the Hutton report into the naming of the late Dr Kelly, Tory leader Michael Howard has spent most of his time basically accusing Tony Blair of lying. Now that the report's been published and has cleared the Prime Minister, I guess we'll be hearing Mr Howard apologise real soon now...

Yeah, right...

Oops, Spoke too Soon!

Er, I shouldn't have moaned about the lack of snow this morning. After work I took my dog to the park, then shortly after we got home there was a clap of thunder and a brief flurry of hail. Ten minutes later, I looked outside to find snow merrily falling and the ground covered in the stuff...

Unfortunately, I won't be able to play the "weather's too bad to go to work" card. I only live about a hundred yards away from the office!

The Big(?) Freeze

For the last week or so we've been given warnings about a forthcoming cold snap. Overnight it appears to have arrived - when I took the dog around the block this morning before coming to the office, there was a light dusting of snow on the cars, though not on the ground.

It's probably just as well that the snow doesn't amount to much - we're not very good at it, after all. Anything more than a light dusting of the stuff and the country seems to grind to a halt!

Arise, Sir Geek !

Our honours system is frankly a joke - it must expose Britain to international ridicule, and surely nobody takes it seriously. Now though, we appear about to plumb new depths with the insane prospect of Sir Bill Gates! The award, apparently, is for "services to global commerce", though as Microsoft are a prime example of a coporate monopolist, I'm not really sure what these "services" are.

Apart from anything else - isn't he , er, not exactly British?

Afterthought
Wouldn't it be poetic justice if, when Liz 2 lowers the sword, it should rather "crash" down upon his shoulders ...

Has the Great Galactic Ghoul Struck Again?

Whatever it is that's done for Beagle 2 seems to have struck again! NASA appears to have lost contact with their Spirit Mars rover. Hopefully this will be a temporary glitch, whereas I'm pretty certain that our Beagle is irretrievably lost.

What a Good Idea !

I've just seen an interesting snippet on the evening news programme. Apparently a double glazing company, fed up with the not especially high regard in which most of us hold their salesmen, have taken to issuing them with portable lie-detectors, presumably to be used to reassure their victims - sorry, clients.

This had got me thinking - if the devices actually work properly, could we extend the principle?

Consider how good it would be if our politicians were issued with them !

Perhaps That Will Teach Her

It never ceases to amaze me to see just how stupid some people can be. We've got a prime example of this here where a British student queuing in Miamai Airport for a plane home thought it would be a laugh when asked what her rucksack contained, to reply "...be careful, I have three bombs in here"!

Unsurprisingly, the US authorities were less than amused about this, and Ms Student is now in the pokey. Could I suggest that she remain incarcerated until safely past the age of child-bearing, thus cleaning up the human gene-pool a little.

Incidentally, what was she studying - advanced stupidity, perhaps?

Adding Insult to Injury

I've fulminated before about that most annoying affliction of cyberlife, the spammer (see Calling All Spammers - 19/08/03) and I'm now somewhat miffed to discover a new problem from these online lowlives.

Across the half a dozen e-mail accounts used for various purposes by myself and my wife, the average day sees a harvest of anywhere up to 100 spams. This does annoy me, but I use an extemely good - and free - spam filtering tool called Spampal which deals very effectively with this rubbish.

Yesterday, though, the status quo was somwewhat disrupted. It's not that I received any more than usual, but half a dozen of yesterday's crop of "unmissable offers" had an assortment of viruses attached. I do keep my antivirus scanner fully up to date and if this sort of thing becomes common, I'd advise everybody else to do the same.

The Tale of the Two-wheeled Twit

It's a lovely day here on the South Coast - it's cold and there was a frost this morning but the sun's shining and it's nice to be outdoors. My wife and I decided to take advantage of this earlier today, so we bundled the dog into the car and drove down to the seafront for a stroll along the promenade.

Judging by the number of people around, we weren't alone in this idea, and it was all very enjoyable. That is, until some idiot cyclist comes hurtling up behind us, furiously ringing his bell to make us move out of the way...

The problem is that cycling happens to be prohibited there. It says in large letters across the tarmac " NO CYCLING " and for the benefit of the hard of thinking, there are loads of pictorial signs to the same effect. I can only hope that this bicycling bozo learns some consideration someday, but I'm not too hopeful.

Surely this is a Heritage Site?

If the plans for NASA's return to the moon come to fruition, the space shuttle will be retired by the end of this decade. It seems likely that the shuttle's launch pad - called LC39 ( Launch Complex 39 ) will then fall into disuse.

What shouldn't be overlooked is the LC39 complex was originally built for and used by the Apollo-Saturn rockets which first landed men on the moon. As such it's a hugely historic site and is, I feel, worthy of preservation.

Out of curiosity, I surfed over to the United Nations World Heritage Sites list to see if LC39 was there. I'm astonished to say that it's not! Surely it deserves to be.

At the very least, I'd argue that the development of spaceflight was the greatest achievement of the last century, in which case the only alternative to LC39 for recognition would be the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Personal note

I've been to the Kennedy Space Center and taken the tour bus right past Launch Complex 39. There was even a shuttle (Discovery) preparing for launch there at the time. To my intense annoyance, I hadn't loaded the film into my camera properly, so I don't have any photos - doh!

To Boldly Go ... to the Voting Booth

As expected, US President Bush has made the expected speech outlining proposals for the Americans to return to the moon and, later, to land on Mars. As a space enthusiast, I'm totally in favour of this.

However, being also of a cynical frame of mind, I wonder if there's more to this than meets the eye. In the 2000 presidential election, Mr Bush's vistory hinged on an incredibly tight, and repeatedly recounted vote in Florida. If NASA are to begin the programs outlined, where will many jobs be created? Florida!

There's a presidential election later this year - coincidence? I think not.

Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside

Sunday just gone, instead of taking the dog to the local park and trudging through the mud, I took him to the local beach with a group of my friends and their mutts. It really was nice down there - there was a choppy sea and a very stiff breeze blowing, fresh air galore!

It's times like this when I realise just how lucky I am to live here. How many people know just how enjoyable the coast can be out of season?

I'll believe it when I see it

There's yet another rumour regarding new plans for American space exploration initiatives. This one has it that next week will see Mr Bush announce plans for a manned return to the moon during the next decade.

The idea is to use this as preparation for manned expeditions to Mars and the asteroids. I'd love to think that this will happen, but I've got grave doubts that it will. If nothing else, I'm not at all sure that the American people will want to support the cost of such an enterprise.

Forward to the Past !

Car designers seem to be more and more taking their inspiration from past glories. Jaguar seem to have begun this trend with their S-Type, then we've had the Mini and the VW Beetle both adopting the general appearance of their forebears and now Ford have announced a new version of their Mustang and, surprise surprise, it borrows heavily from the look of their original 1960s models.

Since nobody seems to be designing anything new, I presume it's only a matter of time before the launch of a 2004 version of the Hillman Hunter or something equally daft !!

Which Motorists do you support, then?

I happened to see an advert on t'box last night for the new DVLA fine scheme. Basically, anybody who doesn't renew their car tax in time can expect to receive a £80 fine automatically.

I'm a little surprised to hear that the AA regards this system as too harsh. Why's that then? "I forgot" didn't work when I was still at school and hadn't done my homework and I don't see why it should work if you haven't taxed your car.

God Save the ... King?

I was fascinated by a programme on Channel 4 last night called "Britain's Real Monarch". Basically, it claimed that England's King Edward IV was illegitimate, and therefore every monarch since then was not the rightful ruler.

The programme went further and traced the "correct" Plantagenet line down to the present day to determine who should have been Britain's monarch, finding one Michael Hastings - who had emigrated to Australia in the 1960s and appeared to be the archetypal "fair dinkum" Aussie bloke.

This could-have-been King Michael I came over as an extremely likeable person and maybe he would have made a good monarch. Ironically, though, he's a republican !

New Year's Resolutions

Don't be daft! I've never seriously bothered with these and I don't see any reason to start now ...

Happy New Year!