Not Proven

There's a story on the Beeb's website at the moment to the effect that intelligent children are more likely to turn vegetarian later in life.

Well, my IQ as measured by Mensa is 154, and at the grand old age of 43 there's little I enjoy more on my dinner plate than a nice piece of fillet steak!

It's A Shame I'm Not Religious...

... or otherwise I'd be able to contemplate the trip below faced by the recently-late General Pinochet. Regardless of however much Margaret Thatcher liked the homicidal old monster, I think the world will be just that little bit better without him.

Farewell Fluff

I'm saddened to read about the death of DJ Alan Freeman. In my formative years, his Monday evening show on Capital Radio was responsible for introducing me to an awful lot of the sort of music which, getting on for thirty years later, I still enjoy. Will he be missed?

"Not 'arf"

Enjoy It Whilst It Lasts

It really has been mild this month - too mild, in fact because we have spring bulbs sprouting like mad in the back garden. I think this isn't going to last much longer and there are already forecasts showing the probability of colder weather later in the week.

Might as well kiss those bulbs goodbye then...

Bravery Under Fire

Normally, there's no way I would ever consider linking to the Daily Mail - a newspaper I particularily despise. There's an exception to every rule however:

I'm referring to the interview the paper carried with General Sir Richard Dannett, in which he talks much sense especially in calling for our troops to be withdrawn from Iraq soon.

It really is time to face facts: the whole Iraq invasion has been a disaster. If the figures recently reported are true, then 1 in 40 of the whole population of the country have lost their lives. Exactly what has all of this really achieved and what's the point of going any further down this road?

Bad Dogs or Bad Owners ?

There's been a lot of talk following the tragic death of a baby in Leicester mauled by two rottweilers at the start of this week. As a longtime dog-owner, I'm very concerned about some of the more hysterical comments flying about, and was therefore pleased to read a very well-reasoned article on the subject in yesterday's Guardian...

Missed Gear?

Having heard about Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond's crash, obviously my first concern is that he recovers.

My second concern, though, is whether this could herald the end for Top Gear? The programme flys in the face of the green, cuddly, environmentally caring zeitgeist all aspects of modern life have become afflicted with and if monumentally silly on occasion, it's still a compulsory part of my Sunday evenings whenever it's shown.

We need at least one piece of political incorrectness!

Phony War?

It's all gone very quiet hasn't it? I'm referring of course to the fratricidal farce which was the attempt to remove Tony Blair a couple of weeks ago. I presume this means that the various factions in the Labour party are just biding their time ready for the next round of fighting - perhaps a punch-up at the upcoming party conference - but wouldn't it be nice if it's just that they've decided to concentrate on the job of governing that we chose them for? Yeah, right - fat chance!

You were the Champions

Twenty-two years ago this evening I went to Wembley Arena to see Queen in concert. This was the second of three times that I saw them and this particular night, perhaps because it was Freddie's birthday (he would have been 60 today)was the best of them.

Where's The Heat Then?

Towards the end of last month, various forecasters were predicting that August would be even hotter than the sweltering heatwave we'd just come through. Well, this is the last day of August and it hasn't happened yet....mind you, we're still under a hosepipe ban!

Buttoned Up !

I've just watched Jensen Button win his first race at this afternoon's Hungarian Grand Prix. I have to say that purely from a spectating point of view, it was the best race I've seen in years, with drama, overtakimg battles, chamges of lead - the works!

I think it turned out this way as it was a wet race - maybe all the races should have the tracks sprayed with water...

8/10 - oh dear!

There's an article published by Q Magazine listing the top fifty songs that people like but won't admit to, and the Guardian has details of the top ten. As I have eight of those, I must grab a copy of Q and see how many others are stashed away in my collection....might make an interesting playlist on the iPod!

CTRL-ALT-DELETED

I can't say that I'll shed too many tears now that Windows 98 has been "terminated". I've not used anything less than Win 2000 for several years now and although both it and and its younger brother XP do have their issues, the ability to complete a whole day's work without crashing my PC is something I've got rather used to...

Start Packing

Oh dear Mr Blair, this really isn't looking too good is it?

Following yesterday's news that Lord Levy, the Prime minister's personal fundraiser had been arrested in connection with the cash for honours scandal, it seems likely that this whole issue isn't going away. Maybe this is what it'll take to move Mr Brown into Number 10...

Pluto? More Like Mickey Mouse!

I settled down in front of the box last night to watch BBC2's Horizon science programme, the subject matter of which concerned the ongoing debate regarding whether or not Pluto should be regarded as a planet (not,if you want my opinion)

This I presumed was a science programme and therefore would be taken seriously, but alas, no. Even by recent televisual standards, it was dumbed down beyond belief....in fact, I fell asleep before it had ended. What a waste of TV licence-payers' money.

So That's What They're For

Parked outside the front of my house this morning was one of those odd little Smart cars. I couldn't help laughing when I noticed that inside it were a couple of golf clubs. Maybe that's the point of the things - they're meant to be a deluxe golf buggy!

The Ideal Candidate

Not having checked the newspapers yet today, I'm not totally sure if John Prescott is still the Deputy Prime Minister, but whether he is or not, let's assume the job will shortly become available...

The papers over the weekend have featured no lack of potential candidates but none of them seem to quite fit the bill. If we just think outside the box however, it all becomes clear:

Why shouldn't David Cameron throw his hat into the ring? He's probably more to Mr Blair's taste than any of the usual suspects and, let's face it, given that New(?) Labour seems far more interested in squabbling than actually governing the country, it might be a good idea to give the boy David a bit of experience as a stand in before he gets the top job...

Madness

Declaration of Interest: I separated from my wife a couple of years ago, so it could be argued that I have an axe to grind. That said, we sorted out the asset split ourselves on the grounds that we really didn't want solicitors stirring things up, which in any case would have left both of us receiving less.

Right then, to business:

There were a couple of judgments in the House of Lords yesterday regarding divorce. In one, a former career woman who gave up work to bring the couple's children up had her settlement upheld. Fine - I suppose that the couple have differing opinions of how much she should have been awarded, but it seems to me that the basic principle on this one's pretty fair.

The other decision's the one I find just a little bit bonkers. After a marriage lasting two years and nine months, another high-flying couple split up. The wife in this one was awarded £5 million, which was upheld by their Lordships in yesterday's judgement.

Lets examine this one a bit more: There were no children from this union. The wife gave up work on marriage - she'd previously been earning about £85000 per annum, so I find it unlikely that she was anywhere near destitute. My rough calculations suggest that she's gained about £5000 per day for her brief union - surely that's rather disproportionate?

Barking by Name, Barking by Nature

So, as the local election results have come in, we've seen that Labour have received a well-deserved kicking - maybe it'll act as a wake-up call, though personally I think they're too far gone for it to make much difference.

The bad news is the rise of the horrific BNP - just exactly not what we need at this time. The people of Barking, who have elected 11 members of this warmed-over National Front brigade of bigots to their council, need to have a good hard think about what they've just done.

Some Choice

We've local elections tomorrow and, as ever, I do think I ought to make the effort and vote. The trouble is that none of the local candidates have made any serious effort to attract my vote and I'm not at all sure who to give it to...

I suppose that my best bet is just to vote against the current lot in an effort, albeit a probably futile one, to stop them getting complacent. At least if I do vote, I've earned the right to moan about whoever does get in!

Mac Alternative?

Apart from eating too much chocolate, I've spent a good proportion of the weekend tinkering about with my desktop PC. Its predecessor machine, which died when the motherboard turned its toes up late last year was actually able to boot any one of three operating systems - Windows ME, Windows XP or SuSE Linux, and I quite fancied tinkering with the new machine.

This time I've only gone for a dual boot - Windows ME being well past its sell-by date. I do need XP, which is what I originally installed when I built the box, but I've just installed another Linux OS.

There's little if anything wrong with SuSE, but instead of using it, I decided to try a different distribution and have installed Ubuntu. It's very impressive.

Ubuntu uses the Gnome interface and looks a little less like Windows than its KDE rival. In fact, I find it quite reminiscent of Apple's Mac OS. Given that both systems run on a unix base, the similarities are more than just skin deep...

Mac Time?

I'm extremely interested in Apple's announcement of their Boot Camp utility, which will enable anybody who has an Intel-cpu'd Mac to set up a Windows XP dual boot system...

I had a quick play with an iMac (this one was G5 powered, however) a couple of weeks ago when I set up a small Mac/Windows home network and, good though the OS is, I found the hardware design to be rather appealing as well...wouldn't it be nice to have such a machine with a choice of operating systems?

Good News

I'm encouraged to read that the cosmetic docking of dogs' tails is likely to be banned in the Animal Welfare Bill sent to the House of Lords last night.

It's long past the time when this should have happened - we're, after all, supposed to be a nation of animal lovers. I look forward to a time in the not too distant future when there's no place in the show ring for a mutilated mutt.

Incidentally I do practice what I preach - I'm on my second dog and, though both Kane and Rolo respectively were and are not from traditionally docked breeds, even if it is still legal, I would never have a docked dog.

NO NO NO

Once upon a time, science lessons were about, er, science. Why on earth, then, is "Creationism" to be added to the GCSE biology syllabus? If this fairy story must be taught at all - and "no" would be the correct answer to that - then surely it belongs in RE lessons.

Science it ain't!

Mini In All But Price

So Apple did announce new Mac Minis then. The trouble is that as part of the switch to the Intel platform, the prices have gone up by about $100 - for a cheap machine, that's quite a hike. I'd still like a Mac, but by the time you price in adding keyboard, mouse and monitor to the Mini, perhaps an iMac would be a better idea...

Tease

Tomorrow Apple will be launching a new product or products. The trouble is that nobody knows what it is - or at least, those who do are keeping their mouths shut. Personally, I'd like to see a new Mac Mini with a built in iPod dock, which has been rumoured in the past.

I'm interested in the Mini anyway, this would probably clinch it for me...

Mission What?

In a speech given onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003, George Bush stood by a banner declaring "Mission Accomplished".

Nearly three years later, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found and as illustrated by the reaction to Wednesday's attack on the Al-Askari shrine, Iraq seems to be speeding towards a full-on civil war.

One can only assume that Dubya's real mission was to take care of some of daddy's unfinished business and remove Saddam Hussein, because I can't see much else that's improved...

PS I've just noticed that the spell checker Blogger runs before I post doesn't recognise "Dubya" and suggests its replacement with "dubious" ... quite fitting really!

Stubbing It Out

Yesterday evening, being St Valentine's Day, I took my girlfriend out for dinner at a local pub restaurant. The dining area is non-smoking, but in this particular pub you have to order your food at the bar, which isn't. Unfortunately, this meant that I ended out inhaling an unwanted lungful of somebody's second-hand carcinogens...

With this fresh in mind, can I thank those MPs who voted in favour of totally banning smoking in all enclosed public places. About time too!

Publish & Be Damned

I'm getting rather fed up reading about the ongoing row regarding cartoons published in a Danish newspaper which have offended various Moslems - actually, I wonder how many of those protesting have actually seen these images, but that's another matter.

Unfortunately, most humour seems to mock something or someone, that's just how it is I'm afraid. There shouldn't be anything that's above ridicule.

New Horizons

I was delighted to see that the New Horizons spaceprobe launched OK last night on its long voyage to Pluto. For all the problems NASA have with the shuttle, their series of outer planet missions have been very successful, as I hope this one will be.

The only problem is the 9 years I've got to wait before New Horizons reaches its destination...

Poll Idol?

News of more aspiring entrants to the Liberal Democrat Party's leadership contest has made me ponder over how to bring the idea into the 21st Century, after all, it's about 100 years since the party was in power.

I guess the answer's simple - in these days of constant reality television, why not turn the whole thing into a TV contest?!

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

... Neil breathed a sigh of relief as the remaining tackily "decorated" houses round by where he lives should be returning to their anonymity!