Strange Time Travel

Odd how my post below about Time Travel should end up being posted 4 days in the past, I wrote and posted it on Saturday 25th Feb and it has published as Wednesday 22nd Feb.

Go figure!

And I've just discovered that terroristic is a real word! Who let that happen? dubya, I'm lookin at you.

By His Bootstraps

Found this on-line, I guess it must be beyond copyright now, it's a short story by Robert A Heinlein called By His Bootstraps which I read years ago, an interesting little tale of time travel. Worth a read if you're into the genre, but if you are then the chances are you've already read it. It was first published in 1941 under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald. Enjoy

In other, related news I've been trying for years to remember a book and have struggled to find it online, searching for telepathy and space travel and twins returns a lot of hits.

Finally though this book, Time for the Stars is the one, the book I remember reading at school, and which I always thought could have been the inspiration for the Queen song '39

It's odd how you can return to a search after several false attempts and suddenly turn up what you want, even though you're "sure" you used those self same search criteria before.

I really don't get why everything HAS TO BE PRIVATISED

This is a classic example, the bid to move radioactive waste from Cookridge Hospital in Leeds to Windscale for reprocessing was given to the lowest bidder. They then failed to check, or even learn, the safety procedures properly and fired a lethal does of radiation down at the road for 130 miles, sheer luck it was pointing down, imagine if it was pointing backwards and you'd got stuck behind it in traffic!

So many cases of cost cutting by private companies causing serious harm, just to save a few pence. It really pisses me off. I'm sure people saw this story about privatised oxygen distribution which seems to have killed one poor elderly lady.

Just about every privatisation has caused things to get worse, and the ONLY people who benefit are the company owners, is it any suprise that the gap between richest and poorest in this country has shot up recently, and that social mobility has decreased significantly.

Sometimes I wish I could shake some decency into politicians, some sense of humanity and a little bit of caring for the little guy.

/rant off

The future is here

Here's a little gem for you, go to HM Revenue and Customs and do a search for "teleworking" something more and more people will be interested in, note the suggested alternative where it says

"Did you mean teleporting?"

Now then, I know the Gov likes to plan ahead (cough) but what exactly are the tax implications for teleporting, the site doesn't say?

Technology

Why is it that I constantly berate people for not grasping technology, and I live in a digital world quite happily at home with computers and blogs and Myspace, but still, when I'm out and about, I get people to write down their phone numbers when I have a perfectly servicable mobile phone in my pocket, which I end up transferring that number to when I get home anyway?

I mean SOMETIMES I remember, but most of the time... D'Oh

A Social Conscience?

Just spent 1/2 an hour blasting poor Keith's ear off about how employee's right have been eroded away over the last few years, at one point I seemed to hit a lucid theme, but now I can't remember what I said. (who, me, pissed? nah), When I do I will post it here.

My MySpace account is proving handy, I can fill it up with crap about what I like and things I would like people to know which if I blogged about it would drift away in the course of time. Of course I do wonder how long updating all these things will last once I'm off the sick and working again.

My Space

I feel I have something important I've forgotten about, something I was going to post here!

Never mind, I digress. Suddenly I find I have a myspace account to cope with, all because someone told me about their band My Next Century and I wanted to get a bit more involved.

Still at least I am being consistent about names across the web.

Faster broadband from NTL

Says here that NTL are going to trial 100MB broadband starting next month, I'll lay odds though that the trial won't be round this area.

100MB, do I really need my internet connection that fast, I still stumble across web sites that seem to run at the wrong end of a 56k modem!

Power cut fun

Or what to do in total darkness.

(That's darkness with a small d not the band)

Power was cut off last night by a fire in the substation, it took them 2 1/2 hours to get a generator hooked up to supply us with juice. DS has always liked turning off lights etc. and playing "power cuts" but if last nights whining was anything to go by, the reality, he has discovered, is not as much fun.

We tried to keep them occupied, DW got out the percussion instruments and I got my guitar, DD loved it and DS did at first but for him the novelty wore off. It does worry me that he is so dependent on telly to have fun, but last night also revealed that he doesn't really watch the telly as such, but simply keeps himself awake using it as an excuse. I think if we'd put him to bed 8 - 8:30 he would have been spark out.

Recovery almost complete

Well after the disaster which was re-partitioning my hard disk, which resulted in me somehow losing ALL the partition information on the drive, I am almost back up to speed and normality.

This marvelous company got 35 quid of my money for their excellent Partition Table Doctor software which succeeded in getting back most of the partitions on the drive, I managed to get everything back apart from my e-mail directory, which means I have lost pretty much everyone's e-mail addresses, so start sending me them again please. (that is not an invite to spam me, friends only should apply, see terms and conditions!)

In other news, a few people thought this post implied that I had succumbed and started smoking again, not true, I am still ciggy free, and intend to remain so.

Got my first complaint which I can raise at the Parish Meeting as well, parking problems in the driveway and on the cycle lane, maybe we should name and shame the culprits as apparently they are the same people week in week out.

Fark post accepted

Hey hey

another link of mine made it on to www.fark.com (link goes to the comments)

That makes 4 links approved since I joined fark in June '02. What's not so good is that I've had 20 posts rejected, and that doesn't include all the unrecorded ones I tried to post which had already been submitted.

Parish Chair, not me

I got away with it, luckily someone else had been put forward as well, so we where elected chair and vice chair un-opposed, I hadn't even realised there might be a vice chair position, if I'd known that we could have saved ourselves a vote.

I now only have to worry if the chair is unavailable and I have to host a meeting, I think I can cope with that.

I suppose I'm a little disappointed in a way, but mainly I feel relieved. Maybe the position could be a blessing in disguise, I can use the title to try to drum up PR to get more people attend the meetings.