Respect......not

Sadly, not referring to the soul great, but a new 'political party' in Blighty. I'm only posting about it as it's so laughable. Headed by the disgraced former Labour MP George Galloway, [who allegedly advocated that Arabs should rise up and fight British soldiers in Iraq, and was promptly sacked], and including other champagne socialists, not many of whom appear to have ever had a proper job, ie they are mostly media whores and bores, all joining up under one banner to advocate old chestnuts like trade union power, public ownership and 'socialist' values etc etc. As a museum piece they make great relics from the past, but as serious contenders to power they are a frightening joke. It's incredible that a belief in imaginary halcyon days of unionised labour and publically owned utilities will somehow make everything OK, when the future of 'rich' and 'poor' in the west is a totally different battleground from the actually rubbish society of fifties/sixties/seventies Britain. I will always vote left, in the vain hope that the poorest would benefit more than under a more rightwing regime, but to even think that intelligent people would be expected to take seriously this ramshackle bunch of flatcaps and middle england tossers is beyond belief.

RespectCoalition.org

I may add to this.....god forbid

Eye

I know this should include 'Britain!' but there wasn't room, maybe Ill make another specially for blighty.

Just a Miserable Failure

Old news but good nevertheless. A friend drew my attention to the phenomenon known as Google bombing, made well known from, amonsgt others, the google search results for 'miserable failure', which produce links to good ol' George Bush, as well as, in the god like google image search, assorted other horrific images of American middle earth types. [No zenophobia here, middle earth brits look worse, as they have worse teeth, a fact well known to all yanks.]


Searchenginewatch link

BBC link

Go Forth and Multiply, for Uncle Sam

I always thought it was unfair, the common remark about middle americans knowing their cousins too well....and that mean stereotyped character in the Simpsons who has a platoon of children, all with biblical names......well here is the proof of the reality:

woman has fifteen kids.....

[updatejun04]:if that link is dead now, try this http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/3345048/detail.html

Now it might be untrue to say these people were cousins, but they were from a small town and they were high school sweethearts by the look of it. And she wants more. Go girl, for America and freedom. Just not for the gene pool eh.

Oil Dependence is a Lie

It still isn't widely known that all diesel engines wil run on vegetable oil. Why? It's probably obvious, if you think about it. Short search on the history of the invention of the diesel engine throws up the interesting fact that they were originally intentioned for peanut oil. Mr Diesel, the inventor, died in mysterious circumstances on the way to Britain....

So today I see yet another piece of news about people taking the law into their own hands and going veggie with their cars. In Britain it's actually illegal to do this, as you avoid paying the duty that's due on the fuel. You can pay it as an extra, if you get a license or something, but it's illegal to just go and do it. [I know people who do this, but they are very clever.] I don't know how it works in the States if you just start filling up with veg oil, but the woman in the news item seems to be doing just that. Why isn't it normal to do this? It all points to another damning recognition of how we are all manipulated for the sake of markets and big business bods. As usual, pathetic.

Woman Fills up on Chip Oil

A History of the Diesel Engine .
Diesel engine.
BIODIESEL.
the diesel story.

Top Prize for Michael - but is he being unpatriotic?

I can't help but smile at the fact that Cannes has deigned to give Michael Moore the Top Gong for Fahrenheit 9/11. I would think American opinion to be along the lines of 'oh, that's a french film festival, what do you expect?', or similar zenophobic comments, but as the english actually mock the french more than anyone else, i can't really point the finger. I have realised that opinions of Moore's work vary widely across the pond, and have been quite shocked at the levels of vitriol expressed on the web from the american right, like really personal 'isn't he just a fat blob' sort of stuf. I think the thing that stirs everyone up over there is the lack of patriotism that Moore is apparently showing, when his country is under pressure from many sources. Of course, you could argue that he is being highly patriotic, being so concerned about truth, justice etc, when it would be so easy for the leaders of that country to get away literally with murder in the present climate. In Britain, we used to have the infamous 'D' notice, issued from Whitehall, that would effectively shut anyone up that was causing too much trouble when the security of the nation was at stake, but I'm not sure we still have that. [The Faulklands conflict was mostly 'D' noticed to press and TV News, so allowing the government to control the flow of information much more effectively]. Would that work in today's world anyway? Not on your life. Moore reminds me of John Pilger, who for many years during the Vietnam/Cambodia war, voiced similar shocking stuf, but never really made any difference. I think Moore is a comfortable voice for the Capitalist left, making us feel better about our guilt and what we are all prepared to do to preserve our priveliged lifestyles. Our greed is stronger than any political activism.

Cannes Prize This is the first time for over fifty years that a documentary has received the top gong from Cannes.......Moore got a twenty minute standing ovation.

news link

Whats Wrong with the Music Industry in One Long Sentence

This is a great post I just found at The Big Picture, an excellent tech/politico-economic blog, this is the whole thing:

>Let's review our plot so far:
We have an industry that is afraid of technology, its senior spokespeople lie to congress, they use Enron-like accounting, they somehow --WHOOPS! -- forget to pay their artists, they are convicted price fixers, at the first sign of any kind of an economic rebound their instinct is to raise prices, they have ignored competitive pressures from other forms of entertainment such as DVDs, they ignore the devastatingly negative effects of radio ownership consolidation to their business model, they engage in all kinds of anti-competitive protectionism, they are unconcerned with the quality of their product, their customers are harried for time and distracted by other interests, their customers see nothing wrong with downloading music for free, some of their biggest stars are hoping the Internet will replace the labels, despite all too many signs that their product is over priced, they refuse to allow market forces to set competitive prices, they have consistently been one of the most mismanaged businesses in history, oh, and they somehow think they are immune from the business cycle.

How are these guys still in business?

The link to this article again


Fantastic piece.

Lotus Day at Brands Hatch

I'm really hoping to make it to Brands Hatch again this weekend, as the Lotus Owners Club are having a bit of a shindig,which is always good fun. Here's our vintage Lotus Elite [1978] which always goes down very well with most, and seeing as we've had a lot of new work carried out over the winter period, I'm really looking forward to a grand drive...

grand prix circuits

Corporate Design

I've been trying to get into the headspace of the corporate designer. This is harder than it sounds when you are a die hard underground [see also idiot] member of society. I lost a web job to a competitor because I was obviously lower on the darwinian scale of corporateness evolution in presentation and design. It was pretty humbling, I can tell you. I reckon the best example of no frills corporateness is the ibm website. Everyone should check it out to appreciate the simplicity and user friendliness they employ. I looked at the stylesheet for the homepage, and it has hundreds [approx] of classes, yet they all do very simple things. It's a great tutorial, just studying the site. The one thing Ive always really appreciated about the net is how so much information is available, and there is no excuse for ignorance.

New Blogger Layout etc

This all came as a complete shock. Im reeling from the cultural hole left in my life by the removal of the familiar site look at blogger.com. I am stunned. I think I have become someone else overnight, living their routine, their habits, and am now in the throws of a personality crisis. I'm not even sure if I like the new templates, but dare say I'll be won over within the month due to peer pressure.

Ive also realised that my rss feed needs to have publisher dates, otherwise it seems to go screwy in the reader display. That means I'll have to update the entire thing, to get it to run properly. With that and the transfer of all the images to another host, Ive got loads of dog work to do to keep me busy. if anyone knows how to post images into an rss feed so that they display in the reader, please leave a tip or link.....



++ So I decided to join the herd and improved the layout of the boshpage, so as not to feel left out. Sorry to anyone who saw the revolting blue effort a few minutes ago, that's now all a bad dream. Here is some smart grey and a new header pic.

Michael Moore, another view

Ive just seen a couple of posts on other sites deploring Michael Moore for being talentless and crude in his views. I cant really say whether I think he is talented. To me, he is an ordinary fat bloke doing his thing, not fantastic, but a fair bit of fun aimed at the corporate bloated goats over at boardroom oblivion. In the States he seems to be viewed either as a pariah, or a saint. This seems to overdo it slightly. In Blighty, obscure individuals 'kicking againt the pricks' are largely seen as colourful characters upholding the rights of free speech. [We had a guy over here called Roger Cook, who predates Moore by a decade or so.] In fairness to the argument, here is an amusing anti Moore site haha.....me thinks they protest to much, but there you go......it's always hard to take criticism.

Oh well

Chelsea lost 5-3 on aggregate after losing two away goals. Tragic, but fantastic. I nearly broke my foot in the crush. Lots of lovely photos taken though, for posterity. No violence and a great atmosphere, football is truly the game of the gods, even if you are a casual viewer like me.

Chelsea versus Monaco [2nd leg]

Tonight is the chance for Chelsea to get to the Champions league final. This is a momentus occasion, and the streets are teaming [arf] with fans and photographers, police and their horses. The main road is, as usual, closed, causing traffic chaos. The atmosphere is positively curried. I cant wait for the match to begin, although at the same time, I wish it was over/would never start.

America is the new Soviet Union? Discuss

This caught my eye today. Michael Moores new film, Fahrenheit 911 is to be effectively banned by the distributors. Im sure it warms everyones hearts to see just how much America thinks of free speech and the right to different opinions. Im on the email list for Michael, and over here in Blighty he is generally loved and certainly approved of. If America closes its ears, blindfolds itself and hides in a corner, maybe everything will just go away.

Michael Moores site