11 May, 2008
Random queries no. 141
One of a series of genuine search engine enquiries which successfully brought visitors to the Ministry. Can I help?
what does domestic assistant job entail in new kyle of lochalsh medical health centre
10 May, 2008
Walk: Roeburndale Woods
I visited the Roeburndale camping barn at Middlewood (or Middle Wood?) above Wray this afternoon.
Though the idea was to stay all weekend to celebrate H* & D's birthdays, I'd been forewarned that numerous children would be sleeping in the barn so I'd need to take a tent. Somehow that prospect, plus the need to take food, really didn't excite me this morning, so I cycled out with A to see everyone just for the afternoon/evening, returning to Lancaster by 22:15.
Needless to say, I went for a wander in the woods whilst there, taking a few photos of spring in mid bounce.
*: Mr. HV, not Ms. HW; the camping barn definitely isn't a Helen sort of place!
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9 May, 2008
Cielo adentro
I love these 'faux skylights': photos of country scenes and skies, several backlit, which make picture frames and ceilings look like windows to an idyllic outdoors. Photos on ceiling tiles is a nice idea.
I'm sure it'd be possible to replicate some of the effect oneself, with well-printed photos and perhaps a cheap lightbox; in fact I might prefer that, as the 'official' images are slightly too sanitised and twee for my taste.
[Via BoingBoing.]
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Far too old to rock/n'roll
The current Jethro Tull tour commemorates forty years of performing under that name. Ian Anderson's last birthday was his sixtieth. Their musical arrangements and album release schedule are correspondingly sedate, so I lost interest in their contemporary output about a decade ago. However, ongoing fans have been kind enough to inform me about setlists for the Tull Tour History, occasionally including comments about the shows.
I'm afraid I found one slightly depressing:
I was happy for the early nostalgia of the first few songs and they sounded fresh. A New Day Yesterday sounded particularly great and a few people stood up at the end incl myself (had to do it in 2 stages mind..ah the advancing years of the ageing Tull fan) Thought maybe Tull fans should push each other from behind like a Geriatric Mexican Shove?!
If people still find that stimulating, I'm genuinely pleased for them, but it's
really not my thing.
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8 May, 2008
Feeling good
I reached the office an hour late this morning, having been for a ~20 km bike ride in T-shirt & shorts, as it's a sunny day which promises to get quite hot. I feel great.
J. apparently arrived at work at the normal time by overcrowded bus, wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a fleece. He's claiming lethargy. He's also twelve years younger than me.
Sometimes my lifestyle doesn't seem too bad.
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7 May, 2008
Random queries no. 140
One of a series of genuine search engine enquiries which successfully brought visitors to the Ministry. Can I help?
IS lT FAR ON PART OF HUMANS TO REAR SHEEP & CHOP OF THEIR HAIR FOR GETTING WOOL PARAGRAPHED INFORMATION
First: STOP ****ING SHOUTING. If you can't even be bothered to operate your 'shift' key, why should I bother to answer your enquiry?
Oh yeah; to ridicule it. Fair enough.
Far? It's about that far. And I wouldn't start from here, if I were you.
Chop of their hair? I prefer fillet, really.
Wool paragraphed information? Awkward to file.
Joking aside: poor spelling in web searches isn't a matter of snobbishness; your search simply won't work if you garble the keywords.
Having translated the underlying question: 'fair' isn't relevant. They're sheep – wool is what they're for. Barring absolute cruelty I don't believe animals have 'rights', at all, and have no problem whatsoever with their exploitation as a resource. Lambs may be cute, but they taste even better.
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Strip stripped
I don't have a particular problem with the revamped, very-Web 2.0 Dilbert.com site, and I like the fact that the archive has been expanded to encompass several years of cartoons rather than being limited to only those published within the foregoing month.
However, some might like to know that there's a little-publicised streamlined version, displaying just the current day's strip and access to the archive. Useful on dialup, or just to avoid the rather 'busy' main page.
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Brits blogging alone
Anyone who happened to be a member of the Blogging Brits web ring* or Britblog directory should follow those links (so long as the domains still exist).
As that sentence suggests, both resources closed down recently, Blogging Brits by a change in the way web rings work and Britblogs by spam. You may wish to remove redundant links from your sites.
*: Besides, web rings were so 1999.
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6 May, 2008
Cycle ride: Lancaster University-Galgate-Glasson-Lancaster
The sunny evening was far too good to waste, so I decided to cycle home from work via the Glasson Branch canal and Glasson Dock.
Again, the precise route is less relevant than the photos, but in short I cycled from the University to Galgate, along the Branch canal to Glasson, wandered around the village then returned to Lancaster along Ashton Road (the A588).
Somehow, that took 1 hour 45', (though the bike was stationary for 37 minutes) and involved a minor altercation with a distinctly mute swan (it you don't like people passing, don't nest there). I travelled 18.6 km (11.6 miles) at an average of 16 km/h (10.1 mph), peaking at 36 km/h (22.5 mph). If it matters.
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Long lasts
Thanks to Ben Goldacre, I'm more than a little sceptical about the reporting of hard-science research by the mass-media, to the point where I read a headline and automatically dismiss the parascience* story as, well, a story, misunderstood or tweaked by a non-specialist journalist for sensationalist effect. I'd like to think that's an overreaction, and one merely needs to take care, preferably using press articles as a means of discovering interesting research papers then drawing one's own conclusions from them.
This brief article in the Guardian does look like pseudoscience: long-legged women and men with long arms may be less prone to Alzheimer's. That's an attractive suggestion, as I could certainly be described as 'gangly' and fear dementia more than death; H. could consider it reassuring, too. But is it true?
Quite possibly. Ian Sample (who holds a PhD in biomedical materials – I checked) seems to have interpreted the source paper's abstract reasonably (I can't get to the full text, and doubt I'd understand it), and the research does indeed relate limb length to risk of dementia: the former is considered an indicator of early life environment (nutrition at formative ages).
Excellent! <Waves considerable arms in the air.>
*: From Charles Darwin's Blog:
What now appears is – if I may coin a phrase – parascience. It does not deal with the raw work of our noble trade, but its applied results in society and the environment. It leaves the impression that science comes from a Magic Results Machine.
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5 May, 2008
I'll pass. No, really.
Buying a sandwich and bag of crisps from the Students' Union shop, I was offered a free bottle of water.
"No, thanks." *
"Oh. Do you want to get one out of the chill cabinet?"
"No, thanks."
"Okay, that'll be £2, please."
I paid for my lunch, then, as I was leaving, was called back:
"You've forgotten your water!"
Is it really so difficult to comprehend that 'free' doesn't always mean 'worthwhile'?
*: It's not easy to insert hotlinks into speech, but I am a professional.
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Ephics?
Quick addendum to the Phorm traffic tracking/analysis issue: even the spyware pusher's logo seems to be blatant plagiarism.
As a commenter on the Register article notes, they'd also need permission from the font designer to use that typeface. I wonder if they're applying the 'presumed consent' argument to that one too.
Not that it matters: "bad" Phorm will probably change its name to escape its bad reputation (again...) soon. Pity about the damage done to "good" Phorm's name and branding, though.
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