UK Gets Extra Pip At Midnight

I caught a piece on the radio this morning explaining that we're getting an extra pip at midnight when an extra second is added to this year - a "leap second" if you will.
I have to admit to being half-asleep and a teensy bit hungover, so it didn't make a great deal of sense, particularly when they tried to explain that the pips "had escaped" earlier in the year (which sounded frankly terrifying in a boring, sciencey kind of a way), so I'll leave it to someone a bit more coherent than me to explain it...

Happy New Year :-)

My Man Of The Year 2008

No, not either of the shitwits in this picture but Muntadhar al-Zaidi - justifiably outraged Iraqi journo, phantom shoe-flinger and deservedly popular hero around the world.
Nice article by Richard Herring here...
I only hope that any of the fuckers who harm a hair on his head while he's incarcerated get their just desserts too.

El Canto Del Loco - "De Personas A Personas"

Grabbed this off the Spanish eBay the other day - very swiftly delivered and in perfect nick. A beautiful package of text and pictures, featuring a new nudey shoot - and a CD of the Personas album but with a bunch of extra songs, and also a DVD featuring 3 versions of promos for "Eres Tonto", the video for "Peter Pan", plus a 45 minute documentary and also a couple of other goodies like a film about the nudey photoshoot.

It's Christmas and I deserve it! :-)

Why People Don't Trust Politicians

Source: The Guardian
When climate camp protesters descended on the site of the Kingsnorth power station for a week-long summer demonstration, the scale of the police operation to cope with them was enormous. Police were accused of using aggressive tactics, but ministers justified what they called the "proportionate" £5.9m cost of the operation, pointing out that 70 officers had been injured in the course of their duties.
But data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act puts a rather different slant on the nature of those injuries, disclosing that NOT ONE was sustained in clashes with demonstrators.
The Home Office has now admitted that the protesters had not been responsible for any injuries.

Enjoy the following...
"stung on finger by possible wasp"
"officer injured sitting in car"
"officer succumbed to sun and heat"
"officer used leg to open door and next day had pain in lower back"

And to think that the government finds the electorate to be cynical...

A Damp (And Oily) Squib

One final twist in the ludicrous "Hamilton in a Mercedes racing a man on a bicycle" event at this year's Race of Champions...
It didn't happen due to the track being a bit damp and oily.
Who could possibly have predicted that an open-air motorsports event in the middle of December might lead to a damp and oily track?

Is 'publicity stunt' rhyming slang?

"Ethics Bites" podcast

Big thanks to Nigel from Philosophy Bites for telling me about the companion podcast "Ethics Bites" which you can get from here on the interweb or through iTunes by clicking here...
It contains some episodes which are also in the Philosohpy Bites podcast, but mostly this stuff is completely fresh and separate.
Brilliant :-)

Podcast Of The Year :: Philosophy Bites

It's little wonder that Philosophy Bites has made it into iTunes Best Podcasts of 2008...
This has to be my top podcast of the year. Week after week of simply conducted yet wonderfully enlightening discussions with contemporary philosophers and academics on a vast array of subjects, from the most abstract concepts to utterly relevant and applied questions such as the meaning of 'tolerance' and the ethics of bombing civilians.
It's been some time since I studied Philosophy at Uni (and had a blast actually...) so it's a serious pleasure to keep the old noggin ticking over with this thought-provoking and totally engaging series.

Absolutely top stuff. Keep up the good work guys :-)

To subscribe to Philosophy Bites you can either visit their website here or if you prefer to go directly via iTunes then you should click here...
It's impossible to recommend it highly enough.

Chestbusting Clangers, And More...

There's some great tributes to Oliver Postgate here on the Guardian's website including tales of a truly disturbing project that you have to be relieved never saw the light of day... There's some things that you should never see Clangers do, or hear *that voice* say...

Daily Mail in 'Talking Complete Bollocks' Shocker

It's not for nothing that the excellent Charlie Brooker refers to the Daily Mail as a 'How-To Guide For Idiots, published in daily instalments'... It's almost a pleasure to see it spontaneously combusting about the Euro, Europe in general, foreigners, muslims, gays, single mothers, video games, and pretty much most things that make up our world.

So it's great fun to come across a sports editorial blurb in today's copy, berating F1's environmental credentials...
"The truth is Formula One is as environmentally friendly as a flatulent Jeremy Clarkson burning a fridge full of plastic bags in the Sizewell B nuclear reactor."

It's always a giggle to see the Daily Mail launch into a tirade that begins with the phrase "the truth is..." - mostly as it's as sure a sign of a lie as someone who habitually starts sentences with "I'm not a racist but..."
The Mail and the truth inhabit very different worlds; one very real (and indeed truthful), the other a bit rabid and angry and mad.

Anyway - back to the point of this... the Mail is either very dumb or deliberately misleading readers here. (Or probably both - that appears to be their strong point...)
The Formula One circus has been carbon-neutral since around 1997; a fact revealed qiute modestly and unexpectedly by Max Mosley in 2006 - and something he clearly should have been shouting about to help shut up ignorant twats like the Mail who are never happier than when they're furious about something. And I haven't seen much environmental campaigning from them by the way. Gits.

Anyhoo - just wanted to set the record straight.
Daily Mail, sod off.

R.I.P Oliver Postgate

"When Bagpuss goes to sleep..."

Goodbye to a genius who shaped so many millions of childhoods, and filled them with gentle, beautiful, fabulous, imaginative stuff.
Read about him on Wikipedia...

Talavera de la Reina Photos

Had a superb break in beautiful Talavera de la Reina, with Tamara and Michaela; having a great time with Alvaro Bautista's fanclub members ad directors - meeting Bati himself on a number of occasions and having a thoroughly enjoyable time celebrating and making merry.
Here's some photos of the beautiful town itself - there's more in my Facebook albums and on the BatiFans.com Fan Forum.

All over far too quickly and I can't wait to go back...

Talavera De La Reina Here I Come. Again.

I'm heading off to the beautiful and amazingly friendly Talavera de la Reina tomorrow.
It's a fat, long weekend trip in my role of MotoGP geek and Alvaro Bautista fanboy - meeting with Michaela and Tamara to attend Alvaro's official fanclub winter dinner.
The summer party in August was a superb and unforgettable experience and whatever time and contact I may or may not get with the Batster, I already know that his family, friends and fanclub members will be ridiculously warm and welcoming.
I may post up notes nad pics over the weekend, or not - I have no idea how things will pan out at the moment and where all the time will go.
Hopefully there'll be stuff to share in due course. For now I just can't wait to get there :)

The Late, Late, Late, Late, Late, Late...

Possibly the latest ever obituary I'm aware of....

Yarrrrr!!! Tis A Bag O' Shite...

Facebook adverts tend to be annoying at the best of times, but surely - given the current news of a crew and ship being held off Somalia for a ransom of supposedly $25m by a bunch of people who let's face it probably aren't as much fun as Johnny Depp - isn't this just a teensy bit crass????

Feliz Cumpleaños Alvaro Bautista!

As random as pretty much any other post on here, I need to send big best birthday wishes to the fab Alvaro Bautista who turns 24 today.
The MotoGP 250cc ace and former 125cc world champion has had a slightly frustrating, but still phenomenal year, finishing the championship in 2nd, and turning in some of the fastest, most exciting races I've seen. Genuinely edge of the seat stuff.
I'm heading off to his hometown of Talavera de la Reina (southwest of Madrid) next week with a couple of friends to attend his official fanclub's end-of-season dinner and party, which should be brilliant... Any odds on meeting him again are basically a bonus, as his friends and family, fanclub directors, fans - and the whole population and town in general are just awesome anyway. I'll be a very happy bunny just to be there again to be honest :)

Anyway:
Happy birthday mate - have a good one!
Gareth

Random Pic: MacBook X-Ray

Just random... Lifted from Cult of Mac

Related geeknews says that Mac OSX 10.6 "Snow Leopard" is now slated for a release in Q1, 2009...

Courageous Hamilton Aims To Prove Mercedes Faster Than Bicycle

The annual Race of Champions event is coming up again soon - Dec 14th at Wembley to be precise; and it looks to be a cracking tournament featuring the likes of Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Andy Priaulx, Mark Webber, Troy Bayliss, Sebastian Loeb, and David Coulthard in battle against each other in the tarmac-shod stadium.
One luminary, and indeed champion, who won’t apparently be taking part in that battle though is Lewis Hamilton.

However - in a genuinely baffling PR event that can only belittle him as far as I can see - rather than competing with the likes of Schumacher, Coulthard, Button et al on pretty equal terms, Hamilton (the current F1 champion and British media darling) will instead be driving a big bloody Mercedes sports car in a race with a bicycle. Seriously.

In PR terms, surely this is an unholy fart of a gesture... Not only does he not behave in the spirit of the event (and the spirit of a champion) by avoiding competing with his peers (when he’s clearly available!), he also competes on completely unequal terms in another event. An event that is basically lose-lose whatever the outcome on the ground. If the sports car beats the pedal bike then the obvious and presumably only reaction is “well of course he beat it - it’s a frikkin’ bike!”. If however he loses, even though the bicycle is obviously going to be a nice one, and be ridden by olympic cyclist Chris Hoy, the fact remains that it’s a bloke pedalling a bicycle. And he’s beaten a bloody great sports car. Driven by Lewis Hamilton.
See? Lose-Lose... Not as preposterously hilarious as when he “flew” posing as Apollo at this year’s Turkish GP perhaps, but still thought up and taken on with a degree of idiocy and crassness that almost demands admiration.

If he could manage to lower himself to compete with someone as lowly as 7-times world champion Schumacher however, it might look really good as PR. Win-Win in fact...

It's Like They Took My Life & Put It Online

From the excellent Simon's Cat series on Youtube.

Peter Pan Appears In iTunes Music Store

No, not some re-re-re-re-release of a Disney re-release - nor any kind of reference to pop zombie Michael Jackson, but to the beautiful video for "Peter Pan", most recent single by the boys from Madrid, El Canto Del Loco, taken from the album Personas.

Like the clip for "Puede Ser" that I posted up here a while back, it's a lovely subtle piece of work, and likewise a top video for an equally strong song. Nice colours, old Super 8 textures, scribbly crayon animation mixed in - it hits exactly the right vibe.
Click here to go check it out... (and buy it if it grabs you, of course...)

And let's hope that now the band are putting a toe in the water with extending their iTunes portfolio, they'll not leave it too long before adding "Puede Ser", "Besos", "Volvera", "A Contracorriente" and their other best videos.
Pretty please guys... :)

Max Mosley Sticks It To Paul Dacre

(*Above: Max Mosley - Respect!)

Whilst I deplore Max Mosley for squandering many opportunities to save the sport that I loved for so long, I can't help but rejoice at him sticking it to the contemptible Paul Dacre in this Comment Is Free piece.
"Squalid" is a perfect word for the way the Mail - and the rest of the gutter press behave over their seamy exposures in 'the public interest' - as should be transparently obvious to anyone with half a brain, and Dacre's hypocritical cant is given a prefect "Sod Off" by Max in this article - encouragingly supported by many of the comment posters below it.
Mosley's setting aside of what is surely considerable embarrassment to stand his ground on serious questions of *genuine* rights and morality (as opposed to Dacre's grotty little excuses to sell more of his rags) is wonderful.

Good on you Max :)
(Shame about F1 being crap though....)

Remembrance II

From the Independent

Remembrance

...Great in theory.
But just to prove how little we do seem to remember - or indeed learn, here's a list of conflicts around the globe since Armistice Day, 1918.



▪ 1918 Finnish Civil War
▪ 1918 - 1922 Russian Civil War
▪ 1918 Polish-Czech war in Teschen Silesia
▪ 1918 Viena expedition
▪ 1918 - 1919 Poland and Lwow against Westukrainian Republic
▪ 1918 - 1919 Great Poland Uprising, Provinz Posen against Germany
▪ 1919 Third Anglo-Afghan War
▪ 1919 First Silesian Uprising
▪ 1919 Aunus expedition
▪ 1919 - 1921 Polish-Soviet war Poland and Ukrainian Peoples Republic against Soviets
▪ 1919 - 1921 Anglo-Irish War / Irish War of Independence
▪ 1919 - 1922 "Turkish War of Independence"
▪ 1920 - 1922 Second Greco-Turkish War
▪ 1920 Second Silesian Uprising Silesian Poles against Germany
▪ 1921 Third Silesian Uprising Silesian Poles against Germany
▪ 1922 - 1923 Irish Civil War
▪ 1932 - 1935 Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay
▪ 1934 - 1936 Northern Expedition by Kuomintang
▪ 1935 - 1936 Second Italo-Abyssinian War
▪ 1936 - 1939 Spanish Civil War
▪ 1937 - 1945 Second Sino-Japanese War
▪ 1939 - 1945 World War II
▪ 1939 - 1940 Winter War; Part of WW II, Finland against Soviet Union
▪ 1941 - 1944 Continuation War; Part of WW II, Finland against Soviet Union
▪ 1944 - 1945 Lapland War; Part of WW II, Finland against Germany
▪ 1941 - 1945 Pacific War; Part of WW II, Japan against Australia and the United States
▪ 1941 - 1942 Border war between Ecuador and Peru
▪ 1944 - 1949 Greek Civil War
▪ 1945 - 1949 Chinese Civil War
▪ 1946 - 1954 First Indochina War
▪ 1947 - 1949 First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan
▪ 1948 - 1949 First Arab-Israeli War
▪ 1947 - Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan
▪ 1948 - Palestinian / Israeli conflict
▪ 1948 - 1960 Malayan Emergency
▪ 1950 - 1953 Korean War
▪ 1952 - 1960 Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya
▪ 1954 - 1962 Algerian War of Independence
▪ 1954 - 1964 Vietnamese Civil War
▪ 1955 - 1972 First Sudanese Civil War
▪ 1956 Suez Crisis (Second Arab-Israeli War)
▪ 1956 - 1959 Cuban Revolution
▪ 1960 - 1996 Guatemalan Civil War
▪ 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion (CIA-sponsored invasion attempt)
▪ 1961 - 1975 Angolan War of Independence
▪ 1962 - 1963 Sino-Indian War
▪ 1964 - 1973 Vietnam War
▪ 1964 - 1975 Mozambique's War of Independence
▪ 1965 Second Kashmir War (Second Indo-Pakistani War)
▪ 1965 - 1996 Chad Civil War
▪ 1966 - 1988 Namibian War of Independence
▪ 1966 - Colombian Civil War
▪ 1967 Six-Day War (Third Arab-Israeli War)
▪ 1967 - 1970 Biafra War in Nigeria
▪ 1967 - 1975 Cambodian Civil War
▪ 1971 The Pakistani Civil War that becomes the Third Indo-Pakistani War
▪ 1973 Yom Kippur War (Fourth Arab-Israeli War)
▪ 1974 - 1991 Ethiopian Civil War
▪ 1975 - 1989 Angolan Civil War
▪ 1975 - 1991 Lebanese Civil War
▪ 1975 - 1998 War of Indepence in East Timor
▪ 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War
▪ 1979 - 1992 El Salvador Civil War
▪ 1977 - Somalian Civil War
▪ 1978 - Afghanistan Civil War
▪ 1978 - Communist coup of 1978
▪ 1978 - 1992 Civil war between Mujahideen and Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
▪ 1979 - 1989 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
▪ 1980 - 1988 Iran-Iraq War
▪ 1981 Border war between Ecuador and Peru
▪ 1982 Falklands War
▪ 1982 Lebanon War
▪ 1982 - 1984 Mozambique's Ciwil War
▪ 1983 U.S.-sponsored invasion of Grenada
▪ 1983 - 2000 Civil War in Sri Lanka
▪ 1988 - 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan
▪ 1989 - 1990 United States invasion of Panama
▪ 1990 - 1991 Persian Gulf War
▪ 1990 - 1992 Rwanda Civil War
▪ 1991 - 2001 Yugoslav Wars
▪ 1991 Slovenian War
▪ 1991 - 1995 Croatian War
▪ 1992 - 1995 Bosnian War
▪ 1998 - 1999 Kosovo War
▪ 1991 - 1993 Georgian civil wars
▪ 1991 - 1992 South Ossetian war
▪ 1992 - 1994 Abkhazian War
▪ 1993 Georgian civil war, western Georgia
▪ 1991 - 1997 Sierra Leone Civil War
▪ 1993 - 1999 Burundi Civil War
▪ 1994 Yemen Civil War
▪ 1994 - 1996 First Chechen War
▪ 1995 Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador
▪ 1996 - 1997 Liberian Civil War
▪ 1998 - 2000 Border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea
▪ 1999 Kargil Conflict
▪ 1999 - 2003 Second Liberian Civil War
▪ 1992 - 1993 Civil War between different tribal military forces
▪ 1994 - 2001 Civil War between Taliban movement and Northern alliance
▪ 1983 - Second Sudanese Civil War
▪ 1992 - Civil War in Algeria
▪ 1994 - Zapatista Revolution in Mexico
▪ 1995 - Second Ugandan Civil War
▪ 1996 - Civil War in Nepal
▪ 1999 - Second Chechen War
▪ 2001 Macedonian War
▪ 2001 - United States war in Afghanistan
▪ 2001 - Civil War in Côte d'Ivoire
▪ 2003 - Invasion of Iraq
▪ 2003 - Darfur conflict, Sudan
▪ 2004 - Haiti rebellion
▪ 2006 - Lebanon War
▪ 2008 - Second South Ossetia War