"this device cannot start - code 10"

This message is haunting my waking moments and is starting to intrude upon my dreams. Its an error message I get from my internal wireless card on my VAIO laptop and I simply cannot find a way around it. Apparently its the result of a software conflict involving something called IRQs. Basically, despite reinstalling Windows XP to service pack 2 twice and updating everything I could find on the laptop- including Sony's own updates, it still refuses to work. I just get an exclamation mark in device manager and the message in the title. The annoying thing is that it was working perfectly when I got the laptop just after christmas but I so loathe XP's endless request confirmations, security warnings and other fluffy crap that I decided to immediately revert to my old favourite- Windows 2000. There's drivers for W2K for my laptop on Sony's support site so I thought I couldn't lose! Little did I suspect what was in store. After installing all the drivers under W2K half the devices didn't work including the jog dial, power panel, hot keys and the wireless. I tried a few fiddles but there was no obvious reasons why. Reluctantly I got the recovery discs and started to reinstall XP, swearing softly as I did so.

Now, two weeks- and a lot of wasted time later- I have resorted to posting requests for help on PC forums! Oh, the ignominy! Allow me to explain my shame: I am what I like to term "computer literate". I.E. I can make windows sing and dance if I can be arsed. I flaunt this knowledge in illiterate's faces and sneer at the time it takes them to find files on their desktops or locate information on the web. I'm no programmer or hacker or any other uber-geek. I just know how to get stuff done with the minmum of fuss on a PC and I'm generally capable of tinkering around inside the guts (soft- or hardware) of one without wrecking it. Hence my frustration and embarassment at being thwarted by my dream PC!

I love my little laptop dearly- playing with it is actually better than beer!

Labour's stupidity with our tax money

I've never heard of Jenni Russell before but she's pretty well acquainted with the absurdities of PFI and Labour's insane payouts to management consultants. Anyone who damns the Trident replacement is ok in my books.

casual Tory racism

Very illuminating (damning?). Lots more about this from the Guardian.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jennette_arnold/2008/01/a_vicious_campaign.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,,2248415,00.html

A nice example of how conservative attitudes cross over into outright dehumanisation. A relevant quote:

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
— John Kenneth Galbraith

I might observe that a precise definition, per Yasmin's experience, would include the search for immoral justifications as well (I'm talking about racism, in case you didn't get that).

The War on Terror

Simon Jenkins has done a powerful job of damning the actions of Bush and Musharraf. If only he'd dealt Tony his rightful share of vitriol too this would have been a masterpiece!

Apple's greenwank

I like the idea of Apple if not the reality. I admire the design of the iPod hugely and would love to own one but I refuse to buy one on principle because of the enormous legacy of DRM and uncopiable music that is called iTunes. If someone gave one to me, well that's another issue (any offers?).

This little article adds credence to my conviction that Apple products are the exact opposite to what Steve Jobs would have you believe. After many early tales of unreplaceable batteries and unreplaceable music libraries this really does put Apple in the top 10 of the greenwank offenders list.

why does the Western world persist in viewing other nations as 'barbarians at the gate'?

Paul Rogers takes NATO to task for its 'them and us' perspective. A much needed criticism.

John Gray, political philosopher, is a cockweasel

This is a pleasantly comprehensive rebuttal of a cockweasel's character assassination attempt on the green movement in general.

make the flat days fun . . .

I want one!

Derek Wall, GP Principal Speaker (male), is a twat

Ruscombe Green posted this about Derek Wall demanding the release of the two Sea Shepherd animal rights extremists who boarded a whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean the other day. He is completely wrong. He is a moron, all the more so for speaking on behalf of the Green Party. I am ashamed that the political party I so frequently voice my support of is being so stupid as to voice support for a bunch of pirates and whale-cuddlers. Get this: Derek Wall called the Whalers- whose ship had been illegally boarded by the whale cuddlers- "pirates". Lets just run over that again in case there's any room for misinterpretation. Illegally boarding a whaling ship is not piracy, rightly detaining two marauding animal rights extremists who have boarded your vessel in international waters is piracy.

Twat!


In case anyone's confused about my green credentials and my scorn for whale-huggers, remember that I am a marine biologist and covered the scientific and moral aspectsof whaling during my honours degree.

Intelligent things to ask an extremist whale-cuddler:

• What evidence is there to suggest that killing whales is any less ethical than killing cows?
• Apart from those populations which are endangered, why should more populous species not be hunted for food by nations with a heritage of whaling? (There are > 1 million sperm whales in the oceans currently- so many that they are a pest to shipping.)
  
• Your attempts to halt whaling frequently endanger the lives of the crews of the whaling ships and suggests you value the lives of whales above those of humans, how do you justify this?
  

America vs Europe

Ian Williams: Interesting chap.


Sorry all my posts are really short at the moment. I am absurdly hectic at work at the moment. My HPLC pump died on me and I've had to rebuild the system with scrounged components. I'm also trying to write a paper, have been making diagrams for another paper, supervising students, getting into metabolomics (NMR- fuck, yeah!), analysing data and liaising with all the other cutting edge worm science motherfuckers with small penises out there. Oh, yeah- and I saved the world yesterday from a rogue worm virus that threatened to kill off half the population of the Western Hemisphere, blind the other half and drive everyone else psychotic and sterile. . . . . . . or did I read that in The Guide?

fuck the police

Fuckers.

They've got a shit job to do but omnipotent attitudes like this don't do their public image any favours whatsoever. I was always struck, whilst growing up, by the hatred that some of my peers displayed for the police, usually those kids from the uglier bits of town. I couldn't understand why as I had no contact with the police and to me they seemed to be a good idea in case someone decided to run off with my bike. These days I see it a little differently. The last people I'd turn to if someone stole my bike would be the police. "Well, sir, we'll log the details and contact you if anything turns up."

'If anything turns up'? You're not going to actually do jack about this are you? Why not just admit that you're powerless in the face of petty crime due to a lack of cooperation from the public and a lack of staff on your part. And who have you got to blame for that?

new light shed on the nuclear debacle

Another North-Eastern blogger to give props to.

Good work, that man!

The Independent, the Indian car manufacturer and Western hypocrisy

From Lenin's Tomb. Word!

Cuckoo Factor Ten!

This complete gibberish has been legally posted online, much to the chagrin of the Church of Scientology. Normally you have to pay $400,000 to get access to this!

Talk about giving science a bad name!

Björn Lomborg is a climate change denying cunt

I will make a good job of criticising his bullshit position when I have the time. But briefly for now:

• 2 degree target is a global figure, varying greatly with latitude- eg. changes at the poles might be >10 degrees whilst at the equator virtually nothing. This is still a massive threat eg. sea level rises. The 'peer reviewed' source he quotes is a fucking ECONOMICS JOURNAL- not a science journal!
  
• 25-40% figure is actually an underestimate- not an overestimate- see George Monbiot for more detail
  
• the $84trillion figure is laughable seeing as I've made a point of emphasising that combatting cilmate change can be economically beneficial.
  
• Also, the twat appears not to have heard of that little thing called The Stern Review

Marcus Brigstocke is unspeakably funny

- this is even funnier than the last one!

Marcus Brigstocke rules

This is just plain awesome.

why do people put up with this form of government?

For my entire life its been one bunch of inept, corrupt bastards after another. And here's more of the same. For fucks sake will people please vote for anyone but the tories, the new party, the BNP or nu-lab!!!

Get the message you wankers! They are not working for you- they are exploiting and manipulating you because they can be sure that they will always hold either the top spot or the bastards-in-waiting position thanks to your inability to perceive a simple trend. I.E. the same governments and the same shite results. Time after time.

grgrgrrrrrrrrrrrrrr mumblmblmblmblll whine whinge grit moan etc.etc.etc.

main hope for safe nuclear fuel disposal fails test of time

I have been looking for this for months now as its particularly pertinent to the current climate. I read it when it was published but forgot where I read it and have only just come across it again. Anyway, vitrification as a technique for immobilising nuclear waste for the hundreds of thousands of years necessary for its radiation to fade to safe levels is actually more likely to release its lethal radioactive burden after a mere millennium and a half.


Addition: Sellafield clean up will cost tax payer £34 billion!!!!

In another cheery bit of news from nukesville we have the revelation today that the British Nuclear Group, a subsidiary of BNFL, stands to contribute only ~£8 billion to the clean up operation that will cost a total of ~£42 billion. Why a public listed company should be allowed to simply hand its liabilities over to the government without being held to account eludes me. Apparently BNFL is desperately trying to shed the group to avoid this liability falling back onto them. No-one seems to have factored in any long-term costs for storing the several tonnes of high-level plutonium which the site currently holds and seeing as the proposed solution for safely disposing of this material has just gone down the pan I really do struggle to comprehend why this government is proposing that more of this material should be produced.

quote of the day

Martin Luther King:

"There are certain technical words in every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and even clichés. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. You who are in the field of psychology have given us a great word. It is the word maladjusted. This word is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is a good word; certainly it is good that in dealing with what the word implies you are declaring that destructive maladjustment should be destroyed. You are saying that all must seek the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities.

But on the other hand, I am sure that we will recognize that there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence.

In a day when Sputniks, Explorers and Geminies are dashing through outer space, when guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can finally win a war. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence, it is either nonviolence or nonexistence. As President Kennedy declared, 'Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.' And so the alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a suspension in the development and use of nuclear weapons, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and eventually disarming the whole world, may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation. Our earthly habitat will be transformed into an inferno that even Dante could not envision."

I got it from Adam Curtis' film The Century of The Self.

my political compass

This website is coool! I am in complete agreement with the author's view that the old political paradigm of 'left' and 'right' is utterly obsolete in this day and age. In fact its actually an obstacle to intelligent debate as the terms are used wholly inappropriately to beat opponents with.

Here' s mine (as if you couldn't work this out for yourself after reading a couple of posts here):

Johann on the NHS

Johann rules.

Were they really gunboats? Were they even Iranian?

. . . because they don't look like gunboats to me. The one shown in close up is bright blue, for a start- hardly a military paint job. Secondly its a closed-bow design with two people in it and no visible armaments. "Gunboats" suggests boats with guns in them. This looks more like a toy. Certainly the way they're being driven doesn't suggest hostile intentions- the US made a point of observing that they were in international waters and therefore every right to be there, it looks more like a bunch of rich twats on a yeehaa mission.

Secondly, how does the Pentagon know they were Iranian, let alone from the revolutionary guard? Maybe they spoke Persian or the radar indicated they came from the Iranian coastline but so fucking what? This is pretty weak stuff, even for the Pentagon- the people who brought us "Iranian-made" IEDs and Extraordinary Rendition.


Addition:

CounterPunch also smells bullshit re: the Gulf of Hormuz incident- or was it the Straights of Tonkin?

Catholic Bishop: "Sky Pixie told me condoms don't protect against AIDS"

Word!


Addition:

There's a diatribe on this subject over at the NSS.

of nukes and bonuses

Two CiF articles to mention today, one on the abhorrence of escalating executive pay and another calling for abandonment of the government's nuclear fetish.

6th January - Day of Blog Silence to Protest the Imprisonment of Blogger Fouad Alfarhan

kicking the pro-nuke brigade in the nuts

I mentioned this before but its turned into such a righteous ding-dong that I had to draw further attention to my awesomeness. I'm commenting as thesimpletruth, check out my manly handling of the nuke-lovers and ecocidal maniacs.

I rule. Totally.

punkfacts

Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock options rose 3000% in value from 2004-2005.

was a British Territory used as a CIA "black site"?

I missed this when it was published but picked it up through a harrowing ZNet article. If true- and testiment from Clive Stafford Smith is pretty much the most unassailable evidence you can get- then Blair's government is complicit in torture, abduction and generally being the raw, physical manifestation of evil.

They must be punished.

the conceit of Labour politicians

Simon Jenkins delivers a serious tongue-lashing to the idiots in Westminster who presume to lecture others on democracy. I hope Gordon Brown reads this. He'll need therapy afterwards.

Another CiF post details why Labour is wholly responsible for the obscene rail fair rises and the delays resulting from unfinished maintenance work. Christian Wolmar rules. The links in his article are enlightening. As someone in the comments has observed, why are we paying billionaires our tax money to cream off as profits? (Addition: More British rail service bashing on CiF here.)

We are also graced with another article by Prem Sikka asking why our financial system is so open to abuse by the very people who are meant to be regulated by it.

Finally George Monbiot's latest missive on CiF is a study of arrogance and contrived evil as he analyses the position of one Lord Guthrie and Sir Kevin Tebbit, who both feel the UK was wholly entitled to commit what the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg declared to be "the supreme international crime".

dappy new year ! ! !

Well, I survived the surf! Fistral was pumping and me and my softee had a riot in the white water- there was no way I was getting out back in 6ft swell!

Got to go do that again. Every time I go surfing I;m reminded how unfit I am and how much fun it can be. Awesome stuff!