Another Pair Of Eyes

In The News

What do you reckon? Undercurrent religious opposition (despite the statement to the contrary within the article)? Genuine concerns about side-effects and time off, mysteriously not taken up by any other schools thus far?

I’m a medical person, and am hence inclined to think they are fools to deny a potentially life-saving vaccine to their children on school premises – will every parent take their child to the doctors to have the vaccine? I doubt it.

In my view, the governors have put at risk the lives of their female pupils and this is out of line. It’s very black and white, I know – but is my opinion (or their action, for that matter) justified?

Thoughts appreciated.

Also, I just came across this. Bit like opening a can of worms, but it really concerned me so I’ll post it here anyway. I’d trust the Chinese government with this information for about as far as I could throw President Hu Jintao with my hands tied behind my back and a rock the size of Bilbao balanced on my forehead.

Addendum: And apparently, people are both gullible and stupid. I’d've thought those pop-up boxes were pretty obvious really…

Addendum II: Can’t seem to stop adding things to a topic so easy as ‘In the News’. This was harrowing.

Third and final addendum: Crazy people. I mean seriously. What the hell?

The Interpreter

I was given this film for my birthday two and a half years ago, watched it then and clearly didn’t pay enough attention, as I consigned it to ‘incomprehensible’ and did not watch it since. Tonight I watched it again, and this time I paid enough attention. It was excellent, although the structure of the film is slightly unbalanced (difficult to explain why, but I think you’ll understand if you’ve seen it)

The film concerns an interpreter at the UN (surprise surprise) who overhears a snippet regarding an assassination plot – the target, the president of Matabo, accused of genocide. A detective is assigned to investigate her and the plot, and the film moves in a complex arc from there. You need to be on the ball, and many parts of the film are difficult to piece together until later, but you have just enough information to keep guessing. Some stuff I think were too missed-out on, but on the whole it’s pretty good. It’s tense and it’s suspenseful, and it’s got me making up words. Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn are fantastic, and I don’t generally take note of excellent acting so it really is spot on (Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, for example!) 8/10.

An interesting appedum for after you’ve watched the film: the film is banned in Zimbabwe. It doesnt take much figuring to work out why.

Speaking of Zimbabwe, what do people think of the power-sharing deal, from what coverage has been given? Going to work, or not? Opinions polled here…

Doorway

The latest in boredom-alleviating Things To Do involved a photo I took in Spain of a playground in Bilbao, a photo of a moutain in the same country, some time spent with a metal ring and a torch (to determine where the sunshine should go) and a couple of hours in pixelmator (cheapo mac photoshop). Result?

Comments, critical or otherwise, welcome!

Palin

Sarah Palin as vice-president of the USA is a terrifying prospect, and with John McCain at a rich 72 years of age the possiblity of President Sarah Palin becomes truly terrifying.

A small list of things. Sarah Palin:

• is anti-abortion
• is anti-gay
• believes that global warming is not a man-made phenomonon
• is pro-drilling for oil in wilderness preserves
• has a husband who works for BP. Coincidental, no?
• believes that polar bears will be fine if all the ice melts and will ‘just adapt’ to living on land despite evidence to the contrary.
• thinks that Creationism should be taught in schools, and the evolution is rubbish.
• is already embroiled in an abuse of power case as governor of Alaska. Interestingly, during the first week of her tenure as Mayor of Wasilla in Alaska, she fired the librarian (when it was stated that the library would not allow censorship of its books – no books were ever removed) and the chief of police (who was against allowing the legalisation of carrying concealed weapons which Palin supported). There were no reasons behind this case save political ones.
• has been to Ireland (where her plane was refuelled) and Kuwait (not Iraq). This is the limit of her foreign policy experience.
• supports capital punishment
• supports the aerial hunting of wolves for sport with a bounty of $150 per set of wolf paws

She’s about as right wing as they come. I am actually terrified of the prospect of her getting into a position of yet more power. The most alarming US politician of the moment?

Employment!

Yes, a job (albeit temporary, and probably suicide inducing). I’m working for UCL under Xtreme Everest again, in a database-crafting capacity for a research project which has absolutely nothing to do with XE save the person running it. Benefits include money (not a lot, mind!), which is something I need a great deal, and some dubiously useful Access experience (dubiously because I can use Access, but not as well as I’d like and I suspect I’ll be learning an unnecessary level of detail) working with data for when I am doing it from the researcher’s point of view in two years time. Funkity fun. It also lets me work from home, saving me volumes on travel, and freeing me up to work antisocial hours to do what I wish during the social ones.

Negative points include the fact that a) databases are boring b) data is boring c) Access is complicated and relationship tables are crappy and d) working from home means it’s going to be tough to motivate myself to do all these boring and fiddly things.

Still, on the plus side I can paint garden furniture and windowsills in my spare time, to break the monotony. Life is good again =/

Still, it’s good to be earning! Think POSITIVE!

Transient

It’s so nice to meet people, even if you never exchange names or numbers or e-mails, just to have a conversation about the mundane on a train journey which would otherwise dull you to death. I spoke to a lovely girl on the train today. We did the crossword together, failed to solve an anagram together, and discussed about the merits of thank-you letters as opposed to thank-you phone calls. She got off at Worpleston and that was that. Nothing more, nothing less. People on the transport system in Britain, especially in London during commuting time, are generally so involved (or even outright hostile) that it’s refreshing to have a change of pace (a woman smiled at me on the tube this morning and I almost fell off my chair. Two friendly events in a day?! What is London coming to?).

I’d love to meet her again.

Niggle

Do you ever get the feeling that something, just something, isn’t quite right? No way to put a finger on what it is, no distinct pointers, just a general feeling of ill-ease?

Technically, I feel fine. My knee is on the mend, although it’s still noticable in the afternoons/evening. My cat is fine (he had a check-up today, so it wasn’t like there was a specific problem – why my cat has check-ups etc are a long story for another day). I’m looking forward to uni, I’m not in the midst of any quarrels, I’m not breaking down into tears at every opportunity. Yet friends keep asking if I’m ok, if everything is alright, and I know somewhere down the line that there is a reason they keep enquiring.

Something isn’t right. I just don’t know what it is, or why it is. I can’t understand it, or explain it, or even get the slightest hint of what it’s about. When you ask how I am and I say fine…well, it might not be strictly true, but I can’t give a better answer than that.

PS: In the vein of ‘an xkcd for every occasion’, I give you xkcd 222.