more polonium

Continuing the spy news story from a few days ago, I heard today that I'd been on one of the three planes that had been discovered to be involved in the recent Polonium-210 investigation.

And sure enough, I later received an email listing me as a passenger.

As it happens, my trip to Dusseldorf on the date specified had been cancelled, so fortunately there was no need for me to be concerned. And indeed, all three planes have now been given a clean bill of health, so hopefully that particular aspect of the recent alert is now over.

But Tony Blair is keeping nuclear weaponry in the public eye, planning to spend between £15bn and £20bn on new submarines to carry Trident missiles. These submarines are reported to take 17 years to develop and build, and would last until about 2050. Now I checked on the current Trident programme and guess what? its lifespan is 30-years due to end in 2024.

So, wait...if the programme started today, the new submarines will be ready one year before the end of the lifespan of the things they are supposed to carry. A great dyslexic move would be to keep the missiles until 2042 instead and maybe give them a makeover.

As a small illustration, here's a 30 year old British car; if one could still be found, maybe it could be made into a fully 21st Century compliant vehicle.

iPhone

There is suddenly a lot of interest in the iPhone, which has been rumoured for many, many months. Here's my old post from June 2005.

Maybe its almost ready?

The rumour is that it is (a) Zoolander small but (b) has two batteries, one for music, another for the phone. Intriguing.

Apple won't be iLeaking though...

Tag: rashbre, iPhone, iTalk, Apple, iPod phone, Mac

ex libris

The library at rashbre central is somewhat disorganised, with way too many books spread around in unintelligible patterns.

I'm hoping that LibraryThing will help bring some order to this. A reassuring number of book covers can still persist in virtual space but the individual titles can be safely hidden away.

Want to have a peek at my bookshelves? The first few are now open for general perusal and disapproval via my profile here.

Drop me a comment if you also use this and we can compare shelves!

steep gradient

There's an old tradition in the UK Press known as juxtaposition, where a couple of apparently unrelated stories are co-located on purpose. Sometimes this when it is not possible to draw a direct link between them for various sometimes legal reasons.

So today's Sunday Times article about Michael Grade with what appears to be cloven feet seems particularly intriguing. Doesn't it seem strange that News Corporation (who own the Sunday Times, Sky television and have just taken a 17.9% shareholding in ITV) now print the page as my photo illustrates.

Grade was chairman of BBC until a few days ago and has now jumped to a great rewards package to a great challenge to re-invigorate the ITV.

In the ancient television days of a few years ago, when there were really still four receivable terrestrial channels and less than 200 satellite, there was still a reasonable, (some would say world leading) selection of television programes from the UK and it was moderately evenly balanced between the old ITV and BBC.

Then after reality and cheap television like Love Island, Viewer of the Year, I'm a celebrity (D-lister), get me out of here, Soapstar Superstar and so forth, it may take some effort to de-mush the ITV schedules. The new (still secret?) ITV show "Fortune" with ex convict Jeffrey Archer alongside sex-shop Ann Summer's founder Jacqueline Gold handing out money to make peoples' wishes come true seems to be from the same genre. ("Jim'll fix it" with a convict and a sex shop owner?)

In fairness, Corrie (not on my personal viewing list) does seem to have a sense of humour and a heart and there have been some strong dramas although a fair few are about flawed detectives. Of course, Grade knows the entire BBC plans for 2007 and beyond anyway, so this should help his turnaround of ITV's programming.

Tag: rashbre, ITV, Michael Grade, Sunday Times, BSkyB, News International

shopping

A couple of weeks ago I was in a well known retailer trying to buy something moderately expensive; lets just say it was somewhat more than fifty quid.

I could see the item behind a glass case but there were no shop assistants to be found. I walked around the largish store and the two or three visible assistants were busy.

I returned to the area and another woman had found the remaining assistant and was asking questions about a purchase and getting unknowledgeable and insouciant replies.

I waited patiently for about another five minutes and then politely asked if the assistant could pass me the boxed item, which I would then carry to the checkout. "Can't do that", he replied, "You have to have someone take the item to the checkout". I protested there was no one etc, then left the area, couldn't see anyone else free and so I left the shop. I later found the item on the internet, ordered it and it arrived a couple of days later.

Today, I see that UK High Street giants are slashing prices as they try to tempt shoppers to part with their cash amid fears that shops may suffer their worst Christmas for 25 years. Most of the big names are doing this, but I fear they may have missed the plot. Where we find uninformed, offhand assistants they are more akin to sales prevention officers.

Retailers need to find improved ways to inspire enthusiasm from the people running their counters or we will all find other channels.

Retail analyst Footfall is saying that next four weeks of shopping could be nervous for retailers and that thre is a 15% reduction in shoppers over last year. If the only response is price cutting then I suppose we all get what we deserve.

Well as diamond geezer reports, they closed Oxford Street to traffic today to make more space for shoppers. Adjacent was an art installation called Santa's Ghetto.

Tag: rashbre, Santa, london, oxford street, banksy, retail

gambling the night away

The party last night was themed around Monte Carlo and so we had a kind of jet-set James Bond Casino Royale vibe for the evening.

Everyone sparkled with a high tux and gown count and chattered at the Champagne Bar, before we moved into the dining area.

The girl dancers showed great flexibility during the early evening and then later as the bass kicked in and the dance floor opened there was a surge to be part of the action.

There were other activities reminiscent of Monte Carlo, such as the Monaco Grand Prix, although the highly manourvrable cars were somewhat smaller than the originals.

Suffice to say my gambling was ineffective and the house won.

1734

...was the last time we had such a warm November in England. Its strange to see pavement cafes in operation at a time when we would usually have frost. In Northumberland they are picking raspberries instead of clearing snowdrifts. Now is the time to read the Sir Nicholas Stern. Or here for a guide to climate change.

Tag: rashbre, england, global warming, winter, weather, climate change

Thursday Thirteen (V34)

The secular Christmas season is really approaching now:

1) The blue lights are up in Sloane Square
2) Woolworth's have television advertisements featuring snow
3) The Star Wars LP containing "Christmas in The Stars" and "R2D2 we wish you a merry Christmas" is getting blogged.
4) The car park at Marks and Spencer was completely full on Wednesday, mid afternoon.
5) I attend my first Christmas Party tomorrow.
6) Sky was showing Santa Claus films on four channels yesterday
7) I've eaten my first mince pie of the season
8) There were hot cross buns in Sainsbury's last weekend
9) There's a robin in the garden
11) Some blogs have already had a Christmas makeover
12) I should make a list for the chimney
13) I saw a car with a Christmas Tree in it tonight
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Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday, 82ask

NaNoKeepGoing

I just updated my wordcount on NaNoWriMo and discovered I'd gone over the 50,000 mark, which was the objective within November. The last two or three times I've run the updater, the little counter didn't go up, so I was surprised this time when it jumped several thousand words.

Last year, when I did this, I'd also pretty much finished the story as well, so I'd sort of guessed how to land at the desired point. This time, I'm still in mid plot, so I really have quite a lot more writing to just get to a finished rough draft. I shall continue for another few days, to try to get the ending resolved. I know what I want to happen but need several more stages before I can get there.

And this time, I've left some areas where I intended to go back and add further characterisations and contextualisations to the storyline. Hmm. Maybe I've been a little too ambitious. My best wishes and encouragement to anyone else battling to break through the 50,000 word mark before midnight on Thursday.

Check out my opening chapter here

OTA Wordless Wednesday

milan, too much time on the runway

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

word flood

Landing this evening at Heathrow, I noticed the news about new flood warnings around London.

We've moved from a drought alert to flood warnings in a matter of days, yet there's still a hosepipe ban in quite a few areas. I suppose, in typical British tradition it will be 'the wrong type of rain'.

On the way back from Italy, we flew round in circles a few times before landing, which did give me some extended typing time so I've managed to catch up somewhat on my Nano musings, although it will still be rather squeaky about whether I managed to hit the full 50,000 by the end of Thursday. Compared with the last time, I seem to have developed a more divergent plot which I don't think really fits the 50,000 word format, so I suspect I will need to keep going for another couple of weeks if I expect to round it off.

mellow yellow

I've been sitting enjoying company with friends in a restaurant in central Milan this evening. Five of us bundled into an impossibly small taxi on the way to the restaurant and then met two more at the venue.

We talked about politics in Italy, and their wish to somehow increase the number of women in Italian political parties. I couldn't help thinking of Ilona Staller (Cicciolina), who made her name in another way before moving into politics.

Then at some point we moved onto James Bond, and like most people I feel as if I've seen the film, although its still on my 'to do' list.

The Saffron risotto and local red wine were both excellent.