Born today: Fellow Iowegian Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), Sepp Blatter (1936), Chuck Norris (1940) and Sharon Stone (1958).
It is Tibetan Uprising Day.
10 March 2010
10/03/10
Born today: Fellow Iowegian Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), Sepp Blatter (1936), Chuck Norris (1940) and Sharon Stone (1958).
It is Tibetan Uprising Day.
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Happy Birthday, Bix.
ReplyDeleteI love the pic. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteAgree MsR - and glad those bloody barbies have gone! Back to work this morning after the strike. Hey ho....
ReplyDeleteI just bumped into the door. Hard edge..lump on eyelid. Headache. Tell me if I start slurring. This means I can't have an afternoon nap.
ReplyDeleteAmazing pic, Montana, where is it?
ReplyDeleteIts always terribly depressing looking at photos like that on a grey morning in filthy London...
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ReplyDeleteMorning all. Ooh, MsR, are you OK? Ouch...
ReplyDeleteInteresting piece from Lionel Shriver - not 100% right (the salary thing) but largely much more interesting than most of the 'feminist narrative' on CIF...
Blimey - thought picture was an artist's impression of Carthage!
ReplyDeleteUsed to know a girl called Carthage. That's what you get having classicist parents...
@Philippa, speaking of Carthage and names, it saddens me that 'Hannibal' has gone out of fashion as a boy's name (because of 'The Silence of the Lambs' and the rhyme with 'cannibal', obviously). He has always been one of my heroes. A military genius and a great man.
ReplyDeleteI have always thought the Potala Palace not only one of the most stunning buildings in the world, but simply one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen - though not in real life.
ReplyDeleteWithout wishing to appear too weird, it creates a sudden physical sensation, like accidentally catching the eye of an attractive woman and exchanging smiles.
It is like a sudden injection of love.
OK. Weird interlude over.
Worth looking up other pictures of it, though.
Nigel Farage being taken apart by Salma Yaqoob on woman's hour.
ReplyDeletehe's claiming to be a feminist.
some laughter heard in the background.
Atomboy - aye, I think I didn't think it was real because it looks too perfect...
ReplyDelete(on a more prosaic artistic note - the sky makes it - you need good sky...)
Oh god, Zoe Margolis is now on...
ReplyDeletehave back-burnered work, clearly....
hang on - she was against the idea of feminism = lapdancer? Have I totally missed the point of her writing?
ReplyDeletePhilippa, dont be surprised by contradictions - she's a thoughtless attention seeker, she has nothing to say. She has been elevated to the role of political commentator because she's, you know, an empowered, radical woman.
ReplyDelete(appparently)
jay - the interview was ... I'd usually say 'interesting' as a means of damning by faint praise but can't even manage that...
ReplyDeleteah, the first 'let's be absolutely clear' on the W@1 MPs panel.
ReplyDeletethis week's winner - Ms Teresa May! come on up to the podium, Teresa, and collect your Franklin Mint figurine of Gordon smacking a spin doctor...
Head of BBC3 sounding rather like a spoiled child failing to qualify for the last round of the local 6th form debating competition...
ReplyDeleteHey all,
ReplyDeleteNot been about much lately, been on holiday. Just read the Monbiot piece and some of the comments, arggh, but is it any wonder people distrust scientists when New bl**dy Scientist e-mailed me this morning telling me to smile more cos smiley people live longer (New Scientist, please write out 100 times: correlation is not causation!)
Hello Dot! Nice holiday?
ReplyDeleteThere were some tangential refs to New Scientist on the recent Simon Singh thread - sounds like someone's screwed up but nobody's allowed to talk about it (you can see the holes in the thread)...
Amazing holiday thanks Philippa, went to visit a friend (and fellow biologist) in Africa, where she works on big furry things with pointy teeth, did you know that cheetahs purr?
ReplyDeleteJust had a quick look at the Singh thread, the number of deletions kind of backs up his point, no?
Hiya Dot!
ReplyDeleteGreat article by zounds.
Hello All
ReplyDeleteDot - I did know that Cheetahs purr - just big pussy cats doing what cats do. Wonderful animals - did you meet any?
Mind - I suppose the Devil purrs too.
Tibet - Did anybody ever read the books by Lapsong Rhampa - supposedly a Tibetan monk? I loved them - one he wrote from the point of view of a cat. Rumour had it he was actually a tram driver from oop North
ReplyDeleteHi thauma, Leni,
ReplyDeleteYep, got to see several, and meet two, in a rehabilitation centre (although the two I met were hand reared and beyond going back to the wild, unfortunately) the knowledge of the purring comes from feeling it!
"big furry things with pointy teeth"
ReplyDeletesounds like Jeremiah, my mate's cat. size of a f-ing coffee table (and not happy if you put a mug on him). glad you had fun (and weren't eaten)!
Really like the zounds piece - hoping for more from him.
There is something special about feeling an animal purr. There have been claims that nursing cats - happy purring ones not the scratchy variety - can be therapeutic. Don't know if this is true but it feels good.
ReplyDeletePhilippa
Yes - Excellent from Zounds. Busy wondering if he is talking about Communalism - not the ethnic based variety that seeks to seperate mixed communities into their supposed seperate parts.
Welcome back dot - you are scheduled to write a piece on the tranquility of river wading by next friday.
ReplyDeleteMartillo - i forgot to say hello the other day, was in the midst of a row so apologies. Im sure i remember speaking to you plenty of times when you used to post here, and definitely noticed when you stopped posting. Would be good to see more of you.
Thanks Philippa, I still have a headache.
ReplyDeleteAnother great Tibet book is Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrier (first man to climb the Eiger north Face).
ReplyDeleteOff to have a read of zounds piece.
zounds piece has cheered me up no end. Lovely to see this thinking getting an airing on cif. As a poster said - the detractors are struggling to find ways of undermining him.
ReplyDeleteSheff - yes, particularly poor right-wing trolling attempts!
ReplyDeleteEvening all
ReplyDeleteOooh. Zounds looks about 20 years younger than I thought he was. Just trotting off to read his piece now.
Not looking forward to work tomorrow - which rarely happens to me. Off to one of the more stressed, understaffed under-pressure CPS areas in London where I will probably be spending most of my day asking for adjournments and trying to explain why the CPS have fucked up a trial again. I feel so sorry for them there as the folks work really hard but, like every other public service, are squeezed until their pips squeak, bless them.
Now, to Zounds!
Just been on the asylum thread. Have decided to fess up to working for the UKBA. Am doing this as I plan to leave in June and no longer have to give a shit what they think about what I do in my own time.
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea the hard time they gave me for housing destitute asylum seekers and can no longer stand their bloody paranoia. I shall be poor but free!! Can't wait.
Another flying visit, just to say I'm still around just sidetracked elsewhere.
ReplyDeletesheff
Freedom will be worth it, by the sound of things.
Breath of fresh air, that article. Superb.
ReplyDeleteSheff - I always thought you working for the UKBA would ultimately lead to cognitive dissonnance somehow.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing the right thing. And something else more suitable will spring up now you have made that decision.
Well done! :o)
BB
ReplyDeleteHave been doing it for a few years now - not on the asylum end thank christ but looking after temporary migrant workers in agriculture - making sure their pay and working conditions complied with the regs.
Unfortunately had to manage in an organisation where they're really paranoid about 'security' and where the mind set is very conservative for the most part. Has been driving me bonkers and can no longer stand it.
Sheff - a very good friend of mine works for HO Immigration, and she has confessed to being terrified to even say what she does for a living. She's in FOI compliance, for christ's sake.... thing is, if the humans leave, who's left? I mean, I fully understand your (and her) position, but if push came to shove, I'd rather have you and Sarah running our immigration policy than some borderline fascist who can't spell Afghanistan....
ReplyDeleteJust looked at Asylum thread - full of the usual 'a bullet is the cheapest option' types.
ReplyDeleteWell done sheff. you will find somewhere better to use your compassion and skills.
hope this arrives - having probs.
Phillipa
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean and its one of the things that has kept me there this long. But in the end the culture wears you down - its certainly worn me down.
Thats not to say there aren't decent people working there - there are, but its infested with those who simply keep their heads down and tow the line and i simply can't stand it any longer.
Its not an organisation where its safe to speak your mind and people don't.
Sheff
ReplyDeleteI/m with you on this one. It took me 10 years to close a private scool I worked in for a short time. Started off by complaing - educ, chief in LA agreed with me but told me not to put anything in writing or I would never work again in ed.
It is a huge problem - you can , once you find a route - do more on the outside. Look at the mess the SS are in - also have good people up against a system deliberately kept closed to silence protest and try to stop leaks.
Hi guys - will pop over and look at Zounds piece which I seem to have missed - sounds fab
ReplyDeleteSheff well done lass - I was up at Priesthill Rd today left a card among the tributes to the Russian family. One of the home-made posters on the grass says 'destitution kills' - a lot of grief in these flats
Sheff - I hear you, sister....
ReplyDeleteyou know i am chaotically unemployed, and seraching for something practical to do - anyway...daydream of mine... elderly relative leaves me a house (no money, just a house) so instead of 'realising' said house, it's used to provide homes for half a dozen people and we all bumble along amusingly (paying the gas bill out of the book sales)...
sheff - agree with Philippa that is much more reassuring you working for the UKBA than, for example, some of the compassionless arses on the Asylum thread, but can imagine the difficulties. Did some work with temp migrant agric workers when I was at the CAB - quite lucky in that most of our local farmers are pretty good at getting wages & hours etc right. Talking of the CAB, if you're at a loose end at all after June most CABs would give their right arms for someone with experience of immigration law - trouble is there are very few paid posts. Anyway, good luck with it!
ReplyDeleteright - night all! zzzzzzzzzz.....
ReplyDeleteSheff: Your posts and links here and at "the other place" make me think that you are a person quite saturated with compassion. This must be the right decision for you.
ReplyDelete"..saturated with compassion" is a perfect description. :o)
ReplyDeletemedve
ReplyDeleteI don't know about saturated with compassion - at the moment mightily pissed off would describe how I feel at the moment.
It is the right decision though.
'It is the right decision though.'
ReplyDeleteThere was a demo outside the UKBA Govan office yesterday to which i didn't go. The press says there were about 30 people there. Tom Harris on his blog has cuttingly but accurately described Robina Quareshi's group as a branch of Solidarity, which means that others don't turn up. It's a perfect picture of what's happened to the left. Five years ago you would have got at least 1000 at such a demo, now it's maybe two dozen people with the egregious Tommy Sheridan grimacing for the cameras.
One of the many aggravating things about this is that Quareshi is bright, vibrant, articulate and doesn't buy into the dangerous 'inclusive Scot' myth, but maybe that's the way it has to be at the moment.
Evenin' all. Good health to you Sheff, it certainly sounds like you've put your time in.
ReplyDeleteExcellent article by zounds, highlighting that I, for one, have blatantly not. Hopefully there's still time. I'm not going to read the thread - I'd rather keep a feeling of being uplifted into tomorrow and the days to come.
Massively jealous of Dotterel making tame cheetahs purr.
Sheff and BB
ReplyDeleteThanks for info on asylum seekers. My previous work was with refugees - clearly delineated rules which nevertheless sometimes still needed pushing for.
I was aware of NASS - but not its complexities and opaqueness.
Perhaps one of you - or a collaborative piece - for Cif actually explaining all this and dispelling the myths and misinformation which clearly abound would be in order?
Leni
ReplyDeleteWhen I've finally left I think I will write something about the experience
Sheff
ReplyDeleteYes please - once you are safely out of it.
Quick fly-by before bed.
ReplyDeleteProps to tha sistahs - you are all bettering society. Me, I don't think my job betters anything, really, unless you can count reducing people's stress by fixing things that don't work. Counteracted by adding to other people's stress (software company employees) by pointing out that their fucking software is a steaming load of shite.
Habib - I too am jealous of Dotterel; when I was a lass, I wanted to be a zoologist so that I could go to Africa and play with tame big cats. (I'd read Born Free, obviously.)
Then I realised I hate the heat and also enormous biting insects.
Edwin
ReplyDeleteThe Left is sorely divided - it is questionable if, as a political movement, it still exists.
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ReplyDelete"Then I realised I hate the heat and also enormous biting insects."
ReplyDeleteI'll gladly swap that for the cold hearts and enormous biting insects on CiF.
Enormous in quantity, of course, never in stature.
ReplyDelete