Computers and Calories

Lunch (and dinner, and an unspecified in between meal) with Simon M and his computer, which needs a new USB card. Or for preference replacement, but he can't afford it. Work on Christina C's computer was delayed till (probably) tomorrow when her daughter went into labour.
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Speaking of Labour. In the news today the big event was at the Labour Party conference, where an 82 year old longtime member was violently ejected from the hall and detained as a suspected terrorist. His act of sedition was to shout the word "Nonsense" during a speech. Another deligate who protested at the manhandling was treated the same way, and a third taking snaps in the entrance lobby had his pictures deleted.

Second is a visit to this country from the family of a man shot nine times through the head in public by an undercover police officer who "mistook him for a suicide bomber", as the radio news puts it.

The officer, under orders to maintain a low profile, mistook a white man walking with a rucksack for a dark-skinned man running with a koran and a bomb. And decided the best way to remain hidden, protect lives and maintain calm was to chase him into a busy tube train and empty his gun, thus defusing the invisible bomb.

Over the next week, the media will accuse the family of "giving succour to terrorists", and then hint at "connections to Al Qai-ida".

Tucked away behind non-stories about school dinners and fragile I-Pods is news that the polar icecap is melting even faster than expected. Personally, I wish the world would hurry up and end.
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Last time we attempted to spring clean - about 5 years ago - we found a lot of my computing coursework from 1992. This time it's theology from 1994. So, progress. Except it seems to be mixed with work on phonetics, film studies, and the finer points of second order logic.

If anyone asks me what I've done with my life, the answer might be, "Try to understand the world, in the hope that it would stink less."