Thursday, November 22, 2007

We need a hero

A new era beckons - indeed!

As this sceptred isle we call England, land of the Angles and Saxons enters into a dark and dismal time, we look around and to those who would call themselves our leaders for answers and a hero. Maca the Red and Gordon the Grey, the feeble champions of grey shadowy bureaucratic worms who profess to be men, have been found wanting and bereft of vision on the field of battle. Our heroes of yore and yesteryear, Sol the Giant and Lord Beckham were spent and knackered, failing to inspire their rag tag army, who were left frightened and confused on the marshes of Wembley. El Tel spat out his disgrace and disgust and slunk down the tunnel of doom, thinking unto himself, "this ain't the $@^@ing Costa Del"!

So who will hold the vision to steer the ship on course to victory I hear you ask? Will it be a humble (cough cough) fisherman from Setubal, or a great
Gorizian? Who can tell? But I say unto you men of steel. Look not to heavens or the halls of power for your hero, look deep into your hearts and unto yourselves. For the next hero lies within.

Beowulfinstein

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Gion Matsuri Festival - Better late than never


A friend of mine Japan told me about this festival Gion Matsuri they celebrated way back July. I know I should have shared it before, but sometimes there is so much you simply forget.
The festival first originated as a purification festival to appease Gods thought to cause, flood, fire etc and is one of the most festivals in Japan. The streets downtown Kyoto are closed to traffic during three nights in July, but the festival spans the entire month.

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Visions of the Future

BBC 4 is launching string theorist Dr. Michio Kaku's "Visions of the Future" this week in which he explores the possibilites that technology presents for humankind in the not so distant future.

Already technology has been altering our culture and behaviour, particularly through the mobile phone and internet, so just what impact will the technology of the future have on the way we live and interact with each other? This quote from Prof Rodney Brooks of Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the scariest in that the line between human and machine may become so blurred, who can tell whether the machine is more human than the person? Was that being born human or machine? Will we care?

"As a species, we are starting to put our information-processing technology inside our bodies – we're becoming a little more robotic. At the same time, our technologies are becoming more biological. Over the next 50 years, we'll see robots with more biological components and people with more electronic components"

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Tiger Tiger Burning Bright


As I sauntered into my sanitised local Tesco the other day, and spotted another alarming story on the front cover of the Independent. No not another sensationalist racial story, but this time a very scary environmental piece. The fate of the Indian Tiger. The story read that India's current Tiger population could be as low 1300, which conservationists say is just unsustainable.

When such a symbol of nature in all it's glory passes into the pantheon of formerly extinct species, what does this mean for us? Probably an increasingly sanitised Tesco experience, and not a furry friend in site. Hey no worry, I'll be all nice and cosy and totally detached from the outside world, in my Tesco house, with my Tesco electric car, watching the Tesco news on my Tesco branded TV. Paranoia you say? Well right now, I'm sure you've must have noticed what's going on down your local high street, and I'm writing this on my Apple MacBook, with my Google Blogger account, on my Orange broadband who also provide both my mobile and landline services. I once suggested to a friend the prospect of a T-Mobile branded home and he laughed. Well it's starting. The future's arrived, and I'm scratching my head right now, looking a little lost and confused.

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Google sends Android OS to conquer mobile world

It's been rumoured for a while, but Google has officially thrown it's gauntlet down into the hotly contested mobile phone ring with the announcement of it's new open source mobile OS, Android. Bill and his mates should be quaking in their boots, as it may mean lean days ahead for Microsoft, what with other mobile OS rivals already out there including Palm and Symbian Alliance. Now with the new arrivals of Apple and Google's Linux powered system, things are gonna get pretty interesting.


This is just what Linux needed to be taken seriously as a mobile OS alternative. With a the Google juggernaut behind it, together with a host of developers in the open source community, the platform can only go from strength to strength. Who will the winner be when the dust finally settles? Why me and you and the man in the street that's who! Big grin. ;-)

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Microsoft releases "Deepfish" browser for Windows Mobile

Dunno if this is the same as the iPhone web browsing experience, with pan and zoom features, which you also get on the Windows Mobile 6 powered HTC Touch. Tried browsing on the Touch and it works pretty well. Making web browsing on a mobile device an almost bearable experience. We've some way to go yet before you can say fulfilling, but then Apple will no doubt tell us otherwise. Ouch, my MacBook just burnt me.

Source

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Thursday, November 01, 2007

Young Lewis pon di Riddim!!!



Yes gwaan young Lewis. Michael Scumacher eat your heart out! F1 will never be the same! :-)

2008 is ours!
MC Hammer style!
More party.

Source | Via

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