Mat Bowles

Remember the Belfast Elf? He's been sent down fot two years:

I don't envy this bloke when he gets to Maghaberry. He will be the laughing stock of the jail.

Although, to be fair, mockery is somethinghe should be used to by now:

Before sentence was passed a lawyer for Boyd revealed that since the incident he had lost his job at Queen's University Belfast and both he and his wife had been subjected to ridicule.

The only mental issue claimed by his defense team was depression. I'd have thought a major psychosis makes you think you're an Elf from 2070, but, y'know, not my case.

Ouch.

Y'know how sometimes a story is both very depressing and something that will only make you angry so you avoid following it? I haven't been folowing the Iran/Sailors thing, because, well, all sides are stretching the truth past breaking point and it'll just depress me. A few aspects were bothering me though. fridgemagnet (who may be a little to my left) links to two articles by craigmurray (who really doesn't like the current Govt but does have some knowledge of the legality). Summary:

1. There is no legally recognised maritime boundary between Iran and Iraq
2. Iran does not recognise the boundary that Blair is claiming
3. The Allies know this

So, both sides are sabre rattling, both sides are obfuscating and telling porkies, both sides are playing to their domestic galleries and world opinion rather than actually being honest.

My understanding is that the event happened very close to the border Britain claims, but that that border still puts them closer to Iran than Iraq, or, as Craig puts it:

Go on, print out the map and measure it.

Everyone has an axe to grind. No one is in the right. Don't believe the hype.

I now go back to trying to ignore this story. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

nhw I couldn't possibly comment:

If you think that it is childish and culturally insensitive to find it funny when people happen to have names that are peculiarly appropriate to their professional function, then I urge you not to read this article; because if you do, you will find out who the World Health Organisation has put in charge of publicising their new report on male circumcision, and you may find yourself tempted to inappropriate mirth.

The article he mentions?
BBC NEWS | Health | WHO agrees HIV circumcision plan:

Kevin De Cock, director of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization said: "The recommendations represent a significant step forward in HIV prevention."

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I mean, it's a damn fine scheme, and the science behind it is weird, but, still...

And for those with gameforce on your friends list? Yeah, I goofed, my client sent it to the wrong place. D'oh!

BBC NEWS | Politics | Internet video rules 'misguided':

it was not the role of regulation to protect established broadcasters from new competition operating under different business models.

Daft EU proposal (of the many many that give the whole thing a bad name and make it bloody hard to defend), and the House of Lords committee says it's daft and should be rejected. For about, oh, the 50th time since the last General Election, I find myself thanking the Lords for a bit of sense.

This is of course the main issue with new media and distribution schemes, the old providers feel threatened and try to get things "updated" in a way that simply damages innovation and forces people underground. Technology changes, markets adapt, and new methods of selling stuff undermine the old firms. The problem being that when one of the old firms does go bust, someone'll whinge the government should've stopped it, rather than pointing out it was them failed to adapt. Ah well, plus ca change.

Things that make Mat happy part mcmxvii. Via just about everyone (including an email), HBO, the US TV channel that made The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Oz, Carnivàle, The Larry Sanders Show, Deadwood, Band of Brothers, Rome... (and snipping out shows I didn't like/haven't seen still leaves an impressive list there) have announced that they will be making grrm's A Song of Ice and Fire into a very long TV show. It gets better:

The author will co-exec produce the series

and each book will be an entire season, so while they'll need to cut out some detail, they won't need to cut out all the detail. In a different article on the same story I also found:

This comes on the heels of HBO announcing they would do a series based on Preacher

Lemme hear you say an amen. Game of Thrones and Preacher? Yowsers.

And, in US news, Senator Barack Obama:

I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together.

I first heard about this guy when Evan linked to a video of his address to the DNC at the time Kerry/Edwards won the nomination, and I was actually impressed. It's not often these days that public speaking and speeches impress me, but this guy did. I've only heard good things since. I'm thinking he won't win the nomination, but will make a great VP candidate behind either Edwards or Clinton.

Right, I'm off into town for the protest I mentioned, see you all on the flip side...

Reasons to love Boris pt xvii:

What would you do if you were God for a day? CHRIS LANDONIS, Hackney

I think I would try a bit harder to prove My existence to Richard Dawkins.

Actually, that's not why I love this article. It's this:

Are education standards slipping in Britain? RICHARD MORRIS, Luton

Slipping! How could you even suggest it? Every year, comrades, our children are getting better and better at passing exams! Every year we produce more A*-C grade tractors from the Red Star plant! This year an amazing 43.5 per cent of candidates got an A at maths A-level, and guess what the proportion was 40 years ago, when far fewer people took maths A-level? It was only 7 per cent! Now you do the maths. Oh, all right, I'll do it for you. That is a staggering 620 per cent improvement by our young geniuses. Let me enter the usual political guff about how hard everyone has worked, and let me congratulate them on their grades. But if too many CVs read like a man falling off a building then the A is useless as a tool of differentiation, and that is why some universities are calling for a pre-U exam to replace A-levels, and that is why there is increasing interest in the IB. We have all connived in the fiction that our kids are getting brighter, because that conceals the growing gulf in attainment between much of the maintained sector and the grammar schools/ independent schools. The result is that the market has, inevitably, asserted itself, and in a way that is socially regressive. Which schools, after all, are going to have the resources to prepare their pupils for these new specialised university entrance exams?

My CV does not read like a man falling off a building. This is partially because I was a lazy git at school (plus ca change), and partially because they do seem to be making things easier. Teaching to the test, rising tuition standards, lowering exam standards? Bit of all three?

David Cameron is a Whig, and Boris is a LibDem in disguise. Albeit a LibDem Capitalist on the David Laws wing, but still, I like the bloke.

Now, I had a plan for the evening. What was it? Oh yeah, install Wordpress for my replacement journal home. Write up the review of the Doctor Who DVDs involving both Andy Hamilton and Jason Connery (nope, he still couldn't act)? Nah, Trevor's World of Sport is on...

Hail, um, Dysnomia?

Do we suspect that the IAU has a few closet Discordians in their mix? I reckon there has to be.

For a body I'd never really registered as existing, they sure are getting a bit of press coverage recently. And it's another decision I approve of.

So, what random member of the Greek pantheon will the next dwarf planet be named after?

Via flemco, this is worth a look. I've mentioned "security" stupidities at airports before (I think), but this is just genius:

Sir, I'm going to have to take this bottle of water away from you since it might be a liquid explosive, and I'm going to have to mix it with all of these other bottles of possibly liquid explosive, and I'm going to have to dump them all in this trash can... together. Nevermind that the plot specifically mentions mixing chemicals and/or nitroglycerin... which explodes if handled too roughly.

The pictures add tot eh story a little as well.

Also. Bunny.

Scary isn't it. In the name of airline security, they're making airports a lot less safe. Wonderful.

OK, for those not aware, the BBC invited Guy Kearney to discuss the Apple court case. Instead however, the producer went to the wrong place, called his name out, and a certain Guy Goma got up. Times and Mail versions of story, and YouTube video.

At first, the story was it was the cabbie due to collect him. It now turns out Mr Goma is actually a "data cleansing expert" there for a job interview; he thought the recording studio was part of the interview process. It's so funny, even William Gibson is posting to his blog about it. Best bit? The producer had previously looked at Guy Kearney's website. Mr Kearney is, noticeably, white. Mr Goma is distinctly not. You really would have thought they'd have twigged a little earlier.

Tonight, Radio 4, 23.00 GMT. Small Gods. That would be all. Except...

Linda Smith, comedian, performer, campaigner and President of the British Humanist Association, died today. Tributes going to be on Radio 4 a lot this week. This one from Jeremy Hardy is especially good. She'd kept the illness quiet; I was laughing at her jokes so recently.

Someone remind me to join the BHA when my finances are sorted? (approx May I think).