House votes down bail-out package (BBC)

Houston, we have a problem. Its not really one of those small problems its a huge global catastrophe.

The business news was fairly scary at the moment but at least there was vague hope and then a story like this gets out. This is why the Bank of England is independent from politicians. Sometimes some things are too important to get right to allow for political positioning and point scoring.

I think it would be fair to say that we are witnessing the beginnings of a global economic meltdown. I really, really hope that we are not about to go into an economic dark ages but with stories like this the outlook is looking very black.

President Bush has two choices, try and amend the plan and resubmit it or go back to the drawing board. Either way he better do it quick cos things are turning bad fast.

On the other hand here in the UK we are doing ok, with another small bank nationalised most of the structural changes in UK banks should be finalised. Plus the politicians are on holiday so they cant really meddle. However, given that the world economy is directly linked to the American economy all eyes are across the pond waiting with bated breath for someone, anyone to come up with a rescue plan.

Has anyone perhaps suggested to the UK MP's that at a time like this it might be useful if they could get back to work?

Playlet: Single for Bicester Town

Audrey Hepburn style girl meets cynic in very southern belle type playlet based in Oxford train station.

Intro: girl rushes across concourse towards the ticket window bumps into man staring up at the departures board.

Dave: Woa there, go steady.
Audrey: sorry more haste less speed, sorry excuse me..
Dave: certainly an interesting first impression.
Dave: I'm Dave and you are?
Audrey: Many things, but today I am Audrey.
Dave:Only today?
Audrey: Maybe.
Dave: I find you intriguing would you like to discuss this over coffee.
Audrey: Why not?
Dave: I will take that as a yes then.
Audrey: might as well, lead on Macduff.
Dave: Macduff?
Audrey: The scottish play.
Dave: Ahhh.

Both sit with coffee.

Dave: What is time?
Audrey: Why it is the tick following tock that shuffles us from birth through to the grave.
Dave: I'm sorry I think you misheard me, What is the time?
Audrey: time is immaterial, I simply don't have any.
Dave: Ermm OK.
[pause while sipping drinks]
Audrey: Are you sure I misheard you.
Dave: I think so.
Audrey: You see... I think you are just afraid of discussing something that reminds you of impending death.
Dave: I'm sorry I did not realise I was going to die this morning.
Audrey: Oh your probably not going to die this morning.
Dave: Only probably, well I can probably relax then, at least in a train station I am unlikely to be run over by a bus.
Audrey: True but only probably, one can not take any chances, one must be vigilant for the metaphorical bus at any time.
Dave: I have enough trouble with avoiding physical buses to be worrying about metaphorical buses.
Audrey: I can see that might be the case.
[Both pause to ponder]
Dave: It is a funny thing fate.
Audrey: I have never seen fate as being much of a comedian.
Dave: Was it fate that I met you today, and fate that you have no time.
Audrey: No, it is something much simpler than fate, it is the vagaries of a train timetable.
Dave: Yes it must be mildly annoying that trains don't leave the station when you want to.
Audrey: Mildly.
Dave: Still the company for coffee is quite good.
Audrey: Mildly.
[Pause while both sip]
Audrey: Are you scared of an impending death?
Dave: No, it is just that impending sounds so immediate.
Audrey: Oh its not, maybe impending was a poor word, maybe ultimate death would be more appropriate.
Dave: Maybe, although it sounds rather grand for what death actually is.
Audrey: Fate and death you are a very curious man.
Dave: You haven't been on a second date with me, then its destiny and Serendipity.
Audrey: My train goes in two minutes and look at that queue, I'll never make it.
Dave: You can buy a ticket at the barrier.
Audrey: I will have to rush..
Dave: wait...tell me if you are single.
[Audrey turns and smiles]
Audrey: Single for Bicester Town please.
Dave: Single...[Audrey turns and nods]... make that two singles.
Audrey: Two singles make a couple.
Dave: Only time, serendipity, fate and destiny will tell.
Audrey: Indeed.

Warning sounded on web's future (BBC)

Well it would appear that the BBC has finally worked out what the rest of us already know, you can't believe everything you read on the internet.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee (No I don't know who he is either, but with a "sir" in front of his name I am busy bowing down and tugging my forelock) has come up with the idea of a "trustworthiness" labelling system for websites.

Sir Tim has set up the WWWF, and to be fair trustworthiness is just one of his aims. He wants to make the web more accessible not just to those of us in the West. Sir Tim wants to expand the web beyond just text to reach those through the web who can't read or write. He also wants to increase mobile web browsing and the usage in Africa . Basically he wants to bring the web to the world regardless of wealth, ability, status and location.

A very noble endeavour.

My take on it is that we need to separate opinion from fact and make some attempt at peer review or evidence based labelling. If an article has credible supporting evidence or is more factual than opinionated then it gets a higher rating. Perhaps any news site could have assessors who are trained and vetted for suitability and experience, who can then rate articles.

The web is a very interesting place with every view represented but off the beaten track away from the main brands such as the BBC and CNN how do you know who to trust especially on the basis of one article. Trust can be easily built on a series of articles but on one short article it is more difficult to judge. This is where bloggers have their niche, they can earn trust and reliability from their readership but how many bloggers have internal standards or a code of practice.

The garlic bread older than me

I had a lovely M & S garlic and parsley baguette last night and while searching for the heating instructions noticed that it was:



Which would make it firstly a very well preserved baguette suitable for decades long space missions and secondly means that the baguette has been around several years longer than me.

Of course it is more likely just to be a product code or factory code and someone did not think through the unintended consequences of the layout of the packaging.

Love Actually is all around

I recently watched Love Actually again on DVD. Its a good film but what I like the best is the intro sequence.

Sometimes I take a moment when travelling through an airport or train station and look around to see the love that is shown in the intro sequence, sometimes its even me getting the love.

Just once I would like the words to come over the tannoy just so everyone can have a look round and see the love, but for now it remains on DVD.

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion is starting to make out we live in a world of hatred and greed but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often its not particularly dignified or newsworthy but its always there. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the twin towers as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love. If you look for it I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

- Hugh Grant, Love Actually intro sequence

From West Wing to the real thing (The Guardian)

For the last few days I have felt that Barack Obama reminded me of someone and then it hit me there is a link back to the Presidential Campaign of Matthew Santos in "The West Wing".

It was the plain speaking approach of Obama that finally reminded me of Santos. Truth often follows fiction but according to the linked article fiction followed truth only for truth to follow on again, if you see what I mean.

My question will be, in the forth coming election will the "West Wing" story line have subconsciously prepared American voters to vote Obama. Will the fact that in the show Santos won prepare voters for a Obama victory, have the lines between the show, which was almost like a documentary at times, and reality somehow blurred.

New Google Chrome

So google have decided to enter into the browser wars. To be fair it was only a matter of time.

According to reports they have already captured 1% of the browser market share, I suspect due to the prominence of the download link on the google search page and that they are a reasonably trusted brand in the mainstream.

I for one wont be downloading, I like firefox and I love the culture and ethos behind it. I firmly believe in open source software and think it is about the true spirit of the internet. I do not want to get all my services from one provider especially one that seems to collect vast amount of personal data and web browsing habits for research purposes.

Google are good but I think in the same way we don't get internet explorer from Microsoft will be the same reason we don't get Chrome from Google. Firefox users like a bit of independence from any big monolithic company.

However competition is always a good thing and I would guess that some or all of the innovative new features in chrome will be built into the next version of firefox. Although in web browsing terms what would be really innovative these days. There are plenty of incremental evolutionary improvements but nothing recent has been completely revolutionary.