So here’s the deal:

American house prices fall. American consumers find their assets reduced so stop borrowing. They stop borrowing they stop spending. They stop spending and the Chinese find themselves with no buyers. No buyers for the Chinese means an economic recession in China. Economic recession in china undermines the Communist Party whose legitimacy is only sustained because they deliver economic growth. A threatened Communist Party looks for a way to win over its people again. China goes for the same option every government does when times are hard – it stirs patriotism by picking a fight with someone. If China picks a fight it will be with Taiwan. China sets foot on the island and Taiwan activates its alliance with America. America has pledged to defend Taiwan regardless.

America fights China.

The world ends.

Which sucks, I was hoping to make old age.

An itunes huffle!?

Ha. Oh dear. I don't even remember posting that last one up on here. LAst night was such a mess I hadn't slept for so long got that drunk with fatigue feeling. Just thing what I might have actually put in my dissertation!

God help us. well, me at least.

So here I am enjoying my 'reward' for getting it all done - my rented copy of the west wing series 3 sits on the desk :) Just watched the first episode. Man. I love the West Wing.

So just in case you didn't get me when I said it last time - I'll say it again.

West Wing rocks :D

And if you haven't seen it yet, well then, you're a jerk.

From the depths of dissertation writing dispair my itunes huffle picks out something that blows me away and fills my head with the scene you see above.

What a film! haha!

The 89th minute

In 1990 Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait on its national holiday when most of its soldiers were at home having BBQ’s. In the United States determined Senators stand up and read from the phone book in order filibuster laws. In the UK, Tories sneak their MP’s into Westminster backrooms before key votes to fool the Labour whips into thinking there is no need to round up their own guys. In courts all over the world lawyers invoke unheard of and antiquated laws to get their clients off the hook. In Tony Blair’s election campaign of 1997 he flew to Australia to meet Rupert Murdoch and shortly afterwards ‘The Sun’ switched sides. In football, players will fake an injury to waste time and deny the opposing team a chance of equalising. George Bush ruined America’s reputation – but also circumnavigated the Geneva Convention – when he dreamt up the term ‘enemy combatant’. The Labour government eradicated hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants over night by reclassifying them as something else. In 2001 Jo Moore, a British government spin-doctor was distastefully honest when she advised her colleagues that September 11th was a good day to bury bad news. GCSE’s, A-Levels and University exams all follow a set pattern - learn the rules of the game and you can always pass, regardless of your actual ability. A while ago some fellers built a giant wooden horse and played on an old convention of warfare to trick their way to victory. And of course Americans today defend an outdated constitutional law that allows them to form militias against the British so they can continue to butcher their fellow citizens.

What I am trying to say is that laws are meant to be sidestepped, stretched and rewritten. But never broken.

This morning I referred to a single paragraph in a rarely read pamphlet in order to sidestep my responsibilities for a further 48 hours. I abused a law that only really exists for retards and disabled kids but has to be applied to everyone for fear of injustice.

I didn’t cheat but I simply played the system. I feel cheap and dirty for it.

I am trying to remind myself that this is the way the world works. But it still doesn’t make me feel any more noble.

I want do something nerdy in the extreme. But who cares.

I know of a book that I think if everybody were to have read, then the world would be a much better place. Now, I also know that you, dear blog reader, know of a similar book.

I want to know what it is. And if I agree to read it then in exchange you will agree to read my choice. That way we both get to read things that we might never otherwise come across and we both benefit. There is no time limit in which we must read the book. But we must get round to it eventually.

There is no limit to the number of people that can participate. If you want to be economically and environmentally friendly we can swap the books to save us buying new copies.

Is anyone interested?

The West Wing

Ok, so I know I’m a little late coming to this one. Eight years behind everyone else in fact. But, I mean. Wow. America does it again. If there is one thing they do well, it is making television drama. And this has got to be one of the best. I can’t explain why. I mean – it’s actually quite a subtle production. I know! I didn’t think they knew what the word meant either. But here it is, and it’s brilliant. At a guess I would say it is its ‘smooth’ directing (if such a thing exists) and very, erm, … engrossing character development that draws you in most. Even the cringe worthy ‘all hail the fatherland!’ bits are actually done with something approaching grace. Incredible.

And will someone please tell me how the chap that plays Sam Seaborn (bottom left), who is apparently called Rob Lowe, isn’t the same guy that plays Will from Will and Grace. They have to be brothers.

The Meaning of the 21st Century

This is not a good book. It is poorly written and has little or no structure. The author often sounds like a delusional old man and his rhetoric is cringe worthy in the extreme. James Martin became famous for his 1978 book ‘The Wired Society’ in which he successfully predicted the impact the Internet would have on society. Ever since the 1990’s proved him correct he has been on something of an egotistical high. Things were not helped when Oxford University recently gave him his own department called the James Martin 21st Century School, which basically only has one agenda – saving the world.

His latest book, ‘The Meaning of the 21st Century’ therefore aims to predict the main challenges and opportunities that await mankind in the remaining ninety-three years of the twenty first century. It is an ambitious task to say the least.

Yet you see, I really like this book. Beyond all the stylistic errors and the authors own hypocrisy (he spends a chapter ranting and raving about ways to avert global warming only then to admit than he owns his own island with its own airstrip), all of which occasionally make it a painful read, there are actually some really, really good ideas.

Cont...

3F1 55 S. Clerk St

I’m feeling a little sad. I only have fifteen or so days left in my flat on South Clerk Street. My flatmates, Christophe, Dominik, Sabine, Seymour, Sarah, Flo and Dario are all milling around in a strange sort of atmosphere. It’s too early to pack but it’s also too late to start doing anything new. We’re all in limbo for the next week and a half. Well some of us, me and Seymour should be scrambling to finish our dissertations before the 24th. A not entirely welcome distraction.

It’s been a funny old year, but a hugely enjoyable one and I wouldn’t change it for the world. You see, I like it here. I like my room and I like the people and the view and the comfort and freedom that comes with living here. I am very glad that I have decided to stay here for a further year – possibly more. Although I don’t get to keep the room, I have to find myself new lodgings, real ones for real people with real lives and real money. I'm sure the future can't be all that bad, and in fact, so long as I keep my head screwed on and my ears open, the future looks rather bright for little old me.

Yet looking around I once again have this astonishing sense that this room and this building has been the scene of a massive missed opportunity. My first instinct seems to be to remember all the things that I meant to do, but didn’t, rather than all the things that I did actually do. This applies to my whole life and when I think back to various stages of it, I always seem to feel regret first. I assume this is natural.

If I pay attention and think about what I have actually done – I’m actually quite pleased with myself. Lots of personal demons were conquered and I now feel more or less ready to have a go at the real world. I feel much more comfortable in accepting that my student days are now over than I ever did thirteen or fourteen months ago. My modest achievements have been far from perfect and in fact everything I think back to as a positive came as the result of an all mighty muddle. But I think the most important point is that I have become willing to seek out these muddles and put myself into them. Doing this has not always been enjoyable, in fact it has never been, and I have suffered, and continue to suffer for it.

Yet as the sun sets once more on this beautiful city I am quietly very happy that I have something to feel sad about.

I’ll spare you too much analysis. But May 06 was when I received regular use of the Internet. I suffered a turbulent bump in July 2006, went travelling in August, and then on arrival in Edinburgh plunged into a state of semi-depression for the rest of the year. Things improved rapidly in the first half of this year but very recently my dissertation worries, combined with uncertainty concerning my housing and employment situation, have perhaps led me to rely more on this mode of therapy than I otherwise would.

Sad, huh?

Innovative Ipswich III: A history of innovation?

This post is a pathetic attempt to offset my last, rather unkind, rant against the humble inhabitants of Ipswich. It has just occurred to me that Ipswich and its surrounding area can actually make quite a surprising boast. For nearly a century now it has been the centre of many scientific and technological discoveries. So please bare with me as I try to do a bit of history. Or just skip it entirely if you have lives to lead.

Firstly, the 1920’s saw Felixstowe (which is a large sea port just down the road) used by the Royal Navy Air Service (and later the Royal Air Force) to develop and test new types of seaplanes. These aircraft were seen to be the future and were initially prized more highly than their land-based cousins. Remember that aircraft themselves were still relatively new at this time, and the sight of these strange looking creatures, plunging into the sea before then gracefully floating back up into the heavens, must have been quite a spectacular, and inspiring one, to the locals.

cont...

Nakizo dons his Tory hat and has a good long moan and proves, to his own amusement, that he really does hate everyone - and everything.

The train network in Britain has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years. Passenger numbers have rarely been higher and investment is pouring into this long neglected industry. However, this does not mean that the actual customer experience has got any better, oh no. It has got worse, much, much worse. With under provisioned stations, inadequate numbers of carriages and bottlenecks up and down the country, the experience of travelling by train in the UK is something approaching hell. Recently things have been even worse for us poor souls living in East Anglia. A few months back a freight train derailed itself on the line between Ipswich and Peterborough. Peterborough is the central station where East Anglia hooks up to the rest of the UK, and through which everyone must pass if they are to escape this strangely flat province.

Cont... and then some...

putting the world to right

This is a bit juvenile, and I apologise. But, without further ado, here I am indulging in that oldest of past times, putting the world to right.

Many of these ideas are as surprising to me, as they will be to you. I didn't realise I had become such a hawkish born again Christian. Who knew?

• I am in favour of the Government’s ID Card scheme
• I am horribly pro Europe
• I am pro Trident
• I am pro family
• I am horribly pro anything to do with genetic engineering
• I am cautiously pro religion
• I am Green
• I want to see a massive reworking of the UK education system
• People who give a certain share of their income to charity really should be entitled to tax breaks, and that should apply to businesses to
• Rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan should be the priority of America and the EU
• Prostitution should be legalised.
• I am pro intervention.
• Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Ever.

If you're really excited, check out the even longer version in the feedback section!

"You don't belong in Australia!" said the white man.

Catholic priests doing what Catholic priests do best.
No - not that. The other thing they do best.
Shame he got suspended for it.

- Skateboarders rule.