Well the only word I can think of for this week is mundane. Been working and thats about it.
There have been a few small modifications to the site. GoLive has failed its trial and I've gone back to Dreamweaver. I don't like the interface to Dreamweaver as much but it makes much better pages. There is a new navigation page - hinting as you may have noticed at a new movment section - this is going to be animations and the like (when of course I've made some). The pictures section is being redesigned too - it will be generated from scripts rather than being precanned. The work for this is already underway. In addition the connections (links) section is going to be split into two - with one of the sections having short detailed features on various nutters.
There is now an update list. If you wish to be notified of site updates then fill your email address in the box above and press the button. You can also unsubscribe in the same way. The only emails sent out will be brief notifications of updates to the site (web log entries and new features - minor cosmetic changes won't be reported).
Media wise there is little to report. Currently having a re-read of Terry Pratchetts witches books (Witches abroad, Carpe Jugulem, Lords and Ladies etc.) from the Discworld series. The Diskworld books are a wonderful mixture of stories,satire, comedy and philosophy. We watched the truly awful "Jade" this week - its not even worth talking about its that bad. If you ever get a chance to watch it - don't.
Curious website of the minute (as discovered by New Scientist) is Thisisaz. A man with an exhilarating life - the burger log is what got New Scientists attention.
It being friday there have been one or two small modifications to the site. The first you might have seen - the main page now has a flash animation on it. The second is that I have linked with some of the pictures I have made recently: new pictures. There will be a better navigation system for all of my pictures soon but I think its going to require some CGI programming to get it just right. I've also got some more pictures on my machine at home to upload.
Today I have been listening to a radio show broadcast yesterday by Art Bell called Coast to Coast. Although I haven't listened to this before it is well respected in the "nutter" communities and now I know why.
First of all I should point out what I mean by nutters. What I mean is people who refuse to embrace the reason and logic of science and believe things at random - without evidence to establish the belief. The usual response to this kind of comment is "But Science is a Belief too". Well - NO ITS NOT. Science is a process that allows explanations to be posited, tested and verified. It allows for explanations to be proved wrong and removed and it allows for the fact that some explanations are more likely than others. Most importantly it is OPEN and TRANSPARENT - it can be used by anyone who accepts logical thought. It doesn't require any leaps of faith. Every step of every explanation can be explained to anyone patient enough to learn the principles involved.
Now Art Bells program panders to the worst of these "Nutters" - those that use a mixture of pseudo science (nonsense dressed up in scientific language) and false authority (such and such worked for senator X etc. etc. - they may well have done so but it has NO bearing on the information being presented). The program I have just listened to concerned Richard Hoagland to start with. Hoagland is one of the advocates of the face on mars. The whole concept has only been tenuous at best - and now despite excellent clear pictures showing the "face" to be a mountain (suprising that...) Hoagland has modified his "theory" yet again explaining why its still a face (even though it doesn't look like one - uh?). Anyway in this program Art Bell breathlessly interviewed Hoagland as he explained that two crop circles constitued first contact with aliens. Now - crops circles are openly admited to be man made - the people who make them can be and often are interviewed. During the recent closure of the country side in the UK crops circles virtually disapeard. Clearly aliens then...
The worrying thing about programs like this though is that there are lots of people who listen to this and assume that these people are talking sense. They don't have the intellectual tools to question the things being described with deadly seriousness and establish what is fact and what is fiction (though its quite easy on Art Bell - its all rubbish).
That said - have a listen for yourself at Art Bell. Its hillarious. My favourite advert is the one that will teach you to use remote viewing to gamble better....
On saturday we went over to A.s parents for a party for her Grandmother. Apart from the confusion of relation ships (I'm glad there wasn't an exam afterwards) it was an excellent day.
We went through Edinburgh on the way and had a walk about. It struck us that the fesitval has become very, I dunno, almost artifical. Its like people come for "The Festival Experience" which is of course and artificial constructed thing. Which is of course what they are now sold. I suspect there are only faint echos of what the original fringe was ever like. This is the danger of what Robert Fripp talks about as Expectation: By expecting things we deny ourselves the experience and impose our own personailites on to it. Expectation closes you to new experience.
The other (alarming) thing that we came across was a wedding. We called in at a cafe in Princess Gardens to get a coffee and a smoothie and when we sat down we realised that a wedding was going on on the main stage. Fully televised and fully public. This struck me as very weird I must admit: They had obviously thought about it - the minister was talking about the thinking behind their wedding (I wonder when Marriage Theory will become a subject proper). It seemed so impersonal - its a nice idea the "Declaring our love in public" thing but the actual effect was to have a lot of bemused people who really didn't care that much share in a very personal moment. Oh well - perhaps it worked for them.
This weekend I cleaned the cooker. I bought some "Mr Muscle" oven cleaner thinking it would make the job easier. When I came to read the instructions however it didn't seem like a good idea - apart from turning pilots lights and electricity off and working in a well ventilated place - the thing that really worried me was that if it even touched your skin you are meant to seek medical advice. Scary stuff. With A. being pregnant and two small (and very nosy) cats in the house I decided to do it by hand (which was easy in the end 'cos it all comes apart and I could do it in the sink).
I watched the south bank show about Tracy Emin last night. Emin is one of those artists I have never been sure of - not because of the "Is it art" debate which is frankly nonsense - artists are not about a single work - yes sure sometimes they make works that any of us are capable of making - the point is they are all part of a body of work and an artistic exploration. The main reason I am not sure about her work is that it doesn't grab me - I like some of her films though. The thing that struck me from the interview though was how in this totaly media obsessed post modern world she is managing to make work that is totaly honest - depsite being media savvy herself and more than aware of her audience. For me the great shame is that she talks more about her drinking and sex life (which lets face it are fairly dull subjects) and less about what makes her different and interesting - her sense of herself in a frame that unlike most people she can totaly ignore. A Fascinating women even so.
Media this week: well into the The Red Thread by Arab Strap. Reading The Timeless Way of Building again by Christopher Alexander. This is I think a vital book.
Capitalism is a fine balancing act. Somewhere along the line the music industry has gotten way out of balance. The latest endevour to deliver "Rip proof" cd's which don't actually work in all cd players has got to be a nail in their coffins. Instead of questioning why so much piracy is occuring they make the basic assumption that a humans natural stance is that of being a thief and act accordingly. This of course leads along the road we are now going down - the DCMA and other tools stop us from using music in a way that is convinent. It is easy to imagine a logical conclusion: perhaps we will all be forced to wear a listening device that works out what music we hear and charges us accordingly - a few pence for that song in the shop, a few more for the album you listened to in the car.
So why is this a bad thing? after all the music industry is a business and has money to make - it has a right to safegaurd its intrests. This is true but its only one side of the equation. Instead of the internet making music easier to come by and cheaper it will end up reducing the amount of choice and making it more expensive. Our computers will be more expensive so that they can play music securely (if some manufacturers get their way indcedently preventing unlicensed (ie. home made ) music from being played).
Of course a balance will be struck - hackers will circumvent encryptions and if the music industry continues to make music inaccessible a new "independent" one will grow in its place. An industry that supplies what people want. The issue is that this "war" didn't need to happen in the first place. There will of course always be pirates but the vast majority of people would buy CD's or download tracks and pay for them if they felt the price was right. We all know that CD's are overpriced, the manufacturing costs are small and very little of the money goes to the artist. The vast majority goes to the record company.
I download a fair amount of mp3's - most of them are of records I own (I have a large amount of vinyl but no record player) - others are things I am considering buying. Rather than ripping the music industry off I probably buy more cd's than I did before.
At the start of a new century comsumers and suppliers are locked in a foolish battle over how our economy will work in future. Rather than accepting that an information enconomy can not work like the old manufacturing economy business is instead trying to legislate to make information act like it is a limited resource. Images of King Canute come to mind.
Oh well better get back to work. I am listening to "Fields and Waves" by O.rang (ex-members of Talk Talk) - a mad and beautiful album that far to few people know about.
check out DALiworld. This software generates a virtual ocean using peer to peer technology (perhaps the best use of p2p I have seen yet). If you
do run it hav a look out for fish from "junklight" or "junklight2" (I'm running it on both machines at the moment).
Impending fatherhood is an interesting state of being. I find my thoughts turning to my own childhood. I am not particularly a nostalgic person and I do my best to live in the present (as opposed to the past or the future - I enjoy and deal with what I have now rather than long for times gone or look forwards to times comming) and so this reflection is more a case of what did I have or perhaps miss out on that I can give to my kid. Unfortunately the only decent answer to this is that I wish I had know what would be important to me (for example learning French when I had the chance) and of course there is no way I would have been told that at the time. Its a hard one.
Good relaxing weekend - nearly finished Hengeworld. There is some really good stuff about how the henges where parts of a process as opposed to fixed monuments as we percieve them. They are living places filled with play on the symbolisim of the people who used them. Good food for thought.
We went to see the Parole Officer on Sunday. I have to agree with a lot of the reviews I have read - it is very safe compared to some of Coogans work. I guess he was aiming for a more mainstream offering rather that a more risky strategy. It does draw heavily on that whole 50's Ealing comedy thing. Its still very funny though with some great lines and I hope that the Coogan goes on to make more films. I wouldn't matter if you wait to see this on video though.
The other film I watched was Dogma - this is excellent. Great cast. Great script. It plays with christian symbolism very cleverly and manages to be very funny at the same time. Highly recomended.
No update for a while for a number of reasons. One of them was a holiday in France and Italy - here are some pictures to look at. Life is busy at the moment - not least 'cos there are some major changes afoot - one of which is that I am going to be a father.
Media recomendations are: The ape and the Sushi master by Frans de Waal: an excellent book about culture in apes and how we think about it. Its scary to think that there are still people who look at animals and fail to see that we have evolved from them - and I am not talking about religious nutters either there appear to be serious scientists who think this too. I am also reading Hengeworld by Mike pitts. Its basically about the world that made Stonehenge and Avebury. Lots of good stories about the archeology and the people who built the henges. Good compelling reading as well. Music wise Luna must be mentioned. They are the band that Dean Wareham formed after the stunning Galaxie 500. The new Bjork album is also excellent. Very warm and imtimate. I have also been listening to a lot of Talk Talk as well.
I hope you are impressed by all the hyperlinks.