With "thanks" to stuwest, who forwarded this to me. From BBC News:

Lords call for an end to Barnett

I obviously need a campaign group.

I posted this about a year ago, but in honour of Jess Nevins just seeing Brian Blessed as a gang leader in the pilot episode of The Sweeney, here it is again.

As I said, they don't make Caesars like they used to...

I like Mark Evanier's blog. I don't know the man, and am never likely to meet him, although I think long ago we exchanged a few emails about something or other.

However, his blog is always worth reading, and he sticks up videos that are worth watching; the guy has taste.

Usually.

And then today, he wrote:

The other day here, I wrote "One of these days, I'm going to find a video clip of a baby panda singing, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

Be careful what you wish for on any blog that Matthew Hahn reads...

I still like his blog. Mostly.

So, as anyone here reading this with a memory will recall, I was off work with flu for about a week and a half at the end of June with suspected swine flu.

I had the swabs taken on 25^th June, and expected them back sometime the following week.

Yeah, well - still waiting for them.

It's nuts. I know that London is a 'hotspot' for swine flu, and there are 500 cases a day being confirmed in the UK, and it doesn't make a blind bit of difference now whether or not I actually had it, but it would be nice to know, you know?

The latest news as of yesterday was that the results in London are now taking anything up to four weeks to come back. It's crazy, given that friends outside London have had their results back in a week or less.

Laura just called - her surgery (the one I used to belong to from 1994 through till 2005) phoned her. They'd received my results. (They were printed on 11^th July.) Thing is... I'm no longer a patient there. So they're not allowed to tell me the results. The surgery has to send the results back to the lab... who will - hopefully - attach the correct details on the results and forward them on to my doctors.

If all goes well, I should have the results next week sometime.

However, if it lives up to the story so far, I'll get them sometime in August. 2010.

This is doing the rounds of the travel industry at the moment:

24 hours
24-hours observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about a minute or so:

Every so often, I'll spot a newspaper or website headline that has some personal meaning for me.

For example I used to work for a company, the first word in the name of which was "Landmark". So whenever I saw a headline that started "Landmark decision", it always amused, particularly if it was something entirely inappropriate for my work.

And occasionally a friend will send me a clipping (usually a web-image) of a headline with the names "Barnett" or "Budgie" in it.

It surprises me that there's not a website where one can go and search headlines for words, and then get an image of the headline. (Yes, I know you can do that via Google News, but I'm thinking more about newspaper headlines and images thereof, a bit like Criggo uses)

What made me think of it this morning was the realisation that it was 54 years ago today that Ruth Ellis was hanged, the last woman in England to be executed.

I noticed the following on the BBC News website:



To which the answer, having known him for some years, is almost certainly "yes".

---

Edit to add: See later post for yet another 'personal' headline story...

Neil Gaiman posted something on his blog tonight about audio readings of fiction that's worth reading.

It reminded me that I was asked some time ago to do some readings of fast fictions. I recorded a few and then, upon specific request, a few more.

So, just in case you're interested... here they are, all mp3 files, all around 2Mb in size:

Back To Tomorrow
Only In My Heart
Sing For Me
Sweeter Than Honey
Mind - A Dangerous Country
The Space Time Continuum
Faithless Friend
Driving Home
The Pachyderm Wore Pink
Single White Fee Male

I may do some more if requested. What do you think?

And yes, at the end of this month, I'm returning to the fast fictions; more details then.

Spent a not entirely pleasant (but not wholly unpleasant) hour or so this afternoon rereading my old Going Cheep columns. Comicon.com rebuilt their site some time ago, so pretty much all the links that I had for the columns no longer work, but I posted them all as locked-LJ posts at the time of writing, so I have them via LJ Archive.

I suppose that it shouldn't surprise me how many of the columns' main points I still agree with; nor does it really shock me how many times I winced when rereading them at a particularly badly written passage, or thought "oh dear, I could have put that over a lot better". What does surprise me are the columns where my view has changed in the five years since I wrote the particular piece.

And no, I'm not in any way tempted to ask Jen or anyone else whether they want a column from me. Been there, done that, and even when I was enjoying writing the weekly column, I only managed just over 40 in almost a full year. Moreover, as I said when I cancelled the column, one of the reasons was because I was pretty convinced that even on one of the major comics websites, I had a readership in double figures... not a good thing, even if it was a good read for the few who did like it.

And let's be fair - I wrote it because I was asked to, and I was writing comics at the time, so it all came together. And of course it was an ego boost; I'd be lying if I pretended otherwise.

But while I'm not considering writing another regular column (if I did so, I'd do it here; I certainly have a bigger readership here and via Twitter than I ever did back then or via PULSE), there are times something happens when I'm tempted to write 1,500 words or so on the topic.

Or revisit a subject I covered in those Going Cheep columns. Or even just repost the occasional column.

One other thing though - I've never seen the point of a monthly column, especially now. Something weekly? Sure - people know the day on which is comes out... but monthly? No.

Alistair Cooke once said that there are three things that you should never try to persuade someone else to your point of view if they disagree, because you'll never succeed. You can attempt to educate someone to your opinion in the hope of changing their mind about art, music and literature, but these three things, not a chance.

And they are:-

a) Food that you think tastes nice, that they don't
b) Humour that you find funny, and they don't
c) Someone that you find attractive, and they don't.

It strikes me that as a working hypothesis, he's probably not that far wrong.

But I'm curious: does anyone else here think that anything else should be added to the list?

For myself, I - for example - don't particularly like wine, but I've said before that I'm perfectly prepared to accept that's because I've not yet come across one I like... yet. (Although I will admit to occasionally liking a glass of champagne.)

I should add that I think time does change someone's view, as they change themselves. There are books (and comic books) that I either didn't like (or even actively disliked) when I first read them, and now like, and vice versa. However, some books (and comics) I still dislike as much as when I first read them.

And here's a promo for the 1979 series... very strange:

Just saw on the BBC's "breaking news" banner that:

News International's Rebekah Wade says stories on illegal phone tapping misleading

And what popped into my head?

The single acronym: MRD.

(genuinely curious as to who other than tulip_maria, carll and colinmurtagh will get those references...)

Apparently, there's a fire...

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

From this week's Private Eye:




Of course, the gag would work even better as Twitter, but, hey, can't have everything...

I never graduated.

There. I've said it.

I went to Manchester Polytechnic from 1982 to 1985, but buggered up my degree, and failed the final year. And neither of my brothers attended university, so I've never attended a graduation ceremony.

Until today.

Everyone reading this knows (or should know) that I'm on very good terms with Laura, Phil's mum. We're still technically married, but we separated four years ago this month, and we refer to each other as the ex-, so if you catch me using the expression, that's why. Anyway, after we split up, Laura went to University, taking up the academic cudgel, and a few weeks ago, we discovered that she'd been awarded her degree: she will today be graduating as BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies.

She's worked incredibly hard for the degree and deserves the recognition.

Philip and I are incredibly proud of her achievement, and on a personal note (as the bloke who proofread so many of her assignments, and her dissertation), it's been a genuine pleasure to see her writing mature over the past few years, and to see her gain confidence in her own abilities in the field.

Mazeltov, Laura!

(I'll stick some pics up when I get them later.)

Every so often, I'll get a spam email that just makes you go... what?

Like this one. Yeah, I know it's basically the same "you've won the lottery, give us your details" spam, but this one just threw me. I think it's because it's addressed so carefully to "Dear e-mail user". It's the personal touch:

From: [I've removed the email address]
Sent: 09 July 2009 04:05 am
Subject: Google Online Promo © 2009

Dear e-mail user,

Your e-mail has emerged as a winner of £500,000.00 GBP (Five hundred thousand British Pounds) in our on-going Google Promotion. Your Winning details are as follows: Computer Generated Profile Numbers (CGPN):7-22-71-00-66-12, Ticket number: 00869575733664, Serial numbers:/BTD/8070447706/06, Lucky numbers: 12-12-23-35-40-41(12). Contact Mr Grahams Benfield, for more details through the contact below:

Mr Grahams Benfield,
Email: [I've removed the email address]

Sincerely,

Mrs. Zhaban William.

It still genuinely astonishes me that anyone - anyone - falls for this stuff. And yet, as research, and the occasional media reports shows, they do.

Who knew there was an official Modesty Blaise website, approved by Peter O'Donnell?

Among such gems, you'll find the following image, entitled:

A Villain's View of Modesty

Haven't done one for a while, (and although there's a 'fashion' one doing the rounds, that's really not my thing) so why not...?

( 100 questions, 100 answers )

Quick PC/Mac question regarding images:

I have two images that - while showing correctly on the blog - when downloaded and then viewed on a pc or Mac, come up as portrait format in Windows, and landscape on a Mac.

Any ideas?

No worries - looks like it was a one-off; solved it by saving the images to desktop, and opening them in Photoshop Express... wherein they opened in landscape format. Rotated and saved them, and re-uploaded. Now they're portrait on both PC and Mac.

No particular reason for this, other than that there's some tv programmes over the next few weeks leading up to the 40^th anniversary of the moon landing.

On 27^th January 1967, three astronauts - Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee - died when pure oxygen in the capsule of what would have been Apollo 1 ignited.

On the following Monday, flight director Eugene Kranz (the bloke portrayed by Ed Harris in the movie Apollo 13) called a meeting of his branch and flight control team. During that meeting , he said the following, what became known in NASA as The Kranz Dictum:

"Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, 'Dammit, stop!'

I don't know what Thompson's committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause!

We were not ready! We did not do our job.

We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did. From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: 'Tough' and 'Competent.'

Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for.

Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect.

When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write 'Tough and Competent' on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control."

I may upset a couple of my friends here; if so, I apologise in advance. Sorry, but I've got to say it.

I like Twitter. I really do.

I couldn't say why I like it so much, but I really do like it. I've got my own twitter account (@budgie, if you're interested) and I twitter a couple of times a day or more usually...

Now I have to say all of the above upfront... because while I enjoy reading tweets from friends, people I know and the occasional person I've been recommended, reading tweets once is usually enough, thanks all the same.

I don't need to read them several times. In fact, I don't enjoy reading, nor do I particularly want to read, people's tweets three times: once on Twitter, once on Facebook and again on Livejournal.

Now before anyone rushes to justify the practice, you don't need to, ok? I completely understand why people do it: not everyone (in fact, I'd guess, fairly few people) have the same readership on all three platforms. People who follow your twitter feed don't necessarily follow you on Livejournal, nor on Facebook.

And vice versa: not everyone reads someone else's Twitter, facebook and livejournal.

Thing is... I usually do.

So I was delighted when someone came up with a Firefox edit that 'silenced' the feeds from Loudtwitter in Livejournal; it didn't hide the posts per se, merely the content. It meant that if I wanted to read them, I could open up the post itself and I'd see the tweets, but on my friends' page, I still got to read the non-LoudTwitter posts without having to scroll through the twitter feeds that had a dozen or so tweets daily.

(And before anyone says "well, there was a setting to allow people to cut down that number to exclude replies in conversations", I never understood why someone should have to use that setting - it's their journal/Twitter, they should be able to do whatever the hell they like...)

But once I used the edit... at once, my friends' page returned to something approaching normalcy. (Actually, given the postings of some of my friends, that's an arguable point...)

However, LoudTwitter died over the weekend. I'm genuinely sorry for two reasons. Again, there are good reasons for people to have used it, and I hate it when something that makes live more convenient for people goes away. The other reason is that it's been replaced by twittinesis.com (yes, I'm aware of the danger of pointing it out to everyone who did use LoudTwitter), and my friends' page is no doubt about to get swamped by people's tweets again.

All of the above said, if anyone's aware of a twittinesis.com suppressor, please let me know?

vix_da_vixen isn't the only one to mention to me recently that Phil seems to be changing more quickly as time goes by, and that looking at pictures from his bar mitzvah, it's hard to believe that was only eight months ago...

Well, this was Phil back at his bar mitzvah:



And this is him today, taken at the flat







(The framed pic on the wall in the background of the first of today's shots, by the way, was taken in March last year)

...and then my son buys me "a present".

( This present )

Not often I'll steal post something wholesale from Warren's blog, but this one made me think... probably more than it should do:

Instrumentation
I discovered today that, through the very good technology house Expansys, an unlocked iPhone 3GS costs pretty much a thousand pounds per unit.

Which is a bit strong for something that only learned how to do MMS five minutes ago. But.

A thousand pounds per unit actually forces you to recontextualise the iPhone a bit. That’s not a mainstream consumer street device anymore. That’s a digital instrument. That is something very different from a mobile phone. That’s something you don’t dare carry around in your pocket because it costs a thousand pounds. And if you do carry such a thing around in your pocket, you are either a wilfully conspicuous consumer of a piece with the people who used to lug mobile phones around when they came in briefcases or you are some kind of scientist performing science on the street with a digital instrument or else why would you be carrying around a device that costs a thousand pounds per unit?

Perhaps iPhone 3GS users need a bumper sticker for the backs of their instruments that reads IT’S OKAY: I’M DOING SCIENCE.

Yes, I've a couple left to upload and post here (including the giraffes-in-casts by fen_wolfchile and mrs_karen_bear), but this arrived in the post today for Phil. This wasn't by email, but arrived in a cardboard envelope.

From the mind and hand of Andie Tong, ladies and gentlemen:



If you're going anything other than "wow" right now, then...


(Oh, yeah, that is "Phil" followed by an exclamation mark, not "Phill"...)

It's been reported that both Mollie Sugden and Karl Malden have died, at the ages of 86 and 97 respectively.

Though I'm far less surprised at either of the deaths than I was at Michael Jackson's, I'm far more saddened.

I'm not sure why, since they both had long and successful careers in their chosen fields, and they certainly didn't die "before their time" or somesuch nonsense.

I think it's because they never seemed to age that much, particularly Sugden. Although she was better known as Mrs Slocombe in Are You Being Served, I much preferred her in The Liver Birds, but Served and The Streets of San Francisco were on telly all the time when I was growing up and I remember them clearly.

I can't remember the last time I saw Mollie Sugden in anything, but I saw Malden do a rather wonderful guest spot in The West Wing, and in the few minutes he was in the show, he acted Martin Sheen off the screen, something that few people did in that show, certainly in the first couple of series.

Couple of years ago, I wrote something before the Bristol Comic Expo that year, revamping, expanding and updating something I'd written previously for my column at Going Cheep. What I wrote was the con report before I attended the con.

It seemed rather popular when I wrote it, and Neil Gaiman mentioned it in his journal. As a result (and I'm not pretending that people stumble across it many other ways) every so often, someone who's been to Neil's journal will come to mine and either leave a message or email me.

acciochocolate did so today, and so I thought it was about time I reminded people of it, especially since there's been a fair number of new readers in the past couple of years.

Hey, Neil called it "every-con-report-you-need-to-read", and who am I to disagree?

every-con-report-you-need-to-read

It's been a while since I've posted any of these...

To be fair, it's been a while since I've received any of these...

But these were worth waiting for, and then some...

First up, we have from Cath Tomlinson - cath (an incredibly talented artist who did the chapter art for Chapter 10 of You'll Never Believe A Man Can Fly, and who draws far too rarely these days):

And then, following Phil's recent second injury to his finger, and his comment that he thinks they're giving him Wolverine's hand, step-by-step, the simply wonderful Bevis Musson (bevismusson) sent the following... and the original is on its way to Phil in the post:

My sincere thanks, guys, more than you can possibly know!

I feel pretty much human again.

The fever broke last night (about the same time as I took my final tamiflu) and this morning was the first time in over a week I didn’t wake soaked in sweat...

And today I have taken my normal painkillers because the foot was hurting (in other words, as usual) and not because my joints and limbs were hurting so much I couldn’t stand straight.

Just had the bath from paradise, washed my hair and am now clean shaven for the first time in a week.

I feel like ‘me’ again, which for better or worse, makes me feel better as well.

So, what’s been happening for the past week?

Well, I'm feeling a tad better tonight; suspect the fever's broken, since my arm and legs aren't as painful, and I'm not shivering quite as much. Final tamiflu tonight, but I still don't feel well enough to go back to work yet.

Will try to do some work from home tomorrow... but again, it depends on how I feel, to be honest. There's no point in me doing work that will need rechecking anyway.

Phil went back to the hospital today for his post-op checkup. He's been incredibly good about handling the pain (which is now delivering in spades).

They've removed the plaster cast and put him in a splint; they've given him exercises to do, and Laura told me that he only managed some of them before his pain threshold was reached, but to be honest, I'm staggered he managed to do any of them.

Laura sent me a pic of his hand, complete with wires in it, but there seems little point in sticking it under a cut, since if you hit 'reply', you're going to have to see it. And it may not be something you want to see, given the swelling, etc.

So tell you what. Here it is. Click on it if you want to.

(It's only the top of the hand, so you don't get to see the scarring from the previous op or anything.)

...and feel free to shoot me down in response to this post.

After all, with a head full of cotton wool (or at least that's what it feels like, still) I could be talking utter nonsense...

But...

My favourite MP is Lynne Featherstone (Lib Dem, Hornsey and Wood Green), not only because of the work she does, but because I knew her years ago, before she got into organised party politics. But her work since then has done nothing to lessen my liking for her on a personal basis, and only increased my admiration for her on a professional one.

And usually, her arguments for the causes she supports are logical, clear-headed and even if I disagree with her views, they're arguable cases.

But... this morning, on her blog, she mentions a project that she's been supporting for some time. There's a rather clever - in my mind - Department of Work and Pensions initiative going on, the sending out of 2000 job applications with false names to prove or disprove the theory that discrimination exists in the form of applicants for jobs getting eliminated because they have names that give away their ethnicity, gender or age.

I completely support this project. I think it's the only way you can find out whether there's inherent discrimination in the selection process. (However, I'd be against anonymous CVs being the norm). Lynne also supports the project, but while commenting upon the CBIs response to the work (they're against it), she has - entirely inadvertently, I'll grant - allowed her enthusiasm for it to carry her away to the point where she ends her argument with a line that genuinely surprised me.

She finishes her entry with the words:

And if the CBI are confident that I'm wrong? Well, they shouldn't be worried about evidence being gathered to find out!

Hmm. That, to me, ain't a million miles away from the arguments offered in support of ID cards "Well, if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about..." or any one of a hundred other infringements of privacy, such as "stop and search", or "suss" laws, or even saying that everyone's salary details should be posted on the walls of their offices, right next to their bank statements...

Surely there are better arguments to make to the CBI than that, the old "if you've got nothing to hide, what's the problem...?"

Let me put that another way... er, NO!

From the BBC:

Doctors want right to talk faith
Doctors are demanding that NHS staff be given a right to discuss spiritual issues with patients as well as being allowed to offer to pray for them.

Medics will tell the British Medical Association conference this week that staff should not be disciplined as long as they handle the issue sensitively.

The doctors said recent cases where health workers had got into trouble were making people fearful

But atheists said it was wrong to mix religion and health care.

The doctors, who are behind the motion being discussed at the Liverpool conference, are unhappy about the guidance that has been issued.

The General Medical Council code suggests that discussing religion can be part of care provided to patients - as long as the individual's wishes are respected.

But at the start of this year the Department of Health issued guidance warning about proselytising.

It said that discussing religion could be interpreted as an attempt to convert which could be construed as a form of harassment.

[More in link]

I'm genuinely surprised at this in so many ways, and only unsurprised in one way, which is that if you belong to a proselytising religion, and truly 'believe' (particularly that part of the religion that obliges you to proselytise), then it only makes sense that would inform every part of your life and you'd wish to proselytise when the opportunity arises. That doesn't make it any more acceptable, in my mind, however.

OK, in order of importance:

1. Phil is slowly getting used to the heavy cast, what was done to his hand, and the pain that goes along with it. Laura sent me the "official" medical words for the procedure he's had, in case anyone's interested:

Principle diagnosis:
Proximal P1 extra articular fracture LLF Plus flexion deformity LLF from previous injury.

Procedures:
Manipulation under anaesthetic and Cross K-wire fixation of extra articular proximal P1 fracture LLF

We spoke earlier, and he seems to have thrown off most - if not all - of the anaesthetic, as people who've chatted with him online would have discovered. Still hurts like hell that I can't see him, but he understands why.


2. Laura got her degree results through. People reading this know that Phil's mum and I have an incredibly good relationship, despite not being 'together' any more, but may not know that she's been studying for a BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies since 2006. Laura left school at 16, and she's worked incredibly hard over the past three years on this, and as someone who's been proofing her assignments over the years, it's been a genuine pleasure to see her academic writing develop and mature over the course of the degree. She just found out she's been awarded a 2(ii), and is - quite understandably - delighted by it, as are me and Philip on her behalf. Well done, Laura!


3. Me? I've still got [suspected swine] flu. Ug.

Phil had his op this morning, and is now home with Laura (and, as far as I know, chatting to friends on Facebook and MSN).

His hand's wrapped in plaster, and his finger now has wires through it. I suspect he thinks that he's now getting Wolverine's hand, step-by-step.

They're happy with how the surgery went, and there's been no further tendon damage; however, they didn't want to put too much pressure on the joint, so there's a possibility there'll be less flexibility in the joint itself going forward, which may need correction by surgery at some stage six to twelve months in the future.

(As an aside, he's less than happy with me for various reasons, but it proves the surgery didn't affect his lungs...)



Me? I still feel like crap; the tamiflu/painkiller mix is undoubtedly lowering the temperature, but leaves me feeling like I've a head full of cotton wool and the aching bones/joints still ache.

That is all. More tomorrow.

Ug.

Picked this up from various people's twitters this afternoon, including emmav and _tonylee_.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the UK Folding Plug, something of utter genius.

It's... stunning.

First off, sincere thanks to all for the kind wishes to Phil for the second operation...

...however, keep those fingers, legs, eyes and everything else you can think of crossed for another couple of days.

Just as Phil was about to go down for surgery (he'd already had the cream applied to his hands to numb them for the anaesthetic), they postponed the operation.

Good news: they want the top hand surgeon in the hospital to do the operation.

Bad news: they think he needs the top hand surgeon in the hospital to do the operation.

After reviewing the x-rays and other material, they said the fracture’s too unstable, given the damage to the tendon (both original and the latest), to think anything other than it’ll be a bastard of a procedure.

So it'll be Friday...

After my post the other day about feeling lousy, I did go into the office on Monday, woke up this morning at 5am, drenched in sweat, with limbs aching and a head full of cotton, and a temperature of 102˚F; so spent the day alternately having baths, laying on the couch, drinking water, and going “ug” at regular intervals. The fever seems to have broken though, and I've currently got a temperature of a shade over 100˚F, so feel more like “me” now (which is not necessarily a good thing, but you know what I mean), and am planning on being back at work tomorrow.

All of which, however, pales into insignificance with the other news:

Phil had an accident at school today.

His best friend fell and as he fell, grabbed for Phil. All arms and legs... and his foot caught Phil’s hand. Yeah, that hand.

Result? Phil’s broken the same finger in which he’d severed the tendon; he's having surgery tomorrow (Wednesday) morning to see how much damage has been done to the finger, the tendon and whether there's any potential nerve damage.

Back to square one. All the hard work (and he’d worked bloody hard at his exercises) all the rehabilitation? Not only are we back to square one, but they won’t know until they open him up whether there’s been damage to the tendon they repaired, or any nerve damage. So, it looks like leftarmincast will continue for the foreseeable future, for not particularly wonderful reasons...

From what the doctors said tonight, most likely prognosis is that Phil's hand will not return to full use and recovery until week 3 of Year 9 of his schooling, i.e. 3 months from now, and five months - five bloody months - from the original injury.

Bloody ’ell...

Edit to all: I'm obliged to enlight_bystand for the information at the end of this post, who pretty much solved the mystery for me. Genuine thanks, sir!

Something struck me just now when I was watching the news about John Bercow being elected as Speaker of the House of Commons.

Unless I've got my numbers wrong, about 40 MPs didn't vote in the final round.

The five Sinn Fein MPs have never taken their seats in the Commons, so are barred from voting. The Father of the House, who chaired the election, was barred as were the two tellers for each side. Bercow got 322 votes, Sir George Young got 271. That's a sum of 603 votes.

There are 646 MPs.

Even leaving aside the recent "Vote to stop the BNP getting in" campaign, MPs have been telling us for years that we should vote at elections.

It's rather disappointing that almost 1 in 15 didn't on this occasion...

---

Edit to add reply from enlight_bystand :

Apparently 36 31* MPs were at the Council of Europe.

Ian Gibson and Michael Martin have both quit, so there are only 644 MPs

Apparently it's tradition that the PM doesn't vote for the speaker, so Brown didn't.

*correction

So that leaves a little over half-a-dozen that could have been ill, or something, which is perfectly understandable...

Not often I'll repost something from criggo (the site that reprints funny, daft or just plain weird items seen in newspapers and magazines), but sometimes they show something that's just too good not to.

Like this:

Have been feeling lousy for a couple of days; my foot's been playing up since the middle of the week and for the first time in a while, I've been taking the cocodamol 500/30 at maximum dosage, (8 tablets a day) for consecutive days.

Well, today it caught up on me, and I woke up feeling like hell - and feeling like I hadn't slept at all. Was sweating like crazy and my limbs ached, so despite it never having this effect on me before, I wondered whether I'd just had 'too much'... As people know, I usually sleep about 5 to 6 hours a night; but over the past 30 hours through till 1 this afternoon? I reckon I slept about 18 of them, and it wasn't a restful sleep.

And then this evening, when I dropped Phil off from a bat mitzvah party, I used Laura's thermometer. Just in case, you know?

Yeah, a temperature of 101.2˚F would explain it, wouldn't it?

Have got to be in work tomorrow, but may call it a day early, depending on how I feel...

Although I regularly check my work email on the Iphone via Outlook Web Access, I've never wanted my email on the phone. I get too many emails at work that - to be honest - are cc's that I need to know about, but don't need to do anything about, or are industry newsfeeds (two industries, really: travel and television) and I also have a habit of deliberately leaving some emails marked as 'unread' to remind me to do something about them. And I don't want to have 'badges' showing unread emails. I'd constantly be checking that they're not new mails.

However, having my office calendar on the iPhone would be incredibly useful... and as of today, I have it. Exchange ActiveSync means that I can pick and choose out of mail/contacts/calendar to sync with seamlessly... and it's now sorted. Any appointment booked into the office calendar on my Office desktop? Appears on the iPhone in seconds. And vice versa. I can book follow up meetings actually while in meetings and know that when I get back to my desk, my Outlook will have the meeting booked in.

Yeah, I know that other people have done this... but it's the first time for me.

(And yeah, just like when I got the iPhone and constantly hit the maps application just to see the GPS identify where I was, I spent ten minutes adding in and deleting fake appointments just to see them automagically appear and disappear on the other 'device'.)