Vox Pops

Before I started blogging at WordPress I had a vox blog. Tonight I read that you could import your vox blog to your WordPress one. That is what I’ve just done and it was simple. So now the archives go back here to May 2007 but anything posted pre end January 2008 was from the previous blog.

Well done WordPress for this feature.

Dumbarton’s Big Game

This Saturday the Sons face Stirling Albion at Strathclyde Homes Stadium. The club is promoting it as “Dumbarton’s Big Game”. I know several Sons fans look in here and I’d like to ask you to do any combination of three things. Number one consider taking a hospitality package for the game. Season ticket holders can do this for £30 which includes a pre match lunch and a comfy seat. To book your place contact hospitality@dumbartonfootballclub.com
Now I appreciate that £30 is a lot of cash at this time of year so if you can’t go to hospitality for any reason then number two on the list is why not persuade a pal who doesn’t normally attend games to go along with you? This way we could add considerably to the gate and thus help the club who haven’t had much money coming in with all the recent postponements.
Which brings me to the third and final thing.
The quiz at DFC is always a good night, and it takes place on Saturday evening after the game. There is still space for a few teams of six. If you’d like to enter, have a bit of fun and maybe have the opportunity of one of the prizes on offer then contact secy@sonstrust.net with your details.

In case I’ve missed anything here, then please click here for the club site.

Gil Scott Heron – I’m New Here

It takes a lot for a record to excite me these days. This is one such record. It is a masterpiece and the good thing is, you can listen to the whole thing free if you click here.

He even does one of the Lewinskys’ set, the old Ray Charles song I’ll take care of you.

Thanks to both Stu and Amo for the heads up.

Great Headlines of Our Time

There was some chat this morning on Radio Scotland about it being ten years to the day since the  “Super Caley go ballistic Celtic are atrocious” headline in the Sun following the Parkhead club’s exit from the Scottish Cup at the hands of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

However some of the funniest headlines are almost unwitting. What about this one from this morning’s Independent?

Chinchilla to become Costa Rica’s first female president

Snap Election?

Those in the know have said that the date has already been pencilled in for May 6th. But with Broon set to appear TV with Pierced Organ and playing the emotional card, and with the Tory lead in the polls being whittled away, one wonders if it’ll be that long.

The recent airbrushed poster thing rightly brought ridicule upon Cameron and the Tories. They must be wondering what to do next.

Cameron will launch a personal attack on Broon today on the issue of the three Labour MP’s charged with fiddling their expenses trying to claim parliamentary privilege. He should be careful, as only he who is without a moat should shout duck! at the PM.

Then there’s Lord Ashcroft….

I don’t think I’d be surprised if the election was in April or even March.

East Fife 2 Sons 3

Fantastic result. This puts Sons in fifth place just behind the play off places. Well done to Jim and the players.

The Weekend Waits – Jockey Full of Bourbon

This is a real treat.

In 1986 Tom Waits starred in the independent black and white movie Down By Law directed by Jim Jarmusch. It also stars John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni. The footage here shows some of the unusual architecture of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou with Jockey Full of Bourbon providing the soundtrack.

Edna Million in a drop dead suit
Dutch Pink on a downtown train
Two-dollar pistol but the gun won’t shoot
I’m in the corner on the pouring rain
Sixteen men on a dead man’s chest
And I’ve been drinking from a broken cup
Two pairs of pants and a mohair vest
I’m full of bourbon, I can’t stand up

Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire, children are alone
Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire, your children are alone

Schiffer broke a bottle on Morgan’s head
And I’m stepping on the devil’s tail
Across the stripes of a full moon’s head
And through the bars of a Cuban jail
Bloody fingers on a purple knife
Flamingo drinking from a cocktail glass
I’m on the lawn with someone else’s wife
Admire the view from up on top of the mast

Hey little bird, fly away home
House is on fire, children are alone
Hey little bird, fly away home
House is on fire, your children are alone

I said hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire, your children are alone
Hey little bird, fly away home
House is on fire, your children are alone

Yellow sheets on a Hong Kong bed
Stazybo horn and a Slingerland ride
“To the carnival” is what she said
A hundred dollars makes it dark inside
Edna Million in a drop dead suit
Dutch Pink on a downtown train
Two-dollar pistol but the gun won’t shoot
I’m in the corner on the pouring rain

Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire, your children are alone
Hey little bird, fly away home
Your house is on fire, your children are alone

Know What I Mean Harry?

I wrote a short piece about climate change recently. I can only do this from a punters’ eye view. Science was not one of my strongest subjects and therefore I am not qualified to offer anything other than some gut feelings on the subject. My conclusion, based on what I’ve read and with a reasonable knowledge of how politicians react to situations, was that there probably was climate change and that it would no doubt be seized upon and exaggerated primarily for the purposes of revenue raising.

Most of the articles on the subject in the popular press are alarmist one way or the other. A cold snap of winter weather doesn’t prove or disprove anything any more than an unusually hot summer. Weather trends over decades, centuries even millennia have to be closely examined. I pointed out that some scientists in recent memory were in fact warning of a mini ice age based on such data.

Darrell Ince is a bright spark. He is a Professor of computing at the Open University and wrote a fascinating article in yesterday’s Guardian. He points out that many climate scientists refuse to release (details of) the computer programmes on which their findings are based.
Professor Ince writes:

“One of the spinoffs from the emails and documents that were leaked from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia is the light that was shone on the role of program code in climate research. There is a particularly revealing set of “README” documents that were produced by a programmer at UEA apparently known as “Harry”. The documents indicate someone struggling with undocumented, baroque code and missing data – this, in something which forms part of one of the three major climate databases used by researchers throughout the world.

Many climate scientists have refused to publish their computer programs. I suggest is that this is both unscientific behaviour and, equally importantly, ignores a major problem: that scientific software has got a poor reputation for error.”

He points out that such programmes are based on millions of lines of code and that if there is an error in just one it can invalidate a programme and therefore the research arising from it.

The full Guardian article is here
and I think we may well hear more about it.

Sine Die Devine

I was so naive yesterday in assuming that any MPs charged with ripping the absolute pish out of the expenses system falling victim to an unfortunate misunderstanding over their expenses claims would be at least try to give the impression of being contrite and co-operative over their shenanigans.

It seems that the four honourable members are going to try to invoke parliamentary privilege to try and escape scot free. One of them is Jim Devine, the Labour member for Livingston (Robin Cook’s old seat) who is accused of dummying up invoices totalling over eight grand for cleaning and stationery. Then there was the small matter of his imaginary friend the electrician with the non existent address and VAT number.

He has already been de-selected by his local party branch.

Devine is reportedly “devastated” at the turn of events “Other people have paid money back. If there’s a problem, and I don’t think there is one, why wasn’t I given the opportunity to pay it back?” he says

Maybe because their receipts were genuine?

Anyway now it looks as if Jim is hoping he can get the charges “shelved” under a 1689 law.

Easing Ended

Was it really nearly a year ago when I first wrote about quantitative easing? Basically the Bank of England created money electronically and bought difficult investments in various financial institutions so that they would use the money to lend to clients and get the economy moving again. It seems many of them didn’t do that and instead “banked” it.

Quel surprise.

The initiative ends today.

We won’t notice.