Cloudsoup

Brief video from our trip this summer.

Music: Explosions in the Sky.

I once wrote an article for Liberal Conspiracy where I claimed that everyone on the political right is either thick or nasty.

But again, if you want to play the man instead of the ball throw that one back in my face as you please.

'Faux individualist' (sic) and Balliol Boy Paul Sagar

The Delta Airlines attack by Abdul Abdulmutallab (or Abdul Mudallad) demonstrates that al-Qaeda is still active, still fixated on aircraft (see the similarities with Richard Reid in 2001 and the mid-90s Bojinka plot) and still successfully smuggling explosives through airport security.

I recently had an experience of lax airport security.

As far back as 2004, security at SFO spotted a knife I'd left in my carry-on rucksack. They were very nice about it. But their baggage scanner worked.

I ordered a camera lens through Amazon from Purely Gadgets (purelygadgets.co.uk). I wanted the lens in time for a trip to Rome and it seemed the company would be able to meet that deadline.

The order was place on the 8th December and the following day I received an email stating:

As per Amazon's¸ policy your order will be dispatched within 1-2 working days and delivered within 2-5 working days. Please note that in most cases our delivery time is shorter than stated so that our customers can enjoy their products at the earliest.

With Katherine Whalen and Stevin Merritt:

With the excellent lyric:

I can't wait to go to sleep and dream again

Roman mosaic of rather effete horses from Mérida (Spain)

Labour's Andrew Dismore, who represents a north London seat about 10 miles from Parliament, claimed £34,000 on a second home in west London between 2001-2003.

The Daily Telegraph said he then made second home claims on his Hendon flat, amounting to £31,000 from 2003-2009.

He said he had done the "right thing" by the rules

BBC : Labour MP Andrew Dismore defends expenses

This is embarassing for East Anglia, and it weakens the consensus view, but it doesn't come close to destroying it … I will still defer to the collected expertise of climatologists, which, for the moment, still supports the AGW hypothesis.

I also expect climatologists to defer to economists when it comes to the question of "what to do about it" … I'm not an advocate of the "we must do something, this is something, therefore we must do this" position on global warming.