We’re flying at 11am (UK time) to San Francisco, picking up a car and driving around anywhere that takes our fancy for three weeks. Blogging will be light.
It’s an eleven hour flight!
Categories
-
Recent Comments
-
Monthly Archives: July 2004
California
BBCi Accessibility
Axlog on BBC accessibility is not too impressed by the Graf report. I think he’s right to be annoyed. I’d have been more pissed-off myself but Zeldman cautions against crowing in the case of the accessible Odeon site designed by Matthew Somerville.
Rospryahaite
Peter Solowka, ex The Wedding Present, turned to his parents’ roots for his next band, The Ukranians. Here’s a brief MP3 extract of the traditional song, Rospryahaite.
They do marvellous covers, too, including a slow, tuneful Venus in Furs (originally by The Velvet Underground). Very highly recommended.
Psychology search terms
Since our posts about how Freud is rubbish and since setting up the Psychowiki, we’re attracting psychology-related search terms. Yesterday it was:
- pavlov’s hierarchy of needs
- senile dementia late adulthood
- obedience to authority in wwii
- extinction in shaping behaviour
Looks like we’ll have to do more work.
Macro mode on the Nikon Coolpix 4300
I’ve always had good results wih Nikon Coolpix models. This is a closeup in macro mode of my cat’s nose, taken with the 4300.
Lesser-known programming language: VALGOL
Named for Valley Girl (Southern California’s San Fernando) idiom. Here’s a sample program:
LIKE, Y*KNOW(I MEAN)START IF PIZZA = LIKE BITCHEN AND GUY = LIKE TUBULAR AND VALLEY GIRL = LIKE GRODY**MAX(FERSURE)**2 THEN FOR I = LIKE 1 TO OH*MAYBE 100 DO*WAH - (DITTY**2) BARF(I)=TOTALLY GROSS(OUT) SURE LIKE BAG THIS PROGRAM REALLY LIKE TOTALLY (Y*KNOW) IM*SURE GOTO THE MALL
Soy Loco Por Ti, America
A musical interlude. Helen’s building iPod playlists and has put together a few for the States. The first item is Brazilian songsmith Caetano Veloso’s ‘Soy Loco Por Ti, América’. You may have caught Veloso in Almodovar’s Talk to Her, accompanying himself on the guitar as he sang to a small crowd on the evening passeggiata.
Fear of Flying
I’ve always been scared of heights and of flying but I don’t understand why that should be if a Behaviourist approach to phobias works.
The best way of keeping calm during a flight, I find, is to look at the bored faces of the staff. If they’re not scared, this must be ordinary. It worked for my last flight over the Atlantic and for a very bumpy ride into Barcelona a couple of years ago. I’m hoping it’ll work still for the trip to San Francisco but I don’t understand why I’m still scared.
Talk Like a Pirate Day
Avast me bilge rats! ‘Tis International Speak Like a Pirate Day on September 19th so ye lubbers got some time t’ learn yerselves the lingo! Arrrr! Be sure ye do it smartly else ye’ll be castaway
I’m a pirate! That I be!
I sail me ship upon the sea!
I stay up late - till half past three!
And that’s a peg below me knee!
Boycott Odeon Cinemas
Matthew Somerville tries to persuade people of the benefits of accessibility by creating accessible versions of well-know websites. He’s created an accessible version of the National Rail Enquiries Site and of the Odeon Cinema site. Now Odeon Cinemas are threatening to sue him; this despite the fact they are breaking the 1995 Disability and Discrimination Act themselves in having an inaccessible site in the first place.
You can see Matthew’s website or go straight to his accessible versions of: