After what seems like almost 2 years of hype and promises, Bibble Labs have released this very short video demonstration of their next generation RAW photography program, this is a big deal because Bibble is just about the only commerical software I’ve ever bought for Linux, and also the only fully cross-platform raw-photography processing system.
Bibble 4 has a somewhat cranky interface, but is an exceptionally good program and is my current software of choice. The Bibble people assure me that anybody who buys Bibble 4 today is guaranteed a free upgrade to Bibble 5.
Six months ago my baby daughter was born - that’s her in the middle of the photo in the middle of all that placental matter and birth-goo. Some people found this photo rather shocking.
It is explicit and graphic, and if you click on the image you can see the whole thing in rather more detail than you might like (especially if you are afraid of the sight of blood).
Some wikipedians felt that this image violated the privacy of the mother and the surgeons, despite the fact that it was taken with the consent of all present, except of course for the baby. Other readers felt that the photo was far too explicitly graphic, and not suitable for general viewing.
I like it - when my daughter is old enough she will see this photo and understand exactly what her first few moments of life outside the womb were like.
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One of the most entertaining side-shows in the three-ring circus that is the American Presidential election is that of Larry Sinclair. In case you’ve not been listening to right-wing talk radio, I’d forgive you for not knowing who Mr. Sinclair is – he’s the guy who claims that claims he took cocaine and had gay sex with Barack Obama and is demanding that the Presidential candidate address his allegations.
Normally the right-wing, fundamentalist Christian talk-radio circuit would be the very last forum that might give a voice to an openly gay drug user. These are the same people who blame “the gays” for 9/11, the New Orleans flood and the falling dollar: This is especially significant when you consider that Larry is a sort of stereotypical gay male: He acts and dresses camp and he speaks with a vaguely comical lisp in the way that only fictional gay villians allegedly speak – in short he’s the sort of person that right wing radio would find utterly objectionable, so why are the wingnuts so keen to give him the benefit of the doubt
Larry claims that a few years back he went ‘cruising’ in a limmo around the Senator’s home-town of Illinois, and just happened to have a casual hook up with a man who would later become a Senator and later-still become a Democratic Presidential candidate. If true, these allegations would hand the ‘wingers a weapon that could politcally destroy Senator Obama - after all the only thing that American conservatives hate more than a drug user is a gay drug user…
Unfortunately, Larry’s claims are flimsy and preposterous. His court case against Obama was immediately dismissed for for it’s frivolity and lack of evidence. When Whitehouse.org, an America news-blog offered to give Larry the chance to take a lie-detector test, he failed it twice. And since his torrent of allegations began he’s not actually presented a shred of evidence to back up his outrageous claims. Nevertheless, American right-wingers are noted for their tendancy to belive preposterous things for which no evidence exists. A few of them have grown rather fond of Larry’s claims and cannot get enough of hearing him dish the dirt on Obama, even if more sensible bloggers have debunked just about every claim Larry has ever made.
The President of France is visiting the Queen today. I’m watching the encounter as it happens. So far it’s just soldiers riding around on horses, blowing on trumpets and looking generally official. Unfortunately it’s dull as ditch-water. Might I suggest that when the Queen makes her reciprocal visit to France she emulates the actions of her ancestor King Henry VIII:
The Kings of England and France built themselves temporary palaces complete with thousands of knights, courtiers and a schedule of entertainment of almost Olympic complexity. The highlight of this was an arm-wrestling match between Henry and Francis I, which the obese Henry lost causing a minor diplomatic incident. That is the kind of Royal visit that I’d like to watch.
According to the BBC, a teenager has been arrested for the crime of possession of “The Anarchist’s Cookbook”, and having attempted to obtain some of the chemicals required to make some of it’s recipes. While the unlicensed manufacture and use of explosives has probably been illegal for a very long time, the criminalization of possession of this book seems paradoxical:
For starters, the book is still on sale on Amazon.co.uk and has been sold legally in the UK for more than 30 years. It can be downloaded for free. (If you clicked on that link then you just came into posession of this allegedly terrorist book - please make an appropriate confession at your local police station).
I’m not a fan of this book: It’s more suited to somebody wishing to commit suicide than instigate a bloody Jihad. If you really want to blow things up you would be much better off consulting the US Army’s improvised munitions handbook. This excellent and well-researched book provides all the relevant formulations and ingredients for a wide range of high-explosives, plus handy safety tips to ensure that your ‘package’ gets ‘delivered’ to the right revolutionary or diplomat.
The Anarchist’s Cookbook is amateur stuff by comparison.
Justin McKeating’s article on the Usmanov censorship affair is a good read, because he highlights a simple fact apparently unknown to the sort of lawyers who specialize in making critical voices “Cease and Desist”. Freedom of speech is the one issue that unites just about every one of the world’s bloggers - and this incident has done a superb job of highlighting the inanity of British Libel laws, specifically the fact that any attempt to use them to silence internet speech will almost instantly result in the opposite of the desired effect.
This is yet another example of the well documented “Barbra Streisand Effect“, however with a novel twist that our quaint Libel laws and recent legal precedent from the Demon Internet case have made our British hosting companies even more risk-adverse than usual. While we can certainly blame Mr. Usmanov for his ill-considered heavy-handed litigation, we should also share the blame with cowardly Fasthosts who pulled the plug on reciept fo Usmanov’s complaints without even the most basic verification.
I want them to play this song as the theme tune for the epic biopic about my life, or alternativly at my funeral (whichever comes first - I dont mind). This organ-funk jazz freak-out came in as a hot-tip from my free-music Guru, Marvin Suicide whose taste is always impeccable and whose hunger for fresh sounds never seems to diminish.
The tune is by a Swedish beat combo called “Sagor and Swing” - according to Wikipedia they’ve split up a few years ago, but their sweet sounds are only just starting to reach the rest of Europe. If you appreciate this hyper-organ funk sound then you can download a few more of their tracks for free courtesy of their record label.
It came as some surprise to see my own site linked to from Ian Dale’s political mega-hub, particularly as I’ve not published one even vaguely political story this year. So I’m unable to glean quite how I achieved a rank of #75 in the lib-dem chart, and a higher rank than the official blog of the Liberal Democrat party leader.
Ian states that his rankings are a reflection of ‘votes’ cast by his panel. All I can say is that this sort of voting reminds me of the kind they have in Florida where the actual number of votes cast have an estranged relationship with the results. Perhaps a few of those “hanging-chads” got mis-counted as votes for Stodge.org?
I’m certain that none of the Lib-Dem supporters would have singled out my site for a vote. I never solicited anybody to vote for me, nor was I aware that this competition existed until I was mysteriously revealed to be 75th best in the land. I never got involved with the debates on the other LibDem blogger’s sites, in short I made no effort and did not actually deserve to be on any ranking.
I can be pretty certain that any votes allegedly cast for Stodge.org are either accidental or imaginary - and almost certainly below the threshold of what is statistically meaningful when compiling a ranking.
If I was feeling charitable, I’d say his methodology is dubious - at at worst entirely bogus. Would it be fair to conclude that the whole affair is link-bait, intended to persuade the gullible and eager for publicity to link back to Mr Dale’s blog and thus boost his profile in the web-o-sphere?
I took this photo in the Sainsbury’s off Green Lanes in Haringy. There were a whole bunch of these “Entertainment Blitz” free-standing units in the “Seasonal Goods” isle.
As I was busy loading my basket, it occurred to me that Sainsbury’s plan to do for “entertainment” what the blitz did for London. Careful scrutiny of the titles available in these stands confirms that this is indeed the case.
