Furthermore: July 2005

July 31, 2005

Couple More Links

• Etymology of Grimpen - you have to scroll down to Sherlock Holmes adds a Word. I thought this was interesting - I only realised the other day when I was watching the drama about Arthur Conan Doyle on BBC2 that he coined the term in The Hound of the Baskervilles. I’d thought it was a proper word because I thought I remembered reading it in a translation of Dante. Turns out I was half-right - I was mis-remembering reading TS Eliot’s East Coker but he lifted the word from the Holmes story. Very interesting.



• Kevin Drum - typical, go visit progressive US websites for political news, come back with a big thread on the ending of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Lots of interesting stuff here, but major spoilers if you haven’t read the book.


• Bloody Pledgebank again - looks like the Opentech conference (couldn’t make it unfortunately) saw the start of something like a British equivalent of the EFF - a kind of clearinghouse for UK digital rights issues. Click the link if you want to give these people money to get going.

July 26, 2005

New anti-ID cards pledge

No2id have successfully received 10000 sign-ups to their pledge on refusing to sign up for an ID card. I didn’t sign that because I didn’t think I could realistically afford not to have a passport, a driving licence — or indeed afford the potentially large fine for not signing up when the scheme becomes compulsory.

So, now there’s a new pledge, which you can sign if you will support (with money) the people who will refuse to sign up. I’ve signed this one, but we’re still looking for nearly 50000 more people to sign too.

Links

I seem to be accumulating many links:

• BBC Cambridgeshire - long interview with Peter Greenaway. I’m quite intrigued to see some of the Tulse Luper stuff, but I’m not sure I’d actually like it.



• Crooked Timber - well out of date I’m afraid, but I just re-read this round up of the Lancet study of Iraqi deaths as a result of the invasion. D-squared does a great job of defending the basic methodology against the more egregious slanders levelled against the study.


• MeFi - good round up of the reports that the US blew the cover of Naeem Noor Khan last year which may have compromised UK anti-terror operations that now have some links to the London bombers. I haven’t seen this on the news, so it’s either nonsense or just too hard to put over in soundbites.


• via cam.misc - open air sculpture in and around Cambridge.


• 1up.com - pretty amazing stuff about people being hired to perform repetitive tasks in MMORPGs in order to build up credit that can be traded for real cash. Read it and see.



• ICE - just spreading the meme a little. Add ICE to your mobile phone address book for In Case of Emergency contact.


• via Kottke - David Foster Wallace commencement speech. Good stuff.

July 20, 2005

Cambridge Open Studios

We went to an exhibition by our neighbour, Ellis Hall as part of the Cambridge Open Studios events.

Ellis takes photos often using reflection or distortion to create unusual perspectives. This year a lot of the photos used the horn of a tuba to create strange panoramic views. Of course, L, my eldest daughter was fascinated when the actual tuba itself was produced. The lady who owened it played a tune, and L had a go too and actually managed to get a note out of it (she’s only 3).

I hope she will want to learn to play an instrument, but I’m also rather hoping we can persuade her to something other than the tuba.

July 9, 2005

Watchet, Somerset

I’m not going to get round to the full journal thing, so I thought I should just do a few highlights of our holiday in case they are useful to anyone else planning to visit that area.

We stayed in a flat overlooking the harbour - beautiful view, and it was nice and quiet, which I always appreciate as I live near a busy road, and the noise is always there in the background. We booked through Welcome Cottages - we’ve used them before for self-catered accomodation, and this was up to the standard we had last time.

Watchet is a nice little town - the main disappointment was that it doesn’t really have much beach - there’s some shingly areas, but no good sand. You need to go down the coast to Blue Anchor or Minehead to find proper beach.

We didn’t really eat out, but there are some nice cafes - the Corner House was good, and I recommend the Star Inn for beer. It has a little beer garden too. There’s good fish and chips from the takeaway under the flat. There’s not much in the way of food shops either - there’s a little Co-op for the basics.

I should mention that all the roads in this area are quite narrow and twisty - it’s quite fun to drive them, but it can be a bit hairy in some places when you suddenly round a bend to find a huge lorry trying to come towards you. Everyone drives alarmingly fast.

Things to do:

• West Somerset Steam Railway - we took the steam train from Watchet to Minehead which was fun. Minehead was nice for a look round + it has a beach (and there’s a big Butlins, if your kids are that kind of age).



• Dunster Castle - looks really interesting, and Dunster village is nice. Beautiful grounds if you’re an idiot and go when the castle is shut like we did.


• A bit further afield, we drove up to Lynton and Lynmouth. The drive includes some of the steepest hills and sharpest turns you’re likely to find on any roads in the UK. You have been warned. Lynton and Lynmouth are beautiful - set at the top and bottom of dramatic cliffs on the coast. There’s a cliff railway to carry you up and down. I last came here when I was a kid - we stayed in a terrible guest house, and went walking on Hollerday Hill in the evening. We got lost and probably would have fallen over a cliff if I hadn’t been obsessed with carrying a huge black rubber torch everywhere at the time.


• We carried on from there to visit the Broomhill Sculpture Garden. To be honest, it wasn’t worth it - not that there’s anything wrong with the garden as such, but it wasn’t nearly as big as I’d imagined, the price is pretty steep for what it is (we should have sneaked in - nobody would have noticed) and the roads mean it’s a pretty long drive there and back.



• Heading out the other direction from Watchet, we visited Cheddar Caves and Gorge. Again, I’d say the official tour is pretty expensive for what’s basically a quick spin up and down the gorge in a coach, and entrance to the cave. I don’t think you can buy separate tickets for different bits, or I’d suggest you just drive up the gorge in your own car (which is pretty spectacular). If you don’t have small kids, I would suggest skipping the caves and just doing a bit of walking round the area.


• We went on from there to Wells and saw the Cathedral, which is quite beautiful. You could also do Glastonbury which is nearby, but we skipped it this time.