http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/yemen-the-crotch-bomber-scapegoat/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65787

The government is clearly trying to associate the crotch bomber with Yemen, which leads me to think that some sort of invasion or attack on the region is coming.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

Somebody in our government said to me in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war. – Joe Lieberman

Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, the Nigerian suspect who tried to ignite explosive chemicals with a syringe sewn into his underwear, may have been equipped and trained by an al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen. He [...] made that claim to FBI agents after his arrest. – “U.S. authorities”

Update: Apparently John and Adam talked about this on the latest edition of No Agenda.

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http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/walmart-sued-in-bathroom-surveillance-of-customers-and-employees/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65781

Walmart Accused in Bathroom Surveillance of Customers and Employees

• 12:08 @friedmanjon I stopped saying that because it would always come out "Half of one, six dozen of the other" by mistake. #
• 19:29 The SNL sketch last Saturday with James Franco about the fraternity is one of the best-written sketches I've ever seen. Who wrote that??? #

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http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/cranky-geeks-episode-198/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65749

Cranky Geeks -- Episode #198

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/10-year-old-accused-of-drug-dealing-for-peppermint-oil-suspended/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65744

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http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1666/12/27/

Up; and called up by the King's trumpets, which cost me 10s. So to the office, where we sat all the morning. At noon, by invitation, my wife, who had not been there these to months, I think, and I, to meet all our families at Sir W. Batten's at dinner, whither neither a great dinner for so much company nor anything good or handsome. In the middle of dinner I rose, and my wife, and by coach to the King's playhouse, and meeting Creed took him up, and there saw "The Scornfull Lady" well acted; Doll Common doing Abigail most excellently, and Knipp the widow very well, and will be an excellent actor, I think. In other parts the play not so well done as used to be, by the old actors. Anon to White Hall by coach, thinking to have seen a play there to-night, but found it a mistake, so back again, and missed our coach[man], who was gone, thinking to come time enough three hours hence, and we could not blame him. So forced to get another coach, and all three home to my house, and there to Sir W. Batten's, and eat a bit of cold chine of beef, and then staid and talked, and then home and sat and talked a little by the fireside with my wife and Creed, and so to bed, my left eye being very sore. No business publick or private minded all these two days. This day a house or two was blown up with powder in the Minorys, and several people spoiled, and many dug out from under the rubbish.

Well, how did we we get here!

Dec 18th - Friday. Tried to get everything ready to go, while sorting out work with my other hand. Husband is back early enough, we load the car with the entire contents of the house and off we go. Drive to Pembroke is not exciting, and a bit dark (but little ice or snow). We check into Travelodge, eat satsumas and sleep. 1am we rejoin the ferry queue. A short wait and we're on board. Lounging the club lounge is very filling but not very comfortable. Lounging in the rest of ship is much more restful.

Dec 19th - Saturday. We wake up to the continuing smell of baked beans. A coffee later, we're waiting to go. Off the boat fast, and directly into crawling stream of cars making their way towards Newross. Beautiful to see the sunrise in the frosted landscape. Saw special yellow truck convention. Bought cheap diesel. With my parents by 9:30am. Having a nap by midday. Wrapping presents. Eating. Wrapping presents. Grinning.

Dec 20th - Sunday. We are joined by darling darling sister. We also ate cheezy taco chips in Supermacs and visited the best antiques shop I've ever been (beautiful furniture - just waiting to fill my future mansion). Watched Poirot

Dec 21st - Monday. We go for a very long walk to Urlingford. Far longer than expected. Had delicious toasted sandwiches, saw a graveyard and a castle which belonged to some ancestors.

Dec 22nd - Tuesday. Eventually drove up to Dublin and checked into Temple Bar Hotel for very cheap moneys. Watched some of our newest confusing programme - The Wire. I don't really understand what it all means. I barely understand what they're saying. Met up with the awesome Maria and later the equally awesome Thomas. We did some drinking and discussed the world at large, 10 years of drinking, where are they all now and who's getting married next. When the bar shut, we brought the show on the road. On to the Palace (which was cracking!) and then to the hotel, where we were joined by some significant others. It was all brilliant :) Who knew I was so thirsty!

Dec 23rd - Wednesday. Woke up with a slightly tired head. Managed eventually to get up and go to see Avatar (in 3D). I really liked it, the detail in it was good. Thought it was a bit heavyhanded in places though, the ecological message was constantly pressed home. Afterwards, we picked up FiL and drove to Kilkenny. Mincepies and conversation.

Dec 24th - Christmas Eve. Family all together in Kilkenny. Lunch preparation. Decided to go out for a little drive, slipping on the ice. No room at the inn but finally found some lasagne at Butlers. Surprised by the ducks. Went for long drive and strayed into Tipp (shocking!). Eventually found our way into Kilkenny City for a drink. Home for tea (best Christmas Cake EVER!). Christmas vigil mass in local church. Lovely mass, really, with nice sermon. And the sweetest choir. Home in time for more tea and the end of an episode of Poirot.

Dec 25th - Christmas Day. Very traditional, but 70 miles down the road. Slow start, big table, brilliant presents (including the marvellous red Dell Hackentosh I'm typing on right now - inspiron mini 10 running Leopard quite nicely thank you very much - kudos and love goes to my darling husband who made it all happen!) as well as a fab haul of books, DVDs, music (including some Dizzy Rascal back catelogue), jewellery and socks like you wouldn't believe. "Four Candles" house sign, magic toothbrush and birdfeeder was well received, as was endless jumpers, makeup and girlie stuff.
Lunch was splendid as always - ham was particularly popular. Post lunch sleeping was epic, partly due to the heat. Was only one type of potato (two diabetics at the table) but excellent range of everything else.
Was disappointed by new Poirot, and left cold by Doctor Who.

Dec 26th - Stephen's Day. Ate more. Sat around more.
Went to my uncle's house for family catch-up. Great chatting - attack of the accents and cultural backgrounds. Massive dog. Incredible spread for tea (boiled Nigela cake and this unbelievable trifle). Left a bit early because of excessive whiskey consumption. Eventually got home, had some naps, watched a better Poirot.

Dec 27th - Sunday. Trip to Dublin. Drop-off to the airport in the morning. Muddled around a lot in town before meeting Mr natural20 for a fab lunch in lemonjelly. Ate so many crepes. Discussed all the news in the world. Drove home to delicious pseudo-chrismas lunch. Discussed Poirot, but didn't watch any (watched Touch of Frost for a million hours).

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/no-agenda-yeman-and-the-nigerian-crotch-bomber/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65739

As my family puts it, that passed off civil. We were 12 at Christmas; we were going to be six, and then my uncle and his girlfriend and his girlfriend's two sons and her parents were added to the guest list, so we had to scrap all plans of having duck or beef or something else with an actual flavour and roast a turkey instead. (I have eaten more turkey in the past three days than in the previous three years, which is more a sign of how little turkey I normally eat than anything else.) I had suggested we play board games after dinner to break the ice (well, the only board game we have, which is Kill Dr Lucky, and a very fine game it is too), but it turned out not to be necessary; the guests all chatted away for hours, and there was no ice to break.

I got a pretty good haul of presents, most of them from my Amazon wishlist, which led to a peculiar and not very satisfactory situation where I was very happy to receive the presents, but the people who'd got them for me had no idea why I wanted them and wouldn't have understood if I'd explained myself -- like, my brother got me a Hyouta Fujiyama manga, which I could squee about for hours (she's my favourite BL mangaka, and this particular manga is a fantasy story, which she doesn't normally do, and I'm excited to see what she does with it), but he doesn't really care. (I did try explaining Yotsuba&! to my mother, but I'm beginning to think that Yotsuba&! needs to be experienced to be understood.) So, there was no real surprise and also no real sharing of enthusiasm, which bothered me a bit. Still, it didn't cast a shadow over the day.

Yesterday I slobbed around in pyjamas, ate leftover turkey, and played Civilisation III a lot, which worked fine for me. Today I did 20 minutes on the stationary bike, then returned The Muppet Christmas Carol to the DVD place and went for a walk to the local park. The pond was frozen -- not completely solid; the edges were still liquid, and there was a biggish section near the ducks' island that was mostly liquid, but the main body of the pond had a layer of ice several inches thick on top of it. The park's two resident swans were sitting on it, apparently content to stay completely still until it thawed; meanwhile, a flock of pigeons had descended on the ice, and were pecking at bits of bread that had been thrown for the swans. They looked so comical as they meandered to and fro, mostly just walking along but occasionally skidding and sliding and needing to use their wings to get their balance back.

I also went to see Sherlock Holmes, which I liked very much despite being able to hear the rumblings from Arthur Conan Doyle turning in his grave. As I was walking home from the cinema (for lo! a new cinema has opened which is only 15 minutes' walk from my house! and lo! they're participating in the Met Live opera broadcasts programme!), I thought up some more accurate titles for it, like:

Kung Fu Sherlock Holmes vs Satanists Who Are Technically Not Freemasons, But Come On, Who Do We Think We're Kidding
Sherlock Holmes: Making Batman Look Like A Wuss Since 1887
Do Not Fuck With Sherlock Holmes. No, Seriously, Don't, It Will Not End Well For You
Why, Yes, We Are Aware Of The Existence Of Holmes/Watson Slash. Get Typing, Ladies!
Sort Of Like A Dan Brown Movie If Dan Brown Had A Sense Of Humour And Was Less Easily Fooled

I have a busy few days ahead, and then comes the New Year, and I have some resolutions in mind, though I'm still working them out. All in all, 2009 was a difficult year, but not a bad one; I'm hoping that 2010 will be less difficult, and positively good.

Tags: comics, film, personal, randomness

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/kindle-is-most-gifted-amazon-item-ever/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65711

Kindle is Most Gifted Amazon Item, Ever

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/quote-of-the-day-2/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65714

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/the-iran-revolution/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65709

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/extremely-drug-resistant-xxdr-tb-hits-usa-shores/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65705

From Monty Python:



And from the Animaniacs:

http://www.nickbarlow.com/blog/?p=692

One of my favourite songs is Barry McGuire’s 1965 protest song, Eve of Destruction:

I was interested to discover that a group called The Spokesmen had responded to McGuire (and PF Sloan, who wrote Eve of Destruction) with a song called Dawn of Correction:

As ever, you can see why the original is remembered, while the answer [...]

Among many other wonderful things, I got a wand for Christmas.

It's a very clever electronic wand that works as a universal remote. You can teach it to emulate the functions of other remotes you own.

I now adjust the volume on the TV by slowly rotating my wand, and change channels by giving a quick upward or downward flick.

I now realise I have always wanted to do this.

Current Music: the sound of how awesome I am

Sunday 27th December

DRINKS TONIGHT! - Catcher on the Rye in Finchley Central from 7pm! Hope to see a few people there :)

Monday 28th December

CINEMA TOMORROW! - Holmes @ North Finchley VUE at 11am (Monday 28th December) - Come along if you'd like to!

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/27/picture-of-the-day-how-low-can-you-go/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65700

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#42 Arthur C. Clarke, 2061: Odyssey Three, 1987

Arthur C. Clarke's ideas are as awesome as ever in this, the third in the series of novels. Much like the other books, the last few chapters were slightly trippy, but the attention to detail was absolutely superb! Clarke is one of the SF authors that continually provides ample reminder of why I chose to pursue a career in physics, and I value him enormously for that.

#43 Mike Carey et al, Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway, 1999/2000
#44 Mike Carey et al, Lucifer: Children and Monsters, 2000/01

I haven't actually read far enough in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman to appreciate the origins of the character fully but I loved Mike Carey's adaptation of Gaiman's Neverwhere and, as old-school readers of my fanzine will know, Lucifer as a character has always held a certain fascination for me. Thus, the series that continues Lucifer's adventures was a very tempting purchase and has proven to be a bloody brilliant read. Both paperbacks are highly recommended material!

#45 Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, Batman: The Killing Joke, 1988

This was shorter than I expected it to be, clocking in at 46 pages (I believe), but every page was solid gold so that was OK. The contributions from Tim Sale and the artist, Brian Bolland, were interesting to read and Bolland's shorter Batman script afterwards was weird and disturbing in an awesome way. I've read some awesome comics today!

#46 Garth Ennis et al, Judge Dredd: Emerald Isle, 1991/92

Looking at the cover of this TPB doesn't really make me think that this is intended to be an entirely serious story, and a glance at Wikipedia confirms that suspicion. It's a good read, though, even though I suspect I'd have been better off reading something else for my first experience of Dredd.

Tags: books, comics, meme
Current Location: Werrington, Peterborough
Current Mood: content
Current Music: 3 Doors Down - Kryptonite

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LynnesParliamentAndHaringeyDiary/~3/zotc97Lnrn8/a-happy-ending.htm

http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/?p=6001

A facebook friend sent me this link which tells of authorities who wickedly remove wardens from sheltered housing schemes. Older and vulnerable people go into sheltered housing often exactly because they want to know there is someone on hand, particularly overnight, should they need help. If you follow the link - it tells two tales of successful action against authorities who removed the wardens from sheltered housing schemes or changed the scheme to a 'mobile' warden moving around from place to place. Now - that is a happy ending and hopefully a red flag to stop this diminution of service and safety.

Current Mood: cheerful

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archives.html?m=December&y=2009&d=27

In 2008, our big GURPS hardcover release was GURPS Thaumatology, which expanded the possibilities and options of the GURPS magic system.</p>

Of course, it always takes time for new options to be fully assimilated by our authors (and the fans!). So it's not surprising that a surge of supplements building off of GURPS Thaumatology arrived during 2009.</p>

Here, then, are the four expansions from e23 that tie into GURPS Thaumatology:</p>

• GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles -- Sean Punch's take on designing methods of magic used by guilds, schools, secret societies, etc. Discover Magic Perks available only to wizards!
• GURPS Thaumatology: Alchemical Baroque -- Phil Masters' setting that combines an age of exploration with fantastic fairy-tale trappings.
• GURPS Thaumatology: Urban Magics -- Bill Stoddard's exploration of the use and abuse of magic in cities. Discover mana-powered transport, urban divination, sacred architecture, and magical utilities!
• Pyramid #3/13: Thaumatology -- Containing a full treatment of fairy-tale magic, an alternate form of magical healing, the all-too-creepy rituals of Red Diabolism, and much more.

And because it was released back in 2008, we're not going to mention the pulp-magic superhero setting, GURPS Thaumatology: Age of Gold. (Whoops . . .)</p>

-- Steven Marsh</p>

We just spent two days hiking in the snow around Leavenworth. My legs are reduced to humming jelly, I'm not making it to the party I thought I would attend this evening, so I pulled a random old journal off the wall to see if I'd find anything to inspire an hour or two of writing. Or a blog post, as luck would have it.


In the BLUE INSTALLATION journal from 1993 I've got a report on a friend's first game of D&D. Michael called it the biggest moment of his pre-adolescence, partly because it was about anticipation, he wasn't actually allowed to play.

The game started with his stepdad. Michael's brother Gregory was the DM. They thought Michael was too young to play, so he just watched, longing.

One day the party wanted to cast Detect Evil but they couldn't pull it off. No one had the spell. The guy playing the Paladin was a real Port Townshend character, long floppy mustache, expressive mannerisms. The paladin player lamented the group's inability. It was going to cost them a lot of trouble, he just knew it.

Michael piped up in a little voice: "Well, *you* can do it. Paladins can detect evil within 50 feet."

"No, no!" everyone yelled.

"Well, look it up," said Michael. They wouldn't let him play but no one had prevented him from devouring the rules.

They looked it up. Michael was right. "You should have your own character," said the Paladin's player. Michael's little heart was pounding, pounding.

Two weeks later, brother Gregory asked Michael, "Why don't you go inside and roll up a character?"

Tags: d&d

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archives.html?m=December&y=2009&d=26

</p>

Our site was down for a bit over 24 hours. The problem proved to be a single port on a server switch, but it was a very important little port . . . and Jimmie was out of town, and attempts to troubleshoot remotely were not successful . . . We are, in theory, back now, and return you to the regularly scheduled Daily Illuminator, complete with picture of shiny dice.</p>

Cthulhu Dice</p>

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm not even going to attempt to do this image justice. Just click on the little thumbnail, and take a look at these beautiful dice in larger-than-life detail.</p>

You're looking at printer samples of Cthulhu Dice, which is scheduled to ship early next year. Each game will include one of these four colors. Don't worry, the colors will not be random -- each case will have the same number of each and the packaging will NOT be blind. You think we're going to make something this beautiful and not have it show in the package?</p>

-- Paul Chapman</p>

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/26/nigerian-crotch-bomber-induces-further-flight-restrictions/

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=65688

Idiot Crotch Bomber causing more flight restrictions