Andrew Mobbs' Journal

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“The Allotment may not be used for arty illegal or immoral purpose”

- Birmingham City Council allotment rules

Somewhere around the start of July, I want to start letting out my flat. Ideally I'd like to avoid agencies, so the plan is ideally to let to friends or friends-of-friends, failing that use the Cambridge Accommodation Notice Board and the University Accommodation Service.

So, if any of my dear readers are likely to want to rent, or know anybody who might want to rent, a nice fully furnished two bedroom flat in a quiet area in the north-west of the city, starting somewhere around July type time, please let me know.

There's a fantastic discussion on the Guardian's Comment is Free boards, off the back of a Ken Livingston article, Brian Paddick and Ken Livingston have a …robust… discussion of policy, and Siân Berry and George Galloway throw in the odd comment too.

If I were being optimistic, I'd see this as the beginning of open political debate on public forums between candidates. However, I expect it'll remain an exception rather than the start of a trend, by the sound of it Paddick is already regretting getting involved.

10 years ago, a reasonable desktop PC might have had; a 300MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, 4GB hard disk, rudimentary 3D acceleration, an internet connection operating at a few hundred kpbs (if it was lucky, more likely dial-up).

Today, I can carry around an device in my pocket with equal or better capability, complete with keyboard, 800 pixel wide screen, built in cameras, mobile networking and global positioning. It also makes phone calls.

Partly this is me going "Yay! I've got a new toy" (in the form of a Nokia E90), but partly it's a reflection on one of those "living in the future" moments. It really strikes me as incredible that a device of just over 200g that fits neatly in my hand and can tell me where I am in the world, send email, access all the information and indexing capabilities of the modern world wide web, build spreadsheets and reasonably capable word processing documents, take pictures and, yes, phone people. It could perform useful scientific computation at a rate that 20 years ago would have been impressive on any system.

Possibly it's a part of getting older that I don't just accept technological change as natural, and have the perspective to see how impressive the changes are within the context of my own experience. It still leaves me wondering what further change I might see in my own lifetime. It's also worth noting what hasn't changed, the new toy that so impresses me still uses much the same human interface technologies that have been in use my whole lifetime, essentially since the Xerox Alto in 1973.

A moderately interesting challenge to Youtube censorship; a video of various nude artworks, with an awful version of "Imagine" as a soundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DbS2Wsd9-o

The final shot, a photograph of Madonna nude, is probably the real twist to it in context.

OK, so it's not something that hasn't been done thousands of times before, but it's good to see somebody challenging Youtube to get their chisels and carved figleaves out.

( Cambridge restaurants poll )

Any other similar restuarants in town I should know about?

Some people seem to have slept through the earthquake, others woken up, others noticed it while awake...

I was awake and didn't notice (I was entirely sober too).

Out of curiosity;
( friends-page saving cut for poll )

So, I've just got rid of a huge Leylandii hedge (pictures of my garden renovation to follow once it's complete)...

I need to choose a replacement, the context is a border with a public road on a relatively quiet 1960s build suburban housing estate.

So, LJ can run my life, or at least tell me what I should think about.

( Hedging poll )

Any other options should go in comments.

For reference, I've something of a preference for Beech, but worry it'll get too big, and am being overwhelmed by choice.

Does anybody want (or know of anybody who wants) a fridge/freezer? It's a Servis, but I don't know the model number, size is 166x50x58cm (H/W/D). It's 5 years old, works fine and has always been in good working order. It's got frost-free magic and I think it has an A energy rating (but would have to check to be sure). It's been replaced as part of a kitchen redesign that no longer allows for a tall appliance. Any reasonable offer accepted. I can deliver anywhere near Cambridge. I can also hang onto it for a couple of months if anybody might want it in the near future.

The comments on http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/01/haggis_blog.html are fairly amusing. The idea of barn-reared haggis is of course ridiculous; while you can encourage the wild population by protected nesting sites and so on, you can't domesticate the noble beast.

One of the panelists on Any Questions (Michael Gove, the Tory I think, but will have to wait until the programme is on Listen Again to check) was just replying to a question about nuclear power. He said he viewed it as a purely technical choice, not an emotional one. He then used the analogy of choosing an "Apple Mac" or Microsoft as an example of such a choice.

Who wants to tell him first?

Does anybody know a good (UK) politics online discussion forum? What I'd ideally like is somewhere where reasonable, informed people disagree sensibly and engage in debate rather than fire-and-forget opinion posting.

We've just returned from a great holiday in Vienna. There were Habsburg palaces full of baroque and rococco bling, many statues and monuments to imperial glory, a big wheel, crypts and catacombs, more bling in the imperial treasury, strange armour, many Christmas markets with roast chestnuts and Glühwein, horse-drawn carriages, snow, an awful lot of museums, Kaffee und Kuchen (including Sachertorte in Hotel Sacher), and several renditions of the Harry Lime theme (by a concert ensemble, by a guy playing the piano in a coffee house where Trotsky used to hang out, and on the audio guide in a museum of musical instruments for their zither).
( photos )

I have an 81 point plan to make the following data more accurate:
( graph )
ETA: Wow, google indexing is fast. I really am impressed.

12 litres red wine
4 oranges
4 lemons
0.5l brandy
750g molasses sugar
a fair amount of cloves, cinnamon bark, juniper berries

Serves: A living-room full of people, all evening

Cut the orange and lemons into segments, mix all ingredients except brandy, warm then gently simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add brandy. Serve to a room full of people, they will get drunk. Your flat will smell mulled for some time afterwards.

(You may wish to do this in four separate batches for convenience.)

Recently, some former chiefs of defence staff criticized the government over a what they see as low levels of military spending. The argument seems to be based at least partly on percentage GDP spent; which is much lower than Cold War levels. The government's response is that there is a sustainted"real terms" increase in military spending. According to SIPRI UK military spending when measured in constant 2005 US dollars was cut between the end of the Cold War and 1999, and has since increased to nearly Cold War levels. However, the UK economy has grown substantially in that time, and military spending is now 2.5% of the GDP rather than 4.1% in the earliest SIPRI data (1988), or a claimed 5% in 1982.

Measured by offical exchange rates, the UK military spending is second only to the US in the world. By PPP it is fifth in the world, after the US, China, India and Russia. (See this for details of spending and this for a discussion of PPP for measuring military spending).

In other statistics, many people are pleased that UK Official Development Assistance has increased to about 0.5% GNI, and by 2008/09 may meet the 0.7% target set by the UN.

So, some polls:
Poll #1096370
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Should changes in military spending be considered

View Answers

as a percentage of GDP/GNI
4 (50.0%)

as an absolute figure (allowing for inflation)
4 (50.0%)

Should changes in ODA be considered

View Answers

as a percentage of GDP/GNI
6 (75.0%)

as an absolute figure (allowing for inflation)
2 (25.0%)

Should the UK continue to attempt to be a significant global military power (with the spending that entails)?

View Answers

yes
2 (20.0%)

no
8 (80.0%)

Should UK military spending as a percentage of GDP/GNI

View Answers

Greatly increase (to >4%) (similar to US and Russia)
1 (10.0%)

Slightly increase (to >3%) (similar to India and Pakistan)
0 (0.0%)

Stay about the same (between 2-3%) (as it is now, similar to France)
3 (30.0%)

Decrease somewhat (to <2%) (similar to Norway or Italy)
4 (40.0%)

Greatly decrease (to <1%) (similar to Ireland)
1 (10.0%)

Set to zero (as Iceland)
1 (10.0%)

( data )

Deep fried Crickets sprinkled on Zebra steak for Christmas dinner? - http://www.shop.osgrowonline.co.uk/

I'm feeling very pleased with myself at the moment. You've got to understand, that I consider myself fundamentally not very practical when it comes to DIY type things, so although such a minor occurrence I'm sure most of you wouldn't mention it, it seems like an achievement to me.

Anyway, just as

pseudomonas was leaving this evening, having dropped round, I heard water falling, asked it was raining and was told no, it was an overflow pipe overflowing. He went on his way with a cheery "you know what to do". It turned out my toilet cistern was overflowing. Further it turned out that there was water spraying out of the joints of the filling mechanism.

There followed several minutes of damp and pointless attempts to tighten it, several more minutes of trying to find the stopcock, a couple of minutes of the stopcock failing to budge, and then suddenly a lack of water. At that point I realised I was rather thirsty so went and drank the luke-warm water that was left in the kettle (see "not very practical" above).

After that, dismantling the cistern mechanism was a much less damp experience and it became obvious that a washer had perished and was no longer toroidal, which was detrimental to containing the water flowing through it. I lack any washers, and know of nowhere convenient to get one at half past 11 in the evening. However, inspiration struck and I realised I do own a small pile of old bike tyres¹. Somewhere. After some searching I found the pile and pulled out one that had entirely blown, was impractical to patch, so should have probably been thrown away at the time. A brief application of scissors yielded what has proved to be a workable rubber washer (or rather pair thereof) that have managed, on the first attempt, to allow water to flow through the right bits of the cistern and prevent it from exiting elsewhere.

¹Edit: Or rather inner tubes, but you probably guessed that's what I meant. I do also have several old bike tyres though.