Have a 'Lynne Truss' at this sign, spotted in Sheffield Station this morning... 

Here Comes the Bride...

Well, it seems that Charles and Camilla are getting married. I worked that out due to the flurry of discussions on radio 4 since I woke up. Including an extended news programme. It all was making this huge presumption that I actually care.

Of the people picked off the street to be asked what they thought, there were several themes. There was

• Argh! How can he betray the memory of Diana?


• Okay, but if he does re-marry he shouldn't be King


• I don't care


• Go for it Charlie

.
With regards to the first one - this bizarre, continual, illogical adoration of Lady Di, my response is a kind of tutting, raising eyes to heaven type thing. As for remarrying but rescinding his place as next in line to the throne - I don't really understand that. I mean, I wish we had no monarchy, and would be very jolly indeed if it was abolished, but seeing as that is not happening, Charles is next to be King, whether divorced, re-married, transvestite, or Boyzone fan. I don't want a king, but as I'll be lumbered with one almost certainly, his marital status doesn't bother me in the least.

With the 'I don't care' lot, I absolutely relate. And those who encourage him - that's fine. He and Camilla have, by all accounts, been together for a long, long time. I'm no huge fan of marriage, but it has nothing to do with me whether they do or not.

One person who was vox popped (?!) said something along the lines of, "I don't care, as long as I don't have to pay for it". I agree. And we will have to anyway.

On the news there has been lots of, 'They're getting married, but Camilla won't be Queen, she'll be Princess such-and-such'. Again, I don't care hugely, but there's an underlying suggestion that Diana should have been Queen because she was beautiful, and Camilla just isn't beautiful enough to play that role.

But the dedication to Diana's memory which is still so strongly felt amongst many, I cannot really get my head round. It's what? 8 years since she died? She was a nice women, somewhat dysfunctional (like the best of us), did lots of good things, and had a ridiculous amount of money. Let it go, now.

Scores, Societies and Support.

I made a Quiz. How Well Do You Know Hippie? and then you check the Scoreboard!

Go see!

On Womans' Hour this morning there was a report on women affected by the Tsunami.

In the coastal area of Lampuuk only 20% of the population survived, and only a fraction of them were women.

There was an interesting discussion, and as happens so often, things I had never thought of came up.

I had imagined in vivid detail the losses of family, homes, jobs, security, friends, which came when the tsunami hit. On this programme the women talked about how they were scared they would lose their local culture too. So many people had died, taking local cultural knowledge and skills with them. And now the few older women still alive there are doing their best to pass on the cultural traditions to the younger survivors, so they don't entirely disappear.

And on a separate, but very important issue, there is a free Women's Aid 24 Hour National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247. More on the issue soon, but that info is there for now.

Sunday Funday.

A few days ago I linked to the rather fabulous Numanuma video. Then blatherblog liked it and linked back to me, and then added a link to the original song. Then in the comments section, was posted a link to a Japanese animation version too, called Maiyahi by ikari.

Wow!

It seems to be called Dragostea Din Tei, by O-Zone, by the way.

Incidentally, this is complete madness! (Explanation here.)

The King Asked the Queen

And the queen asked the dairy maid,
'Could we have some butter for the royal slice of bread?'
The queen asked the dairy maid. The dairy maid said,
'Certainly. I'll go and tell the cow now before she goes to bed.'
The dairy maid, she curtsied and went and told the cow,
'Don't forget the butter for the royal slice of bread.'
The cow said sleepily, 'You'd better tell his Majesty
that many people nowadays like marmalade instead.'

The dairy maid said, 'Fancy!' and went to her Majesty.
She curtsied to the queen and she turned a little red.
'Excuse me, your Majesty, for taking of the liberty,
but marmalade is tasty if it's very thickly spread.'
The queen said, 'Oh,' and went to his Majesty.
'Talking of the butter for the royal slice of bread,
many people think that marmalade is nicer.
Would you like to try a little marmalade instead?'

The king said, 'Bother!' Then he said, 'Oh, dear me!'
The king sobbed, 'Oh, dearie me,' and went back to bed.
'Nobody even could call me a fussy man.
I only want a little bit of butter for my bread.'

The queen said, 'There, there' and went to the dairy maid.
The dairy maid said, 'There, there' and went to the shed.
The cow said, 'There, there, I didn't really mean it.
Here's milk for his porridge and butter for his bread.'

The queen took the butter and brought it to his Majesty.
The king said, 'Butter, eh?' and bounced out of bed.
'Nobody,' he said as he kissed her tenderly,
'Nobody,' he said as he slid down the banisters,
'Nobody, my darling, could call me a fussy man.
But I do like a little bit of butter to my bread.'

Sheffield Shtuff.

For a long period, whenever I was on the tram, at a certain stop in town, invariably somebody around me would say, "Isn't this where there used to be the hole in the road?"

This confused me regularly. What on earth kind of hole in the road was so memorable?

Some time later I discovered it looked like this, and I could see why it was indeed memorable enough to be mentioned so regularly. It is also well described here on SheffieldForum.co.uk.

Waitrose gives us 15 Reasons to Visit Sheffield. I added my own list to the ensuing discussion.

I like Sheffield :)

Good, Bad, Indifferent.

Fabulous word of the day - crepuscular.

Fabulous phrase of the day - 'the elephant of illogicality' - heard on the Radio 4 Six O'Clock News.

Crap evil news story of the day is this one.

Big boycott of the day is Boycott Tesco.

Powerful photo of the week is an Iraqi woman's victory sign with a purple finger.

French, Francophile, and Funny.

Oh wow. Not only is Jodie Foster incredibly beautiful, with a
voice that makes your legs give way, but she is also totally fluent in French. Not pretend fluent, or a bit fluent, or pretty good. She is properly fluent. I adore her!

Continuing on the francophile theme, this is the kind of stuff I love learning about. I had a book along these lines, which would give the French / English equivalents to each other's proverbs and sayings. And it is funny and fascinating. Cheers, Petite anglaise.

This (thanks Dooey) is one of the funniest things I have seen for ages. Really. Truly. Go there now. I mean it. Ma-ee-ya hee...

Word Beads: Double; Axon; Sacred; Bike; Doldrum.

From WordBeads.

---

"It was that fourth double whisky", she thought to herself. No use saying it out loud as there was nobody to hear, and it would only hurt her head even more.

Trying to revise for her 3rd year medical exams, learning about nerve fibres, axons, nerve cells... She knew she should understand it, but her brain was barely working this morning.

Flashes from the previous night kept invading her mind. Did she really dance on the table at Sacred? Did she get off with K? And whose was that bike she'd been doing wheelies on by the canal? The canal?? What had she been doing there? Oh shit... She hated mornings like this. Mornings after.

She crawled back into bed. Maybe a few extra hours sleep would lift her out of the doldrums.

Selling Yourself, Selling Products in the 80s, Selling Ferry Tickets, Selling Out.

In the absence of a proper update, here are some things you absolutely have to see.

• You may want to make your CV (resume) stand out from the crowd, but would you go this far?? (et en francais...)


• See all your favourite ads from the 80s and 90s. This page has even more.


• Terribly, terribly sad story.


• Don't trust computers if you want to travel from one Norwegian city to another Norwegian city without going via the U.K., France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Not to mention traversing the North Sea, the English Channel and the Baltic Sea. [Sigh]


• And finally, I am running my own country.

Inescapable Poverty? Oh, and odd referrers.

People find hippie blog in allsorts of strange ways. And I get to see the search terms people put into search engines and come here that way. Some of them are bizarre, some are disturbing, but I have to say, I like being the 6th result in an MSN Search for just for the laydees. Yey!

I am also ridiculously excited to currently be the top result in a google search for lebstromonous. Yey again!

However I also get a huge number of hits from people searching for welchia_icmp_scan and phonebuyer451 or phonebuyer451@yahoo.com.

In the very early days of hippie, I seemed to be one of the first people in the world to be being attacked by welchia_icmp_scan and I wrote about it here. Now, every bugger and his dog is being attacked by it (and indeed, I am again each time I connect) and they are all searching for it and finding me who actually provides no information about it at all.

I hope I am more helpful to those searching for phonebuyer451 and that if people read what I wrote, they don't fall for yet another phishing scam.

On a totally different subject, I was directed to this page full of information about nutrition and poverty. There is some really interesting information on there...

• The cheapest foods are often the unhealthiest. In terms of calories per penny, chocolate is a better deal than carrots. This results in low income families eating half the fruit and vegetables consumed by higher income families
• Buying healthy foods can cost up 51% more than low-cost, nutritionally poor alternatives
• The lack of shops selling healthier food in poor areas, and the loss of cooking skills, also makes the problem worse
• The cheapest shops to shop in are usually discount stores but the range of food available was narrow and often excluded the healthier options
• A healthy diet appropriate for pregnancy is unaffordable for pregnant women depending on state benefits
• In 1992 all secondary school children lost their entitlement to receive education in cooking and nutrition - this left up to 38% unable to even bake a jacket potato
• The cheapest and freshest foods are generally found in large, out-of-town supermarkets
• Supermarkets are good for those who have the money to buy in bulk, the transport to carry bulk purchases, and the storage space. If a person has limited storage space and no transport, they do not have access to the savings offered by bulk purchase. Therefore those with the less money frequently end up paying most for their food
• The most expensive shops are often the small shops in small communities
• 4 million people in the UK cannot afford to eat a healthy diet

Poverty.org.uk say that

The most commonly used threshold of low income is 60% of median income. In 2002/03, before deducting housing costs, this equated to £194 per week for a couple with no children, £118 for a single person, £283 for a couple with two children and £207 for a lone parent with two children.

I don't know about the couple or parent levels, but the maximum JobSeekers Allowance for single people is £55.65 a week. This is less than half of £118! And it's only over-25s who get that amount. 16 and 17 year olds get £33.50 and 18 to 24 year olds get £44.05. Income Support levels are similar, between £32.50 and £53.95.

All of this also links in with what I said here about the Disability Discrimination Act and proposed changes to Disability Benefits.

Raar.

The Only Alternative to Coexistence is Codestruction - Jawaharlal Nehru.

If you ever used to watch Vic and Bob on Shooting Stars, you may remember ERANU and OOVAVO. Now, ladies and gents, I bring you... UMAMI.

Umami is a fifth taste (along with salty, sweet, sour, bitter), according to the Japanese. It is defined as deliciousness.

On a much more sour-tasting note, it seems that Nick Griffin may be contesting David Blunkett's seat, the Sheffield Brightside constituency, in the next General Election (thought to be happening soon).

I don't want him in my city. Neither do I especially want David Blunkett in my city actually - his own immigration policies have been harsh and racist and cruel. But the leader of the BNP?

In October 1990, The British National Party was described by the European Parliament's committee on racism and xenophobia as an "openly Nazi party... whose leadership have serious criminal convictions". When asked if the BNP was racist, Richard Edmonds, deputy leader of the BNP, said, "We are 100 per cent racist, yes".

The Starbucks Product Recall site has been forced to move.

Kent's very own Section 28 has finally been beaten. And there's a fantastic stencil image in the comments too :)

The hippie and peace images below were created with the help of the marvellous typoGenerator.

Peace 

incurable hippie 

Today I Have Learned

that it is true that cash machines do count up how many times you forget your PIN, even if there is a week between attempt number 2 and attempt number 3.

However, I have also learned that if you do enter your PIN incorrectly three times in a row (regardless, it seems, of how much time passes between these attempts), it doesn't eat your card as threatened in many a legend. Instead it rather politely informs you that you have entered an incorrect PIN three times, and so they will send you out a new number.

So that was a nice surprise.

Google, God, Grim.

Did you know that Jesus is with you always? To be honest, I wasn't too sure, but once I saw the evidence in pencil drawings, I was converted.

Forget the Official God FAQ, the Church of Critical Thinking, and what I have said many times myself (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), when I saw the pictures of Jesus with a bank teller, or Jesus with a carpet layer, or Jesus with a guitarist, or with a draftsman, or a clown, or any of the other professions He accompanies, well...

Well, ok I wasn't converted. I just thought they were funny, and wanted to share them. It was all just a bit long-winded, for which I now apologise, but it took me so long to do all the code that I'm not going to delete it now.

At the end of every year, the Google Zeitgeist is worth a look. Listing the most popular searches through the year in a variety of categories is both fascinating and scary.

I again have duct tape on my foot in a vain attempt to get rid of the most evil verruca monster the world has ever seen. [Sigh]

Very, very tired.

.

Happy New Year!

After tomorrow's Bank Holiday, the buses, trams and shops worlds should be back to normal. Which is good.

The daily information about the horrific Tsunami events is immensely disturbing. The number of dead has now gone up to volumes which I can get nowhere near to visualising or imagining. I am thankfully not seeing many visual images of the disasters, but I have enough images in my head to make up for that.

The charities need money. There are many charities involved with the effort. You can make a donation here. Or click here for how to help.

Apparently, British peeps have donated £60 million, that is £10 million more than than our government, and more than the public donations of any other nation. That's good, but I just wish it hadn't taken something so utterly awful to get us off our arses.

How To Help.

Maths, Monkeys, Species and Science.

Some time ago, I was thinking about little Change The World type things I could do, without too much energy or effort expenditure. I had heard about SETI@home and really liked the idea that my computer could be doing Important Things while I wasn't using it.

The only thing was, I wasn't especially interested in a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

I tried to find similar things, but as I didn't know the name for this whole genre of programme, I was entirely unsuccessful. All I knew was that you downloaded a screensaver which, when active, performed calculations on your computer, and then sent them back to a base, maybe a research centre, who could use them. The idea being that thousands of computer around the world doing the calculations would get loads more done than just the computers at an individual centre.

So, being intrigued by the idea, and with the lack of any others, I ended up downloading SETI@home.

It was quite intriguing, and at first I frequently left my computer inactive deliberately, so I could see it at work. I knew the funky graphics were almost certainly for my benefit, rather than integral to the work it was doing, but I appreciated them anyway.

Look, my computer's doing science!

But I still couldn't get past the feeling that if my computer was going to be doing Important Science Things, it should really be doing Important Science Things that I cared about. Or was at least interested in.

I spoke to my brother, who informed me that the phenomenon is called distributed computing, and that he was involved with a protein folding project. He said he'd send me a link to a site which had a fairly comprehensive list of different distributed computing projects, so I could choose one from there.

So, when he sent it me, I spent some time browsing the distributed computing active projects information, trying to decide which was the best use of my computer's lazy time. How on earth do you choose between fighting AIDS, and predicting climage change, or between the search for multifactorial primes and the Prime Sierpinski Project?

In the end, I decided to go with Lifemapper.

Participants "compute, map and provide knowledge of" where Earth's species of plants and animals live currently, where they could potentially live, and where and how they could spread across different regions of the world.

I had really liked the sound of the project, and got fairly involved with it, in terms of googling the various animal or plant species which my machine was calculating, and creating a record of names and pictures of each species on a webpage.

I was, thus, gutted when I was informed that the LifeMapper project was ending in January 2005. I had really enjoyed participating in the thing, and would miss learning about new animals!

So, back to the DC Active Projects list.

I eventually decided on find-a-drug. I thought that my screensaver trying to cure cancer, AIDS and malaria had to be a good thing. I downloaded it from the Find-A-Drug site, and it is currently calculating something totally incomprehensible to me, to do with cancer.

Find-A-Drug, like LifeMapper and SETI@home, humours me by doing graphics, described as

Each ball corresponds to an atom and each stick to a chemical bond between two atoms and these are coloured in accordance with the elements. The common colours are: blue for nitrogen, red for oxygen, yellow for sulphur and cyan for carbon.

It also only does the calculations when my computer is idle, and so doesn't slow the machine down when I'm using it.

And I have also set my home page to the Monkey Shakespeare Simulator, the theory behind it being the famous quotation,

"If you have enough monkeys banging randomly on typewriters, they will eventually type the works of William Shakespeare."

Joining and Journeying.

Hello! And happy belated Christmas to anyone who does that stuff.

I have actually had a nice Christmas, mainly because it was ultra chilled. I read the Join Me book, which I loved. It was funny, and really quite compulsive. And it has led me to using the word lebstromonous on at least an hourly basis.

And I can see myself joining fairly soon. Just need to get a passport photo sorted.

My diary that will change my life has finally arrived from amazon. I ordered it ages ago but my card kept being refused (oops). I had one last year, when it was fabulous. This year it's maybe slightly less fab because they are everywhere, rather than something quite rare and unique. But it's still fab. Mmm.

The weather is entirely miserable. Grey, cold and wet.

My train journey back home yesterday was hellish. I was going from Telford to Sheffield, which should involve a change at Birmingham New Street and a total journey time of up to 2.5 hours.

It actually took me over four and a half hours, and 1.5 hours of that was trying to get from Wolverhampton to Brum, which should normally take between 15 and 17 minutes, according to National Rail Enquiries.

I think it's time to re-nationalise the railways, ladies and gentlemen.

Used Stamps *Still* Save Lives!

I have bought the domain used-stamps.co.uk to replace the rather clunky www.geocities.com/purplestar1uk/usedstamps.html. The former should be pointing to the latter, and after a few teething problems it seems to be working well now.

In an entry in June, in Used Stamps Save Lives, I explained the page as follows,

Used Stamps Save Lives!! You know when you collect piles of used stamps to send to charity but then never get round to it, cos finding info about which charities and organisations want them is just not straight forward enough?

Well now it is. I have created a webpage with information on charities and organisations worldwide which accept used stamps as a form of fundraising.

There was also an article on Indymedia.

In looking for a good organisation or charity to send my ever-growing pile of used stamps to, I couldn't find any kind of central source of information.

So, after much searching I have compiled a list and made it into a web page.

Saving used stamps and sending them on is one of the easiest ways to help different groups to raise money, and now it's even easier with one list of organisations in different countries who would benefit from them.

Also, if you want your charity or organisation to be added to the list you can do so from that page.

With the Christmas cards I have received, I have 2 envelopes full of stamps ready to be sent off. It's nice to have such an easy way of helping with fundraising, especially at a time of year when money and time are short.

So, welcome to the world, used-stamps.co.uk.