Nick Griffin on Question Time

Saying goodbye

When I leave for work in the morning, I always give the kids a kiss goodbye. It started out as a single kiss on the lips or on the cheek. But then, I introduced the notion of a “nuzzle”, i.e. a noserub. Quickly this became a much requested part of the goodbye ritual, especially for Digi. (Until quite recently, Kalila has been quite blasé about saying goodbye, and would be happy to simply blow a kiss). Once Digi noticed that there was a goodbye ritual, he quickly extended it, to be Kiss, Nuzzle, Hug. And that was the way it stayed for over a year, every time I left for work (and also every time I put him to bed) : Kiss, Nuzzle, Hug.
But then, one day, when perhaps I wasn’t thinking quite straight, I happened to mention that I knew how tortoises kiss. (In case you don’t know how tortoise kisses work, you give a soft, toothless lip bite upon the recipients forearm – if you haven’t tried it, you should – you might like it!). Immediately, Digi asked how lizards kiss. (Lizards are Digi’s favourite animal). I’m not really sure how lizards kiss, so I improvised, and flicked my tongue at Digi’s arm. These two animal kisses quickly joined the goodbye ritual, which now went : Kiss, Nuzzle, Hug, Lizard Kiss, Tortoise Kiss.
As you can imagine, this ritual takes some time, and it can be drawn out by a determined four year old, especially at bedtime (when every stalling tactic shall be employed). And so, it came to pass that Digi started to ask for a Turtle Kiss, in addition to Tortoise Kiss and Lizard Kiss. The latest additions to the the ritual are cuddling Mr Arm, a Back Cuddle (which involves Digi climbing onto my back, and giving me a cuddle), and cuddling Mr Other Arm.
And now Kalila has rather taken a shine to Mr Arm too.

In Denial

Last night, we watched The Boy In Striped Pyjamas, a rather good movie set against the backdrop of the Holocaust. Quite a unique take on the holocaust, from the viewpoint of an 8 year old boy, whose father runs the nearby concentration camp. Highly recommended.
Directly afterwards, we caught a rather odd program on Sky TV entitled “BNP Wives”, which was one of these engaging pseudo-documentaries, spending the time in the company of weirdos. And these people were really very strange indeed. (Bear with me – this kind of links to the first bit about the film – I’ll get there eventually). They weren’t the sort of hateful racist types you might imagine – they were more sort of, well, a bit clueless. Especially when they were asked the sort of questions that force them to confront the sort of weird stuff that you’re supposed to believe in if you are a BNP member. For example, Nick Griffin has famously suggested that the Holocaust didn’t happen (you see where this is going now?): when the documentary maker asked one BNP wife whether she was a holocaust denier, she issues some wishy washy nonsense along the lines of “I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but I’m really not sure about the numbers, as no-one has any proof really do they? “. Thought provoking TV indeed.
But really, what’s all of this stuff about Holocaust Denial anyway? Of course the Holocaust happened. I mean, they’ve made films about it and everything. You might as well start suggesting that there were never Pirates in the Carribean, or that people haven’t brought dinosaurs back to life using dino-DNA from mosquitoes in amber. You may as well claim that the moon isn’t real, or that Australia doesn’t exist. Which would be nonsense, as one of the most famous Holocaust Deniers, Gerald Fredrick Töben, who served a prison sentence for allegedy denying the Holocaust, actually came from Australia. But that’s not the point – no-one should be locked up for denying anything. If someone jumps up and down in the street, repeatedly denying that there are toys in Kinder eggs (which, I can assure you, there are), then surely we should just either laugh at them, or better still, ignore them. Basically, you can deny anything as much as you want, and no-one should be able to punish you for this.
Of course Gerald Fredrick Töben actually denies being a Holocaust denier. And Nick Griffin also denies being a Holocaust denier. Which leads me to think that There are no Holocaust deniers.
Which I guess makes me a Holocaust denier denier.

Embarrassment in the changing room

Do you sometimes have embarrassing social interactions?
I was at the gym today, and was just leaving the changing rooms to start my workout, when a man who I have never met before made eye contact.

“Hello!” said the man.
“Hello!” I responded.
“How are you?” continued the man.

Now, many years of social training has instilled people with a built in response to this question, especially when asked by people that they don’t know well. That’s right, we all say “Fine!” or “Very well, thank you!”. Even if we clearly have a cold, or are otherwise under the weather, we will claim to be “Fine” almost before we’ve actually heard the question. Some times, we’ll have to retract our involuntary response, and provide a real answer. This usually sounds something like this: “Fine, well, no, actually I have a really annoying eye infection”. Or whatever.

On this particular day, I actually felt pretty good. But for some reason, my innate automatic response decided to let me down.

“Not so good, I’m afraid”, I said.

Uh? What? What was I saying? The bloke looked somewhat shocked, that I’d broken a social convention, and looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to go on. Shit. I knew I’d have to invent something.

“Yes, I did my back in at the weekend”, I lied.

With that, I turned, and hobbled out of the changing room. And then, I ran.

Knowledge Navigator

This is from 1987 – these guys were seriously ahead of their time.

For when 140 characters isn’t enough…

Move over Twitter – it’s time for Woofer (the macroblogging service where each Woof needs to be over 1400 characters).

Read my first Woof at http://woofertime.com/woof/65900

Quirky

A cool site idea (but rubbish video). www.quirky.com

_where the lucky stiff

One of my (few) online heroes has recently deleted his entire online presence.

_why the lucky stiff is one of the few remaining renaissance men. He has written (or, actually, half written) a great book on Ruby Programming, _why’s (poignant) Guide to Ruby, which features illustrations by the author (check out the cartoon foxes), a storytelling narrative, and a soundtrack(!)

One of the less interesting things about _why is that he has operated under a pseudonym – his real identity has been a guarded secret. This hasn’t been a major part of his appeal, but he has apparently been outed recently. A month or so after, he appears to have deleted all of his websites, his twitter account etc etc.

I don’t know whether _why will resurface, either as himself or under another assumed identity. I’m keeping an eye out for an entertaining and witty tech writer with a penchant for cartoon foxes.

John Resig has written a eulogy, which is worth a read.

In defense of the NRA

There has been a lot of blurb in the media over the past two weeks about the US healthcare reforms (Republican press making claims about the dreadful service provided by Britain’s NHS, and how Stephen Hawking would be dead if he lived here, um…). Us Brits like to moan about things (makes us feel better about the weather), but it just doesn’t feel right when someone else joins in. Hands off our NHS! We like our rainy weather! Some of the crazy press reminds me how much values differ between the UK and the US. It is absolutely unbelievable to me that anyone might think that universal healthcare for all is a bad thing. Mind you, it looks like Singapore has it right.
And no-where are UK / US opinions more divided than when it comes to gun control. Compared to the US, it is very difficult to buy a gun in the UK. And since 2006 when the Violent Crime Reduction Act was passed, it has become more difficult still – especially if you are trying to buy a wooden popgunfrom a toyshop.

So i bought a Double Bass…

…over the interweb.

Imagine my surprise when _this_ turned up…