Lonely Planet

The US government used the 'Lonely Planet' tourist guidebook as a source of information prior to the invasion of Iraq. That's right, the average browser in WH Smith would be as well informed as the US armed forces and intelligence. I suppose the soldiers would know where the best pubs and restaurants were but as for roads and water supplies.... they weren't exactly covered.

It reminds me of the episode of Red Dwarf where the computer Holly thinks the crew are losing faith in him so he tricks them into thinking he gets his information about space from the Ladybird Book of Space. And then along comes the backup computer Queeg who is much more efficient but ultimately makes the life of the crew harder so they want Holly back. I guess the moral of the story is people are prepared to accept second best as long as it makes things easier for them.

Highjinks at our wedding reception

Profound apologies...

...for the lack of recent content. In four weeks I have to go to Warrington to do three weeks of experiments. As soon as I get back we have a visitor from Japan who is going to do two weeks of difficult experiments with us. So in the next four weeks I have to prepare for all of this. The problems we had with our equipment earlier in the summer have set us back quite a bit and it is a race against time to get things up and running and tested before all the key experiments start.

And after all this I get the Christmas break... followed by a month in Japan doing experiments. Phew!

P.P.S. On top of all this I just got married and we have a reception in the UK coming this weekend which takes a bit of planning.

Married in the USA

So I've been away for two weeks to get married in the USA. Radiohead chose the two weeks I had no internet access to release their album online. First impressions; bland and uninnovative.

On the plane back I saw the movie 'Heaven Almighty'. This is a sequel to 'Bruce Almighty' and besides being a crap movie it is scarily right wing religious. It basically brings the Noahs ark fable to today. There is no questioning of the tale or of religion in general. When hollywood makes huge brainwashing propaganda pieces like this which contain no balance or irony then I have to fear for all those people in America who aren't given space to think for themselves by their culture.

Things about the USA which annoy;

* A lack of lane discipline is a recipe for traffic chaos
* Lawyers who drum up business on TV
* Everyone uses their mobile while driving
* Cars don't need to be that big and should have cleaner exhausts
* Religion on TV with no balance or questioning
* Biased TV (Fox especially). Gor bless the BBC
* Tips and sales tax - can't you just add these to the ticket price?
* The coins are too similar

Things I love;

* The food
* The low prices
* Most people are polite and welcoming
* Things just seem to work, like the the way the theme parks are run
* Free refills