Month: April 2009

Houdini has left the building

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That danged mouse managed to escape. Again! Katy and I were talking about releasing her back into the wild because we’re not really interacting with her as a pet and the situation is only going to get more hectic in the coming weeks. So, last night, I took her aquarium down from the shelf where it’s been for the past few days and – after much poking around in the sawdust and some head scratching – we realized that she’d buggered off! She managed to gnaw a hole in the aquarium lid and high-tailed it out of there. She’s probably hiding somewhere in the house. That’s it though. She’ll have to take her chances with the pussycats (big lumps that they are).

But still, you have to give it to the rodent. She did not want to be kept :)

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It’s not broken, don’t fix it.

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Top Gear may be forced to hire new presenters as part of a government push to make the show more gender and ethnically balanced. This week the Equality Bill was introduced into Britain which encourages employers to take “positive action” to widen diversity in the public sector workforce. Top Gear, along with a number of shows funded by the BBC, now fall under the Bill.

There has been pressure on the boys who review their mechanical toys to change, with a leading academic earlier this month saying that the BBC should employ more women to help make shows such as Top Gear “female-friendly”, reports London’s Daily Mail.

Dr Louise Livesey, tutor in sociology and women’s studies at Oxford, accused Top Gear of “entrenched, institutional sexism”. As well as being hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, the car show has a “boys’ club” production team and fewer female than male guests, it was claimed.

But Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman claimed it was “utter drivel” to suggest that the show excluded women, saying: “If the show is allegedly female-unfriendly, why is almost half the audience female? Secondly, if we are to have a female presenter just to represent the sexes, then by that logic Loose Women needs a bloke in the line-up pretty sharpish. I actually believe these sorts of mandates are patronising to women viewers, because they assume that women can’t enjoy a show’s presenters on merit, but can only appreciate a program if spoken to by one of their own sex.”

Top Gear is one of the most successful and popular shows on the Beeb. It’s not broken. The formula works. Leave it the hell alone.

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A book while you wait

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I’ve seen this concept knocking around for a few years now. I don’t think that it’ll take off, but I do like it. In the end though, I think e-book are the way of the future but there will always be a demand for printed books. They do have a feel that even the best of the current ebooks can’t match. I have a feeling that that may chance in the future (think of the Primer in Stephenson’s The Diamond Age). Still, it’s a nice idea for now and I wish it well.

A novel idea: The machine that can print off any book for you in minutes

It promises to bring the world of literature to the ordinary book-buyer at the touch of a button. In the time it takes to brew a cappuccino, this machine can print off any book that is not in stock from a vast computer database.

The innovation, launched by book chain Blackwell yesterday, removes the need to order a hard-to-find novel, or the wait to buy one that has sold out. Even out-of-print works can be printed off in minutes.

The Espresso Book Machine will also benefit aspiring novelists who can walk in to a shop with a CD of their work and have their book professionally printed in minutes. The cost of buying a book will be generally the same as if it were in stock. Currently there are 400,000 books ready to be be downloaded. Blackwell hopes that by summer, one million will be available.

It has bought one of the machines for its store on Charing Cross Road in Central London, but if it is a success then more could appear at shops across the country. The machine, which resembles an industrial photocopier and printer, prints 105 pages a minute, or one book every five minutes or so.

Blackwell’s aim is that the customer will be able to browse a catalogue in a kiosk next to the machine then press ‘Make Book’ and watch as their novel is created.

First the cover is run off, then the pages are printed and collated. The pages are then clamped and glue applied to the spine. In the final stage, the pages are stuck to the cover before being trimmed to size from A4. The completed book then pops out of a slot in the side of the machine. Blackwell believes the EBM will allow it to exact revenge on the supermarkets and online retailers.

Tesco, for example, offers aggressive discounting while Amazon has teamed up with second-hand shops and independent sellers to provide an enormous variety of books at knock-down prices. Five years ago, only 7 per cent of books were bought online. By last year, that was 14 per cent. In December, the value of books sold on the high street was down 12.7 per cent year on year.

Andrew Hutchings, of Blackwell, said: ‘Companies such as Amazon have been offering a very competitive service but you still have one or two days to wait from ordering the book until it arrives. ‘With the Espresso Book Machine you can order it and have it in your hand within a few minutes. Having books printed on-demand also reduces the carbon footprint and cuts down on the number that are pulped or sent back.’

Out-of-copyright books will be sold at 10p a page, meaning a 300-page book would be £30, although Mr Hutchings hopes the cost will come down. All other books will cost the same as if they were bought off the shelf.

Source: The Daily Mail

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A new meaning to all you can eat…

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Brothels cut prices to beat the recession
German prostitutes are offering discounts, loyalty cards and ‘extras’

It has not taken long for the global financial crisis to affect the world’s oldest profession in Germany.

In one of the few countries where prostitution is legal, the industry has responded with an economic stimulus package of its own: modern marketing tools, rebates, discounts and gimmicks to boost falling demand.

Some brothels have cut prices or added free promotions, while others have introduced all-inclusive flat-rate fees. Free shuttle buses, discounts for seniors and taxi drivers, as well as “day passes” are among marketing strategies designed to keep business going.

Germany has about 400,000 professional prostitutes. In 2002, legislation allowed prostitutes to advertise and enter into formal labour contracts. It opened the way for them to get health insurance, previously refused if they listed their true profession.

Berlin’s Pussy Club has attracted media attention with its headline-grabbing “flat rate” – a €70 admission charge for unlimited food, drink and sex between 10am and 4pm. “You’ve got to come up with creative solutions these days,” said club manager Stefan, who requested his surname not be published. “We’re feeling the economic crisis, too, even though business has, fortunately, been more or less OK for us so far.” Stefan, who runs other establishments in Heidelberg and Wuppertal besides the Berlin club, said the flat rate had helped to keep the 30 women working in each location fully employed. Other novel ideas include loyalty cards, group sex parties, and rebates for golf players. Hamburg’s GeizHaus is especially proud of its discount €38.50 price.

Stephanie Klee, a prostitute in Berlin and former leader of the German association of sex workers, said that even if some luxury brothels were weathering the storm, many more were struggling. “If the consumer electronics shop comes out with rebates and special promotions, why shouldn’t we try the same thing?” she said. While she might have had five or six clients per day a year ago, she added, that had fallen to one or even none.

Source: The Guardian

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All this hard work is bad for my health

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I spent a large part of the weekend doing manly-type things. I installed light fixtures, filled in holes in walls, sanded filler until I was covered in a fine white sheen of dust, ran cabling through our walls and floorboards and did various other electrical and carpentry related DIY. As a result, I hurt.

The upside of this though is that my house is becoming safe. The people who wired it in the past were… creative. We found out, much to our surprise, that our electric shower was being fed by the lighting circuit. This meant that every time the previous owner took a shower – in a bathroom where none of the fixtures are earthed – she put the wiring under twice its rated load. Nice. Or, in other words, scary as hell. It’s a Very Good Thing that Will is going through the shopping list brought to our attention by the electrical survey. He’s doing really good work as well, so if you need an electrician, he’s your man (or, as he’s fond of saying, Where there’s a Will, there’s a way!)

The good news is that there’s not as much work as he originally anticipated. The bad news is that some of it will be more involved than expected and some of it has already proven to be annoying. In order to install the breaker box, we had to move the panel holding the main house breaker and the electric meter. This involved building a wooden frame to lower everything to give us the room we needed for the panel. This, in turn, involved me building an extension to the cabinet housing all the electrics. Wiring an earth bond for the bathroom involved snaking a cable from upstairs to downstairs. This involved 3 hours of swearing and finally drilling a rather big hole in the wall. Still, all the work will be more than worth the effort. You can’t beat the price as well – cost of the parts and a nice fish pie. I’ll be more than happy to pay it if it means my family is not living in a death trap.

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The BenBen, he is not feeling well

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Just as his appetite was starting to get better, BenBen’s taken a turn for the worse. He’s been cough-y for a few days now. We’re not sure if it’s just a cold, seasonal allergies, teething or a fun mixture of a bit of everything at once, but he’s been running a fever, has a touch of the runs and is waking himself up at night coughing again. And, of course, he’s being a git to feed and is generally a grumpy boy. Yesterday, he skipped the equivalent of two full feeds. He woke himself up at 4am this morning but managed to get back to sleep around 5am. We know we’re blessed with a good sleeper, so that’s making things bearable. He’s having a nap as I’m writing this. He woke up a while ago in a coughing fit but is either back asleep or chilling in his cotbed. Either way, I’m leaving him alone.

In happier news, we should be getting the house keys today :)

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