elvum

Just because I give you something does not mean that I have opted in to your mailing list. Subsequent attempts at emotional blackmail are likely to result in my directing future donations elsewhere, since that (and writing curmudgeonly livejournal posts) are the only tools at my disposal to encourage you to adopt a polite, respectful attitude towards your benefactors.

Alder Hey Children's Hospital, I'm talking to you. But frankly most of you do it.

Edit: Alder Hey have offered a very sincere apology and removed my (and a large number of other people's) addresses from their database.

If you're reading this post on Sunday 19th November 2006 and you think it's terrible that Reading University plans to close its Physics Department, the University and College Union have a petition online here.

[Poll #862275]

In response to

easterbunny's demand for pollage, I have posted a poll to discover when the next pie-off should be held on behalf of reigning piemasters

totherme and Jo WINOLJ.

So, I've got about two-fifths of the photos I took at flickgc and drplokta's wedding processed. They'll all find their way to the web eventually, but click on the photo above to peruse a small selection from the hundred-odd I've done so far.

Edit: a selection from the rest of the wedding now added - the set now represents my favourites from the wedding. I'm pretty happy with them. :-)

There's a big poster advertising Roehampton University at East Croydon Station, proudly proclaiming that 94% of their graduates are employed within six months of graduation. I just checked the figures, and unemployment in the UK in July was 5.5%, a two-year high.

[Poll #810593]

I was considering a rant here about paranoia, lack of proportion and the arrogance with which the citizen is compensated for being inconvenienced with patronising platitudes about security, but I think that my opinions are nicely summed up by this comic.

10:22 -!- mof has joined #irchacks 10:23 < mof> how do you make the irc bots speak for/quote you? 10:24 < mof> like !info irc bot 10:24 < mof> !info irc bot 10:25 < mof> i guess i'm just an idiot unattached to a beard! 10:25 -!- mof has left #irchacks

Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your fingers.

[Poll #786854]

Note that I'm trying to get rid of my copy of the first edition, having been given a copy of the second edition for Christmas.

Monkey World Tank Museum
Originally uploaded by elvum.

So yeah, I'm on holiday for a week. Starting in Dorset, where I'm taking more photos for this book. (Do all free to rush out and buy it.)

It will not surprise you that the attraction indicated by the signpost figured above strongly appealed to me.

Anyone in the London area want to play with some shinies?

After reading this story, I wonder what you think:

[Poll #758990]

Council: You didn't pay your council tax bill last year!
Us: WTF?
Council: No really, there were no payments into this account!
Us: WTF? We've never heard of that account.
Council: That's your account, that is. We changed your account number in September, but didn't tell you.
Us: WTF?
Council: It's ok, we'll transfer the money for you from the other account. Just send us a letter signed by the three of you.
Us: One of us has moved to Antarctica, and there's no post until October.
Council: Um, Antarctica, huh? Well, send us a letter signed by the other two of you explaining that, and we'll sort it all out.
Us: OK
Letter: <arrives>
Council: Hey guys, you only got two out of three signatures. So we only transferred two-thirds of the money. How'd you like that, huh? Is that fair or what?
Us: WTF?

I can't find enough details to come to a moral decision on the subject of David Sharp, the man who died on Everest as "forty people" climbed up past him.

It seems to be the case that the dying climber was trying to make the ascent entirely unsupported and without the proper equipment, in which case he certainly shouldn't have relied on being bailed out by other climbers, at risk to their own lives. It's like living your life without home contents insurance on the assumption that your neighbours will give you furniture when your house burns down*. So I think that if the dying man was already and obviously doomed when he was found, the actions of the other climbers were justified (albeit somewhat callous, but the higher order brain functions pack up somewhere around 7,000m, and even the politest mountaineers stop raising their helmets to passing ladies). If his life could have been saved, there's criticism enough for all parties concerned, himself included.

The suggestion I've read in the press that someone could have sat around and held his hand while he died sounds very romantic and Florence Nightingale, but doesn't make sense in the extreme conditions near the summit of Everest. If you're not going up, you go down. Staying still just risks two (or more) corpses instead of one. If you want me to hold your hand as you die on a mountain, pick a safer mountain.

*note to self, get contents insurance...

Public IRC channels - aren't they great?

13:04 < vamp> hi evrybode alive here :)
13:06 < vamp> who have botnets here ?
13:07 < elvum> you misunderstand - we ARE a botnet
13:08 < elvum> of unimaginable destructive powers.
13:08 < elvum> ph33r us, oh yes
13:08 < vamp> hey bro listen
13:08 < vamp> i have a server ircd
13:09 < vamp> i wanno to put 1000 botnet in my server
13:09 < vamp> cant do this ?
13:09 < elvum> I'm sorry, but your l33tness is too much for me - I have to go
               afk and get some lunch
13:10 < vamp> aha ok

Today's beautiful but scary photo moment. I'm rather happy that there doesn't seem to be much danger of these things flying these days...

[Poll #701530]

is a fantastic film, and everyone I know should go and see it. It's an action film that's relatively low on action, and relatively high on intelligent criticism, which is good. And lots of moral ambiguity, which I find interesting. IMO it's all the good bits of comic books without all the really annoying stuff that stops me reading them (like people saying IMPORTANT words in CAPITAL LETTERS). Nathalie Portman can even act if she hasn't got George Lucas to contend with. Apparently Alan Moore (author of the original comic series) insisted on having his name removed from the credits, but I gather that Alan Moore would insist on having his name removed from his paychecks if they didn't live up to his high artistic standards, so I wouldn't place too much weight on that.

Go. See.

Today was the third semiannual Great Livejournal Pie-Off. I entered a Lattice Twiglet Beef and Caramelised Sweet Potato Upside-Down Pie, with which I was lucky enough to win three awards: Best True Savoury Pie, Best Pastry (for the third time running, albeit jointly with

billyabbott, to whom major props are due for his successful hot-water crust) and the coveted Best In Show award, with which comes the debatable pleasure of hosting the next event. So it'll be back to mine again for Pie-Off IV: Name To Be Determined, some time around August. Some awards (notably the Steve Irwin/Nikolai Tesla Award for Pie Innovation, won by

susannahf) slipped through my grasp, so I will obviously have to try harder if Total Pie Domination is to be mine...

Courtesy of

billyabbott, here is a photograph of the masterpiece:

I have created the

pieoff community to serve the growing pie-obsessed horde, and I shall be posting some polls there (if I can) to help plan the next event, so sign on up. I shall post my pastry and pie recipes there shortly.

Am I the only person who puts his 40p into the chocolate vending machine, presses "C4" and wishes that, just occasionally, the LED display would respond as follows?

"You sank my battleship!"

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