It seems like now that the dust is settling on the US Presidential Election that the denial 50% of the American population seemed to have been suffering has made way for a new sort of emotion - apologetics. In fact one man has gone so far as to set up ‘sorryeverybody.com‘!
“Some of us - hopefully most of us - are trying to understand and appreciate the effect our recent election will have on you, the citizens of the rest of the world. As our so-called leaders redouble their efforts to screw you over, please remember that some of us - hopefully most of us - are truly, truly sorry. And we’ll say we’re sorry, even on the behalf of the ones who aren’t.”
Feelings are obviously running high, so much so that someone on the other side of the argument has set up ‘werenotsorry.com‘ in opposition!!
“A majority of Americans who voted reelected President Bush on Nov. 2nd. There is no reason for us to apologize to the rest of the world because of our belief in Freedom and Democracy.”
Somehow this image doesn’t make me feel quite so sympathetic to their sentiment. There’s something about the fact that the site also has links to gun ‘appreciation’ societies which talk about killing small animals for fun which rather worries me – doesn’t bode well for world peace in my mind.
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Well it’s official folks - Red Ted has just got his sniff-visa and will be heading off to Japan on Wednesday (17th)! In a surprise return to public life RT will travel to Nishitokyo-shi prefecture in Tokyo for a conference on international sniff-relations. His ‘dead before you know it’ technique has been known to work wonders at past similar events!
He will travel alone without the aid of his handler and is said to be apprehensive about making the 13 hour plane trip - many sniffs have gone missing on such daring missions as the sniff transport system is not very reliable! During his short stay he will be staying with Yukari-san who has kindly agreed to show him the local sites (photos should be available assuming he makes it there and back in one piece!).
If you have any messages that you would like passed on to him please send them BEFORE Wednesday otherwise it will be too late. I’m sure everyone wishes him the best of luck on his epic voyage to the orient. If you are interested in the history of the ‘Sniff Dynasty’ take a look at this site here.
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Though I’d post a couple of photos I took of last nights sunset and of the cathedral just after sunrise this morning before I have to get down to work for the day. The sunset was taken directly out of the window in my room and the one of the cathedral was taken from the corridor just outside my room, pretty good views I think! Click on the links below the images for a larger version.
Sunset over Durham
Durham Cathedral from St. Chad’s collage
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One of the most amazing things about the Internet has been its ability to make the world a much smaller place to live in. Every day we transmit and receive data which will travel around the globe in mere seconds but because of its transparent nature we are somewhat removed from the whole process, sitting in front of a screen…
Why do I mention this you may wonder? Is this an extract from the introductory chapter to my dissertation or is it something much more grandiose?! The answer is actually both (kind of)! Through my research for the former I have discovered a tonne of interesting information about geographies of information-based societies (the Internet being the biggest example), in fact much more than I’ll ever have time to digest properly. In relation to what I said in the first paragraph about feeling disconnected from it all I found a particularly cool website which lets you control a live webcam overlooking a busy street in Kyoto, Japan. It somehow makes you appreciate the scale and extent of the Internet more than just looking at a static web-page.
You can move the camera up/down, left/right and zoom in/out. What I find incredible about this is that although it may be on the other side of the world you can get a glimpse into that place in real-time as if it were just around the corner. There’s nothing particularly interesting to see, just cars going up and down the road and people going about their business - it’s just one of those neat things which are fascinating to think about when considering the distances involved.
If you want to have a play with the camera yourself you can do so here. Don’t worry that all the text is in Japanese, just click on the ‘Start Control’ icon and you will be put in a short queue before being able move the camera around.
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What a boring couple of days it has been, very little to mention other than at last new episodes of ‘Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG’ are starting to filter through the torrent networks after a rather long hiatus.
It has got to be my favourite anime at the moment but is so philosophically dense that I constantly have to pause and flick back each episode just to try and make sense of things! As you might have been able to tell from the title each episode should ’stand alone’ on its own but at the same time make up part of a larger ‘complex’ - the upshot of this is more twists and turns in plot than I think just about any normal human could keep track of.
My favourite characters have got to be the Tachikoma’s which are essentially robots endowed with a sophisticated AI (Artificial Intelligence) which give them an interesting collective personality. Their role is basically as a glorified ‘Swiss Army’ knives to aid Section 9 in their investigations. They frequently have lively debates amongst each other about the nature of their existence and for this reason are closely monitored by the Major who fears their autonomous nature. They became so popular in Japan that they spawned their own series of mini-episodes!
If you’re interested in watching it you can get the torrents from here. Episodes 1-15 are currently available.
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