The Bewilderness

A cold Sunday

I shall make a note to myself in respect of London on a Sunday. Nothing opens till twelve. Or eleven thirty if the shop is thirsty for customers. With a raw wind and old trainers, my feet were frozen, destroying any good that a Craghoppers parka may have had. And when the cold creeps in, it takes some hours to counter.

Just a cold Sunday walking round London, regretting the coffee. Nothing more uncomfortable than coffee on a windy day, that would be two hours after the cafe.

Away and thoughts

I am away for a few days now and will update when I can.

Next week, I will be attending a blog meeting at the Adam Smith Institute and hope to attend some of the Dana Institute meetings as well. There is one on enhancement that screams out for attendance.

Otherwise, down and dirty politics is becoming a fevered process of counting the mistakes of New Labour. The biggest question is will Boris be renamed "Bunce Boots", if he fails to capture the mayoralty? Apart from Westminster froth, New Scientist (only an excerpt) had two good articles last week on the complexity of modern civilisation. Wrapped in a package of doom, the lesson is that network centric civilisations require new structures to aid the free flow of information. Brown's centralising resuscitation of the British state has rendered the birth pains of this new society more difficult than they needed to be in the short term. Culturally, they may have proved more beneficial over time as the population learns that state provision and socialised benefits are worse than their private sector equivalents.

The same lesson will apply to our good friends in Brussels.

Transmission Interrupted

Message begins. Transmission interrupted by Ghoulash and Tokaji. Normal service will be resumed next week.

Only drink or death will stop me from blogging...

Hiatus Hernia

From now until 2007, I shall be wallowing in the Antipodean horror that is the English cricket team. Some have pointed out to me that history is in the making: witnessing Shane Warne's final hours of bowling with 700 rounded out by some of the useless identity parade that walked the crease this summer.

That still has not mellowed my irritation at Flintoff's handover of the Ashes, strolling and crying around at the hands of the Australian cricket team. I will see whether we can avoid a whitewash. I am not hopeful, at all.

Blogging will be light and sporadic, helped or hindered by fog at Gatwick and the English cricket team.

Waiting For Parcels

Deliveries at home must be the boon and the bane of one's life. Whatever the cause, a beloved book, a new computer, or even the more mundane: such as the car's annual service; you weigh up where you could receive the parcel. Here's the nub: deliveries usually occur during the day - that is when these firms function. That is fine. However, most people work during the day so if the parcel is delivered, they are not likely to be at their home.

What should be a simple and straightforward task becomes stressful and annoying. Can you receive the parcel at work? If not, can you trust a neighbour? Not always, and certainly not in some parts of town, if you get my meaning.

One would assume that delivery firms would have taken the needs of the recipient into account, as in, they work. This is not the case. So you will get an email stating that Parcel X will arrive sometime between the hours of Y and Z: you enter the office at Y, you leave at Z. You dream of a Tardis, or a Star Trek transporter, or 'working from home' or strangling which Fat Controller decided this stupid policy.

That is why there have been no posts: I have been irked by this dilemma: switching ISPs and waiting or the new materials to arrive.

Normal service will now resume.... 

If My Blog Offend Thee, Go and Sin No More

I am out of the country for a week or more enjoying the sights and surprises of Nippon. Normal service will be resumed when I return.

Work Elsewhere

Just a link to a review article that I wrote for the Journal of Evolution and Technology. One of the more interesting transhumanist journals that is worth dipping into now and again.

Absence makes the heart...

Libertaria is away for a few days, but Cuchulainn is doing a grand job of keeping the blog up and running. Don't forget our brethren, especially for a refreshingly different perspective, Harry Hutton.

New Wallpaper

A good friend told me that the design of The Bewilderness was unreadable. Never let it be said that I am so stiff-necked as to ignore good advice when I hear it. So I have switched to a karmic and subtle colour that will soothe those who share my anger with those who reduce our freedom in the name of 'social justice'. And make the blog easier on the eye, I hope.