Test, please ignoreJust testing LJ cross-posting to Twitter. Nothing to see here, move along. (more) |
Beheadings, and other things that happen whilst I'm at meetingsI returned home last night to discover that my new wife had nearly had her head chopped off by the door to our loft, which had mysteriously swung open as she walked underneath. Spousal decapitation would have been a sad end to the day, although on the plus side, my mortgage would have been paid off. She escaped with merely a grazed neck, and my disappointment in having to do some emergency DIY was only compounded when I opened my post to discover the new issue of "Intelligent Life," the lifestyle magazine I get with my subscription to the Economist. ... (more) |
O, won't you please authenticate meYesterday, Twitter disabled the basic username/password authentication for client applications. This is a move toward greater security but it did mean that anyone using Gwibber will suddenly have found that their Twitter stream stopped updating. A mere matter of hours later and an updated version of Gwibber has been pushed out that supports the new "OAuth" method. People using openSUSE have two options to get hold of a fixed version. The first is to follow the relevant links on the openSUSE wiki entry for Gwibber and grab the version from GNOME:Apps. I just sent an update request for this package ... (more) |
Rosewarn - Party in the ParkAugust Bank Holiday saw Changes put on a Party in the Park. This was the first event to be organised by the Changes group and was modelled on a similar project in Peasedown St John. Cllr Nathan Hartley gave Changes the help of his experiences in putting on a community event. In the end lots of people came along and a great day was had by all and the sun shined I was impressed by... (more) |
TED talks ... about OrgasmsTED talks ... about Orgasms (more) |
Tony Blair on how ignoring structures is "bunkum"Many people who I have worked with in politics over the years, and readers of my old blog, will know of my slight obsession with process and organisational structures. The simple, but often overlooked, fact that the processes by which organisations make decisions has a direct impact on the quality of those decisions and thus determines how well that organisation achieves the outcomes it has set for itself is something I am always keen to remind people of. So I was interested to spot this in the coverage of the extracts from Tony Blair's memoir; 'Blair writes of his earlier ... (more) |
A moment of hope for Israelis and PalestiniansWith direct Israeli/Palestinian talks set to begin in Washington, I was pleased to read this cautiously optimistic article by Martin Indyk in the New York Times. I heard Martin Indyk speak at last year's conference of J Street, an organisation which has much to commend itself to all Lib Dems with an interest in Israel/Palestine. It can be difficult to summon up much optimism for the Israel/Palestine peace process, especially in light of yesterday's tragic news from Hebron - and anyone whose politics prevents them from seeing this incident as tragic needs to examine their consciences. There is no valid ... (more) |
Timing is everythingTo be frank I am not inclined to buy or read Tony Blair's book. That is not to say that I am not interested in what is in there, just that I have a lot of other books to read first and I doubt if I will ever get around to it. Nick Robinson gives us a flavour on his blog. However, as he says Blair just confirms what had been speculated about in the first place, specifically: • Tony Blair blamed Gordon Brown for starting the cash for honours row which led to the first ever police investigation into ... (more) |
In which I have a house full of sick, miserable peopleIt's been a long time since I've been the healthiest in this house. We all have a nasty bug which involves misery in the stomach, throat and chest departments, but I seem to have got off lightest. Bob is utterly miserable and has a nasty cough which sounds a bit like there's a tubercular bull up the stairs. Anna is lying on the sofa, actually more miserable, congested, sore and washed out than she was yesterday. I was amused by her certainty that the fact that her throat sometimes isn't quite as painful is down to hot chocolate and not ... (more) |
A polite 'No thank you'As I am incarcerated in hospital for nine days, I have made sure that I have plenty of reading matter. Husband Matthew has been looking after me with fresh fruit and clean clothes, but now he is away on a business trip, it has fallen to my mother in law to keep me supplied whilst in hospital. This ... (more) |