For those of you who (like me) are still only getting email notification of about half the commetns in their livejournals:

http://www.livejournal.com/tools/recent_comments.bml gives you the most recent comments posted to your journal – most recent 50 if you’re a paid member, I think fewer if you’re a free user.

F and I had a conversation last night about all the places round the world where I have friends (i.e. colleagues). After we had gone through Africa, he asked me if I had any friends in Asia. I said yes, I know a woman called Sidney who works in Indonesia. F immediately picked up on the fact that there is a town in Australia with a similar name, and giggled about it for a few minutes.

Poor Sidney is well used to being spelt Sydney. But I got into the office to find that she now has bigger problems than people misspelling her name.

Received this morning:

Dear Chief Executive Officer,

Canadian election is just around the corner, you will soon have to reach millions of voters.

[Spammer & Co], a Canadian software company is offering [product], an automated dialing system that allows you to call thousands of citizens per day.

You can use it for: running surveys; fund raising; sending information about your candidates; getting voters opinions; party events announcement. The system can play messages in multiple languages.

For a limited time, with the purchase of a system, we offer all the listed phone numbers of residents across Canada, free of charge. Check the following pages for further details about [product]. Do not hesitate to call us, we will be pleased to answer all your questions.

Best regards,

Spammer Q McSpam
President
Spammer & Co

Well, next time I’m running an election campaign in Canada, I’ll know who to boycott because of their marketing methods!

Right folks, on the road again; tomorrow to Berlin, Sunday to New York, home on Tuesday. And now I’m going to bed.

So, I had a chat with a lobbyist firm this afternoon. I’ve known them for a while, but never quite got to deal with them much. My former assistant now works for them (her London job proved less attractive). For me this was an “informational interview” to sound out what someone with my skill-set might be able to do in the private sector.

Well, it turned out rather interesting; they said that one of their weaknesses, globally speaking, was that they don’t have enough people with experience of dealing with European governments and the EU institutions. I expressed interest; they expressed further interest; I have to write them a formal application letter next week, and they may well be in a position to make me a decent offer.

They were also rather interested in blogging, which they see as an important addition to the lobbyist’s set of tools (and again, admitted that there was nobody currently in their Brussels office who really understands it).

So, we’ll see. Other options appear to have gone off the boil right now; and the more I think about it, the more I realise that if I stay in the NGO sector I’m now at the level where I’ll have to spend lots of my time fund-raising, which I hate. So perhaps this may be another option…

A full night’s sleep without interruptions.

From an old friend of mine who was present at the meeting:

I attended Lisburn City Council’s full council meeting held tonight at Lisburn City Council’s magnificent Civic Centre on Tuesday 22 November 2005 at 7pm. A wonderful Christmas tree with amazing decorations welcomed me to Lisburn City Council’s building, adorned with the phrase “A City for Everyone”.

After considering other matters Council was asked whether they wanted to adopt the minutes of the Special Corporate Services Committee convened last night (Monday 21 November 2005) to consider legal advice that Lisburn CC should allow use of the Cherry Room for Civil Partnerships. As you all know, the Special Corporate Services Committee agreed last night to overturn the ban on the Cherry Room.

Cllr Peter O’Hagan (SDLP) proposed and Cllr Trevor Lunn (Deputy Mayor, Alliance) seconded the adoption of the minutes. They were accordingly adopted. I can therefore confirm that the ban has been lifted and lesbian, gay and bisexual people can register their Civil Partnerships in the Cherry Room from Monday 19 December 2005.

Following this the Mayor (Cllr Jonathan Craig (DUP)) asked Councillors if there were any matters arising from the minutes just adopted. Cllr Seamus Close MLA (Alliance) rose as the first speaker to deliver a wide ranging pre written speech.

Cllr Close remarked that it was a sad evening for local democracy with the voice of the people threatened by legal action of a few. He commented that the people of Northern Ireland had supported his principled stand with many emails, phone calls and letters received. Cllr Close stated that Civil Partnership legislation had not been supported by Northern Ireland MPS but had, in his opinion, been foisted upon the Council. He said that he had to accept the legislation as a democrat but could not support it.

The senior Alliance politician stated that the government was being economical with the truth and perverted in their approach to right and wrong with lie as a pillar of state.

Cllr Close commented “We are told that to prevent homosexuals and lesbians using the Cherry Room is discriminatory, may be unlawful and interferes with respect for their private lives” but remarked that this begged the question “Who is being unreasonable?” with 86% of people opposed to Civil Partnerships.

Following on, Cllr Close remarked that he felt that Civil Partnerships to be an instrument for other changes remarking that it would be perverted for young people to have “two daddies or mummies” with adoption to be a direct consequence of the Civil Partnerships legislation.

Cllr Close stated that they were being asked to give a “veneer of democracy to a dictatorial regime”.

Closing his speech, Cllr Close detailed that reversing the ban on using the Cherry Room for Civil Partnerships goes against every fibre in his body and his conscience and that he could not and would not support the change.

He stated that, as a result, he intended to withdraw from the meeting and let others support the motion with the dire consequences that would result.

After leaving the room the Mayor (Cllr Jonathan Craig (DUP)) stated that the minutes of the Special Corporate Services Committee convened last night (Monday 21 November 2005) had already been adopted and therefore no opportunity existed to vote on the matter. Giggles were heard.

Cllr Paul Butler (Sinn Fein) then rose and remarked that the decision to overturn the ban was a good decision and the only decision. He commented that Lisburn City Council stood accused to discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual people and condemned the extreme homophobic attitudes displayed by Cllr Close. Cllr Butler stated that LGB people possibly make up 10% of people in Lisburn but was heckled by Cllr Paul Girvan (DUP) with “prove it, prove it”. In closing Cllr Butler stated that he welcomed that
the Cherry Room could now be used.

After Cllr Butler spoke the Mayor (Cllr Jonathan Craig (DUP)) reminded Cllr Butler and all present that they were not protected by Parliamentary privilege and should ensure any comments made about other Cllrs weren’t slanderous.

Cllr Patricia Lewsley (SDLP) then rose and also welcomed the decision. Cllr Lewsley reminded Cllr’s that the Civil Partnership’s legislation was a legal safeguard and not marriage and that the Cherry Room was not the Marriage Room as it was used for many events, including Council meetings.

Cllr Lewsley commented that when the matter first arose she had asked Lisburn City Council’s Chief Executive whether the motion was legal and had been informed by the Chief Executive that it was but, in fact, the Council had failed to fulfil its equality obligations and that a Equality Impact Assessment was now being carried out.

Cllr Jonathan Craig (DUP) then commented that the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) “could well be dead”.

Cllr Edwin Poots MLA (DUP) then spoke about the matter. Cllr Poots stated that Civil Partnerships were “marriage in all but name” and that Mr Blair had done it again with con man tactics.

Cllr Poots stated that it was a “slap in the face for basic morality” and that homosexuality was unnatural, undesirable and “repulsive to many people”.

He stated that the next step would be adoption and that homosexuality was unnatural as homosexuals cannot conceive. He stated that 10% statistic was crazy and that 0.2% was more convincing.

Cllr Poots remarked that it was up to homosexuals to address and overcome their homosexuality, he had no problem with individuals who are homosexual but that homosexuality is a problem that needs to be overcome just like alcoholism and drug addiction.

Edwin Poots commented that Cllr Close had been an advocate of Section 75 but that it was coming back to “haunt him and us all” with this being “rammed down our throats”.

Cllr Poots then acknowledged that the minutes had been adopted but proposed that the Council adopted a motion stating that the Council resents the undermining of family values by Civil Partnerships, that the Council is opposed to Civil Partnerships and deeply concerned that the democratic wishes of those with moral convictions are being overridden.

Whilst Cllr Paul Givan (DUP) seconded the motion the Chief Executive advised that the matter should not be considered at this point in the meeting. The Mayor Cllr Jonathan Craig (DUP) therefore decided that the matter should be considered under Any other business.

Cllr Ronnie Crawford (UUP) then spoke remarking that the decision marked the death of local democracy with all major religions opposed to homosexuality. Cllr Crawford stated that homosexuality was unnatural and a foreign practice to the body with human organs not designed for homosexuality.

Cllr Crawford voiced his annoyance that the Council was “suddenly hung out to try as legal opinion has changed” and informed all present that he intended to propose that the next Corporate Services Committee that the Cherry Room no longer be referred to as the Marriage Room.

Cllr Crawford then addressed the “Roman Catholic Councillors” and remarked that Sinn Fein had claimed to be the guardians of the people but that Civil Partnerships were iniquitous with both the last and current popes remarking that homosexuality is an unnatural disorder. Cllr Crawford stated that Sinn Fein were undermining what the Catholic Church teaches and that the “people kicking the pope are not on this side of the chamber”.

Cllr Crawford remarked that “in the face of gay rights fascism” they wanted to show that marriage and civil partnerships were different. He then continued to remark that homosexuals first wanted age of consent to 16, now want it lower and seem to have an open ear of “our Christian Prime Minister” who is “giving them all they want” with leaders of Stonewall given positions in government.

In closing Cllr Crawford stated that the vast majority of constituents were against and that unelected quangos such as the Equality Commission were overriding the will of the people and that a new bill of rights was required.

Cllr Ferguson (Sinn Fein) then spoke. Cllr Ferguson welcomed the decision, disassociated himself with the many homophobic comments made by previous speakers and the comments which, he felt, many people would find offensive.

The meeting then continued and under Any other Business Cllr Paul Givan (DUP) proposed the motion earlier mentioned by Cllr Poots who had since left the meeting. Many Councillors supported the motion including Cllr Trevor Lunn (Deputy Mayor, Alliance) and some, from UUP & Alliance abstained but all SDLP and Sinn Fein Councillors opposed the motion. The motion (more a homophobic rant really) was therefore passed but with lesbian, gay and bisexual still able to register their partnerships in the Cherry Room.

Seamus Close was deputy leader of the party at the time I was Director of Elections / Party Organiser ten years ago. He was always a loose cannon, especially on this sort of issue. I hope the current party leadership manages to distance themselves from him – again.

Ironically, Seamus was one of the negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement, which includes “a statutory obligation on public authorities in Northern Ireland to carry out all their functions with due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity in relation to religion and political opinion; gender; race; disability; age; marital status; dependants; and sexual orientation.”

Macedonia Deploys World’s First Country-Wide Broadband Wireless Mesh Network

The Republic of Macedonia has decided to deploy an Outdoor Wireless System (OWS) to create a country-wide wireless mesh network. The 1,000+ square-mile deployment, which is funded and deployed by Macedonian service provider On.Net, will be the single largest broadband wireless network in the world, providing high speed data, voice, and video capabilities to the entire population of over two million people. On.Net has already deployed a high-performance, multi-radio wireless mesh throughout Macedonia’s capital city of Skopje, which provides wireless broadband capabilities to the nearly one million inhabitants.

Full story here.

“The largest foreign investor in Russia is Cyprus (18.2%) followed by Luxembourg (16.7%), Holland (16.1%), Britain (10%), Germany (9.7%), the United States (7.4%), France (3.6%), Switzerland (2.3%), Virgin Islands (2.2%) and Bahamas (1.9%).”

(source.)

I see that Harlan Ellison has been named the next SFWA Grand Master. I’m not an especial fan of his, but I predicted last year that he was the obvious next candidate (admittedly I made the same prediction the previous year when the title went to Robert Silverberg).

So, who will be next? The list of award-winning authors, excluding those who are deceased or who are already Grand Masters, ranked by the length of time since they won their first Hugo or Nebula, looks like this (first 11, with date of birth – those who have been Worldcon guests of honor are asterisked)

1960 Hugo: Daniel Keyes (b. 1927)
1966 Nebula: Samuel R Delany* (b. 1942)
1967 Hugo: Larry Niven* (b. 1938)
1967 Nebula: Michael Moorcock* (b. 1939)
1968 Nebula: Kate Wilhelm* (b. 1928)
1968 Nebula: Alexei Panshin (b. 1940)
1971 Nebula: Katharine MacLean (b. 1925)
1972 Nebula: Joanna Russ (b. 1937)
1973 Nebula: Gene Wolfe* (b. 1931)
1973 Nebula: Vonda N. McIntyre (b. 1948)

McIntyre is much younger than the others, so I guess she’s out of the running. I’m inclined to think that Keyes, Panshin and MacLean are excluded for not really having written very much. After that, it’s a pretty interesting choice. All the others can reasonably claim to have been pretty influential in the field. I don’t really envy SFWA having to make the choice for next year (if they choose to make the award at all), or the years to come.

It’s always when I particularly want to get to work quickly that the traffic is at its worst.

Today’s Doonesbury reminded me of my first visit back home to Belfast after I started working in Banja Luka in 1997. Landmines, rather than carbombs, were the big deal in Bosnia then; the golden rule was never to drive onto the grass verge of the road, as mines are much more difficult to see against vegetation than against tarmac. As I’ve said before, there’s nothing quite like driving through a minefield to concetrate your mind on the importance of the issue.

When Anne picked me up at Belfast airport, and pulled over onto the verge to check something to do with the car, I nearly freaked out as badly as B.D. does here. I’m over it now.

Has anyone else been spammed by someone calling himself “Kenneth J Harvey”, with an email message pimping his latest novel, accompanied by laudatory squibs from J.M. Coetzee, Alistair MacLeod, and Joe O’Connor?

Mr Harvey, I don’t know you, and I have no great love for people who send me unsolicited emails advertising commercial products; indeed I was responsible for a successful campaign to get the European Parliament to legislate against such activities on this side of the Atlantic.

If you want me to review your book on this livejournal or on my website, then you can send me a copy, and I’ll consider it. But we have not got off to a good start.

, it was on your reading list back in January (although it is now being pimped as a “new novel”); did you ever get around to it? , you seem to have enjoyed reading it some time last year as well. Meanwhile I note both negative and positive reviews elsewhere on lj.

OK, I know none of you reading this are geeks. None at all. But putting prejudice aside for a moment, let’s just try a poll:

Sorry that it has to be in two sections – they only let you do fifteen questions.

Of course, quite apart from the gender balance, some of the choices of book by individual author are a bit odd as well. Among us Library Thing users, the four most popular books by John Wyndham are Day of the Triffids, The Chrysalids (surely a much more geeky plot), The Midwich Cuckoos and The Kraken Wakes, and Trouble With Lichen ties for fifth place with Chocky.

Anyway, have fun. And don’t forget ‘s survey of the Geek Girl canon, and ‘s appeal for the one book that should have been on the list.

Yep, my backlog of last weekend has now backed up to include this weekend. At least a) the Afghanistan paper is now orbiting other people’s desks; b) the Azerbaijan paper is due for publication on Monday; and c) have nearly finished going through the Kosovo security paper though it will need a bit more tweaking. But the EU Visas paper needs a massive amount of work done to it – by Tuesday.

So I’ve been in the office most of the day, wrestling with the various texts requiring my attention. The boss has turned up too, just back from the US, but in a reasonably good mood. Have taken it as far as I can for now and am going home shortly.

When I left the house at ten o’clock this morning, Fergal was curled up on the sofa under a duvet watching Scooby Doo. I felt very envious.

On the plus side, both Ursula’s chickenpox and my mouth ulcers have largely cleared up.

12) Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link

Tales of “kitchen sink” magical realism, set in small-town America, some of them drifting a bit further from reality than I could follow, but others very good. No time to write more about this, but I liked it – especially the title story.

The Guardian’s list of top 20 geek books: bolding the ones I’ve read.

1. The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell
3. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer — William Gibson
6. Dune — Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot — Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation — Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic — Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs — Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen — Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon — Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas — Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land — Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle — Philip K Dick
17. American Gods — Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age — Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham

There are many problems with this list, not least that all the authors are male. is therefore seeking advice on what should be in the canon by and for Geek Girls. Will be interesting to see what she comes up with.

11) Smoke and Mirrors

When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up too early in the morning.

The other nice freebie I got with my new Palm T|X was an ebook edition of Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors, with three extra stories not in the print version. Lots of good stuff here; we start with the Holy Grail turning up in an Oxfam shop, and finish with Snow White, as told from the stepmother’s point of view; and the Cthulhu mythos as it might have been interpreted by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in a strange English coastal resort:

The beer had the kind of flavour which, he suspected, advertisers would describe as full-bodied, although if pressed they would have to admit that the body in question had been that of a goat.

And several other jewels, including a homage to Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October and the story of a 1960s schoolboy who liked Michael Moorcock. Here is one story in full, a seasonal drabble:

Nicholas Was…

older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.
The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tongue, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.
Once every year they forced him, sobbing and protesting, into Endless Night. During the journey he would stand near every child in the world, leave one of the dwarves’ invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.
He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punishment was harsher.
Ho.
Ho.
Ho.

Great stuff.

The Guardian has apologised to Noam Chomsky and withdrawn the 31 October interview from its website.

[Edited to add: See more from .]

[Edited again to add: See further Drew Forrest in the South African Mail and Guardian.]

Last weekend’s Observer reports that Francis Campbell, the new British Ambassador to the Vatican, “will be the first Irishman to represent the UK abroad since the partition of Ireland in 1921”. The Zenit newsagency goes a step further, saying he is “the first Irish Catholic to be elevated to ambassador since the republic of Ireland was granted independence in 1921”.

Er, no, not really. My cousin Dermot MacDermot was an Irish Catholic who was also a British ambassador almost fifty years ago. His cousin Brian MacDermot was also a British ambassador at the end of his career, but had earlier been Chargé d’Affaires at the British representation to the Holy See (contra the Zenit story that only Protestants were allowed to hold that position from 1917 on).

There are lots of things I don’t like about the British state’s relationship with my religion. But we should give credit where it is due.

I DON’T BELIEVE IT!

The new set-up for my Palm T|X has wiped my entire appointments calendar, for some reason.

Luckily I still have the old one at home and can backup from that, missing only changes made in the last week. But it is DEEPLY aggravating.

[Edited to add: Even more luckily, there was a backup at work, so all is now restored. But is right; I need belt and braces.]

Just in case anyone reading this has not already seen it:

The SCI FICTION website has been publishing excellent science fiction stories, both old and new, since 2000. It is to stop publishing at the end of this year, alas. Some of its fans have had the excellent idea of compiling a tribute, by asking for volunteers to write an appreciation for each of the 320-odd stories on the site.

The first few of these have been done already – Pete Tillman’s appreciation of the Nebula-winning “Goddesses”, by Linda Nagata, Ben Peek’s appreciation of “Jailwise”, by Lucius Shepard, Jay Lake’s substantial essay on “The Wages of Syntax”, by Ray Vukcevich, and Lois Tilton’s brief (but heartfelt) note on “The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode In On)”, by Howard Waldrop. But there is still plenty of room for more. You could more or less pick any story and find you had something to say about it.

And if you just want to read the reviews as they come in, you can get them via .

10) Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz

For some reason this was supplied as a freebie with my new Palm T|X from work. (Along with Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors, and a bunch of other less useful stuff.) It’s a book about how to network effectively, and so for a compulsive networker like me was absolutely fascinating reading. What I found particularly striking is that the book is aimed at the thrusting, selfish young executive, and actually tells them to calm down, start doing little favours for other people – whoever they may be – and be generally nice to people because it is fun and good for you, and also will help your business and your career. It is an interesting combination of exhorting people to altruism by playing on their self-interest; being friendly doesn’t cost you anything, in fact it can benefit you a lot.

Suggested tactics include such glories as the “deep bump” – how to conduct a meaningful but efficiently brief conversation with someone you meet at a conference or similar networking event (though Ferrazzi loathes the concept of “networking events”), ending with a concrete proposal of how you can be useful to each other. Oddly enough last night I was out for dinner and found myself sitting beside a bloke from America who I hadn’t met before. He conducted a meaningful but efficiently brief conversation with me, ending with a concrete proposal as to how we could be useful to each other in the future. I realised with an inner grin (even as the conversation was going on) that I was being “deep bumped”. But in fact the process was a sensible use of both our time, and I probably will take him up on his offer next time I am in New York.

There are some problems with the structure and repetitiveness of this book (which shows signs of an editor attempting to make sense of a stream-of-consciousness manuscript) but the other thing I liked was the occasional historical asides. I will think of Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin in a new light now. A thought-provoking read.

Chomsky has published a further rebuttal to the Guardian interview of two weeks ago. Now that he has seen the paper copy, he is horrified that the photographs used to illustrate it included 1) a picture of himself with John Pilger, 2) a picture of himself with Fidel Castro, and 3) a picture showing him, according to the Guardian, “in Laos en route to Hanoi to give a speech to the North Vietnamese.” Chomsky feels that this depicts him as “worshipping commie-rats and such terrible figures as John Pilger”.

Someone should take him aside and explain gently that the vast majority of Guardian readers think that US policy on Cuba is completely wrong, and that the US policy on the Vietnam War was also completely wrong, and that therefore to most Guardian readers the fact that Chomsky was once seen with Castro and on another occasion “in Laos en route to Hanoi to give a speech to the North Vietnamese” would actually be rather to his credit! (It’s also a bit difficult to see why he objects to the second caption as an “invention”, given that from his own account he actually was in Laos en route to Hanoi to speak – OK, more than one speech – to the North Vietnamese.)

And it’s even more difficult to understand why he feels tarnished by being linked with Pilger; they clearly have much in common. Pilger has written for the Guardian in the past, though he seems to have fallen out with them over a review of his latest book, and was interviewed in an article about food in war zones in last weekend’s Observer. (The verb “pilgerize” was an invention of the British right, not the Guardian.)

Chomsky does gain considerable credit from me for mentioning a Bosnian camp survivor’s “justified outrage that I or anyone could take the positions invented in the Guardian article”. However that doesn’t seem at all consistent with his attack on a publisher who refused to publish Diana Johnstone’s appalling book. I’m just saying, that’s all.

Thanks, everyone for your supportive responses to the previous post. I have now dealt with the Afghans, got almost all the way through the EU visas, and left the Azerbaijan report in better hands. So there is a sense of progress. Off for dinner with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung now.

This is just to say, a little belatedly,

THANK YOU FOR LENDING US YOUR FIREFLY DVDs!!!!

We watched the whole lot over the course of last month. I have not got around to a serious write-up here as yet, though the series very much deserves it. We just might have to watch them all again. How soon do you need them back?

We’re currently working our way through Season 3 of Buffy, and were in the middle of “Faith, Hope and Trick” this evening, when suddenly we wondered:

If there’s only one Slayer alive at a time (or in extreme circumstances, two), what do the rest of the Watchers actually do all day?

(It’s pretty poor that Giles, presumably the only Watcher who is actually Watching a Slayer, given that Faith’s Watcher has been horribly slaughtered, isn’t invited to their annual retreat.)

We struggled out of the house this afternoon to a rabbit show across the road. We bumped into our neighbours whose rabbits recently disappeared; they are thinking of getting a Flemish Giant which would be more difficult to mislay. You don’t mess with Flemish Giants.

F feeding a Flemish Giant

This handsome fellow was the champion of the whole show – a Parelgrijs van Halle (?Halle pearl-grey?) – not quite as big as some of the others!