monkeymike blog

...knows everything, then he or she knows what I'm going to do tomorrow, the day after and the day after that etc. So I don't have free will and can't choose to follow and cannot be justly punished for transgressing. She/he knew I was going to do it from the moment of creation. What is more: he/she created Adam and Eve such that they would take the apple etc. This argument is great for tying the door step god-botherers in knots.

Link: http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/

After listening to the dulcet tones of *whatever his name is* on the history of rome podcast I have picked up an interest in history. Of course it might be my age as I am now approaching 40 at the pace of a minute per 50 seconds (at least it seems like that). I feel I should have a rant at this point so here goes: Why don't .MOV files transfer over to play in an iPod? It is my opinion that Apple are a bit rubbish at times. Sure the new iPod nano can be used to key a Mercedes with but it no longer charges when docked to a lot of accessories (damn you apple) and the aforementioned .MOV thing is just stupid. Wasn't the apple motto "it just works"? I can tell you now that my interpretation of that motto is something like "it only just works and not very well at that". Apples motto should be "Works ever time, doesn't crash and plays nice with other OSes" of course they'd be sued up the kazoo if they did that because it wouldn't be true. In a similar vein I think 'manage'rs should have higher aspirations. Something like 'Excel'ers, 'good to have in a sh*t storm'ers or 'Actually quite good'ers. A noun that merely implies adequacy is a little flaccid.

After an excessive bout of podcast mania, where I repeatedly downloaded masses of podcasts using iTunes (thanks Cousin Ed) I have been on short rations from my ISP for an eternity. 1/2 a bit per hour or something. It is painful. Demon.net has one of those all you can eat (until they decide you've had enough) types of broadband. Unfortunately they remain the best option for me. All the other ISPs seem to offer less for more money. So well done Demon. You have retained me as a customer yet again.

Sorry google I had to try it. Type "gambling problems" into google today and one of the first google adverts you'll see is

Gambling at Bet365 www.bet365.com Up to £100 in Free Bets When You Sign-Up with Bet365 Today!

...so it looks like google are evil after all. Maybe they aren't that evil. I suppose taking money from stupid people is a service to society. It stops them funding drug dealers (buying DVD's and CDs- see previous blog entry) or paying fag taxes to oppressive regimes (UK Government) or providing funds to terrorist nations (Iceland -apparently, I don't believe it myself they seem such nice people). So in short Google may appear evil but:

• They might bring down the record companies
• hasten the end of the UK tyranny (that is forming)
• Stop people who can't evaluate risk correctly (obvious really, because they gambling) from investing in high yielding foreign banks (or if GB is to be believed-evil terrorist nations)

While Google are the devils sock puppet, taking the long view, there will probably be some unintended good that comes out of Satan's meddling. I think it's only fair that the devils plans suffer the same fate as every single government target ever dreamed up by a sociologist. Here I define sociologists as people who believe whatever comes out of there own mouths (i.e. no test against reality) and ensure that their thought processes are not in any way related to truth. It's a bit like applied philosophy, but not in a good way like Socrates, no they have chosen a darker path something more akin to a philosophical version of kiddie fiddling. I'll leave it to the imagination of the reader to what that is. (answer below). So...there you go. Sociologists. You should be ashamed. ...on a similar vein the recent "Moral Maze" on the financial burp of aught eight saw the panel of heavy humanitarian-degreed quacks got 'owned' by a The Times columnist. "your question, with respect, is a non sequitur" go dude go. Sociologists should check out www.austhink.org/critical/ y'all need a thinking upgrade. Talking for talking's sake causes global warming. FACT! Answer: Relativism

I have just finished (sort of) Their Darkest Hour by Laurence Rees. A book for teenagers and/or Daily Mail readers. 1.8 out of 7 stars. ...although I have a slightly raised interest in Stalinist purges and Japan's behaviour in China during WW2. What I can say is that I won't be reading any of Mr Rees' simplistic condescension.

The **** next door has started a party at 3am. the ****. His mum and dad have gone away for 2 weeks and the 40 year old man-boy is having a ****ing party with all his KFC serving mates. the ****s ****ing ****. I wish firearms were legal. People would be more polite.

"If you have nothing to hide, then you've nothing to fear." Really??? Surely that is lacking in imagination. Why not imagine, for a moment, a national DNA databases in the hands of Adolf Hitler and the state/administration that supported Adolf Hitler. Let us now add, in our imaginations, the same state having CCTV on every street corner. That every phone call and email that is sent is monitored by the state. Have you got nothing to fear? What about foreign governments who might compromise our system for the purposes of spying? ...still got nothing to fear? What if you're a foreign business sending commercially sensitive emails to your staff in the UK. ...still got nothing to fear? Well yes because you've done nothing wrong! Of course the people defining right and wrong in this context are the state. The limits of your acceptable behaviour could be very narrow indeed. What if some future government take umbridge with foreigners, homosexuals or people who didn't vote for them at the last election? What if you read too many books or your grammar is poor? Have you still done nothing 'wrong'. The state is a very suspicious beast and will be increasingly powerful. If we allow the present government this freedom to snoop, we give every subsequent government the same power. One day we may be electing the BNP. Or worse...The Green Party. If the people and the administration of government were entirely heroic and honest then I would feel better about them having such snooping powers, but I suspect that the people in local and national government are small minded, petty and prone to incompetence. I am quite a mild mannered individual, but I find empire building and petty political squabbles in government to be utterly repulsive. I have a statement to make: I have far more to fear than I do to hide. In fact I'm quite an open person. But I do fear for what the Government, and by extension every small minded bureaucrat will be capable of in the future. ...another thing to fear is the prosecutors fallacy. Statistics is a subtle and horrific art.

London trip.

I've been clearing out my mobile phone. and also.. and also.. and last but not least...well actually it is least

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

About the free market. The thing about a free market is that the purchaser/buyer/consumer/whatever has to have perfect knowledge about the product. How often do you see that happening? When did you last see even the slightest mention on a car advert about the TCO? about the mean time to failure on a major component? It is disturbing to me that VW think that some horrific asymmetric little knitted troll, with an obsession with the shapely female form, are used to sell the cars. Perhaps these homunculi represent the souls of the target audience. What is far more unpleasant is the idea that they are right. Are we so bereft of reason, so buried in ignorance and slave mentality, that no physical attribute is worth discussing when selling cars? What about it's market value in 5 years time? MPG? Top Speed? acceleration? no. Shout it out: "Come on" Don't look at the trivial stuff just buy it without question. After all VW know best which car you should buy!! The modern retail 'industry' is about the abolition of the free market. The suppression of quality and the creation of a slave race designed solely to consume until we die. The only silver lining is that within a generation we could be in the situation were we won't have a consumer society, because non of our younger generation will have any money. If the country relies on retail and financial sectors then we are soon to be poor as church mice. Knowledge and laws are very easy to export permanently (in a way which mineral resources aren't) and once your financial institutions are gone everything else will follow. I suppose that We could turn the entire country into a retail outlet, but I have my doubts about the viability of that. It's a long way to come to the shops from Europe. The locals would have to spend every other day working in shops and the alternate day out shopping just to keep the money flowing. So what is left to do? Well what about human hunting? Turn the entire of England into a nature reserve where rich Chinese, Russian, Indian (and so on) business people can come and hunt humans for their trophy rooms. Fifty foot fences would surround England and the rich could pop away from within the reserve. Perhaps in 10 or 15 years time it will come to pass. Now my spleen is vented, I lie quiescent.