Its only 14 business days till my last day of work. YIPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!
got home angry from work. Wanted to vent my spleen, but have been sidetracked pondering why we "vent our spleens" in the first place.
found this
Etymology: from the idea in the past that the spleen (= an organ in the body) was the place where evil intentions began
Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms © Cambridge University Press 2003
which prompted me to consider the proper function of a spleen. That took me to this:
The spleen is an organ located in the abdomen of the human body, where it functions in the destruction of old red blood cells and holding a small reservoir of blood. It is regarded as one of the centers of activity of the reticuloendothelial system (part of the immune system).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spleen
I'm really glad the editor of that wiki entry choose to bracket the fact that the "reticuloendothelial system" is the immune system.
At this point i'm a bit less angry and excited at the discovery of hitherto unknown facts. Also slightly interested by the observation that the spleen was the source of evil intentions but is actually part of the immune system - the system that filters out of our blood the little bits of natural "evil" or pathogens. So we weren't far wrong with the function of the spleen in the first place.
Indeed, when reading that wiki on the "reticuloendothelial system", its interesting to think how connected our bodies are within this system. Our stomach, bones, lungs and blood all work together to keep out nasty pathogens. Cool!
I wish there was a spleen at my work.
that's the view of our lovely new bannister and wall. Not inspiring, but progress!
Here's some agent's photos of our lovely new flat in Krakow. After some problems, we are about to complete on this - hopefully in the next two weeks. More to follow!
Ula, Ucho / Velvet + Will on our (soon to be) land in Stronie. :)
We've bought land in the Polish mountains - check it out! 7 acres :)
The more I look at the the title, the more it looks like gobledegook. Couldn't get away from those double oo's.
Anyroad, I wanted to comment on the google books search which Microsoft claims to be breaching copyright story. Hence the title...
So, i've had a quick play searching for my old tutor Hasok Chang, and out came - Theories of Scientific Method, Models for the Physio-Mathematical Sciences. Not bad! I can read the entire book! Is it breaching copyright? Who cares?!
In my opinion, this is a great service, flawed only because of the limitations placed upon Google by the copyright.
Knowledge, ultimately is for the public good. Books contain knowledge, some obscure, some fantastical, all sorts. Why should it be so difficult to access copyrighted material / public knowledge? Either pay for the book or pay to get into a library, with the added travel costs involved. Too much for many people.
The public have to suffer the consequences of copyright. Instead of it helping society to progress, its more apparant that its hindering the growth of society. (as measured on the global happiness index!)
Google's service is great, but ultimately it makes it difficult to download and print off the material. One could sit patiently and print off page by page, scrolling to the next page (assuming it doesn't have some kind of block on the print, I couldn't test this... please comment if you are near a printer)
It could be so much easier if it was a .pdf, for instance. But then, I suppose, that would be blatantly enabling users to breach copyright, and no-one would ever buy a book ever again.
I don't think so. In the same way that downloading is revolutionising the music industry, enabling access to copyrighted books makes sense for business. Global access to public knowledge... peer-to-peer networks will quickly tag the 'cream' books. More people will have access to the best ideas and knowledge that they never had access to before. Its like the biggest advertising board for books to a hungry and global audience.
Its no surprise that Google have done deals with Amazon, Blackwells and WHSmiths, where you can buy the books.
But wouldn't it be even easier for the user if we could easily print off the material? Or at least, save it so we can view it at our leisure. No doubt some smart arses are working on ways to scan Google's pages and do exactly that... hmmm... i'm not advocating that, btw... (legally minded, me).
Yes, I'm not thinking of the American chewing gum that's hit the UK recently. No, I'm angry about the proposed renewal of the UKs Trident nuclear missile capacity. According to a Channel 4 news story, 29% in a poll (the small majority) are totally opposed to it. I'm with them. And here's why:
1, £79Bn - CRAZY. On a day when heir to the throne nail biting Gordon Brown gave nurses a measly 1.9% pay increase, we need to be spending on our domestic affairs, not for an obscure future event that signals armageddon and the end of the world as we know it anyway.
2. When EXACTLY are they proposing that we would actually use a nuclear weapon aggressively? If we just need the THREAT of nuclear war, why not scale back nuclear weapons to the absolute minimum, i.e. none, or maybe 1 somewhere far far away in secret? If, God forbid, foreign troops agressively mass on our borders (or whatever far-fetched idea the pro-nuclear lobby can come up with), I am sure nuclear weapons would be relatively easy to produce quickly. We would need to be smart with how we stored the intelligence, but it must be possible. We could save £79Bn for such an event, it'd be worth a lot more when the most unlikely and awful event actually happened.
3. If we are negotiating with Iran over their nuclear ambitions, it doesn't exactly help our cause if we are back home gleefully stockpiling our own supply of megadeath potentials.
All in all, nuclear weapons are a bad idea for the future. In fact, I'd say the UKs nuclear history has contributed to the current conflicts we are currently engaged in. Ever since the second world war, Manhatten Project collaboration, we've been the US dogsbody in world military affairs. Our nuclear power is a result of the being friends with the US, out of that collaboration we've become embroiled in their imperialist-style adventure in Iraq.
And that's not forgetting that more nuclear weapons means an increased possibility of those weapons getting into the hands of crazy people in the future and using them against us. Whether stolen by terrorists or by some rogue PM putting down a Cornish rebellion (say!), just the simple idea of HAVING nuclear weapons must mean that there's a higher risk of them being used on us, the people who paid their taxes for the weapons in the first place. CEEERAAAZZZY.
Peace please, and NO TRIDENT FOR THE UK
I often post my thoughts and rants on the BBC Have Your Say section.
Damn! Now the smart ones can find my name. Shoot. Why am I called Chagos anyway?
Hmm, a new post me tinks.
Gorgeous! Am jealous. read more
on Polish Mountain Land