Meaning of Liff

Only in Japan

can you put a tree on your keyring (or phone)

Brit ID Cards - WE CARE!

A while back I said everyone in the Uk  should sign up for rge Pledgebank Pledge "refuse to register for an ID card and willdonate £10 to a legal defence fund"

Well a lot of people have done. A few days ago I got an email saying

Thank you all - what a success!

When I started this pledge, I hoped we could show the government the
depth and strength of feeling against their draconian ID system, and
begin to build a fund to fight a series of legal battles against it.
YOU have now done this - and more quickly than I ever dared hope.

Some of you have already asked exactly how the pledge is going to work,
and now that we have reached the 10,000 mark I hope you'll bear with me
while I explain in a little more detail what we (NO2ID) intend to do:

1) We shan't be asking you for your £10 until or unless the government
manages to pass the Identity Cards Bill. It is by no means certain that
they will be able to do this - and you can help us NOW to stop them*.
Once you send your money in, it would be administratively prohibitive
for us to refund it so we only want to ask for it once we are
absolutely sure that we are going to need it.

2) All funds that you send will be held in trust, in a seperate bank
account administered by an independent third party (a couple of law
firms have already offered their services). NO2ID will not mix your
pledges with campaign funds, i.e. every penny you give will go towards
fighting the Act in the courts, and supporting those who are fighting
the necessary legal battles.

3) It is just possible that even if the government do pass this Bill,
they may drop the current ID scheme - leaving the legislation on the
statute books. In this case, we shall still need to get the Act
repealed (it contains some very dangerous powers, even if they remain
dormant for a time) and so the fund will be used to pursue that end.

4) Once we have won utterly (no Bill, no ID scheme, no law sitting on
the statute books) then any monies remaining in the fund will be
dispersed - depending on how much is left - by either donating it to an
appropriate charity (we'll hold a vote on which one, should this ever
become necessary) or drafting a Bill, the aim of which is to inhibit
any future government from imposing compulsory registration and ID
cards on the people of the UK.

HOWEVER, this pledge does not end just because we have reached 10,000.
We know that many tens of thousands more will refuse to register, and
we still want to reach them and have them sign up before the closing
date of October 9th, the day before Parliament sits again in the
Autumn. The more of us that there are by then, the harder we make it
for them to proceed.

We shall also shortly be launching another pledge - one that you may be
highly motivated to promote.

Raising £100,000 in a little over a month from people who will refuse
to register for an ID card is astounding, but now we want to raise
£1,000,000 from people who - for whatever reason - feel they CAN'T
refuse to register, but who will wholeheartedly support those of us who
do. I know from the comments and direct mails [*please* don't write
expecting an answer, I simply can't handle the volume of mail] that
there are many people like this out there already.

I'll be notifying you of the URL for the new pledge shortly - DON'T
SIGN IT YOURSELF, but see if your friends, family and colleagues will
now back YOU up in your fight for our freedom and privacy.

*Finally, I said that there is something that you can do to help us
now. Don't forget that we are fighting hard to defeat the Bill so that
your pledge may not even be called in. Many of you have said that you'd
happily give more than £10, some have already seperately donated and
joined NO2ID. If you haven't done so already, please:

1) Sign our petition at http://www.no2id-petition.net and get others
to, too.

2) Donate to NO2ID - via Paypal from the front page of our website
http://www.no2id.net or by post (cheques payable to 'NO2ID') sent to
NO2ID, Box 412, 78 Marylebone High St, London W1U 5AP.

3) If you're able to give £15 or more or set up a regular payment,
please do become a member - we hope it will be the shortest
subscription that you ever make! Forms and bank details are available
online at http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/join.php or by post from the
above address. If you send an SAE it will save campaign funds for our
ongoing essential work in Parliament, the media and across the country.

Thank you for your patience with this long e-mail, and my heartfelt
thanks for your commitment to fight this thing. Together, I am sure we
shall win.

In solidarity,

Phil Booth
National Coordinator, NO2ID

So I think that deserves to be reproduced :)

Now we have 10 planets!

Astronomers have discovered a 10th planet in the solar system. How cool is that.

The planet is located about 9.7 billion miles from the sun and is about 1 1/2 times the size of Pluto, the researchers said.

The new planet orbits the sun once every 560 years and is now at its farthest point from Earth, he said. In about 280 years, the planet will be as close as Neptune, he said.

Like Pluto, the object's surface is believed to be predominantly methane, but its size -- about 1,700 miles in diameter -- qualifies it as a planet, Brown said. Earth is about 7,900 miles in diameter.

The new planet is believed to be part of the Kuiper Belt, a large ring of icy objects that orbit beyond Neptune and are believed to be remnants of the material that formed the solar system.

Wow - I'm not quite sure what the actual definition of a planet is (I mean basically they're lumps of rocks, ice or gas orbiting the sun, but then there are millions of lumps of stuff orbiting the sun and most of them aren't designated planets so it must relate to size, or how the chief astronomer feels on the day, or something.

This is really going to much up that Space Men Vote Earth Most Jolly of the Solar Universes Nine Planets thing isn't it? Lets hope the call it something starting with T then we stand a chance of changing the thyme to .....Universes Now Ten Planets :)

Parrot Proves It's No Birdbrain

Wow - this is cool stuff (you're going to think I'm a nutter but conceptual association is amazing to study) - Wired News reports on a Parrot which understands 'none'.

This parrot does more than count and ask for food, it's taken the concept of 'none' from a previous experiment and applied it to objects in a new one. OK that may not sound impressive to you but if anyone has seen how long it takes children to grasp concepts like that you might see how amazing that is. It's like the difference between cats having no concept of 'self' and human children when they get to about 3 or 4 - you know when they stop believing that if they cant see you you can't see them?

Chocolate is good for me!

See I've been saying this for years and no ones believed me but Dark Chocolate is good for your heart.

In fact

"Previous studies suggest flavonoid-rich foods, including fruits, vegetables, tea, red wine and chocolate, might offer cardiovascular benefits, but this is one of the first clinical trials to look specifically at dark chocolate's effect on lowering blood pressure among people with hypertension," said Jeffrey Blumberg of Tufts University in Boston, who led the study.

Well aside from the tea (I do have to be feeling quite strange before I'll drink tea)  I love all of that stuff. I must be the most healthiest person in the whole wide world :)

Now pass me that bar.....

More on London

Yep, like I said, you're not going to depress us Brits :). Been there, seen that, brought the t-shirt.....

Strange you know, normally I don't feel at all British, but when stuff like this happens the old national pride kicks in like you wouldn't believe.....

Men are merely an external factor.

The nature/nurture debate has always fascinated me, but I've not seen it applied to a study of whether women can reach orgasm before.

It's an interesting read, quote of the week must surely be

“With masturbation there are fewer external factors – i.e. men,”

but the bit that really made me smile was this

the female orgasm is merely an accidental echo of the male one, the equivalent of male nipples

so basically nice to have and you'd feel strange if it weren't there, but ultimately pointless?  Hmm.

Big Bird Race 2005

The Big Bird Race 2005 is a joint project between The Conservation Foundation, the Tasmanian State Government and Ladbrooks (there's a group you don't often see in the same sentence) to raise awareness of and money for the plight of Shy Albatrosses and the dangers they face from long line fishing.

This is a very cool way to take part in an environmental project. Personally my moneys on 18 Stone of Idiot and Emu - they both have a glint in their eye :)

Surreal Cookery Product of the Week

Beer Can Chicken Roaster.

I've cooked Beef in Guiness and frequently slosh wine into something but actually mounting a chicken on a can of beer is a new idea to me. I can't believe I found a cookery gadget I don't own!

I now really want to try it and see what sort of flavour it gives the chicken but, being a veggie, I'll just have to use friends as Guinea Pigs. I can imagine their faces when I carry that to the table and ask who's going to carve :)

Mapping the Human genome

The original Human Genome Project was critisised by a lot of people, which was a pity as the research itself was fascinating. Scientists are about to have another go with the Genographic Project.

Tracking human migration can tell us so much about the world and human history. The basis behind both projects is detecting and tracing mutations in human DNA - because mutations create unique strains of humans and are so rarely identical it's a good indication that humans which share these 'mutant' genes have a common descendent, like you pass on hair colour or medical conditions you also pass on genetic material which isn't so obvious initially.

This is really interesting stuff - you can understand the basics of the Human Genome Project here - the science is the same for the new one....