Croeso

Banning free speech in the UK under a Labour goverment what a very sad day

So Geert Wilders the Dutch MP who made the film Fitna , was invited over to the house of Lords to show his film and talk abut his concerns with respect to radical islam and he was refused entry by the home office.

What an awful ill thought through thing to do, the world needs an open and frank debate on these issues , we will get nowhere if we do not allow all voices a fair seat at the table. Where you agree with him or not banning his entry and refusing to allow him to speak will not help us , Wilders position is strengthened now and the hard true facts he showed within Fitna still need to be accepted and delt with by us all including the huge majoitry of peace loving muslims They need to step up tho the table and dennounce the radical groups who twist and use the Koran to their own aims.

Wilders is free to go to Belgium, Denmark Gerrmany and other countries within the EU, but not the UK. We need to stop quaking in our boots and face up to the hard truths of the current political climate, hiding from it and not allowing all sides to be represented will take us backwards

A very very sad day in the UK with the foundations of democracy and free speech being attacked

Led Zeppelin Wow

2103032414_16bb86b325, originally uploaded by Croeso.

Did not sleep for a second last night

Working out of our London office

iPod in on reliving the concert (recorded it to my Smart Phone hmm not too bad actually)

Still the best band ever

see all the photos here

cannot concentrate at all on work : )

Parents having too much influence on their kids?

My kids have friends around to play and they are showing them with the aid of the puppet theatre and puppets how colonic irrigation works...... When quizzed by their friends if people actually do this, "yes mama and papa do it all the time: was the reply  (ahem "once a quarter" was my wife's reply)

She was so amused by this she left them with water dripping all over the parquet and had to call me to pass on the influence we are extending.

Well at least it wasn't real colonic irrigation water on our nice floor I mused

Aldo flying solo

A good friend of mine is about the leave academia and start out on his own.

http://growingpains.blogs.com/home/2007/04/the_making_of_c.html#comment-67999934

Good luck Aldo.

If anyone is wanting a thoughtful , insightful and thoroughly good person to help investigate and analyse Communities - Aldo de Moor is your man.

http://growingpains.blogs.com/home/

Hmm good old Fleming - must have seen me in my R&D days

Ming the Mechanic: To simplify things

You need only two tools: WD-40 and duct tape.

If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40.

If it moves and shouldn't, use the duct tape.

Technorati Tags: ming, life style advice, wd40, duct tape

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MBTI type

I´m off with the flu at the moment and just picked up my last MBTI rating and the associated book I was given to further explain it.
I´m a ESTP and i must say it is quite accurate in most aspects, especially about me thinking by talking out loud, does drive my wife mad, but hey that´s me and love is unconditional as far as I see it.
I suppose an ESTP being married to a philosopher is always going to be fun!

Says it all really

Bragging Rights maintained for a whole year

All the other results fade into insignificance, as we beat the majority holding neighbour

Fuss n bother

Came home to a grumpy wife, the kids have lice, the whole house need cleaning, all clothes washing those than can not be washed need storing in plastic bags for a week, and horrible stuff in our hair, and even horribler fine combs!

The poor thing was knackered dealing with all that on her own, and I was late getting home due to a work appointment in Rijswijk.

We seem to have it all sorted now just need to shampoo out the lice killer and a further combing tomorrow.

Tried to comfort the kids with the fact that they only go for clean heads but they were fed up with all the fuss too.

Ho hum some things in life never change,  I remember nitty Nora the bug explorer in my school days

Just the stangest day

Firstly I had a meeting with a colleague who was drenched in aftershave (Funny I thought very unusual these days)

Then over lunch the olive bread stank of olive oil, the flowers at the table gave a glorious smell , then on the way home a lady on the train reeked of pot puri and the dog in the next section (behind the glass door) strongly smelled of wet dog odour.

It has passed now but my hyper sensitive olfactory function for a day did bemuse me somewhat.

I must Google it and see if this happens occasionally, or if in fact as Anke predicted my hidden psychic skills are being ''remembered'' - as was predicted by someone whose judgement I trusted absolutely (and still do Nain)

Hunting for Idris

Now being a Welshman abroad, we tell the children all about the myths of Wales, Dragons feature highly and we have lot's of cuddly ones around the house to add some reality to the story telling.

Now you see in Boyd Mythville dragons are friendly and do not hurt humans but help protect them. They are invisible and only children can see them, now my 7 year old is starting to question this faith issue as she sees flaws in our arguments, so we wink at her and get her to play along so our 4yr old still can believe in such myths.
In no time too he will realise we are just making nice stories and non of it is true, pity our religious friends and their children do not apply the same honesty  - one can only dream

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Atheism

I'm been pondering this post for a while now, The God Delusion and many follow on conversations have prompted it, as well as many discussions within my extended family.

I've always been amazed at people who refuse to think for themselves, but seem to lie down and let others do the thinking for them, without any kind of questioning, reflection or reasoning.

In short to me the whole god debate (which ever flavour you like) does not really add up. Whether you are extremist (God made the World ~5890 years ago) or more liberal (that not all in the bible is true but allegory and moral guidance) it all seems flawed to me in the end.

Evolution explains a lot very simply, it has tons of evidence backing it, and goes back all the way to the big bang plus one femotsecond.

Now why the big bang happened in the first place is an interesting debate but there is no evidence what so ever it was a divine beings way of kicking things off - the old argument of where did god come from in the first place and many more should be casting doubt into the minds of many.

I now call my self a radical atheist (a term coined by the brilliant Douglas Adams - so any commentators would not mix his views and position with that of an agnostic), it just does not add up, big creator making all this mega complexity of a system that we are, (he would have to be infinitely m,ore complex than us just to design us), the fossil records, the ice core data all point back to millions of years of changes slowly triggered focused and logical natural selection.

It really also riles me when the religious people seem to think they have the moral guidance and can solely be the guardians of our moral framework, I am a atheist but I am a good man, I don't blow people up, I do not lie to people and tell children to believe things that do not stand up to any simple analysis (where were the dinosaurs in the bible if we are only ~6000 years old?)

We make morals and apply them by democracy by engaging together to make collective decisions and by the general principle of not wanting to harm, hurt anyone and to love thy neighbour irrespective of whom they are and their point of view.

I agree with Dawkins its about time we all spoke out and organise ourselves, it's deeply worrying what is happening with the evangelists and the so called Intelligent Design ideas, they are not based on one scrap of evidence and as soon as you question them they declare it a matter of faith and refuse to enter into a debate about it. The more of us that expose this farce for the extremely dangerous folly it is the sooner we can stop the slide of evangelists into fundamentalist atrocities.

So I've just volunteerd to help at the International Humanist Society here in NL as if we do not act and counter a very worrying trend, how can we really respect ourselves.

Anarchy

I was smiling on the train this morning, Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols, popped up on my iPod, excellent.

Upon arriving at work I emailed a colleague in the UK who once showed me a video of his ~6yr old daughter pogoing in the front room to the Pistols, - 'a perfect start the day my colleague' IM'd back, quite true.

Upon arriving home this evening I was singing the song in the kitchen when Femke asked me what It was, Anarchy in the UK I stated, hmm was the reply 'what is that papa', ah it defines a generation Femke I said, she looked at me and said 'Papa I don't know those English, words what do they mean' .I went on to explain why the Pistols gave a shot into the arm to a dull music scene and the music stands up today as fresh and alive as in 1976.  After listening intently she just said OK, but will you now sing one of my children songs!. I have a long way to go before Femke shows the musical astuteness of my colleagues daughter!

Flying on that day

September 11th is our wedding anniversary, and unfortunatly this year I was flying in and out of Frankfurt for the day. Now I always take the 7am flight and arrived a lttle early @ 5-30am, normally the airport isusually nicely quiet at this time, but not on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 it was very busy.

Now 3 scenarios pop into my head: a) every one thought like me that 9/11 must be the safest day to travel, due to the extra security b) It was so cheap to travel on that day everyone grabbed the cheap tickets c) Everyone arrived way early to get through the hieghtened security.
There did seem to be no more extra security than there has been for the last year, except on the way back at Frankfurt , they swabbed down my pc with something then put it in a big expensive looking machine, luckilly the pc passed and it was re-united with me.

Earler this week I flew into London. with all my deodorants/shampoo/lip balm/soap in my hand luggage, but flying out of london I had to check all the above and my pc (but not swabbed nor sniffed this time) into the hold. So where's the sense in only doing that in one direction. Plain daft it seems to me. A bit like the one way charging on the Severn Bridge , I cannot remember how it goes, but I do hope they charge you as you enter England and not as you enter Wales!

Will hoping onto a plane ever be the same.

ps they have a ne extra shopping aa in Frankfurt, there I can get a Hugo Boss suit, loads of fancy this and that, but just the same crappy food joints as everywhere else - gee When will they get that right.

hanging with the A listers

My wife and I returning from the UK on Saturday, having just attended a friends wedding (well done Brad & Sara) bumped into Edgar Davids on the plane.

What was nice was he was flying Easyjet from Luton to Amsterdam, and he, nor we, did not cause a fuss.

Now I could never imagine Becks doing that (Easyjet or lack of fuss) - imagine what the Citadel of Evil (The Sun) would say about Becks flying Easyjet!! And he is in my opinion a much better footballer than Becks (equally decorated)

I must say although I see why we had to do it, the checking in of our hand luggage as it contained various liquids (cosmetics, deodorants etc.) was a bit of a fuss, will air travel ever be the same again ??

Those odd juxta positions life throws up.

I'm sat here in a very nice burgundy house (we are visiting Anke's family here again), having just eaten a Italian Indian cross over meal (Barbequed Chicken Marinated in cloves, balsamic vinegar (Modena), and fennel, presented on a curry sauce (mainly ginger, coriander and ginger), ratatouille, onion bahjees , samosa and served with basmati rice, all washed down with a rather surprising good and cheap premier cotes de Bordeaux, L'Orangerie de Carignan. What was an added bonus the kids also gobbled it down in record time after hard day bike riding walking and playing in the garden, Mind you Owain sustained a rather nasty grazed knee on the walk and so was a little clingy and fussy (and it had to happen within the first 3 meters of the walk.!!) Luckily improvised walking sticks, tractors, dead moles and grasshoppers proved to be enough a distraction to convince the newly 4 yr old to walk the last 3/4 ers of the distance (after I carried him sobbing in my ear!) Now I'm here reading through my collection of cook books trying to be inspired what to cook tomorrow, listening to AC/DC on the new iPod - they just seem to fit the moment, once a rocker always one I guess. I cooked by the way listening the Rachmaninov 2nd, when it comes to classical music you cannot match the Russians I feel, like the American blues singers they have a seed of irritation in their bellies to bitch about. Music written when your happy is never as good as that written whilst your suffering. I find in France or Italy in fact, I just browse the cook books and then get inspired in the supremarche the next day. Here we have access to a Carrefour in Macon (the size of an aircraft carrier), and as I found out this morning, an equally good real sized ATAC in Cluny, which is only 20 minutes away. (15 if the kids are not in the car as the windy roads give them car sickness!) If only every country could have the supermarches and it's contents the French have, the quality of the food is excellent as always and the choice just plain bewildering. The scenery here remind me so much of Clwyd back home it's uncanny. Anke's is now at the stage that if I say "Tch just like Wales'' she laughs out loud. I have very limited access to email here - bizarrely i can read it but not reply (Lilia, Anke and I cannot make it on the Ist/2nd or 3rd we are in England for a wedding, pity we would have really liked to to meet up and you could cast you experienced pallet over my ''cross over'' cooking! Pity next time. So I'm quite isolated, I occasionally blog via my PC (for the kids films of course) and then upload it via my phone using SharpMT from Randy Rants on both, but we are missing most of the world events which is fine as I'm sure there is no good news coming out of Israel's heavy handed retaliation in Lebanon. When will all opposing factions in the middle east learn to live peacefully with one another, and when will the west stop interfering and supporting one side or the other non helpful ways. Anyway must finish this and the last drops of the Bordeaux (my book is ironically resting on a Rupert the bear book - such is our life these days) , before setting off for an short evening walk with Anke whilst Beppe (Frisian for Grandmother) minds the sleeping children.

Hmm - middle ageism rocks

I was giggling to myself on the way here, we just loaded our rather normal estate car (I hide behind the fact it's a 2.0 litre turbo 4 wheel drive- but I'm only kidding no one but myself), along with it's new roof box, and listened to MP3s of James Taylor, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (read by Eric Idle), Eric Clapton and Jools Holland. Is this really the vision I had when I was a fresh out of the box 20 year old? Probably not, but did I hope then I'd be as happy as I am now, most certainly. The times maybe a changing but not for the people my age, we just let the young ones go with the angst, struggle against the establishment and cope with the empty wallets (how I did love it too) and sit back and sip our Grand Cru, watching over the majestic views. Enough to make this old Bolshevik think twice, but most certainly not a third time. There are however more than one way to change the world and as long as we don't give up on them all, we can still pogo with the rest of them

Tickled me pink

This one from Hugh got the old chuckle muscles going this morning:

Especially as we are playing with MS SharePoint 3 beta at the moment

GPS It runs in the family

GPS has been in my family since the 60's.
My father was in the RAF and he worked on Radar systems, he spend 2 years working with the Americans in the US and on Ascension Island in the 60's when they were mapping the world for the GPS system. They were pinging signals via Echo 1 (and later to Echo 2 also) to trucks (moving slowly round the world) to the receiving stations - such as Ascension Island.

Little did he know that some 40 years later his son would have (like many of us) a GPS receiver in the car.
Now what has prompted this - well I've just I loaded some new TomTom voices into my Pocket PC, Joanna Lumley, Jean Luc Picard, Michael Caine, John Cleese, Homer Simpson and Ozzy Ozbourne  (Only to be used when the kids are not in the car!)
I chuckled all the way to and from the supermarket - it's the little things of life

Worried friend

I had nice chat with a friend from the Middle East who is working in th US at the moment, as he is Yemeni, an Islamic Liberal ( yes many exist ) and gay. He's feeling very vulnerable in Austin at the moment. Remember Tariq, Europe is always an option for you ..., and thanks for agreeing for me to blog this

Blogging with company

I'm sat on the train having just had a very genuine and open conversation with a smart, young woman who told me she was an Escort! She explained why she chose that career and divulged her exit strategy. Hmm this country is rare that such people can be open about these things without the public getting hot under the collar or the press going off into the deep end about it. Hmm I doubt I'll ever return to the UK. Or was she just trying to pick me up?

International norms

These days I come home from work and my children greet me with one of two jokes (in dutch),

Papa how do you know if there is an elephant in the fridge - footprints in the butter

Papa why did the chicken cross.........

Amazing here I am an immigrant and my kids tell me the same jokes I told when i was a kid, how small our world really is.

My favourite joke victim was my ever willing to laugh Auntie Pam, she would roar with laughter at any joke told to her by the children of the family, an ideal audience for for your first footlights experience.

My wife met the legendary Auntie Pam only once, on the way I was telling here how big an Elvis fan she was, and true to form an Elvis classic was booming from the open windows, and Anke thought I'd pre-arranged it. Nothing was pre arranged by my wonderful Auntie we miss her dearly.

Surreal moments of Life

Well we've just all sat round the kitchen table having just eaten our dinner, then all helped Femke do her 250 piece Barbie jigsaw, with lots of indistinguishable very pink pieces. Hmm 6yr old daughters!