Order of the Bath

It seems mildly hypocritical to me that the Champagne district of France also produces Whisky [link broken]. After all, they are highly protective of the Champagne marque forbidding even a hint of it in any other sparkling wine product, but in my view Whisky belongs to Scotland (Whiskey belongs to Ireland).

All the talk this morning is about passenger profiling so it is a good time to review what it means and how effective it really is. This article from Bruce Schneier is a very good summary (it is not as long as it looks, 90% of the page is comments). The conclusion is that when done by trained intelligent people then it is very effective. When done by an automaton, either mechanical or human, then the false hit rate is so high that it discredits the whole thing. For some UK examples think of the poor reputation of Stop-and-Search and the Suss laws.

Today is our first day of the new rubbish collection regime. We expect lorries around for the Brown Bin, the Black box and the Cardboard. There should also be one for the Green Bin but it will bypass us because we didn’t buy one. Next week there will be “Even Bigger Bin Day” when they collect the Black Bin as well.

Does that look like saving the planet to you—four trucks clogging the roads where a few years back there would have been just the one?

Another side effect of the Brown Bin is that we now have very little paper to recycle because it is all used up lining the Mini Brown Bin to try to keep it reasonably clean.

P.S. The rubbish web site is rubbish. The important links are broken and the details based on post code completely contradict the leaflets we have been sent.

Update: The website is rubbish and the Brown Bin truck did arrive today. And they took the cardboard so it is only three trucks not four!

Update: They moved the web page so I have corrected the link above—but it is still rubbish.

I know that there is some doubt about exactly where the biblical Cana was, but in all references (John 2:1, John 4:46 & John 21:2) it is clearly Cana-in-Galilee. There is no reason for the writer to have got this wrong and it suitably near the events that occur a little later than the wedding story.

Qana in Lebanon, where the recent and 1996 massacre occured, is much too far away.

I spent part of this evening sorting out some old tapes and came across a recording of the Rossini Requiem Petite Messe Solennelle. It is by the choir of St. Mary Redcliffe and Temple School and almost certainly recorded in St. Mary Redcliffe Church in the early 1990’s but more than than I have no idea. It was certainly a good performance.

I mention it because, as it was the master tape, I must have recorded it myself—but I have no recollection of doing it. I can find no notes of who the organist, pianist or soloists are nor is there any sign of copies having been made. I was involved with the PTA around that time so that is probably why; but it is strange that it was never exploited. Perhaps by posting this here, one day someone will come across it and provide the missing details—including the missing days from my life.

While sitting out in the garden recently eating dinner, we were attracted by audible munching noises from our wisteria plant. Further investigation showed a bee-like creature neatly chopping an oval piece out of a leaf then flying away with its prize. It then returned for another piece of leaf, and then several more.

Later research told us that it was indeed a bee—a leaf cutter bee in fact—a solitary but quite friendly creature that likes wisteria, rose and other leaves as nest making material.

Genpets are living, breathing mammals. Bio-Genica is a Bioengineering Company that has combined, and modified existing DNA to create the Genpets lineup. Genpets are flesh and blood just like any other animal.

Please tell me this is a joke—Please!

An advertising flyer through our door today.