antiminke

Have I mentioned my new favourite website, meet-o-matic? It's described as 'The World's Simplest Meeting Scheduler'.

"Comic book heroine Batwoman is to make a comeback as a "lipstick lesbian" who moonlights as a crime fighter, a DC Comics spokesman has confirmed." (BBC)

Amnesty to target net repression

"Internet users are being urged to stand up for online freedoms by backing a new campaign launched by human rights group Amnesty International." (BBC)

"Just try logging on to the BBC News website from an internet cafe in China. You can't. The same goes for websites for The New York Times, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and a host of others which could hardly be described as pornographic or "dangerous".
...
In its quest to control the internet China has sought help from overseas. Some large, US-based computer software companies are believed to have sold Beijing the sophisticated software needed to run its filtering system. Companies like Google and Yahoo! have also been accused of co-operating in China's internet censorship." (BBC)

"Some 45 years after an Observer article launched Amnesty, The Observer and Amnesty International have teamed up again to campaign against a new threat to our freedom - internet repression." (Observer)

Find out more at http://irrepressible.info.

You can add a badge to your site or email with content that is censored somewhere in the world:

This is the most surreal thing I've heard all week:

"Hackney Council has threatened to sue sportswear giant Nike for allegedly using their logo without permission." (BBC)

From the Hackney Council website: "The logo, which appears on public buildings, council vans, staff uniforms and street signs across Hackney, has been used by Nike on t-shirts, vests, trainers and footballs designed to promote Nike's grassroots football campaign for the World Cup."

And you can see why I like Hackney: the Mayor said: "I also want assurances from Nike that all this kit has been ethically produced."

Leaving aside the evils of super-casinos, this sounds interesting: "an exhibition in London's Mark Jason Gallery next week, which will be using "mood influencing" aromas, and other casino-style "mind tricks" to see if art viewers can be turned into art buyers". (BBC)

I'm in Brussels until Sunday night, and so far it's been fabulous. Met Dreeny at the station, and we went to a private party at one of the bars in the gay area. There was a military theme, which meant that everyone was equipped with water pistols, and there was a free-form water pistol battle going on most of the night.

I haven't done much sight-seeing yet but I've been so busy and stressed at work that time spent relaxing is just what I need. Dreeny has lots of cool parties and club nights lined up for us over the next few days.

A tortoise the size of a raspberry.

"British Museum Explores Same Sex Desire In Ancient World" at 24 Hour Museum, and if you're in London you can see a small exhibition on the Warren Cup at the BM. Also on display is "a terracotta lamp featuring a female lovemaking scene".

And more in the 'depressing environmental news' section: "Fish stocks in international waters are being plundered to the point of extinction, a leading conservationist group has said.

Illegal fishing and bottom-trawling in deep waters are to blame, according to a report from WWF.

It says the current system of regional fishing regulation is failing to tackle the problem, with not enough being done to enforce quotas or replenish stocks." (BBC)

Really depressing pictures of the seabed before and after trawling:

People sometimes ask why I don't eat fish - this is why.

Extract from 'Field Notes From a Catastrophe' by Elizabeth Kolbert in today's Observer:

"As Britain faces its worst drought in 100 years, engineers in the Netherlands are preparing for a water-logged future. In this extract from her acclaimed book on climate change, Elizabeth Kolbert reports on how changing weather patterns and rising sea levels are threatening the world's coastlines."

24HR Museum on Australians in London.

I really hate the way the Red campaign is co-opting the global aid movment. My rage is impotent but at least this piece on Bono editing the Independent made me laugh:

"Inside lurk about 2,000 adverts for the new Motorola RED phone. If you buy one, an Aids charity receives an initial payment of £10, followed by 5% of all further call revenues. This is clearly a good idea. But somehow, it's also annoying. For starters, the phone costs £149, of which £139 goes toward helping Motorola. Second, it's bright red and seems doomed to appeal to arseholes who want to add conspicuous compassion to their list of needless fashion accessories. I'm not just jabbering mindlessly on the phone in your train carriage - I'm saving fuckin' lives, OK?"
...
"Stella McCartney interviews Giorgio Armani, who has designed a pair of sunglasses for the RED charity range. These cost around £72 and will make you look like Bono: buy a 10 quid pair from Boots, bung the remaining £62 to an Aids charity and not only will you enjoy a warm philanthropic glow, no one's going to shout "wanker!" at you when you walk down the high street."

Guardian

And... breathe.

Work is busy, busy, busy. My brain is slowly collapsing in on itself.

Otoh, I saw Tangram Theatre' s brilliant production of 4:48 Psychosis at the Arcola last night and had a lovely dinner then drinks at the Dalston Jazz Cafe.

My brother has been in London for a week now, and so far it's all going well. We've had a few wobbles but that's only to be expected, and generally we've handled them with maturity and consideration, which is just lovely.

It's that time of year when I start collecting sites of travel information. I'm booking my flight to Turkey today, and I've booked my flight back from Krakow already, so all I have to do is fill in the gaps to get from one to the other. I've never been this organised about a trip, but we've already worked out how to get from Istanbul to Romania (via Bulgaria), and we're starting to work back from when Min must leave to see what we can see in Romania and Moldova. I'll have nearly a week in Ukraine by myself, but even then there are vast distances to cover so it's not as much time as it sounds.

At least I'll have two weeks of vegetarian food on site but then I'll be needing IVU's Vegetarian Phrases in World Languages and Vegetarian Phrases In Other Languages.

Responsible Travel Tips from Lonely Planet.

"The permits effectively make the right to pollute a tradeable commodity - giving companies the ability to buy and sell permission to emit extra carbon dioxide." (BBC)

Museums with outside bits in London, just in time for summer.

By a very random and circuitous route, here are some Estonian TV commercials from the 70s and 80s.

I accidentally made up a bad pun:

What would you call the sequel to the Da Vinci Code?

The Da Vinci Coda!

"The original Bagpuss. A dollop of medieval poo. A fingerprint machine. A skeleton or two. While national institutions grab all the attention, much of the UK's regional identity is enshrined in small museums." (BBC)

For some reason, this really moved me:

"Take a look and remember", he told her. "You will never, ever hear about this again." (BBC)

I must be slightly stressed because I'm very amused by this BBC news headling: "Rubbish fire hits rail services"

Surely that's a bit judgemental? It might be a really good fire, for all they know.

I discovered Free Williamsburg while Googling Orhan Pamuk.

And I apologise to H, to whom I rhapsodised about the Chris Ofili, because it already has or is about to close.

'Brazilian Stonehenge' discovered

One for my special New Zealand friends: "New Zealand is not for sale, despite somebody in Australia trying to offload our neighbour - a nation of 4million - to the highest bidder on eBay. From a one-cent start, 22 brisk bidders took the price to $A3000 before the "sale" was pulled from the website."

I'm having trouble believing this one but I'll blog it for my friends from Leeds (or who went to uni in Leeds): "A man, 34, wanted for serious assault, escaped on a horse- drawn rag-and-bone cart and eluded four police motorbikes, a patrol car, a video van, two cycling constables and a helicopter in a bizarre low-speed chase through Leeds, England."

And while I'm here, this man has wisdom for all of us: "During a civic ceremony to honour him as Britain's oldest known World War I veteran, Henry Allingham, 109, of Eastbourne, East Sussex, attributed his longevity to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women"." (Odd Spot)

"A religious ruling condemning the display of statues has angered Egyptian liberals and intellectuals who fear it could encourage religious zealots to attack the country's pharaonic heritage." BBC

In the 'well, der' science column, "Revealed: how scent of a woman attracts lesbians". Guardian.

This SQL Function Reference: Oracle vs. SQL Server page is pretty handy. If you're a geek.

Should I be worried that Google Maps doesn't think half of Moldova (and all of Transdniestr) exists?

It's ages since I've reviewed anything I've seen, so to start on the backlog... last night I saw The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National.

I really liked the play itself, but the staging was weird. I don't know if it was deliberate, but it was as if the past forty years had never happened. It might have been intentionally retro, which is why I'd love to hear what they intended.

The staging, particularly in the first part, just seemed amateurish. It really distracted from the performances and the text. Where modern productions might use projections to suggest scenery or movement, they used swathes of silk, which could have been effective, but somehow just wasn't. Some of the costumes were gorgeous, but some looked like something your Mum might run up the day before fancy dress day at primary school.

There was far too much action that looked like bad mime or interpretative dance, and the Incas' accents were almost offensively 'Meester, I breeeng you girls, yes?'.

It got better in the second part, but lots of people didn't come back after the interval.

But some of the audience obviously loved it, judging by the applause at the end. The crowd was older than other audiences I've seen at the National, particularly for Travelex season shows.

I really wish I had my camera. I've just walked past a table piled with wooden stakes.

I've never thought about it before but if vampires attack your city, try and end up near any surveyors or geomatics people.

It's amazing what you can find when searching for a random word like malaka.

"Many archaeologists believe they are a vital part of their work, while some dismiss them as mere treasure hunters. Now a new code of conduct is recognising the role of metal detector enthusiasts in mapping the UK's history." BBC

I wonder how many comments the editors had to deal with. The detectorist/archaeologist debate is extremely passionate.

"UK's museums have pulling power" claims BBC, though they're referring to a survey that claims museums are great places to take dates, rather than actually meet people.

According to the story on the 24 Hour Museum, "10% of people also confessed to having chatted someone up whilst on a museum or gallery visit."

I was at Tate Britain for the Noise of Art and late view of the Tate Triennial last night and I'd hope that at least one person managed to pull a stranger.

Why we don't be flying again from January's Guardian doesn't go into the environmental impact of flying, but it does make a good case for the joys of other methods of transport.

I thought this was an interesting statement, from a page about the Bible and homosexuality:

"We have been unable to change the beliefs or actions of any of these hundreds of people on even one point related to homosexuality. Their views appear to be fixed. It is doubtful that much progress towards compromise on homosexual rights can be made by means of dialogue. We don't expect that the attached essays will change the beliefs of many visitors to this web site. However, the essays may help people understand opinions that are not their own."

My theory has always been that your politics are generally based on your emotional make up (unless they're a reaction to your parents' or culture, for example) and your views on the Bible are probably much the same. You can't change someone's mind if they don't want to change, but you can give them information that will let them make an informed decision. Unless they're a schoolkid in America, of course.

The Post Punk Kitchen has some pretty cool vegan recipes, and it's a great name.

One of the churches I pass on my walk to work has a banner advertising "Sunday brunch, stalls and coffee 12 to 2pm". The English afternoon tea is truly dead, and I bet the stalls don't have any scones either.

Really busy day, but exciting news! I have my dates for Turkey, and it looks like after two weeks on site, my lovely friend Min will meet me in Istanbul and we'll either get a ferry across the Black Sea or catch a train through Bulgaria to Romania.

"In one of the few critical accounts of the Bosnian pyramid story, which appeared in the Art Newspaper, the University of Sarejevo's Enver Imamovic, a former director of the National Museum in Sarjevo, is quoted as saying, "This is the equivalent of letting me, an archaeologist, perform surgery in hospitals."" archaeology.org