US immigration 'worst in the world'
Entry requirements in the United States are the "worst in the world" and visa rules are "cumbersome", causing tourists to steer clear of America, according to a leading figure in US travel and tourism.
It's certainly one reason I'm not going to or through the US.
In other news, organic food really is better:
The biggest study into organic food has found that it is more nutritious than ordinary produce and may help to lengthen people's lives.The evidence from the £12m four-year project will end years of debate and is likely to overturn government advice that eating organic food is no more than a lifestyle choice.
The study found that organic fruit and vegetables contained as much as 40% more antioxidants, which scientists believe can cut the risk of cancer and heart disease, Britain's biggest killers. They also had higher levels of beneficial minerals such as iron and zinc.
Call to use leftovers and cut food waste
Research by the government's waste reduction agency, Wrap, found that one third of all food bought in Britain is thrown away - of which half is edible. Wrap will claim that this discarded food is a bigger problem than packaging, as the food supply chain accounts for a fifth of UK carbon emissions and decomposing food releases methane, the most potent of the greenhouse gases. Wasted food is estimated to cost each British household from £250 to £400 a year.'If we stopped the amount [of food waste] that we could stop, it would be the same as taking one fifth of cars off the road
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7065061.stm
A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity. ... It was, he said, a crime against humanity to divert arable land to the production of crops which are then burned for fuel.He called for a five-year ban on the practice.
Within that time, according to Mr Ziegler, technological advances would enable the use of agricultural waste, such as corn cobs and banana leaves, rather than crops themselves to produce fuel.
The BCS website puts it more diplomatically: No skills shortage just poor recruitment practices
The only way employers will regain access the IT skills required to support key business initiatives is to reject current practices and take more direct control over their recruitment. Great IT skills are out there and they don't cost the earth. The only thing standing in between IT and the right contract staff is commoditised recruitment practices.
Sunday Times article on Google: It wants to know everything about you. It wants to be your best friend -- or your Big Brother. Are your secrets safe with Google?
An incredible story from one Sudanese woman who came to Australia as a refugee, from the Age: An indomitable spirit
BBC: Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is gay.
She said she regarded her novels as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority".
This article from the BCS makes some good points about the ethics of computing.
It also says,
There is a view that the storage of personal data is only problematic for those with something to hide. But we cannot know for sure how data we supply today will be used tomorrow - goalposts shift, governments change - and not all are benign. When in 1933 the population of Germany provided their personal data for census purposes, they could have had no knowledge of ultimate consequences.
I'm sure I passed a scene just like this on the night bus the other week. This is genius, on so many levels.
Howard, you are an arse. Hurry up and call the election so you can be booted out and stop ruining our country.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday dismissed the significance of Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his work highlighting climate change, declaring that no one had a monopoly on wisdom.Mr Howard congratulated Mr Gore on winning the prize but said it would not make him rethink his refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
What more could you ask from a blog? Curious Expeditions are 'travelling and exhuming the extraordinary past'.
Berners-Lee attacks "stupid" male geek culture
The scariest bit:
One academic went through a sex change, submitted the same papers under both identities, and found that papers were accepted from a man but were rejected when they came from a woman, said the web inventor. This bias is unaccountable but adds to institutional bias, he said.
Apparently PodCityGuides has free guides to over 300 cities.
My point is that the cyborg future is here. Almost without noticing it, we've outsourced important peripheral brain functions to the silicon around us.
I passed the Life in the UK test, and it only took six bloody minutes in the end! So the next step is to fill out lots of forms, have an interview and give the government lots of money. And that's only for Indefinite Leave, citizenship is still a long way off.
if you're curious about whether you'd pass, check out these sample quizzes.
BBC: Plans to outlaw inciting gay hate
Plans to make inciting hatred against gay people a crime have been announced by Justice Secretary Jack Straw.The law would cover gay, lesbian and bisexual people and may be extended to cover disabled and transgender people.
Mr Straw said it was time for the law to recognise society was "appalled by hatred and invective" directed at people because of their sexuality.
People ask if the Life in the UK test book really does tell you what to do if you spill someone's pint down at the pub, but it doesn't say! How am I meant to adapt?
It does say 'women should not use unlicensed minicabs' - I'm not sure how I feel about that. Is it sensible, or does it make it seem like any woman who does get an unlicensed minicab is recklessly asking for trouble? What message does it send?
Interesting piece from the BBC: UK 'exporting emissions' to China
The New Economic Foundation (Nef) says such reliance is adding to CO2 levels because China's factories produce more CO2 per item than British ones.The report also says many similar goods are both imported and exported, adding needlessly to CO2 output in transport.
...
Nef also said the international trade pattern prompted higher greenhouse gas emissions from transport but had little discernible benefit for the consumer.During 2006, the UK exported 15,845 tonnes of chocolate-covered waffles and wafers, but imported 14,137 tonnes.
During the same period, 20 tonnes of mineral water were exported by the UK to Australia, while the UK imported 21 tonnes. And thirty-four tonnes of vacuum cleaners went from the UK to Canada, with 47 tonnes travelling the other way.
After hours poring over passport stamps, emails with flight, train and ferry details, another passport and even checking when photos were taken so that I can fill out a form saying when I've been out of the UK over the past five years, I've worked out that on 32 different trips over 279 days since July 2002, I have gone to:
Greece (Athens), Netherlands (Amsterdam plus ?), Italy (Milan, Rome), Denmark, Spain (Bilbao twice, Barcelona, Madrid), Finland, Estonia (Tallinn), Germany (Baden Baden, Berlin), Hong Kong, China (Shanghai, Shenzen), Macau, Australia (Melbourne), Turkey (Istanbul, Konya, Antalya), Slovenia, Hungary, Ireland (Dublin, festival, M's dad's place, Wexford, Cashel and Waterford), France (Paris), Poland (Warsaw, Krakow), Vietnam, Cambodia (Siem Reap, Angkor Wat), Russia (St Petersburg, Novgorod, Moscow), Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia (Bratislava), Austria (Vienna, because Ryanair landed us not only in the wrong city but the wrong country!), Portugal, Belgium (Brussels, Brugge), Morocco (Marrakech), Bulgaria (transit only, really, but it did take days and I did get out though it was probably illegal) Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Transndneistr, Laos. I think that's 34 countries in total.
And yes, I did used to be very naughty about flights before I realised that carbon off-setting probably doesn't do enough to make up for the damage flying does.
If you're in London, go see Uncle Semolina (& Friends)'s production of Gilgamesh at the Barbican's Pit theatre. But hurry, because it's only on until October 13.
There is a great deal of similarity between men and women, and the differences within each gender group are typically as great as or greater than the difference between the two. Many differences are context-dependent: patterns that are clear in one context may be muted, nonexistent or reversed in another, suggesting that they are not direct reflections of invariant sex-specific traits.If these points were acknowledged, the science soundbites would be headed "Men and women pretty similar, research finds", and popular psychology books would bear titles like There's No Great Mystery About the Opposite Sex or We Understand Each Other Well Enough Most of the Time. Of course, these titles do not have the makings of bestsellers, whereas the "men and women are from different planets" story is a tried and tested formula. What does the myth of Mars and Venus do for us, that we return to it again and again?
...
The genius of the myth of Mars and Venus is to acknowledge the problems many people are now experiencing as a result of social change, while explaining those problems and conflicts in a way that implies they have nothing to do with social change.
Extract in The Guardian
I'm sitting the Life in the UK test next week, so I can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (basically, permanent residency). I have to renew my Australian passport before applying for the new stamp because I've run out of pages, so I went to the Post Office this morning. I was served by an amusingly grumpy woman who spent most of her time grumbling about previous customers to her colleagues or trying to sell customers a Post Office visa card ("it'll only take three minutes" - what a sound approach to financial planning). The fingernail of her little finger on her left hand was painted a deep blood red, and was a good ten centimetres long, a half-circle's worth curving over her keyboard. Squick.
Today I saw a man in purple leggings and a pink elf/fairy dress waiting in the ATM queue. No-one gave him a second glance, except to check out the fake hooked hand he was holding. Yay for big cities.
I'm going to an event at Lord's Cricket Ground soon, and I went to the journeyplanner to look for directions. For some reason all the journey times were coming out as two hours or so, which didn't make sense - until I checked the details and saw it was sending me to 'Harlington Tandoori'. I have no idea what computer weirdness linked the two.
From the Times Travel site, 100 best travel websites including Best for holiday bargains (cheap flights, insurance, etc) or Top-value rooms; Road, rail, ferry, cruise (including the fabulous www.transportdirect.info, seat61 (how to get anywhere by rail), deutsche bahn (train timetables across Europe)); Specialist travel ("Cook, dance, trek, surf, paint, go single or go green - these sites will guide and inspire, plus there's some great tips for travellers embarking on a gap year adventure") and Travel 2.0 (news and tips from other travellers, but see also Inside info).
In The Age, The bigotry and cynicism that has diminished us all:
When governments use racism and bigotry as cynical tools to get elected, it rubs off on the community and diminishes us all. For all their faults, Paul Keating and Malcolm Fraser never resorted to racist epithets to get elected. John Howard's win-at-all-costs mentality has unleashed xenophobia and racism in the electorate. The targeting of a religious minority has obviously given him power and it is smart politics, historically used so well by the Nazis.I always thought our politicians were meant to be enlightened and compassionate. Howard and the current Federal Government have, alas, shown us the opposite is true.
I'm posting this recipe so I can find it again.
I know, I know, this sounds disgusting. Mrs Perfect Housewife's mother brought me back the recipe from South Africa, so I felt duty-bound to go through the motions. I quite expected it to end up in the bin, but it is a delight - not only is the colour sensational, but it tastes brilliant and is easy as can be to make, even without an ice-cream machine. It's good with strawberries (although the colours clash dreadfully), but it is better with stewed blackcurrants.1kg beetroot
400ml apple juice (cloudy and dry, if possible)
200g caster sugar
1 lemon, juiced
100ml double cream
Salt and pepper
Give the beetroot a cursory wash, then put them, whole and unpeeled, in a pan of water. Set the pan on a high heat, bring up to a boil and cook until tender - this could take anything from 30 minutes to an hour-plus, depending on the size of the beetroot. When they are cooked, drain off the water and leave them to cool. Once cool, peel and cut into rough chunks.Put the apple juice, sugar and lemon juice into a small pan, heat gently until the sugar dissolves, then set aside to cool.
When the beetroot and syrup are cold, tip both into a blender along with the cream, then season - be bold with the pepper, because its heat will balance the overall sweetness. Whizz to a purée, then pass through a fine sieve and pour into a flattish container.
Cover and place in the freezer for six or so hours, taking it out three or four times to whisk, either with a fork or an electric beater. Alternatively, just follow the instructions on your ice-cream machine. Remove from the freezer half an hour or so before serving