My new papercraft astrolabe, courtesy of Keith, at http://www.autodidacts.f2s.com/astro/index.html. This was before I reassembled it correctly - the sights on the alidade should be on the other side of the instrument.

Finally got round to posting the pictures from half-term:
Musicroom in Lincoln have Spongebob Flying-V ukeleles!

Collection of Petitions

End the criminalisation of photographing police officers: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Photorestrict/

 

Restore the need for an imprisonable offence to make an arrest: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/PowersofArrest/

 

End “kettling”, and review policing of peaceful demonstrations: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/kettling/

 

Require all police officers to be readily identifiable at all times when on duty: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/policeid/

 

 

--

This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces.

Jim Sinclair, "Don't Mourn for Us", http://autistics.selfip.org/dont_mourn.html

 

 

A System for Describing Relationships

This is modelled on the Scandinavian or Dwarvish systems, with extra modifiers to allow for modern relationships styles.
Method : the most direct route from the subject to the relative is traced, and the appropriate term is appended in order. Modifiers are used for previous relationships, depending whether they were ended by death or by the breakup of the relationship. An s may optionally be included to make the word scan better.

People:
Mar Mother
Far Father
Sor Sister
Bror Brother
Dottir Daughter
Sen Son
In Wife / female civil partner
En Husband / male civil partner
Ux Girlfriend / female partner / common law wife
Ex Boyfriend / male partner / common law husband

Modifiers for past relationships:
For Relationship broke up
Ter Partner died

Examples:
Farbror Paternal uncle
Marbrorsdottir Female first cousin by maternal uncle
Farmarsorsensdottir Female second cousin, by paternal grandmother’s sister
Terinsen Stepson, through deceased wife
Uxdottir Stepdaughter, through current common law wife
Marenforin Stepfather’s former wife
Foreninsen Ex husband’s stepson
Marfarmarbrorsensen Cousin Bill (3rd cousin once removed)
Farfarsorsensdottirsen Me to Cousin Bill

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/apr/07/g20-police-assault-video

Yet again, police on duty at a protest act like occupying forces, attacking and killing an uninvolved passer-by.

Why is it that, with the overwhelming majority of police officers being decent, law-abiding men and women, thugs like this are so confident that they will pull a stunt like this in broad daylight, and then lie in the face of clear evidence of their guilt?

This is why the "lower classes" hate and fear the police, instead of respecting them and the principles of law and justice which they are meant to represent and espouse. With the increasing use of the police to suppress dissent, and the abandonment by the executive of the rule of law, resentment and alienation can only grow. Is this, perhaps, the government's intention, to provoke greater and greater civil unrest, to give them an excuse for greater and greater intrusiveness and oppression?

Robert A Heinlein wrote "when a society is crowded enough to require ID cards then it's time to leave". The UK is now a global byword for surveillance and oppression of it's "citizens".

Time to go?

I've now linked my Redbubble account to culmer.co.uk - have a look at my photos and t-shirts.

Zen-like Spam Filling

I found this is the filter fooler junk on the end of a junk email:

"Another carpet tack trembles, and a photon inside a fire hydrant pours freezing cold water on another secretly financial dust bunny. A stovepipe around a formless void underhandedly figures out a sandwich defined by an earring. Most people believe that the statesmanlike apartment building knows the squid, but they need to remember how greedily a blithe spirit ceases to exist. When you see another polygon, it means that some photon around a ski lodge starts reminiscing about lost glory. A Eurasian squid steals pencils from a knowingly mean-spirited blood clot."


Has a certain charm, don't you think?