Back in March, I blogged “I’m presently seated in The Fishes, a delightful pub/restaurant not far from my mother’s house in Oxford.” And here I am again. This time the beer is Guinness, but the WiFi is still free.
The drive down from South Queensferry to Oxford was really easy. I woke early, because at this time of year it never really gets dark in Scotland. I was on the road before 6, and even though I stopped three times I was still in Oxford before 1pm. I took an hour over breakfast in Gretna Green (yes, that Gretna Green), and then made two more short stops to stretch and refuel. The Lake District was beautiful, but wet; otherwise the weather wasn’t a problem. When I reached Oxford, I grabbed some lunch, and soon after 2pm I was visiting my mother at the John Radcliffe infirmary. ((She’d been taken in a few days earlier with acute pancreatitis. No gall stones, fortunately.))
Moving to Reader
For many years I’ve used Ranchero‘s NetNewsWire to keep up with all of the RSS feeds that I keep track of. It’s been a rock-solid application, and I’ve got no complaints.
However, when I headed out on this business trip with my new MacBook, I had a problem. For various reasons, I didn’t want to install any non-work applications, but I still wanted to be able to keep up with my feeds. So before I left, I exported the OPL subscriptions file from NetNewsWire and uploaded it to Google Reader. I’ve used this for the last week, and I don’t think I’m going to be going back. I’ve found Reader more convenient than NetNewsWire: easier to reorganize stuff, easier to scan and catch up with big feeds (like HuffPo and Boing-Boing), easier to integrate into my web-based workflow. (I have a toolbar folder called “Daily” which I open in tabs first thing every morning; I work through the tabs, closing them one by one, and at the end I have Google Reader loaded and ready to go.)
So thanks for years of service, NetNewsWire. But I’m moving on.
Pick a number… any number
This is going to be a great time-saver… rather than trying to understand a theist’s argument, I can simply ask him/her to read the list of Hundreds of Proofs of God’s Existence and tell me which one they mean. (Or I can respond, “Oh – you mean Proof Number…!”) Voila! Instant reductio ad absurdum.
(Hat tip to the Barefoot Bum.)
Bizarre blog factoid
Almost a year ago, I posted a blog entry linking to a short MP3 recorded by Alec when he was in hospital in Lille, following his motorcycle accident. Ever since then, this MP3 has represented between 20 and 45% of the data served from geoffarnold.com. Last month, for example, it was retrieved 558 times for a total of 944MB. During the same time, Google Analytics reports that I had 2,007 visitors who visited 2,827 times and generated 4,239 pageviews – but none of these retrieved the page that linked to the MP3.
So who’s fetching Alec’s podcasts, I wonder? I can’t be bothered to dive into the HTTP logs, but I am curious.
The most important statue in Edinburgh
David Hume, of course.
It's not just American evangelical leaders that can be callous and stupid….
From the Daily Telegraph (via the New Humanist):
The floods that have devastated swathes of the country are God’s judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, according to senior Church of England bishops.
One diocesan bishop has even claimed that laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless.
This kind of “vengeful God hates fags so much that he’s willing to punish innocent people” stuff is par for the course from American evangelicals like Falwell and Robertson, but I thought Anglican bishops were a wee bit smarter. Apparently not.
Photos
The photos of the Dakota Forth Bridge hotel, Edinburgh, and the Firth of Forth are now up on my gallery. Actually, the last few pictures are still being uploaded: I’m only getting about 46kB/sec uplink speed, and since the JPEGs average 3.7MB it takes a while. I just hope that the transfer finishes before my latest £5 worth of WiFi runs out. (It reminds me of feeding shillings to the gas meter, over 50 years ago.)
"Gesture security"
Commonsense from Max Hastings in the Guardian’s Comment is free:
Pity anyone who must catch a plane or visit Wimbledon today, or indeed for many days to come. Following Friday’s London bombs and Saturday’s attack at Glasgow airport, security checks have intensified dramatically. Everybody engaged in what is now a vast industry wants to be seen to be trying harder.
It is another matter, of course, whether all the conspicuous activity that follows a terrorist incident adds a jot to public safety, to compensate for the huge economic cost it imposes. Most security precautions represent a charade. It is probably a politically necessary charade – we will explore that issue in a moment. But we should be sceptical about its practical value.
Indeed. My flight home next Sunday is due to depart from Heathrow at 3:05pm. I wonder: should I plan to get to the airport before or after breakfast?
Cruisin' the Forth
The weather started to clear up this afternoon, so I decided to explore the area a bit. I drove down to Hawes Pier (right underneath the south end of the Forth Bridge), and checked to see if there were any cruises going out. It turned out that the Maid of the Forth was going to be making the run to Inchcolm and back at 3:45, so I paid my fare (£1 extra for Visa/MC – is that legal in the UK?) and boarded a few minutes later. The (recorded) guide noted that Inchcolm was one of the driest places in the British Isles, because the clouds tended to build up over the shores of the Firth, and that was certainly our experience. We cruised down a sunny slot in the middle of the Firth, getting slightly sunburned while all around us was looking stormy.
Inchcolm itself looked fascinating: the 12th century abbey is in remarkably good condition. However, ours was the last boat of the day, and so we were only able to stop long enough to pick up the people who had gone out earlier on the “Cruise’n’Explore” package. Next time (if there is a next time) I’m going to check out the island properly; there are reportedly puffins nesting there.
Then it was time for the 45 minute run back to the pier, past the magnificent engineering of the Forth Bridge, and the small islands covered with seabirds. We got back at 5:15, and I decided to explore the old town of South Queensferry. As I reached the west end of the twisting High Street, there was a loud rumble of thunder. It was nearly a mile back to my car, so I started walking until the rain began, then ducked into the nearest pub. I got a pint of an undistinguished local bitter, and sat down intending to wait out the rain. Oops. There were several TVs mounted on the wall, and all were tuned in (at full volume) to the Princess Di memorial concert. I tried to ignore one particularly bad singer, and contemplated the pros and cons of republicanism.
After a while I couldn’t take any more of it, so I gulped down the rest of my beer and dashed through the rain to the nearest restaurant: an Italian place called Bella Vista. The vista certainly was bella, particularly when the storm cleared; the food was fairly good, though a little over-priced; and the service was OK – certainly better than the reviews suggested. No zabaglione, though – sigh. Afterwards I returned to my car, decided to trust the signposts ((For some reason I neglected to bring a map.)) and got comprehensively lost in a twisty maze of leafy lanes and “traffic calmed” villages. But it all worked out OK in the end; the strategy of heading for the coast and then aiming at the foot of the bridge worked tolerably well.
Once again, the photographs will have to wait until I can get Gallery Remote configured…
UPDATED: The photos are here. A lot of repetition, I’m afraid: I got mesmerized by the cloud formations, and the way in which the maintenance platforms on the Forth Bridge made it look “fuzzy”.
An eventful day in Scotland
Yesterday I took advantage of the weather to visit Edinburgh for the first time. I got the bus into the city, and headed up to the Royal Mile, intending to visit the Castle. As I approached it, I heard a pipe band, and saw red-uniformed soldiers escorting a car down the street from the Castle towards Holyrood Palace. I looked into the car, expecting to see some important personage, but all I saw was the Scottish Crown, resplendent on a purple cushion. Later on I realized that this was part of the ceremonial opening of the Scottish Parliament by the Queen.
Oblivious to this, I visited Edinburgh Castle, then headed down the Royal Mile towards Holyrood. By now the opening ceremonies were over, and a party had developed with crowds, music, and even dancing. The (controversial) Scottish Parliament building was open to visitors, but the line was long and I decided to get lunch. By now the rain was threatening, so I headed down towards Princes Street and ducked into the National Gallery of Scotland. While I enjoyed the collection, there was just one piece that took my breath away: the most moving Rembrandt self-portrait (of all the dozens) I’ve seen:
Now it gets a little weird… Before heading back to South Queensferry, I stopped at Waterstone’s to pick up a book I’ve wanted to read for some time: Nafeez Ahmed’s The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry. I ran across the street to the bus-stop through the rain that was now bucketing down, boarded a 43 bus, got back to the hotel 40 minutes later, turned on the television, and watched the unfolding coverage of the car bomb attack at Glasgow Airport.
Today I had planned to drive up to Stirling, but the rain and mist (practically fog) makes that an unattractive proposition. I think I’ll read my book, watch the French Grand Prix at noon (Massa on pole, Hamilton next to him – should be good!), and catch up with a couple of work items. And I’ll upload the photographs that I took as soon as I can; I’m wrestling with the configuration of Galley Remote. (The copy on my home computer is configured correctly, but of course I can’t remember how I did it! None of the obvious URLs are working for me.)
UPDATED: The photos are here.