MOT woes
Bah! Took the car in for its MOT test today, ready for taxing at the end of the month and it’s failed! “Excessive corrosion” on the brake pipes, which means £250 to replace them 
Fortunately, they can do the work on Friday and, given that we absolutely need to use the car on Saturday, that’s a Very Good Thing – until the work is done, I can’t retax the car and it wouldn’t be legal to drive without a valid MOT or tax!
pax et bonum
Track with co.mments
Track with del.icio.usOutwitting Mendel
Scientists have discovered that genetic inheritance is more complicated than they thought. Working on the model plant Arabidopsis, Robert Pruitt and his co-workers found that some of their mutant plants did not breed true when conventional genetics said they should. Worse than that, they seemed to be inheriting a gene that neither of their parents had, but their grandparents did!
Wonders of the new control orders
Remember those control orders that the government insisted were essential to prevent “Islamic terrorists” over-running the country? Well, reports are now creeping out about their less-than-stunning rigour.
Black pudding, all gone
As I’ve mentioned, we made our own gluten-free black pudding a while back, and jolly nice it was, too! However, last night was a very sad occasion – we ate the last of it! Black pudding doesn’t keep very long (like most meat products) so we tried freezing one. We had read that black pudding doesn’t freeze very well but, given how much we had, it seemed to be worth the risk! After careful defrosting, we sliced and cooked it, and I can report that freezing does make black pudding rather more fragile than usual, but that it still tastes great 
Now, when should I make my next batch…
pax et bonum
Nettle risotto
Yes, you read that title right – dinner tonight was nettle risotto! And very nice it was, too, made all the nicer by the fact that we were taking our revenge on the nettles that try to take over the end of our garden and sting us and our children given half a chance I can heartily recommend it, BTW. Nothing too adventurous, flavour-wise: the taste was basically “green”, with enough of a distinct flavour to be worth it. It’s the gathering and cooking that take a little care. Rubber gloves definitely recommended while picking, washing and chopping 
pax et bonum
Tickle, tickle, tickle!
Ruth (11½ months old) said her first word today – “tickle”. And she actually knows what it means! Definitely proud dad time
Church Sign Generator
Ever wanted to have a customised church sign on your PC? Well, now you can
Anti-terror law passed
So, as you might well know by now, the UK government finally managed to get their “anti-terrorism law”:http://john.pettigrew.org.uk/blog/archive/2005/03/10/antiterror_law_stalled passed, after a mammoth session that ran on for two days. Fortunately, the law got heavily revised so that the major concerns are now met. The remaining issue of the burden of proof needed will hopefully be dealt with next year, when the government will now have to allow Parliament to revise the bill after an independent report on its effects.
pax et bonum
Salamis finished!
A while ago, I wrote about how I had made my own salami. Well, they’ve been hanging for the past 6 weeks or so and the weather’s set to get warmer, so I reckoned they were ready.
They look like “real” salamis, and feel like “real” salamis, which is good. Sadly, though, there was a rotten spot on one of them, so I’ve had to throw out half of that salami. The pseudo-chorizo, however, seems to be fine! Once we’ve cooked with them, I’ll post about how they actually taste
pax et bonum
UN campaign against landmines
Thanks to Kinesis for the pointer to the advert for the UN campaign against landmines.
Joke
It’s Comic Relief day today, so here’s a joke:
What did the buddhist say to the hot-dog seller?
Make me one with everything!
pax et bonum
Fun Latin
Who’d have thought it? Fun Latin!
Anti-terror law stalled
There’s still hope – Tony Blair’s autocratic “anti-terrorism law”:http://john.pettigrew.org.uk/blog/archive/2005/03/02/restrict_freedom_to_preserve_l is currently stalled, with the House of Lords having apparently voted against it four times in the past hour. However, the House of Commons has already passed it, leaving something of a deadlock. Significant concessions have already been won: all control orders will now have to be agreed by a judge, rather than simply by the Home Secretary, and the law will need yearly review if it is to stay in force. There’s still no progress on two more issues: level of proof (the bill as it stands needs only reasonable suspicion rather than anything stronger) and a lifetime (the Tories want the law to expire automatically by the end of the year).
One of the interesting things here is Mr Blair’s response: he’s condemning those voting against the law as “irresponsible”! So now disagreeing with Mr Blair about how to solve a problem is irresponsible? And this is supposed to make us feel better about the sweeping powers this new bill would give the government?
pax et bonum
Freecycle
Got stuff you want to give to a good home rather than throw away? Have a look at Freecycle – an organisation dedicated to keeping stuff in use by helping you send things you don’t need to people who do (and vice versa!).
American atrocities in Iraq
Father Jake has a worrying list of atrocities committed by coalition forces in Iraq, led by the recent shooting of an Italian journalist.
Feed me better
Feed me better is a campaign to improve the quality of UK school dinners. Jamie Oliver’s involved, but it’s still a very good idea!
MMR and autism
So, it’s official – there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A study in Japan showed that not only did the autism rate not rise in concert with the use of MMR, but it carried on rising even after the MMR was withdrawn (Japan had an unrelated issue with the mumps component which caused its withdrawal, and are restarting MMR vaccination again soon). What is especially bizarre about this whole furore is that there was never any real scientific evidence suggesting a link. There were anecdotal stories (“My child became autistic a few months after having the MMR jab” ) that only show that autism tends to be diagnosed around the age of 2 or so, which happens to be a few months after children receive this jab. The original suggested link, such as it was, came from a very small study (12 children) that, in any case, implicated not the MMR combination vaccine but the measles portion of it, and so having separate jabs would be little help.
Costs of shopping
New Scientist reports that the costs of shopping are stranger than we might think. We are often warned by environmental groups of the environmental dangers of the “air miles” racked up by food grown elsewhere in the world. However, a study of the hidden costs of our shopping show that, whereas international transport and waste disposal together occupy less than 0.02% of the hidden costs, driving to and from the shops occupies 29.2%! Agriculture (pesticides, pollution and so forth) constitutes 18.8% and domestic transport (from farm to shop) 15.8%. The missing 36.2% is made up of government subsidies.
So, if we really want to reduce the environmental impact of our lifestyle, it actually makes far more sense to walk (or bicycle) to the local shops rather than assiduously avoid imported food at the out-of-town supermarket. Even if we have to spend a little more cash up front, we reduce the hidden costs far more effectively that way.
pax et bonum
Restrict freedom to preserve liberty
The Register is discussing the UK Government’s current anti-terrorism legislation. This legislation gives the Home Secretary the power to restrict anyone’s freedom of association, communication or expression based on a suspicion that they are involved in terrorism or support or give comfort to terrorists. Notice that there is explicitly no mention of the courts in this – the Home Secretary would have the power to impose these control orders with no recourse to the courts or judicial oversight of any kind. The only limitation that the Government has allowed to be imposed on it is that orders that deprive someone of physical freedom (i.e. imprison them in their home or elsewhere) will have to come from a judge – but anything else is entirely at the Home Secretary’s pleasure.
This is, to me, a worrying extension of power. At the moment, we are assured that these powers will be used only for “a very few” cases. But how few is “a few”, and does the fact that it’s only a few make it somehow right? How long would it be before a government starts to extend the reach of these powers? There is no limit at present on the exercise of these powers beyond a reasonable suspicion of some involvement in terrorism, and this suspicion need not even be justified in public. Restricting somone’s freedom on the basis of no more than suspicion strikes at the very nature of justice as it is practiced in the UK.
pax et bonum
Muslims automatically suspect?
A Home Office minister has said that “people of Islamic appearance” must expect to be stopped by the police because of the search for terrorists. Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence? Or, for that matter, opposition to racism?
Blog interview
Kathryn has recently answered a blog interview, and I volunteered to take the next one. Now, she’s set me some questions, and here they are.
- Who is the person in your life who has most influenced you, and why?
- Tell us about one thing in the past week that has really made you smile.
- What one luxury would you take to your desert island?
- What makes you happy about your local church,( if anything)?
- You have a dream ticket to anywhere in the world…where do you choose to go?
10 or more
Scribblingwoman has a neat idea – a list of those authors by whom we’ve read at least 10 books.
As far as I can tell, my list is something like this (alphabetically):
Haiku 2
Twigs dance past stained glass
In gusts of rain-laden wind;
Inside, souls are calm.
pax et bonum
Democracy (not) at work
The European Commission has decided to ignore the elected European Parliament and the Parliaments of the member states, and to push on with the directive on software patents (CIID). It is worrying that the elected portion of the EU seems so powerless.
