I’m just listening to Steve Wright on Radio 2, and apparently Colin Pillinger will be on the show today. Colin’s the instigator and mission director of the Mars Express / Beagle 2 project and a supremely cool man, so it may be worth a listen if you’re free. The show finishes at 5 and can be listened to online.

Apparently God now has an email-a-prayer service! Worth a try.

This is going to sound really, really strange: I’ve been having a computer problem for months now, but am in denial about it. Perhaps 75% of the time I copy and paste anything, pasting reveals…well…a little picture of a phone, like so: . Am I going crazy?! Re-copying and pasting gets rid of it, and it doesn’t happen when I’m just copying text around in Notepad: presumably it can only work in image-capable programs. There’s nothing weird in my startup and I’ve have checked for viruses etc…I imagine it’s a program conflict in some way, but I can’t figure it out. I suppose I could close each program one by one to narrow it down, but it doesn’t always happen anyway. [Whimpers]. Help.

I’ve just noticed that “selected” and “rejected” use the same keys in T9…I wonder what problems that’s caused. “You asked whether dessert should consist of jelly or dynamite monkey…We’ve selected the latter. Please supply.”

I came back from Nod’s this morning - got back at around 12:30 after leaving at 10:00 so made pretty good time. I wasn’t at all in a work frame of mind, but I had to get on with it. On the plus-side, I had leftover Starbursts.

Nod had coursework to be getting on with so I spent much of yesterday watching TV show pilots and catching up with missed Smallvilles. A couple of the pilots weren’t really my thing, but Line of Fire looked like it could be good. I’m into cop shows! Speaking of which, there’s a second CSI spin-off series on the way - this time set in New York. Anyway, we went to a Wetherspoons for tea then watched 15 Minutes, followed by Changing Lanes, both of which I enjoyed. I took my most recent rental DVDs with me; one was The Emperor’s New Groove, the other was Solaris. Thing is, I thought it was Solaris. Turned out it was Solaris. So we didn’t watch that. I might do at some point this week, though. I’ve never watched a Russian language film that I can recall, so it should be interesting.

Many thanks to Nod for putting up with me and providing food etc. especially after I gave him less than 24hrs notice I’d be going! Go post in his forum and give his new server a stress-test

I’m not fishing for compliments or anything, but two people have recently asked me when I’ll post another story. Neither had spotted one I slipped in on Christmas Eve, so I thought I’d mention it just in case anyone else was interested. It’s just something else that came out too long. I’m not as happy with it as I was with the previous one, though. It’s called “With the Wind” and can be found here.

I HAVE A REMOTE CONTROL CAR!!!!!

I’m at Nod’s, btw (I made NO mistakes on the drive down! [Andrew does a victory dance]). We’re having a fine old time here.

On Friday night we watched the new pilot of Battlestar Galactica, which was actually pretty entertaining. I remember liking the original series and was worried this would be a real disappointment (I have similar worries for the new Quantum Leap currently in production), but was pleasantly surprised. The acting was up to decent sci-fi standards; the plot was pretty decent; the cylons were updated without being totally changed (except for one…she adds a whole new definition to “silicone based life-form”) and the special effects were impressive. There’s been a fair bit of consternation over the change of gender of certain characters, namely Starbuck and Boomer. I don’t really have a problem with this. Attitudes change. Today’s audience expect a certain amount of love interest. Incidentally, did you know that the original series got sued by George Lucas for ‘ripping-off’ Star Wars?

I HAVE A REMOTE CONTROL CAR!!!!!

Yesterday we wandered along the seafront for a bit, then headed to the large shopping centre. Guess what I bought there? A REMOTE CONTROL CAR!!!!! I’ve never had one of these before! It’s yellow. And diddy. And only lasts for about a minute before it needs recharging. But it was only £6 so I’m not complaining. Woohoo.

After I’d bought the REMOTE CONTROL CAR we went bowling, then saw Paycheck at the cinema. I’d read the original Philip K. Dick short story, so knew the basic plot. Like Minority Report, it was heavily adapted for the screen, but in a way that’s necessary. PKD writes such hard sci-fi that mainstream audiences possibly wouldn’t get on with straight adaptations. I enjoyed it.

When we got back to Nod’s enviable flat we had tea and watched The Emperor’s New Groove. I nearly died laughing. It’s just Too Funny.

I’m not sure what we’re going to do today yet - will probably play it by ear.

You know what I got yesterday? A REMOTE CONTROL CAR!!!

Did you know that 56.3% of statistics are made up on the spot? Just sometimes you know that something being reported is totally untrue. I present a case of this to you now. To these scientists I say: “Don’t be so ridiculous!”. Unless by ‘too much’ they mean ‘once’. Because the two are, in this case, interchangeable.

Following updates will be brought to you from an as-yet undisclosed location.

Girls/women (I’m never quite sure which is preferable) I know have been heard to remark on whether men have any uses whatsoever. Well, no.

Yesterday I heard the following argument: the ice caps melting will not cause sea levels to rise because water expands when frozen and contracts when melted. I know there’s something wrong with this argument, but I can’t quite figure out what. Presumably the ice caps are actually displacing water? If anyone can enlighten me, please do.

Do you remember the old legend that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space? It’s kak: the wall is made of stone from the surrounding rock so can’t be seen with the naked eye. Even if it were true, I can go one better (thanks to SciScoop for the link).

You should see this image. Wow. It’s like Raiders of the Lost Ark. More info here. Also, see how long it takes you to realise what’s wrong with the image on this page…took me a bit.

I thought I’d got a Conservative Party mailshot this morning:

Oh dear, Kate’s not going to be impressed by this…It always snows in York when she’s here, and here when she’s in York. It’s starting to settle, too.

I think I mentioned this a while ago, and now it’s here! TV on demand is coming. Good to see that people the world over are reading my blog and adapting to my every whim. As they should.

I followed a great link from Howard Lovy’s Nanobot earlier today. It’s a general overview of the whole nanotechnology scene, and is fascinating. It certainly cleared up a few things I didn’t understand. The great thing about nanotechnology is that it’s going to happen no matter what; it’s just a matter of who will do it first. Naturally The Public, being as well-informed as your average prop shaft when it comes to scientific matters, are worried about the possible ramifications of nanotechnology - a la Prince Charles’ remarks on ‘grey goo’. Tough. No matter what legislation there is against it, sooner or later somebody somewhere is going to build an assembler, and then it’s a non-stop journey to nano-heaven or hell, according to preference. Woohoo, I’m glad I’m going to be alive for this.

I went to the wrong house when visiting a client this morning, and got a lady out of the bath by knocking on the door. Oops. I felt bad, but there was nothing I could have done to avoid it! There was no name/number on the house, you see.

I walked into my office a minute ago, reading something, and my computer spontaneously restarted! This is my computer. My computer doesn’t do stuff like that. Except it apparently does. Humph.

In interesting news from the day: Somebody’s going to be in trouble; someone’s already in trouble (holy mother of god!); somebody’s mighty relieved; somebody’s got a lot of toys, time and theology (the alliteration doesn’t quite work there, does it).

If, this morning, someone had asked me how an aeroplane flies, my answer would probably have gone something like this:

Well, the wing is shaped in a curve. Air passing over the top of the wing has to go faster to keep up with the air passing beneath the wing, creating an area of lower pressure above the wing, generating lift.

I’d have been wrong. I can’t remember where the above came from, but I’ve believed it for years (just like I believed the Bill Gates “640k ought to be enough for anybody” quote). A link in one of Dan’s articles showed me the error of my ways. To be fair to myself, I do remember thinking at one point in the last year that I didn’t understand why the air on top would go any faster, but I just assumed I was wrong and ill-informed. Nope.

An article with the title “Internet 6.0″ attracted my attention earlier, but it proved simply to be about the IPv6 protocol rather than the ultra-fast new communications method I was hoping for. It’s quite bizarre. The author (whose name is nearly rather musical) says in his introduction that IPv6 will make the net less secure. This drew my eye, as I hadn’t heard that before about IPv6.

The fourth paragraph on page 2 is his justification for this argument. So…What’s the point in upgrading to the latest linux kernel? It’s new code, so will be full of holes! Good grief, I’m never buying new software ever again! The third paragraph on page 2 is another good one. Lots of companies have routers so fast they’ll cost $62,500 each to replace, but only 16 of them There’s also a more drawn-out argument about NAT: it doesn’t work at the moment due to lots of security holes, and file sharing programs don’t work through it, so it’s just a rubbish technology. IPv6 gets rid of the need for NAT, but then file-sharing programs will work and everybody will be acting illegally, so that’ll be even worse!

Conclusion: I think it’s a silly article. Others seem to agree.

Oh, I know everyone’s going to disagree with me on this, but hahahahahah.

I’m sad today because Kate’s gone back to York :-(( I must try to do something useful, though.

Here’s a thought. Could mankind have evolved a susceptibility to the common cold, because of its cancer curing properties? If it can indeed kill cancerous cells, it would make sense that those people more predisposed to catch colds would live longer and therefore be more likely to pass on their genes. This could explain why ithe cold is so difficult to cure.

Last week Mum & Dad spotted a planning application for the “ex-UCI” site, and I just overheard them talking about it. In the last half-hour I found it on the Solihull Council Planning website…

Andrew’s Thoughts: Hmmm, I know, I’ll put this on my blog. I can’t imagine many other people will have seen it. It’s a bit of a scoop for me, really. Aren’t I clever.

So I was just about to type this up when the Solihull Times arrived. Headline: UCI MAY BE DEMOLISHED. So that scuppered that, then I’d like to point out that the ST story is based entirely on the planning application, despite the exact same information being in their paper last week. There was no comment from UCI ‘at the time of going to press’. Ah well, it gives them something to write about, I suppose…not a fat lot happens in Solihull at the best of times.

I can see that UCI may be having trouble competing with Touchwood (new large shopping centre and 8-screen cinema), but I personally prefer it. I’m of a fairly average height, and find the seating at Cineworld quite uncomfortable due to the weirdly placed headrests. Kate, being smaller than me, has terrible trouble. Also UCI is £1.50 cheaper and most of the must-pay-money-to-be-noisy-in-the-dark kiddies can’t be bothered to get the bus there any more (not strictly true - the bloke one seat away from me at ROTK kept answering his mobile…I think that should be illegal and punishable by castration). There’s free parking, too.

Planning applications are interesting things, and seem to arouse great passions. Recently there was an application to build some apartments on Station Road. So some residents set up ‘The Doomsday Group’ (I think - it had the word ‘doomsday’ in it, anyway). Seriously. How pathetic. I mean, yes, I can see that if you don’t want it to happen you might set up some kind of committee. But ‘The Doomsday Group’? Get a grip, people! And they wonder why Dorridge has a reputation for being snobby.

Of course, it’s always possible for other people to even the balance. This guy makes his case really well, don’t you think?

Global warming? Pah. Global dimming, now that’s worrying.

Go Colin! A 2007 lander would kick ass. This man is an inspiration.

UPDATE: I’ve seen all the info on US space programme proposals, but I’ll wait for official announcements before commenting, as last time there was a fuss it never actually happened. The only thing I shall say is this: If it is true, it’s spectacularly cool.