It looks like AMD have / are in the process of buying ATI. Interesting. Won’t mean anything to people outside of the tech industry, but it’s a fairly major move. AMD make processors while ATI handle the graphics cards. I wonder whether this’ll lead to NVIDIA allying strongly with Intel. Hmmm. Hard to predict where this’ll lead or if anything will really change - even the folks at Digg aren’t too sure what to make of it. Interesting times, though.

A couple of months ago some friends and I decided to climb Snowdon. No particular reason - it just seemed like it would be challenging, yet doable. Last week’s heatwave made me very nervous - I didn’t want to climb in that kind of heat - and we set off on a very hot Friday afternoon. After a three hour drive, during which I was ‘introduced’ to the music of country duo Big and Rich - standout hit ‘Save a horse, ride a cowboy’ - we made it to the surprisingly large Quality Hotel Snowdonia in Llanberis.

For a town that must attract a fair few tourists, there weren’t many places to eat. We’d arrived too late to book a table at our own hotel’s restaurant, and eventually ate at a different hotel. Everything seemed to shut down at 2100 though - I’m not sure what would happen if you arrived after that.

The next morning we headed to the local supermarket for supplies, then started climbing at around 1015. After a short while we realised we were being followed by the monster from Lost:

which was scary. Happily, it turned out to be the Snowdon Mountain Railway - the train that runs from Llanberis to the summit.

Our path followed the track all the way up, and it’s quite the engineering feat. Also a real-world embodiment of every unimaginative mechanics exam I ever took. It does take an hour to reach the top and, as will become apparent, there are faster ways. The weather, happily, was nigh-on perfect. Cloud cover with a breeze, but no sign of rain. Exactly what I’d been hoping for.

After twenty minutes or so I started to get worried. I was climbing a particularly steep section of path and was already very tired and very slightly nauseous. I’d thought I was fit enough, but began to worry I’d overestimated myself. Happily it went away within a couple of minutes. I’d guess there’s some kind of dietary explanation to do with different energy reserves(?) People I’ve told since said they’ve had similar experiences, anyway.

Once I got over my momentary worries I was most happy. It’d been ages since I’d bounced around from rock to rock, and the climb was exactly what I’d been hoping for. There were other, far steeper, paths on the far side of the mountain, but the Llanberis track is pretty decent. It was long, but easy. Much like myself.

We took it fairly steadily, with frequent breaks for healthy snacks, and it wasn’t too long before we reached Halfway House, a small store with tables. We were actually quite chuffed at this point - it hadn’t been too tricky up till then. The next half made up for that.

Just around the corner was a steep, very scrabbly stretch that wasn’t fun at all. I had to keep my eyes permanently scanning the ground ahead, as if I looked up I invariably tripped over or slid.

After which it was time for a very well-deserved rest I don’t know why there were so many rocks in bags, though.

Around the hillside, under the railway and after another 90mins we turned a corner to spot the summit:

Now that is a proper summit. I’ve climbed various mountains in the Lake District, and they all have boring summits. It’s climb climb climb flat-bit. Satisfying, but dull. You want a good ridge leading to a satisfying point, in my opinion That way you can pretend you’re in Lord of the Rings, albeit without the beards or evil death spiders.

It became far more crowded towards the top because of people who came up on the train, wandered about for half an hour, then went back down.

Along the ridge and it was the summit! We took a celebratory photo:

then Ed and I climbed up to the actual highest point. It just had to be done. There was a bemused dog up there:

He seemed to be saying ‘…and?’. Dogs don’t appreciate views.

Not only is there a train station at the top of Snowdon, there’s also a cafe. So we grabbed muffins and ate them in a sheltered spot. A seagull wanted my muffin. It kept hopping closer and closer, until finally it made a move. I reacted with a frankly James Bond-like plan of tipping over backwards, shutting my eyes and going ‘argh’. It flew away. My plan rocked. It then made a move for Ed:

but I’d scared it so much that it didn’t try anything with him. I’m so clever.

It became rather chilly up there, so before long we started back down. Except it wasn’t so simple, because thirty minutes before we left 500 runners had started racing their way up from Llanberis. The record was 68 minutes. As we crossed the ridge the first runners passed us, and they kept on coming.

We clapped and cheered appropriately, and after waiting twenty minutes for some let-up started walking, just trying to keep out of their way. I think I’d be more nervous about running down than up - one wrong footfall on the scrabbly slope and you could twist an ankle very badly. One guy passed us, shook his head and said ‘fucking mad’. I can see the appeal, actually, although I can’t see myself ever trying it…

As we descended we discussed which of The Famous Five each of us represented. I was Dick, apparently. Anne, Julian and George were also dispensed, and this conversation ended when the fifth person realised who she must be Soon afterwards the sun appeared and burnt away some of the fog, resulting in some great views.

It became a little hot, and the suntan lotion was starting to wane by this point. Some of us were a little red by the time we reached the town! We were rather tired, and had taken 6 hours longer than the fastest runner (67mins - a new record), but were happy All the photos are viewable here.

Not wanting to waste Sunday we drove over to Colwyn Bay. However, my normally trustworthy TomTom suffered from a mapping error and after taking us down a 1:4 hill cheerily announced I had reached my destination. We were at this point surrounded by sheep and a dearth of sea. After some choice words and a diversion into Strange Village Full of Old People we made it to the Bay and the beach. Don’t do beaches. There is nothing more boring than a beach. Not that I was annoyed - I would just have wandered off into town if we’d stayed much longer. The others enjoyed it, however:

We tried to sneak away, but failed…Then it was over to Chester to drop Ed home, and finally back to Birmingham. I slept well last night I think a good time was had by all, and you can’t ask for more than that.

I booked the Snowdon hotel using activehotels.com - didn’t want to recommend it before I’d actually taken the trip, but it’s definitely the best hotel website I’ve used.

I needed to find a hotel with 2 singles, 1 twin and 1 double, and on most sites this was a nightmare. Most don’t support multiple rooms in one booking, few show you the price until before the very end of the process and the rest limit you to one hotel at a time, requiring you to go through the whole process multiple times. On the activehotels site you enter a rough area and the site will only display hotels that actually have room(s) available, as well as their respective prices. There’s also a decent amount of detail for each hotel, as well as reviews from other users of the site. Although you can’t specify room types from the outset, the hotel list shows you the actually available room types at each hotel, and their respective prices. Going to the hotel’s specific page lets you choose the number of rooms then go onto booking. And it all worked fine.

Sorry if this sounds like an advert, but given how tortuous the process can be I thought it was worth promoting.

Hoorah!

1km straight up to go

A few weeks ago I caught a free performance of Hamlet at a small stage in the local park:

I’m not going to be able to see anything else there, because yesterday night some dickheads burnt it down.

A blastocyst, from which embryonic stem cells are taken, is 0.1 - 0.2mm across - around the width of a human hair:

A baby:

Just saying.

There’s an excellent argument that the blastocysts used in stem cell research are due to be discarded anyway, but the problem with that is it’s secondary to the moral argument. I don’t think there is a moral argument, however. I see no definition by which a blastocyst counts as ‘alive’, and the potentiality argument is just ridiculous - you might as well say that people who decide not to have children are murderers. I’m not denying there’s a problem with deciding the point at which a baby begins, but I don’t see any reasonable way in which blastocysts are it. The Daily Kos article¹ does a good job of explaining the science behind stem cell research.

1. I didn’t directly steal their pics, btw, I went to Wikipedia to find equivalent images and found they’d done the same thing [↩]

At 11:39 this morning it was the official time for World Jump Day!

It has been scientifically proven that if at least 600,000,000 people jump simultaneously on July 20th, we can stop global warming, extend daylight hours, and create a more homogeneous climate! Help drive the earth into a new orbit!

Obviously it’s not entirely serious I’m currently the only photo in the World Jump Day Flickr group. I hope it’s not a big conspiracy to make me look stupid.

ARGH! This is ANNOYING! Stupid birds. I can get as far as the big giant head, but am then stumped.

Stolen from Jo - also seen at Louise, Paul, Adele and Lola. Things I have done are in bold:

Bought everyone in the bar a drink
Swum with wild dolphins
Climbed a mountain
Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
Been inside the Great Pyramid
Held a tarantula
Taken a candlelit bath with someone
Said ‘I love you’ and meant it
Hugged a tree
Bungee jumped (it’s on my to-do list, though)
Visited Paris
Watched a lightning storm at sea
Stayed up all night long and seen the sun rise
Seen the Northern Lights
Gone to a huge sports game (normal football match, if that counts)
Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
Grown and eaten your own vegetables
Touched an iceberg
Slept under the stars
Changed a baby’s diaper
Taken a trip on a hot air balloon
Watched a meteor shower
Got drunk on champagne
Given more than you can afford to charity
Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
Had a food fight
Bet on a winning horse
Asked out a stranger
Had a snowball fight
Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
Held a lamb
Seen a total eclipse
Ridden a roller coaster
Hit a home run
Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
Adopted an accent for an entire day
Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
Had two hard drives for your computer
Visited all 50 states
Taken care of someone who was shit faced
Had amazing friends
Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
Watched wild whales
Stolen a sign
Backpacked in Europe
Taken a road-trip
Gone rock climbing
Taken a midnight walk on the beach
Gone sky diving
Visited Ireland
Been heartbroken for longer than when you were in love
In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
Visited Japan
Milked a cow (think so, but I was very young)
Alphabetized your cds
Pretended to be a superhero
Sung karaoke
Lounged around in bed all day
Posed nude in front of strangers
Gone scuba diving
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Played in the rain
Gone to a drive-in theater (working on it)
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business
Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
Toured ancient sites
Taken a martial arts class
Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
Gotten married
Been in a movie
Crashed a party
Gotten divorced
Gone without food for 5 days
Made cookies from scratch
Won first prize in a costume contest
Ridden a gondola in Venice
Gotten a tattoo
Rafted the Snake River
Been on television news programs as an “expert”
Got flowers for no reason
Performed on stage
Been to Las Vegas
Recorded music
Eaten shark
Had a one-night stand
Gone to Thailand
Bought a house
Been in a combat zone
Buried one/both of your parents
Been on a cruise ship
Spoken more than one language fluently
Performed in Rocky Horror
Raised children
Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
Created and named your own constellation of stars
Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
Had plastic surgery
Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived.
Written articles for a large publication
Lost over 100 pounds
Held someone while they were having a flashback (what?)
Piloted an airplane
Petted a stingray
Broken someone’s heart (hope not)
Helped an animal give birth
Won money on a T.V. game show
Broken a bone
Gone on an African photo safari
Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
Ridden a horse
Had major surgery
Had a snake as a pet
Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
Visited all 7 continents
Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
Eaten kangaroo meat
Eaten sushi
Had your picture in the newspaper
Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
Gone back to school
Parasailed
Petted a cockroach
Eaten fried green tomatoes
Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
Killed and prepared an animal for eating
Skipped all your school reunions (haven’t been any afaik)
Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
Been elected to public office
Written your own computer language
Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
Had to put someone you love into hospice care
Built your own PC from parts
Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you (ish, depending on your definition of ‘artwork’)
Had a booth at a street fair
Dyed your hair (for Comic Relief)
Been a DJ
Shaved your head
Caused a car accident
Saved someone’s life

Ah, summer.

In what must surely be one of the summer’s more bizarre events, hundreds of people are expected to gather in a hall in central London on August 5 to pleasure themselves in aid of charity.

Intrigued?

Prizes will be on offer for those who clock up the most orgasms and those who can masturbate the longest - the current record, according to the organisers, is a chafing eight-and-a-half hours.

Eight and a half hours?! I think I’d just get bored.

To qualify for the record, the organisers say “at least 55 minutes of every hour shall be spent self-pleasuring by manual or sex toy stimulation” with participants getting just five minutes to “replenish and renew”.

Could make for a fun lunch hour. I’m amused by the idea of the judges - I’d have to be paid rather well to watch people holding the sausage hostage for eight-hours straight. It’s all for charity:

The organiser of the event, the San Francisco-based Centre for Sex and Culture, has run mass masturbation events in the US for the past five years to raise money for safe sex groups and plans to replicate the formula in the UK.

Is it just men, do you think? Difficult to imagine many women turning up…The real fuss, however, is that Channel 4 are making a documentary about it:

Cameras from independent production company Zig Zag, which made Essex Boys for ITV1, will follow the organisers and participants for a 60-minute film, which has the working title of Wank-a-thon. It is expected to air on Channel 4 towards the end of the year.

This could be quite an interesting show, I think. What would motivate people to dance the sticky rumba in public? How many people have turned up at previous events? Do they regret it afterwards? Unfortunately, this quote perhaps sums up their approach:

Zig Zag said in its blurb for the show: “This year it’s time to bring the event across the pond to see if the great British public can embrace mass public masturbation. It’s time to find out if the only things allowed to be stiff in Britain are upper lips.”

Perhaps I’ll skip this one. No, wait. It should be banned. That’s it, yeah. Furthermore, Channel 4 are showing it as part of a ‘wank week’. Come off it.

Yesterday morning my throat was so bad that in half-asleep mode I convinced myself it was clearly tonsilitis / something worse, and nothing would ever be the same again. Obviously this was craziness, and two aspirin got rid of it completely for a few hours. Later in the day it became obvious it had been precursor to a cold, and I now have copious amounts of what I can only assume is melted brain leaking from my nose, plus a distant ringing in my years. Lemsip, happily, completely saves the day. It’s actually a fair bit better this morning, so hopefully I’ll be fine for mountain climbing at the weekend.

Does anybody else think the media’s coverage of the Blair/Bush chat is a bit odd? GWB swore! How awful! The weirdest part is the interpretation of Blair’s “if [Condi] goes out, she’s got to succeed, as it were, whereas I can just go out and talk”. He’s a poodle! He’s fawning to the US! He’s desperate for a legacy! He’s leaning over the chair like a servant! Give me a break. Did anybody else interpret it more charitably? Tony Blair has the power and the political skills to talk to the most important people and could achieve a great deal, but he wouldn’t insist on walking out with a resolution and glory. Sure you can interpret this as ‘he wants the white house to get all the glory’, but it seems more likely he’s just trying to get it sorted out. Not demanding personal gain in everything seems like a virtue to me, but I’m clearly in the minority.

Had a bad night’s sleep, and this morning my throat is swollen to the extent I can’t speak properly. Feeling pretty crappy to go with it, but that could be a) real b) in my head because I know I’m a bit poorly - it wasn’t like that overnight, after all c) because I haven’t eaten. The doctors is fully booked until Thursday afternoon, annoyingly, so I guess I’ll go find some syrup or something and see how it goes.

I’m terribly sorry to sound like such an old curmudgeon, but it’s just too damned hot. I live in the UK, for crying out loud, I don’t expect this. As of 2245 it’s finally starting to cool down out there, so having all the doors and window open is beginning to help. I had to abandon the flat late this afternoon and read my book under a tree.

I tried to get some cash out this afternoon and the ATM refused. This scared the hell out of me. I have two large transactions going through my account this week, but had deliberately made sure the credit was before the debit. If it happened the other way around I’d be fined for all sorts of reasons. Happily it seems to have just been the ATM being annoying, and trying again this evening worked fine. It would be the day I only have 14p in my wallet, tho.

I’m meant to be away climbing Snowdon this weekend, and as of this morning have a sore throat which has worsened considerably as the day’s gone on. I’m hoping it’ll be one of those 24hr things and not a precursor to anything worse.

Right, I’m going to go see if I can fit inside the fridge.