UKIP Summed Up By Stewart Lee

I think I have spoken about UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) before, their central reason for existing is to withdraw the UK from the European Union. this is something which I am totally against. However over recent years UKIP have gained considerably in popularity, but along with thier valid political position there is a horrid underbelly which is 'nasty'. The party has become (I don't think it started off like this) a group of racist, homophobic bigots! This is generally found in the lower ranks rather than with the likes of Nigel Farage, but their politics is certainly directed and forged with these ideals in mind.

On one of my feeds somewhere I came across this by Stewart Lee (one of my favourite Stand Ups) summing up UKIP.

 

Nothing I have seen reflects my own thoughts better than this......

Solar Lights, Better Than I Imagined

In an effort to remember that the garden is just not my domain but also my girlfriends I bought some solar lights. Which had been something she had talked about having, I have to say I was not that keen for whatever reason. So I parted with £15 and bought 20 meter length of LED's, simple warm coloured and not shaped like butterflies. The problem with the internet it can show you some very seductive and amazing design pictures and its not always something you can replicate. However on this occasion I am happy with what I have done. The pictures of course can't do it justice, the limitations of smartphone photography at dusk/night are all to plain!   

Next Months European Elections

I got my polling card through last week for the European Elections on the 22nd of May, generally I think it has a rather low priority for most people in the UK and I expect that it will have a low turn out. I for one will be voting, as I do in every election. But I do feel that the European election is important, in fact very important  and more people should take part in it.

The UK's relationship with Europe and its membership with in it is a political hot topic at the moment and one I certainly have strong feelings about. The rise of UKIP as a force is the EU parliament and possibly even with in the UK parliament by the next election shows that a large percentage of the population has serious issues with the relationship we have with Europe. The Tories of course are traditionally anti EU and have promised a referendum on membership after the next election and one if it happens I would make sure I vote in.

Europe is good for us, the EU is good for us, you only have to skim over the history books a see that peace in Europe has been achieved through the coming together of nations! Peace, Unity and Stability has been achieved and that is in no small part down to the creation of the EU! Much of the resentment towards Europe I feel comes from some historical British feeling of superiority more than anything else. And this is epitomised utterly in the values and ideals of the UKIP party. A party that harks back to the pre-Windrush era, where Britain ruled the waves and Europe was a turbulent, fascist, communist, revolutionary place full of garlic eating, sex mad, wops and frogs! You only have to look at the relative decline of the British National Party and the rise of UKIP to make an educated guess who is supporting them.

I really just don't understand where people are coming from when they decide to vote UKIP!

If Russia was a person, you would not be their friend!

When the nations of this world descend into geopolitical bickering I have always found it easier to understand if I treat countries as if they were people more specifically school children and the world is their playground. I do this because, its makes its that bit easier to understand and even relate too and more importantly how ludicrous most of it is! What is going on in the Ukraine right now is all about power and influence and who exactly has it over the Ukraine, on one side you have the West and on the other you have Russia. One of which in my humble opinion if far more benevolent than the other. I don't believe the regime change in the Ukraine was an EU led/funded/organised coup but rather a reaction to a belligerent President. Morten Morlands cartoon in the Times sums up Putin and Russia over the last few years in this respect rather well......

Like I said the world is a playground and the countries are its school children, each and everyone has its own identity and its own social groups etc etc etc... So way back in year one Russia and its mates and America and its mates both had a problem with Germany which culminated in a massive gang fight in the middle of the playground. After this early act of unity things quickly went sour and off they both went into their playground cliques. over the years the animosity grew but never did Russia and America fight face to face! A little scuffle here and an arm wrestle there, a punch up between their mates behind the bike shed with some supportive words and a stick to hit with maybe, but no brawling between the big boys. By year 7 though Russia had not been looking after its mates quiet as well as America and its gang started to fall out, fed up with it some of them made friends with America and even started hanging around with some of the European guys. Oh my this did upset Russia so much so it decided to change its ways, be more like America or the Europeans so the old mates would still be its friend. This worked..... even the Europeans would come and have a kick about now. Everyone thought Russia had changed, that all the playground fighting and the trouble with America was the end of the strife! But Russia just got jealous, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungry, Bulgaria, the Czech's all started hanging out with the other Europeans all the time and they started to ask Russia s other mates too..... Well this made Russia rather angry and when Georgia got invited over, well Russia just flipped its lid and went round and bloodied Georgia's nose! Russia had decided by carrot or stick certain 'friends' were going to stay friends!

Well I think that analogy has run its course! The ease of which I have related the story by means of a playground analogy I think shows how petty geopolitics is! There is no world shattering reason for Russian troops to be in the Ukraine right now threatening to take back there Playstation (Crimea) that they gave to Ukraine. Its petty pride, power projection and moreover bullying, it is no more complex or logical than the daily occurrences in any school playground. 

Men at Work

Book Review, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was loaned to me last year from a good friend who is a 'gamer', meaning a person who plays computer games. We had often talked about games from our childhood and new games we were playing now. I do play games but my knowledge and enthusiasm is of a lesser nature than my friend Richard. I guess he is a geek, very much like myself! It was from these conversations that he recommended and loaned me this book.  

Ready Player One is set in the year 2044, the world has been in a sustained and endless recession, where resources are limited and most people live in what we would call poverty. The main character is Wade or his online pseudonym Parzival a young boy who lives in the "stacks". (Stacks are constructions of trailer homes place on top of each other to create a tower) and where the majority of the cities citizens live. In this world people seek refuge in the simulated reality of a game called OASIS. I would describe the OASIS as Secondlife meets Sims meets World of War Craft and all encompassing simulated world where anything is possible. Wade even goes to school in the OASIS rather than to one in real life. The game was created by James Halliday who I would describe as having the rock star profile of Steve Jobs and the geekery of Bill Gates with maybe a little of the philanthropy of Jimmy Wales or Larry Sanger. Halliday encompasses virtues, skills and status of real people in our own reality.

 As usual I do not want to give away to much from the book so here is a small over view taken from Wikipedia, that does not contain many spoilers!

James Halliday suddenly dies, leaving a will that states that whoever can collect three keys hidden in OASIS and pass through the matching gates will receive Halliday's fortune and a controlling stake in his company. This contest becomes known as "the Hunt" and people immediately begin the search for Halliday's Easter Egg, with the only clues being Halliday's will and his journal, the Anorak's Almanac. Those searching for the Egg are referred to as "gunters," a portmanteau of "egg hunters." Gunters devote an enormous amount of time to studying pop culture of the 1980s, the decade that Halliday grew up in and was perpetually obsessed with, in the hope it will assist them with locating and solving the puzzles involved with the egg.

As a gamer, a long time gamer this book is easy for me to read, I get the references I know a lot of the games and the 1980's pop culture, which certainly makes this book a better read for me. It is a homage to early gaming/coding and the pioneers of a new art form (and I will argue to the death that games are an art form as much as a movie or a book is). But I would totally understand that for many who don't know or have never played Zork that this book would be less compelling or even tedious. Yet put this to one side and look at it like any other Sci-Fi or fantasy novel that you have ever enjoyed with its own language and cultures and you will get the very same experience. Remember what the Lord of the Rings book was like with its Hobbits, Orks and whatever??? 

What I do find compelling is the plausibility of this future Earth, a world in recession where people seek solace in a computerized world..... we are half way there already.  The story which unfolds in this world is enjoyable and exciting (especially to my game oriented mind) but again I will state that this book is game heavy. Not that this is a bad thing. As soon as I started this book I could not put it down, it was one of those occasions where I was trying to read at every available moment and long into the night when I should have been sleeping. That last sentence says it all really.......................... Must read.

Anthony's bookshelf: grasshopper

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

I really enjoyed this book, from beginning to end, a a valid an very possible future mixed in with a fantasy style ending made it compelling to read. The many references to 1980's pop culture and gaming really made it more authentic, alt...

tagged: grasshopper and grasshopper-rating

Climate Change and the UK Storms

Current storm hitting the UK and Ireland

The ongoing weather we have been having here in UK has brought to the fore again the issue of climate change. As to whether what we have been experiencing is in partly down to an ongoing process of climate change. From just after Christmas we have been hit by storm after storm, we have been at the end of an Atlantic conveyor belt of wind and rain it seems with one storm hitting us and then another and another and another. I have lost count as to how many we have had, but it seems rather more like one long continuous storm than an endless series to me. The storms have brought high winds and turned places like Somerset in to giant lakes, this time last year we where under inches and inches of snow. As I write a relatively mild storm is passing over head, so far in my part of the UK this one has been more an inconvenience rather than a problem.  But the Met Office video below shows four storms hitting the UK and Ireland in February alone.



The UK Met Office in the last week attributed the storms in part to climate change, these storms are extraordinary in their frequency and it is this rather than their ferocity that has caused most of the problems. I myself believe that climate change is real, both as a naturally occurring event and also heightened by human activity. The planet its infinitely complex and something we do not fully understand as yet but it seems absolutely crazy to me that some people would at this point conclusively say man made climate change is a myth. From the weather records over its recorded history we can see the changes and from other sources like tree rings or Ice core samples we can see how our planet has changed over millennia. And the majority of scientist in this field feel that man made climate change is a reality. With this evidence in mind we certainly should be as a global community working harder to do something about the changes we are making as a species. I have to say as far as the argument between climate camps goes I am rather of one opinion whether man made climate change is true or not! By this I mean we have to change the way we do things anyway! Most of our energy reserves are finite and now coming to the end of their reserves, we need alternatives and climate change real or not can help instigate those changes. Living in a greener world is a win win situation, if we are impacting our environment as the evidence suggests then being greener will reduce the impact of climate change in the long run. Placing a wager on whether climate change is real or not seems like a fools game to me and by denouncing it or continuing to do as we do is making that bet!

As for the storms here in the UK, fingers crossed that it will soon be over as I am so very tired of repairing my greenhouse. Luckily this is only my little problem and I am not enduring the scale of wind, rain and floods that other parts of the UK are.