Well I have been fiddling with my camera and it's different modes, here is my latest attempt at something pretty. Bear in mind I am an engineer at heart, all this arty stuff doesn't come naturally to me!


( pretty things cut incase your internet is slow and you don't really care :) )

Well, I went a bit crazy and brought myself a spiffy new camera, a Cannon EOS 5D Mk II if that means anything to you. It’s all a bit bewildering at the momant, but here is a selection of my very first efforts (click on ‘em to get a better view).

If you are at all interested, I am going to attempt to start a blog to chart my progress into the murky, decidedly non-scientific world of photography over at http://www.foo.me.uk. There is a bit more info about these photos there as well.

Though I might still post the best ones to livejournal :)

I thought I'd be a bit topical, with the budget yesterday and all and share this oldie but goldie that has been floating around the interwebs forever for those who haven't seen it before:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7.
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beers by £20.

Drinks for the ten now cost just £80.'The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers?

How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that £20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay £5 instead of £7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid £14 instead of £18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before and the first four continued to drink for free, but once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a pound out of the £20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got £10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a pound, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get £10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something very important....

they didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.

The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

In fact, they might start drinking overseas - as long as there's Stella of course

You have just proved to me that your democracy actually works. It’s inspiring stuff. There really is hope for you all yet. I never thought I’d say it, but I am jealous. I’d swap him for Gordon Brown any day.

I get a day out of the office next tuesday to try and cajole some Cambridge mathmos into entering the world of finance - specifically our world of hedge fund finance. We've had to write a little blurb to go in the brochure; what do y'all think? Would you come and work for us? (and are if so, are you looking for a job :)

---- SNIP ----

At my firm I develop software that buys and sells millions of dollars worth of assets every day. We are a small team, 17 of us in all, with a large pot of other people’s money and all the technology you could throw a stick at. Our strategies are all systematic – so we spend our days thinking of cunning new algorithms to better model markets, then implementing them and then finding out how much money we have (or haven’t) made. The environment is very laid back, there’s no shouting and stressing, no flashing sirens and all the rest of the paraphernalia normally associated with working the markets.

The great thing about this company is that we are all in it together. There’s no basement full of programming monkeys and lofty towers of self righteous traders. We all code, we all have input into devising and selecting strategies, and we all trade; and when the fund makes money (which it is doing rather well at right now), I can buy a shiny new glider.

Not to mention we have table football, a piano, a Wii, and free food in Fridays (Fitzbillies is our favourite).

Date:	2008-10-08 12:19
Subject:	The world of finance..
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

 ..is actually a remarkably fascinating place.

So I took LJ’s advice, and for the last two months I have been working for a hedge fund. We’ve got the best part of “half a yard” (That’s $500,000,000 to the uninitiated) of other people’s money and every day we gamble it for them on buying things like currency forwards, government bonds, oil futures, and my personal favourite “Live hogs for delivery in three months”. I joined at a rather bonkers time, but am thoroughly enjoying it. The markets are utterly crazy, but we are still making money. We had a frantic day when Lehman Brothers went bust (for they had a lot of our cash), but we emerged relatively unscathed; we ‘only’ lost $20 million which the partners seemed very pleased with.

The people are great, the money is good and the problems are hard but interesting. I am learning a lot about how the whole system is structured and what ‘value’ actually is. On one hand our financial system is played like a huge big-boys game that resembles some kind mutant cross between poker, chess, bridge and monopoly. On the other, it is a vitally important service that allows businesses to hedge risk and finance growth. Prices are constantly going up and down in a tug of war between rationality

‘This thing is worth x because there is y market and it costs z to make’

and anthropology

‘There are a whole bunch of people who are all watching each other and trying to guess what they are thinking. It doesn’t matter whether something is really worth x, what matters is what people think it is worth – which depends on what they think that you think it is worth… ad infinitum’.

And I think I am starting to get it:

It’s simultaneously all made up, but at the same time so very real because the only true value in our system is in that most prized of commodities: confidence.

And at the end of the day that is all these bailouts are trying to buy. Will it work? I don’t know. Can you even buy a state of mind? Perhaps, but can our governments afford it? I guess we will soon be finding out.

If you believe that the government should not interfere with what people do in the privacy of their own home while having minimal impact upon society

Or if you believe that the government should listen to its own health advisors instead of allowing the Prime Ministers personal crusades dictate policy.

Or if you believe that the 20% of the UK population who regularly use cannabis are not criminals and do not deserve upto 5 years in jail.

Or if you believe that police time has better uses than hunting down otherwise fully functional members of society

Or if you believe that prohibition is clearly (see America for an epic example - 1% of the population is currently in prison, about 1/3 of which are for cannabis posession or small time distribution) a useless way to alter people's behavior

Or if you believe creating a multi million pound black market run by thugs and criminals is the best answer to any of the (ill defined) problems associated with Cannabis

Or if you think
Go and put your name on this petition

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/steveb/

And if anyone knows of any stronger form of protest that is being organised by anyone more capable than me I would love to know.

Sometimes I find something on the internet that makes me just sigh with relief as I realise that (contrary to what I would deduce if I lived on livejournal alone) people all over the world are still beautifully and glibly offending each other for no reason other than the shear pleasure of it.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/tor/649999147.html


There's hope for us yet.

These words aren't mine, but they are important enough I think to repeat them here. If you are as pissed of as I am please consider writing to your MP.



Phil from the UK anti-ID-register group NO2ID sends in this nugget -- note the call to action there. We've got a sensitive government document revealing the British government's plan to trick us into a database state and we need as many copies as possible, as quickly as possible!

If you mirror this document, please add a link to it in the comments for the post.

UK campaigners NO2ID this morning enlisted the help of bloggers across the world to spread a leaked government document describing how the British government intends to go about "coercing" its citizens onto a National Identity Register. The 'ID card' is revealed as little more than a cover to create a official dossier and trackable ID for every UK resident - creating what NO2ID calls 'the database state'.

NO2ID's national coordinator, Phil Booth, exhorted bloggers, freedom lovers and anyone who gives a damn about personal privacy to mirror the annotated document on their site.

"The charade is over. While ministers try to bamboozle the British public with fairytales about fingerprints, officials are plotting how to dupe and bully the population into surrendering control of their own identities."

"Biometric ID cards are a sham; a magician's flourish to cover the biggest identity fraud there has ever been."

The entire notion of human ‘rights’ is one which puzzles me somewhat.

The idea that my existence is in some way unique and protected from the day I emerge from the womb as a tangle of flesh and bones smacks of a flawed, almost religious dogma. To this day I am not sure what I have done to earn the right to breathe, let alone assume a nationality or participate in government – these are privileges I enjoy, privileges which were won through blood, sweat and tears of uncountable generations past and present.

I ate as a child because my parents saw fit to feed me, I eat now because the skills I have been taught are of use to the society I participate in. I have no inalienable right to this standard of living – it was not owed to me the day I was born any more than it is now.

Yet the UN ‘universal’ declaration of human rights promises me an education, culture, civil order, even leisure time. I have these things, and I am eternally grateful for them – but I think calling them ‘rights’ is a grave mistake. A right is something you don’t have to protect or earn, and I believe naming these valuable privileges thus breeds an unnerving kind of apathy. The idea that they are somehow universal is sheer arrogance.

Many cultures, historic and otherwise adhere to entirely different privilege systems – Saudi Arabia’s monarchy, for example or India’s Caste system. I am no anthropologist but I am a gambler, and I would lay my money on there being many more examples. I was speaking to a Chinese colleague of mine the other day about web censorship and the frightening crack down on free speech in his country. He wasn’t worried by it at all. Indeed, he could not understand why I was getting so flustered; as far as he was concerned the government was taking essential steps to reduce civil unrest which would lead to a greater standard of living for the majority.

And if he is happy, who on earth are we to tell him otherwise?

It's funny sometimes you are reminded of exactly how much you have lived. Even as a fresh faced twentysomething there are so many moments that have already rushed under bridge. Moments that will never again drown you in their depth, or delight you with their intimacy. Paths chosen, minds made, entire directions decided upon that no amount of wondering can consolidate.

A girl that I loved has grown
into a woman that I know.
She smiles and I see all there was but
I cannot see who she might have been
or who I might have become.

I came home tonight to a warm house full of friends, two doting kitties and Friday night with Jonathan Ross. No man could ask for more, but I am still melancholy. They are all asleep now, and I am working my way through a pack of Marlboros with a Carry On film keeping a smile on my face, but I am still melancholy. I know in the morning I'll be as bright as the dasies, but I would quite like to linger here a little while and ponder. It's that same feeling when you finish a long epic book, or you come home and sit down in the quiet for the first time after the last run of a show.

I like it here.

Date:	2007-09-17 15:05
Subject:	Career Crusing
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

My #1 career according to www.careercruising.com?

1. Explosives Specialist

If only they knew.

Date:	2007-08-16 17:25
Subject:	Interesting article...
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

http://www.violentacres.com/archives/51/how-feminism-ruined-my-sex-life

I'm curious as to whether this resonates with any of you fine lasses?

Date:	2007-06-13 19:31
Subject:	Adventures in America (Part 1)
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

So, work sent me across the Atlantic to fiddle with a big toy we sold to a pharmaceutical company out there. That bit was boring - the fun part came after all the work was done. I was the only one left, so after finishing up on Saturday, I drove (by a somewhat indirect route) from Philiadelphia to New York and checked into this beautifully quaint (yes, quaint!) hotel near central park.

 It had a delightful old fashioned wood panelled OTIS lift with doors you have to push open, and a very well mannered little Indian man to carry my luggage while I devoured my free cocktail. At 5pm, I enjoyed complementary cheese and wine with the rest of the guests, then had myself a shower and decided to explore the delights of the big apple.

 I wandered the streets near my hotel for a while, and eventually found a place that called itself the “Piano Bar” which promised live music after 8. I stepped in; it was kind of dark and cosy, illuminated only by the collection of random neon signs hung on the walls. There were about 5 punters and the barman inside, but I had come to far to turn around now. I sat down at the bar and ordered a bottle of Corona, for that was the manliest beer I could see on the menu. For I while I amused myself listening to other peoples conversations before I got talking to a guy who worked in the city for an investment bank. He brought me a drink. No sooner had I finished that drink, did the barman hand me another.

“That’s from Sam over there”, he smiled as a handsome young fellow at the other end of the bar winked at me.

Once that was gone, the investment banker refused my offer to reciprocate, and brought me another drink.

Then the barman, a really muscley guy with tattoos in a tight white t-shirt brought me a drink. “It’s on the house.”

Then the investment banker took a deep breath, put his hand on my thigh, looked into my eyes and offered to take me back to his place.

Deep within the murky depths of my somewhat intoxicated mind, a penny came crashing down from the heavens.

“You do realise this is a gay bar, don’t you?”

"You are the Liberal Feminist. This means that you tend to think the women's movement would best succeed through legislative changes to the system as opposed to radically restructuring our governments or ideas on gender. You tend to be mainly concerned with sexual liberation, and think that much of the oppression of women is leveled against them as a result of oppressive sexual morality. Men who sleep around are pimps and women are whores. You would claim that the negativity associated with a female's sexual freedom is only a blatant attempt to repress femininity into a submissive role. Also, you probably believe women should have access to reproductive controls such as abortion and contraception. You most likely embody the ideals of the typical American Democrat: you are pro-choice, sexually liberated, and politically active (though your political views aren't very extreme)."

Take the test!

Date:	2007-01-23 10:23
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

you name, without guilt or condition, 5 things you love about your body and yourself. so here we go.

1. I love the fact that for some reason or other people tend to get along with me. In my mind I am a bit of a charmer, but perhaps you are really just all humoring me.

2. I enjoy how easy it is for me to be strong and get fit. Even before I ever stepped foot in a gym I was of above (slightly) average physical disposition- despite a having a diet consisting mainly of bacon & stilton cheese

3. I never get angry, which is kind of useful. I do occasionally become mildly ticked off, a bit grumpy, or go into a bit of a sulk - but I don't ever recall actually loosing my temper.

4. I find it very easy to pick up new things - most things I try my hand at, I quickly pick up the basics of. Unfortunately in most cases I struggle to get past that stage :)

5. I am proud of my thick enormous, 19' willy.

(One of the above may contain a slight exaggeration. But then, most of you know the truth anyway ;)

Bonus round

Now seeing as I feel a bit guilty for massaging my ego with the above, I am going to go one step further and add

you name, without guilt or condition, 5 things you dislike about your body and yourself. so here we go.

1. I have the attention span of a goldfish, and am very easily distracted.

2. I find it difficult to become _really_ good at anything - definately a jack of all trades, master of none.

3. My burns scars - I don't really mind them, but all the same, not exactly sexy stuff ;)

4. My hair is a bit daft - it's a bit wispy, greying and receding

5. I am worried that with all my overconfidence I will intimidate or overshadow others who are a bit more quietly spoken. That by being loud and laughing, I might miss somebody whispering. That by not taking things seriously enough I might ruin something or miss an important opportunity. My old violin teacher once said to me "Phil, you are so laid back you're in danger of falling over". I think that about sums it up.

There.

Now, I tag everybody who is insecure (i.e. the girls *ducks and runs, especially from hildabeast*) to do the first half only, and people with emotional stability to do them all!

Date:	2007-01-18 10:52
Subject:	Not as good as Harry Potter, says I
Security:	Public
Mood:	content

A real, genuine review of George Orwell's 1984 on Amazon.com:

While cultural pundits try to convince you that some literature is better than other literature, the truth is that all art is relative to individial tastes. Thus, it doesn't make any sense to think that a novel like this one is really any better than say, Michael Crichton or Stephen King. Aesthetic standards can't be grounded. Thus, don't listen to anyone who tries to distinguish between "serious" works of literature like this one and allegedly "lesser" novels. The distinction is entirely illusory, because no novels are "better" than any others, and the concept of a "great novel" is an intellectual hoax. This book isn't as good as Harry Potter in MY opinion, and no one can refute me. Tastes are relative!

There are even more here

It breaks my heart.

This weekend, for the first time since I accidentally engulfed myself in a toasty warm petroly fireball, I went flying!

It was so good to be back in the sky, it felt a little like coming home after a long holiday. The day was crisp, cold and calm - you could see for miles and miles. I got good and muddy launching other gliders, and came away grinning and throughly windswept by the 30kt gusts of fresh westerlies.

I put the rudder back on my glider, which was a bit like trying to simultaniously thread three needles inside a fiberglass box with only a 1' x 1' access hole and two pairs of pliars. Got there in the end though, with any luck it won't be falling off any time soon. Safety Phil would not approve.

Safety Phil was going to be my alter-ego - swooping through the skies from one health and safety disaster to another, advising on appropriate risk-assesment strategies and hazard-management policies. I was energetically explaining my plan to a friend at the gliding club, and he looked at me with that kind of dissapointed concern. You know, the kind look your parents might give you if you had taken up smoking. He said to me

"Phil, Phil, Phil."

He shook his head.

"You are not a superhero!"

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-be-the-perfect-girlfriend

Made me smile