Andy Oakley

Off to Schweitzer to get some boarding in over the New Year. See you in 2004!

Off to Schweitzer to get some boarding in over the New Year. See you in 2004!

I love this blog: London Underground Tube Diary. No idea why I find it quite so interesting, but I’m subscribed.

Now that’s got me thinking about safety of the homeland. I learnt two interesting things about the Spanish Armada of 1588 this week.

1. The British long-barrel cannons called culverin or snake fired shot faster than the speed of sound. Don’t get in the way.
2. The beacons used for the single message of ‘I see them!’ were effective, carrying the message from Plymouth to Carlisle in probably 40 minutes. I figure that’s about 600mph.

Ah the joys of the History Channel.

Slightly used, with annex. Rains a bit. Trains often late. Nice gardens. Food dubious, but lots of places to drink.And now the crazy bit - the capital value of the UK is less than the GDP of the United States. Oversimplifying, the US could own Britain with just a year of income. Scary.

The employment multiplier effect:

This phenomenon is referred to as an employment multiplier effect. The employment multiplier measures the number of indirect jobs created for every direct job. Employment gains from IT investments cascade throughout much of the economy, creating a sizable stimulus to economic growth. While the multiplier effects from deploying a next-generation broadband network should exceed those found in the general economy (estimated to be around 1.5 to 2.0), it is likely to be less than the multiplier effects attributed to Microsoft (estimated to be 6.7).

The rest of the tech sector is estimated at about 4.0. Lou Dobbs has been doing an `Exporting America’ segment on CNN over the last few weeks claiming outsourcing will bring about the end of the US economy. It makes you wonder.

The MoD and nuclear weapons:

Coulport arms depot: in 1973, Land Rover reversed into RAF convoy of Polaris warheads, ‘minor damage’ to truck

"Any type of complex system is bound to run into trouble," he said. Good luck with the no-claims on that one.

I hate it when there’s an idea that seems so obvious that you assume that it’s been tried and there’s a reason it can’t work. Apparently not, the whispering wheel turns the electric motor inside out at the wheel to power buses. Ingenious.

Top ten word lists of 2003. Embedded (=polarised) definitely deserves #1. Glad to see Hans Blix made it, the world had all but forgotten about him. It took me a while to understand the phrase ’shut up!’ and sadly, try as I might, it doesn’t work with a British accent.

I’ve talked about cinematic moments before. I have a couple more to add to the list.Yesterday, Christmas Day, morning, 9am. Not a person or car in sight in downtown Seattle. Almost complete peace, aside from a single soda can bouncing its way down First Ave (I watched it amble along maybe three or four blocks, it could have gone much further). An urban desert.With so many people currently on vacation, campus is really quiet and the cafeterias are running reduced hours. I just went over to Cafe 9 for a quick bite to eat and on entering, the place was empty. The wall mounted TVs were still on however, by chance showing a certain IBM Linux commercial ‘what he learns we all learn’, but no-one was there to see. A premonition of things to come? That would depend on who you talk to.