Yesterday, I discovered I was completely addicted to Gravilux.
See http://www.snibbe.com/scott/dynamic/gravilux/gravilux.html
It is nifty. It runs as an applet, and by changing the size and fiddling with the params, I have been making
art for my desktop. Must stop. Must stop.
My project leader is away for two weeks (getting married). This means that I have to manage my own time. Hurrah. I have several things to do, but the biggest of which is still my University project.
In the news, the lynch mob is still running round the Paulsgrove housing estate in Portsmouth (UK). They are demonstrating outside the houses of local residents whom they think are paedophiles. Some of them probably are (or even were), while some of them are not, nor ever have been. This whole thing is the fault of the News of The World, a tabloid paper which started (and then, happily, under pressure from the police, aborted) a policy of naming hundreds of 'known paedophiles'. This was (IMHO) very very wrong.
- The list contained factual errors. Mistakes in names, addresses etc. As a result, innocent people are being hounded.
- Some people have similar names and/or addresses to people on the list. These people are now being persecuted too.
- OK, so some of the people on the list were paedophiles. They were known to the police, who at least know where offenders and ex-offenders are. By driving people of a community, all you do is displace them to someone elses community, where the will not make themselves known the the relevant authorities. They are driven 'underground'. This can't be any better.
Anyway, I used to live near Paulsgrove. I'm glad I don't now. Apart from the crowds creating
noise (and car-fires, and rock-throwing, and the heavy police presence brought in to monitor these demonstrations) I would be embarassed to say I lived in this area, now synonomous with intolerance and hatred.
For more info on the demonstrations at Paulsgrove, see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_865000/865289.stm